e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Allegiance United States America stand One Nation indivisible Li and roll call Chris president mongi is absent today vice president Matthews here member Nath here member brire here member gardi is absent today member gagra is absent today and Council representative McKenzie here staff and ex officio members present today are executive director frandle and Eda secretary attorney so let's hop right into this let uh motion to adopt the agenda so moved second oh I don't say I don't talk second upright in meeting open to the public Chris anybody online no Zoom all right let's H uh let's hop right into our action items here for tonight um go ahead Chris and kind fill us in here did we do the approval of minutes yet oh sorry uh can I get a motion for approval of the Amendments so moved hey he is here come on up thank you can I get a second are you I'm Dave how are you good nice to meet you thanks for coming y I'll second it let's hop let's hop into the discussion items now Chris this first item is the election of 2025 officers so per the bylaws of the North St Paul Economic Development Authority The Authority shall annually elect the offices of president vice president Treasurer assistant Treasurer and secretary the offices of secretary and assistant treasurer do not need to be held by an authority member but the other three do so as staff recommend the Eda conduct this annual election since we have um new members today can we can you talk a little bit about just go into the bylaws a little bit and talk about the different roles their duties responsibilities what does that mean what are we voting on here sure so I will just read straight from the bylaws what each of these offices are so president the president presides at all meetings of the authority and vice president fills in for that president if the president is absent so that is what Joe is doing right now um Treasurer the treasurer shall receive and be responsible for Authority money is responsible for the acts of the assistant Treasurer shall disperse Authority money by check only keep an account of all authority receipts and the nature purpose and Authority of all dispersements and shall file the Authority's financial statement with its secretary at least once a year as set by The Authority the assistant Treasurer has all powers and duties of the treasurer if the treasurer is absent or disabled and the assistant Treasurer um does not need to be a member of the Eda lastly the secretary keeps the minutes of all meetings of the authority and shall maintain or cause to be maintained all records of the authority the secretary shall also have such additional duties and responsibilities as the authority May from time to time and by resolution prescribe and that position does not need to be an Eda member either thanks Chris questions on any of the responsibilities that Chris has laid out for the different uh roles on the Eda and I don't know Bri Brian and I just briefly talked I don't know if we want um to table this and and and call a meeting for next month um when everybody's here we want to move forward and vote guess I'm looking for you guys's for discussion yeah what would be the benefit of delay we're missing two voting members right now um but if we can still move ahead as well mayor was okay with moving forward with it uh Peter GL is not here but uh we can certainly move forward with it if you'd like anyone if nobody's saying no then we can proceed except otherwise maybe I don't understand it is it I mean isn't the we could do vote today we do the vote at another meeting it's probably going to be the same outcome yeah potentially you just don't have all the the me board members um putting their opinion out there got it but but yes it could be yeah you need to have a quorum and do we have a quorum we have a quorum we have four members so we can we can yes I'm fine I'm fine either way all could could be the same could be different well if if if there's concern maybe we maybe we table it you know if everybody feels better about having as much input as possible we go that route just throwing it out there I'm fine with I'm fine with whatever thisis are you guys take I think I should be fine this is my first meeting so I'll defer to the group my gut feeling says we take a it and we have a meeting next month since not everybody's here it' be nice if everybody was here in order to put the people in the right seats that we want okay and have that discussion that's my thoughts is that a motion is that a motion yeah you want to motion that that's motion tabling it out one more month on second okay good moving out of month yeah since you brought that up um and we're tbling that out a month uh just make it official that we will be having a meeting next month as opposed to next quarter correct I don't know if Chris you wanted address this um the WSB proposal the downtown design manual I will Brian that to Brian but first just for a point of clarification is there supposed to be a vote after the motion is seconded yes all in favor I I I perfect thank you uh since it's not since it is quarterly now do we need to make a motion to have a meeting next month or can we just call that okay which you already did okay go ahead you to say were you did you have a comment on the WSB no okay so we were um going to look at a proposal from WSB uh in discussions in previous uh board meeting we were talking about um having a grant program for a facade Improvement program for uh businesses along 7th Avenue and uh Margaret um it was brought up by a member at the time that um maybe it should be looked at on the downtown design manual on whether or not that should be looked at prior to starting the facade Improvement program to make sure that it was in compliance um after looking into the information that we have I don't know that that necessarily NE needs to be the first step uh that downtown design manual was updated 20 years ago so it it is very old it needs to be kicked over to the Planning Commission they need