Uh it is a text amendment of the Olmsted County chapter 3750 flood plain and Sharland ordinance. Uh Miss uh planning director, are you going to start us out? Please introduce yourself. Good evening. Thank you, Commissioners. Allison Sosa, planning director. Um I'm here this evening to introduce Allison Bosco, Alli Bosco, who will be providing a brief uh presentation regarding this this uh flood plain um text amendment that's requested by FEMA. We'll both be here at the end of the presentation or at the end of the public hearing to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. You. Welcome and uh please introduce yourself and proceed. Hi. My name is Alli Bosco. I am senior planner here at Olmsted County Planning Department. And so, yes, I'll be here to talk about the text amendment today. So, we'll go ahead and get started. Okay. So, I'm going to start with the project summary. So, the request is a text amendment to our chapter 3750, which is our Olmsted County flood plain and Sharland ordinance. And here we're here to discuss the incorporation of a new um firm map, that's a flood um insurance rate map, um which is a new map updated by FEMA, which is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Um as noted, the application number is 02026-001 TA, and the decision body makers are you fine folks here today, and staff is recommending approval. So, just to kind of give you a little bit of a timeline of when we started, we started back in December 2025. We were um notified by FEMA, who contacted our office with the notification that there was a revision to the flood insurance map study, um, as well as one of our maps. Um, and they have directed us, the county, to update our floodplain and shoreline ordinances to adopt the new map. I would like to note that, um, although we're here today to do this adoption, none of the land has been changed. None of the floodplain or floodway um, area has been changed, but within this new firm map, um, we lie a few parcels in Rochester Township, as well as Marion Township, lie in the jurisdiction of this new firm map. In February 2026, um, after we received the notification that we would need to, um, update our floodplain shoreline ordinance and adopt the map, um, we actually got the digital and paper copies of the new study. Um, and then in March 2026, the Olmsted County Physical Development Community, uh, Committee initiated the text amendment, um, to move forward as we're here today. And in May 2025, earlier this month, our own Olmsted County Planning Advisory Commission recommended approval for the text amendment. Oh, there we go. Okay. [laughter] Oops. Um, okay. So, a little bit more in depth about the request. So, we got the notification that firm panel 302 G, um, needs to be updated by the effective date of June 10th, 2026. Um, again, it's only one firm panel and there are no changes to the land under the Olmsted County jurisdiction. Um, most of the land, um, is within the city of Rochester and they have already done this adoption in April of 2026. Um, part two of this request is that, um, FEMA now requires that each panel and LOMR, which is a letter of map revision, actually be listed within our ordinance. So, I'll when I show you the language change, we'll see that difference. Um, previous guidance allowed Olmsted County to just reference the insurance map index by date, which was previously 2017 and 2023. Now, they want us to list all of the panels within our community. And then, of course, that deadline that they have given us is June 10th, 2026. So, here is, um, kind of a good perspective. Um, the smaller picture to the side is our Olmsted County zoning map. It's just a snapshot. That black square indicates kind of where that firm panel sits within our community. Um, you can see in the bottom right corner those kind of dark blue and some green parcels. Those are those parcels that I talked about that are actually within our jurisdiction. Um, the larger map is a picture of the new 2026 firm panel. Um, the black box, again, is that zoomed in version of kind of where those parcels lie. Um, and the red box up in the top just indicates, um, parcels that are part of the levee system. Um, so, here's a good comparison. The picture that says current was our 2020, uh, 2017 map. As you can see, it's in black and white. It's blue. If you looked really close, you can see dotted and hash marks and you can see the flood insurance information, which is the base flood elevation. Um, now with the new map, um, it's colorized. You You actually see where the floodway is. The blue area is the flood fringe. Um you can actually see the demarcations of the precision of the bus base flood elevation, um which is um didn't change. It's just more precise, um and it's just a clearer map for residents and our team who are evaluating floodplain trail density. Um here is the updated language. As you can see, we now have all of the firm panels listed, as well as the dates, and then a couple of the letter of map revisions listed towards the bottom. The other update you can see at the very end is where these documents are held, and that is in the 2122 building here in our offices. Um that will end my presentation. Thank you very much. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. Okay. Members, the the action asked the requested is to adopt the text amendment as presented. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak to this uh proposed ordinance? Anyone in the audience? Anyone online? I'm sorry, we didn't even open the public hearing. Uh would somebody like to open the public hearing? I move to open the public hearing. Okay. Open the public hearing and uh can we have a second all in favor of opening it? Say aye. Aye. Aye, and it is open. Uh now would anybody like to speak to it? Again, I sense none. But I'll ask again. Sensing none, a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. So moved. Second. >> Okay, a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye, and it is closed. Uh members, we've got a requested action. Does anyone want I move to approve the motion. >> I move to approve 02 uh 026-001 TA text amendment to the Olmsted County Chapter 3750 flood plain and shoreland ordinance. >> Second. Motion and a second. Uh discussion on the uh motion as presented. If not, uh all in favor say I. I. I. Opposed, nay. And uh the text amendment is adopted. So, moving on to the consent agenda, um we've got several items. Uh I'm going to read them. Indicate, members, if you want to pull any of them, but uh the first one is uh approval of the May 5th uh Board of Commissioner meeting minutes. The second, archery uh hunting at Mayowood Corridor. Uh third, award a contract uh for the Olmsted County Waste-to-Energy facility uh 2400 V switchgear. Uh next, uh accept the grant funds from Minnesota Department of Health for a regional data model for population health data collection and analysis. Uh next, to award a contract for Lake Zumbro boat launch uh phase two improvements. Next, public hunt at and uh DAV deer hunts at Chester Woods and Oxbow Park. And lastly, a gambling permit for the Rochester Area Builders. Is there a motion uh Move to approve the consent agenda. >> We've got such a motion, second, and all in favor say I. I. I. And uh the consent agenda is approved. So, moving on, uh we've have a presentation tonight from uh the city of Eyota. Uh welcome uh to our meeting. Uh Uh this this board for the last couple years had a goal of wanting to uh get a little closer to our cities within our counties and learn what's going on, and uh they in turn hopefully understand us a little bit better as well. So, welcome. Please introduce yourself and look forward your presentation. Thank you, Chair. Commissioners, my name's Tyrel Clark. I'm the current mayor of Yoder. I've been I'm in my fifth term, 10th year, not all at once. >> [laughter] >> Doing other things in between. So, but I'm happy to be here, happy to talk Yoder. I'm always happy to talk Yoder. Yoder is How does this work? Just like that. Many of you know it's your neighbor to the east for most of you. Um We right at the crossroads of 14, 42, and 90 there. A lot of different opportunities for us. Pretty small town. We're about 2,000 people, although we are growing. Um pretty average household income, you know, medium age, everything. Lots of words there. You guys can read them if you want. But uh We're We're basically a bedroom community, although I would say um with Mayo sending a lot of us home, there's more working in Yoder than there probably has been in the past. Um So, All right. Small We have a staff of five employees for our city hall. Three in administration and finance and two public works. During the summer we get bigger with all of our summer rec staff. Um We recently did a big community survey to talk about what everybody loves about Yoder. And it's pretty similar with a lot of other towns, I would say. Small town feel, safety, schools, and strong sense of community. Um and then we're working Every few years we like to survey and see what we need to work on and improve. And um we're going to do that. All right. Uh right now we're experiencing for us significant growth. I'm sure other communities north, south, and west Yota have experienced a lot of growth. Not of Yota, of Rochester have experienced lots of growth. We have kind of maybe not had as much growth on the eastern side of Olmsted County over the last decade, but right now we have three housing developments going on. Um It's one's called Yota East, which is exactly that. It's on the east side near the high school. You can kind of see that at the bottom of the map. Another one is a denser development, an infill development. It's called the Priest Addition. It has nine fourplex homes in it, and then I think it's six single-family houses in it. And then we have another one that which is twin homes, which is different than town homes. I'm sure you guys know the difference, but basically there's no HOA. They own the property. All in all right now between those three developments, we have 82 units coming in, which in a town of 100 or 820 units is pretty significant. Will they all fill up quickly? I don't know. Some of that probably has to do with interest rates, but we will see. But for us it's pretty exciting time. Yota East probably presents the most opportunity for further development. The first phase is 24 houses there. Next phase is 26. After that there is I think five phases it could be. So we're looking at I can't tell you exactly, but significant growth close to the schools, which is kind of what I love because then it's close to where families want to be and go. And our schools, just like all the other schools in town, can use those students coming there. Um beyond that, we have some good commercial growth in Yoder. The I don't know if if you drive 14 East, you've probably seen the old Menards that is now what they call nail packing plant. It is moving to Yoder right there. It's This is a development that's close to QuickTrip. They're putting in a 140,000 square foot building um that is going to keep those jobs here. The options were those jobs are going to go to Eau Claire or Yoder. And the previous administrations worked out a deal with some tax abatement to keep them there and cover some of the infrastructure costs, but it also extended the infrastructure to other parcels. So hopefully we see more development in that area. And then Foresight Bank, we recently lost our long-standing bank in the center of town. Foresight Bank came in and now they're going to be building a new bank in town. So good things on that. Regionally and we are right in the middle of a crossroads for what could be the regional trails. Great River Road State Trail ends at County Road 9, which is about 3 miles north of Yoder. And then Chester Woods, I'm sure you if if you've been on this board for a while, you've heard about Chester Woods for about 20 years. The Chester Woods State Trail. There is now a portion built, but I think it is only built inside of Chester Woods. There is those that uh when I was young kid was working very hard to bring it to Yoder. And now they're working for their grandkids. And now I'm on the committees that they were on before. So we're still working on it. Um I think there's a lot more opportunity with the Great River Road State Trail right now because the land needed is already owned to get to the edge of Yoder. Uh the Chester Woods trail has a parcel in between that is still intact. See, where are we at? What's next? We're going to continue working on the business park up by where Menards is going. Continue to try to invest in Main Street. Like a lot of a lot of towns, our Main Street lost all the traffic going through it. You know, when the highways go outside of it, then you have have to figure out different sorts of businesses to go in, ones that are more destinations versus needing that traffic. And And we're no different than that. And then working on housing and bringing those into town. We really haven't had much dense housing as in apartments. I think the last apartment we probably had come in Yoder is about 20 plus years ago. And then looking for more opportunities and partnerships with our with our schools or with the county. Um And I think that could be it. Yeah. As far as we go on county, we do have two or three county roads that go straight through town. It's kind of a east-west, north-south situation. And And then we have a county shop that's right in the middle of town. So, we do appreciate the closeness they are. It's We We do have a lot of good collaboration with that building and I think you guys have expanded it recently. Any questions for me? Remember there are any questions for the mayor? Any questions at all? Yeah, I have a question. Go ahead. Mr. Mayor? I guess just kind of a simple question. Do you know um with the Dover-Eyota school district, how much do they use the Saint Charles Library by chance? Do you have any idea? >> Yeah, I saw that. I saw that you guys [laughter] read the paper. I saw that that the the the mix was changing on that. You know, we have I know so I just left the farmers market before this and the bookmobile stops there a lot and when it it does stop in our town. I don't know if it's once a week or twice a week but whenever it does it's pretty busy. I don't know a lot of people that use the Saint Charles Public Library. I Chatfield has one too which is right on the other side of your boundary there so I'm sure you got money going there. But um I could ask. I have a number of friends that uh homeschool parents that do utilize libraries more than maybe those that uh would have the opportunity through public schools. Um and I could get back to you on that on but it feels like a trackable number. I mean we all have library cards, right? We should be able to know how many uh visits they have but I don't know a lot. Um but I you know, I don't know every I don't know everybody although it is a small town I know most of everybody. >> [laughter] >> Just curiosity. >> Yeah. Anyone else? Yeah, Commissioner Wright. You're doing really well on housing I I think for a small town so what is the city doing to attract housing? Are you providing incentives, infrastructure? What what are what's your secret? Uh what's our secret sauce? Being close to Rochester. No, we do actually each of these developments do have a portion of TIF. Uh well, tax abatement. It's only our portion. Um we and not as much as they would like if that makes sense. Everything's a negotiation. But in each case uh there were special cases for infrastructure on connections. And so we did do TIF on both of them. I know the one with the um with the fourplexes, they did actually the Housing Rochester Area Housing Coalition, which I think does get some funds from county. They did work with them on doing some loans to keep the cost of those down. Um but the other ones have more been market-driven. And for a while there, I would say YODA was you know we're one of our, you know, how many towns do we have in Olmsted County? We're probably one of the smaller ones. It's us and Dover. And we're pretty close to Rochester. We had only had a couple houses for sale at a time. Uh and I think there was a lot of unmet needs that we're hopefully meeting now. And it's a it's a mix, too. Um >> [clears throat] >> Each development is a little bit different and who they're going for. There's a development that's just finishing up in my neighborhood that has 100% been um I would say the boomer generation downsizing, which is great. I think all of you that are maybe housing nerds know that it's great when they downsize cuz it opens up more opportunities for others. And so I I think it's just kind of having to mix and a being willingness to work with them and figure out what they what the developers need and what we need. Uh So I don't know if there's any secret sauce besides communication and and closing the gaps. Um Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Anyone else? Mayor, I think between now and next legislative session, we ought to have some conversations about that Great River Road Trail. I mean, I mean, there was a lot of energy at that at one point. Your predecessor uh was working hard on it. Just it never never made it, but everybody liked it. And Yeah. Yeah. And to come off the Great River or the Great River Ridge or whatever it is and Well, there So, there's two of them. You got the Great River Ridge and then you got Chester Woods State Trail. And you know, we're really at a crossroads. We could be at a crossroads in both of them. And as far as infrastructure in town, we've been working hard to connect those you know, connect us north and south and into downtown when they ever arrive. But, we're at the point where we've worked so hard that now we're doing overlays on the same paths that we thought we were going to be doing actual have regional traffic on. So, My only ask on those is like yes, let's continue that conversation and when you do, you know, put together your bonding ask for your legislators, you know, consider them on your list. Yeah. Well, we got to talk about it, definitely. Yeah, we I mean, there's there's not that much left. I mean, in the great scheme of things. Certainly not on the Great River River Ridge. There's certainly not much left. Oh. Anyway. Got one more question. Where did where did you want to come from? Well, >> Not to stump you, but I just want to >> It's So, there's two two It's it's a Native American word. It either was meaning highest point. Evidently, we are the highest point in Olmsted County or the area. Oh, wow. Or it was an a Native American princess. Which one is right? It depends on which historian you're talking to. I don't know. >> [laughter] >> Either way, I think we're spelling it wrong. I'm sure we're spelling it wrong. Whichever way, but you know, that's that's from our forefathers. >> we'll we'll accept your answer and if there's somebody out in TV audience that can correct me, they'll get in touch with you. Anyone else? Appreciate so much for you coming over tonight and presenting state of your state or city rather for us and uh great great city. I think we all love to go out there for meetings and we do and appreciate your work over there. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, Daryl. Members board and committee reports I'm not sure where I started last time but Commissioner Hopkins. Yes, I do have a report. Well >> [clears throat] >> You know, uh in January I sent out my annual constituent letter and at that time um we really didn't have anything going on with the Seneca site. Since then I know that has changed. But nevertheless in the absence of any other public engagement at that time I asked my constituents to send back any suggestions for the Seneca site that I could then report out to my colleagues. Well, I received a num a number of ideas and suggestions. And I'd like to share those with you tonight. For the record here they are. Okay? Um >> [clears throat] >> and I'll let you. Um so among them affordable housing a public garden a botanical garden and specifically one that like the one in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I'm not familiar with that one but apparently it's beautiful. Um a museum gallery and or an event space for cultural and environmental education. One very insistent response was no commercial use. Use it