e e e e e e e e e e e the Eda meeting for the City of Lake ELO November 19th to order um I don't have my agenda pulled up so you'll have to excuse me you like a see my copy yeah thank you you're welcome um so the first thing the agenda is approval of the August 20th 2024 minutes so move is there a second second he we have a motion in a second to oh there's my mail uh approve the minutes from the August 20th 2024 minutes all those in favor please signify by saying I I all right um first thing on the agenda is to discuss the RFP for the old fire station and Public Works building uh review of the draft RFP for discussion and director stoo will walk us through that okay so we have today is a draft of the RFP um look to approve it and amend it and then move it on to the city council so just so we're aware of the property these are all the tax Parcels um it's about 1.2 Acres but it's really about 08 that's buildable uh we will be looking for RightWay dedication and the proposer to tell how they would want to potentially combine all the Lots or have separate Lots so the background on this is as we know uh the village Old Village uh visioning study asked residents what they thought would be best at this location and what they said were eating and drinking establishments uh familyfriendly spaces some housing maybe mixed use Community Center Green spaces recreational spaces and Retail really just a place that's activated where residents can go and meet was what I was hearing uh survey results indicated that residents did not want a big box development or something on a large out of scale and that they wanted to preserve the Charming character of the Old Village so we're talking about kind of going through the RFP and in the sections so one is the purchase price and then also discussion of environmental uh came up in the past so one thing that we want to do is we want to order an appraisal so we can get um the value of the property before issuing their RFP we discussed a minimum purchase price of $100,000 and then we're looking at if someone comes in with a purchase under the the appraisal price it's considered potentially a business subsidy and we're working with legal and Sarah how we would go about that if we were to provide a subsidy we can provide $150,000 you know above before is considered a subsidy uh also while the purchase price is not a primary factor the decision the city may consider the offer Mount When selecting a proposal so what we're saying and what you'll see later in the presentation is we're not going to assign a point value necessarily to the the purchase price but you know that could be considered when um looking at different proposals the phase one is something that we're recommending that we also do prior to releasing the RFP this will just tell us whether or not we would need a phase two in potential cleanup we do know as a fire station and I believe in the packet it was like a building assessment multiple buildings well this building was assessed and there was concern uh in that review of potential contamination you know what a phase one environmental assessment is no if you could just speak to that yeah so basically the phase one environmental is we would hire a firm and they would um look at the use of the building the history of the building it would not be soil samples and that sort of thing and then it would basically recommend based on previous use whether we should go in order of phase two and the phase two would then look at the contamination and then present us with cost to clean up the site and potentially you know how we should go about cleaning up the site so how's that different from the 2017 inspection that was I believe that was just noting that this was a fire station uh if you read it it said you know firefighters have a higher rate of cancer dealing you know with dis bestes and what you know whatever those risk factors are so there is concern that it is contaminated I think it's in the best interest of the city to get the phase one only because if we don't the buyer potential buyer will get one most likely with their financing and then we're kind of trying to renegotiate this because we don't really know um what we're dealing with at that point I mean we could hold off on a phase one and have them go through that process and maybe not sign a purchase agreement but I think we have enough time to kind of start that process I understand if we really need to remediate and get a cost factor on a remediation uh I think the estimates around three to 5,000 on a phase one yeah I think it's a prudent thing to do is that I think it's The Prudent thing to do okay yeah I would think so I read the excuse me I read the the assessment from 2017 not word for word but I looked through it uh didn't see anything about firefighting foam is there any knowledge that firefighting foam was stored or used there I would have to talk to Dustin I believe so but I'm not sure because there would there would be an issue with this pest uh uh situation if somebody had spilled a bunch of firefighting for that might be an a serious issue to to be concerned about cleaning up so I talked to him today to see if he has any other background or history on the site any type of environmental reports so what we're thinking about as a committee and basically it's all Eda members who want to be on the committee one planning commissioner and City staff a maximum of 10 Representatives uh they would score the proposals individually in at least three uh they would select at least three of the highest to be finalists and then the finalist will come to an Eda meeting and present to the committee and um it's an open