to take a deep dive into it and determine whether or not it's even relevant anymore and they want to continue with that and everything um having to do with that would uh be covered by the zoning um code to where you wouldn't need that downtown design manual uh we did have the conversation with WSB who was talking about maybe just taking a part of the downtown design manual that may specifically have to do with the facade part of the businesses um and maybe just update that part of it um but it's so old and outdated that uh I don't know if that's the appropriate move so I think I'd like to table that part of um updating that downtown design manual uh and probably just push off the whole project onto the Planning Commission uh that'll be a City action item to send over to them um and probably just move forward with the grant program for the uh facade Improvement program um now we do have new members on here I know you guys haven't had a chance to probably read through that it's not real indepth um I'm wondering if we can't just take the time to go through that and uh if anything sticks out um we can make changes on it and we can actually approve it the next one but if you want to if we can go through it and people are in agreement of it we could actually move forward with this and we could get this out to the downtown businesses to see if uh um any interested parties are want to sign up for the program um you guys have that in front of you I think probably be a good time for review anyway they they did have this program Once Upon a Time uh a while back um so the idea was and the conversations that we had previously were this would cover um there was a big conversation about the signage for the downtown businesses and whether or not it could cover that I think it seemed appropriate that uh that would be part of this um you could do tuck pointing whether or not it's a brick facade front of your building um you could look at awnings um I feel like bringing you up here and talking about um and what would it do is uh it would be a match type Grant so the grants will pay uh 50% of of the total project for to a maximum of up to $20,000 um Grant um so the owners would actually uh pay the bills upfront um and then it would be a reimbursement after they turned in the receipts and shown that they have performed the work um and it had a minimum Grant amount of $55,000 for a total project cost of $10,000 um the whole program we've limited the amounts to $200,000 for um all parties involved once we get to that it would be a cof limit of to not go any further than that with the yearly funds that we had um so the parameter of it is it's uh on 7th Avenue from and Margaret Street and it would go from Highway 36 uh uh down to 6th Street on Margaret and from 7th Avenue it was uh I believe First to Highway 120 um not including the post office I guess we could go over a couple of the things that it talks about here restoration of exterior finishes and materials uh Mason repairs including tuck pointing uh exterior painting or reciting uh removal of architectural architecturally inappropriate or incompatible exterior finishes and materials uh repair replacement of windows and doors um which must be uh architectural architecturally appropriate uh contracted labor related to any of the above improvements including design work for improvement that are to be completed up to 25% of total project cost eligible um other improvements similar to what's above and Grant funds may be used to pay for the materials um says some projects may require prior approval um we don't have a historical preservation commission anymore but we will update that um but anything kind of outside of the norm that we had said that we'd have the ility of people coming to the meeting and uh um proposing what their uh grant money would go towards and then the commission could make the decision on whether or not to move forward with that do you collect lean waivers from the subcontractors or contractors to make sure that when the home when the uh business owner pays a bill it's in full and there are no mechanics leans that is one sidelines that is a great question and um it was not talked about I think it would be appropriate though I would think if you were going to reimburse a business owner for work completed the last thing you wouldn't want a mechanics lean coming out being filed against the property what's the process for receiving those it's just a a a one-page document from the title company I I have copies of them where basically says when the contractor is paid they acknowledge that this they're paid in full um so they can't lean the property yeah or what they just got paid seems smart yes it does if I remember correctly we don't vote uh we don't review the applications the staff does that right staff would do that um as long as it fell within the guidelines of this anything above and beyond we were given them the ability to come in and talk about it great um you know what this is not we're going to have to bring back uh a final one next month U because I can see this was not the the final Cy because we did have conversations about the signage and I believe the conclusion on that was it would qualify initially we were saying that it wouldn't um but the consensus of the board was that it would so we will have to update that yeah that is correct you actually have a lean waiver uh line item here oh wonderful so it's already covered I'm just seeing this where was it on the last page last page page five item 4 a there's a lean waiver requir thank you any other questions thoughts on this so Brian your recommendation is um following up on this next month please um okay I do want to update that or for things that we're saying not uh applicable H because it does include the signs in that so we there's another updated uh we'll get the most updated copy that we will put a final stamp of approval on okay in the Council next or commission next month there has been one business that reached out that was interested in this program already so okay [Music] anything else on that any other input any other questions you guys on This concerns anything you want to change before next month I think time timeline we're probably still okay you know we have a meeting next month in April just to give businesses an opportunity to read over this get their ducks in a row plan for the summer to participate in this from a weather standpoint exct you know we've been working on this for two years now um so trying to get this out to the business say is um hopefully and should be important uh to us to get this get the ball rolling yep absolutely do we have some kind of Outreach for the businesses that would qualify we have not advertised for it yet uh we wanted to get this in place before we did that but yeah we will all right okay I don't know if Chris you wna talk about meting the membership for the Eda is that something you wanted to address I will probably let Brian speak to that item um um was he's so discusss have on not to keep which is an authority as Authority the idea of even when it was brought to begin with was the idea that came down spending of funds at Le one argument was made that being Authority they had the ability to do that and City oops excuse me if you had any other information that you wanted to share with that Joe from that previous conversation yeah I mean you basically touched on it I mean I think the big transparency the difference is commission to authority authority you know um has a budget um Can advise City Council on how or where that money is spent uh but that at the end of the day um the council has the final vote on where that money is spent uh but it is still two separate buckets okay um our budget within the authority um city council can't take that it's ours um now they can they can from my understanding they can say no we don't want to do that project they have the final say but the money is still it's still ours um and you can talk a little bit about that um how that works um I think that's always been the biggest hold up um on whether or not to go commission or do an authority previously The Authority has always been open with any kind of expenditures to where they bring the the council in on that but do they necessarily have to the way an authority works I don't know that they do do uh okay the but it it's just keeping um all the conversations open including the city council I mean the authorities exist because there's a city that they are there um of why we can put funds aside as an authority but so it was just an open conversation letting them know what how the money was being spent I don't know that necessarily they had to approve it the authority can spend their own funds here not in your head is that how you understand it okay I was always under the impression that uh Council was Council was the last say but uh I could be wrong not with an authority okay is my understanding what what are the what are the you know from other cities what are the pros and cons about being a commission and and and being an authority um I would say the other cities that I know of out there a lot of them are commission now you do still have Eda authorities out there but there's not as many as there were 30 years ago and there are other cities that The Authorities are I mean the council actually is the H the Housing and Redevelopment Authority um the decision is is it appropriate that uh they be the Eda to where they are the uh the authority last say of power um in what decisions are made whether or not it's a Planning Commission it's very seldom that they are overridden so when they come forward to council with uh recommendations they're more than likely followed um so it would be the same situation with this if if they weren't if this commission wasn't the actual Authority as opposed to just a recommendation commission okay questions questions on that you kind kind of understand we are in Authority right now um is there a concern that we should be a commission uh it it was just asked to be thrown out there and discussed um is it necessarily a concern no I mean we haven't seen any issues necessarily come out of this I think the historically the uh Authority has made a lot of good decisions that have worked out well for the city so uh it was just asked to be talked about today it's talked about every year yeah U we've never it's never been changed yeah it's not being pushed to say this is what we want to be have done it's a discussion is city council asking that a member of city council yeah this is my first meeting it's a lot of pressure isn't it got to have an answer come on now don't have an opinion yeah same with me today is my first day so I'm wondering if this will make the commission more effective compared to what it is now being the authority so I think what would be beneficial when you're always in situations like this is you have to gather more information so I don't know if Chris you can we can talk about this next month a little bit about why have other cities gone from an authority to a commission or why have other cities gone from a commission to an authority what are the pros what are the cons why would you do that what is what's the what's just lay it all out there for us so we can have more uh information and have more of a educated conversation about it um because we're not going to be able to make a decision tonight when we just don't know enough enough about it or or why would it you know besides other cities doing it why would making a change for the city of North St Paul how would it benefit the city of North St Paul um moving forward I just think that could be any number of things you have cities that uh councils that maybe don't necessarily see through the same lens as authorities so then they feel that there's an issue um or you have a hard time you know getting people from commissions or authorities to show up to meetings or um you know could be any number of things um but like I said uh historically and last time this was discussed they decided to move ahead with being an authority that uh the authority