[Music] [Music] [Music] okay we're going to get started well that's I'm going to I'm going to try yeah yeah are we ready good evening and welcome tonight is Monday May 6th 2024 this is a regular meeting of the minnona city council I will call this meeting to order and I will ask to have you stand 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 Miss Faulk would you please call Ro Wilburn here Calbert here ra here kley here Foster Bolton here Shaq here weome here um next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda and uh tonight we have perhaps one of a more complex approval of the agenda than we normally have I believe we have a couple of agenda and we also have an agenda Amendment so I'll turn it over to you Mr Funk thank you mayor and good evening Council before I announce the agenda uh additions and the agenda I do want to just announce that with our space here in our council chambers we do have a fire code of 160 I think we're nearing that uh we do have staff that's monitoring that to make sure we're in compliance with the fire code we do have live U streaming out in the hallway as well as in the Overflow room so if staff is ask folks to not enter the council chambers that's why and we do have availability uh in the spaces I just mentioned uh with that mayor and Council two uh two items for your consideration on tonight's agenda the first is item 10d related to the community facility study uh the community facility study report in the packet was not fully loaded so that is now available for your consideration the second item is related to item 14a which is Mills Town twin home excuse me there are additional public com ments that were received after the distribution of the packet and so those are also included for your information so those are the two agenda items uh what is then the third uh item for your consideration is to add an agenda item uh that is uh in front of you here this evening it would be item 10e which would be under the consent item which is a resolution supporting a fiscal year 20125 Community Project funding there is a brief staff report in front of of you I will just read the summary statement for your consideration this is the United States House committee on Appropriations recently announced the community Project funding it's cpf for the acronym request from members of Congress for consideration in the fiscal year 2025 cycle uh this year our Police and Fire Chiefs uh both Chief Bor booom and chief Fox made a request and submitted a requests for consideration through Congressman deep Phillips office for costs associated with the the replacement of portable and mobile radios the current radios have reached their end of life and they are in our CIP so Council as we enter our Capital Improvement conversations for our 2025 budget cycle that has been an identified cost previously it is still in our current CIP but we have an opportunity for grant funding through the US government through representative or Congressman Dean Phillips office so what this resolution in front of you tonight does is a resolution of support for that amount of . 275 million as always we as staff and the city are trying to achieve F funding sources outside of our own property tax dollars and so this is an opportunity for us and we look for your support of that resolution under item again 10e under consent so those are the three considerations thank you mayor and councel all right and Mr frunk just for clarity can we do that all in one motion now that or do we have to do that the um uh agenda Amendment as a separate motion um as I understand it from the city attorney unless she corrects us differently you have one motion for all three items all right so we have before us um an agenda with two agenda and an agenda amendment is there a motion Council M Calbert thank you mayor I make the motion to approve the agenda as amended is there a second and and the the uh agenda item addition very good and Council sha thank you mayor I'll second all right we've got a motion by Council M Calbert and a second by council member sha Miss Faulk please call R Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes Shaq yes weome yes motion carries next item is approval of minutes and we have um um three sets of minutes and they are and I think we can do these all in one motion um we have um item 5A is the April 8th um 2020 for local Board of um assessment and Equalization I always want to say amortization and that's not it it's assessment and Equalization the meeting minutes for that then um we have the April 22nd 2024 uh local Board of assessment and Equalization meeting minutes and then finally the April 22nd 2024 regular meeting minutes is there a motion councilor Shack thank you mayor I move approval of all three that's a minutes and council member ra I'll second all right we've got um and and Council recover do you have a comment I just wanted to mention that I did have a slight um correction correction or or just clarification yeah okay very good so we have a motion by Council M Shack and a second by Council M Ry Miss F please call roll Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes weome yes motion carries so item six is special matters and we've got quite a few of those tonight but 6A is a report from the henen County District Court chief judge Carrie Meyer and I want to welcome you and thank you for being here tonight and uh judge Meyer yes right up here and good to have you thanks for coming evening thank you for having me my name is ter Meer I'm the chief judge of the hanen County District Court for Judicial District what okay um I want to thank you for having me tonight I thank the mayor and uh the city manager from for attending our open house in January and then inviting us to share the information with the rest of your Council and your city um we have a brief video hopefully uploaded correctly um that just doesn't overview you also got a handout right and so this is just kind of a live more live version of that and it saves me from going through a PowerPoint here we go I see someone's driving it'll be there momentarily thank [Applause] you the Fourth Judicial District of Minnesota is is the largest of the 10 districts in the Minnesota judicial branch the fourth serves nearly 1.3 million residents within the 45 cities that make up henpen County the Fourth Judicial District serves the community from six facilities including locations in Brooklyn Center minetonka and Minneapolis we take pride in providing quality service to our community our commitment to service includes many firsts and Innovations the first african- American Chief district judge in Minnesota first live stream of a trial in the state developed e file and serve paperless filing system used throughout the branch self-help centers which have become the norm throughout the state a focus on treatment Courts for drug addiction DWI mental health and Veterans a race Equity initiative launched in 2017 providing text and email reminders of Court appearances which are now standard across the State created a youth Justice Council in juvenile court providing a warrant helpline that reduces failure to appear and helps clear warrants without incarceration the mission of the Fourth Judicial District is to provide Justice through a system that assures equal access for the fair and timely resolution of cases and controversy the four judicial district consists of