Good evening. It's 6 o'clock. I'd like to call the meeting of the Lake Elmo Economic Development Authority meet uh group to order. Uh the first item of business is the I'd like to make an a slight amendment to the agenda and that is to add a point of discussion about the staff report uh having to do with what to do next since the trustees didn't allow us to do a proposal on the uh solar you know paying off the bond issue for the solar power and uh I'd like to make a suggestion which needs some discussion. So, I'd like to add that to the agenda. >> Can I can I get a second on that? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I >> I Anyone opposed? >> Thank you. It'll just be a short discussion. Okay. The the next item is the approval of the minutes. Uh do I have a motion to approve the minutes as is moved? >> A second. >> Second. >> Thanks, Jeff. Okay. Uh all in favor of approving the minutes as submitted. >> I >> I >> Okay, that that passes. Thank you. Uh the next item on the agenda is the uh approval of the special meeting date for the RFP finalists is proposed for September 17th, 2025. I'd like to ask Jason, what time frame do you picture this being? >> This be six o'clock. >> Six o'clock. And how long do you think it might last? >> It can last an hour or two. >> Okay. They say six to eight. Uh is there any discussion on that uh item? >> It works for me. >> Works for works for me. >> I'm going to make it work. >> I can change my tea time. That's fine. >> Okay. Well, I'll make a motion that we approve the special meeting date for listening to the presentations from the RFP finalist. 6 pm on the 17th of September, which is a Wednesday. Second it. >> Second. Okay. All in favor of that? >> I. >> Is anyone opposed? >> Thank you. No, it it carries. Very well. Uh moving on to item four, the work plan uh progress report. Uh I'm going to let let Jason go ahead and go through that. >> Okay. So, we'll go ahead and get started just by going over the work plan. It's something that we'll probably do at all the meetings going forward, but uh if you see up on the screen, uh issued the RFP. We're going to talk more about the old fire station RFP, but we're moving forward with that. The 180 acres, working with the urban land institute, we're also working on that. When it comes to issuing an RFP for the 180 acres, that's definitely going to be 2026 and not by the end of this year. um new website. That's something that was recently launched and we continue to make changes and improve the EDA page and also community development page. Um we've been working with Stillwater Chamber of Commerce. I met with the Woodbury Chamber of Commerce also. Uh I am going to be in the leadership class for the Stillwater Chamber. So get to meet some more people in the region coming up pretty soon. That starts in September. um outreach materials, sign guides, the community development map. With the new website, we're going to have an improved community development map. It already is pretty good. It just talks about what developments are occurring in Lake Elmo. This will be more of an interactive map with the website. Also, we're working with um >> Are we linking that with GIS? >> Well, yes. So, it it's basically a module, a GIS module that's built into the website. And then it can also one of the cool things it can do is if you click on a project it can link back to the meeting and the approvals and other documents that are in the website. We also are working with Bolton Bank on GIS that's separate and we're going to have a property viewer um >> unknown color >> has a little bit more information than the county and that should be done fairly soon in the next month or so. I believe that's September. We're also working through, you know, more information for the website. Uh, and then at the end, we did have the 3M solar landfill. So, this 3M priority two grants uh the the solar site was not accepted, but a couple other applications were allowed allowed to move forward. So, some of that's outside the EDA and that's going to continue to move forward. I don't know if you wanted to now would be a good time we can have the conversation because there's not much on my end. Sounds sounds great. I'd like to go back a couple of steps. So, uh the uh property viewer for the city, will that have different functionality than the current Washington County property viewer? >> Yes. So, it'll have zoning, it'll have land use, it will have the Musa boundary, it have the Musa phasing. So, it's really important to have that especially when we talk to developers that everyone is looking at the same thing. Um so, yeah, definitely it'll be more information. >> Thank you very much. Yes. As far as that last one goes, uh, we turn in four letter letters of intent for to send in proposals and three were approved. The one for the extension of the restoration of Sunfish Lake Park and the trail improvement, the one for the boardwalk and the one for the fish advisory, but the one for the uh getting money to pay off the bond issue on on the solar uh you know for so we can get solar at the landfill. the response which I sent out basically said well we we're not going to put money into a source of the contamination which hadn't been clear in the first place. So anyhow uh I think the next step would be to talk to to the city attorney and find out what would have to be done to get our representative to introduce a bill to pay it off for us. So, I would like to ask the EDA if you're willing to uh propose to city council that we get pay for an hour of our attorney time to discuss this matter. >> I have a quick question. So, that who's going to pay who are you proposing would pay off the bond? Oh, we could get this get the state we could ask the state of Minnesota to pay off the bond issue. And basically that would require a special bill, which I'm I'd be more than willing to talk to the representative, but I need authority to do it. And I'd like to talk to the city