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[3:01] bannner lake is um separate it's missing from that concept yep and so the ones

[3:07] that have looked at that survey you know we're still working on it are saying well wait a minute if I'm going to look

[3:12] at this as a whole ters lake really needs to be part of that and it's not so I think that's a a um uh I don't want to

[3:20] say it's a failing but it's something that's concerning because it's not there and I understand there's things going

[3:26] into pan Tanner lake or considered for that that well if you know it's going out there you don't need it over here or

[3:32] maybe vice versa yep so you know that's a big concern there um now I'm looking

[3:38] through the packet and I'm not sure what my um people are talking to me are quite

[3:43] talking about because I see playground equipment the impression that they have is a lot of playground equipment is

[3:48] being removed and I know some neighbors they got grandkids coming over they like to go over to one near us well if that's

[3:55] being removed then that's all of a sudden that's a loss you know that's a loss of U functionality for them and and

[4:02] then uh the last comment I have is on the North End Gul Field park I think

[4:07] it's called and this is where my confusion is because I see in here that they have there is playground equipment

[4:14] there but the impression that this person was telling me was uh playground equipment wasn't going to be there or

[4:20] maybe it was just a slide wasn't going to be there so that's a concern is the type of equipment being um represented

[4:27] or or being put in there those are the comments I've received yep and so I thought I'd pass those on yeah thank you

[4:33] for that um regarding playgrounds um golf VI isn't losing any playground amenities these are pretty high level

[4:39] Concepts um so we haven't dug into the in the weeds of is there going to be a slide how many slides um but at G VI

[4:47] there's um propos improvements to upgrade the playground equipment to either add more amenities for younger

[4:53] kids or older kids you know the prek group or the K through 12 group um

[5:00] and I I can't recall I don't believe we're I don't believe we're getting rid

[5:05] of any playgrounds we might be kind of changing the type of playground like at the Oakdale Nature Preserve we were um

[5:11] considering the idea of incorporating nature play because that's something that people are interested in and that

[5:16] feels like a good Park to do it since it's the Nature Preserve it's more natural um so that was that actually was

[5:22] one of the ones that was a concern that that's near where actually I live so we go by there it's used constantly mm take

[5:30] that playground equipment out now there's a segment that's not going to be there anymore yeah and you know with the

[5:35] concepts um we're putting something out there cuz when people have something they can react to it so you know if we

[5:42] get the comments that they don't want the nature play they don't want it to move we'll take that under consideration and and do another level another round

[5:49] of refinements for the concept plans thanks yeah okay um Recreation context Maps so

[5:57] um these are another helpful highle 10,000ft view to understand the distribution of Park amenities

[6:04] throughout our Park system so again they're in your packet we're sent via PDF um we've got a recreation context

[6:10] map for turf fields baseball softball fields tennis and pickle ball courts basketball courts courts and designated

[6:17] spaces for volleyball playgrounds and ice rinks um again it's hard to see the

[6:22] examples on the screen but um the maps are in your packet are available online in our agenda Center um so the maps show

[6:28] where different amend currently exist where they're proposed to be removed and where they're proposed to be

[6:36] added um so for each Park they have their own concept plan um that shows proposed improvements these were largely

[6:42] based on feedback from the initial survey in March and April as well as the shred uh designs with City staff um city

[6:49] council also had an opportunity to weigh in on them before they went to the public it's important to note that these

[6:54] are not set in stone and will evolve um throughout the planning process and then um just to quick uh walk you through the

[7:02] the kind of General layout of the concept plans you'll notice amenities that we're proposing to keep in their existing place um have their own little

[7:08] legend for existing site features to remain and then they are represented by the double letters on the map and then

[7:15] um on the concept plan you'll kind of see that like the basketball court um it doesn't have a big colored Block it's

[7:21] just pretty much the aerial photograph so that indicates that we're keeping it there um you know for a lot of parks

[7:27] there were things that the project team saw saw no need to change um especially from a financial stance it'd be costly

[7:34] to remove everything and start over so um we were trying to strike the balance of um between introducing new

[7:40] improvements that can be faced over time um as well as maintaining our existing facilities and then for the proposed