meeting and the committee can ask questions of the proposals the people at submitting proposals and then the idea is we would take that as a committee and the committee would send their recommendation to councel after that staff would negotiate a purchase agreement so our timeline is a little aggressive um factoring the environmental assessment may push us back a little bit but the idea is that we would issue the proposals we would have a building open house so we would invite anyone who wants to see the fire station can walk through the fire station we'd also make the fire station available um to people that were interested we'd have a pre-application conference that would be myself walking through the what's required to submit and that's when um applicants can ask questions we do all this you know we track all the questions so we set a date when they're due and then we'll issue an an Dum answering every question so we'll list all the questions are asked all the answers these are typically something that could modify the proposal and then in April the proposals would be due and then after that it would just the the dates would fall in line with um reviewing the proposals making the three recommendations and then having them present to the Eda in the special meeting and going to council so the evaluation criteria is broken into Community benefits economic benefits and then um let me see what the last one is it's the developer qualifications so the idea here is what we heard is land use is very important it seems like that is the driver we want to make sure if we're going through this RFP process we uh have people that are promoting what we've heard residents want in the the survey so we have examples would include retail restaurants bakeries tap rooms brew pubs markets Etc um some mixed use developments if they're on the second floor um but building should not exceed two stories I think that goes back to the charm in creating a small site as opposed to like a large for story mixed juice building preservation and Design This would encourage the retention of the fire station and not demolition of the fire station I think that's important um from what I've heard through the um survey I think the Parks Building and Public Works building based on what we heard could be demolished so we want to hear from people what they plan to do with that building so Jason I I don't know if now's time to ask but I was really surprised to see that the the encouragement of the preservation of the fire station it's not it does you know it's not like it's classic architecture you know uh it just it strikes me that the using that building would might hinder development options rather than promote them or promote any benefit to the city which is where this is benefits to the city so where did that the preservation of the fire department building actually come from surveys is that where it came from I believe overall it's pre preservation of the district and just discussing it it seems like the fire station is something that people want to save this is something we can modify if other members don't think that's important um it does seem like a I've talked to people who are interested they like the building because it high ceilings it's open has large rollup doors it can be an Adaptive reuse fairly easily so it's a single story and and considering two-story development right you know it just plus the 2017 inspection seemed to uncover a variety of hazardous materials present on the site right I think that's why we're recommending the in the phase one to get an understanding of what is there and from reading that 20 th 2017 study it sounds like a lot of the issues are fairly minor and can be repaired um I think it's important to to understand how much contamination is on site I would assume though also if a demolition would occur that would be a demolition potential cleanup Ian you may have to haul out soils and replace soils and it's just going to it's going to be interesting to see what the environmental um comes back but I think that preservation of the fire station is something that in keeping with the charm in kind of neighborhood it's kind of like small business Corridor it seems to make sense as opposed to like a larger brand new mixed juice building in that area um I think you're going to see some of that in the eastern part that is undeveloped where it's high density you're going to see three four story buildings in that area and so I don't know if that's something you would want to see promote is demolition of the entire site and someone come in with a mixed juice building also mixed use buildings are are difficult to build so you could have a situation where somebody is coming in and just wants to build Apartments there um I don't know if that's also something that I see it as um you know it's encouraged um developers not going to lose points if they if they do propose to to demolish it so maybe something will spark and maybe it won't maybe they'll all do the same or I mean I don't I don't know that it's a bad thing if you keep it that way but it's not necessarily a bad thing if somebody comes in with a great idea either I personally don't have a problem with it so when it comes to the criteria because I I do a lot of Grant evils at work and we we'll have differences in how we score things right I mean 20 points is there's many options here will there be an additional rubric within the you know within these 20 points or is it can be pretty much then you know what I think it's a an 18.5 and other person thinks it's 10 but it's really because of one variable how how much alignment do we want our reviewers to have I