attorney about what is the process for doing something like this. >> Correct me if I'm wrong at this point. So, the bond is currently being paid annually by MPCA. it it's being paid off by state funds. Basically, the uh uh it's we're we're about 10 years into well, it's 11 years now into a 40-year bond. >> And was the feedback from the trustees that because there is a bond that is the limiting factor in their view of using phase 2 settlement dollars for it? >> No, that that was originally discussed and I talked to some people there even at the meetings and they thought, "Oh, it's a good idea to try that." But apparently the the reviewing group said that they're not they're not going to put money into uh source remediation, which is how they looked at it. So the next possibility for getting some money to get uh solar power put in within our lifetime is to uh uh is to get it paid off in some other way. And uh either either we have to have a cake sale to get $3 and a4 million dollars to pay off the land the bond issue or we'll ask for money from the state and the worst they can say is no. >> Gotcha. So the goal is still to generate revenue with solar there for your goal in that case and then get the bond paid off. Okay. >> But the bond has to be paid off first before we can start digging. >> Correct. >> Or whatever we're going to do there. So, I'm playing catch-up here. Uh, your request is for us to request from the council that the sit the lawyer uh city lawyer uh speak to to whomever it is that needs to What exactly is the request? We talking about a couple hundred dollars of lawyer time. Is that what you're asking for? Yeah, we're just asking to to get a legal opinion on whether it makes sense to to try to do something like this. >> Legal opinion whether it makes sense to when you do something like this, do the do the solar project or go to the state for money? >> No, to ask our representative to introduce a bill to pay off the the money so we can do something there. >> Okay. And the paying off the money is to pay off the remainder of the >> of the bond issue. That's that was originally 4.75 million. Now it's down to 3A and a quarter roughly. >> It's another approach to getting this done. >> And I can add an asterisk to that. In the past, when we have discussed things with our our representatives and our senators, it's either been staff directly or the mayor andor with council members. We've never needed to ask legal for guidance in that process. The council has also hired a firm to help with lobbying when we were trying to fix the horrendous impact of the White Bear Lake lawsuit with legislation. So, we actually hired a lobbying firm for that and we got to the goal line with that. Um, but we we've So, I'm just curious is the is the intent to ask legal about I I guess. Yeah. Because legal they're not politicians. They're just their guidance would be whether it's an acceptable use of funding to do that. Is that the goal? >> No. I'm I basically came to with that question because I'm totally naive about this and you'll know more about it. So, Gotcha. >> So, if if you feel that we can go directly to council and they say it's okay that we talk to the representative, that's fine. We don't need to go to legal or or or what would you recommend to try to accomplish this objective? I think if I were in your position, I would be asking that staff and or mayor with counsel seek um advocate for this in next time there's a bonding session, which won't be for a little while. It if I were in your position, that's why I would be asking. I wouldn't because there's no cost to that except staff time in that case. But uh the mayor's time is free. >> Okay. Well, when when our mayor is back, I'll talk to him about it. >> Thank you. I think that's that's an appropriate >> way to go. >> Sorry if this is dumb question. Can nothing be done with the land with the bond or just the solar? >> Nothing can be done to nothing beneficial can be done with the land until the bond issue is paid off. >> So essentially, we're just doing that. So anything could be built. Yes, your priority is the solar, but it will help all ideas. Oh, it's currently zoned for solar power and there is a way to put a solar power station on there without digging into the landfill. Right now, the way the landfill is configured in a big heap, you you couldn't even make a baseball field out of it because it's not even at the right shape or even you could do a dog park there maybe. But, uh, but the there is a company that's designed a kind of a solar power thing that you could put on a closed landfill without making holes in it. So, it just seemed logical to me that we'd pursue that because it was zoned that way in 2014. And the city could make some money either by leasing it out and putting in and having a contractor put in the landfill equipment, I mean the solar power equipment, and then the city would get the lease payment from the power company for land. or the city could invest and build a equipment ourselves and then take get all the money that we sell it sell the electricity but that's the business model that's that's another question but first you got to figure out how to pay off the landfill >> well I I I think that Jeff's suggestion of having staff or or whether it's mayor or any council member speak to our local representative about that I think that would have more impact on a local representative to have somebody representing the city have that conversation than legal. Um, so I that that would be my vote. >> Okay. Well, that that sounds like like like a good idea. That doesn't require any EDA action. >> I would recommend if that's your intent that you make a motion for what you want someone to be asking for. And in this case, I think essentially you're asking if council wishes to go down that direction because it it's not that it's zoned for solar. It's that it's zoned and solar is a permissible use because there are other uses. There's literally maybe one or two possible uses that are there in that zone, but it's it's zoned. It's institutional as I recall, >> I believe. So, >> because it's city-owned. But yeah, I I fully get where you're coming from. I think that's probably the request you'd be asking. Either way, I I would be abstaining because you're asking council to do something. But if that I think that's essentially your ask. >> Okay. Well, I make a move then that that I go to council and and ask if they're willing to support this kind of an activity. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Anybody opposed? >> Thank you. I will go ahead and uh make an appointment to talk to council about it. >> All right. So, the next item is the RFP update. So, as you know, >> before you go into that, I had a couple of questions relating to the work plan. >> Okay. >> And and specifically, I just yesterday for the first time went into the new website and you know, and it it looks pretty darn good. Uh yesterday morning I found a couple of typos and uh and this afternoon I went back to so I could get specific and I only found one. I can't remember where the other one was. However, um some of the content that goes in there, I'm not sure we're creating it or if the businesses are creating it and the example is at home apartments. There is a summary there for at home apartments. and uh whoever it was that edited that, it comes out as a little bit of gibberish. Now, is that something we did or did home apartments just supply that information or do you >> PDF or >> do you know if it's a PDF or do you >> uh I I I didn't have to launch a PDF to read it. It's just part of the you know the the uh >> we can look into it. But I mean the only thing that I'm aware of on the old website because what happened was we moved the old website to the new one and the new website is still being um updated. It isn't final yet but um at home apartment and other business like other developments were in a PDF with descriptions. It was basically a map that showed the developments and then >> it had a page for at home apartments. that has pages for >> well I was just looking at the page that first has our development map and then there's a one through five for the things going through currently and then there's an A through F for those that are will start soon and each one of those has a bullet underneath the map and it's readable without launching anything now maybe the source was a PDF possibly I don't know but that in in the website it's it's just part of the development page >> okay we'll look into it and see you're saying Other developments look fine, but at home there were >> at home was the only one that I saw. And then there was in yesterday morning I found outside of that page another, you know, instead of it said Lake Elmo, Department of Whatever, and it the veil was truncated and I went, well, okay, there's a but I couldn't find it today. So maybe it got corrected already. >> You can send me any website issues. You can just email me. I I I I have guess seen any others, but if I do, I can I can send it to you. Or do you want me to? >> It's a work in progress. Kathy, >> you could contact Kathy. That would be the point person. >> Okay. Yeah. All right. I I have a question. And then this be quick. Um the, you know, joining other small business organizations. That seems kind of exciting, I guess. Is that staffled or is there involvement from the EDA on that or how how can we support the endeavors there? I think it um so this was we we are a member of Stillwater so um that's something that we've been working on a staff level we've discussed if EDA wants to be involved we could definitely connect you with any resources that still water events if you want to go to events that's something we discussed so currently right now um they're coordinating ribbon cutings and these sorts of things and then also they have the leadership program Um, but if you want to be a, you know, learn more about Stillwater Chamber, we can send more information. >> That's good. Or as you guys join into to Woodbury and just get connected. I think anything to help our get plugged in those ways is interesting. I I can connect with you separately though to learn more. Yeah. I mean, so Woodberry contacted us and I met with with Woodberry's Chamber and they are looking to grow membership in Lake Elmo and you know, we they're going to reach out to connect Lake Elmo and see if anybody else wants to participate in Woodberry's Chamber. There's an alliance of chambers for the region, too. So, they all work together. >> Yeah, sounds good. >> Yeah, the uh connect like Elma organization has has signed up with the Stillwater Chamber, too. >> I saw that on their website. My business is also on it and so when I go to ribbon cutings with my card I say I'm from established lawn and EDA like Elmo. >> Yeah. Cool. >> Just just for clar I used to be a member of the Woodbury Chamber uh when I was doing stuff over there. Uh are you saying that there's you know we're in their sphere of influence? Uh I I had assumed it was Stillwater, but I mean they're always very We never met in the chamber with Stillwater Chamber while the few years I was there. I >> I think Still Water is our closest one. As it was described to me, there's an association of chambers and they work together and if you want to join other ones that you can join both. >> Interesting. >> Yeah, they put on like workshops and stuff. The Forest Lake is part of it. I think there's another one. So they're all are working together. >> Yeah. >> And they mentioned for any kind of events that we have, we can send it to them and they'll send it out to their membership just sharing communications. >> Good. Thanks for the representation. >> Yeah. >> Okay. We can jump into the RFP. Um, most important thing is that we received nine proposals. You have your packets there. We won't discuss too much tonight. You, uh, let me see if I have all the dates in front of