All [Music] right, it's at 5:30 and may more become more members may be coming, but we'll get started. Um, have you take roll? >> Commissioner Roberts >> here. >> Commissioner Lnes >> present. >> Commissioner Wright >> here. >> Commissioner Hoy >> here. Commissioner Gindle and Lur are absent and uh President Ericson >> here. If you would join me in pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all. >> Okay, we have an agenda before us. Anybody want to make any adjustments or I'll seek an approval? A motion to approve. >> Motion to approve. >> A motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> I opposed. We have an agenda. All right. Next, we have an open forum. Seeing no one here to speak to this body, we'll move straight into the consent agenda. We have four items there. Anybody want to make any adjustments or I'll seek an approval for the consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda items A through D first. Anyone? Second. >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Second by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. And we have our regular agenda item resolution 80042503 forgivable loan for 8241 Northshore Trail North. Abby, you want to speak to this? >> Sure. Thank you. Um, earlier this spring, this body approved updates to the CIP program, the commercial improvement incentive program. Um, and at your last meeting, you considered a number of different, uh, loans or forgivable loans to properties in the city. Since that meeting, um, the city did or at that time the city you elected to table consideration of one at 8241 Northshore Trail that was for proposed parking improvements in the rightway associated with Pizza Pub's pro um project. Um, at the last meeting you elected to table this. You wanted to see if the council was going to enter into agreement with the land owner at 8241. Since that time, the city council has approved an agreement for their installation and maintenance. The landowner has signed in that agreement indicating they're willing to pay full cost, but has wanted to still move forward with the EDA's consideration of a split 50/50 on that up to $10,000. So, prepared for you is resolution 08042503 approving a forgivable loan agreement for 8241 Northshore Trail um for your consideration. Do you have any questions for me? >> Questions for Abby any discussion or I mean I can say the same thing I said last time. It'll be much briefer though. Um, so I I think in in one aspect I can see where the EDA has a role to play in public parking and I've supported things like putting the downtown development plan together that includes parking for businesses in those aspects. Um, I don't see how in the policy we wrote for this specific one that doing public parking um fits the narrative of the directive we wrote for this program. So I I would be inclined to decline this application versus approve it. Looks like we have a member joining us. All right. So, Jill, we're talking about regular agenda item 7A, resolution for forgivable loan at 8241 Northshore Trail North. Um, Eric has spoken on it. Any other further comments or questions? Or I'll entertain a motion one way or the other. Well, the one thing I'm thinking here is is that are we looking at the actual action of what it what it is or is it somehow set up so that we can help the business regardless of it's you know maintaining that easement or allowing certain amount of parking somewhere where we shouldn't. Is that any different than RAS putting on a new face on 61? Does it matter what exactly the action is or does it matter if it actually helps the business? So, I'd be in the other camp. I'd be in the camp of going moving forward with the application. I guess myself um I too as you know member of the EDA you know, I think we're here to help help our local businesses thrive and grow. Um, this is a unique situation, but nonetheless, you know, it's going to add, I think, about 10% more parking to a very tight parking space uh footprint. Um, so myself, I'm in I'm in favor of moving forward with the application. I think anything we can do um to help our local businesses grow and thrive is just raises the boats for everybody. I'm in agreement as well because I I think we've had other businesses in that spot that have suffered, you know, because of the parking situation. >> The number one complaint >> for the last three owners. >> Yeah. >> So, I don't think it's specific to Pizza Pub owners, you know, specifically, but it's it's that spot. It's a tough spot. >> And I agree, you know, we want our businesses to thrive. I don't want to see that spot, you know. empty and um I would love to see it thrive. So agreement as well just as excited about you know RO Seth getting a facelift and else >> love to see a few others get facelift. >> There's been a lot of activity downtown lately which is good to see. >> Yeah. >> Does anyone care to make a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve resolution 08042503. >> A motion to approve. Is there a second? >> Yep. I'll second. >> All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor signal by saying I. >> I opposed. >> Opposed. >> And motion carries. >> That takes us away from our regular agenda item and moving into discussion where we'll just contemplate a three different topics. U starting with our work plan review. Abby, >> thank you. So