five Court divisions civil criminal family Juvenile and probate Mental Health Services are provided at six locations henpen County Government Center Family Justice Center Juvenile Justice Center the public safety facility and the Brookdale and Ridgedale cour houses in 2023 the fourth handled over 405,000 filings that is 37% of the state's legal filings our district has 63 judges that number is set by the state legislature in addition we have 13 referees referees are licensed attorneys and in hennipin County we use our referees like judges we also have over 560 employees across our entire District these are the people that support our 1.3 million [Music] residents there are several priorities the fourth is focusing on for 2024 these priorities address the challenges facing our court system and impacting our community to continue providing services in an efficient manner we must address increased filings in housing court with a 76% increase since 2019 the Court's most serious felony filings are consistently increasing each year over 20,000 interpreter requests in 2023 for 83 languages increased need for services for defendants experiencing add addiction and mental health issues increased need for more public defenders to reduce number of self-represented litigant and defendants over 75% of Family Court litigants are self-represented increased need for more Cas workers for the child in need of Protection Services Program the Fourth Judicial District is grateful to the people in our community who give of their time and talents to make the legal system flow efficiently from citizens serving as jur ERS to County and City administrators working with our teams henpen County's residents are served well by the contributions of many together we work toward a better future and equal justice for all so I know you have a very full agenda tonight we do there's a lot of people behind Full House we have tonight um and they're not here for me so um I just have a couple things I want to update you on in 2023 we collected and returned to the city of minetonka 100 over $145,000 in fines and search charges that was your portion of that obviously it helps to pay your prosecutors and so that's how you should think of that money I think um we also last Friday had a warrant resolution event which hopefully you heard about no I'm kidding um but uh we helped over 68 people came in and we got them some Services we recalled a lot of warrants we're still working on the exact numbers resolved some cases um but mostly we had folks who walked away without that burden of having those active warrants on their conscience um we those are rare right those events take a lot of planning a lot of work with the community but we have that warrant help line that you heard about in the video every day so people can always call in if they know they have a warrant we will schedule court for them as soon as they show up we recall their warrants so that's an ongoing Endeavor not just a one-day event um we recently started uh juror support counseling for the trauma that can be um part of the juror experience which is clearly not what we hope for people when they show up for jury service but in those cases where it's just uh the really tough cases Statewide that uh program has just gone into place and we're hoping the legislature will help fund it and finally we continue to adjust our post pandemic realities with um our case distributions and part of my job as Chief is to make sure that we have our resources in the right spot both our judge judicial officers and our support staff and so I continue to watch the filings and things like that if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them otherwise you have a full house well well we do have a full house but but I think your being here is really important and I I did want to say that um your open house that you had that the city manager and I attended was was very informative and very helpful so I'm very pleased that you could be here tonight so Council any questions for judge Meyer Council Shack thank you mayor I don't have any questions but I do want to thank you um on behalf of the city and also on my day job I'm a family law attorney and I know the work that the bench does especially in the family court and hennipen county has really been on The Cutting Edge and has done a lot for prosay litigant and for just moving things along and Swift Justice which I think is really important so I just want to let you know uh we appreciate you and keep up the good work thank you so much anyone else C Cal council member sha said okay very good very good and and I'll just I'll just reiterate that I think you know the the workload and the amount of things that you face um as um as a court system is really significant and this henan County and uh your District I mean this is the largest District in the state and it's really impressive all the work that you do and how dependent we are on the courts and I can speak um I have ch my I have adult children with disabilities and so I've been in Family Court and I have to tell you I was very impressed and and the new forms that are coming out digitally I that is a huge Improvement I love those I mean every may I would have to fill those out and um and U um actually my wife took care of it this year and it was great I didn't even see him so um but thank you I think the improvements that you're making really make a difference in people's lives and they're very much appreciated thank you for that and those comments it really helps us to know that the work we put into that um is is um helpful and I'm always available right part of this is now now we know each other right and so you are always welcome to call me directly if you have any questions about what's going on in court not a specific case but you know we understand we know how that works thank you so much for your time thanks for being here have a good night thank you so item um we have four proclamations tonight so um I'm going to do one and um I've asked other council members to pick up the others so and I need to put my glasses on to read this um so I'm going to uh read the proclamation for National Public Public Works week which is May 19 through 25 2024 whereas Public Works professionals focus on infrastructure facilities and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health high quality of life and well-being of the people of the city of minaka and whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public work professionals who are Engineers managers and employees at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding improving and protecting our nation's Transportation water supply water treatment and Solid Waste Systems public buildings and other structures and Facilities essential for our citizens and whereas it is in the public interest for Citizens Civic leaders and children in the city of minona to gain knowledge of and to maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of Public Works and Public Works programs and in their respective communities and whereas the year 2024 marks the 64th annual National Public Works week sponsored by the American public works Association Canadian Public Works Association now therefore be it resolved that the city of minona hereby proclaims the week of May 19th through 25th 2024 as national public Works week I urge all citizens to join with representatives of the