me, but um, everybody should have their packet by tomorrow because we do have a couple members that aren't in the EDA. Um, the scorecards are due September 2nd. So, we would like, you know, the packets, everything back. It's printed because the information is confidential financial information and other information. So, please don't share it uh with anybody. Score it. Bring it back. One thing that I recommend because I've scored a lot more with housing is what you what I recommend doing is reading all the proposals first and understanding how the points are assigned and then going back and individually scoring them. Because sometimes when you have a lot of different proposals to score, you may start adjusting your numbers because you're always thinking like how is this compared to the other. So you're comparing it to the nine. So I recommend reading them and then going to score. Um so once the scoring comes back, we're going to compile it and send it out and there's going to be um at least three finalists and the three finalists will be at the meeting on the 17th. And from there, we're going to do a quick presentation for each one. Um, they're going to be here to answer questions. There's going to be a debate. You can have discussion on it. It'll be, you know, it's going to be a public meeting. You can discuss the proposals. And one of the things that we're proposing is basically if we have three finalists, we were just going to use after a discussion a rank choice vote. So we have a idea of who you want to see as the um as the finalists that goes to the council. And what we also want to do is have them ordered like one, two, three. So priorities from one, two, to three. If number one falls through, then the council can make a decision to move to number two and work with the the number two person. Do you plan on so when it gets that time and it goes to council, you said applicants will be there for Q&A. Do you anticipate that applicants would be asked to do a presentation similar to what we have when a land use application comes in >> at council? >> Yeah, >> we haven't anticipated that, but if that's something we're still open to ideas. So if the council wants that and wants more information, we could do that, too. We do have, you know, two council on the scoring committee and it will be public. So if you know council wants to watch or >> I mean I I would be curious your all thoughts. I could see the advantage on on the aspect we have our scoring rubric. We're trying to be objective and use objective trait to make sure we're going treating everyone the same. I could see an advantage of in the presentation from the applicant kind of can fill in the blanks. It's not going to change a score per se, but at least if when council is watching as well, it might fill in with some of the gray areas. Um because it the proposal has a ton of information in it, but it'll never have everything. But I I think maybe for some of the the gray areas, it might help for from council's perspective as the only council member here. Thanks, Charles. Um but that'd be my thoughts. >> One thing I would say too is when you score it, there isn't a place to score for price, right? But yeah, price is a component of this. So that would happen in that meeting with the finalists. >> The other thing is if they're missing information or it's just not clear. I mean, we reviewed it. So maybe someone's financials could be a little bit clearer. It does give them more time to say, "Oh, we have all this. We just didn't provide that level of detail." If that's something you want before we award it, then they could provide that, too. So I just, you know, whatever you think in terms of council, we can have them present. And if it's, you know, top three at the council or it's just, you know, top two, I don't whatever you want to. I think we would look for guidance from the EDA. >> Jason, I um what you just said, I I went online and looked uh at the the uh report that talked about questions from the proposals for clarification and the answers. And there were actually a couple of spots where language was changed on a couple of things I noticed. probably not in a way that would affect scoring. But I guess my question is uh are these nine proposals all of them or did some get submitted that didn't have everything that was required and therefore weren't included? >> No, that's that's every single person that submitted nine. >> So there may be some missing stuff here that was >> I would say that they're they're completed applications. Okay. I I know Ashley and I reviewed them, but nothing. >> You may find some that are lacking in terms of description of whatever parking, but we didn't reject them. I mean, it's we're going to, you know, we want everybody to submit, score them. We weren't going to be the gatekeepers of who gets to move forward. So, if it's something that you feel just isn't adequate, it just would reflect in the score. noticed a lot of questions on parking and I was kind of questioning myself whether you know >> what I think parking is interesting too because if you look at the scoring that's going to be a little subjective so some people found a way to put you know a lot of buildings new buildings and parking and some people have the same amount of parking do you really want more parking do you want more buildings it's more of like just we really need you to explain your approach that's what we asked them and we heard certain things and you you would see that in the in the addendum and in the application. Some people talk about public parking because that was mentioned. So, you just really go through it and line it up as best as possible when it comes to scoring. >> Did any of the proposals propose to use the fire building as as it is rather than have it torn down? >> I believe all of them >> really. >> I believe so. Is there so during this process obviously scoring is one thing going to council is there any part of the process