1 and we are calling to order the city council meeting of Tuesday, April 15, 2025. And we all stand for the pledge of allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next item is the approval of the agenda. Entertain a motion or if anyone feels the need to change. Move to approve the agenda. Second. Seeing no discussion, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. Motion passes. Item C, approval of minutes. So, we have minutes from April 1st and April 8th. Does anyone have any changes they would like to see made to the minutes? If not, I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve the minutes from April 1st, uh, 2025 and April 8, 2025. support. I will call the question. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Motion passes. Do we have any public comments or inquiries? Miss Johnson? Any presentations. Would you like to make a presentation? Not at this time. F is consent agenda. Number two, approve payments and dispersements. Three, approve Lake Elmo National Night Out Special Event Permit. Four, approve approve cell tower lease amendment between VB Acquisitions and T-Mobile West LLC. Five, authorize engineering services for water tower number one demolition. Six, approve temporary easement agreement for the Village Parkway UPRR crossing improvements. The consent agenda is there. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Motion passes. Regular agenda milestones at Eagle Point CUP. Okay. Can you guys hear me? All right. Yes, ma'am. Great. Um, so tonight we'll be discussing a CUP application for MEP Lino Lakes LLC. Some background. Uh, this is located at 8565 Eagle Point Circle. The zoning district is business park with the PUD overlay. Uh, comp guidance is also business park. This is the formerly the Rasmmanson University. Um once again they are requesting a daycare center um to establish a daycare care center through the conditional use permit process. Um daycare centers are permitted conditionally in this district. So on this map you'll see the surrounded the surrounding zoning areas. Um to the north, east, and west is business park and to the south is the interstate 94. So no zoning district there. So in this photo you will see um the site as it is now the for or the former Rasmmanson University. Um below you'll see the elevations. Uh the applicant is not proposing to make any changes to the building footprint. Um the alterations to the interior of the space uh or they will be making alterations to the interior of the space with minimal alterations to the outside. Um you'll see that they are proposing a sign and the sign permit will go through a separate permitting process. So while they are not proposing changing the footprint of the building, they are proposing uh removing hard cover on the north and south of the building and replacing that with pvious surface. And that is to add uh playgrounds to the north and the south. And this slide kind of lays out some of the standards that have been met. Um obviously building height and setbacks as the building is not changing. Uh impervious surface they are reducing impervious surface so that is met. And parking they are proposing 109 stalls which is over 40 stalls um more than is required by the daycare use. So those extra stalls are anticipated to mitigate any queuing that might be present on site. Um also I just want to note that this is off of Hudson F. So it's a collector street. So, as you know, CUPs are required to meet certain criteria uh around the general welfare of the public. Um, I'll quickly try to run through those with you. So, the proposed use should not be detrimental or endanger the public health, safety, or welfare. It should be consistent with the 2040 comp plan, compatible with existing neighborhoods, meet development standards and shoreline management standards, should be compatible in in appearance with the existing character of the area, should not be hazardous, should not create a nuisance. Um, the proposed use will be served by essential public facilities and services. It will not add additional public costs. The proposed use should not produce noise, smoke, fumes, glare, odor, um, or excessive traffic. Should not, uh, cause significant traffic congestion and will not cause an impact to the scenic features of the site. So, this went out for agency review. Um, fire department provided their standard comments regarding drive lanes. um parking, fire suppression, uh lock boxes and fire alarms. Um landscape architect also provided a memo that request requested uh plan revisions uh to the landscaping plan. They also provided some comments on tree preservation requirements and a condition of approval has been added regarding this memo. Uh the additional agencies uh did not provide any additional comments. So the recommended conditions are fairly standard. The first is that the applicant must receive all other necessary city, state, and other governing body permits and approvals before the commencement of any construction activity on site. Um the second is that if substantial construction has not taken place within 12 months, the city's uh within 12 months of the city's approval, the permit shouldn't become void. Um three, any addition any expansion or modification to the parking should require uh a conditional use amendment. And this doesn't apply to typical maintenance. And finally, the applicant must address the comments in the landscape architect memo uh before the issuance of a building permit. And they have already started to work towards that. So, this went out for public hearing uh to surrounding properties on March 10th, and it was published in the newspaper on March 14th. Uh we received uh no comments. The planning commission reviewed this request at their March 24th meeting and they recommended approval of the cup um with the conditions outlined by staff and that passed 40. So with that I can stand for any questions and the