American public works Association and the government agencies in activities events and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our Public Works professionals Engineers managers and employees and to recognize the substantial contribution they make to protecting our national health safety and qual quality of life so thank you to Public Works uh Personnel so that is item B item 6C is the drinking water week Proclamation and council member Shaq will read that thank you mayor uh whereas water is our most valuable resource and whereas drinking water serves a vital role in daily life serving an essential purpose to health hydration and hygiene needs for the quality of life of our citizens to enjoy and whereas tap water delivers Public Health protection fire protection support for our economy and the quality of life we enjoy and whereas communities rely on the hard work performed by the entire water sector to transport high quality drinking water from its source to Consumer Taps whether it's Engineers designing capital projects operators ensuring the safety and quality of drinking water or a member of a pipe crew maintaining the infastructure and whereas all the stewards of the water infrastructure upon which current and future Generations Depend and whereas the citizens of our city are called upon to protect our source Waters from pollution practice water conservation and get involved with their water by familiarizing themselves with it now therefore be it resolved that the city of Min or the motanka city council hereby proclaims May 5th through May 11th 2024 as drinking water weak in the city of minetonka thank you Council mer Shack our next Proclamation um item 6D is the Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Proclamation and Council M Wilburn will read that whereas Asian-American and Pacific Islander her Heritage week was first celebrated in 1978 and first designated a month-long celebration in 1992 whereas Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month seeks to honor the contributions of residents of Asian Indian and Pacific island descent whereas accomplishments from asian-americans and Pacific Islanders have led to Great advancements in culture politics economics technology and more and whereas during Asian-American and Pacific Islander heritage month we acknowledge Asian-American and Pacific Islanders who live in and work in motanka and acknowledge their contributions to the success of our community therefore be it resolved that the minota city council does hereby declare the month of May as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the city of motanka thank you councilman Wilburn and then finally um item 6E is Jewish American Heritage Month Proclamation and council member Calbert will read that thank you mayor and uh I'm happy to do this it's the day after the community celebrated Yom asua which is Holocaust Remembrance Day um which was yesterday uh at my own congregation so this is Meaningful to me whereas Jewish American Heritage week was first celebrated in 1980 and expanded to Jewish Heritage Month in 2006 and whereas Jewish her American Heritage Month seeks to honor the contributions of residents of Jewish descent and whereas accomplishments from from Jewish Americans have led to Great advancements in culture politics economics technology and more whereas during Jewish American heritage month we acknowledge Jewish Americans who live in and work in motanka and acknowledge their contributions to the success of our community and whereas acknowledgement and understanding can help challenge anti-Semitism and break negative stereotypes about Jewish Americans and the Jewish faith and furthers the city's commitment to being a leader in racial equity and inclusion therefore be it resolved that the minetonka city council does hereby declare the month of May as Jewish American Heritage Month in the city of minetonka thank you Council M Calbert so that ends item six special matters and we move to item seven which is reports from city manager and council members and I will first turn to Mr Funk thank you mayor good evening again Council couple it it for your consideration one is first Public Works related with the nice weather you probably noticed our street sweepers have been out that work has wrapped up this last week so I appreciate our staff and it does take about a month's worth of work to complete that and it beautifies our community also just want to mention that our forestry staff in collaboration with the University of Minnesota held a tree stward Workshop this past Saturday in the community center so again thanks to our staff and for everyone in the community that participated in that um in that event uh last last thing I just want to mention quickly is um a little dear to my heart is a silver skates ice review uh so it's ice skating and for those that have not participated or been to that event over the years it was uh this last year our 48th annual review so long-standing event my niece is a skater but if you it's a three-day event uh that spans Thursday Friday Saturday it's it's a couple hours in length and just tremendous skating uh that happens at our ice ring so huge uh thanks to our staff uh John Heckman our Ice Arena manager and our staff that convert our ice skating rink to ice or ice rink to ice skating for the event the place is packed for three days in a row so really appreciate the efforts and what a great Community event so with that mayor and Council I turn it back to you thank you all right thank you Mr Funk um council members do you have any reports to make anyone uh council member Calbert I will keep it hopefully exceedingly brief um I just wanted to report that I did attend the Southwest Suburban cable commission meeting since the last meeting and it seems like it might be boring but there's a lot of legislation having to do with your access to broadband cable um there was legislation um that was very important to broadband for all at the state legislature and there are there is rul making at the FCC that would enable um cities once again to recapture some uh franchise fees which which would allow us to do things like fund community programming which is important because as our local papers start um going out of business it's still a way of getting really important news out to the community um and they also talked about we we talked about things like uh legislation regarding Ai and so forth so it was a very informative meeting and I also wanted to once again um just mention that um it was uh yum hasawa the uh Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday and it was especially um meaningful um for the Jewish Community because uh these are very uh difficult times and we need uh support in the community um these are dark days it there hasn't been this much anti-Semitism since World War II and I've been very grateful for people in the community including Pastor lant who was at a an Interfaith uh Thanksgiving uh service this past fall with my Rabbi and some other clergy people uh for his support to the Jewish community so uh I just wanted everyone just to give it a little thought um we lost 6 million people uh in World War II including several of my family members and um we lost 1,400 people in Israel and there are still people who are captive so there are people that are hurting and um I just thank you for uh letting me speak about it for a moment