Shakopee City Council — Transcript
Friday, June 13, 2025
Story
Shakopee Council approves $100K study for amphitheater area development
Canterbury Park Southern 28 Acres Feasibility Study
Lease Amendment for River City Center
Monetary Donation for Aquatic Programming
AED Safe Station Donation for Joe Schleper Stadium
Proposed Fence Ordinance Amendments
Final Plat of Richland Court
2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and Audit
Hotel Ordinance Review
Votes (8)
Partnership with Canterbury for Southern 28 Acres Feasibility Study
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Lara [0:18:27] · Seconded by Council member Delaney [0:19:15]
Mr. Kursky presented the proposed partnership to conduct a market feasibility and design study for 28 acres adjacent to the amphitheater. The study, led by Hunden Partners with architectural concepts by RSP Architects, aims to identify unique attractions to establish the area as a major regional destination. The cost, not to exceed $100,000 from EDA TIFF administrative funds, seeks to expedite development and bond repayment. The discussion included clarifying the scope, the inclusion of traffic analysis (previously part of an EAW), and the fact that a branding firm's cost is part of the overall not-to-exceed budget.
Lease Amendment for River City Center Concrete Mobility
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Contreras [0:20:47] · Seconded by Council member Delaney [0:21:28]
Mr. Kursky presented the final lease renewal for Concrete Mobility at River City Center. He noted Concrete Mobility has been a good tenant, consistently paying six months in advance. The renewal is for one year, after which the tenant will vacate, allowing staff to prepare the space for future use.
Monetary Donation for Aquatic Programming
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Delaney [0:25:29] · Seconded by Council member Lara [0:25:54]
Sue Westard presented a $1,500 donation for the Women's Water Safety Program, marking her eighth year of support. She shared a personal story illustrating the impact of the program and expressed gratitude to city and community education staff, volunteers, and participants for their collective efforts in teaching life-saving swimming skills. Council members praised her generosity and dedication.
Donation of AED Safe Station at Joe Schleper Stadium
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Contreras [0:32:51] · Seconded by Council member Whiting [0:33:04]
Jenny Hastings, an AED coordinator for Shakopee public schools, presented the donation of an outdoor AED safe station from Advanced First Aid for Joe Schleper Stadium. She detailed its features, including security measures like video recording and an alarm, and confirmed it would house an existing AED funded by the baseball community. Hastings also requested consideration for an additional safe station at a different field. Council members clarified the automatic nature of AED operation and the training aspects.
Ordinance Amending Fence Construction and Placement Regulations
Dissent: None (unanimous agreement to send back for revisions, not on the ordinance content itself)
Moved by No motion made · Seconded by No second made
Mr. Kursky presented proposed amendments to the city's fence ordinance, aiming to clarify construction rules, materials, and placement. Key issues debated by the council included the requirement for neighbor permission when building directly on a property line, the definition and permit requirements for fence repairs versus replacements (especially concerning the '20% rule'), the language around soil disturbance permits, and the duration of the appeal period. Due to these concerns and requests for clarification, the council decided to send the proposed ordinance back to staff for further revisions.
Final Plat of Richland Court
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Contreras [0:47:49] · Seconded by Council member Delaney [0:48:01]
Mr. Kursky presented the final plat for Richland Court, an eight-lot single-family development. He noted that a significant change from the preliminary plat involved revised requirements from the county for County Road 79, now only mandating a right-turn lane instead of more extensive road modifications. The plat was found compliant with R1B zoning and the 2040 comprehensive plan, with existing sanitary and water lines.
2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and Audit
Dissent: None
Moved by No motion recorded · Seconded by No second recorded
Bonnie Schwagger from Abdo presented the 2024 annual audit, confirming an unmodified/clean opinion on the city's financial statements and compliance with state statutes, with no findings or deficiencies. The report highlighted the general fund's healthy reserves (51%), strong revenue performance (especially in interest and permit revenue), and effective internal controls. Comparative analysis with other cities (Class 2 and Scott County) revealed Shakopee's higher per capita taxes and debt, which was clarified by staff as a reflection of the city's diverse tax base including industrial, commercial, TIFF, lodging, and franchise taxes, rather than solely residential levy increases. Council members commended staff for maintaining financial stability amid economic uncertainties.
Review of Hotel Ordinance Wording
Dissent: None
Moved by No motion made · Seconded by No second made
Council member Delaney raised concerns about the recently enacted hotel ordinance, citing potential adverse impacts on vulnerable groups such as homeless veterans, domestic abuse victims, and homeless students due to strict residency and identification requirements. He advocated for a balance between the ordinance's intent to curb crime and irresponsible hotel use, and the need for compassion for residents. Mayor Layman defended the ordinance's necessity in addressing significant crime and problematic hotels. The council agreed to schedule a future discussion or workshop to review the wording and explore solutions without undermining the ordinance's core purpose.