included in your packet, you've seen it at various times since its adoption, the 24 to 2526 work plan. Um updated that to just kind of show much of what the EDA has sent out to do, the EDA's accomplished or has been actively working on in the last couple years. um with the exception of kind of some of their policy development and then also some of the stuff on headarters 123 which the EDA and council has provided staff with some direction on. Um so some review of um our accomplishments you know just kind of helps remind us all we we are working even though sometimes we have short meetings there's people working on your behalf to try to kind of keep our um our your work plan going. Um and then also we're going to need to update this work plan this year um to really start to look at what do we want to do in the next few years. So the intent of this um really was to start thinking about 26 plus you know 2026 plus what do we want to do? So, some of the outstanding items that I just highlighted really briefly, that policy development. Um, now that you've finished the what I would call the easy one um with the CIP program updates, we need to revisit some of our other outstanding policies. Um, I will say that just within the last year, I've had a better chance to to review all of the EDA's bylaws and those sorts of things. We have to renew some of those documents and refresh some of those documents. They're just a little outdated from when they were first adopted in the 80s, I want to say early 90s or something. Um, so I'll slowly start bringing those back. The local affordable housing aid. So, as a reminder, the city um will is starting to receive funding from the state. It's a local tax that a local tax revenue source that we're getting for local uh for for affordable housing. I talked with this body, the planning commission and the council last fall of, hey, what do we want to do? Um, as a just discussion point of topic, the planning commission, the ED and the council said, let's find partners. And SAS recommendation is we're not really the well resourced to like be spinning up new programs. And so have found agencies, public agencies that are willing to help utilize our funding for um three different items. One is the rehabilitation of single family residential. The other one is the renovation and upgrade of multiple family residential. And then lastly, um new affordable single family construction. That last one, um we're still kind of working through what those specifics would be, but I think we'll have agreements before the council within the next couple months at most. So then there'll be definitely some funding available to all of our residents um in the form of very low interest loans to help rehabilitate their properties. Um the southwest area study as a reminder that's an infrastructure phasing study. So it was looking at the headarters parkway alignment that will lead to Elmrest Avenue and then just how do we phase out our infrastructure for kind of the here and now development in the future. It's all kind of leading to that highway business area in the southwest corner of the state, which is another large non-residential area that we'll be focusing on in the next 5 to 10 years, I'd imagine. And then headarters 123. Now that we don't have interest from um active interest from the data center, we will be moving forward with um those conversations of some sort of request for proposals or some sort of pitches from development firms to try to see if we can find a partner out there that can help us get something going on that side. So your September meeting is really was intended for meats and potatoes of work plan discussion, but I wanted you to start kind of thinking about here's our work plan. What are some of the things that we want to start working on? Thus far this year, I've heard um a cityowned vacant parcels analysis. So, the city owns quite a number of vacant parcels of land, many of them in resident or non-residential areas, really taking a look at what are those parcels, what should we be marketing them for? um the development of a convention and visitors bureau, uh development at Fenway Park, comprehensive community marketing plan, a revolving loan program creation, and then a land some sort of land use analysis. And a couple of these were mentioned to me in passing. Don't really know necessarily what the thoughts were. So, um it's my goal to combine these items, outstanding work plan items, um 20 2040 comprehensive plan items as well as um anything else that's kind of been brought up by any agency partners, the CDA or chamber kind of host another kind of round table discussion. What do we think we want to work on? How do we prioritize these? This discussion is also in advance of um city administrator stats wants to have a strategic work planning session with the city council this year. I think probably after the adoption of the preliminary budget. And so this will kind of help feed into some of those conversations as well to see that council and the EDA are well aligned in what the EDA can do to help further the council's goals. We got plenty of time. We can talk about this tonight, but the whole goal was to kind of bring this back before you to say, "Oh, yeah, okay. We're we are working on things, but we're getting close to the end of our work plan. What are some of the things we want to