[Music] All right, with it being right at 7 o'clock, uh Julian, can we get roll call? Council members Larson here, Miller here, um Ericson and Valento are absent, and Mayor Roberts here. Right, if you're able, please stand for the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, council, we have a uh amended agenda in front of us uh with a couple absence absent council members. We did make a few changes. Uh so do is there a motion to approve the amended agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the amended agenda. Second. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. We have an agenda. Awards and presentations. Nothing this evening. Uh open forum. This is an opportunity for anyone to come speak uh any city issue. Uh please state your name and address and limit your comments to three minutes. All right. Looks like we don't have anyone this evening. All right. Next item, consent agenda. Uh, is can I get a motion on tonight's consent agenda? I'll make a motion to accept the consent agenda items A through L. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I opposed. We have a consent agenda approved. First item on the regular agenda resolution establishing chip-in program. Mark and Dave Adams. Uh so, Mr. mayor and council. Um, at our work session uh recently, we were able to kind of review this proposed uh program where uh we would aim to prioritize some lowcost and high impact improvements around town. Uh whether it's a crooked sign or weeds in the median or various things of that nature. And um again, this will just sort of the resolution that's in front of you direct staff to do a couple things to um enact that program. Namely, some of those things include uh working with other agencies. So, a big part of some of the issues that we see around town that we've been kind of dealing with chronically, if you will, are are um aesthetic issues with our rights away that aren't our rights away, right? So, that state and and county rightaways through our city, um while they are under jurisdiction, reside in our city, right? And so, there's a a desire for us to take better care than the state or the county really cares to and and I don't mean that in a to slight the state or the county but that's just not their business right they're in the business of moving people keeping things safe and keeping people moving and we as a city were we've got a little bit more than that on our plate we we also are in the business of safe and efficient roads but we also have an aesthetic uh that we care about a business community that we care about um a quality of life that we care about and so our priorities are a little different and um with this resolution directing staff to make the necessary arrangements with those agencies to be able to have either our crews or our volunteers working within their those right waves uh to enhance the aesthetic of those areas. Um and so this is you know the establishing resolution here is really um purposely somewhat broad to allow this initiative to kind of morph and and be scaled as we fit as we go forward here. Um we're going to kind of um move into this process in the next couple of of weeks and months and see how things go. And then of course we'll have the winter months which will be a little bit of a uh probably a down tick in in some of the activity and then again next summer we want to hit the ground running early as well. So um again we're we're leaving it sort of broad so we can shape and mold this program into what we want it to be long term. I would take any questions and I know Dave would be happy to answer any questions you might have on the on the campaign as well. Great. Anything? No, no questions. uh we had a pretty lengthy discussion on this at the last at our workshop and so um I I think I really appreciate uh both your effort and Dave's effort his and his staff and you know as you as uh administrator stats mentioned this this really is addressing areas that that aren't typically our responsibility but taking ownership on that I think the council was in full agreement that we needed to do more of that and and with that I mean uh as far as far as our staff and the great job they're doing. Nothing slighting them at all. I I think they're doing a great job. Um and we are asking a little bit more. And if it becomes a situation where we do need some more staffing, especially seasonal, to do that, I think this council will be very open to that uh to to get this program kicked off and continue and and just be taking some care of some of these other areas. So with that, is there anyone interested in making a motion? Mayor, I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 25-06-23-0 or-1 formalizing the chip in program aimed at enhancing the city's aesthetic and building community pride. I'll second that. All right, we have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, next item, July 28th council meeting, chamber golf event. Uh, Mark, Mr. Mayor and Council, I uh understand that at um at various times in the past, we have rescheduled the meeting, which conflicts with the chamers's annual golf event, which is kind of their premier event and is a quite a big deal in our city, and want to avoid any conflicts with either members of the council, staff, or or residents that are planning to attend one or the other. make it because of each one. Um so just in front of you for consideration if you'd like to reschedu that date um or um you know cancel it all together or something of that nature. So anything that you guys would like to discuss as a for grabs any any thoughts on that? Just checking my schedule here. Yeah. And I think, you know, in my staff report, I I believe we suggested a couple of days just later in the week. Um obviously with the Fourth of July, there's not a lot of opportunity the week after to probably try to get into that week, right? So, um I think I was proposing into the Tuesday or Thursday of that week. So, but this um this is July 28th, not June, right? July. July, I'm sorry. July 28th. Sorry. So, shouldn't have any conflicts there. Um, I I plan on golfing that. I'm a horrible golfer, but I enjoy giving back to the community. It's a fun event and a great way to network and I think it's nice to have some city representation there. So, I I under I I know that uh council member Ericson is planning to golf uh as well. So, I would be I would appreciate that opportunity to uh reschedule if the rest of council is open to that. Do we want want to land on a date then? I'm good on the 28th. The 29th says the 28th on here. Oh yeah, 28th is the day of the event. So it would either be the 29th or the 31st. I'm open on both of those days. Is that a conflict with any staff or any anything? I'm okay to not having one, too. And you know, we can I guess depending on you know, if there's not much of an agenda, we we could consider that. But at this point, I think I'd like to at least set that that date and we can decide that as it gets closer. I would like to make a motion to move it to July 29th. All right. There's a motion. Is there a second? I'll second that. All right. Any further discussion? All in favor? Oh, July 29th, 2025. Any further discussion? All in favor? I opposed. We have a rescheduled meeting, the last meeting for July. Uh before we go into our discussion uh items, uh Mr. Duour, I would you like to say a few words here? Sure. Okay. We went we kind of went through the there was no one going doing open forum, but I I saw you sign up and we always good to see you for one and and always like having a former council member uh address the council. Thank you. Jim Dur, 1531 9th Avenue Southeast Forest Lake. Uh good evening, members of council, staff. You too, Ryan. Uh got a couple of questions. Uh Dan, mostly it's per you. The weed harvester sitting down on uh Beach Drive, the access down there. I don't know if you got if you got control of that or or what the deal is. It's been there last year and this year. Our neighborhood only has one way in, one way out. A lot of neighbors use that access and of course they all come to me and say, "Do something about it." So, is there any way we could move that to somewhere else? There's got to be a dead end street somewhere we could possibly put the elevator and harvester, let it sit. Uh, like I said, that axis gets used quite a bit by my neighborhood and there's only one way in and out. So, if you can look into that, I'd appreciate it. Yeah. Um, so I'll just, you know, we did have some concerns last year. I think, uh, potentially there'll be, I mean, it's really just strategically where that is on the lake, that is the best place for it. Um but uh the hope is maybe it's not there this the all summer and it gets moved. But at this point we can revisit that. But strategically and just time and and effort of going from one end of the lake to the other. That is really kind of a a really good place and it is a public it is city-owned public land. Right. Yeah. And there are there are a hundred of them around the lake if you look at all the dead end streets that that go there and nobody else uses as an access. And this like I said is an access. And I've had probably 30 people come up to me and ask about that. So, we had there all last winter or all last summer rather. It used to sit on the bay, but I guess that property sold out. Correct. Uh the other question I got to bring up is uh about Ben Winnick's conditional use permit that he uh had since uh like 2013 14. Uh he promised to put uh trees up around the barrier of the property as a screening. Um and he's never done that. He's never even tried to comply with that. Uh he put a few in, they died, he never watered them, they never took care of them. Uh I was an arborist myself for 19 years. I I know how trees go, you know. Um but he's still got the building up there and he just snubs his nose at the city about it. I have a conditional use permit for my outdoor boiler. I took my stack down for like two weeks to repair my boiler. I got a call from the city right away. So I I wish that would get revisited somehow. and uh his complaint back then was, "Well, they're going to redo 11th Avenue anyway." It's been 10 years. So, that would be ideal if that could get uh taken care of. Thank Thanks for bringing that up. We'll we'll look into it. Right on. I appreciate it. That's all I have, gentlemen. Have a good evening. Good. Good seeing you, Jim. Take care. Yep. Thanks. All right. Moving to the discussion uh part of the meeting. These are discussion items only. No decisions will be made. anything will come back in front of the council at a later date. Uh first item is a McKinley Creek Estates concept plan review. Abby, thank you. Mayor Roberts, members of the council, Mark Olsen, uh Olsen of Joshua Markham Builders has applied for a new 13 lot single family residential subdivision to be located at 2114 Fondant Avenue North. And that's off the southeast corner of Clear Lake. do have kind of the site location map up for reference. Um the lots do conform to the minimum requirements for the single family residential district. It is a 17 acre site, but over half of it are encumbered by wetlands and other natural features. Um the property gets a little challenging in meeting uh the minimum density requirements of 1.5 units per acre. As we kind of continue through that process, we are with the hope that greater surveying is going to be able to bring that number in conformance with the comprehensive plan requirements. Uh the property would be required to meet about 0.09 acres of parkland dedication. Uh however, this isn't an area that is proposed for parkland needs or needed for parkland. Developer is proposing a a new kind of a headed culde-sac design that again it would be accessed off of Fondant Avenue all the way back to Highway 97. Developer would be responsible for imp widening and improving Fondant Road to the new street intersection and building the street under the street to the city standards. It will conform in the street widths to city standards. However, the street length does exceed the city's min maximum of 500 square or 500 ft. Uh that is one thing that we've talked about will need a variance. The owner is aware of that. Uh but we have talked through some of the ways that it can meet the variance requirements and not be a public detriment. Um there will not be internal sidewalks in the property. Uh however, we will be seeking um a 20 foot wide trail easement that will connect up on the northeast side of the development that will connect to the neighborhood park, Clear Lake Park in this area. This is a pretty significant trail connection for the community in that it's really connecting everything on the southeast side of Clear Lake to not only our trail system, the Hardwood Creek Trail to the high school middle school area, but also because of that access to Hardwood Creek will connect right into downtown. So, it's really bringing a pretty big connectivity component to the um not only the neighborhood, but the community. Um, some items we know are going to need further analysis. Storm water design, ponding, tree inventory, preservation, wetland impacts, all of those things will come in due time. This is concept plan review. So, these are nonbinding convents both from the planning commission and the city council. This was reviewed by the planning commission on the 11th of this month. The planning commission overall was favorable to the development. Um there were some concerns just for things like snow storage, storm ponding, but they understand um as I mentioned that those sorts of things will end up coming back before them. Overall, the planning commission has been in support or sees the support for the project. So, um Mark Wilson is here tonight, the applicant, if you guys have any questions for him. Otherwise, um I'm available if I have questions as well. Again, tonight's the point of tonight's review is non-binding feedback. Um and yeah, that's that's what the concept plan review is. Right. Great. Council, well, two former uh