thank you Council M Calbert uh councilor kley thank you mayor I just want to say something about um on Friday my daughter and her friends was walking up excels here and um as they were walking they saw in the bushes right off the exceler between the fire department and um um Hilltop um they saw our my yard signs and some rank Choice voting yard signs um bagged up and tossed to the side of the road and in some bushes and I just want to bring attention to since we have a nice crowd here to talk about how you know this is a community um we're candidates um we have different people care about different issues whether rank choice or whatever it is you know we got the no zoning signs you know people should not be stealing removing people yard signs I know um Jen West Merlin just came off the same issue um I have a neighbor who put signs in his yard for candidates he let anyone he it it doesn't matter which candidate you are he doesn't he let each side put a yard sign there and folks was taking her yard sign signs they've taken several of my yard signs and I just think it's very disgusting disgusting that we have folks in our city that does this um I just you know it's really sad that a 15-year-old and her friend had to find these signs there and I had to talk to my daughter about how it's inappropriate it shouldn't happen and if my daughter can understand that I know the folks in our city can understand that I mean it's not right I don't think it's fair um I think it's disgusting and I just think people should be adults or because I don't think children are doing this so folks should be adults and they should be respectful of other candidates in other issues and they just shouldn't do it so um I just appreciate if we can regulate our emotions and get ourselves together thanks thank you Council M kley anyone else uh councelor Shaq thank you mayor just briefly you know we've got a lot a lot of Elections run as a city this year and staff did a fantastic job with the um special primary election last week if you were here it was like a well oil machine although there was a lot of stuff going on but in and out in you know a couple minutes flat and so that was that was great and thanks to staff and all the folks who voted also we're going to turn around and do it again next week and so um really appreciate the hard work that's gone into that anyone else all right go ahead follow up on uh council member Shacks thank you mayor uh to follow up on council member sha uh remark I just want to uh say a special congratulations to minona which had the highest turnout of all the cities in hc6 so well done minetonka well thank you council member ra I've got I've got a couple things today anyone else I want to make sure I don't step on anybody um so a couple of comments one is on April 24th I attended the fenel summit that was put on by the justice department and Andy Luger hosted it and um it there's a good number of people there I thought it could maybe we could have had a few more people there because it was an important topic and you know fentol is not something I spent a lot of time thinking about but I want to provide there was it was very moving and it was very significant the first panel that was there was of families who have Lo lost loved ones to um fentanyl poisoning because that's really what it is I mean there's there's certainly drug abuse but fentanyl is one of those drugs that um you can be pretty innocent and end up dead and um but it's not about who's ending up that it's it's a risk to everyone and um so there were a couple of Statistics that I thought were really significant um the strib said on Friday or this weekend that last year min Minnesota traffic deaths are down there 413 people died in Minnesota on our highways in 2023 last year there were over 1,000 fentanyl or um opioid overdose deaths in Minnesota two and a half times the number of people that we are losing on the highways um another statistic that came out was that of the fentanyl that's being intercepted and a lot of fentanyl comes through Minnesota through the air uh through the airport 70% of the fentanyl pills that have been intercepted by law enforcement contain a lethal dose now think of that I mean how many how many people sell products that kill 70% of their users I mean it's remarkable now I don't think 70% of the people who use that product end up dead because of Naran and because of the interaction of um um Public Safety people and increasingly Naran is becoming available but that is a I mean it's just a horrific set of circumstances and statistics and anybody can be affected and that's the point because fentanyl is showing up in places that you never suspect it and innocent people um kids who go to a party and have no intention of getting high or doing anything appro inappropriate end up with fentanyl and dying and the stories that we heard from this panel were heart-wrenching to hear um what is happening so that the time it was a it was a full afternoon it was time well spent but I would just urge everyone who is here tonight and just be educated about this because this is not just a risk to other people this is a risk to you and your family um it can happen to anybody and so um that was uh that was really relevant and and important so I wanted to share that and I and I promised that I would um get um some notes that I took from that um Summit to um to the staff so they can share it with um council members and I'm also going to do it to um with a mayor's group that I'm part of so that we can get the word out but it was a very worthwhile investment of time and then the other thing I want to just jump back to the election um you know we have a um um a early voting for the primary for the district 6 henen County Commissioner seat has started already um you can come to special election yes um the special election yes it is a special election because we um our district has been operating without a commissioner um for a good number of months because our previous commissioner resigned so we've been unrepresented at the Han County Commission so this is an important election and it's an easy one you can get in here all the Voting is taking place at City Hall if you're a minaka resident it's a one dot election I mean there's there's uh going to be two candidates on the ballot you have to pick one and um and uh things really went smoothly for the primary and I'm hoping that but I'm I'm also hoping that people think well we voted in the primary and the person I wanted didn't win or the person I wanted win and and the margin was good I don't have to show up I would urge you that it's very important to show up for this election it means a lot to our city and to our residents because henpen County controls a great deal of our lives and frankly they get a big chunk of the tax dollars you paying property taxes so you you do care about who your henen county commissioner is and so uh please show up and vote it's important and you'll be treated well here at City Hall I promise you that so um that's that um so that brings us to item eight which is Citizens wishing to um discuss matters not on the agenda and this is an open mic opportunity um and if an item is not on the agenda and you want to make the city council aware of it please come forward state your name and address and we will note your concern and we will turn it over to staff we will not take any action on whatever you say tonight but it will be followed up upon so um is there anyone who has something they'd like to report to the city council anyone at all all right seeing no one we will move on to bids and purchases and we have none of those tonight so that takes us to the consent agenda and the consent agenda is items that are typically routine so rather than vote on them and discuss on them discuss them individually I will read these items into the record if anyone on the council or in the audience would like to pull an item for further discussion please uh raise your hand and indicate that you would like to do that then we will vote on the items that are not pulled and they will then we will return to the items that have been pulled for further uh comment and discussion so we just have a few items tonight and item 10A is an ordinance amending section 325.00 61b of the city sign regulations relating to Temporary non-commercial signs item 10B is an interim use permit for the relocation of an existing Garden Market at 17501 Highway 7 item 10 C is an ordinance amending section 845 .030 of the minaka city Co code relating to maintenance standards for lawns and managed natural landscapes and item 10d is the community facilities study and I know staff's holding their breath to see if I'll remember the um added item item 10e is a resolution supporting the 2025 Community Project funding so does anyone want to pull an item or is there a motion council member sha thank you mayor I will move approval of consent agenda items 10 a 10 B 10 C 10 D and 10 e and I'm just going to make one brief comment which is we talked at length about the community facility study at our last study session which was joint with oh no not that part of anyway doesn't matter um so if people want to hear that discussion they can find that recording on the website because it is very interesting so I just wanted to make note of that very good and is there a second council member Wilburn I will second very good so we have a motion by council member sha and a second by council member Wilburn Miss Faulk please call roll Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes weome yes motion carries item 11 is the consent agenda items requiring five votes and we have none of those tonight item 12 is Introduction of ordinances and we have none of those tonight which brings us to item 13 which is public hearings and uh we have um 13A is an offsale intoxicating liquor license for meca LLC doing business as strong liquor and wine at 11048 Cedar Lake Road and uh Miss wishnack thank you mayor and council members uh this is a liquor license ownership change as you know from the introduction that you had on April 8th it really is uh transferring ownership to two people that operate under the entity Mecca LC as the mayor referred to uh on the agenda uh just a note the police have completed their background investigation report they have found it to be acceptable they've also paid all of the fees and provided the insurance documents to the city staff and we are comfortable uh recommending approval and granting the license if the council approves the license it will go into effect and on May 8th that transfer of ownership will occur thank you mayor if you have any questions very good thank you Miss wishnack uh Council any questions for Miss wishnack all right now this is a public hearing that was opened previously and continued to tonight so is there anyone including the applicant who would want to make a comment on um on this item is there anyone all right seeing no one I will close a public hearing and I will ask for Council comments or a motion Council Calbert thank you mayor I uh remve approval of the off sale in to oop I'm sorry I move approval of the offsale intoxicating liquor license to Mecca LLC strong liquor and wine at 11048 Cedar Lake Road thank you and councilor R I'll second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member ra Miss Faulk please call R Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes Shaq yes weome yes motion carries so that brings us to other business um item number 14 and um we have actually two items here and I'm going to read them both at the same time because I know we're going to be doing them um somewhat together so 14a is land use items concerning Mills Town Homes located at 3621 Baker Road and 30 35 excuse me you know I really should put my glasses on I I try I try and gut it without them and it just doesn't work so um excuse me 3521 Baker Road and 3522 Elm Lane and two unassigned addresses and then item 10B is the financial items concerning Mills Town Town Homes located at those addresses so with that I will turn it over to Mr Funk and um take it away thank you mayor good evening Council and to those in the audience and who might be watching or listening on our media channels but tonight as our deliberation on M matters critical to our community's future I'm really struck by the dedication and perseverance shown throughout this process it has been a journey spanning the last five months beginning with the submission of the applicants proposal last October November of 2023 with the application deemed complete just this past January of 2024 since then we've navigated a series of public hearings reviews public meetings culminating in tonight's discussion I think I I can speak for all of us that I recognize it it has been a demanding journey and I want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone for sticking with it from neighborhood meetings in March to the public hearings and Financial reviews in April Community input and engagement have been invaluable no matter the side you are on in this issue I can assure you that staff remain steadfast in their professional approach and that the city values both your time and your insights into this important project we also understand that this application is highly technical spanning over hundreds of pages of information so for Council and for uh hopefully residents that as you look at the staff report there's lots of data lots of information particularly concerning land use and other Financial considerations shortly you'll hear from Miss Thomas and Miss winck who will provide further Clarity on these intricate matters rest assured we'll strive to be short and concise as possible in our presentations I do want to just spend a moment to bring up our comprehensive planning and zoning and the difference between them these Concepts may seem abstract to many but hold significant implications to our City's future Miss Thomas will provide greater detail in the coming moments but it's worth repeating comprehensive planning which ultimately is approved by the Met Council provides a vision for menaka's growth and development defining the parameters of density and guiding our long long-term trajectory zoning on the other hand delineates the specific regulations governing land use within our city ensuring that development aligns with our Collective vision and values now I just want to spend a minute and turn our attention to a pivotal aspect of tonight's discussion the recommendation put forth by professional and dedicated staff while the initial recommendation to the Planning Commission was denial the applicant re the applicant group recently amended its application to be consistent with the areas's existing low density designation and eliminate the need for a comprehensive guide plan but before we dive into the technical aspects of The Proposal I feel compelled to address some misinformation circulating regarding the city's housing and affordable housing efforts as your city manager I want to assure you that housing is a top priority for us and we are dedicating to addressing this issue daily from work plans to our defining goals outlined in the city's strategic plan in our economic Improvement plan to our City's affordable housing policy we have a robust framework in place to tackle housing affordability motanka is recognized as a leader in this regard and our commitment to housing and initiatives is unwavering I am disheartened by the inaccuracies that seek to undermine our City's efforts in this vital area in closing I urg us to approach tonight's discussions with open minds and a shared commitment to the betterment of our community let's work together to ensure that minaka continues to thrive and remain a place where we are all proud to call home and at this time I'd like to just really welcome City attorney Karine heiney to address some assertions made uh regarding conflicts of interest and uh there's been some um information and requests that have come forward and I think it'd be appropriate at this time for the City attorney to address that and then after miss hernie miss heiney provides some comments she will turn it over to miss Thomas who will address more the land use uh discussion in item 14a after that U Miss Thomas will turn it over to miss wishnack who will discuss the financial considerations under item 14b then at the end of that mayor and Council that's when we'll open up for further comments and questions public comment and then staff will have the recommended framework at the end of all of that so with that I turned over to miss heiny thank you mayor and Council um as Mr Funk said there have been some suggestions that some members of the city council should be disqualified from voting due to conflicts of interest and um um I'm here to respond to those uh suggestions um in general council members represent their constituents and you are expected to vote on the matters that come before you regardless of how controversial those issues might be um there are circumstances though where a council member can be disqualified from voting um on a land use matter like this or the financing decision a council member could could be disqualified if they have a personal financial interest in the outcome of the decision that they are being asked to make um and that question has been raised by um various members of the public over the course of these proceedings um and specifically they've asked questions regarding three uh members of the council and and I'll address those each um they've asked whether uh mayor weome should be allowed to vote because he um is a board member on the west Hanahan affordable housing Land Trust they've asked whether council member uh Foster Bolton um should be allowed to vote because her husband has publicly expressed support for this particular project and they've asked whether council member kley um should be allowed to vote because she purchased her home from West hen affordable housing Land Trust in my opinion um none of the members that I've mentioned is is qualified from voting on this matter the outcome of this vote does either of the votes that are going to be taken uh related to this project um has no impact on the personal financial interest of any of those members um and I want to come back and particularly clarify one issue regarding U mayor wome because in April of 2022 mayor wome um did recuse himself from consideration of the concept plan for uh the Mills church project and he did that at my suggestion um that issue of a potential conflict was raised I'm going by memory but I believe it was a very short time before the meeting was scheduled to start and I had no time to research the facts or research the law and provide an opinion to the council and so under an abundance of caution I suggested he recused from that and he did he agreed to do that subsequently I was able to look into the facts and um research the law and it was my opinion that there was no conflict of interest he was not disqualified from participating and I sought the independent opinion of a law an outside Law Firm um and they have issued an opinion that confirms uh my opinion so um I just felt that since that question had been raised and there had been a prior recusal I needed to particularly call that out thank you thank you and then I think it's Miss Thomas if I'm not mistaken thank you mayor wome and members of the council um this evening uh my portion of the presentation again is uh related to the land use matters that are before you so I'm going to give a bit of background on the site The Proposal that was then before the Planning Commission explain that and then the changes to the project what you're seeing this evening and staff's recommendation uh on that so the project area as you know is located in minetonka Mills which is a a unique area of our community there are a variety of land uses that already exist in that area obviously the creek the large Parks uh in the city through which the creek flows uh the Burwell house the small Mills uh commercial District various religious and educational institutions and certainly uh homes in the area the project site itself is specifically located southeast of uh the minetonka boulevard Baker Road intersection it's on a block that's bounded by minetonka drive to the north uh Elm Lane to the East Inverness to the South and Baker Road to the west and from this a series of aerial photographs you can see that that block was really um pretty well occupied by it 1940 there have been some changes over the years to the block itself um but the neighborhood kind of grew up around that block at present uh Mills Church owns nine of the 11 lots that comprise that block all of those lots are uh guided low density residential in the 2040 comprehensive guide plan and they are all zoned R1 as I did at the Planning Commission meeting I'm going to step away from the project for a minute and um just give a bit of a refresher or some more information uh as Mr Funk alluded to about the difference between comprehensive guide plan designation and uh zoning so the comprehensive guide plan is a document that the city is legally obligated to put together every 10 years the most recent plan was adopted in 2021 and it was adopted after a pretty significant public engagement uh process that comprehensive guide plan as Mr Funk noted again looks forward to the future it outlines our long-term vision for our community it establishes goals and strategies to achieve that vision and one of the many components of that plan is um land use type it gives every property in our community a land use type and for those residential types it outlines a density designation the plan itself defines what those densities are low density is defined as development up to four units per acre we often think about low density meaning one single home on one single lot and it can be that but it can also mean Twin Homes and even attached Town Homes any type of residential development that doesn't exceed um four units per acre where the comprehensive guide plan is this large Vision um the zoning ordinance outlines specific regulations what you can do on your property right now every property in our community also has a zoning classification by law that zoning classification has to correspond to the land use density in the comprehensive plan the zoning classification as I said determines what you can do on the property it establishes rules so how far does your house need to be from a property line how many parking stalls does the grocery store need how big can the grocery store sign need um can that be um there's a common misconception that R1 zoning is the only type of zoning that is low density and that's simply not the case within our zoning ordinance we have five different zoning classifications that are low density R1 r1a R2 R3 and even PUD can be a low density um so with that side side step I'm going to get back to um The Proposal so at the Planning Commission meeting the commission reviewed a proposal um for five Twin Homes presented by a Habitat for Humanity um jointly with Mills Church those five twin home buildings would have 10 dwellings um within them these units would be built on 2.19 Acres um eight of the units would access off of Inverness road to the South and two of the units access off of elm Lane um to the east the units would have a different appearance depending on what roadway they faced with those on Baker facing Baker and infernis having a two-story appearance and those facing uh Elm having a one-story appearance the dwellings would range in size from about 1200 squ ft to 19900 Square ft and all of them um would be affordable at that time as I said there were 10 units on 2.19 acres and so the proposal as presented required a comprehensive guide plan Amendment from low density to medium density because the density proposed was 4.6 units per acre so just above that maximum of four units it required a rezoning from R1 to PUD a master development plan with site and building plan review both of those things are always required whenever there's a PUD rezoning and then preliminary plat to basically create that lot area I'm going to take another side step if you will indulge me to talk about PUD zoning because that's also something that is commonly um misunder stod um most communities have two types of zoning districts traditional zoning districts and flexible zoning districts our traditional residential districts here in minaga start with a letter r R1 R2 R three and so on within traditional zoning districts um regulations for the use of a property are clearly outlined in code and those regulations apply to every property that has the same zoning classification no matter where that property is located in our community um this map attempts to show all of the properties in Gray are have a traditional zoning classification and the properties in blue have a flexible zoning classification in minona those flexible zoning classifications are PUD and PID that stands for Planned unit development in a flexible zoning District um the city allows regulations or the regulations I should say are not outlined in code rather they're based on the master development plan that the city council adopts if they approve the rezoning to planned unit development in other words the regulations are Project Specific nothing can be built on a site unless it's in conformance with the plan that is approved at the time of rezoning PUD uh zoning can only be considered by the council when there is a public benefit that is built into that project so just a quick example before I get back to the project that's before you in the R1 District the maximum height is 35 ft so if you own an R1 property you can choose to build a one-story home or a two-story home so long as you don't exceed 35 ft if you own a home in a PUD or property I should say in a PUD the master development plan adopted for that PUD dictates how tall you can build it dictates what type of house you can build you can only build as tall as that PUD um allows I hope that gives some sense in minetonka we've been using PUD Zoning for many many years decades Miss wishnack says there are over 500 properties in the community Residential Properties that are zoned PUD they're with located within dozens of planned unit development this slide shows it's a little bit hard to see I realize um all of the properties that are highlighted in yellow are PUD properties and I've just done some quick snapshots of um planned unit developments throughout our community to show that they are very different they are Project Specific um approvals so with that a little bit of planning backgrounds we'll get back to the the Planning Commission proposal so two weeks ago um at the Planning Commission staff um noted in our staff report and um written staff report and in my presentation that we believed that PUD zoning um was appropriate um to achieve the affordable housing that was being presented we believed that the site and building plan the layout the building designs represented a logical development pattern and a use transition in other words we supported the rezoning we supported the master development plan in the site and building plans however those two items were predicated on the comprehensive guide plan Amendment and we did not support that it was our professional opinion that the comprehensive guide plan Amendment from low density to medium density was not reasonable such Amendment would allow for a future development of the site to up to 12 units that's the medium density range 4 to 12 units per acre on a 2.9 Acre Site that would allow up to 26 units and staff simply didn't believe that development of that type of density would be an appropriate transition in that existing neighborhood we certainly recognize that that was not the intent of the current applicant group um that they intended to build 10 units but the guid plan Amendment if approved would allow for some future applicant to come forward if something happened to this application and make that request in short staff's concern was maintaining the Integrity of the comprehensive guide plan and staff suggested that uh the amendment could simply be eliminated by reducing the number of unit or by increasing the project area we recommended denial of the project the commission agreed um with Staff All Points of staff's recommendation and recommended denial since the Planning Commission meeting um the applicant has amended their proposal they have chosen to increase the size of their development site to 2.5 acres resulting then in a density of four units per acre meeting that low density designation um for the property the comprehensive guide plan amendment is eliminated um from the request no other changes have been made to the proposal this is a kind of a side by side of the previous proposal on the left the current proposal on the right staff is now recommending approval of the Mills Town H home request um we find that the rezoning to PUD is reasonable because it would result in a residential development of four units per acre again consistent with the site's low density designation and it would result in provision of affordable housing a public benefit that's specifically called out um in the Pud ordinance we think that the master development plan and the associated sight and building plans are reasonable um we think that the proposed town home units their design and their location really represent a logical development pattern reasonable development um transition from those commercial and institutional uses on the North side to the residential