applicant has uh a representative here on their behalf uh that could also stand for questions if you have them and I will leave you with this motion. Thanks. Thank you. Any questions for Miss Mataruso? So to make sure I read that correctly, the only thing for the landscape plan is adding three trees. Yeah. And I actually think those are they are adding those willingly at this point. I don't think they actually were um a condition on her second her updated me memo. All right. Yeah. I'm just not used to seeing a cup with It's pretty smooth one a landscape memo that's just Yeah. There are no discussions for staff. Does anyone have questions for the applicant? That's an absolute no. I will entertain a motion. Move to approve resolution 2025-036 approving the request from MEP Line of Lakes LLC for a conditional use permit to establish a daycare facility at 8565 Eagle Point Circle based on the findings of fact and conditions in the stack report. Support and discussion. Thank you for a very excellent presentation. Thank you. Um and then yeah, just I guess uh this kind of nice seeing um this conditional use permit go through so smoothly and just um even the you know to the architectural side of it. just making sure that kind of the standards that are um that you've seen at other locations that we've approved have uh kind of consistently stayed with this one and um making it an easy process and um kind of sticking within the the the um within the parameters of what we're trying to use with the conditional permit conditional use permit. I would agree with that and I appreciate the fact that we have a business that's willing to come to Lake Elmo and provide a service that is extremely needed. We are obviously because you're coming here and investing in the building to begin with, but it's needed. constituents commonly will bring up daycare. And so, thank you for bringing this opportunity to the community, for attaining this building, and really finding a a use that's similar to what it was. Instead of providing an educational space for uh young adults, it's an educational learning space for our youth. So, thank you for that. It's very necessary. I would echo those comments. I think it's a really great addition to the community, one that's badly needed. Seeing no further comments, all those in favor of the motion to approve resolution 2025-036, please signify by saying I. I. No opposed. Motion passes. Next on and thank you. Next on the agenda is quarterly goals. Yeah. Um thank you. So it's my pleasure to present our first uh quarterly update on our goals. Um we are going to use this document as we continue over the next seven quarters to track our progress and our goals. So we'll continue to build build upon this. So where where it's appropriate, I try and list dates since we're going to be covering multi-year so we can um you know see what we've been doing. But um so it's it's a way that we can uh inform the council of progress, but also a tool that I think is important for us to um take a moment and to celebrate our successes that our staff have worked so hard on too. So um just um wanted to go over it quickly. Um, going forward, I'll probably just um we'll include as much as we can, but it might not be um necessary to go through every every single step, but maybe highlight some of the bigger ones. But um so we'll start with our our first one with develop the master plans, including community engagement for recently purchased 77 acres. So this is, you know, outlining the council's action so far um this quarter. So, we're already we're already moving on this, you know, um the property is closed and so now we're going to be looking towards the next step as we just um the EDA just heard the presentation on ULI. Um and for the old fire station, you know, we're we have the EAW going and then the RFP will be going out soon to do that. They also held the open house um for developers to come in uh last month already. And I will point out um just to remind you because I had to look back too um the the text in in the darker color. Those were the high priority goals which were identified by three members of the council as top priority. And then the grade out ones, they we call them opportunity, which was still at least two members of the council. So, we put them both on here because some things um are moving along on both. Um and so we have um our fantastic city clerk is working with Washington County to look at uh identifying a third polling precinct and also to look at alternatives to using um the old city hall building and you can stop me anytime and ask questions if you want. Question on the polling one. Yeah. Um what's the thought process in terms of where to look for because obviously both of them right now are in the heart of the city. Uh is it right now just see what's out there and then start to decide what works best kind of um Rock Point Church has um we've engaged with them as uh to see if they want to be a polling place. So, we look at north, then here would be central, and then um she's working on more of like the southern area to identify a place. And there um you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think polling locations can be located within a mile of the actual border, too. So, perhaps we could look at somewhere that's not actually in Lake Elmo's borders, too, for that one. So, do do you have anything else to add on progress with that? Um, we are getting some help from Washington County. They're a little bit more familiar with what's available and what works well with polling places. Um, we did have a little bit of conversation about maybe the community center at Simmeron. Not sure if that's a viable option and a couple of locations that are technically in Oakdale, but as Nicole mentioned, they are within one mile of the border of the precinct. So, that may be an option. We we look to find a place that's accessible so that folks