planning commission members, any thoughts uh on on this? Sir, do you have a moment to step up to the podium? the water man. You will be extending the water main. Yes. Yeah. Yes, sir. If you'd like to come up and speak, just state your name and address for the record. Last time I did. Yes. Um the property will extend the water man over to the southeast side of Clear Lake where water currently isn't available. So, there's quite a significant public benefit to the project. Great. Some of them wells are bad or will be bad and won't be able to be replaced because they just won't work. Sure. Sure. So, uh, if you got any questions, it's going to be a real nice comm community. Upper end homes. Sir, if you could state your name and address for Oh, sorry. Mark Olsen, Joshua Markham builders, 7867 Eastwood Road, Moundsville, Minnesota 55112. Great. Hi. So, I was at the planning commission meeting, sir, and uh I know there was a little bit of talk. I know you were talking maybe about even making it a private development. I don't know if there's any more. Well, I want Yeah, I wanted to make it private roads, not for anything. I I keep the same number of lots. Wouldn't increase them. I would love to make it a private road. I would maintain it, maintain the lights, maintain the plowing, this and that. Um, I did one over in Columbus, St. Clair Lakes, and uh that's all private. And what's nice about it is it reduces the and it's right next to Howard Lake and it reduces that impervious condition and and storm water ponding issues and that that's the only reason. Otherwise, keep it city and allow it, you know, but I just think it's such a short area that um it'd be nice if it was private. I I would guess staff is would like it to be remain public. Yeah. Yeah. Our code doesn't really allow for private streets. We internally haven't discussed it since the planning commission meeting, but figured that we would through the platting process. Yeah, I know that came up. I was just curious if that was going anywhere at all or not. No, the only reason I like the public versus the private is the walking trail because there'll use that road to access to that trail. So, the wider the wider the better there. So, into and to that on the trail uh remind me uh the trail on the new trail on 97 is that going to be on the at that point on the north the south side of it'll be on the south side. Okay. And there's nowhere to really cross until you get to uh uh floral bay is it or um Ryan can speak to it. I knew I do believe Mindot does have a couple crossing points. Yep. So there will be a wider shoulder on the north side through this area because you also have those driveways uh with those three existing homes. for garbage service. And then you're going to have a pedestrian crossing at Fondant and Floral Bay to lead to the trail on the south side of Highway 97. Trail will also extend from Floral Bay to the roundabout on the north side as well. So at at Fondet, there is a crossing point there as well. That's that's good. Other thoughts, Kevin? Um I blew up the map as large as I could. Um my only concern would are those culde-sacs large enough Ryan for plows and turning around and uh what do we is that a issue you think or it looks to me like they're pretty small. So I the whole private public is conversations new to me, right? So I don't know if we're compromising some of the street width to have a private road, but we can't have a private road. No, we cannot. It was just brought up at the planning commission meeting. No discussion has taken place about whether or not this would be a private road. Okay. So if the plan that was submitted didn't meet city standards that was addressed in the engineering letter and will need to be addressed at the time of preliminary plat. So the streets will meet the 34 back to back which is our standard urban road section and then uh the culde-sacs would meet our standard culde-sac uh radiuses as well. If I could just add a couple of notes is that one of the main issues here um will be the widening of fondant from 97 up to this development as part of the project and you know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for us to require them to widen one portion of the road and then allow them to have a narrower road. I mean build build the same problem that we're correcting here, right? Um I think in general I'll just interject my opinion. Um, private roads um are often problematic in that inevitably they come back to the city. Residents after 20, 30 years come back and say, "Hey, we're paying the same taxes as everybody else. Why do we have to plow our street? Pay to plow our street." And then what you're left with is you're the city's stuck with a substandard road that we really don't want to try to maintain. And you end up telling these people, "Sorry, but that's what you bought into." and it just doesn't play well 30 years down the road. It seems like a nice idea for all the people that move in originally. They kind of know what they're getting into, but eventually people start to wonder why they're being left out of all these city services. Um, and there's a reason we have these standard widths. It's for public safety. It's for things like garbage service and school buses and all sorts of things that need a little bit more room than a sort of narrow private road would afford. And so I think standard uh staff recommendation will be to stick with our standards and um you know have the discussion from there. I I I I committee I think it's a great looks like a great project. I didn't realize there was buildable land back there so that's a plus. I think that the widening of fondant, bringing sewer in, having that trail connection are all just positives. And so, you know, if planning commission didn't have just had a few issues to work through, um I think it's a great project and thank you for your interest in wanting to invest in Forest Lake. Yeah. No, it's it's going to be a real nice development. Yeah, they're very nice city. Very nice size home sites. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Great soils back there. It's all sand. Okay. It's all sand. Would have never guessed. Yeah. Right. So uh so that's just discussion. So thank you for attending this this evening. I appreciate your time. Yeah, thanks for being here. Have a great great evening. 9 uh B Force Lake Garage Condos concept another concept review plan. Abby, thank you. Austin Halberg of Halberg Marine has made an application to develop vacant land along Forest Road North. This would include the subdivision. It is the site location map is up on your screens. This would include the subdivision of land just north of the Forest Lake Airport. It's about a 20 uh it's about a 30 acre parcel that would be subdivided at first into two parcels. The northerly parcel would be about 23 acres and would eventually house up to 150 garage condo units as well as 3,000 square feet of business office flex space and potentially some outdoor storage is proposed. Um the 7 acre parcel on the south would be a single user. It's a spec industrial commercial with outside storage as well. The property is zoned industrial um and industrial condo multi-tenant structures are permitted in this zoning district. Outdoor storage is not and other uses will be identified at the time of their development. property is also located in the airport overlay district and overall it generally conforms to the underlying zoning and the overlying district but because of some of the um uses such as outside storage and the multiple buildings on the site a planned unit development overlay is required. So, as a reminder, I think most of you know a planned unit development overlay is uh intention is to allow for site flexibility and creativity. It's a way to kind of vary from the city code, but also to help increase the public benefits of the development itself. Uh we have talked with the land owner about uh parkland dedication. It's not an area again that we would want to acquire parkland. Um but we do have some dedication requirements that are cited in the comp or in the in the um staff report. When it comes to things like uh street layout, access and parking, Forest Road is an underdeveloped roadway, but it is designed as a major collector road and so some improvements would be required as part of this development. Similarly to the interstate uh development just to the north, we are in discussions with both parties about how that all is going to work out and timing of the development of that roadway. Access points. Um there were some concerns that were brought up for access points. There's one access point proposed for the garage condos that would be in between the two commercial uh spaces. We city staff has indicated that we would like to have a an emergency access point onto Forest Road as well. One way in, one way out is of a concern to the city. Um, additionally, we're proposing two access points for the littleer parcel where we would only permit one just for access spacing requirements on this type of road. Um the parking is also identified as something that does not conform to city code but again potentially eligible for PUD uh negotiations and that typically we don't allow that parking in front of the of buildings. That being said there could be an opportunity to move some of this parking in the behind the buildings for uh use of by the businesses or even the tenant spaces in the garage condos. But uh the intent of this would be for potential customer parking. So I think as the development plan works out and we come back through platting processes, we'll kind of work through those designs. Architectural standards is another area where we'll likely need to discuss some flexibility with the land owner or with the applicant. Um, right now a 100% metal building is proposed, but that's not to say that we can't try to find ways that metal buildings could be enhanced to make it a little bit more architecturally pleasing. Uh, some of you may know that the city doesn't allow for 100% metal buildings in our industrial district. And so, we'll just have to look at how we can be a little more architecturally pleasing in our design with the development going forward. Um, There are some areas uh things like trails, sidewalks, they're not required, but storm water ponds, landscaping, wetland impacts, all of those things will continue to flush through as the development kind of keeps progressing. But right now, again, this is a concept plan review. The intent of this is to have a dialogue and for the developer to gain non-binding feedback on what the city thinks about the development as a whole. and how um items to maybe be considered as keeping moving forward in that process. This also was reviewed by the planning commission June 11th. The planning commission asked some questions just about conflicts of use like the noise from one unit to another unit. Um they did bring up things like snow storage, impervious surface and storm water. And those are things that the developer will be working through as they kind of fine-tune their site. One thing that was brought up by the planning commission and is of a concern of staff is sometimes that use and the intent versus outcome. These will be nonhabitable condo spaces and the intent of these spaces is for garage use, shop use. Um, but we all know that they might be some recreation use and where do you sometimes draw the line or how could these evolve in an undesirable way in the future? Uh, because it is a condo development, it will have an HOA. So, in some ways, it'll have some self-regulating member um self-regulating itself, but this isn't an area that does allow for living in. These would not be homes. These are garage condos. And so that was one just area too that the planning commission just kind of overall expressed some concern. Generally speaking, the use is allowed by the zoning district. And both staff and the planning commission thought that it's going to be a really nice addition to Forest Lake. So uh applicant asked Halberg and his representative Scott Peterson are here tonight to discuss this with you. If you have questions for them or me, we're available. Great. Thank you. Any questions, thoughts, concerns? You want to step up the microphone, gentlemen? Just Yeah. State your name and address for the record. Uh, good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Austin Halberg. My address is 13129 Geneva Avenue North, Hugo, Minnesota. Uh, I'm a third generation family member leading the Halberg organizations, including our boat dealership, storage operations, and commercial real estate. Today I'm here as applicant for a garage condo development and we're really excited to introduce it. I firmly believe that this project will be great for the community. It serves the needs of residents who need additional space for vehicles, powersports equipment, boats, and RVs. And it also supports small business owners who are looking for affordable spaces to own or lease for their operations. At this time, I'd like to introduce our development leader, Scott up, come ask answer any questions or tell you more about the development. Thanks. Mayor, council members, Scott Peterson, 8860 152nd Street, North Hugo, Minnesota. Uh, representing on behalf of the applicant, Hullberg Marine. Uh, concept plan in front of you. We're excited about it. Staff's been a great advocate to work through this with us and happy to answer any questions you may have. Great. All right. I was at the uh planning commission meeting when you guys first addressed this. It's very very nice. I think it it's a very suitable uh uh development for the for the area. Um you guys is there another development like this somewhere in the area or that you know of that you've built or existing from somebody else? Yeah, there's several new concepts. I would tell you garage condominium has really advanced in the last 5 to 10 years. So if you were to look there's um in the immediate area there's Columbus Minnesota there's big lake there's Madina there's Chanhassen