[7:46] site features they are um you know they're displayed graphically by those big color blocks um so on the one

[7:52] example on your screen the the pink is um playground improvements and then the

[7:57] green is we're trying to keep that just mode open Turf where people could play volleyball they could play

[8:02] spikeball and um so When developing the concepts there were really five buckets of amities that we focused on first

[8:08] playgrounds this is a really big one um second was athletic fields and after

[8:14] talking with o Athletic Association um there's a desire for more full-sized Athletic Field since we um many of our

[8:20] Parks have ones that cater more to that little league age group third are Court facilities for pickle ball tennis

[8:26] basketball um so we're kind of thinking about how to integrate courts into our Parks um fourth thing was accessibility

[8:32] infrastructure and this is a really important one because it's probably what's lacking in our Park system the most um you know whether that's paved

[8:39] trails to connect amenities in within a single Park um that also includes

[8:44] inclusive Play features um so we can accommodate all users and then natural resources is a Fifth Fifth thing we have

[8:50] a lot of Remnant Park Parcels um that don't have a lot of programming opportunities but there's still opportunities to improve vegetation add

[8:57] native plantings or pollinator habitat so these are some of the things that we explored in the concepts once the survey

[9:03] closes and we wrap wrap up this engagement associated with the concepts the next step is for them to go through

[9:08] another round of refinement um and then the consultant will apply pricing to all of the amenities and elements so we can

[9:15] start to understand um costs because you as I discussed before we can't do all of

[9:20] the improvements at once um and then we kind of have to figure out the prioritization implementation phasing so

[9:27] now I just kind of want to open up for General comments um you know many of you are residents so

[9:32] you can keep um Can comment generally about the parks or if you have specific comments about the connection between

[9:39] businesses and economic development in Parks um you know what are you hearing about the park system from a business

[9:45] perspective um do you have any thoughts on how the city's Park system can make Oakdale attractive for new businesses

[9:51] existing businesses employees um so I'm I'm open to any comments

[10:00] ready I made mine I would just touch one thing like on the on the pricing thing would the plan would be if there's

[10:05] multiple different parks to go strictly find like a contract for one company

[10:11] that's going to whether it's replacing or upgrading you know there's so many different types of playground equipment

[10:16] right yeah and to ideally just focus on one company that would be able to handle it all or kind a piece mail in you know

[10:23] each Park and kind of with the budget in mind yeah um I guess was there any discussion around that yeah and so I've

[10:30] only been with the city about a year um Jeff Kling our Park superintendent typically handles um you know a lot of

[10:35] that operational side and um there's the CIP the capital improvement process where um the council adopts um the CIP

[10:42] going forward and Parks is a big part of that so each year we're discussing what's the projects for the next year

[10:48] what are you know five years out um and and we'll get more into that um

[10:54] that operational side you know in the fall of um you know the the implementing um

[11:03] contractors budgeting all that stuff but typically when we do Park improvements at least in my knowledge for the new

[11:09] parks we go through a request for proposals process is the timeline like you know 10

[11:17] years out as far as going or you know is there a particular timeline or is it

[11:22] just going to be based on budget each year based on budget and um and you know

[11:28] it's there's a chance that improvements um never go through it's just it's creating that big long-term Vision so

[11:34] whether that's 10 to 20 years it really depends on on the cost um and then Council

[11:40] Direction yeah any other questions for

[11:47] Hannah I just wondering your plans for 27 new parks is that correct no there

[11:53] are 20 there are currently 28 parks in Oakdale currently um concepts are

[11:58] available for 27 of them cuz Tanners is still forthcoming so that makes up the 28 and then there are four new parks um

[12:06] that are um kind of in the hopper so we've got the the three in Willowbrook and then there's potentially one down by

[12:11] the Gold Line so those are four brand new parks

[12:19] okay all right last call for questions I will just make a plug that ongoing

[12:24] survey I encourage um Commissioners to um visit the engagement website Prov provide additional comments um you know

[12:32] these responses in addition to Future Council direction will help inform Concepts moving forward um so that's

[12:37] open until August 31st and we'll um when Tanners is available we will be making that known um get the word out because

[12:43] you know as um commissioner bat said you know when you're looking at the whole park system Tanners is a really important piece of it so um

[12:53] yeah well thank you for having me tonight thank you so much Hannah thanks

[13:00] all right I'd like to invite any members of the public to

[13:06] speak and there are none so we will close the open Forum we'll then move on to our Economic

[13:14] Development commi commission review and our first piece is old business and I'm

[13:20] going to defer to Max to speak about our Bria or business retention expansion and

[13:25] attraction program update thank you chair and good evening Economic Development Commissioners and thank you

[13:31] so much Hannah for providing us with that update and again if you have any questions with the parks or think of any

[13:36] ideas feel free to email Hannah and myself um right here we have an update

[13:42] for the business retention expansion and attraction program and I want to start off by acknowledging um that in the last

[13:49] month or so I've heard from some EDC members uh that you guys really want to go on more business visits and uh we

[13:56] want to make that opportunity easier for folks so as a result I spoke um with our

[14:01] department director and our rep from the St Paul chamber and we're going to be looking to open the visits up further uh

[14:09] to members of the EDC in the near term so um we will be having some more

[14:14] openings coming soon so if I could get a show of hands or if anyone wants to talk to me after the meeting about who'd like

[14:20] to go um I see commissioner Bates Cher voka um pen and Jenkins so I will make

[14:28] note of that and make sure that someone reaches out to

[14:33] you so give me just a moment here to make note of

[14:42] that so thank you for that um and with that since our last meeting about two

[14:48] months ago we' have had three new business visits I'll Briefly summarize these visits we had some pretty fun ones

[14:54] and say what we heard from them so on June 4th City staff visited

[14:59] the Forefront Campus located near ideal Avenue in 34th Street across the street from Target uh this was originally a

[15:06] spin-off company for those newer to Oakdale um a spin-off of 3M called imation which provided data storage and

[15:13] Optical Media Solutions imation eventually left the data storage business and changed names selling their

[15:19] campus in Oakdale to the Slumberland Corporation Slumberland then rebranded the campus as Forefront moving the

[15:26] Slumberland corporate HQ there to one of the buildings and opening the space uh

[15:31] to offices startups and heavy research and design lab work despite the tough

[15:38] office Market they told us at the meeting uh that the laboratory component

[15:44] has really helped them have a much higher rate of occupancy hovering in the

[15:50] high 80% additionally Slumberland staff stated that they were working on

[15:55] developing much of the excess space on the campus for commercial development much of the land there on the campus was

[16:02] originally held by 3m/ imation as excess land for future expansion so that

[16:08] transition to become the Forefront campus has really allowed for new commercial real estate opportunities in

[16:14] Oakdale you might have heard about the upcoming Aldi and Starbucks there's quite a bit of construction going on

[16:19] over there um generally Slumberland staff um and Forefront staff stated that

[16:24] they were really happy with the property and working with the city on that additional Comm commercial development

[16:30] and we're looking forward to continue owning the property and leasing it out to research and design and other office

[16:36] uses and really taking advantage of it so that was a really fun one for

[16:41] staff um next we visited Pace Analytical on June 18th um Pace was founded in

[16:48] Minneapolis in 1978 uh with the Oakdale branch opening in

[16:54] 2007 uh located near the intersection of the 15th Street and helmo Avenue

[17:00] intersection Pace focuses on life science Testing medication testing and environmental testing and they told us

[17:07] that they had been growing at Double digigit rates each year uh they noted that they are expanding across the

[17:12] street to another of the JCS properties owned buildings um as a part of the

[17:18] Minnesota investment fund and job creation fund grants that City staff helped with last year additionally they

[17:25] noted that they had 220 employees with about 60% being scientists and 40% being

[17:31] support staff and we're generally happy with their location in

[17:38] Oakdale next is oh now if I remember correctly Bob you you would know this

[17:44] that was your property at one time you sold it to them correct yes U 3M had similar operation in the those

[17:53] some of those buildings uh I owned some of them and one was built by someone else but I

[18:00] bought it and 3M brought their labs in there

[18:06] and eventually 3M got out of that business and there was a another company

