[0:00] [Music] [0:59] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Good evening. Call the regular city council meeting to order for Tuesday, February 18th, 2025. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. Welcome, everyone. Is there any additions or corrections to the agenda? [1:41] **City Administrator Logan Martin**: We have one addition to the agenda, Mr. Mayor. It is item 6K, lifetime change orders number 14 and 15. [1:47] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: All righty. I'll move the approval of the agenda with item 6K added. Is there a second? [1:51] **Councilmember Paul Theisen**: Second. [1:52] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: All in favor signify by saying "I." [1:54] **Councilmembers**: I. I. I. [1:56] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Opposed? We have an agenda. First item up: presentations, proclamations, and acknowledgements. But before we start this item tonight, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge and support our neighbors in Burnsville who are honoring the lives of three Public Safety officers who lost their lives in the line of duty one year ago today: police officer Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge, and firefighter paramedic Adam Finseth. All three paid the ultimate sacrifice while working to save the lives of seven children. In addition, I'd like to acknowledge the bravery and experience of our Rosemount officers who assisted on scene that day: Sergeant Shawn McManamy, Police Officer Anis Ahmetovic, and Police Officer Trevor Wagner. Today, let us honor the memories of Paul, Matthew, and Adam with a moment of silence. [3:21] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Thank you. We know there is an inherent risk involved in the honorable profession of a public safety officer. As we sit here in the chamber full of police officers and their families, I want to remind you of the pride and gratitude we have for the work you do. I know this sentiment is felt both in this room and throughout the Rosemount community. Thank you for your service. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Chief Thomas for our next item on the agenda. [3:57] **Police Chief Carson Thomas**: Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. I appreciate that moment of silence for Burnsville brothers and sisters over there. It’s a tough day for them and a lot of us in this room, and I appreciate you guys taking time to do that. So, on a lighter note, we are going to welcome our newest member to the department who recently passed probation, and that is Officer Clay Morgel. In the fall of 2023, the police department conducted a hiring process for a police officer position and fortunately, Clay applied and was selected to start in January of 2024 as badge 3572. Born and raised in Burnsville, Clay grew up as one of four boys. He attended high school in Burnsville, graduating in 2018, and he balanced full-time work with his studies at Normandale Community College. He demonstrated both a strong commitment to his education and his career development. Clay has a solid background in security, having worked two years for Target and two years for Aldi. Following graduation with an associate's degree in law enforcement, he then completed his skills training at Hennepin Technical College. During this training, he served Rosemount as a community service officer for nearly a year before being promoted to police officer. Clay is another shining example from our CSO program, and I just want to point that out—that, you know, it's been more and more difficult to find qualified applicants in the law enforcement profession, and what the CSO program allows us to do is see a person's work ethic, how they respond to feedback, their punctuality, how they treat members of the community... that kind of stuff over a much longer period of time. And he knocked it out of the park. He made it so clear that he was the person that we should be hiring that it just shows how important that program is for us. Clay had a lifelong passion for law enforcement and always wanted to pursue a career as a police officer. He values strong work ethic and strives to be a good human first in all of his interactions. In his personal time, he enjoys spending quality time with his loved ones, watching movies, and planning his wedding with his fiance, Hattie. He reports that he's honored to join our team and excited to serve this community. As has become tradition, I want to point out a couple examples of Clay's work over the last year. So, as you know, they go through a one-year probationary period after being hired, and he recently completed that last month. In the last year, he's done a ton of stuff, but I picked out three that jumped out at me. This first one, you know, he talks about being a good human first, and I think that this example is one that demonstrates that he puts his money where his mouth is. On December 15, 2024, Officer Morgel and other officers responded to a call—this is from one of our residents—at my residence when a vehicle took out my entire fence along Connemara Avenue. All of the responding officers and the firefighters spent at least an hour cleaning up the debris. More importantly, the officers quickly found and pursued the driver who damaged the fence; he fled to Burnsville where he was apprehended. Rosemount Police Department and Fire Department really came through for us tonight. Please pass on our thanks to all the first responders who are on