can, you know, enter and exit the polling place easily and safely, has enough parking, and will be able to be used for as long as possible because it's it's difficult when we're moving polling locations around. So, there's really a lot to consider. Um, school district buildings um are not something that would work out at all. So, we did investigate that. And then we also have to be mindful it can't be any location that um has is serving alcohol or serves alcohol. So there's a lot to think about. They can't serve alcohol during the time when the the voting is going on. Yes. But after Yeah. Thank you. Welcome. All right. And then um just recapping um that city council did approve the software um purchase for the new financial management system. So um Clarice and her team are are working with the vendor and going to be um working to implement that hopefully in quarter one of next year already. um staff is have has been having conversations about um researching street light obligations and the financial impact and so we're hoping to bring that back in a future workshop in July um along with our CIP discussion. So we'll add that on there after we accomplish that Lisa discussion and just a couple um you know we've we've already moved so far um in my viewpoint with communications, but just to highlight we we couldn't list everything, you know, so just to highlight a couple of them is that Kathy did um create a brand guide for staff to use and so we have that now. Um and then um community development staff along with Kathy were able to create some new PowerPoint templates for us to use. And then we did sign off on the website, the look, the design part of it and um should be implementing that in the next few weeks actually as well as getting um staff trained on how to use it. So on the brand guide, yeah, and also well PowerPoint PowerPoint templates. Does that mean that now anytime someone opens up PowerPoint, it's already defaulting to the design that was created? Here's the Lake Elmo PowerPoint. Unless you want it to be blank because it's for something else. You just saw one with a new template. Oh yeah, that's why it looks so good. Yeah. So Seth will be utilizing that. I think fire might have a different look. Just, you know, fire, you know, red. They like to be slightly different but still with Lake Elmo logos on it. And um just thought that this tied in with the examine and meet staffing appropriate for desired service levels. So just um you know council approved the public works operational assessment. And so that uh final report will be coming back to council in May too. So, we'll record that once that once that occurs. Is that gonna be coming back to a work session then? [Music] I can't remember. Sorry. No, I think it's a regular meeting. Yeah. Yep. And then on the the last page, um super proud of this. Um, internally staff were able to work on creating this Lake Elmo green team and I'd have to say it's led by community development department and I know Ashley and I'm sure Sophia has been in on this too but as well as staff um from many different departments are participating in this and um I'll just tell you their goals are to communicate and report on past, future and ongoing projects related to sustainability, collaborate and coordinate across departments and projects related to sustainability and collaboration and partnership. And so, um, this, uh, primarily was put together for the gold leaf, um, reporting, but I just think it's pretty neat that, um, you know, staff that is here was willing to put in extra time, something that, um, maybe isn't part of their their everyday duties. So we have public works and we have finance and admin all participating this together. So I think that's pretty neat. That's also where we're going to kind of work on our our water conservation efforts through that through the staff that's working on that. Um Clark gave you a great water presentation last week as an update. So I wanted to record that in here. And then another crossd departmental um project that was recently implemented is the new um census the water metering program and just in hearing from public works and finance it's working really well and there's some future opportunities um to capitalize on having this new program in place maybe with detecting leaks and so forth. So that's pretty cool with that annual water report because I know Clark had mentioned that it's being finalized. When do we anticipate those numbers being published? Oh, and I might be thinking of two different ones. One's the water quality the this was um where he touched on um the pumping that public works received the annual water reporting. That's what that was. When do we anticipate that being published? Are you talking about the consumer confidence report? The No, just total gallons used. I I don't know that it's is it normally published? I mean, Marty provided the gallons pumped for the year to Clark to include in this presentation because he he Clark had made a comment saying it's not final final, but and I I wouldn't classify it as published per se. It's not here's our new report, but yeah, like we get the final numbers like, yep, here's the numbers like in a Friday update. Yes. Okay, I'll find that out. That would be wonderful. All right. I've already had a couple constituents who watched the meeting, credit to them, okay, who asked to be like, "So, are those the final numbers?" Because that was really a drastic decrease. Like, well, it's not going to change that much. It might be off a couple gallons, but yeah, those are probably the numbers. Okay, I can get that for you. All right. And then, um, the final big thing that's going on is, uh, staff met with the land owners for, um, acquisition for the new water treatment plant. And so, those negotiations are continuing. Do we anticipate we're going to need to have a close session with that or is the acquisition we we'll need