[Music] thank you and uh welcome to the 2024 state of the city address uh residents business operators and Friends uh it's an honor to stand here today as We Gather to reflect on the progress we've made to and to discuss our future to celebrate our Vibrant Community that is Garden Hills on behalf of the city council I want to welcome you here I want to introduce our council members council member Brenda Holden council member Emily rouso council member Tina mson and council member Tom Fable I'd also like to acknowledge the city staff's hard work and dedication their efforts help shape the policies and initiatives that contribute to the prosperity of Arden Hills led by City administrator Dave peralt here with us today is also Jessica Jago our community development director joah Yang excuse me JEA Yang uh our finance director uh David swaringen our city engineer and Public Works director and Luke Cardona uh probably in the back there's he's out in the hallway he's our senior Communications coordinator um I'd also like to welcome a couple of uh uh special guests uh first off Peter Lindstrom Peter is our Metropolitan Council representative and I'd also like to acknowledge John Connelly of Twin Cities North chamber uh I'd like to thank these uh all these folks along with the rest of the team that works here in the city of Arden Hills for all that you do before we Del delve into the details of our City's current state I want to express my gratitude to each of you for being here your presence is a testament to the strong sense of community that defines ardan Hills no matter your interest on a particular subject you all have made a meaningful contribution to our city by just being here today Beyond Today I encourage you to actively participate in our community initiatives your insights your ideas and involvement are vital to shaping the future of Arden Hills thank you once again for being here this morning I look forward to discuss discussions and updates and shared enthusias as M that will make this State of the Union City address a memorable event for all of us now I'd like to rec uh welcome council member Tom Fable to present race Creek Commons also known as TCAP and I would uh say that each of the council members will be presenting a different uh different series of topics so first off uh council member fable thank you mayor Grant good morning thank you friends for being with us here today it is my privilege to uh discuss with you uh a project which has occupied an enormous amount of attention and time in the city of Arden Hills uh at least for the last 12 years and for many of us back since 1990 uh the property we're talking about now is the former Army ammunition plant property up in the uh Northwestern part of the uh city of Arden Hills on our we're going to have slides here help us along uh north of 96 and going up in the Northwestern corner of the uh city of Arden Hills the former rice or former Army ammunition plant property 427 acres to put that in perspective that's about the size of all of downtown St Paul so we have an area the size of downtown St Paul that we have been responsible for trying to get developed for quite some time that was an Army ammunition plant that OCC occupied our from 1940s up until almost 1990 there were as many as 26,000 people that worked there when it was an Army ammunition plant uh and uh did a lot of good things for the country supporting us in the second world war the Korean War the Vietnam War and others along the way uh in the process they created quite a environmental issue up there as well which uh the federal government Left Behind when it abandoned that property in about 1990 in 2012 the property was purchased by Ramsey County at that time also the city of Arden Hills and and and Ramsey County entered into a joint Powers agreement to develop the property a joint Powers agreement is something that is authorized under state law where two units of government can come together and agree as a to form a new unit of government uh which can take on a specific task in this case the task taken on by the city of Arden Hills and Arden Hill and Ramsey County in 2012 was the development of the uh teap property now known as rice cre Commons an agreement was entered in on December 12 17th 2012 one section of which says the city and the county desire and intend the that Redevelopment of the TCAP site take place to remediate and eliminate blighting conditions and to make possible and result in significant amounts of new development to provide employment opportunities improve the tax base and improve the general economy of the city the local community and Ramsey County as a whole The Joint development agreement created uh as a uh or the joint Powers agreement created as a governing body for the joint Development Authority a uh joint development commission or authority of five members two members of the city council two County Commissioners and a chair The Joint Development Authority since January of this year has consisted of council member Tina Tina Monson and myself Commissioners uh Nicole fream and Victoria Reinhard and Arden Hill's resident John Wickland was appointed in January as the chair of The Joint Development Authority we meet every first Monday of the month right here in City Hall uh there public meetings and you're all welcome to attend and and uh sit in on those deliberations now Under The Joint Powers agreement the city of ardan Hills was given a very specific responsibility and the county of Ramsey has specific responsibilities as well Ramsey County of course is the property owner city of Arden Hills was charged with designing the what the future use of that prop property might be and it set about that task diligently over the first several years and in 2015 the city of Arden Hills adopted a um Master development plan it's kind of can be indicated in a small version there on the right hand side of that picture there but that plan for the development of the rice Cree Commons has been in place since 2015 it was amand Amed a little bit since but for the most part we're still talking about that same master plan which was put into place uh in 2015 by The Joint development uh by the by the uh jda The Joint Development Authority working with the city of Arden Hills and the City of Arden Hills had the responsibility for creating that plan and also then for doing the zoning which is necessary for the implementation of that plan all that was accomplished for the most part in 2015 and 2016 meanwhile Ramsey County had the responsibility in the first instance of cleaning up uh contamination which had been created over 40 years uh Ramsey County spent over $30 million to do that cleanup work and in and by 2016 they had completed it to the extent that the property is now capable of residential development as approved by both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Minnesota Pollution Control agency so by 2016 uh great progress had been made by a lot of work by a lot of people unfortunately shortly after that point in time an impass took place the community the county and the city uh Communications broke down uh there discussions between the parties came to a halt litigation came on and uh all activity stopped uh until through the course of litigation which wasn't resolved until 2021 the main issue uh in the litigation was the issue of housing uh the original Master development Plan called for uh a total housing of 1460 units the county decided that they wanted more than that and for 5 years The Joint Development Authority did not meet it all also during that period of time the contractor who had been under contract to the Joint Development Authority a company by the name of atlantus uh their contract expired so that by the end of uh 2020 2 we had no agreement on housing there had been no joint Development Authority meetings for 5 years there was no developer under contract things had come to a halt uh we had