[18:13] that that was renting from the and

[18:18] eventually produced the whole set of facilities that you know the labs and

[18:23] all that that pace then bought bought out bought from the port uh part three

[18:30] company so they've been so that background is that in 1997 when I

[18:37] built my first building that part three company was in my building from the beginning so it evolved over all the

[18:45] years now to where it is with Pace in three buildings that I was

[18:51] involved with and now they're moving into the one of my other buildings so I'm kind of proud of

[18:59] that that is quite a success story isn't it that be company it's quite a success

[19:09] story that's all I have to say thank you Frank um for our final

[19:16] visit that's occurred recently uh we have Central Bark uh which staff visited on July

[19:23] 24th uh Central Bark was originally founded in 2002 with its current

[19:28] location opening in 2022 uh off of Hadley over by the

[19:33] Menards uh they specialize in Doggy Daycare training and general pet retail

[19:39] they noted that they had some issues uh staying afloat in covid but they had really good visibility in their current

[19:46] location off Hadley and were poised to experience further growth um telling us that uh two-thirds of households now own

[19:52] a dog which captures quite a bit of the market um additionally they noted that

[19:58] they had in general 10 employees with three full-timers and seven part- timers

[20:04] and they really liked their space that they had in Oakdale they said specifically they like the small town

[20:09] feel of Oakdale and the proximity to amenities and highways and said that the

[20:15] business support environment was really supportive and generally asked staff not to over regulate the business

[20:22] environment so with that that sums up the last three visits since our last meeting here at the EDC and I'm happy to

[20:29] take any additional questions and again um let me know if you want to attend any

[20:34] future visits and we'll make sure the email goes out to you I've written down a few of your names and I'll make sure someone's in

[20:44] contact all right we will now move on to new business and I will defer to Max for the 2024 Minnesota WorkForce statistics

[20:52] and Trends update sure thank you chair uh SE it introduced this item in

[21:00] June the Minnesota Department of Employment and economic development uh who collects much of the employment data

[21:06] for Minnesota released quite a bit of new information that we as staff uh felt

[21:12] may have been of use to the economic development Commission in the past we've reported on some deed statistics and we

[21:17] thought there were some new interesting Trends here uh this data provides General insights into the market

[21:23] conditions and labor participation in the Twin Cities uh the seven County Metro and the State as a whole uh given

[21:30] this data's relevance to economic development in Oakdale and the East Metro in general we prepared a

[21:36] presentation detailing some of the most interesting takeaways uh as a reminder all data is courtesy of deed or the

[21:43] Department of Employment and economic development and sources and links to the data are provided in the memo and on

[21:49] each slide I highly encourage anyone who's interested to take a look because they've got a great treasure Trove of

[21:56] data so first off we've got some newer findings on General employment

[22:02] trends here we have a map or a graph of the total number of nonfarm jobs in

[22:08] Minnesota Over The Last 5 Years generally you can see a very large drop with covid you might have seen a similar

[22:15] graph before in a gradual recovery in the Years following something I didn't know the total number of jobs did not

[22:22] return to pre-co levels until June of last year and has continued to climb solely since last June

[22:30] a few notes from that data um generally we hit full job recovery in June and

[22:35] we've added about 30,000 jobs since it's worth noting that much of the growth is

[22:40] concentrated in a few key sectors including construction education and Health

[22:45] Services in contrast some of the primary sectors that have still experienced contraction or haven't fully recovered

[22:52] include Mining and logging Leisure and hospitality and Professional Services

[23:00] here we have some individual trend lines for some of the sectors that have experienced not noticeable contractions

[23:07] or declines as you can see education and health care in Minnesota have grown

[23:12] considerably uh since pre-co levels uh while construction has grown past pre-co

[23:18] levels albeit at a slower Pace in contrast Professional Services have declined to almost covid levels

[23:26] or uh have declined to almost pre-co levels and Hospitality has almost

[23:32] recovered to pre-co levels but has remained somewhat stagnant over the last year or

[23:38] so so for some additional new data on unemployment through

[23:44] 2024 here we have a chart showing General unemployment in Minnesota compared to the us as a whole Minnesota

