Uh, clerk, please do a roll call. >> Um, Council Member Walsh is excused for the evening. Council Member Gerolla. >> Here. >> Council Member West. >> Here. >> Council Member Edberg. >> Here. >> Council Member Engstrand. >> Here. >> And Mayor Narkiewicz. >> Here. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. >> One nation >> One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We're going to get started. Welcome to everybody who's here today and on Oh, they're not on TV land, but people who are watching the recording on TV land. Um, our first thing item 2A. Um, we need to approve the minutes of the regular city council meeting on August 12th, 2026. I would accept a motion for that. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Uh, item 2B. Um, minutes of the city council work session on August 12th, 2026. I would accept a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, that passes. Uh, item 2C, approval of the minutes of the city council work session on August 18th, 2026. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, that passes. Item three, um, adopt the agenda. Does anyone have any changes to the agenda? Okay, I would accept a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, we have an agenda. Item four, um is there any changes to the consent agenda? I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, the consent agenda passes. All right, item five, visitors and presentation. 5A, community development biannual report, Mr. Lindahl. Welcome. >> Mayor, members of the council. Um in absence of the slides, what I'll do is I just I refer to uh the the memo in your staff report. Um um the item we're going to talk about is the report from the community development department on its activities for the uh first half of this year. Um So, uh as you may recall, um community development covers um the building division, which includes in uh building inspectors, um the rental housing inspector, and um uh the code compliance officer, and then uh on the planning side, it includes myself, um our uh Tracy, our community our housing and and redevelopment coordinator, um the city planner, and the um planning technician. And so, starting off with looking at the building uh department or the building division, um you may just I'm sorry if you sorry if you go back one slide. Thank you. Um um if you just look at kind of our baseline or our reference from last year, um the department processed just over 3,400 permits um between White Bear Lake and the contracting service that we do for Mahtomedi with about $63 million in valuation and almost $850 million Excuse me, $850,000 in permit fees generated from that permit activity. To give you kind of a again a base point of comparison as we talk about the this data. This is the chart that I typically show as part of the presentation that covers the annual building permits issued historically. So from 2009 up until the present. So it includes all of 2025. It does not include any of the 2026 data because it would, you know, it would only be half the year. But to give you a point of reference, we've had a constant onward or excuse me, upward trajectory of permit activity within the city. You can see that we often reference in these reports the spike that occurred in 2022 and 2023. Those that was all of the permit activity that came with the schools districts updates and the Lockner and Barnum apartment buildings. Since then we've seen more of what I referred to in the past as that like a return to normal in permit activity, but we're seeing a continued upward trend. And if you notice in in the in the data from the first half of this year, there's a slight 2% increase in activity from the total activity in White Bear Lake and Mahtomedi. And so we expect that trend line to continue upward and then but stable out but also to continue upward. Next, please. So moving on to code enforcement activity um and looking at it the activity divided by ward. So, this includes code enforcement activity both um um complaint-based activity and then um those were initiated by the code enforcement officer. Just by looking at by ward, it's pretty evenly distributed throughout the community with just a slight um a higher amount in ward two. So, next slide. If you look at code enforcement activity as a whole, the vast majority of the 49% is in that refuse and exterior storage category. Next, please. Um looking at that same activity in Modesto, also refuse and and and exterior storage is that largest of categories at 56%. Um Next, uh looking at zoning activities for the department, what you see here is the um a comparison chart here that show the the more orange colored bar is the first half of 2025 and the the more yellowish bar is the first half of 2026 and the green bar is the is the total for 2025. So, it gives you a sense of the comparison over the first half of the year in both years and then a total that we'd be working towards in comparison. So, um what we're seeing here in your report you would see is that there's about a 7% decline in overall activities in the planning department. We think that a a lot of that is probably things kind of working out in a through different processes now with the zoning ordinance update, but just in general just a slight decrease in activity from the planning department. And then also we've you know last year we added report about rental licensing data. So this shows that by ward. So we see that ward two has the highest amount of rental license licenses in it followed closely by ward one and um a very stable amount of rental license activity at 366 total licenses. That's comparable to what we have when we reported to you last year at this time. So next please. So that's a quick summary of the information. There's a little bit more detail in your staff report that I'd be happy to talk about if you have any questions, but that's our first half of the year report. >> Thank you Mr. Lindahl. Does anybody have any questions? Council member Eiberg. >> Thank you Madam Mayor. Mr. Lindahl just two questions. In the um building permits you note that the valuation of permits um I maybe I misinterpreted