scene. So, we've got a mission statement that talks about not just enforcing laws, but assisting and educating the public and resolving problems. This would be an example of that—they could have just left the fence where it was, but our staff took it upon themselves to spend an hour cleaning up the debris. So that's an extra form of service there and the type of person that Clay is. Another example: on September 5th, Officers DeBauche and Morgel responded to a report of a medical emergency on Banyan Lane. Dispatch reported that a female was having difficulty breathing. Upon their arrival, they quickly determined that the female was not breathing and did not have a pulse. They worked together and immediately applied an AED while the other began CPR. A shock was delivered, and they continued CPR. After a short time, they reassessed and determined that the female had a pulse but was still struggling to breathe. Officer Morgel applied oxygen and began to assist her in breathing while Officer DeBauche administered Narcan. The officers continued coordinated medical efforts with M Health Fairview Ambulance and Rosemount Fire, and after a short time, the female had a strong pulse and was breathing with limited assistance. And in the last example, just a month of being off FTO, Clay played a very important role in apprehending a homicide suspect out of Lakeville. That suspect was on the run, and Clay was able to locate the suspect's unoccupied vehicle in a Rosemount neighborhood. This provided a strong starting point for the subsequent search and successful apprehension of a dangerous suspect who was found in a resident's backyard. Clay also recognized and secured evidence that would be important to the Lakeville homicide case. So, as you can see, he's made a very strong impact in the first year. First words that come to mind when I think of Clay are genuine and humble. He's a quiet guy from what I know—maybe that's not the case at night when they're running around—but we are so proud to have him on our team. Would you all please join and welcome Clay as the newest officer of the police department? [9:14] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: All right. And Clay, who's going to be pinning on your badge tonight? [9:17] **Officer Clay Morgel**: My mother. [9:18] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: All right, so we'll start with the oath of office and we'll do the badge pinning right after. I, Clay Morgel, do solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States, the State of Minnesota, and faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of the police department, City of Rosemount, in the County of Dakota and the State of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability. So help me God. [Applause] [10:20] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Again, nice job. [10:30] **Officer Clay Morgel**: You guys all come to support me, so thanks a lot guys. [11:00] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. As the last ones are filing out here, we do retain some people here still in the meeting, so we'll continue to proceed. We'll move on to item four, response to public comment. This evening I don't believe we have any responses to provide. We'll move on to public comment, item five. Is there anyone wishing to speak to Council on any item not on the current meeting agenda? If so, please step forward, state your name and address at the podium. The floor is open. [12:13] **Mark Enex**: Good evening. I'm Mark Enex. I live on Claire Downs Path here in Rosemount. I'm a member of the Rosemount Community Band, and I'm here representing the community band. As part of tonight's consent agenda, I understand there is an approval—hopefully the approval—of a donation from the city to the band to support a commissioned piece. I just wanted to thank you. We're well into our fundraising effort, we're getting a lot of the details put together, and we're targeting a near end of October presentation and initial release of that song. We've got a composer underway who's composing, and this is to honor John Zschunke, who's been a key part of the music program here in Rosemount for 30-plus years. So I just wanted to thank you. I appreciate the city's support for all these years since the band started back in 2008, and it continues to stay strong today. So thank you. [13:08] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to come before Council? Anyone else? Seeing no one, then we'll close the public comment and that completes item five. We'll move on to consent agenda item six. This evening we have Bill listings, which is where the donation information was received. We have minutes from the January 30th and February 4th regular and work sessions. January 30th was the special work setting. Proceeding to 6E, Municipal State Aid mileage revisions which adds Connemara and Aspen Avenue to our Municipal State Aid; acceptance of Caramore Crossing first and second additions; request by Greg Stener for renewal of the permit for gravel; request by Maplewood Development for Amber Fields 21st final plat; the Prestwick Place 24th Edition accepting those improvements; a donation acceptance from Merchants Bank for $1,000 related to Leprechaun Days community events; and item 6K, which was added for the lifetime change orders 14 and 15, essentially a credit. Anyone wish to pull any items for further discussion or comment? [14:58] **Councilmembers**: No. No. [15:00] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Seeing