think you're going to have on something like this it's an all or not basically do you want to preserve the fire station that's the way it's written so if you can figure out a way to preserve it you get the 20 points one thing to consider if it's not important then reducing that and then maybe adding it to land use if you want to reduce it from 20 to 10 and then add those points to the land use since land use seems to be the most important that would be something to consider I I I don't think that a redistribution of points would be a bad thing necessarily and and maybe um I like the community benefits being High um but yeah you could distribute that into maybe public space and streets Cape improvements and parking I don't know you know do 10 10 and or 10 and I don't know just I don't think that's a that can be malleable as far as I'm concerned but I'm only one on the Eda one other question uh is there possibility that some uh someone would want to bid on only one part like the fire station or the Public Works would that be allowed or is it just a partial just one thing I think we would allow that depending on the application so I think ideally You' want someone who would buy the entire site and if they have development Partners want to work through that process but if someone just says I want this one site and we don't have I think we consider the other ones first I'm don't think that would disqualify them okay thank you would we want that as part of the evaluation criteria that they get higher points if they're bidding for the entire okay and it could you know it might be five points it's in the grand scheme of things it yeah if that's the preference but it's not a musthave someone could have a awesome proposal that doesn't include that and they have the other 95 right do you have to leave enough flexibility for innovative ideas to come in yeah since we're talking about points uh is it possible that having a list saying here's how we're going to score these could come back and bite us if some proposer would say hey wait a minute you know uh you're not scoring me fairly and uh and are are we accountable to the people submitting the proposals for the quality of how we assign points from one bid to the next so is that legal liability yes I mean I think we've talked to Legal about this in in our review and we discussed where the flexibility would come in this is a first round with points so we would want to pick the top three we've written flexibility to have more than three and then when they would actually do the presentation that's where there's flexibility to say like this was our number one choice or if you want to reorder you know if it's a sequence of this is the one that has the highest points one two three you could then you know reorder those through the interview process so with regards to the appraisal you might want to check with former interim administrator uh schroer on that I know that at one point he and I had talked about that and we had used an appraiser I don't know if he moved along with that same one or not so I we have the name we have the contact information so any thoughts thoughts on the preservation and design if it should be reworked if the points should be assigned I like the idea of the street skate improvements you know I mean adding some level of charm and appeal to the that area like I don't the the core building is obviously the most important but i' I'd propose that You' put preservation design at 15 and public space and streets to 10 because really the the design is going to be the in my mind the most prominent feature and then the surrounding area around it but I do agree that I mean it'd be nice to see how they incorporate what's still there if they can and if they don't they don't but um might look great either way okay so I'll kind of talk about public space streetscape improvements and parking together because one of the things that we heard from the survey is that people wanted access to parking that there needs to the parking needs to be retained and also people like the idea of still having public parking so we're asking the developer if they can come up with a parking plan that allows residents to also use the site um there would be in an agreement that we would work through and just basically be creative with that so have enhanced Landscaping in the parking lot potentially have Landscaping in front of the fire station and submit submit a plan right so if they can come up with something creative they'll get more points and I think based on how creative they are and if you like the design if you like how they're approaching it you could assign you know all 10 five two Zer and then the streetscape improvements are going up to 10 that's going to be important because if they do have a large parking lot you are going to want to screen it and kind of rework that entire site economic impact this is just stating that um the developer the proposer should look at small business uh promote that with Five Points um and then the question is does this development attract residents um to the Village like does it encourage more development also so if you put something in the village and people are selling houses around the village are they going to say like I want to live near this use like are we building the village to be this attraction and then the developer qualifications pretty straightforward experience in success with demonstrated projects provide references um a basic approach timeline basically their plan we want to know their costs kind of roughly and what they think they're going to spend why do we why do we need their costs I think it's good to understand how