Lake Elmo City Council — Transcript
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Story
Lake Elmo plans 2026 priorities: property management and business outreach
City-Owned Property Management
Business Engagement and Support
Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panel (ULI TAP)
GIS and Mapping System Implementation
Landfill Redevelopment
Votes (2)
2026 Work Plan Discussion
The Community Development Director presented the initial draft of the 2026 work plan, emphasizing continuity with 2025 goals while updating project descriptions and action items. Key areas included marketing city-owned properties, developing a comprehensive disposition plan using GIS, and enhancing business outreach through surveys and workshops. Commissioners discussed the roles of EDA, City Council, and Planning Commission in property decisions, the potential for city property acquisition, and strategies for improving business engagement. A proposal to include landfill redevelopment as a work plan item was also made.
Communications Updates (ULI TAP, GIS Map, Upcoming Meeting)
Updates were provided on the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) for the 180 acres site, including its funding, panel composition, and the upcoming stakeholder meeting. A significant update was the launch and demonstration of the new public-facing GIS and maps data page, featuring a public parcel viewer and parks and trails map, which integrates city and county data in real-time. An upcoming meeting on December 2nd, 2025, to review work plan updates was also noted.
Notable Quotes (9)
This will be our uh first draft of the 2026 work plan. You'll see it's somewhat similar to the 2025 work plan. At the next meeting, we'll go through the the 2025 work plan and give an update on all the action items that we've completed.
With the disposition plan, how from a staff perspective, how do you see that in terms of the EDA's role versus council versus potentially planning commission as well? Because I assume that there's the economic lens, there's the planning standpoint, there's obviously the 2050 coming out soon as well. How do you see those interplaying and who would maybe take the first chop at the bit?
I think we would, you know, start to do the work internally through GIS and come back to the EDA first and then also involve the planning commission. Ultimately, the decision will be made by the council. But I think everybody would definitely be involved because some of the land like you said may not have a high economic purpose.
We did a we did a survey a business retention and expansion survey about three years ago and uh I have to say we asked businesses to give a half hour of someone's time to talk to us >> and a number of us went out and >> interviewed people but I have to say there were very few respondents were willing to talk to us. Everybody's too busy.
I I like to add one thing. Uh I'm I'm still interested in doing something with the closed landfill and we are going to have a discussion at council about that possibility and I cannot predict what the outcome will be but I'd like to have an at least a spot open on this and it's it could be part of the discussion of review city owned property or it could be part of brownfield grants or something like that. But it's it's just to keep that in mind that uh it would really be wonderful to get some value out of that.
Just to remember, 50% of this was paid by paid for by the Washington County CDA for this process. And then the tap itself is scheduled from October 22nd through the 24th.
So working with Bolton and Mink, we worked with their staff to create a GIS and maps and data page. And on this page, we just had the printable paper maps. But now we have at least two public parks and trails map, parks and trail map, and then a >> public parcel viewer.
This is all connected with the county's GIS. So, when the county updates this map, it automatically updates ours. This is utility data from the city side. So, it shows sanitary sewer pipe, storm pipe, and water pipe. It's real basic, but it's great to when we work with uh developers that they're able to see where the closest um utilities are.
That is fantastic. So when because obviously there's property sales all the time and it updates on the county level whenever they get the ECRB for it. Does that mean this is then doing like a is it literally live or is it doing like a nightly jobs batch or is it >> uh it refreshes. So when they're refreshed ours would just refresh.
Ordinances & Resolutions (24)
First draft of the upcoming work plan for discussion and refinement.
Previous year's work plan, used as a reference for the 2026 plan; updates on its action items are forthcoming.
A plan to evaluate and manage all city-owned properties for retention or disposition.
A program assisting with the disposition and marketing of the 180 acres site, partly funded by Washington County CDA.
Expected agreement for the former fire station parks building.
System used for internal property evaluation and the foundation for new public mapping tools.
A handbook for the Economic Development Authority that requires updates to keep it current.
Agreement with Washington County CDA related to the home improvement loan program.
A program through Washington County CDA that Lake Elmo residents can utilize, funded by the city.
A survey conducted approximately three years prior to gather input from local businesses, proposed for re-evaluation.
Process used for the former fire station parks building, and older RFP documents were part of the ULI TAP briefing book.
Collection of documents, including past RFP details, provided to the ULI TAP panel members.
Current PDF map that is being replaced by a GIS story map.
New digital map being created to update the community development map.
A new public-facing GIS application showing city parks and trails.
A new public-facing GIS application providing detailed parcel information similar to the county viewer, but with local city data.
A layer within the new public parcel viewer indicating shoreline buffer zones.
A layer within the new public parcel viewer showing the Municipal Urban Service Area boundary and development phasing.
A layer within the new public parcel viewer displaying current zoning information.
A layer within the new public parcel viewer showing projected land uses.
Feature within the public parcel viewer listing subdivisions and land divisions.
Referenced as containing the list of panelists for the ULI TAP.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, consulted for environmental cleanup grants.
Consultant firm that worked with city staff to create the new GIS and maps data page.