[23:51] is that purple trend line in the back and the US is more of that magenta

[23:57] salmon pink color um and overthe growth is shown in

[24:04] the line graph so here we can see that Minnesota's unemployment rate has largely followed National Trends with a

[24:11] 10-year peak in unemployment during covid and a gradual decline since uh

[24:17] generally Minnesota has maintained a lower unemployment rate than the national rate um you can see that the

[24:23] salmon uh coloring in the background generally reaches a bit higher than the p

[24:28] or the purple which is Minnesota uh Additionally you can see that from 2023 to 2024 there was a

[24:36] slight increase in the unemployment rate from the mid 3% to about 4% albeit it

[24:42] Still Remains relatively low and then for some updates on job

[24:48] vacancies and labor force statistics so here we can see the number of job vacancies in the last 20 years in

[24:55] Minnesota the large spikes in unemployment correspond with the 2008 recession and the co pandemic

[25:02] additionally we can see a rapid rise in job vacancies following covid uh with a peak number of vacancies in 2021 uh

[25:10] declining gradually since then now in 2024 we still have a relatively high

[25:16] amount of job vacancies uh although unemployment remains relatively

[25:23] low here we have total labor force compared to the unemployment rate just

[25:29] here in the seven County Twin City Twin Cities metro it may not look it may look like

[25:35] there's a bit of variation however it's worth noting that this is a relatively narrowly scoped graph with the bottom

[25:41] and the top of the labor force section uh differing by only 100,000 people uh

[25:47] that's the blue line here we can see the total labor force peaked around covid

[25:52] and declined somewhat after due to many retirements during the pandemic since

[25:57] the pandemic the labor force has remained stable with moderate growth uh

[26:03] generally the unemployment rate here in the Orange Line inversely mirrors the labor force line uh and generally is a

[26:10] bit lower than the Statewide unemployment

[26:16] rate here we have a graph showing exactly where the current 2024 job

[26:22] vacancies are by sector as you can see healthc care retail um food and

[26:28] Manufacturing lead with the most vacancies Finance Professional Services

[26:34] public administration uh generally have fewer openings these stats generally reflect the current labor market in the

[26:41] Twin Cities at the moment and those sum up some of the newer trends that deed is seeing in the

[26:47] last few months um year-over-year and I figure I'd open the room to any comments or takeaways from EDC Commissioners

[26:54] maybe this lines up with what you're seeing out there uh maybe it doesn't additionally if there are any questions

[27:00] on the data I'm happy to answer those as well I like to spend a good bit of time playing with Deeds graphs charts and

[27:06] tables just so that we're staying on top of that here at

[27:14] Oakdale all right we will move on to our staff liaison updates Max do you have

[27:21] any updates for us today not too many updates today um generally uh all we

[27:27] just switch to an online application system for the EDC um and all of our

[27:33] other commissions so we're promoting that seeing if we can get some new members here and some of our other commissions where we might need some uh

[27:41] additional space to be filled um additionally I want to plug Hannah's Park survey again uh we're that's one of

[27:48] our biggest projects and we're really pushing that along and making sure that we get uh a product that reflects what

[27:54] the community wants um additionally I'd encourage any one who wants to stay on top of

[27:59] developments to keep tracking the development map and potentially look at some of the Planning Commission packets

[28:05] we've had some pretty busy meeting there's meetings there as of late but I'm also open to any questions you might

[28:11] have anything you see going around the city happy to take any questions and see if I can answer those how many openings

[28:18] do you have for EDC right now I believe we have three standard openings as well

[28:24] as there is a designated student um non- voting role and a chamber non voting

[28:35] role all right we will move on to commissioner updates and Frank you are the winner today you get to start well

[28:42] I'll tell you I don't have anything to contribute NOP nothing going on son

[28:49] nothing on my end either safy no I don't have anything anything I will pass I

[28:56] don't well we're keeping a perfect score I've got is a little

[29:03] boring no I'm going to keep the score even awesome all right we will move on to council liaison updates council

[29:11] member her good evening Commissioners uh thank

[29:16] you again for taking time out to serve on our commission here on the EDC um last week uh the council and staff got

[29:23] together for a strategic meeting uh to just kind of set a set us side and uh set forth some priorities uh over the