there's Woodbury there's um Stillwater um Holton all those are other examples of this type of concept being implemented developed and ultimately sold as well is there the same size as this or smaller or bigger or I I would say they range the full gamut some of them are bigger much bigger uh development much smaller units a higher unit mix perhaps and other ones are much larger units probably between the 60 to 70 unit mix and I think I recall from the meeting they range I don't know up to 100,000 or more for a rental of a a space depending on size. Yeah, that's correct. So, um the size can range anywhere from you know a th000 square feet to 3,000 square feet, right? And some of these are pre-sold. So, you get that kind of initial tenant in there, initial owner in there and that's kind of what works on the demising plan. I would say average price point is anywhere from 100,000 to several hundred thousand depending on that overall square footage and the sales that you know of have gone rather well. They sell real well. Yes, that's correct. Okay. No, it's great. I think it'll be a great addition to the community stuff. I wish you well with that. Great. Thank you. Yeah, same uh I have the same feeling. A couple things. Uh, I think we covered staff covered a lot of those, but uh, you know, the occup occupancy of it. These are all going to be sold. They're they're not going to be rented. Um, the HOA is typically set up where they can be sold or rented. That allows flexibility from a developer standpoint in case the market's not there. But it also allows uh the attitude of inside of the HOA with rules and regulations, a buyer may have it for, let's say, a decade and then decide they want to rent it. So, there is renting options inside of that HOA document as a governing document. So, as part of your HOA document, do you have a limit on how many can be rented? Uh, we haven't gone through the document yet. So, potentially you could rent them all. Um, yeah, I would say that that's not our business model at all. I can tell you when you start looking at, you know, IRRs, equity multiples, our full intent here is to sell these and move on. Um, and the the st the single point of rental, I think, allows just a flexibility for the developer, right? And so, um, that's the way we've structured. That's the way we've outlined this document here. I I also, if I may, I also think you've got potential uh let's call them community businesses in this market that may not be able to go out and afford a building, right? And so I think there's an option for a company that says, "Listen, I could never buy a $300,000 space, but I've developed and I've grown to where I'm no longer doing Quickbooks at the dinner table or I'm no longer parking my equipment out in the yard or my trucks or my trailers or I'm a painter, I'm a landscaper." And so I think by having that for rent capability, it does provide an amenity to the community and to the business community as well. So your association bylaws, would you have a limit or no limit? I we haven't gotten there. We we really haven't. I mean I we think the market is deep enough that we plan on selling these. That's how the investment is set up. That's how the equity is raised, etc. And if you sold them, then you're saying that that owner could decide if they want to rent them or not. That's correct. Okay. Um, two things that I have a concern about is the metal exteriors. Um, I think, you know, staff talked about it pretty well that, you know, it's not something we normally allow. I certainly personally would love to see a lot more concrete or a lot more solid surface materials versus the metal. Um, and I like to see the parking a little different in front of those buildings. And I'd like to see a lot more landscaping around those buildings. Um, you know, it's it's not like they need to be that visible for renting or usage. And it would sure give it a nice aesthetic. You know, when you drive by the one in Columbus, as an example, off of 23 looks beautiful from the outside, and I'd love to see something like that personally around those buildings. Yeah. And then again, the last thing is the outdoor storage I think is a concern. Um, but obviously we can see what you come up with. Yeah. No, fair enough. And the one picture in the in the deck is actually from the Columbus project, the garage solutions. As just a reference point for those of you here, I know it's close, I know it's local. I would also say, council member, you know, one of the things we've we've attempted to do on the site plan is those first two buildings that is going to have more of a business feel to it, right? And so when you start looking at storefront glass, you start looking at some of those elements, I think you are naturally going to have a higher percentage of class A or class one materials. But we we understand, we'll certainly take a look and and come back with a plan that's that's more advanced. Yeah, don't get me wrong. The idea is awesome. I I'm really for it to just like to see it. We don't want to have personally, we don't want to have situations like we've had in other businesses around here where they build them, they open them, and they don't look very good after a year or two. So, yeah. And I especially for resale for you guys. Absolutely. I can tell you this overall development built out is probably north of a $25 million commitment. So, we need to get this right 100% as well from our standpoint. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I I would echo both uh council members uh comments on both some of the concerns and and the positive. I think it's a there's a great opportunity here. Just a couple questions and this probably might more be direct to staff. Um what is a when you talk about a 25 million, what is the the taxable where is that compared to like multifamily, commercial, residential? Is that a is this a good a good tax base for the city? Would you suspect? Yeah, I mean that's a that's a loaded question. A lot of ifs and ends or buts there, but um yeah, 25 million represents a a substantial investment in the community. Um given the acreage of the site, could something um is there a higher and better use quote unquote? That would take a lot of analysis. you know, I mean, the more vertical you go, right? Um, you know, I know that I recently was involved in a project with a three-story 110 unit apartment building that was evaluated looking at a value of around 30 million, right? So, that kind of gives you a ballpark sense of what this would look like. Um that tax base is a little different though because if this is a business uh businesses are taxed at two times the normal rate where apartments are taxed at 1.25. So there's a lot of like I say moving parts the density of structure on this parcel lends itself to good tax base I would say in general. Right. So, so likely it is tax commercial, not not residential um or a little bit different. It's just it's unique, right? I mean, you have people that are buying these for their personal use. Um so, I just kind of curious. I don't It will not be taxed at a residential rate because these are not residences and they will not be able to be lived. Yeah, that that's that's great. And I will continue to state that in every public meeting going forward. And Mr. Mr. Mayor, if I may just elaborate on that a little bit more. I mean, the site's significantly impacted by wetlands, right? And so, when you start looking at multiple buildings with smaller footprints, that does allow you to yield a much bigger enduser, right, from a square footage standpoint than just a straight single building. How would that look? And then secondly, in regards to going vertical, we've got a 45 foot height limit here because we're inside the the airport overlay. So, we we think that represents about as dense um and about as max utilization as you can for that site. And then just to put it in kind of context, you know, that's 30 acres that currently is classified as agricultural tax basis is, you know, a couple thousand dollars where we're looking at, you know, 100 to 150 individual subdivided PIDs with price points, you know, in the $100,000 range. Uh, so you mentioned businesses. Uh, and maybe I missed this in the packet. Are are people going to just are they going to be able to run commercial businesses out of those front two buildings where there's parking or will they be able to have a business throughout this this whole space here? And if so, what would be allowed for parking and how do you accommodate the parking for that? Sure. Those are great questions and some of that has not yet been vetted with the applicant. Definitely those two building areas are intended for commercial users. um that storefront design. Uh we haven't really gone through the individual unit uses. Um I don't think that there'd be anything in our zoning code that would preclude them, but I think that we'd want to talk through what their business plan is to see how we can help ensure that this is something that fits with the community. I will say this is going to be a secured a secured site that I would imagine the owner and the developer doesn't want a lot of that residential or I don't want to use the word resial transient traffic just coming in and out. Some of the questions that I know other communities wrestle with with this where, you know, to your point about a a mom and pop that's outgrowing their garage and they got a landscape business now they got three employees instead of one, you know. Um, you got parking issues, right? If people are or people reporting here to work, those are current issues. Um, there are building code issues. all of a sudden the the classification of the space is is it a storage S1 or is it all of a sudden elevated to a different thing because people are spending an extended period of time there working there? Is there office space? Is there bathroom? All those questions that again probably haven't been fully vetted and that's why we're just at concept level right now. No, other than some of those concerns, I I think it's great. Uh there definitely is an a need in this area for something like this and uh we appreciate your interest in wanting to invest in Forest Lakes. So for sure. Thank you. Appreciate it. Any other questions from councilors? I have one more question to staff. Is is is or I suppose I could ask you. Are you thinking water and sewer in all these buildings or are you going to do like a one restroom per building or something? Are you you actually going to want water and sewer to each and every unit? That's correct. Yes. Yeah. What's the sack and whack on something like that? We're still working through those. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. It's when you look at it, I mean sack and whack is driven by an intensity of use, right? So this is obviously a different calculation than you know public restroom, gas station, etc. So we'll cross that bridge with staff here in the coming weeks. The only other thing is on this HOA just try to button up as much stuff as possible because we'll end up hearing about the issues u regardless and so as much as you can do that would be appreciated as well as you move forward. Absolutely. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council members. Great. Thank you. 10 staff updates. Uh administrators report. Oh, sorry, I missed one. Sorry. 9 C Comfort Lake Force Lake wershed district board manager vacancy. I don't know how I could have forgot that one. Uh Mr. Mayor and Council, we just want to make it kind of publicly aware that there is an opening on the uh not only is the position uh or the board for board member up, but the incumbent is not electing to rerun. And so um there's a a very open opportunity here for folks to join the waters district board. U we're hopeful that someone from our community can can do that. Um, and this is one of three seats out of five that are assigned to Washington County. And um, essentially eligible people are anyone that lives in the county in the watershed district. If you have questions about where that boundary is, certainly staff can help you figure that out or take a look at their website. You can probably figure out whether or not you're in their boundary. And then um as long as you're not a government official of the state, so state elected or appointed official, you're eligible. So wide range of people and you don't need to be a water expert. You don't need to be an environmental expert. Um we're just looking for people that make sound decisions based on the evidence in front of them. And um so we'd be glad to take your application. The reason um we would like to hear from you is that there's a potential that the city needs to endorse your candidacy. You can certainly fill out the application on the website um the county's website that is uh posted, but um the city would also like to know about your application in the event that we have to endorse that. And so we're working through that with the county right now to determine whether or not we we do need to endorse that. Um we may just decide to endorse it even if they don't need it. Um but we're working through some of those issues with the county currently. So yeah, just wanted to make a public announcement to make sure was aware that that opportunity existed and um certainly just call city hall and we'll help you through the process. I appreciate that update on this. It's an important these are important positions. There's a lot of control. There's big budgets there and so uh having some people uh that are um you know have common sense and want to protect the water and still be pro um development that's really the best fit for that. and we value what the wersheds do and so if we can get some of our citizens involved that'd be great. Any thoughts? Anyone else? Oh, that's good. Thank you. All right. Now, we'll go to staff updates and start with the administrator's report. Yeah, Mr. Mayor, we stand for any staff stand for any questions um on the report in the packet. Otherwise, just a