a close session, right? because it is a negotiation. It's not being purchased by the trustees. It's being purchased by the city. So, we should probably I was going to ask a couple additional questions, but I'm thinking I probably shouldn't in open session. I don't remember where we left off in these conversations if we feel the need to come back and do a close session or if we will bring it to a workshop or straight to council for approval because chances are the negotiations will already been taking place and it's a fair price being paid for by the trustees and not us. How much Sarah how much can we talk about it I guess? Uh Mr. acting mayor, members of the council, um it's up to the council if it wants to go into close session to discuss the um purchase price of property and negotiation strategies. Um so it's something the council will need to vote on. Um you don't have to go into close session. It's not like other types of open mean law where you have to go into close session. So it's up to the council if it wants to go into close session. And I do know that I'm working on some agreements that will need to be approved by the council in open session, but it's a matter of do you want to talk about those ahead of time before we in close session before we go into open session and have you approve them? I mean, the only reason I it doesn't seem to me like we would need to unless you think that from, you know, from the um requesting the funds from the trustees that you're concerned about not being able to get them to approve it at a certain dollar amount. I mean, I I think that's obviously we're still going to try and talk about it and yeah, the best price here. Yeah. I mean, I I guess I don't know of an instance where with College Grover Woodbury where they were unable to get the funds from the trustees based upon the negotiated price, but I I think that's a fair hypothesis. I person I guess thank you for that. I'm glad to hear that, Miss Sansella, that progress is occurring. I guess based upon that, I would personally not feel the need to go into close session, but I I think that that is in the back of my mind. Yes. But with College Groven and Woodbury, they certainly got what they requested. So, one thing I'd like to add, they're on the schedule for the workshop on May 13th. Was just the acquisition itself or the plant itself? The plant and the um the owners of the the site. Oh, because it's going to require a comp complaint amendment to add it into the Busa. So, they want to is it going to be a comp plan amendment just for the plant? It's going to be for the plant and they're going to request um a potential comp plan amendment to add the Musa for some of their land. So, we told them that they should bring it to a workshop and see what the council has to say with that. Sounds good. All right. Sorry, Miss Miller. Continue. That That was the last one. So, any other questions? And and there's no action that needs to be taken on this, just an update with uh now that we are the proud owners of two properties that we have closed on, what are we thinking timing wise for how we discuss next steps. Obviously, high level we, you know, next steps, conceive some hypothetical engineering plans, do this, do that. But in terms of timing, how do we foresee? Are we talking asking Nate to get out his pen and paper and create some wonderful plans in the next couple weeks? Like what does that look like? Sure. So me and um community development director Stoppa have had um a few conversations about this. Um and so I guess I would since he's here, we'll defer to him about um what's next on his list. Yes. So we spoke to um other cities who've done similar projects. So the next step is to talk to more cities just to to hear from them and then in the next couple weeks I will try to put together a schedule and look at you know creating a planning process and what that looks like provide that schedule to the council and then if there are steps that you'd want to add we go from there. Sounds good. Is this for the property we bought for the recreation expansion? because when we talked about that we we discussed a community involvement process a community survey at at the end and I know I've been had some contact from folks already about what are you planning to do there and we have some thoughts and I've assured them there will be a process for for input but that we needed to have broad community support and feel confident that that was what the majority of people want us to do with the property. Yeah, absolutely. we would have a we've talked a lot about a community engagement um portion and just kind of talking about when's the right time and what are the actual questions and that type of stuff. But absolutely. So Mr. Stanley does not need to create a drawing by tomorrow for what it would potentially look like. Well, I think if we had some No, I I think if we had some ideas in as a, you know, staff and council about what might be possible, putting together some some very preliminary sketches about what might fit on that would help our discussions with with the community because, you know, some people say, well, pin pin pin wheel baseball fields or soccer fields or, you know, the land is is a big parcel. So it can only contain so much. And so I think if we had some preliminary thoughts about what could fit on there a very broad context um and we have our discussions and someone says well we need to put you know three hockey rinks and and four soccer fields and two baseball fields say well we won't all fit. We have some sense of what might actually work there and then we can have a productive conversation. Yes. Yes. We will be working with Bolton and Mink on um the planning process and then I agree that there should be some sort of rendering. We were just discussions are um the timing of it and kind of what the questions are. Is it um doing obviously more investigations into