[29:30] next uh two years uh that we kind of generally want to move uh the city and one of the things that came out was you

[29:37] know trying to help Oakdale find its identity and and you know when people think about Oakdale what what comes to

[29:43] mind um last night was a great uh Testament to that uh our 19 unite

[29:48] parties that went on around the uh City uh really showcased our the love that a

[29:54] lot of neighbors have uh for the city so U Kudos and thanks to those uh neighbors

[29:59] who uh brought their neighbors together uh in doing that kudos to bill um and

[30:04] our Police Department for doing that Community engagement and organizing that for everyone

[30:10] um right now it's a budget season as well uh and so we're setting forth our plan for 2025 uh the park survey is

[30:18] going to help you know give us and advise advise us uh through that process give us a guiding document to work

[30:24] towards um now of course we're going to have to balance uh what we and what we hear out of that Park survey with kind

[30:31] of the realities of the financial situation that we're in as well um and it's a delicate task on how to balance

[30:37] that act and hopefully you know we do the best that we can sometimes we might fail miserably but U you know we're

[30:43] hopeful that we can deliver on some uh new amenities for uh the folks in the city um development is uh progressing um

[30:51] in Oakdale uh willbrook is coming along a lot of homes coming online willbrook

[30:57] uh playground is also being uh in progress right now and uh slated to be completed I want to say October I think

[31:04] uh is uh the completion date so um if you haven't been around that neighborhood yet uh take a drive by and

[31:09] you'll see some of the playground uh equipment going up uh the last plug that I would do right now is um you know it's

[31:16] really our heart and our passion that through the commissions uh that it's kind of your way to kind of get your feet wet into

[31:23] Civic service and right now the window is currently open for and we're taking in candidates for the city council seats

[31:30] uh and so I would love to see some of you guys uh take on that uh task as well and and and get your name on the ballot

[31:37] there so um that's all I have I would I will stand for questions if uh anyone should have any for

[31:43] me with with the will broke you said there's one park but then Hannah was

[31:49] saying there's three Parks yes so I think the plan is uh one park is being

[31:54] planned out right now and is in development as the other phases of the willbrook area comes online and then

[32:00] they'll create more uh parks in in the other areas all right

[32:05] thanks I just want to mention that I live at the North End Oakdale up by Willer Brook yeah north of that and now

[32:12] they got the detours you know to get home I have to go back roads and it takes a long time to get home these days

[32:19] but anyway uh so I go through that pro project I can't believe how fast and how

[32:25] many houses they're building in that they're growing like mushrooms every time I drive through there it seems like

[32:31] there's a new house over here you know so it is just a heck of a development isn't it it is and you know I think

[32:39] Oakdell is really poised for that population growth you know and and that's something that as we're looking at our budgets you know we're kind of

[32:45] saying Hey what how and what can we do to make sure we plan appropriately for uh that population uh booming so I know

[32:52] the school district a lot of those uh families that will be moving into that area well is slated go to Eagle um Eagle

[33:00] Point Castle's up in that oh is that right okay castle and so it's going to

[33:05] bring more kids more families so hopefully that'll encourage uh and help us grow in a positive

[33:13] direction and the houses aren't schoppy houses either I'm telling you pretty

[33:18] darn nice houses and they do have out if there is such a thing in that kind of

[33:24] Market is a fairly you know some of them are relatively cheap if you think

[33:30] 450,000 is cheap but you go they go up to over well over 500 so I mean it's

[33:37] it's good for the allaround picture of Oakdale I mean it's they're good

[33:42] houses are we soon to be the Edina of the East is that what we're hoping for here or not quite yet not quite but

[33:49] about has there been any feedback on that app that the city launched about

[33:56] reporting things in the city the cix uh app um I have not uh heard anything uh

[34:04] any updates uh it's something that I can certainly bring up uh at our council meeting next week and then kind of report back to uh the Commissioners

[34:14] here thank you thank you thanks all right we are going to move to

[34:20] adjournment so can I please have a motion to adjourn Gary Severson all move

[34:26] adjournment that all in favor hi all right the

[34:32] meeting is adjourned thank

[34:56] you e