few things I wanted to highlight were that we are very close to making an offer for a finance director candidate and Julie and I have been busy checking references and um getting some of those things taken care of, but uh we feel like we're going to have a successful candidate here very soon. Um want to remind everybody that new meeting start times beginning with our next meeting in first one in July, we will be at meeting at 6 PM here and um that goes for all the city council meetings uh the two council meetings and the work session. And then a reminder that our website has a number of open positions. Uh we have an HR generalist, a building official, a police officer, and an assistant community development director position all open at this point in time. Um so please uh if spread the word, use your social media, especially uh some of the things like LinkedIn and others that are business related, but uh also even Facebook and Twitter work well as well. So please um help us spread the word and if you know folks that are um those in those positions that would be viable candidates. Please let us know. Um with that I think yeah I would take any other questions anyone has. Any questions? Thank you. Stay up here and start with Ryan. Any updates? Uh mayor, city council, just a few things to outline. Uh just want to point out what the close coordination public works director Dave Adams and city administrator Mark Sts and Mindot we've had with uh traffic control changes and related to the highway 97 project. So they've been very responsive and fast acting and um Dave and Mark have been very involved with a lot of those changes too. So just want to point that out. Northshore Trail Updates. Uh if you go to city's website, there is a update little link there and then if you go into it, there's a QR code to sign up for some of the updates yourself or you can go into the web page and subscribe with your email and you can get ongoing updates. So that's being updated at a minimum weekly. Sometimes it's been three times a week just depend on what's going on. So definitely it's pretty very current information if you guys want to really know what's going on when it's going on. So encourage you to sign up for those updates with that. Uh if weather allows this week uh we'll pave the base course on Headarters Parkway. So that'll be a saving grace for a lot of the residents that are living down in that area. uh Eureka public open house to talk about the final design and the project that'll be going to state aid uh will be Monday, July 14th up in the community room 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. So put that on your calendars for before the city council meeting on July 14th. That's what I got. Just a question on on Northshore with the gas line and maybe it's for David. Uh the gas line replacement that's still going on. Is that impeding the project at all or slowing that down uh that you're aware of? I haven't heard of any delays. We spent a lot of time with um before the project was bid to work on staging and stuff like that. So, we're working in different areas right now um primarily. Okay. So, yeah, the only issue that you run into is might be Hayward, that chunk of Hayward that they're going to save for last. So, if you get bad weather and they can't catch that in time, that might not be able to get done. Um, but Northshore Trail, they're they're leaprogging ahead of construction. So, that shouldn't be an issue there. It'll be that chunk of here we're going off of Northshore down the hill that it's still not 100% sure we're going to get that in yet. Okay. Any other questions for Ryan at all? Taska area is all finished, too. Okay. So, I did verify too that the signage is up today for the Everton businesses. We met with Mandata, as Ryan mentioned, has been very responsive. Did put up some additional signage to help those businesses out. So, thank thank you for that. I I happened to go out there and visit those and, you know, Quick Trip is down 80% and they're all struggling out there, but uh appreciate they appreciated the additional signage. So, thank you for everyone for working on on that. Uh Jolene, anything tonight? No additional updates to make if it hasn't already been. Is there any opportunity on those updates that Ryan was mentioning to do that as a social media post on that? Yeah, I can put some more social media out on that. I I did at the start of the project, but I can certainly update that and keep keep that kind of regular as the project goes through the summer was and there and that there was an opportunity for people to sign up for those updates. Okay. Correct. Great. Thanks, Abby. Just a couple things I wanted to highlight in the administrator's report. Um, we did, as Mark had mentioned, we have some vacancies, the assistant community development director position and building official position. Today was the first round reviews of assistant development director position. We do have some very strong candidates. Building official position is open till July 1st. If you know anyone that's interested, we do have planning commission this Wednesday. There's a few different items on there, but one thing that might be of interest to the community is our first retail cannabis application. I'm just giving a heads up. Uh that will come before the city council because we do grant them by interim use permit which can only be granted by the council. And then lastly, um working with the county CDA on the final uh tuning of their repair and renovate loan program. So, as a reminder to the council, the city is receiving local affordable housing aid from the state. It's a metropolitan uh area tax to help support affordable housing efforts. And as part of that, we can use the funds to help support households that make 115% of the area median income. Generally, housing programs don't go that high and certainly never above that 100%. And so, the county has created this new loan program that would be eligible to Force Lake residents for that make more than the area median income. We still have to work through uh the particulars of the our use of the LAA funds and enter into an agreement with the county on those, but we are getting really close to kind of getting something finalized and back before you to start offering that program to our residents. So, I'd imagine by the latest fall, we could start utilizing the county to utilize those funds or distribute those funds within the community. Thank Thank you for that update, Dave. Um, sometimes I get confused about engaging with open form or not, but I can um if if it's something the council would like to bring back and talk about otherwise I can reach out to Jim and explain. I mean, it was a quite thorough look through all the accesses. I mean, not only the weed harvester, but you have to get a truck back there, too, to haul the weeds. So, and to your point through the just the location of those um where the harvest is and cutting. So, if you'd like to bring that up so the council can go through