ambitious they are okay I don't think we need we we need a ballpark and we want to know like their proof of funds related to like their overall cost so that they have the ability to to finish the project all right you can also see this 25 points so it's it's pretty small compared to the the first category well I agree on the experience and success and I agree on the proof of funds um and I guess the other one's just Five Points so uh you know timeline's important um you know whether they're going to spend as long as they have the finance put together what they're proposing um I don't know it's just that that's fine if it's there do we anticipate that the proposal is going to be I always say this I picture a developer saying hey we've got these multiple spaces and we're hoping to get this kind of business here and we're hoping to get that kind of business there when in fact the I think from my standpoint the benefits and from the community standpoint the interest to come downtown is going to be exactly which businesses come in to fill those spots uh are we likely to be approving a proposal before we know that information I think we are aren't we I don't know that we want to Encompass what I think you're referring to as a speculative uh site versus a build to um suit a particular Business site so you're you're thinking that we will have have knowledge of building for a specific business I would be preferred by me yeah well and that was my point but I just I I just think of developer and you know is is he going to have a specific restaurant you know identified or a boo Pub identified I would hope so because that would my mind really control the value of the development well that's certainly something you can score on yes yeah and I do think when we negotiate the purchase agreement and move forward we will want to see business categories and I can talk about it later in the RFP you'll see approved businesses and how we would approach that so this is important is the post closing performance measures so the first part is basically from being awarded selling the the property prior to uh substantial completion so uh we talked to Legal about a reverter or clawback period um it's some of the compliance goals would be building permit shall be received within one year of closing on the property and then 90 days after the one-year period the the city May initiate the return of the property minus purchase price and closing cost what we're trying to do here is is outline and the way we're going to write the RFP is protect the city and flexibility as we move forward so it's not like this is exactly what we want to do but this idea of that we could take the property back if someone doesn't get building permits and kind of spell out expectations so the proposer so they understand um moving forward um number two the property shall be substantially completed within one year of receiving a building permit uh and then also the 90 days after the onee period the city May initiate the return of the property we're looking at we would pay purchase price closing costs and then any increased value of the improvements based on an updated appraisal from our appraiser so it kind of protects the developer who's coming in we're not looking to revert the property or take it back we do want you to meet these goals and deadlines and with the purchase agreement we probably write additional you know if this happens you can ask for an extension and these sorts of things but our idea is I would like them to be in the RFP so they understand we will have some performance measures especially if you are receiving a subsidy and going below you know if the value comes in at half a million dollars and they offer 100 right that's to have all the rules spelled out first yeah and then the transfer assignment if if they come in and they have somebody that they are willing to assign it to it's a very good developer something happens and we sign off on it we have the ability to transfer it that's always good um in in my experience uh certificate of occupancy and project compliance so this is one if they have a subsidy or don't need a subsidy they may come in and say I don't want a subsidy I just want to go ahead and you know pay uh you know pay up to the the appraiser so the subsidy needed the idea here is that the the developer may receive Equity after the final certificate of occupancy is issued for the site so if they have a certain dollar amount that could be a goal like you have your certificate of occupancy you can earn Equity towards that subsidy and then after that is fulfilled we have to look at the state statute and the dollar amounts to make sure that we are in line with that but I'm thinking that the minimum compliance period if they're receiving a subsidy is two years so when they open all their businesses and they're open for two years and they if they have a subsidy it's it's basically I've used like a softc mortgage in the past where they earn equity and then it falls off like we're not funding the mortgage but they gain Equity over time if they don't then we're looking at the certificate of occupancy um and then one year if they're open for one year then we'll just consider the project completed and we issue a certificate of completion so also the transfer assignment um within the compliance period if the developer chooses to transfer the property they may approach the city the city May approve a transfer to a third party um prior to the compliance period the city shall derite uh a first refusal to purchase the property if the developer attempts to sell the property without City approval uh the price shall be set at the praise value