where there is a close session is that when council would then be internally discussing pricing yes so we anticipate we talked about this today we anticipate a close session with the council there's going to be pricing questions and as you know any type of business subsidy we don't have a business subsidy polic policy. Yeah. And that's something that would have to be adopted by the council. That would be discussed. We're going to have to bring that. So even if this gets awarded in October, if someone needs a business subsidy or tiff, it we probably won't close until January, February. So that that would have to be discussed close session. You'll see difference in pricing. So there's going to be probably conversation about pricing. >> All right. Thank you. Anything further on this item? We'll proceed to the issue about the ULI tap. So ULI is a pretty brief update. Um we're working on setting the actual dates for the tap the three days October 22nd through the 24th. That um I believe it's a Wednesday through a Friday. We've talked to Flanigan. They've assigned panelists that John Slack from Perkins and Will. He's a principal. He's an urban designer. And then John, I believe he's called Hugh. His name is pronounced Hugh. North Oaks Company. He's an owner developer. We've asked for somebody with a business subsidy background. Um, we think that's important. Anybody any suggestions? I think we need one more panelist and then once the panelists are formed, they will start leading the process. Um, you know, Megan Flanigan's always there, but in terms of taking our questions, adding questions, and then something else to add, you know, aside from, you know, any panelists that you would like to see are um we're looking at stakeholders. So, everybody here is a stakeholder. The council is involved. So, they're going to have, I believe, group meetings with the stakeholders. So if you have any other stakeholders outside of planning commission, EDA and council, you can share that with us. Also, we'll make sure that they get that information. For example, one is connecting with um Oakdale because they have a development right there. So it's like how well our potential development, you know, coexists with this one and we just want to know what their plans are because I believe it's like half built out, right, on the Oakdale side. So >> I I assume yeah a member from Oakdale maybe staff potentially their planning director or something. I assume we would be asking Bethany from the county as county rep. Um I I know in the past when the discussions started to go a certain amount the neighborhood directly to the east obviously was very concerned especially whether the belief was valid or not that there would be a lot of additional light pollution on their neighborhood. Uh so I they absolutely want to be informed whether they would want to participate or whether it's that's a worthwhile endeavor is a secondary but for sure they have shown interest in the topic. I know that. Um, thoughts. >> You're the smart people. >> Do you have any >> I agree. I like your thoughts. >> Yeah, me too. >> Yeah, I think that's a good idea to make sure that we have a big enough tent so that everybody can can talk about stuff. >> Well, and the the chamber connect Lake Elmo. Um, school district I don't think would necessarily need to uh there's nothing that there would be I'm trying to would like land brokers would that be a worthwhile person to have there >> yeah I think we'll have brokers maybe in the panel so that would be a good person specifically >> and are there certain industries where we would want to even start to bring people in or is that so far down the line? Because >> so um John Hugh from the North Oaks company has industrial development background too. So that's one thing that we've talked about because right now it's guided for business park. >> We know there's limited sewer capacity right now with the um contract agreement with Oakdale. >> Yeah. >> So we're sharing all that information with them too. We've also put obviously our engineering team. It's very important because the sewer does currently does not run under the train tracks. So it's what do we need to do to make this development ready? What are the business subsidies that would be attractive to business? Like are there things that we just have to do to move this forward? Because the parcel south of the track >> is ready, but it's probably not the most attractive is the >> that's the hardest one. >> Maybe someone from the Timberwolves so that can be their new stadium. in a city-owned golf course I think is appropriate there. >> Well, it also has the benefit of being right by the railroad tracks. Something that would need delivery or shipment >> would be ideal. Of course, you have to talk to the railroad. So maybe some maybe a representative from the railroad would make sense. >> They don't really I'll stop that sentence. I'd like to ask one question and and do you have a a schedule for a stakeholders meeting that you're planning? >> I do have a schedule. I just got it today. So, I can update and send that to you. It's going to be sometime in early September when they um start reaching out to make sure everybody's available. >> Okay. >> Okay. Do you have anything further around this? >> Let's see if there's anything else. I don't believe so. We will be having another meeting pretty soon and hopefully getting more information, finalizing the panelists and um moving forward. I believe our October 22nd is the date. So um we'll definitely reach back out with through an email and let everybody know once we lock that down. But that's all I have. >> Are there any other questions for community development director? If there is nothing else, I will go ahead and request a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay. The meeting is adjourned at 6:32. >> We're efficient. >> Yeah. Don't lose. I >> know. Do you guys know what's going in by holiday? They're building there.