new a new joint Development Authority came into place in January of 1923 those were the people that I mentioned before the city representatives were new city council members Tina Monson and myself uh Council Commissioners I indicated and we appointed a new chair at that point we were facing 5 years of inactivity there had been very significant inflation that had taken place for construction costs over that 5 years of inactivity and as we all know interest rates have skyrocketed during that period of time as well so those were the challenges that we faced when we began 2023 and we The Joint new joint development of theater uh Authority after 5 years of an activity met for the first time in February of 2023 and we adopted a new vision statement which will be on this uh screen it's that uh Second Line there it says the vision is to create an economic Prosperity build an inclusive community having long-term sustainable development and develop an energy forward Community by providing much-needed housing at a variety of income levels including affordable housing and creating a well-paying jobs during the course of 2023 the uh GDA has been met on a regular basis we created an advisory committee which worked directly with staff and starting to develop uh amendments to the U Master development plan which would be needed in order to have the county and the city working together we created a an energy advisory committee which is uh attended on a regular basis by council member Monson who has great expertise in this area and we worked forward on uh trying to get a common Vision back in place uh so that the project could go forward in October and November of this year the uh developer at Lattis who I told you had was no longer under contract developed in any event a proposal for a new plan which the both the with the jda agreed would be a good idea uh it is primarily involved an increase in density for the uh joint for the uh Rice Creek Commons property by adding 500 units going from 1460 units up to 1960 units that would not alter the overall uh Master development plan which had been in place since 2015 with one exception the far Southwestern Corner would have to be uh modified it had formerly been set for office and other commercial space it would have to be changed to accommodate additional housing uh and that would require an amendment to the city's comprehensive plan but other than that that was also additional density in the town Center area The Joint Development Authority thought that that looked like a was able to agree among ourselves that that would be a a a useful modification of the plan and so on November 1st we had a community open house I think there were probably about 200 people that came to that open house over at the city's uh uh public works department and this whole plan was set out and there was ample opportunity to get public input on what people liked what people uh thought should be different but for the most part we had a very very favorable response to this plan that atatus had come up with that led to a banner day December 4th 2023 when we entered a new term sheet uh and a new plan uh uh development agreement with Lis company uh which all brought all these things back together again the as I said the uh new term sheet required that there be an amendment to our comprehensive plan uh regarding the zoning of that Southwestern Corner that was done by City Council in January 24 I want to turn now to what that uh new term sheet has in it and the term new term sheet was adopted by The Joint Development Authority in December of 2023 first and again we have this listed up on our board up here and the overall density now would be at a maximum of 1960 housing units taking in housing of all different types from studio apartments to town homes to starter homes and the single family homes there's agreement on affordability for the homes 20% of the homes would be provided at 60% or below of the area median income now what that simply means is that a family of four can be making up to $4,525 also we provided for a large number of single family homes approximately 10% or 44 units would be single family those would be eligible for County Housing subsidies uh if they were earned up to 115% of the area median income which means a family of four could be making as much as $140,000 a year and still qualify for some of that housing uh subsidy for new housing uh in the new rice Creet area the um term sheet provides for high paying job creation with the parties have agreed to pursue tenants or buyers who provide such jobs the term sheet provides for green energy sustainability in October of 1920 or 2023 uh we created The Rice Creek energy vision and adopted that which explores among other things an all electric development at the Rice Creek Commons and again Tina Monson who is on our Council works with that she's a professional she works in that area with projects of this nature around the country and uh we are proud that the owner the leadership Tina is providing in this area so that under this term sheet now the the uh master plan which we've seen before or the development plan has a a maximum of 195 acres for housing most housing is what has occupied so much of the discussion 195 of those 427 Acres would be for housing that leaves 232 Acres of the race creep development for other uses commercial industrial shops restaurants parks and uh other other uses of that nature um and that's what we see coming forward now there's another significant development that happened in 1923 and that will be the next Outlet the next slide here this has to do with the thumb parcel the thumb parcel is that portion of the property up in the far Northwestern Corner as a smaller portion 40 acres that were up there that area was not as used as heavily for the uh for the um Army ammunition plant and it wasn't as heavily polluted actually there was a number of residences up there I was told by some historical people that uh were the housing for some of the executives and workers at the uh at the ammunition plant that parcel was more ready for development so there for that reason in 2023 the county uh proposed in the jda approved breaking it off and selling it for separate development in in January of this past year the county has approved uh a has selected the Ryan Companies which a major developer to work on uh a development for that property the county will receive almost $13 million for the property and the Ryan plan is to put in uh two three two-story Office Buildings in that area one single story restaurant or retailer the creation of 800 to 1200 jobs in connections to The Pedestrian bike trails now Ryan has 15 months or something like that to do its own due diligence but the hope is that uh during the course of the Year they'll be finding tenants and we will be moving forward with that area which is hope to provide a great deal of major job Corrections so where are we now in 24 well the blueprint is finally in place to fulfill that joint Powers agreement Vision which I read right at the beginning a joint Powers agreement and a vision for economic development Housing Development uh improving the tax Bas for the city and the county and elsewhere and uh finally making good use of that land significant progress was made in 2023 the parties are now working together the county and the city and the jda are working together the Developers back on board the Lattis is once again working with us uh a housing is plan is in place we're 1964 housing an environmental plan is in place and is moving forward so great progress has been made and we're optimistic that we're going to finally see this project completed now the 2024 challenge has to do with financing uh we uh estimate that the amount of money which is needed for the infrastructure is approximately $180 million which is a lot of money it's going to take a while to get there there are commitments in place the county has committed to construction of the spine road the road that will go from the north part of the parcel down to the South and there estimated to be about $30 million the city is committed to amending its Area Redevelopment Urban alternative urban area ride Redevelopment uh alternative urban area ride review and auar which the city was required to do Under the uh um joint Powers agreement that's going to be 202,000 I think something in that nature for the city to do that um we have got what it's not exactly a commitment but great hopes that we're going to get a $25 million Grant from the state's bonding uh bill that comes out in in 2024 it's the top priority of the county and we've met with both the Senate and House members on the committees and we've received favorable reception so we're very hopeful to come at $25 million from that in addition to that the jda in the next month is going to be identifying other sources of financing U federal government state government private investment uh foundations perhaps and others to try to reach that $180 million that is needed for the in infrastructure work the hope is that we will have identified that funding and gotten commitments on a lot of that funding before the end of this year and that we will have in place a final development agreement uh with the developer and with the jda agreement bringing the county and the city together then what well by 2025 perhaps we'll see some uh construction going on up in that spine up in that thumb parcel with with the Ryan development company if they come up with their with clients to do that in 2026 we're hoping that we'll have the mass grading going on so that the part the uh the California parcel or the entire southern part will be in the process of getting ready for development uh a spine Road hopefully will be going in in 2026 the highway that will the road that goes from the north to the South perhaps by 2028 we'll see some uh actual vertical development taking place all this is down the road I recognize that and we have said from the beginning that we're probably 10 to 15 years out from seeing the full project finished but with the hard work that has gone in with the progress that has been made in the past year with the support that we have received from many citizens and helpful uh people along the way we're confident that this project is going to be done and that at the end of the day we as citizens of residents of uh Arden Hills are going to be the the proud occupants and recipients and beneficiaries of Rice Creek Commons now I is my pleasure to turn over this uh presentation over to council member Brenda Holden who's going to talk to you about public works thank [Applause] you hi everybody thanks for coming um most of Public Works Public Works um as everybody sees them they do the plowing streets water sanitary sewers storm Waters the open space they trim trees in our open space they they do so much they're really at the heart of our city they do a lot of the maintenance that we have this is our 23 what we did infrastructure project the second column is what the actual costs are and the third column is how it was paid so as you can see we we worked on the mountains viiew School Trail construction that will be completed this June and we got money from safe rousa School MSA and for people don't know what MSA is it's the municipal state aid everybody pays a little on their gasoline tax and we get a portion of that um the city's P funds that's our permanent Improvement funds that we put money in every year to maintain and use on major projects and because this was a County Road intersection with us the county had to pay a half of their share so we should have that done in June and it's nice that now we have a safe route all the way from M all the way from New Brighton all the way to Old Highway 10 um the Connie Road E and old Snelling roundabout and Old Highway 10 pavement well that's the new roundabout in case anybody hasn't seen it or driven that area it's um by Connie Road E and Lake Johanna Boulevard area and Old Highway old Snelling it was a the the 1. 1475 was the city share of the roundabout or we owed one quarter one quarter of the leg was city property so that was our share of it and again you can see we got MSA money we used some City money but we were lucky enough to receive state fonding I worked really hard we had some major utility work that needed to be underwat and sewer and they were over 50 years old and fortunately we didn't have to pay for it we got the city we got State bonding for that money so that worked out really well for the city the 23 maintenance Street projects we have a maintenance budget every year we spend 220,000 on seal coating and cracking and fogging and patching and and you can pretty much see what that is over on the right it's the dark green and it adds roughly 20 years to any of the areas so it's really a good thing to do the maintenance upfront and keep everything up to dates that we have this big cycle of Maintenance so that we don't have to continue to reconstruct or reate and then of course the last one or the other one was we did The ardan Manor Park improvements um we put in a $470,000 of playground structure replacement it been 20 years we're on a cycle of 20 years for the parks and we got a community block grant for some of that and the rest came out of the city funds we still have some work to do up in art and Manor and that will be done this year and then floral floral Park the dark blue up there is um we had the playground structure replac and we redid the court the tennis court and the basketball court uh I think many of you lived in that neighborhood a lot of the oak trees were starting to push up on the tennis court and all the Rees leaves were raking down on the course and was destroying the surface so all that's been taken care of and the last thing and only thing that has to be done now is to stripe the court and now we are just so everyone knows we are striping all the tennis courts and Arden Hills for pickle ball and Tennis so we started that a couple we started that a couple years ago and staff is really taken off on that the next project the next big project we have is the 2024 pavement program and this will include the um we call it the clean neighborhood from 96 up to 694 section sections of Norma Keaton Drive Royal Hills will all be reconstructed no not reconstructed sorry Reclamation or Mill and overlay not doing any reconstruction in their area reconstruction means you dig it all up and and it's very costly so luckily we able to get by with Reclamation and and an over Mill and overlay there's some trails in this area there is some private trails that we do not um rehab but we are rehabbing all the trails that are in this area um we do have to replace the water main on James Avenue that would be totally dug up on James Avenue and replaced and and a new road put in there um that again area that water m is very old and we're having problems with it all the sanitary sewers in the area before we do a pavement management project we go in and we televise all the sewers and any of the sewers that that need repair and stuff we do at this time and we also do the lining of the sewers that don't need to be repaired and um if any of you have ever seen it they it's like they fill a balloon and plastic gets all on the sides of the water on the on the on the pipes and it really protects it for another 50 years and lining is one of the best ways to do when you have a safe clay pipe and let's see they're going to do the storm water treatments and they're going to put in new catch basins that are a lot safer and better for our environment and storm water dredging ponds is a big big cost to the cities that was mandated a few years ago by the legislature and they finally came up with all the um rules and regulations and so that's one of the biggest things that will be hitting the city we've been saving money for that but they have to dredge out all the old stuff get rid of it and make sure that it can still filter the dirty water down into clean water into the system and at Floral Park not too far from where the tennis court is they're going to be adding some parking stalls for people that can so they don't have to walk there or be in the neighborhood to play tennis or pickle ball or even the Bas use the basketball court so it's a very uh a very in very heavy project for our poor staff um they'll be busy doing that so please be patient if you're in that area and they do and if you're in that area they will work with with you they will be having more meetings they've already had some and work with everybody on driveway issues or drainage issues so if you have any issues please make sure you talk to the city engineer then of course we have our 2024 seal coat it's just the seal coating just the maintenance aspect of it um as you can see way up North the the the light blue that's up by the state of Minnesota the state of Minnesota Surplus area and the driver's license if you didn't know there is a trail up there that needs to maintain but mostly as you can see we're going to do the streets in 2024 that are down in the Glen Paul neighborhood and those had been done about 5 years ago totally reconstructed so there for um we're on a cycle where after we do them we make sure that they're maintained and and protected from the elements going forward and of course the crack ceiling is the dark blue so I know it's kind of hard to read the little Legends but hopefully you get the drift and it will be on this the presentation will be online also so 2024 more more goals for our Public Works person so Dave schwarer we love you and we hope that you can don't go crazy on us um the second column is the budget estimate we don't know that's not a hard cost we don't know for sure and the third column is how we're planning on paying it's an estimate so the of course it's the PMP project which is this clean area is the yellow and then we have a forced water M that needs to be done and I hope everyone knows what a lift station is um that's what brings the sewage up and pumps it through the system and those are very expensive uh this is a $550,000 and we're totally we've been maintaining these and we've gotten them up to up to current standards and we still have to keep moving them forward doing that and then we have the CIP the sanitary sewer lining again it's the um inii project we have about uh 40% or 60% of our clay pipes lined so um if anyone's ever had sewage in your basement that's been backed up from the city you know what a horrible horrible experience that is and the city is really working hard to get that all taken care of and it really reduces the city's liability when that's done um luckily um met Council and hopefully Peter can get us more money this year um you can you can ask for a grant and you pay 5050 and so we've been doing that every chance we get and uh we'll be working with the legislature again this year we will on that issue um of course water towers need to maintained all the time they need to be painted they get rusty if you ever looked at some of the pictures online of what happens to the water towers and at this year it's been a long time and I know I've been asking for many years to make sure that we have the safety precautions um for our water towers so we're looking at doing that and the trunk water mang grein we have an issue where um we need to upgrade a system from a 14 in to a 16in pipe to make sure we have the water pressure that can go to that part of the city so that's another it's a lot of little things nobody ever thinks about you turn on your water and it comes out or you flush the toilet and the stuff goes away and it's like wow there's a lot of work that has to be done by the city to do that then we have the ardan court The ardan Manor hard court we're putting in a tennis court up there and a basketball court and hopefully we will get some Community block grants to finish that and then the last thing is Perry Park the roof is starting to come in and we've decided to replace that with a steel roof and that should make it last another 50 years so just so you know we're paying a little extra up front but it's going to pay for itself in the long run we have over 25.5 miles of trails and again we have different types of trails we have asphalt concrete natural wood chips natural grass and dirt and this map since I know you couldn't see it but it's on the website and we have the website address there city of Arden hills.org 2008t TRS and that is the correct website I did check it to make sure it was right so if you want to see where all the trails are and this map it's a wonderful thing to look at if you want to walk your dog out there and the main activities again is what we're doing is we're doing crack ceiling fog seiling and pavement patching and again this prevents aging and cracking and extends the trails life about 20 years 2025 this is in the future we're always planning ahead because we want to meet with the neighborhoods and talk to them and get their perceptive of what they want to do and and any issues that are in the neighborhood before we start designing um freeway Park Oak Park Arden Oaks Park and Hazen lump Park improvements are going to happen in 2025 we'll be having open houses this spring and summer with the neighborhoods so they can bring in what ideas they have I know freeway Park they is heavily used that neighborhood has turned over significantly we have a lot of smaller children there so um that's will be a big Improvement for them they've been waiting for it and that's about $620,000 we have budgeted for that hazelnut Park parking lot if everyone knows hazelnut Park shares a parking lot well actually we pay some money to use the parking the church's parking lot and if anyone's everever been near the chers parking lot has significantly deteriorated Through The Years so we're looking for a joint cooperate agreement with them so that we can fix up the parking lot and it's a win-win for both the city and the church there and of course we'll have the lining again in the sanitary SE sewers in the Glenarden neighborhood again that's taking care of the Old Clay pipe so that we don't have any issues in people's basement we have the booster station improvements that's coming up that helps with pumping the water throughout the city we have our Old Highway 10 Improvement it's a $4.1 million Trail uh we've requested State bonding we're hoping to get that we've requested like $2 million in state bonding I don't think we'll get it this year but it sounds like we might be able to get it next year but we've requested it but different options are there's grants there's the ptrc fund there's the cmsa fund and then some of Ramsey County because it is a Ramsey County Road so we're hoping to do that in the next couple years then we have a couple lift stations that need to be maintained um lift station one that's on the corner of Cony Road Cleveland and Cony Road D and lip Station 2 is uh it's often new brighten kind of in a swamp area I don't think anyone would ever see it from any roads or anything but those need pump Replacements and this is a maintenance safety issue so we're taking care of that again next year and the next thing 2025 we're going to be looking at water meter Replacements um I'll wait on that one until I get to that slide to talk about thanks [Applause] there's two main trails that we're looking at doing um of course Everything is Everything depends on money and grants and bonding uh Lake Johanna Trail um the County's the lead on that and they're trying to move forward with that they don't they have no money budgeted yet um they're hoping to have some money they have not designed it yet so that's one thing that they're pushing for on their list and we pay our part of that which is about 9.5 million so we'll have to come up with that money somehow but right now they have a really nice plan and we're hoping for before even this gets done something a little shorter in the short term to help slow down the traffic on that I don't know some of you live on Lake Johanna but it's pretty dangerous street with people going down there that road really fast so we're really looking forward to the trail a new Trail on there that is safe for everyone to get to the beach and enjoy the the park then we have the Old Highway 10 Trail which is estimated at 4.1 again we put in money for bonding there and we put in money for sat's routes to school so we're hoping we get some funding there to complete that trail if you if you've known if you've gone down old 10 it was completely rehabbed by the County this year and so they had everything all set up for us to do the trail so all we have to do is get the money for the trail one of the reasons the trail is so expensive is we need a boardwalk there's a swampy area there and rice quig Commons and PCA is making us do a boardwalk which is roughly about a million dollars so that added significantly to the cost of the teril and as I said they're both dependent on grants and the city will take the lead on the highway 10 Trail and the county will take the lead on the Lake Johanna Trail um and they will be doing the road on Lake Johanna at the same time they're doing the Lake Johanna Trail that's that is their plan at this point in [Applause] time my last Slide the water meter replacement for many of you who've lived here many years or not many years our water meters have been in place for at least 25 years and they all have batteries and they weigh down they have components it's mechanical readings we're not we're not we're having to go out and have people call in or go out and read meters they're not accurate anymore um again they're very old we it's hard getting parts for the readers it's hard getting parts for the water meters thems let alone the readers and we're looking at placing those we haven't had a lot of issues lately we had a significant amount of issues last year but that's tentatively gone down but we will be replacing them shortly and we will be able to um we're going to talk about this C we'll talk about when to move forward with this we know that our city engineer has gone to a couple um conferences on this issue so he's up to speed on where we can what what's the latest what's the most cost benefit effective and so as that moves forward make sure when you get your letter to get your water meter changed out contact the city make sure your neighbors contact the city because a lot of times it's really difficult to get in and change the meters I know last time we did have some issues some people didn't want us knowing when they uh went use the water and but it's just a meter it's just to build people so I mean some people wanted to wear their aluminum hats during uh when with the new meters so or how many time I I'm my favorite was uh they didn't want people know that they flushed the toilet in the middle of the night so it's not used for that purpose it's just used to to Bill people and we want everyone paying accurately um and we do we have 1.4 million do that's already budgeted for the Water Utility Fund and and I got to tell you it it it is a blessing that we have gotten so much State bonding I know I've worked really hard with the legislator we got over $2 million from the state legislature in water bonding money to fix bonding to fix water issues so because of us going after and getting money from the legislature we're able to save up a significant amount of money to put forward with for the water meters so that it doesn't cost everybody another arm and a leg for the water in this city and the water bill so that's all I have for public works again uh thank you for being nice to our Public Works guys I know you haven't seen them out there plowing but they're ready to go if something happens but they've been busy in shop maintaining all the the the works and the and the trucks and everything so um now I'd like to say uh Emily Russo Comm council member Emily Russ is going to talk about Community Development now thank you thank you council member Holden good morning and welcome it is so nice to see so many folks here today at 11:00 a.m. instead of I think I generally see you about 11: p.m. so nice to see you thank you for coming and thank you for being engaged uh today I'm going to be talking about uh our economic our Our Community Development and I do want to say we Doo have two critical staff that are involved with this and if you haven't met them and this is an area you're interested in please introduce yourself they're absolutely lovely director J Jessica Joo is fantastic and she works uh very often with senior planner Elena fasen as well so please feel free to introduce yourselves to them and thank you for everything both of you do um so our community has desirable residential neighborhoods and residents continue to improve feedback on the creation of local jobs and obtaining a mix of commercial amenities our business Community is an important component of the city's long-term success the city's economic base continues to remain relatively strong and this was evident in 2023 with a variety of new and redeveloped Commercial and Industrial land use application reviews as well as several existing businesses elected to make a significant investment through the building permit process by remodeling or expanding their facilities in ardan Hills a few of these projects that we wanted to highlight was the cathx medical it's a division of Zeus company and it's located at 1275 Red Fox Road the former Deluxe checking building was redeveloped with an estimated $5 million value to create a state-of-the-art catheter manufacturing facility this facility has an advanced research and development lab clean room space and Innovative laser cutting capabilities it is anticipated that they'll hire nearly 100 new employees it's a really cool site if you ever get a chance to go there for another opportunity please feel free to do so um we also have uh robotic cultural center and bookstore this one's located at 3531 Lexington Avenue they have completely renovated completed Renovations on this bookstore which was valued at $90,000 and doubled the size of it their space by expanding and combining two spaces in ardan Plaza rabata has spe specialty Muslim and Islamic textbooks in both English and Arabic and it aims to provide educational and Spiritual Development for women by women another featured Expansion Project was completed at the Boston Scientific campus so this one's located at 41000 Hamlin Avenue North at building 14 uh this was a 17,450 ft addition which was valued at 16.7 million at Boston Scientifics art and Hills campus Building 14 is in the northwest corner of their site and is part of their manufacturing facilities for the development and production of lithium batteries used in medical devices so this expansion was designed as disaster resistant with materials that can withstand high winds windborne debris and fire the primary space of the facility is a dry room a space maintained at less than 1% relative humidity which is required for handling lithium and residents appreciate that I I am right across the street with karth lake so I know we we all enjoy knowing that um ardan Hills also except for the teap area is considered primarily a fully developed community in 2023 the city received only two residential new home construction permits one of the new homes is located off of Snelling Avenue on a lot previously owned by the city and the other is along Highway 96 and old Snelling Avenue where the former residents constructed it was a 1939 um they demolished a 1939 home and the the generational owners are now rebuilding a new home on to the next slide we're talking about completing Construction in 2023 so we have two new Senior Living