this. I thought I heard you say was up 2% in total. >> I'm sorry Mayor members of the council. What I mentioned was the number of permits. So the this the number of permits that we're processing each year. >> Yeah. >> If you look at the total in white just White Bear in White Bear Lake and Mahtomedi, it's up by 2%. >> The number. >> of permits, but you also you would see that there also is changes in the in the valuation of those permits and the revenue generated from it. >> And is the the valuation is going up, the total value, or the total value is going down? >> The the In White Bear Lake just itself, the valuation of permits was up 28% and total permit fees were up 10%. So, the valuation is the value of all those permits in general. And um the way the formula works to generate what kind of revenue comes from those permits is primarily based on the value of the project. >> And so, my question in sitting in back of all of that is, do we have any insight into what kinds of activities are generating the increases in valuation? What are the kinds of projects or the nature of the drivers that are increasing the value of a permit? Do you have any insight? >> of the council, I'm sorry, I don't know that off the top of my head. >> Okay. Councilmember Go ahead. >> Councilmember Grohol Yeah, um thank you for sharing the report. One thing I've always kind of been curious about is how does the proactive enforcement work? I've seen them like drive up and down my street, but do they have like designated areas or how often they go out or how does like driving around? I've just always wondered kind of how that works. >> Mayor members of the council, um thanks for that question. Um so, the code enforcement officer um has um certainly reacts to um complaints that are generated by phone call, someone who stops in, um or um the you know, sends in an email or an online um concern. Um in addition to that, um they have set time every day where they are um, doing inspections throughout the community. And so generally the code enforcement off officer mimics our building inspectors kind of schedule. So generally they're in the office um, for about the first hour in the morning kind of setting their schedules and their routes. And then they're out um, for most of the morning until lunch time and then they're back in lunch time and then um, in the afternoon they're processing anything from the morning and following up on any um, um, appointments that may happen in the afternoon. So there's set time in the office and um, in the field every day for the for the inspectors. Um, what since the uh, city has been asked by Mahtomedi to do some to do some proactive work in in their community. Um, we he's the that building um, excuse me, the code enforcement officer has added that into their time to kind of balance out the time they spend in each community. >> Thank you. Council member Ekberg. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Mr. Lindahl, not in the report. Uh, just looking for kind of an update. Where are we at on um, So, about a year ago we had a conversation about short-term rentals, particularly with lake property. We said that was going to be a future activity sometime maybe in '26, maybe in '27. Just kind of what's what's the current status on that? >> Uh, Mayor and members of the council, thanks for that question. Um, so um, your your memory is accurate. Um, so what hap you what you may recall is um, kind of about the timing. But it was about a year ago when we when the council reviewed and enacted the zoning ordinance update. At that time, the zoning ordinance update included zoning standards for short-term rentals. But, um like like you would see in this report on the rental licensing activity, we did not bring along um at the time rental short-term rental licensing standards. And the feedback we got from the council was you would like to see that as a package, so we delayed the zoning side of things. Um and so, the idea was that we were going to come back to to council uh with a package of both rental uh short-term rental zoning activity and rental and licensing uh recommendations. Um since then, we've gathered data from other communities and how they look at things. Um um and we've conducted the housing needs assessment, which also gave us some analysis of our rental housing data. And we've also been k- noting a few things in the zoning ordinance that probably could use a tweak and didn't kind of aren't kind of working as exactly as we anticipated. So, um your timing your question is and your timing is good because just in a staff meeting with my staff today, we were talking about timing of the zoning uh revisions kind of edits update. And kind of looking at that for the fall of this year to wrap it up by the end of the year. >> So, thinking that we might be getting kind of that whole package for our review, consideration, discussion sometime late this year, maybe early in '27, something like that? >> Mayor, members of the council, correct. That's exactly what we were thinking about. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Um I have a question about rental fees. Like when people are doing uh building permits, zoning permit, uh rental fees, how often do those increase? How often do we increase those? >> Uh Mayor and members of the council, um so we examine the fee schedule annually as part of the budgeting process. Um and um so that is something we consider every year when we would ultimately bring you the the the uh the budget for adoption towards the end of the year. >> Uh Mayor, I would just add that so that's it's an ordinance amendment every single year and so I I I believe we have our first reading on that in November and then our second reading in December um along with the the budget adoption and then then it goes into effect in January. But we do take a look at all of our um fees every single year. I think the document is about 13 pages long and so every department takes a look at theirs. Not everything receives an increase um every single year, but you know, there are some things in there that haven't been updated in 20 years and some are updated every single year, so it just depends. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, thank you so much for the presentation, Mr. Lindahl. >> All right, item six. Um we are going to open a public hearing. We have a resolution adopting the assessment roll for the 2026 pavement rehabilitation process. Oh, Mr. Coffee. We're going to hear from you first and then we will open it up to the public. >> Yes, uh thank you Mayor and members of the council. Um I'm going to go through a quick little presentation to give some background on the project and the process that we've taken so far. Um So, again, just kind of a reminder of where we're um or the area that we're uh reconstructing this year, kind of south southeast of downtown, kind of the residential area uh leading up to next year's downtown project. Um including Cook Avenue, um Banning Avenue, uh our north-south streets, uh Second Street and Third Street, and then we're doing one segment of alley off of uh Second Street. Um so, that's the general project location. Um project scope, um mill and overlay on Banning Avenue. It's got relatively good curb. It was uh had been reconstructed at some point in the past. Um full reconstruction on the remainder of the streets on Second, Third, and Cook, as well as the al- uh full reconstruction on the alley. Um the pavements uh were in poor enough condition. It never had uh true uh modern curb and gutter. Um so, those were brought up to that uh modern urban uh section with storm sewer, um which is uh a big piece of the project when you add curb as to add drainage to it cuz now you're confining that drainage to the street area versus allowing it to flow off into the boulevards and things. So, um storm sewer is a big portion of this, as well as some replacement of some major uh storm sewer that feeds the rest of the downtown. So, uh a larger pipe was placed um um to accommodate future uh the the next phase of the projects as well as this project. Uh we also uh reviewed sewer and water services um so, to see if there was any issues with private water sewers service or um the need for repairs or replacement. Um the uh water was uh the water services were in very good condition. We had uh two people that elected to due to conditions uh uh replace their Y. So, basically, what that does is uh uh uh replace the connection of the private sanitary sewer service to the main out in the street. Uh get that out to the uh property line so that the uh um that connection doesn't cause issues for the homeowner. Um reduces any risk of um issues uh coming up in the future and having to dig out in the streets cuz the uh in White Bear Lake, the water and sewer services are the responsibility of the homeowner from the main to their home. So, um anything we can do as part of the projects to alleviate future issues, we definitely do. We also ex- excavated and reviewed all the water services to make sure they were in good condition and uh copper so that within the roadways so that they don't um uh require future digging up of the roadways. Uh we also did a few water main and sewer repairs. Um uh replaced some old uh block manhole structures. We also replaced valves and and several hydrants. Um again, to alleviate any future issues. Uh the water main itself was in fairly good condition, but the valves and hydrants are the things that you operate and are mechanical. So, um have a uh little bit less of a uh lifespan than the water main itself. Uh we also, as a reminder, we did uh two sidewalk extensions to get uh uh foot traffic out to uh Lake Avenue. Uh and that was on the west side of Banning Avenue and the north side of Second Street. So, those were the two segments that were um decided by council to move forward uh when we discussed that in the spring. Uh we also did uh uh parking restrictions on Second Street uh due to the width and it being a state-aid route. Uh we also coordinate with the private utilities to make sure that they get in and do their work repairs, uh move power poles out of the way, that kind of thing so that all that is completed so residents aren't seeing that um in the near future anyway. So, there's always going to be upgrades, but at least so they don't see it in the near future. Uh regarding public process, um so we started off uh each of these projects with a neighborhood meeting to gather input from residents, any concerns, anything like that. We did that in December of this year following council direction on on how we were moving forward with the downtown project as a whole. Then we had our public improvement hearing. That is the first opportunity for residents come and and discuss the project with the council if they have any concerns either for or against. That happened on March 24th. And then tonight here we are with the assessment hearing. This is where council consider the assessments to those benefiting property owners for a portion of the project cost. I'm going to go through some uh a little detail on the assessments. So, a public hearing is required per statute 429 consideration of the assessment role. So, that's required by statute that we do this public hearing this evening. We are also required to both mail as well as publish official um and notifications to the benefiting property owners. That was done as required. Um the final assessments presented reflect the city's assessment policy and also have been confirmed by an independent property appraiser. So, a benefit appraiser reviewed our proposed assessments based on our assessment policy and concurred that they um do not exceed the benefit that the properties get from the project. So, tonight residents can appeal their assessments by submitting a written statement by the end of the meeting. I would also require that they file action in the district court within 30 days of the adoption of the assessment. So, that being said, that was included in the notice to homeowners. As of tonight or as of right now, we have not received any written notice of um of appeal. So, um no one has provided the clerk that notice. So going back to the slide here the assessment period for our reconstruct projects have