minus the outstanding City subsidy so if they have a subsidy and they go to sell it we would have that on the title so we could at least make that decision that's decision would be ultimately made by the city council and would be brought to the city council at a meeting uh approv businesses so the businesses that occupy the site shall be specified in the RFP so if they want to be speculative and but say it's going to be a restaurant and this is going to be an office or we're going to have a mix juice with like Apartments they need to just spell that out and if it's maybe something a little bit different then that could be okay they just need to tell us what that's going to look like it's kind of like a plan unit development where they list eligible types of businesses I think that's the easiest way um to go about it I think we could protect ourselves if we have a business that comes in and says I'm going to put this certain business on the site we could write the purchase agreement that says we want this business at the site but the idea is should be a An approved business list and uh all businesses shall be approved and they should uh receive a certificate of zoning compliance from Community Development um if business opens that was not approved the compliance period shall not begin um if the use is not removed within 90 days the city May foreclose on the mortgage if we have one in the soft second or we could also initiate the reverter um looking at the purchase price um you know either the revert or going through that purchase price that we talked about earlier um if a business closes within the compliance period a city approved business shall open within 90 days if not open within 90 days the compliance period shall be extended six months or the length of the building is vacant whichever is greater if receiving a Subs City the compliance period shall align with the state statute so we're trying to protect the city it's it's challenging to know how this could play out after um but this is something that's really going to work its way into the purchase agreement which then there will be an agreement signed at the closing that will attach to the act of sale so this is more of like in general do you think this is the right direction to go in does any of this seem too restrictive do we need to do more what do you guys think I think it's a very complex situation and uh there's a lot of ifs hands and butts to it it's not at all like selling a selling a piece of private property but I think you're doing a good job of protecting the city interest do we think one year is enough if they're open for one year and then they're issued the certificate of completion yeah I think you know a lot of I mean you got to also have the understanding that uh sometimes small businesses don't survive right so um and it's hard to measure effort but I think that's I mean I agree in protecting the city and you know we don't have a lot of real estate in the Old Village area as many of you know so to the extent that we can try and make sure that that fits What the residents are looking for and need or want I I I think we should do that so um yeah if you're not in a hurry to sell it then why not be as particular as you want to be I honestly don't know if that's too restrictive or not you know part of it is not being a developer myself right so or a business owner per se it gets challenging because you're going to have banks that are going to want at a certain point you know they're going to have a mortgage most likely and then our soft second will be subordinate to that so it makes it challenging they may want a reverter clause so it's going to be challenging we'd have to work with the bank and work with our legal department to make sure everybody can move forward and get the financing they need um sure but you usually with these it's challenging because the use is really driving this so not only is someone have to spend money to develop this site but then we want to make sure it's used the way they say it's going to be used for a certain amount of time I think that uh you do operate in good faith right with the developers uh they're you know it it could possibly what we're really trying to do is set up a system where they understand what we're going to require and I think the way you write this is protect the city and then also let the city council make decisions as they come up if someone wants to modify the agreement in in the best interest possibly of the city so um this this could be challenging so that's why I think it's important to look at their history look at their financing I think it's important to look at the total cost to see Is it feasible I I worked with a developer one time that had you know I'm going to do 20 houses at a time and I'm going to do this and they were a smaller developer and they couldn't do it I mean they they it didn't work out and then the other guys I'll do two at a time it was very easy so I'm always concerned when people say they can do something that's two three four five times greater than they've ever done you know do we really want to go down that path so well some of that would come out in the previous information requested right like the history of the developer and experience and examples right that would show that they're capable uh able to do that that's correct I think with post closing performance measures it's making sure that we think of all the scenarios that we can consider to where someone can't say oh well I don't want to perform and there's nothing in this document that says I have to do certain things or they figure out a way around it so that's kind of why I just wanted