work on?" I'm happy to take any ideas right now and just kind of keep that list running or you guys think about it and be prepared for good conversation next month. >> All right. Thank you, Abby. Great overview. Does anybody have any any initial ideas or things they want to call out that or in addition to the list that Abby gave us? President, a question for Abby on on this goes back to the EDA policy review, the tax increment financing. Do we feel comfortable enough that we have something in place if someone approach us today that we could move forward? We don't have great uh the policy development really needs attention more than anything. Our business subsidy policy I can't actually find a the last what I would say adopted policy was specifically designed at the time that the city was assisting um what was formerly team Vantage. So it was the policy was very much tailored for a specific project which isn't necessarily a good idea. It's good to be looking at them when you don't have a specific project. So, we have a policy in place. I wouldn't say it's probably the most comprehensive. >> So, um a more current project though might be lighthouse lofts. Is there something around that do you that you've seen? >> I think there was a tiff agreement, but whether or not there was any sort of policy at the time adopted, I don't know. I can I'll go back and look. The last time it looks like we adopted a tip policy though was at the time of that last of that former team bandage development. >> Would that policy that was developed for the team vantage would have that been a guiding document in the creation of this agreement for light? >> Yes, correct. That should have been what the EDA and the council used at that time. I can't necessarily say they did though. >> So I think what that that would be a priority that we should look at is get that in place as soon as possible. We just don't know when someone's going to approach us. And I'd hate to be able to not be able to move forward or be hesitant to move forward without something, you know, updated there. >> Good idea. >> Other ideas or you want to come back with a more robust list of ideas for in September? >> Well, I don't know. It kind of came up when we were talking about when we did have someone approach us on the um the um headarters one 123. Okay. It sounded funny when I said it, but um and we we had the discussion first and then you had mentioned that we had maybe an offer on the table and um and it was good because the overall consensus in the end was you know what we really wanted to make sure that it it was the right partner to fulfill a cohesive plan across what we want to do. Um so I mean I know we have the overall development plan but you know what is that cohesive plan going you know across and just it's been a while and what do we want to like look at anything and review and for me it's hard to connect the dots and maybe I don't know if this is for anyone else but just even with like park and you that are on the city council you see more of it but just the parks and wreck and like how does that all come together in one cohesive plan. Um, just to make sure that we're making the most of if we're looking at, you know, city- owned property and so that it all fits together and we're all thinking of, you know, just being innovative with, hey, this property is available. Maybe that's a dog park or, you know what I mean? And and likely you are because you're hearing more of what's going on in those other committees. Um, and maybe that's just not me not knowing what's going on in the other committees, but I always feel like um there might be some connections that could be made. Um, so I guess that just it just made me think of that conversation that we had and um knowing like what the big picture is and making sure that any development that we're considering fits into a a good vision because I think in the past there necessarily hasn't been a a good overall vision of what we want for the city. So it sounds like you're saying sometimes it feels it feels like we're a little siloed in terms of our priorities. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah. And I think you know part of administrator St's goal and pulling the council, you know, in doing that more we was he referring to the >> strategic >> strategic planning. Yeah. >> Will feed you know certainly feed into that for sure. >> I love that. And the idea about the um I don't remember what his term was for it, but in the past and other work projects I've had as like a fast start, fast finish or like that low cost but make a difference projects. I don't remember. He had mentioned it in something recent that >> in the downtown plan we definitely talked about the what is um what are catalyst projects? What are Yes, there's titles. >> It's low cost but but still makes a difference um in the the look and feel and the vibe. Um I love that. I mean that's perfect. um those type of things too. And maybe there are some things that that we can consider that would be like u quick wins or um that can just make things move along a little bit. >> Thank you. Yes. >> Um my idea might be more appropriate for 2026. Um, but I I would like the EDA at some point in that year perhaps to start to review things for our next comprehensive plan that are very specific to um redevelopment, understanding is our zoning