been 15 years for residential properties 20 years for commercial properties the interest rate that we use is 2% over the bond rate this year being 5.44% these assessments would be payable on the 2027 taxes. They also have property owners have 30 days upon adoption so we would send notice if adopted tonight that they would have 30 days to pay their assessments interest free before they would start the sort of before we would start the certification process to the county for inclusion on 2027 property taxes. Also I will note that we also provide notice in that the any property owner that is 65 years of age or older or retired by virtue of permanent and or total disability are eligible for a deferral they would need to contact city staff within that 30-day period before they are um levied to the county we can work with them to do that it does not interest continues to incur so it's not a tax or interest free period it is a deferral so that would continue until either the death of the homeowner or the property owner sale of the property or loss of homestead status so that was offered up to homeowners within that notice. So tonight staff would recommend holding the public hearing and then consider adopting the assessment role for the 2026 payment rehabilitation project. >> All right, thank you. >> Uh Mayor and Council, um that was all very well said. I just want to correct one very minor thing that Mr. Coffee said. I think he indicated if property owners want to appeal, um they need to submit a written objection prior to the end of tonight's meeting. Um procedurally it has to be submitted before the end of the public hearing. Um which is a distinction that's worth pointing out cuz otherwise it's defective and then they wouldn't be able to um pursue the appeal with the district court. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Coffee. Does anybody have any questions? Councilmember West. >> Yeah, um Mr. Coffee, um I'm just wondering if you can go over again a little bit about how the assessment amount is um kind of how you get to that amount. >> Um so determination that assessment amount, so we review the uh city's assessment policy. It's based on a front footage basis per property. Um the assessment rate uh per foot is determined based on uh the assessable um items within the project. Um so the street, storm sewer, uh the city traditionally has not assessed for sidewalk improvements. Um so really the the uh the actual payment improvements that would benefit that property, uh we take that uh um and we take 30% of it and that is divided up by that front footage of um the uh overall project area and that would determine that per front foot. Uh then we levy that against the um each of those properties to come up with the um uh total amount that they are assessed. In this case they also assessed a portion of the storm sewer cost uh because it is a new system. Um that's serving the roadway in front of them. Uh typically for a uh like Banning Avenue is a mill and overlay. Um they've already paid that storm sewer assessment, so they they would not uh get levied again for storm sewer assessment. Um So, that's the general formula that we would um Uh there's a I won't say a complex, but for corner lots they're treated a little bit differently from a um short plus half the long not to exceed the long, so it's a formula that so they're um creating or getting the assessment for the longest plus half of the short. Um If they're on different years or different project areas, sometimes they're hitting in different years depending on um if one or both of the um segments of roadway in front of their homes are assessed or as part of the project. >> And so, just to clarify, so there's a portion that homeowners pay and a portion that the city pays. So, the homeowners are not paying all of it. >> That is correct. So, um the again, the assessments are roughly 30% of 30 or third of the 30 to a third 30% um of the overall project cost of that those items that are assessable. So, if you really do the math on this project, there's sidewalk and other things that aren't assessable. So, the assessments make up a roughly about 20% of the overall project cost. Um the rest of the 80% is through um city funding sources. >> Great. Thank you very much. >> Councilmember Edberg. >> Thank you, Mayor. Following on that, we haven't had a long, long history of assessing alleys. What's What's a How does our assessment policy work on alleys? Are they considered front feet or the equivalent of front feet in determining assessment or how do we deal with that? I can only remember a couple of alleys that we've done in the last multiple years, six, eight years. >> Uh Mayor, members of Council, I believe this is the last alley that we need to do. There might be one more, but uh, for the most part in uh, the area east of uh, highway 61, the alleys uh, have been completed. Um, I'm going to mess up the year, but kind of you know, 10 or so years ago we started doing the alley assessments. Um, the alleys are actually uh, very good question. Uh, the alleys are actually assessed. Um, we assess 90% of the cost of the alley cuz really what it's acting as is a driveway, kind of a private driveway for homeowners. Um, so that is So, from an appraisal standpoint back 10 years ago when we started uh, before my time here and they started the uh, doing the alley projects. Um, they're typically not through traffic. So, they only benefit those that access that property. So, um, the uh, 90/10 uh, was developed back in uh, when they first started to assess. So, 90% is um, per front foot to those uh, budding the alley and then 10% city. I Seeing that we go in there and we have utilities, things like that. So, we um, the city took some of that burden. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Councilmember Gerlach. Um, yes. Uh, I was just wondering. I've been kind of going by the project weekly and watching it as it progresses. Um, and you might not know this one off the top of your head, but I haven't heard from anyone there about any concerns, complaints about just how it's been going and I was wondering if if you have or heard because to me it seems like it's moving along and again I haven't heard from residents, but I was just curious. >> Um, mayor members of the council, good question. Um, so the project is moving along well. Um, uh, one thing I will note this year versus, you know, many of the years that uh, you may have seen projects going on in town, uh, the contractor started a little bit later in the year than they typically do. Um that's up to them. We give them a completion window that they need to complete it uh one after we award the project, they need to complete it by, you know, the end of I'm going to say the end of October. Um And depending on the contractor, what uh crew and forces they have, some contractors might take all summer, some contractors might take a a month to do it. Um in this case, they based on their project workload started uh more midsummer. Um not unheard of in the industry, but just we have not been used to it. Um so they started there uh just completing or today the uh utility crews moved offsite. They've generally finished all of the uh utility work, the storm sewer uh pipe replacement um um all those all that kind of work. Um the uh general contractor Northwest Asphalt is scheduled to be on site later this week to start the road grading and, you know, start getting ready for curb and gutter and the pavement and things like that. So from a schedule standpoint, they're uh right on track to finish when they need to. As far as uh complaints, things like that, or concerns, um our uh resident project inspector and surveyor is out on site all day every day. Um our intern was with us until last Friday. Um so again, um taking care of the day-to-day concerns, people could stop by, grab him, and and uh chat with him and whatnot, and uh having somebody out there really helps. Um they're not trying to find somebody. They They got to know Dan. They um see him on the project, stop him. Um so uh no major concerns. Um are there issues that uh come up on projects? Absolutely, but we are able to take care of them day by day. I work with people for access, things like that. So nothing that I've heard of that's out of the ordinary. >> Um I thought they waited uh for our 4th of July celebration. That's why I thought they weren't there. It was very nice of them cuz it it worked well. Um and when do you think it's going to be uh completed? Guess-timate? >> Um Mayor members of the council, uh we're sitting there. I'm going to guess mid-October and they should be substantially complete, meaning they have the curb down, the layers of asphalt down. They might be, you know, doing a few, uh you know, restoration items, uh you know, and some grading or sod or planting the final trees, things like that. But, for the most part, I would guess uh if they start the end of the week, they should be done by mid-October. So. >> Excellent. Excellent. Well, thank you. Does anybody else have any questions? Thanks for I know it's a really busy time with all this going on with you and I just appreciate you being here and doing all that. Thank you. Um I'm going to open this to a public hearing. Um I don't see anybody on my list, but if anybody in the audience wants to come up and speak to this. Going once. Going twice. And I will close the public hearing. Thank you. Oh, right. I'm sorry. I'm bringing it back to council. Um I would accept a motion to adopt the resolution adopting and improving the assessment roll for the 2026 pavement rehabilitation project. >> So moved. >> And >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, the resolution passes. Thank you. Thanks. All right, item 7A, a second reading of the ordinance amending chapter 406 of the municipal code regarding illicit discharge detection and elimination. Ms. Talent, welcome. >> Thank you, Mayor, members of council. At your August 12th city council meeting, a first reading and public hearing were conducted to amend code 406 by adding language regarding proper salt storage at commercial, institutional, and non-state permitted industrial facilities. And this language is on the screen right now, and that includes designate salt storage areas that must be covered or indoors, designated salt storage areas must be located on an impervious surface, and implementation of practices to reduce exposure when transferring material in designated salt storage areas. So, at the first reading, there were no changes of this language directed to staff. So, for this second reading, this same ordinance language is being presented and recommended for approval. So, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. >> Okay, thank you. Does anyone have any questions, comments? No? No questions? All right. Um is there a motion to adopt the ordinance amending the municipal code regarding illicit discharge detection and elimination? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? And the ordinance passes. Thank you, Ms. Talent. Thank you. All right, item eight, new business, we have nothing scheduled. Item nine, discussion, we have nothing scheduled. Item 10, communications from the city manager. >> Ms. Crawford. >> Thank you, Mayor. I think I have one slide here. So, um your next Mayor's next uh community and coffee is coming up this Saturday from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. at Ebba Park or in Ebba Park. So, I just wanted to remind the community about that and I don't know if you have anything to add, but I do not. Does anybody else have anything to add? No? No? All right. Thank you. All right. Uh we are now um going to go into a closed session uh pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.5 subdivision 3C3, which authorizes the council to develop or consider offers and counteroffers for purchase or sale of real prop- or personal property. The address of the real property under discussion is 1890 Whitaker Street. Therefore, I request a motion to go into closed session pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.05 subdivision 3C3 to discuss the above-described matters. >> So, moved. >> Anyone have a second? >> Anyone have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed?