This transcript features **Mayor Jeff Weisensel** presiding, with presentations from City Administrator **Logan Martin** and Community Development Director **Adam Kienberger**. [0:00] [Music] [1:39] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Whatever when he gets there whatever the actions are that's what I'm looking for. Good evening. I'd like to call the regular city council meeting for Tuesday, February 4th, 2025, to order. If you’d all 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. Good evening. Are there any additions or corrections to the agenda? [2:19] **Logan Martin:** No, sir. [2:20] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Seeing none, I'll move the agenda. All in favor signify by saying Aye. (Council: Aye). Opposed? We have an agenda. First item up is presentation, proclamations, and acknowledgements. Turn this over to Mr. Martin. [2:33] **Logan Martin:** Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. Uh, with our recent police and Public Works campus project, we had a strong focus on Energy Efficiency in the design and in the overall construction of the project. And to get there, we relied on our design partners and then our Utility Partners, both of which provide a design charette process and allow the design to kind of go through an analysis. And so Jen from Minnesota Energy is here tonight to present the check back to the city council and give a brief maybe update or explanation on kind of what the program looks like. So with that, come on up. [3:14] **Jen (Minnesota Energy):** Thank you for having me everyone, thank you. Um, so we'd like to present the city a check for just over $155,000 for the Energy Efficiency design management of the public and police building. Um, I know there was a great deal of thought put into the energy efficiency of the water heater, there's a CO2 ventilation system put in in the garages and car bays—wash bays rather. And I know that as soon as we saw the savings, we were really excited for you. The actual rebate and what you'll be getting on your bill every month for really cold days like this, that will keep your bill down as well. So yeah. [3:55] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Yes, thank you. So we’ll hop down for a quick photo. Part of our accepting, we go down and pick up the check. Awesome. [4:15] **Jen (Minnesota Energy):** I did, I've got the real one. [4:18] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** So we can't—we can't keep this one? This one's not real? [4:21] **Jen (Minnesota Energy):** No. [4:22] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** It won't fit in the ATM. The ATM just doesn't accept those. [4:28] **Councilmember:** Just take it mobile deposit somewhere. [Laughter] [4:34] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Yeah, yeah you're going to be... and I noticed being 15 closer to... [Applause] [4:59] **Logan Martin:** While you're walking up, Mayor, we got a similar check from Excel Energy. I don't remember the number offhand, but so appreciate the partnership from our Utility Partners there. And thanks to Minnesota Energy for the design assistance to make sure we've got a great, energy-efficient building over there off of Biscayne Avenue. [5:15] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Well, and it speaks to our project team and working with our partners to be able to get that. Certainly going forward, those are all important energy savings for our residents to realize that we're trying to do everything we can to minimize those costs. With that, that'll complete item 3A. We'll move on to item four, response to public comments. I don't believe we have any this evening? [5:43] **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** No. [5:45] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** And we'll move on to item five, public comments. Any individuals wishing to come before Council with any subjects not part of our meeting agenda may do so at this time. Please come forward, state your name and address and the question or comment you have for our Council. And seeing no one moving forward at this time, we will close the public comments and move on to the consent agenda. This evening we have bill listings, minutes of the January 21st, 2025 regular meeting minutes, a resolution and consent order imposing civil penalties on several of our local businesses regarding liquor and tobacco violations, renewal of a consumption and display setup permit for the Meeting Place, the order of preparation for an AUAR for Dakota East, application to conduct off-site gambling for Rosemount Area Hockey Association on March 1st at the Rosemount Community Center, on-sale license on public premises for Carboni's, and approve right-of-way easement for Amber Fields commercial road and the request by Maplewood Development for Amber Fields 22nd final plat. Would Council like to pull any of those items for further discussion or approve? [7:08] **Councilmember Tami Klimpel:** Move for the consent agenda and hold E please. [7:14] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** E will be pulled. All right, so with that can I have a motion to approve consent agenda items A through I with E removed for further consideration? [7:23] **Councilmember Tami Klimpel:** So moved. [7:24] **Councilmember Paul Essler:** Second. [7:25] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** I have a motion by Klimpel, second by Essler. Roll please. [7:31] **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Essler? **Paul Essler:** Aye. **Clerk:** Klimpel? **Tami Klimpel:** Aye. **Clerk:** Weisensel? **Jeff Weisensel:** Aye. **Clerk:** Freske? **Heidi Freske:** Aye. [7:41] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** That approves items 6A through I with E pulled. We'll pull up 6E, the order of preparation for an AUAR for Dakota East. Mr. Kienberger. [7:53] **Adam Kienberger (Community Development Director):** Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. Um, just a bit of a longer explanation on a part of a development process which is fairly routine in nature, but just a little bit of an explainer for those who may be watching at home that has a curiosity in how some of this stuff works. So this is an order—so that's essentially we're getting ready to, I call it "check out what's in our cart" right now, to begin the preparation of an AUAR for a project on the east side of town called Dakota East. To kind of orient us to where we're talking about here, this is on our eastern border just south of Highway 42, between Emory and Fisher Avenue. You can see the area outlined here in red on the map. So again, it's on our far east border. So, what is an AUAR? An AUAR stands for an Alternative Urban Areawide Review. So this is a hybrid environmental process between an EAW (Environmental Assessment Worksheet) and an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement). Often used when you're looking at a large area to be developed. On the next slide, I'll kind of go through existing AUARs that we have in place. This is something that is not new to the city of Rosemount. Once the AUAR process is complete, future projects within that area do not require individual EAWs or EIS documents. Several development scenarios are considered and then impacts of each of those types of scenarios within that AUAR and then mitigation strategies for those types of impacts. So within this one being proposed currently, Dakota East anticipates three different scenarios: one consistent with the city's comprehensive land use plan (which is always a requirement when you're doing an AUAR), another that anticipates light industrial development, and then a third that anticipates a technology park. AUARs must be updated every 5 years to incorporate development that has occurred within that AUAR and other changes in state and federal laws—whether that be different regulations from DNR or PCA or other ones—to make sure that we always have a fresh version of that environmental document that takes into consideration most current mitigation strategies. So the first step in that process is publishing what's called a scoping document, basically outlining what's going to be studied in that AUAR. Adopted AUARs within Rosemount currently: you see on the map here, a large portion of the community, primarily on the east side of Rosemount, are currently within active and existing developing areas under AUARs. The largest of which is UMore—everybody should be familiar with that—but you can see the different ones here: UMore, Akron 42 which consists of some of those areas kind of in the central area of Rosemount just east of that, Rosemount Industrial, jump over Highway 52 to our East we have an active AUAR for Rich Valley East, and then the one that is beginning work, Dakota East, on the far eastern side of town. Timeline: scoping document for the AUAR was submitted for the required 30-day comment period back in December to the review agencies and then made available to the public. Comments were due on January 16th of this year and those are attached and will be incorporated into the draft AUAR. So that's the stage that we are at—the scoping document is complete, comments were received, and now we're getting ready to start that work. Once the draft AUAR is complete, it'll be published in the EQB Monitor for a 30-day review by agencies and the public. So a typical process here; this is where we'll receive comments from Met Council, Dakota County, DNR, PCA—that sort of thing. And then those comments that are received will be incorporated either verbatim or with commentary on how their comments will be incorporated or mitigated as a part of the strategy within the final AUAR, which will then be published in the EQB Monitor for a final 10-day review period. And then at that point, that's where kind of the final findings are made, and then it will come back for Council adoption at that point in time. So this is the beginning of the process. There's not really a whole lot to talk about regarding any proposed development scenarios at this point; what we're doing is we're merely starting the process to study that area. Couple important things to note as we get this underway: before any construction or any development can occur on that site, they must go through of course all required approvals. It doesn't preempt them from anything that would be typical of any of our regular City processes: site plan, platting, PUDs, that type of thing. And then if development that would be proposed is inconsistent with the city's adopted future land use plan, an amendment to the city's comprehensive plan must be approved, and that's an entire other process that would be done at that time. And then the learnings or the findings from the AUAR would be applied to any future development applications within that study area. So that's a bit more of a 101 on what AUARs are and the process that we're at for the project that we are seeking the order for this evening. I can certainly stand for any questions and hopefully that was a good overview for anybody who may be watching. [13:21] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Floor is open to Council for any questions or comments. [13:25] **Councilmember Heidi Freske:** No questions. [13:26] **Councilmember Paul Essler:** For me, no further questions. [13:28] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Thank you for the explanation, appreciate it. With that, would someone like to move the motion to adopt? [13:35] **Councilmember Heidi Freske:** I'll move a motion to adopt a resolution ordering the preparation of an AUAR for Dakota East. [13:46] **Councilmember Paul Essler:** Second. [13:47] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Motion by Freske, second by Essler. Roll please. [13:54] **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Klimpel? **Tami Klimpel:** Aye. **Clerk:** Weisensel? **Jeff Weisensel:** Aye. **Clerk:** Freske? **Heidi Freske:** Aye. **Clerk:** Essler? **Paul Essler:** Aye. [14:04] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** That completes 6E and completes all the consent agenda items for this evening. Move on to public hearings; there are none this evening. Unfinished business, which we have none. New business, we're anxiously awaiting but have none this evening. And then announcements, City staff updates, Mr. Martin. [14:19] **Logan Martin:** Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. Nothing super topical on my list tonight, just to give the community—we mentioned last time—that we met in a goal-set session last week. We did that, had a really nice conversation over a good lengthy afternoon with Council and staff just confirming the direction of the city and the work plan for staff as we go forward this year. And so I thank the Council and staff for a really productive goal setting/strategic planning session last week. Otherwise, just we're in a deep hiring process; have a lot of open jobs at the City at the moment and seeing really good turnout in some of those pursuits for some new team members as we grow and see retirements and things of that nature. So excited to see that, but always encourage folks to take a peek at our website if there's any interest in working for the city. Beyond that, Mayor, I don't think I have anything else to flag. [15:08] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Righty. Anything from Council? Announcements? Anything? All right then, we'll go ahead and move on to our calendar, upcoming events, closures. So the next event here is City Hall will be closed on President's Day, February 17th, all day. And our next get-together will be Port Authority on February 18th from 6:00 to 7:00, and City Council will meet following that from 7:00 to 8:00, both here at City Hall. And with that, if there's no other business to come before us this evening, I will move to adjourn. Is there a second? [15:49] **Councilmember Paul Essler:** Second. [15:50] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** I have a motion and second to adjourn the meeting this evening. All in favor signify by saying Aye. (Council: Aye). Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you. [16:03] [Music]