that again, that's we're more than capable doing that. Otherwise, I can reach out to Jim and kind of explain how we got to where we got last year. I I don't know. Probably in it. I I don't know new being new, you're probably not aware of the you know, the situation last year because there was some, you know, a fair amount of feedback on that last year. Um I I understand why it has to be there. Um if there's an ability that trailer is not there for the whole summer and it's just a more limited if we're cutting on one end of the lake and then we move to the other and then pull that trailer out to to be neighborly because you know it is it's city-owned land and we have that access those access points for a reason to do things like this and so it's it's not ideal and I understand when you're you've had that ability to have free reign on that be able to use it which is great that's what they're there for for the public to use as well and something changes that's that's not always easy to to see. And so if there was a way to limit the amount of time that it's there or if the if the conveyor can be moved, you know, over more so that they can still get in there. I I don't know. Those are the only other things I'd be interested in. One of our issues is one of the property owners has tilted their dock all the way to the south. So now we've had a No, we can only have a little angle in there, too. So, uh, and we have and we have to keep them in there just to kind of play the wind. So sometimes we have to cut on this side of the lake because it's the wind's coming out of a different direction. So I would like to say, yeah, we could cut here until middle of July and then pull it out, but it doesn't kind of work that way. It's, you know, you some days just like yesterday or last week Friday, they had to go all the way to the other side of the lake because one kept pushing them pushing them offshore. So I mean, we can we can always look, but we we looked in a bunch of places. You need the water depth to be able to get the harvester in there and you need a place where the truck can back up to the conveyor. And I mean like to his point, Woodland Drive was a good spot for a lot of years, but that property sold and that property owner did not want us to store stuff there and we don't have a big enough rightway to get all our equipment back there. So unfortunately, that's it's just a change. I'm sure they love it that that's not there anymore, but then somebody else probably gets, you know, gets it now, too. So, right. But I'll I'll reach out to Jim and and uh and see if he has any additional questions and and talk to him about it. Okay. I think that's all I have. Chief Newman, two updates. Uh the application period for the position of paid on call firefighter will close on July 15th. Uh we'll start that process immediately after that with an orientation physical agility test and then interviews. Uh start date will be 101. And then uh for the building department for the fire tech position uh that application period closed on June 3rd. We received 15 applications. Uh we did started interviews today. Interviewed four today. We'll have two tomorrow. Uh so far we've had some good candidates. We expect uh to go through that process and hopefully have them start end of July, beginning of August. Great. Thank you, Chief Peterson. Yeah. A few updates for you. Um, last week we hosted the uh, 30th annual uh, safety camp. Um, want to thank public works and the fire department for all their work. Again, uh, this year it was a fantastic event and I also want to thank council member Larson and council member Miller for stopping by. Um secondly, uh as you know, we have the uh officer uh police officer opening and that's because officer Cole Gaspers, uh his last day is tomorrow, and I want to thank him for his three years of service uh with the city of Forest Lake. And then lastly, uh the planning and organizing for the July 4th festivities continues. Um pretty much know what we're doing since we've been doing for so many years now. Um, but a lot of uh time and effort goes in with many many city staff members. So, I also want to thank everyone uh for their assistance with that and we're looking forward to a successful and another great event this year and hopefully no cancellation of fireworks too soon. And uh that's all I have for you today. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. Uh we'll go to uh Council Member Lson. Uh just a couple updates real quick on the planning commission. As you heard tonight, we had uh two concept plans brought before uh the planning commission and they elaborated uh quite extensively on both uh projects and I think they shared a lot of good positive reviews with that. Um next item would be uh we're going to be interviewing uh planning commission member on Wednesday morning and or Thursday morning and Friday morning to fill that Uh so we'll be up to full strength then on the planning commission. So we have two applicants. Two applicants. Great. Yeah, that's great news. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Council member Miller. Um the only update I have is I have a busy week. We have a Comfort Lake Foresight Watershed meeting this week and a schoolboard meeting this week. So I'll be attending both and I'll give you some updates next time. Okay. Thank you. I don't really have any updates. Uh since you mentioned the school board upcoming schoolboard meeting, I I do have a few comments to make. Uh I think by as a rule uh most elected officials should stay in their own lane uh and not focus on other elected officials issues, but uh the school board is going through some uh changes uh of dress code and some other changes. Um particularly dress code. Currently, it is in place where uh swastikas's uh confederate flag and KKK signs or shirts or flags are not allowed at the school. This school board um chair has decided to revisit that for whatever reason. in a I met with him personally here at city hall on Thursday and um as it's as the first reading went it's still in there but after meeting with uh the chair it sounds as though he's interested in removing that so that there will be an opportunity potentially for people to come to the school in Forest Lake here wearing those symbol symbols of hatred genocide and lynching this is not forest lake we welcome everyone here and this is a bad look we've got great staff we have council members here that are willing to work as hard as they can to bring people to Forest Lake, businesses, residents, and all you have to do is Google Forest Lake, and this is the crap that comes up right now. I am extremely upset about this. I will be speaking at the count the school board meeting on Thursday against it. I've reached out to to a number of board members. I will continue to do so. Force Lake is much better than this and we do we cannot let this happen to our school and to our community. That's all I have for this evening. With nothing else coming forward, um we'll adjourn the meeting. [Music]