appropriate in these areas? Are our regulations appropriate in those areas? are areas of the city that we have targeted for business growth. Um whether it's the southwest corner or the the section north of 8 or I think we extended it a little bit up 61 and kind of having that conversation of what is our long-term vision. Um and perhaps 2026 is most appropriate for that. Yeah, I think Commissioner Langnes's um comments definitely kind of help support maybe Commissioner Gindel's concerns of sometimes the work of any of our commissions can feel isolated from other bodies. And so, how does it all fit together? We do have the 2040 comprehensive plan that this fall we will start um start the comprehensive planning update process. It's a Met Council requirement that we update that document every 10 years. The kickoff this fall is when the Met Council issues us here you go cities here are your orders to update this over the next several years. Um the kind of timeline of that though will end up being through 26 through 20 26 through 28 where there definitely will be a lot more um integration between the commissions um community and so I think that'll help kind of help that overarching big picture. I think definitely for the conversational work plan update, I can pull together documents for this body that's looks at all the existing comprehensive plan chapters and says, "Okay, here are the things we said we would do." Um, and kind of where we're at with them or how does it integrate with EDA work so you can kind of get that baseline. I don't know how much of that I'll actually have prepared in one one month, but I can get you quite a bit of that. I think that gets your idea your mind starting to think big picture long line range the strategic plan for the council really is more so that comprehensive plan is we plan for 20 years we update every 10 so we're thinking of the forest lake of 2050 right in our comprehensive plan strategic plan is really looking three to five years what is it going to what are how does the council want to keep moving forward and a lot of times those strategic plans will take things from the comp plan to try to keep moving us forward towards meeting some of those comprehensive plan goals. So, I think it's starting to all meld together a little bit, but I think it's definitely a good point, Commissioner Langness, that there will be items that this body will be reviewing related to the comprehensive plan update process. One other thing in here that's mentioned, I would be curious to know if we could get that analysis of the city-owned parcels. Uh because, you know, there are other cities that sell these properties, put it in a in their EDA account, and then if there's opportunities, if there's a project potentially, say downtown, to use those funds to help purchase some land to help spur development. So it' be nice to know that and like we did where this previous board did did uh with spikes and holes sold that piece of land. So there's other pieces out there that there might have some interest and we can start community accumulating some money to be able to go buy other parcels if it makes sense I think is also priority. >> Yeah, I'm glad to see that's on the list. um as well as the convention of visitors bureau and then um I just forgot you had on your list. So >> yeah, I have all those items that we've kind of already been brought up to me in passing um I think at our next meeting kind of expanding on what those are, how long we think they would take. Some of this is other agencies, right? Um get involved. So, um, one thing I did want to just follow up on that I'm not sure if I ever let the EDA know. I did go to after the sale of the 280 Broadway property went to uh, happened. I did bring the council for discirection. So, it was council owned land, but we facilitated the sale through the EDA. And the reason we facilitate the sales through the EDA is the EDA can put restrictions on properties in ways that the the council can't. So with 280 Broadway, we had put in the clawback provision if they don't develop it in XYZ amount of time in this fashion. We have the right to take that property back. Um council can't do that. So technically the EDA sold the land, but it was the council's land. And so I went to the council and said, "Hey, what do we do with this money?" and the council directed staff that with land sales um the council thought that it was most appropriate to put the proceeds into the EDA's fund up to $100,000 if I remember right. Um so all of those proceeds did go into the EDA's fund balance. One of the policies that I have currently is not in our work plan but it's intended for me to bring up to you is just developing a policy for how we use those funds. You know, if one project, if we've got $300,000 sitting in it right now, one project comes in and says, "Can I have 299? Are we sure we want to spend all the whole kitten kaboodleoodle?" Um, so bringing forth some creating a policy just around the use of those I think is good, right? It's just good transparent public practice there, public dollars. So that's something that I'll be at least bringing up next week, right? or next month of uh this is something staff's recommending we actually develop. >> So that's the idea I think is think about those big ideas or even small ones. It might not be a right now our work plan might