to put that out and know that they will be monitored for a certain amount of years any comments about the I guess just one year sounds good or is it when a business opens if if they say they're going to open the tap room and the tap room is open I mean I don't I don't have an answer as to whether one year is right it seems more so that because we know there are many interested parties because we know that this is an asset it does allow us to be a bit more protective of the city if this was something that had no interest whatsoever I don't think we'd be in a position where we could be this restrictive because we'd be begging people to come in whereas we are not in that situation so I think that is a bit more advantageous where we can be a bit more protective and intentional whether not a year is correct I I will defer to smarter people at this table than I more experience Brandon oh man nice happy to be here um well yeah what what are you hearing from your conversations is there is there excitement um I've heard from about three you think we'll field a successful you know business I think I've heard about from three4 people I think they're positive uh they're wait ready to see what the RFP says right that they're interested in that so I think the other thing to to think about is if it is a one year and it let's say it is a restaurant restaurants have a high turnover rate they could always assign it to another restaurant right so we're not going to start the clock over on a new restaurant um with the way it's written so um there's a little bit of a of interest and I'm hearing different things still it's not just five different restaurant Concepts right it's good well i' be curious like Nina in your case as a business owner does that time line seem practical from a from a business standpoint like does it seem too cumbersome is it rational I I can't don't really understand the one-year rule I didn't what is the one- year so once you open the business let's say someone comes in and wants whatever business that is and it doesn't need to be a specific it's more of a type they would have to that business would have to stay open for one year and then they would get a certificate of completion and then they would be out of the RFP this entire process so the documentation that's on the title would no longer be in effect do the business has to survive for a year survive for one year and so like they have a year to get a permit essentially hopefully com sooner a year to complete that permit hopefully sooner and then a year to survive on top so well I think the first year goes by fast and you go in a lot of debt so you're going to keep going after that one year just try and pay off your debt no but but the RFP is with the developer and not necessarily with the businesses right I mean is the is the de developer on the hook you know to make sure things are running you know a year or does that responsibility transfer to the business when the business moves in it's the developer it's the developer and then if there's a subsidy the subsidy would go to the developer and then we'd have to follow State Statute until State Statute it depends on their proposal but it has to do with job creation and that sort of thing and there's calculation so we have to follow that so if they sign up for that um they may have to be open for more than one year and that's all on the hypothetical that it's under the 100,000 minimum right they may come in and state they don't want to follow the rules for the subsidy or they can't meet the subsidy rules so therefore they don't want one and then they're going to build out and stay whatever um business they want to uh put there would have to be open for one year so it may be in their best interest not to ask for a subsidy too all right thank you uh are you going to get into the Exhibit 2 Village mix use thing because I'm curious about the number of units and how they might be mixed up got 08 Acres with a vmx density of five to 10 units per acre which would suggest we're going to have four to eight units in this development for somebody who buys the entire point8 acre right am I interpreting that correctly uh and if I am interpreting it uh I think the BMX says it it could be all residential it could be all commercial or some mix right that's correct I believe it's 80% oh okay and what I was going to suggest is can we make sure that we've got you know uh a minimum number of commercial you know and not yeah we really don't want all residential in there I don't think I think we're looking for a business climate have at least half I would think of those four to eight units be commercial in my opinion so the purpose of the chart was just to show people the use chart so they understand when they propose businesses what's permitted what's conditional they would still have to go through a conditional use process if that was awarded but during the proposal and during the selection that the committee is going to go through if if the committee says we don't want you know we want to limit the amount of residential then that's possible like you would you would you would do that during the selection of The Proposal at that point the intent of having that chart was just to show people what they could put there but if we're going to do we not be need to be clear for the POS the developer who's making the proposal that you know where we need to have commercial there I mean it's if we don't they're going to get a lot less points if they don't have a fair amount of commercial in there they need to know that that's a good point what we'll do um in the section we may we'll add a land use section just to walk them