for recreational space. A Rochester Olmsted County visitor center. One does not exist in Olmsted County. It's I thought that was a good idea. Um a children's playground with flash with splash pads, um area for food trucks and a picnic area, um preferably on or near or under the corn tower, um an outdoor bandstand under the corn tower for live events in spring, summer, and fall, and outdoor skating rink in uh in the winter. Um a new Honkers stadium, another idea. Um an arboretum, a weekend makers market with crafts and demonstrations to complement the farmers market, um [snorts] senior housing, park space with paths and walking and cycling, and expanded fairgrounds for more recreational use. I realize there's some overlap there with those, but I just wanted to share them all. I'm really grateful um to my constituents and for the citizens of our county because I know that not only have I received responses, but we've received responses on the county Facebook page, literally unsolicited. That's why I wanted to send this out and formally ask people because they want to tell us um what they'd like to see that property used for. So anyway, some great ideas. Um I know we've got a number of things in the pipeline, but I just wanted to put them out there. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Padolsky Smith. Yes, I have an update for transforming trash artist in residence program. This week our first artist arrives from Canada. Um her name is Solène Hafch. Uh her profession is she is an aerospace welder, and so she plans to use wrought iron and other metal objects to create something wonderful. Um she will arrive this week. Her orientation is this week and I'm sure she'll hit the ground running. She'll also offer a metal working workshop, like some kind of a blacksmithing workshop at the Kalmar Landfill. Um, that's open to 12 participants. So, really think about signing up for that. I know I am. I can't wait to hit hot metal with a hammer. Um, and she's also going to do an iron pour, a community iron pour. So, really fun things that this community hasn't seen a lot of, if ever. And uh, I'll keep you updated. Thank Thank you very much. Your father used to like to hit hit iron on an anvil. >> Yeah. That's [laughter] right. Commissioner Asman? No report this evening. No report. Down here? No report. No report. >> Mr. Rice? No report. Mr. Miller? I do have a a report. Root River uh, watershed district uh, we met actually Monday, yesterday. And uh, they're approaching their 10-year uh, the the end of the 10-year cycle. And they are uh, uh, we approved uh, uh, at the policy meeting um, to go for uh, another 10 years and we're looking at uh, over the 10-year period the cost plan of about $35 million. And uh, of course funding would come from many grants, so you know, as far as like uh, NRCS and uh, EPA, DNR, BWSR, a lot of the money comes from BWSR. And uh, Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, uh, Minnesota Land Trust and Trust for Public Lands. It's um, They put together uh, um they're putting together more projects to uh uh be able to keep the water clean and to stop the or and erosion control. Um I guess that's pretty much it in a nutshell, so I'll leave it at that. Good. And I would just report that the Olmsted County History Center, I think some of you know, perhaps all of you do, is uh very fortunate in receiving $2.3 million towards the uh expansion renovation of the uh the main main facility there uh it it it was frankly pretty good work for a first-year uh project uh uh to a history center. It's it's a it's sort of a rare grant uh history centers have to work pretty hard to get those things, and so they they all feel really good out there. There's a There's a big challenge associated with it because you you need to match it, so uh another 2.3, but actually the project $6 million anyway, so uh there's challenges ahead, but uh the attitude out there is really positive, and they're really happy about what happened uh with respect to the bonding bill for them uh this session. And so, I just want to close. So, yesterday I had an opportunity to to go uh back to the legislature, if you will, and uh listen to some of my friends give retirement speeches, and and as far as sort of a a parting thought uh uh within the Senate Chamber, and this goes all the way to 1905, Cass Gilbert, who who actually put his fingerprints on every every inch of that capital, uh created a Daniel Webster inscription that most of us that have ever sat in that room have read many times over, and uh just reading it again yesterday, I thought I'd just bring it home and and end our meeting with it uh but it goes like this uh Let us develop the resources of our land, call call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interest, and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something to be remembered. That inscribes the entirety of the Minnesota Senate Chamber and that's uh worthy thought to leave with. So, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn and a second. All in favor say "Aye." Aye. Opposed then it carried. We are adjourned.