expand to three years even a five years. Um but the idea is let's throw it all out there. Let's pick the top 10 12 something or let me take some time with it to see if can we get the most of it accomplished in the next few years. The work plans are really nice, I think, for all of us to kind of say, "Yeah, we are doing stuff. We might not might have quick meetings and be chatting a lot, but we are actually doing some things." So, >> just a couple a quick follow up on that. um is redevelop that policy and I've just had a chance to engage with some other public leaders from other communities and you know they shared ideas of you know don't be afraid to build a balance so that when opportunity arises you have the ability to take that action and so you know it's probably not something that past councils or commissions have thought about but you know I'd like to see that kind of considered as we bu develop that policy and then the other the third thing I I think you you mentioned it quickly was um around marketing and you know that's going to local conferences or what have you. So that definitely want to make that a part of our conversation. >> Anything else for Abby? Otherwise we can move on to item 8B. Um, if I can just say if at all between now and the next meeting there are things you think of, um, feel free to shoot me an email, uh, or, you know, something you're like, I'll never remember this at the next meeting. I'm always happy to pull all this stuff together. I always think the more we can have in the staff memo beforehand. Um, we'll try to do a little bit of brainstorming, but a lot of times our brains are we're we've kind of thrown a lot of it out there. So, if you just get random ideas, feel free to shoot them over to me. If you don't have my cell number, you can always text me, too. I can give that to you after the meeting. So, >> excellent. Thanks, Abby. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Let's move forward to 8B, our meeting schedule. >> All right. So, we adopted a new meeting calendar earlier this year, and when we did that, we moved us to that first Monday of the month. The hope was that we would have more time to work on things. I know our meetings are often short, but the goal is as we bring on more staff in my department that we do have more time to work on on projects and activities and all the things. Um, but we have a lot of Monday conflicts that we didn't account for. So, next month in September is Labor Day. Um, right now other than work plan discussion, which could wait until October, we don't have anything. So, we could cancel that meeting. But that being said, the the biggest question I have for you is how do you want to address this in months where we have a holiday? Do we want to move it to a different day of the month? Do we want to move it to a different day of the week? Or do we want to cancel? I would not recommend wholesale cancelling. Um, a different Monday doesn't really work because the council's gobbled up all those other Mondays. Um, so my recommendation would be to consider a different day of the week. Either Tuesdays or Thursdays are the mo the least conflict for us. >> I like the idea of just penciling in the Tuesday after. Then like you said, if we don't have anything pressing on the agenda, >> we can always cancel it. That's currently what the council does. And so I didn't want to assume that, but I wanted to run that by everyone before. >> And then if anybody had, you know, oh, the first Tuesday of the month, I know that I can't. Well, that doesn't sound like that's the issue, though. Okay. >> Yeah. I'd prefer Tuesday over Thursday. >> Okay. >> All right. Member terms. Uh, Commissioner Lorge asked me to bring this up at our last meeting to look at the terms of our of everyone um for the remainder of the year. So, I did include this in the uh staff memo which did show um me just a second here folks. We have four vacancies this um this year. One of them is uh council member President Ericson's seat which is appointed by the council. So I don't want to say that one doesn't count because it's not a true six-year term. He gets reappointed or a person from the council gets reappointed every year. But otherwise um Commissioner Lorge, Commissioner Wright and Commissioner Gindall. So both Jill and Jonathan um were serving um unexpired terms of other members. So we kind of gave you your here's a little bit of this body. Do you think you want to stick around? Um because these are long terms, they're six-year terms. Um, and then I think Commissioner Luridge did also say she was interested in continuing to serve, but I think having this conversation early knowing that we could have four vacancies at the turn of the the the year, it's good to hear from commissioners and you don't have to state it right now. Um, you could always reach out to President Ericson or even um, in a different capacity, Mayor Roberts, to talk about your interest and your long-term serving, but for us to be able to have those conversations even if it's not in this meeting, that's we'd rather know now so that we could start looking to see if we can find other people to fill those terms. So, um, I think I put in there, feel free to discuss it. Feel free to discuss it if you want. If you're like, hey, I don't know right now. I'll get back to you. But um Jill or Jonathan, that's just fine. But