through land use requirements and then that chart can just be an exhibit of what's used so we'll add a land use section thank you there any other comments if not we have a motion to recommend approval of the RFP to the of for the old fire station to the city council as presented by staff with all the changes that we discussed so moved second all right we have a motion in a second uh to recommend approval of the RP at the old fire station at city council is presented by sta discussion how would this be made public how does get to whom is is this sent out is it just posted on a website how do potential developers know about this we are going to create a marketing plan and and drop that up so it will be on the website um we definitely probably want to post the station on site have signs on the site and also um continue to work with our new Communications um staff person that's coming on to work with them on just if there's anything more we probably want to do so social media and other ways to get the word out is there a way to work with um the St Croy Valley Chamber or the Stillwater area Chamber of Commerce they can probably pull something out there you know they've got a lot of business ties um something in that realm the the real thing is just to get it I think we did something on the 180 acers and we got feedback that there were a lot of developers that didn't even know we were trying to do something there and they missed it so I think the last thing we want to hear from people is that I never knew it was out and maybe signage on on some of the main roads um if it's possible instead of just the the fire station itself I think that's a good point if people drive by they should be a big see a big sign for sale if you don't make the turn by there you know you're casual drive a buy or something I don't know how big of a sign you need but some way to make it know yeah is the ideal buyer someone who's going to come in develop it and then rent it to another business or someone who's going to buy develop and be owner occupied from the people that I've spoken to it sounds like they want to owner occupy oh really from just the few people that I've spoken to um I think a developer if they were to buy it and lease it would maybe build on a greater scale maybe a larger scale development I think it's interesting is it's a pretty rare opportunity right like to have a building where that is that's City own like it's not private hands it's well it's for sale do you want it if I had my deeper Pockets but daycare my twins robs my my bank account I've got lots of crazy ideas I think it's a good opportunity I appreciate staff putting this all together but it's also good to get this this uh feedback from members of the public on the Eda so I I don't try to talk as much on here because I want to hear the feedback from our four community members because we sit on Council so we'll have feedback as it is but I I do think this is a very good process and I think it is worth moving forward on I think the community will be in favor of it uh it's good to go for my all right so I'm going to call the question all those in favor of the motion to recommend the approval of the RFP for the old fire station to city council is presented by staff and the changes uh entertained during the meeting please uh signify by saying I I I uh motion is passed thank you thank you when do you put together the committee identify committee members it will be pretty soon I mean we'll send an email to make sure everybody here wants to be on the committee if you don't want to be on the committee that's fine we're going to have to get the Planning Commission to choose a member and then I would like to be you can't develop it if you're on the committee oh darn um that's called a conflict of interest on um yeah so we'll get that out people get back with with director stopa moving along to uh item four we're a little behind schedule but we want to look at the 2025 work plan okay so the work plan that was sent out we changed the format a little bit we wanted to just talk large goals uh business retention expansion attraction collaboration partnership uh we are talking to the Chamber of Commerce uh the greater Still Water Chamber of Commerce to see if potentially we want to do more there maybe an Eda member wants to attend more events and um create a membership that sort of thing so we're going to I'm asking them for member benefits costs and what that would look like um Community centered development aligned development and Community needs and encourage public participation and sustainable growth these are pretty much just goals um that if something comes up we can go back to these and say do they align with our goals one of the things that we did different is we really direct action items so that we have things that we want to achieve during the year the deliverable and when we feel like we can finish them so uh with the city property planning we have obviously a few things going on but uh assist City staff and city council with marketing efforts for city-owned properties so issue an RFP for old fire station Public Works building we're hoping to get that out in the first quarter and then create a plan to develop the city owned 180 acres to issue an RFP um we have talked to the Urban Land Institute and what we're probably going to do is bring them in first quarter meeting to go over a technical assistance panel it's a three-day process it's about $35,000 what I'm thinking is if we sell the fire station we could potentially use some of that revenue for pre-development costs she'll be here to to pitch it and you know you can decide how you want to move forward