Notable Quotes (19)
Completing a market study of what is the best attractions for the Shakabe market. How do we make this a major destination for the region beyond the assets we currently have?
The reason I ask is because that, you know, we talk about bringing back a branding firm at a later date and I was wondering if the branding firm if if that's included in a not to exceed or if it's a separate thing. Chair and board members, it's included in the not to exceed.
I would like to see the best use of that space and I think it could be uh done really well and I'm hoping can't wait to see what they come up with.
This is the last renewal for concrete mobility. They'll be vacating after this, but if you remember, they are a good tenant. They only have a couple people that work there. They pay us six months in advance.
The reward that my fellow friends who teach with me and I get out of this class is probably more than our students get out of it. They become comfortable, but we feel like we're actually building women up and giving them a skill that's a life skill.
You may you may get the benefits now, but teaching people to swim if they ever need it could save their life. So noble noble of you. Thank you very much.
This AED save station is a gift from Advanced First Aid. Advanced First Aid is the company uh that I have worked through to put all the AEDs into our school district. They have given us um generous donation or not donations but um discounts and um helped make it happen.
My ask for the future is to consider a safe station for the first pavilion by field. I think it's still fields one and two and uh an a system that would come to a cost of $8,000.
It's fully automatic, which means uh you need to open it up and it'll talk to you. It'll say power on. Then you listen for the next. It'll say put the patches on.
This has been literally years in the making. City staff is requesting this current section be repealed and replaced to accommodate multiple changes to the ordinance, including clarifying the application requirements, including written notorized permission from adjacent property owners if a fence is proposed to be constructed on the property line or physically connecting.
If the permitting process if they're not encroaching and they're on the property line, I don't I don't I don't think that you need the you should need the property neighbor's permission. Otherwise, the neighbor's denying you the use of your cartilage and that's that's not allowed in if you had to connect it on his property or their their property. Well, there you need their permission.
My suggestion would be is we could remove in number two the word repair because I think replace you still need a permit because we need to know what you're replacing it with.
The big change after the preliminary plat and there were some council members that asked about um the requirements of the county. The county uh heard you and the applicant and now they're only requiring uh the only access change is a right turn lane on County Road 79.
This provides an unmodified or a clean opinion over the financial statements. And what that means is that we were able to obtain all of our audit evidence. We didn't run into any significant issues during the audit. We also review the internal controls of the city and make sure that the processes and the financial cycles are properly separated uh between the different review and approval processes and we didn't note any issues during that review. So all in all really good year for compliance and controls and the financial information that was prepared for the audit.
Your revenues did come in over budget primarily within interest earnings, investment earnings had a really good year and then also permit revenue. Again, continue to have a really strong year over what you had budgeted. The budget for those items are usually very conservative as they should be.
Because you guys collect a lot of different types of taxes from not just residents, but also those other types of entities. Your taxes per capita, you have a higher amount of taxes. It's um it's a little bit higher than what other cities might have of a similar size.
I would just point out that, you know, we we got through the co thing. right now we're in uh somebody tell us what uh the uncertainty is going to bring us from the federal state you name it. Um and considering all them things for staff to be able to be so even kill through all this uh says a lot to staff.
What I'm asking for is that we look at the residents we're impacting and try to find the wording to again have teeth for the ordinance but also have compassion for the residents.
we can we can change this ordinance to basically be back to what it was and we will not be dealing with the real problems we have within some of our hotels including over 256 visits uh uh and and we have some hotels that just aren't good community partners. And we also have organizations that stuff bad people into hotels. Uh and we have people that abuse the system that you know they were getting assistance and they are running a prostitution ring out of one of the hotels.
Ordinances & Resolutions (17)
Resolution related to the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report and audit (inadvertently left off agenda item 10E, implicitly approved with the agenda).
Accepting monetary donation of $1500 from Sue Westard for Women's Water Safety Program.
Approving the final plat for Richland Court.
Proposed text amendment for fence construction and placement regulations.
License agreement with SMSC approved.
Proposal from WSB for construction services accepted.
City Council minutes approved.
Approved tobacco license.
Resolution of support for downtown quiet zone adopted.
Construction cooperative agreement with MNDOT authorized.
Authorization for submittal of a letter of support for University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies grant.
Bids accepted and contract awarded for materials procurements.
Extended construction hours approved.
Application and award approved.
Declaration of surplus property approved.
Economic Development Authority bill list, no questions raised.
Traffic analysis for amphitheater area was part of this document.