I wanted to at least bring this to the body before our um terms just all of a sudden sneak up on us. >> Is there a reason that four of this people expire in the same year and it wasn't staggered more or is there something we can do about that? I feel like that's a huge administrative oversight to have to deal with people. >> Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Three of them are I mean one of them I'm appointed so it's kind of a mute but yeah three are in 25 and then the next one's till 27 and then 30. >> That is odd. I can double check that with our administration just to see if we've had a number of staffing changeovers. So you know just the tracking on that to see whether or not this is 100% accurate. Assumed it was just double check that there isn't something there that I might be wrong because I would have assumed we would have staggered them a little better. >> So um Is it I mean that is the in president Ericson's case here he has to be or someone from the council has to be reappointed each year. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council appointments are every year. I'd have to look at that if the bylaws are they're appointed until their term fills or not. I can double check that. I think it's an annual thing though. um your position as mayor is automatic. So the bylaws indicate the mayor and one person from the council shall be on the on the EDA. Yes. So if if if you guys have any thoughts earlier if you didn't me personally would love to have everyone remain on if but there's a change for some reason more of a heads up so we can get I I hate going into a year and it's March before we have a full you know commission in place whether it's this commission or planning or anything. So better more the heads up the better. Well, to be honest, I mean, I guess I didn't really even know this um that I was replacing another person and like Chris and I started at the same time. So, I guess I kind of assumed that we were on the same rotation or, you know, expiration. >> I think >> so. >> I think Chris replaced me because I was on the EDA before I was elected to council. >> Yeah. >> So, I think he he would have taken over my seat. And I probably didn't include his notes in here just because it his term wasn't expiring, but that is very common. >> Oh, couple weeks apart. >> Days apart. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I guess >> I'll double check all those dates or I'll have our clerk's office double check all those dates. But regardless that the I'm assuming that the term expiration is coming up, you know, think about it. >> My point in saying that I guess was that I'm I wasn't really aware that >> it wasn't any different than >> what what Chris's, you know, so you know, I can extend mine to that if that's, you know, fair. >> We built in existing you did. >> Yeah. >> Montage, >> right? finished her starting at the same time. >> Yeah, Judy moved. It was a It wasn't expired. She just moved out of the city. So that's why >> Oh, thank you. I can update that record, too. So, I'm fine with continuing and just if it's um you know to match I mean I don't know what the protocol is or what the proper >> see what the bylaws >> say exactly. >> Okay. >> True. >> Yeah. We'll take a look at that and also see if potentially there's that option if this is true that three of the four are expiring with the one just being an annual appointment. What we can do to potentially stagger those out some so that we're not having such a essentially a quorum. >> Um which which is is really a big thing if all of a sudden >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Excuse me a moment here. >> Carry on. It's your prime day package. >> Awesome. >> Well, uh just just updates the way for you. >> I've never had that. >> Um I have no updates. I know I met earlier with Chris Ang. um he didn't have any updates either. And then um Nette had emailed me late in the day, said that she's very interested in hearing the discussion. She can't she's looking forward to work plan updates. Chris is as well, but wasn't able to make it. So, do >> you have any idea if they'd be available on first Tuesday in September? >> Um I can check with them to see if they'd end up having conflicts before we actually would adjust that meeting calendar. Be >> great to have them. Any other updates? Yes, sir. >> I I just had one comment on the um the EDA member terms. I apologize I didn't catch it in she was walking out. Um one other thing I would like to see is that the term expirations be shifted from the last day of December to the last day of January. I think that that is really ideal when you have elections that turn over a council that we have committees that are still established for that first month while they're appointing any replacements. Um so I don't know if that's possible in the bylaws, Abby, or why we have different ones for different members, but >> well and I will say um you know I found this in our clerk's files. We've had a number of clerking changes just in these, you know, since these appointments have happened in these last few years. And so it could be as simple as the date might be 131 2026, but I will I will look. >> Great. Gotcha. Thanks. Any other updates from the body? >> All right. Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor sign say I. >> I. >> I. We'rejourned. [Music]