none, would someone like to move the consent agendas A through K? [15:03] **Councilmember Paul Theisen**: So moved. [15:04] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Is there a second? [15:05] **Councilmember Tami Klimpel**: Second. [15:06] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Roll please. [15:07] **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Essler? **Councilmember Paul Essler**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Klimpel? **Councilmember Tami Klimpel**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Weisensel? **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Theisen? **Councilmember Paul Theisen**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Freske? **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: I. [15:11] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: That completes item six, consent agenda passed. This evening we have no public hearings, item seven, nor unfinished business, number eight. For our item under new business this evening, the request by Northwind Test LLC for a preliminary and final plat approval and rezoning of 60 acres from A-2 to B-2. With that, I'll turn it over to our Senior Planner. [15:43] **Senior Planner Anthony Nemcek**: Thank you, Mayor, Councilmembers. The Planning Commission heard and reviewed this item and held a public hearing at its meeting on January 28th. Before the Council tonight are two requests: preliminary requests before any development can occur on that site, rezone of the site into conformance with the city's comprehensive plan, as well as platting of the site to split it off from the greater UMore Park area and create two buildable lots as well as dedicate right-of-way for a future or new 151st Street East. The site itself is 60.7 acres and it's located immediately south of the Meta Data Center project and west of Blaine Avenue. As you can see with the existing conditions on the aerial photo before you, there is a private university-owned roadway that runs through the site. That roadway will be removed and replaced with the new 151st Street right-of-way that will be dedicated with a plat, which I will show you a little further on here in my presentation. The city's comprehensive land use plan designates this subject parcel for business park development. The site is also within the city's Municipal Urban Services Area boundary. So the proposed rezoning would be from its current agricultural zoning district to B-2 Employment. At this time there would not be a PUD overlay, as there is on the Meta Data Center site, but that is likely to occur to accommodate multiple principal structures on a single parcel. The proposed plat that the Planning Commission reviewed and found to be consistent and in conformance with the city's plan or zoning code is before you here. As you can see, there are two buildable lots that would be created: the larger principal or main parcel where the proposed Northwind testing facility would be located, as well as a smaller parcel in the northeast corner of the site for a new substation. In addition to those two is the 151st Street right-of-way here. So before you tonight are simply the rezoning and the plat. Prior to any additional development of the site, there would have to be entitlements such as a site plan review for both the electrical substation as well as the buildings within the main test facility. The applicant is proposing, as I said, to build a testing facility doing wind tunnel type testing for aerodynamics and propulsion. The proposed site plan may very well differ from this very preliminary site plan, but staff included it to provide a little bit more context for how the site will be developed in the future. A couple things to note here: until development occurs to the west, a temporary easement to allow for a cul-de-sac will be constructed here. And then the main site itself will be comprised of a number of buildings containing those testing facilities in a campus-style development, as well as some presence of the University of Minnesota on the site. As I said, in order to allow for multiple principal structures on a single parcel, a planned unit development will need to be approved as well as any final site and building plans for the structures on the site. At that time, the project will be reviewed for conformance with the city code for things like building height, setbacks, parking requirements, and other components within the city code. So, as I said, there are two requests before the Council tonight. Staff and the Planning Commission are recommending the Council adopt an ordinance to rezone the site from agricultural to employment in conformance with the city's comprehensive plan, as well as adopting a resolution approving the preliminary and final plats of Northwind Addition. Staff is happy to take any questions the Council may have. The applicant is present, who would also appreciate the opportunity to introduce themselves and speak a little bit about their proposed project. [20:30] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Any immediate questions for Mr. Nemcek? Okay, you can slide back one. All right, that's fine. And come forward, welcome. [20:37] **David Meyer (Northwind CEO)**: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. I'm David Meyer, I'm the CEO of Northwind. Excited to be here today. Again, our company was formed in 1952. We've been operating a wind tunnel facility in Plymouth, Minnesota since 1960. We actually did testing for the Apollo mission to the Moon in that facility—that was before 494 was built there, but we did it. We're excited to design and build and operate the Minnesota Aerospace Complex in Rosemount. It was actually the original location of the University of Minnesota Rosemount Aeronautical Lab that actually did wind tunnel testing from 1946 to 1962, and we're going to be on a portion of the land that they used and we'll be doing wind tunnel testing again on the same site. [21:56] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Home again! [21:57] **David Meyer**: Yeah, so we're excited. We really are excited to do this wind tunnel testing, which will be used to develop aerospace vehicles. We have our strong partnership with the University of Minnesota; they'll be doing the modeling and simulation work side-by-side with us. We think this will be a really critical research center in the US going forward. So, excited to be here today. [22:00] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Great. Any questions? Any questions? Go ahead. [22:02] **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: Um, so looking at the site plan, I'm assuming all of these on the northeast corner, these are all parking spots, right? [22:07] **David Meyer**: Yes. [22:08] **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: Roughly how many employees are going to be employed at this location? [22:09] **David Meyer**: In the long run, we expect about a hundred employees. We’ll have three wind tunnel facilities, so we'll have multiple customers in at the same time as well. [22:30] **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: Got it. So the number of parking spots is relatively accurate; you're going to need that many? [22:45] **David Meyer**: I think so, I think we've laid that out. Again, this is a little bit preliminary because we're still defining the requirements for the wind tunnels, so everything might change a little bit, but I think in general it's directionally correct. [22:50] **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: About a hundred employees—what’s the makeup of those positions? [22:52] **David Meyer**: It’ll be engineers, technicians, calibration experts... it'll be people doing the computational work from the University of Minnesota. [22:56] **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: And the building on the northeast corner, or up in the northeast half... U of M? What's going to be the presence in that building from the University? [23:09] **David Meyer**: They're going to be doing the modeling and simulation work, so they'll have researchers. You know, we're partnered with the College of Science and Engineering, so it'll be researchers that really are experts in the world at the modeling and simulation side of this. [23:31] **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: Awesome, yeah, thank you. [23:36] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Could you—a couple questions. I got the square footages that we're looking at here. So overall total development, what kind of square footages are we looking at? [23:55] **Logan Martin**: You know, he's really asking how much taxes... [Laughter] [23:57] **David Meyer**: Yep, yep. 200 to 250,000 square feet. [24:00] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: And roughly the overall investment anticipated? [24:05] **David Meyer**: The investment is about $1 billion. [24:10] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: That's always nice to have in your backyard. The timeline schedule—roughly, assuming this goes forward, what's your timeline? [24:20] **David Meyer**: The timeline is about a five-year timeline to get all three facilities up and operational. [24:26] **Councilmember Tami Klimpel**: So just a follow-up question. For five years, you’d be using the same road off of 40 or off of 42 that Meta is using currently? [24:34] **David Meyer**: Yep. [24:35] **Councilmember Tami Klimpel**: Any issues with that with their construction the next three years? [24:38] **David Meyer**: No, I think it's nice they've actually done some of the work to prep it. I think it'll be good that we'll be sort of following in their footsteps. You know, we'll be doing our foundations when their foundations are done, so it'll be actually a kind of good sequence of timing. [25:05] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Back to the schedule—design, like CD-level type things where you're out to bid, will be this year, by the end of this year? [25:13] **David Meyer**: Yeah, I mean, so we're working on the requirements of the facility; that's kind of the first step. And in parallel, we're doing work we can do on the design of the site. So this is going to be a real heavy design year. We would like to break ground yet this summer, though. [25:25] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Oh, okay, good. [25:26] **David Meyer**: That may be ambitious, but that's our goal. [25:27] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Always a good thing to be ambitious. All right, any questions? [25:32] **Councilmember Paul Essler**: I do have one for Mr. Nemcek. Can you explain the dotted line on the bottom near the bottom there? It's called out as the "University of Minnesota 1,000-foot heavy industrial setback." [25:47] **Senior Planner Anthony Nemcek**: So that's a setback that the University of Minnesota has placed for any development on the site. I could defer to Leslie Krueger with the University to explain that further, but it is some of their limitations in place