developments which had their held their grand opening celebrations the first one is Round Lake Senior Living at 1740 parkshore drive this is a three-story senior housing building featuring 120 total units and it includes independent living assisted living memory care and skilled nursing uh immediately adjacent to the senior living facility is the Southshore Fitness Park and trail which are our PT RC had input on appreciate them for that which was officially named by the city in 2023 this park features a trail that has exercise equipment accessible to and made for aging residents and residents with disabilities along the trail it's a unique it's a unique opportunity for for folks the second senior living project is New Perspective senior living and that's at 3565 Pine Tree Drive you can see that off of uh Snelling when you're driving over there the senior facility is four stories with 145 total units and it is also compromised of varying levels of services to meet residential needs so after doing a little bit of research thank you Jessica again we are excited to report that both of these facilities have waiting lists while they were under construction and a few months later they are nearly 50% to 60% occupied after their opening the city continues to support a full range of housing opportunities that are consistent with the 2040 comprehensive plan and are suitable for a mix of Ages incomes and household types we will continue to encourage the incorporation of affordable and life cycle housing into new development and Redevelopment were feasible in 2024 so on this next slide we're going to talk about the several projects that were anticipated to come to fruition in 2024 the first of these projects is the potential new Industrial Development of a site often referred to as the primer Tracer site so on January 8th 2024 the city council reviewed a concept plan presented by Maplewood development ink for a project to develop an approximately 62 Acre Site this was auctioned for sale in 2023 by the federal government and this portion of the larger federal government site was previously used as a manufacturing facility for the production of component primers and Trace and Tracer com compounds associated with small caliber ammunition production I can't remember I want to say there was almost like 25 million perhaps uh rounds that were established in that area it's it's quite impressive um the 62 acre listing area will include deed restrictions that limit future development to an industrial use Maplewood development is proposing office and Warehouse land uses that will be included that will include an area within the business park for accessory outdoor storage so the tenative time timeline for this project is the demolition of existing buildings and then the infrastructure to occur this spring or summer and then in the late end of the year vertical construction May begin so a few other notable sites for future or new development opportunities or even Redevelopment opportunities are the Minnesota National Guard as part of their approach to holistic health and fitness they will be constructing a new 40,000 ft building that would include Studios weights offices and areas for cardio and turf fields on the Arden Hills army training site the facility is estimated at 17.6 million with construction anticipated for 2025 and then in 2022 the Trident development completed a concept review on the North Heights Lutheran Church site at 1700 Highway 96 West for a proposal to construct 55 plus market rate house market rate apartments in June of the same year the developer did apply to the city for a comprehensive plan amendment to guide the future use of approximately 10 acres in the Northwestern corner of the property towards high density residential which the city council and the Metropolitan Council approved the developer will need to submit to the city for future development review and approval then we also have a project that had a ton of inquiries over this past year and that is the site at Lexington Lexington station phase 3 that's at 3 3787 Lexington Avenue North this site was approved for an unnamed grocery store I wonder who they they could be but this tant suspended construction nationally in 2023 when the interior buildout was about 80% complete so the site is currently advertised for lease and a future user other than a grocery store would need to be reviewed for by the city so if you know any friends John Connelly that are looking for space please please send them our Direction um this this past fall arb's at 3751 Lexington Avenue which is great next to that store pretty much uh closed permanently as part a review is underway for redevelopment of this property with a proposed Car Wash Land Use the city anticipates that this site may have development activity in 2024 and then lastly right next to where the Arby's is there is the pace industry site and that's at 3737 Lexington Avenue which is situated at that corner of Lexington Avenue and gra Fox um this 2.5 acre Redevelopment site has been vacant since 2019 the council has reviewed a couple of proposals for the site which have not moved forward for several factors future development would include demolishing the existing industrial site and testing the site for any contaminants and so we continue to evaluate development and Redevelopment projects as beneficial to advancing the goals and policies outlined in our 2024 our 2040 comprehensive plan and then our last slide over here we want to we as the city council would like to recognize the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division which is headquartered right here in ardan Hills the different units include the armored Brigade command the ex exonary command Aviation Brigade and other Regional support units on the weekends the city may see 700 or more soldiers in the area for training purposes um City residents often see them driving to Subway and picking up lunches we see them in in their vehicles as well um but the Red Bulls are an important part of our community from building a new Fieldhouse to hosting events like Scoops for troops and the first annual Ribfest to volunteering at events across the city and we are lucky to have them call Arden Hills home it was recently announced that members of the Red Bulls will be deploying to the Middle East to support operation Spartan Shield an operation inherent resolve Mary Lee is are are those the folks that ended up leaving this last week correct so so they they have deployed expecting to come back in the spring and I want to thank them for their service and wish them a safe deployment so and this concludes the portion this portion of the presentation and I'd like to thank all of you for being here again and turn turn this over now for council member Tina mson to talk about Public Safety thank you good morning thank you again for coming uh today we're going to turn turn it over to the public safety portion of what we are doing here with the city uh I sit on the lake Joanna fire department the fire board um and so if there's any additional questions around and I'm happy to answer them for those who are uh unaware ardan Hills does not have its own uh police department nor its own fire dep department and uh so therefore we contract to the Ramsey County um Sheriff's Office as well as contract with like Joan a fire department this is a really important cost savings strategy for our city whereas our costs are about a quarter of the fire department's cost and um about 13% of the sheriff's cost so it's important for everyone to understand why that is part you know part of our strategy uh in the information here you can see the cities that they also support um besides ardan Hills uh we continue to be a safe and peaceful community uh and you can see that table on the bottom left uh it's the ram the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office call the vast majority of the calls fall under