had done a lot of good things over the years and uh it it wasn't an issue um so that was the decision last time that it it was working well the way it was and they left it alone and I would and I would think re uh going back over this conversation next month any sort of having any sort of authorities or commissions it's all about having the right people in the right seats and for a long time we had uh a phenomenal Eda of having the right people in the right seats um and making great um suggestions out moving forward for for builds for moving the city in the in the right direction because there's a lot lot of expertise at that time of who was on the Eda and I would think can we keep that going do we have the right people in the right seats not that you know but we got to know what we're doing um so I would think that has a lot to play into whether you should be an authority or a commission and we have a good commission too so yeah yeah so let's just get let's get more information um and let's have that discussion next month sounds good does that work fores that work for you guys yeah makes more things okay I assume the if the council wanted this if they had there's a big movement to transition us they could just have a vote and do it right I mean it's not necessarily just on this body to make that call right okay it's a good question that's a great that's a great question you have Bri you know that answer off top of my head now I'll be the Devil's Advocate yep and if I'm sitting at this this the city council I would not want a rogue Eda making decisions outside of the scope of the city council and so my knee-jerk reacted first meeting have been on the seat for 20 minutes 15 minutes I would think we should be a commission recommending to the city council and let them make the final decision because you to your point you know I saw the members who were part of the Eda going back years and they were a phenomenal group and they did a lot of positives but now you have a new Eda and if I am the mayor I am the city council I don't I want control to some degree of the Eda or or this group here I'm just talking out loud no this is and and those are great points and they've been brought up in the past are fantastic point and not that I'm arguing one way or the other um the other side of that is we have business owners we have Bankers we have uh people who know a lot of background of what it takes to um you know give information to an Eda um and nothing bad at all about our Council our Council doesn't have that background so is it necessarily do they have the uh the best background to make those decisions as well so you could you can make it either way and it depends again who who's on your commission who's on your Authority to make those decisions so yeah yeah I'd definitely be more comfortable you know talking about this in a month after studying a little bit if we wanted to even entertain that the notion I don't know well I think we should I I definitely think that we should talk about it uh more but um we'll table it information yeah uh would be good all right staff updates yeah I'm going to go back a little ways um just to kind of discuss some other things that we've done previously so some of the properties we the city really only has about two more properties that are developable right now one is across the street from City Hall here um they just call it the Margaret Street Commons for lack of a better name um it's about 3/4 of an acre over there um we did go out for an RFP on that property uh which came down at the end of last year um it was out for I think over two months and we actually didn't get any official um entries into it or applications into it um well we did we did have conversation with a developer that had just said interest rates are still pretty high construction costs were still pretty high there was still some instability in the market that uh it just didn't make a lot of sense right now to officially turn in an application for that and but that was the deepest conversation that we had about that so it's it's just out there for uh develop in the future if if somebody shows interest and maybe when the time is right again we can put another RFP forward to try to look at that um downtown we have an empty lot that is between uh side ERS uh bar up there and the The Tattoo Shop used to be the old Clinic um and that is the other property that could potentially be developed someday um that's just kind of sitting out there um we haven't had any inquiries into that just yet either um one thing that we have discussed in previous meetings is finding a company that uh could give us Direction you know be our cheerleader if you will um we did look into to a couple of them uh Ceda was one of them and another one that I talked to was called Placer um it was just recently that we got some information back so I think we'll have a more uh full conversation about that next month as well but there are companies that kind of they take a look at your town they find out um do you have good way finding in your town do you have um you know getting around your city uh can you find your way around with depending on uh way finding or is your website does it show you around well uh does it give you a taste of the businesses that are in town um so that was what uh Ceda was going to put together and that other company place there that I talked to they it's more uh comes from a web they they aren't even local but it kind of tells you foot traffic it tells you uh businesses and how many um patrons they have during um throughout a year a day a month um so it's just a lot of data that you can put out there to try to attract businesses and also maybe keep businesses that you currently have um but we can have a more complete report on that next month um just an update on the article 7 it was one of the topics that we had talked about you know they are up and running now um they are over 75% uh full now they have I believe there're it's 40 some perent as far far as people living in there but uh they're over 75% on