between their different parcels of land that they've sold off on what can go where and how close it can go to other stuff. [26:15] **Councilmember Paul Essler**: I guess maybe to help my confusion a little bit—is that saying that there's no heavy industrial south of that line or... [26:22] **Senior Planner Anthony Nemcek**: My understanding is that heavy industrial could not be any closer to the data center than that line. [26:30] **Councilmember Paul Essler**: Okay, to the north, that's kind of the south end. And none of these buildings are heavy industrial anyhow, right? [26:38] **Senior Planner Anthony Nemcek**: It is staff's interpretation that this would all fall under the Business Park or B-2 Employment zoning district. Any of the testing that will occur will occur entirely within the buildings, and therefore, similar to what you would expect in a business park type environment where there may be some manufacturing occurring indoors. [26:50] **Councilmember Paul Essler**: All right, so that line's more for the data center to the north. [26:53] **Senior Planner Anthony Nemcek**: That is my understanding, yes. Leslie, if you want to just reiterate that, that's fine. [26:55] **Leslie Krueger (University of Minnesota)**: Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Leslie Krueger, I'm the Assistant Vice President for Planning, Space, and Real Estate at the University of Minnesota. And yes, the 1,000-foot mark on the map is a deed restriction that we put in place as a condition of the sale of the land to Meta. So within 1,000 feet of Meta's borders, there's a deed restriction not only for heavy industrial but also residential and schools as well. That was a condition of the sale. [27:40] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Interesting to note that. All right. All righty, any other questions, comments? If there are no other questions or comments, would someone like to move the motions in the affirmative? [28:05] **Councilmember Paul Essler**: I'll make a motion to adopt an ordinance rezoning of the subject parcel from A-2 Agriculture to B-2 Employment. [28:18] **Councilmember Paul Theisen**: Second. [28:20] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Roll please. [28:21] **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Klimpel? **Councilmember Tami Klimpel**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Weisensel? **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Theisen? **Councilmember Paul Theisen**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Freske? **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Essler? **Councilmember Paul Essler**: I. [28:26] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: That passes 5-0. And the second motion? [28:31] **Councilmember Paul Essler**: I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution approving the Northwind Addition preliminary and final plat subject to conditions. [28:44] **Councilmember Tami Klimpel**: Second. [28:46] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Roll please. [28:47] **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Weisensel? **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Theisen? **Councilmember Paul Theisen**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Freske? **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Essler? **Councilmember Paul Essler**: I. **City Clerk Erin Fasbender**: Klimpel? **Councilmember Tami Klimpel**: I. [28:55] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: And that also passes 5-0. And with those two business items, that completes item 9A. Welcome to Rosemount. [29:05] **David Meyer**: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. [29:07] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Yeah, welcome. All right, we'll move on to announcements from item 10. Ms. Malecha? [29:12] **Administrative Services Director Teah Malecha**: I have nothing to add this evening. [29:15] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Oh my god, there was your perfect opportunity! All right, and with that, any announcements from Council? [29:20] **Councilmember Heidi Freske**: I have one. Just a reminder to our residents that Leprechaun Days is having our annual Bingle Bash on Saturday, March 1st at the Community Center banquet room. You can go to LeprechaunDays.org and find more information and pre-purchase Bingo packets. [29:43] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Anything else? All right, then. The community calendar: February 24th, we have a Park and Recreation Commission meeting, 7:00 to 8:00 here in the chamber. Planning Commission meeting also here in the chamber on February 25th, 6:30 to 7:30. The Youth Commission meeting February 26th from 3:45 to 4:45 at 360 Communities. The Fire Department recruitment night is February 26th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Fire Station Number One. And I have a City Council work session and City Council meeting on March 4th—the first one from 5:00 to 6:00 and then 7:00 to 8:00 for the Council meeting. And with that, there's no further meeting to come before us. I'll move to adjourn. Is there a second? [30:28] **Councilmember Paul Theisen**: Second. [30:29] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Motion and second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying "I." [30:35] **Councilmembers**: I. [30:37] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**: Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you, have a good night, stay warm. [30:46] [Music]