we also talked about commercial real estate brokers and just listing it with a broker um and paying them a percentage so we're considering how we want to fund the study but looking at that in second third quarter of next year and starting that process with the 180 acres and hopefully by the end of the year we can issue an RFP for for the 180 Acres Jason I forgive me my my ignorance here but uh I'm not familiar with where or what constitutes these 180 Acres uh are is it one uh area to be be sold all at once is it multiple areas how do I how do I I'll show you I'll I'll show and yes it's 180 Acres on the Western border surrounding the public works that the city received in its individual lawsuit with 3m and the Lots there are lots below and above the road pretty cool site so we're out here at I'm going to give you so we're out by the Public Works building we're not we're not we're not there no okay and for context the city has tried to sell it multiple times and it has failed more activity going on out there maybe the time is better so the Technic we got a coffee shop there now right we got a Starbucks there's a Starbucks my old gym and they closed it they Fitness I'm I'm bitter should open a gym at the fire station all right good TR yeah this is the Public Works building there no right here okay te down cond maybe's thec over there thank you all right I got us thank you so with that I mean everybody s it's sounds like we should keep that in there and uh I think Meg Flanigan as a representative would be here to discuss discuss how a technical assistance panel Works does that sound good in the first quarter meeting who do you want to decide whether we go with Uli or with uh Brokers do you want Eda feedback on that before going to council we would I think we would have to do both realistically because the way the panel set up it's more or less a planning exercise and then is do we want to use Brokers probably want to use Brokers on a site this large um but yeah issue an RP for the city own um 180 acres and then the next one is enhancing Lake Elmo's communication efforts for economic development so participate in City efforts to improve marketing materials continuing efforts to highlight local businesses I think uh okay so collaborating with the new Communications coordinator I think this is going to be the most important we're going to work directly with that person um website updates social media updates adding more content to the fresh everything we kind of talked about earlier this year we're going to work with that person to to do that and then promote resources and tools for economic development to business partners and stakeholders if we have materials that we can create like the sign guide that was released anything else to help uh developers will continue to do that also working with the county I think a little bit of that definition in the deliverable action item would be helpful more more defined yeah just as you just stated you know just have a little more um rather than keeping it so General director so um you know when we're we're looking at plans and um you know I look at at uh smart goals you know things that that can be measured have metrics around them um reasonable trackable okay so I think most of our time will be spent updating Communications we should be getting a new website this year a lot of what we couldn't do was because we were waiting on the website so with between that and the rfps I think we'll have a lot to work on anything else any yes I'd like to I'd like to ask uh in the 2024 work plan we had the uh objective of responding to the upcoming RFP for money from the 3M priority 2 program I don't see that in this particular plan I I did send a report since of the op open meeting law I only extend a copy to Charles and to and to to Jason but uh I I do think we should continue that because we're you know the state has pushed back on this St they because of Staff shortages they haven't put out the RFP yet but it it's it's got to come out pretty soon and I'd like to have that on the work plan okay we if everyone's okay we'll add that I think we're you can give an update to December 3rd you will be presenting to move forward with the application right yeah I have the I have done a lot of work on that and and I think we're in a good position to respond with a strong proposal but we had we don't see what the format is yet they haven't put out the format requirement so the most important thing is you know whether we received that award or not you know we've discussed that if we don't then we'll have to adjust so we can write something in here that um says continue to work on the solar through the 3M settlement we'll we'll add that okay yeah please don't leave that offer okay I fully agree and you can put that report in the in the minutes you can attach it to the minutes if if if you'd like I think that would be good then everybody has it anything else no appreciate it so future items and reports our next meeting isn't until February 4th so we should have some more information coming forward on the uh old fire station by that point based on the schedule um and then we'll talk about the uh the meeting dates at that February 4th meeting which we have quarterly with that we're we caught back up on time will the Ed see the revised RFP I can send it out higher to the next meeting I can send it yes great thank you put that in the packet so we get that all right I'm going to adjourn tonight's meeting thank you for everybody time at uh 6:52 that's exciting stuff there get something in there I like learning see you later so open the present that's why I wanted to understand who the buyer is