units sold and that was information from several weeks ago so it might even be more than that now so they're really happy with the way that has progressed um and we're glad to see it as well for them absolutely um another development that we have going uh is up on Delaware and 17th Avenue there are going to be five duplexes that are put in in there are Town Homes uh two of them are well on their way their pulling permits on the next units here shortly so that project is coming along well it's at empty for quite some time so it's nice to see that go up they goodlooking buildings um we have a couple other potential developments um we have a property that is owned on mcnight or um just North of Highway 36 that uh Mueller Funeral home is looking at potentially developing there um which would be a not only just a funeral home but then attached to it as well is um kind of a a meeting place where they can have uh events an event center if you will I believe they have the same setup up in Whitebear Lake right now to where they have hold events um along with those uh the funerals that they have and another unit or another potential development is over on 7th and South Avenue um they're looking at putting in two fourplex units there it's kind of squished onto that property but uh that's what we have hanging that we know more than likely is going to come forward as far as development goes um so this is just kind of FYI information um is there any thought of what will go in across the straight here and at the side Winder as well nothing allow specific uh what a common theme that has been going on for a while which happened with the Centennial Building downtown in article 7 was um apartment living above and and potentially hopefully some kind of of commercial on the first floor makes use typ correct uh they tried that with the article 7 they were hoping to have live work units on the first floor there were I believe nine places that were speced out for that uh they did reach out to several different companies uh nobody actually bit on it so um they are actually being rented out now as Apartments um as opposed to businesses but they're still hoping to get some in but there just hasn't been the market for it as of right now just as a question has there been any thought about traffic on 7th you know with the with the apartments by Max and then this article 7 and its side winders CU that side Winder lot looks like a nice size lot that could accommodate a obviously know we want traffic and we want but could could um Sentry handle extra traffic from any Apartments coming in we have not heard that it couldn't by any means no and we also did a downtown uh study as far as livability and what we can handle for more living units and even with the two uh developments there they they said we could still handle more um yeah [Music] the lot across the street is it's it's a it's kind of long and narrow unfortunately on the back side of it there are some utility restrictions if you will there's probably a 4T uh drainage pipe back behind there um which kind of squeezes the property in a little more which would probably make it more parking lot than anything else so You' still have access to it um overhead power lines in the back I guess they could be taken care of but uh there were just some restrictions on the size of that lot across the street quick question uh have we heard anything on Pine Tree Center in the last three months or the latest I have on that is uh well The Pizza Factory was going to move out of there at the end of last year last I heard now is they have extended a lease to them it sounded like before they had a place all ready to go that they were going to move to but uh for some reason that didn't go through they are still there and they've extended their lease um where is that uh The Pizza Factory it's out on South in 120 it's where the old holiday oh yeah old holidays so the building is pretty rundown um I believe that I mean it's empty Bes place is the only is the only tenant in there and they tried to find another place for them uh they looked at one place downtown but the remodel costs were going to be too high um the L's ice cream place downtown uh they had tried to sell that um over the winter I guess they have uh moved out and they're just trying to sell the business and the property um I didn't know if they would if it would work for like The Pizza Factory because they have a full kitchen in there um but I don't know where the costs are his budget is at if that's worth them looking into but they're going to be putting that on the market again shortly it was on there for a while didn't go anywhere they pulled it and it'll be getting back onto the market here as the weather turns nicer so yeah the owner um he's expressed interest he's thrown ideas I guess you should say out there that maybe he'll tear it down maybe he'll develop it or you just we haven't got any solid answers out of him so we're not sure where he's at that's if I remember correct correctly that's not a local person right that's okay correct yeah um that's all I have for now so go ahead how about you guys anything any other updates Brandon besides the patio looking forward to Spring okayed that's all I got having dinner there very good I do have one more can I go uh so we had a ribbon cutting ceremony for puzzles uh yesterday which is over there on 11th and mcnight road on the northwest corner there used to be old gashopper gas station Once Upon a Time um but that's uh they have a bar restaurant in there but they also have um a room for rental they have capacity of over 400 um in that room in there it was a nice looking place so and looks like they already booked out into well into August August good for them great I saw the the pictures the place is sharp yeah they have a decent decent tart out for the ribbon cutting they did good yep so it was nice to see you so best of luck to them good else that's beautiful yeah all right all right well motion to adjourn second so moved all in favor all in favor I okay thanks everybody e