this uh other or miscellaneous topic which um includes assisting on medical calls assisting the fire department and things like 911 Hang-Ups um and alarm calls uh however you can see some of the trends we've got a drop in property crimes from 2022 and then um we do have an increase uh if of traffic related uh calls in 2023 and um I would anticipate that's probably a regional uh a regional um Trend across uh all public safety on the on on the right side of the slide you can see like Joanna fire department and you can see the calls there um have increased um from 2022 although if you kind of look back to 2021 we're we're sitting in about the same place um as probably not much of a surprise for everyone the Fire Department fire departments have done a really good job and there's not that many phone calls for fires anymore these days and the vast majority of their phone call their calls at they respond to our uh rescue and emergency medical and that has been a good value here uh recently just due to the the slower times on the ambulance side and so uh we continue to be grateful for that our service our uh the service times for their access or or how quick they can get to your home or your business uh still continues to be very good and um I think if you Swit if you flip it to the next slide I'm just going to jump right into the new headquarters station which is on the right side so so in in 2018 uh a study identified the need for a new station and a new property was purchased which is on Pine Tree Drive right behind the Old National Bank and so there has been plans for a new headquarter station there which of course can only really improve our our service times here in the city of Arden Hill so we're really fortunate to have um had that property selected here in the city we anticipate the cost for the station to be 20 million potentially a little bit more just depends on when we get those final bids back but we were really uh fortunate in this last legislative session to be to receive 6.6 million dollar from the state uh in order to go towards that money and so in 2024 the fireboard will be focusing a lot on understanding and creating a plan for the the remaining let's say 14 million-ish dollars uh for bonding across North Oak Shore View and the City of Arden Hills one of the just kind of cool things to think about to I want to tell you about with the building down there that is a rendition of the new design but it actually has a a unique training space And So currently our the lake Joanna fire department goes to uh I believe it's Maplewood for their training and actually a number of fire departments go to the maple wood Maplewood uh training center and so they'll actually be building that into this building so they'll do their hose training gas fire rooftop training they'll be able to do that right on site and um I would anticipate that other Fire Department may be interested in in participating in their training here on site as well we're we're hoping to start construction in 25 so this means this year in 2024 uh Jessica will probably receive a plan for approval uh for local land use permit and um we're really excited about that the other uh new or the other uh exciting things that we have been talking about at the fireboard are the new Staffing so to date uh there was four full-time staff and 85 part-time staff and so there their the operational uh plan has changed over and starting to move towards a career uh department and that first space was hiring six full-time captains that has been done and they either started this week or maybe they start next week uh but very very soon those six uh full-time captains will be covering a 247 coverage and really and really importantly the fire department did receive a Federal grant called the safer Grant to cover the costs the the salaries uh of those additional six captains for the the first three years and the city uh just importantly for everybody to understand the city has been putting money away both for those captains as well as the fire department or for the new uh headquarters station um to date so that when we when when for example that ca for Grant is is uh done at three years and when we look at this bonding we're we've got a little bit of a Runway that we've been preparing for mine's quick I will uh actually welcome back uh mayor Grant to go over the finances for the [Applause] city all right thank you uh the next few slides will touch on the city's finances including the uh City Current financial position relative to the previous 5 years how our property tax rate compares to other cities within Ramsey County highlights from the 2024 budget and then we'll end with the city's outlook on future Investments the first slide illustrates the previous year's revenues and expenditure expenditures the city strives to be a good Steward of public resources you'll notice our our fund balance at at the very bottom goes from uh in 2018 3, 340,000 and if you notice in 2023 uh 3,393 ,000 so we're pretty much keeping on on track uh with that um the city uh the city received a clean audit report for 2022 which represents sound fiscal management of the inflows and out flows of financial resources and staff's commitment to the city's overall financial success um I would note that the 2023 financials are preliminary but are expected to be finalized following the audit work that will occur in the first half of 2024 the next slide uh continues the city continues to maintain one of the lowest property tax rates compared to other municipalities at a tax rate of 24 4.49 the average cost of property taxes on a $469,000 homestead which is the median value in Arden Hills ranked Arden Hills is one of the lowest compared to the other Ramsey County cities making Ramsay excuse me making Arden Hills a desirable City to purchase a home or develop a business one cavat is there is one city missing that is North Oaks and the reason for that is North Oaks is operated half as a city and half as a very large homeowners association so it's not really a comparable uh the next slide moving into 2024 budget and the 2024 preliminary tax levy will increase by 12.55% over 2023 expenditures or uh $591,000 n0 which translates into a 9567 uh for the annual city taxes paid by Resident homeowners of a median value valued home again the median valued home is 469,000 the general fund Reserve show a budget uh decree well decrease of 18270 but this of course would assume that 100% of every cost center is is fully expended over the course of the year and that's of course unlikely to happen uh some of the larger categories increasing the 2024 budget include and as I go through these please keep in mind that last year was a a high inflationary year so a lot of these costs are being pushed by inflation Public Safety costs are expected to increase by 90% or $239,100 the Ramsey County Sheriff Department contract which includes uh police and dispatch is expected to increase $133,600 and the Lake Johanna fire fire department costs are expected to increased by 11% or $82,700 Personnel costs are increasing by 88.5% or $158,600 due to cost of living adjustments salary increases and health insurance premiums property tax liability insurance Insurance uh costs are also increasing by 48% but that's just $2,250 um also increasing the cost this year uh is the city's investment in Northeast Youth and Family Services which totals $ 23,33 um one item to note is that this year will be the first year in like forever uh that Arden Hills will be receiving local government aid from the state in the amount of $1,471 yeah yeah um some of our neighboring communities uh in the past like Arden Hills received zero but other communities like New Brighton receive like $750,000 a year so we're while it's not a large number we're certainly appreciative of change the change in the formula which gives us uh the ability to participate in local government Aid uh the next slide how do the budget impacts translate to a resident again a median valued home in Arden Hills is 469,000 uh and that home would pay 9 $567 a month for city property taxes which in turn funds services like Public Safety General government and the general government would include such items as Personnel cost planning zoning maintenance of government buildings uh in addition uh we have Park facilities Recreation programs maintenance and repair of the city's Road roadways Public Safety account as you can tell from the slide accounts for uh approximately half of the general fund budget and your general government about a quarter and uh slightly more than than a quarter Park and Recreation and and Public Works uh the next slide as we look forward into 2025 and you've heard some of this in the previous presentations uh we have the uh Old Highway 109 96 Trail uh to Valentine Road uh the city's share of that project will be 1.6 million out of a total of 4.1 million uh that's a joint project with Ramsey County and the project is dependent upon obtaining outside funding from other other areas we have the Lake Johanna Boulevard Trail the city's share would be approximately 2 million the project would be 1 Point excuse me 9.5 5 million and that is also a joint project with Ramsey County and again construction would be highly dependent upon obtaining outside funding uh as noted earlier we have the Lake Johanna fire station and the city's share of that would be 3.5 million the total cost of that project is estimated at uh 14 million and we did receive 6.6 million from the state then the water main replacement project uh City's total cost would be 1.5 million obviously the city water meter replacement is 100% our costs what what you really need to to gather from this slide is as you look uh into the future and you don't have to look very far into the future there's a number of projects up here that are of substantial cost and uh not listed up here is obviously TCAP which has all sorts of cost implications and operating costs and infrastructure costs but these costs are are are substantial for the city uh on the bottom of this slide you'll notice it says the city proactively seeks other funding and or find financing sources to reduce the overall amount funded by taxpayers um that concludes the um City finances um our city finances are strong and relatively consistent as you can tell from the one slide from year to year and with that um and I know we're running a little bit late um we have some additional items which will be presented by council member [Applause] Monson so I've just got about three slides here with some miscellaneous items that we thought it was important to highlight for the citizens of what this city has done so the THC and cannabis topic is always a Hot Topic I'll try to keep it short and you got and the residents can go ahead and read the slide but essentially there's two ways to think about it THC is a low potency a lot of times you can consider it Edibles or drinks um and then what is considered higher THC we just you can really collo call it cannabis and so those have been split legally um in the State uh this year the city uh did lift its moratorium as it was only allowed to have a moratorium for a year on the THC products those Edibles those drinks and uh the council moved to allow for those those uh businesses in the city that are already licensed to sell liquor and tobacco products as they're already familiar with having an age screening process and so on and so forth so the THC is allowed to be sold there the council also passed a moratorium on the Cannabis piece so those are the higher potency of the THC the the state is opening an office of cannabis um that's probably not the official name but the they're they're going to have an official office and that is not slotted to be open and they're anticipated is until January 1st 2025 so the city did pass a moratorium in that time to allow for us to learn about what those rules regulations enforcements will be from the city what or excuse me from the state and then therefore what is the role of the city and how does that look and so to date uh cannabis is is on a moratorium here until we have more information which means in 2024 the council will have to discuss this as the moratorium does run out by that January 1 2025 date we can go ahead to the next slide committees and commissions always really important to highlight for those who are here and those who are listening or will be listening in the future thank you for your service as you sit on these committees uh they're really important to helping shape our city and hear uh hear the voices of the residents and a different capacity than just an individual conversation I find it incredibly important so thank you very much for those who who participate the planning commit I'm not going to read this just for the sake of time but the Planning Commission has seven seats um and I believe there may be one open for the alternate correct no fulltime so we have we have an opening um on the normal commission there the parks and trails and uh Parks trails and Recreation committee has I believe 12 people I don't know if that's right does it look like maybe Jessica's looking at Le maybe not but uh we do we believe we have one opening or is that filled at this point yeah yes okay so there might not be an opening there but go ahead and um if you guys have questions you can always go online and find more information and then the economic develop commission um which is really revitalized this year has nine seats and there is one open left and just to give you a plug we continue to look for volunteer coaches for all of our youth programs um as well as referees so uh please uh for those who are willing to do that we'd love to love to have you come along and and and strengthen our youth programs in that way and then speaking of the youth uh in 2023 the city rejoined to support the Northeast Youth and Family Services organization it is a nonprofit it costs the city around I think the number was $23,000 earlier in the presentation um this is really important because this is where where we as a city are able to show our commitment to supporting the mental health needs of Youth if you guys have ever seen the stats on depression anxiety and issues with children these day it's absolutely horrifying I a mother of two children who are five and three and these are the things that are really important not just for for parents but for future generations to really um try to support these kids through some tough times that um maybe we didn't have to go through CU we didn't have social media we didn't have cell phones when we were 13 or or 12 or 15 and um there's a lot of and you can see these programs here uh they are in the schools they do day treatment um they do all sorts of different kinds of programs to really help support our youth through these these uh difficult times for them and so with that I will I'll uh I'll close that out and I actually think that uh I am inviting mayor Grant back up here for any final words thank you all right thank you council member Monson um and I would like to thank all of of my fellow council members for helping me share these important up City updates with you today uh I know we went over a lot today and I know we went over time um if you'd like to uh stay in chat further um council members and staff will be sticking around uh afterward uh I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to each and every one of you for being here today your voices matter deeply to our progress and success as a city I also want to express my appreciation to the city council members and City staff who work hard every day uh for our residents uh thank you all for for being here today have a great rest of the weekend and uh uh and uh we'll be here to answer any additional questions that you may have and thanks again for for being [Applause] [Music] here