the actual um needs of some existing athletic associations? And then um we did talk to one city and and you know interesting do you want the question to just be what would you like there or should it also be what are you willing to pay for something to go there too because that is a component is cost. So, but we will have all that community engagement at some point when we're ready. Well, yeah, thank you for putting this together. I really appreciate this. It's um it's nice to, you know, even again, I've already for kind of for forgotten some of these goals, right? And even though I know we talk about them every two weeks, and I really like how we're including those on top of each um each report. Uh this is I'm I'm really excited that that you did this and that we'll continue to do this because it really does help one make sure that we're staying on track and not um creeping away from those goals. And then two to kind of like what you were alluding to, it really does show a lot of what the the staff is doing and it's a good uh opportunity to to show that and um for us for everybody to, you know, to to see how much work they're all putting in as well and and great work that they're doing. So yeah, thank you for for putting this together and thank you for all the the work staff and I would echo that especially using this this format like this is something that when it's for those who are watching and then when we're able to communicate when we're talking with constituents here's how it's lining up. The format matters. I'm a visual person. I I need to be able to see this how that these pieces fit in. This is awesome. It's very easy to understand for someone like me and if I can understand it then everyone else can. So, I I appreciate that work and I would agree with Council Member Hearn. The work itself is also great to see that's happening. Any other comments on this? There's no action item per se, but going once, going twice, and sold. Okay, that brings us to council reports. No report. I do not have one. No report. No report. Miss Miller. Um, last week myself and fire chief Kalis had the opportunity to attend a three-day um um community preparedness class with that was put on through Washington County. And so there's about a hundred attendees there from different communities. And we're able to work through a tabletop scenario. And um we had a lot of great presenters as well. And so I think that in the future we'll probably talk about um our own preparedness plan here and then also maybe potentially someday um doing a little tabletop exercise to to practice a little bit. So So was it natural disaster, electronic disaster? Um I mean top secret. Yeah, it was it was um I don't want to really talk about it too much. It was it was a a tragic situation that could occur in any community. So, it was criminal nature and you know, it wasn't a weather event. This one wasn't, but for ours, maybe we maybe we want to do do something different. So, so but um it was good to attend that. And you know, the the presenters were were fabulous. Um we had the mayor of Waca come and talk about his community um tragedy um during the parade where someone used a vehicle to run over and and unfortunately killed six members of their community. So we also had um a coroner from a retired coroner from Las Vegas that was able to talk about his um tragedy with their shooting there too. So just was, you know, hopefully nothing like that ever happens. Nobody wants that, but it was it was good to attend that. So, and then on a different note, we we get to celebrate our staff next Thursday at the uh employee recognition event on Thursday morning. So, I know I've been sending emails to council. Will the mayor be attending? I have not heard, but you are. So, if anyone else wants to attend, I got a 30 spe 30 minute speech ready. Perfect. We have about 5 to 10 minutes, but there'll be breakfast there, too. So, that's it. Sounds good. It'll be shortened up. Okay, Miss Johnson. Report. Thank you. No report. What? Nothing? No. None for me. No report. I would just note that the quarter one financials are in the packet. I'm happy to answer any questions that council or others have. Any questions for Miss Hadler? I looked through them. I didn't find anything particularly exciting. Um I think was the water fund or sewer fund. We made the bond payment that kind of made the expenses look somewhat disproportionate. Everything always looks a little wonky in quarter one. Yeah. I just that was the only one that jumped off at me and I said, "Okay, we must have either had a capital or debt service expenditure and I went further down the report and it was debt service." So, I didn't see any any flags that came up. Um, did you anything that you're concerned about? No. Thank you, Mr. Stanley. No reports. Uh, Mr. Acting mayor, members of the council, I just want to remind you the court of appeals hearing is tomorrow on the ALJ decision. That's at 11:15. You can go down there and watch it live or you can watch it online. Highly encourage everyone to watch that at a minimum online. I I'm that's be my lunch hour. How will between the two here the the two sides? It's an hour, right? Is it an hour that's allotted total? I'm looking because there's also the Q&A back and forth. Yeah, there's Looks like it's 30 minutes on each side and that that 30 is including the the Q&A from the judges. Yes. Yes. So Jim Thompson will speak for 11 minutes. The other attorney will speak for 11 minutes and then another attorney will speak for three minutes and then they're reserving five minutes for Q&A. Gotcha. Where's the link for that? Was it It should be on the court of appeals website for the live stream. Okay. Yeah. m em mnorts.govcourt of appeals at 11:15. 11:15 and Clark will be there. We're in trouble. He's not allowed to speak. Not a practicing lawyer. Oh yeah. With that, I will adjourn the meeting at 7:37. Thank you all.