uses to the South and the East and the plat is quite frankly necessary to create um that development site so to conclude um we have as we have since the beginning of our conversations with the applicant group we support a low density affordable twin home project on this development site um since the planning commission's consideration the applicant again has increased the size so that this in fact is a low density affordable twin home development and staff recommends approval of the land use component and I'll turn it over to miss wishnack thank you Miss Thomas um we did present very similar information on the financing to the economic development advisory commission so this will just be a little bit uh smaller presentation but I'm here to answer any questions we also have Ellers with us this evening who is our Financial Consultant who looks at these contracts and these applications for financing we also have Julie Edington who is our attorney who has prepared the documents related to the financing so she is available by telephone I do want to cover this because Mr Funk kind of had an u a little bit of intro about affordable housing in minetonka i' given quite a different speech at Planning Commission meeting um as an intro on affordable housing but I do want you to have this information and maybe the public isn't totally aware of all the goals that we have set forth with the Metropolitan council's liable Community act program this is just a snippet from the uh economic Improvement program that we adopt every year at the city and it talks about the affordable housing goals how we're doing what kind of projects have been built what types of units have been bued both in affordability and what's called life cycle think of life cycle as um points of housing for all people at all stages of life so a little bit broader category than just the affordable unit um I also put a snippet in here of how we were doing about 10 years ago so there was a 1995 to 20110 uh goal session and then there was 2021 to 2030 housing goals and so that's the most current on the right side at the bottom of that screen and you can see how well the city's doing especially in the rental market in affordability um we've obviously made some progress if you look at the last 10year increment we did a lot of affordability ownership uh production so that's kind of the left side of the screen then the right side obviously because that's what's getting built in Menon right now is a lot of rental housing units so I just wanted to um have people understand that that that's something we track and it's something that's available to anybody who wants to look at it further we have a whole section on our website that is dedicated to housing and housing production thank you for allowing me to share that before I get into this actual request as Miss Thomas indicated this is 10 units and they're selling to uh people who make 80% uh area median income uh average or less um that is averaging 60% area mediate income maximum sales price and this adjusts annually in fact we just got the new numbers for 2024 so the 2024 numbers look a little bit different than this but we'll use the um 23 numbers that have been in the reports in the past so 304 is the maximum 304,000 is the maximum sales price in the transactions that would be about a maximum income of $95,000 I think it's hard to understand how this actually happens there's a lot of different groups involved and so I'm going to attempt to explain how the transaction actually occurs in this case the church owns the property the acreage that Miss Thomas was describing they sell that to Habitat for Humanity a Habitat for Humanity acts as the developer for the homes to be constructed and they have indicated the cost to construct those homes is $6.7 million you can also see these numbers off to the right in the chart that shows the sources and uses of funds habitat originally did request that 750,000 that's what the edac did look at at their meeting to fill the Gap in terms of their financing on the sources side when they've changed the land when they added the extra land to the proposal that was 31 acres and they have asked for an additional half of that cost to acquire that land which equals 44,000 so that is a total request of 794 266 there's also been some uh conversation between staff and habitat that talks about if they receive additional funds so if there are additional Grant funds given to this project for any reason there's more funds applied for and they receive the city's contribution is either reduced or eliminated so it's called the waterfall effect of a contract and that's how we've structured the and negotiated the contract also it requires homes with I'm sorry habitat um for Humanity to fill in the Gap if the anticipated Grant funds are not received now the second side of this transaction is when the actual home is built now you have a home it's sitting on the lot it's ready to be sold to someone so homes Within Reach which is the affordable housing Land Trust in menona and Suburban henen County the land trust then takes over the transaction finds the seller or the buyer excuse me and then certifies the buyer with the appropriate income and then that buyer is the final um owner of said home again the ground is leased from the affordable housing land trust to the homeowner the homeowner has a mortgage on the actual home so hopefully that clears up kind of how that process happens who owns what at what point again off to the right showing you the sources and uses of fund the uses is primar site Work Land cost there's a developer fee other fees the building and construction costs as you know uh we do bet those costs they are similar to other projects we're working on so those are all reviewed by our Financial Consultant for consistency with area standards and other contracts that they're working on on the top you can see a Litany of funding sources minaton is in the middle again that number is 794 now the chart was done before that additional property request came in the contract that is included in your packet talks about who the developer is when they're proposing to start construction which is September of this year the completion is anticipated in September of 2026 again kind of they would own or sorry build the T homes and then look for the buyers 80% Ami or less and have that average uh 60% household 60% % Ami household um and then I kind of went through this whole uh the buyer enters that 99e lease homes Within Reach manages the ongoing covenants and the Declarations for the property and by the way they do report to the city when those transactions occur to ensure they comply with the affordable requirements then they also establish the home uh homeowners association there's been a lot of questions about the homeowners association so um it's we deal with homeowners associations all the time at the city so it's it's not new material for uh either Susan or I to deal with this but if you don't know a homeowners association actually manage the property they address the exterior needs the maintenance needs the repairs or other long-term pH physical needs and if you don't know that they are required to project what the needs are and then set the fees according to those projected maintenance needs in the future that's a a regulation a state law that requires that to happen in all homeowners associations across the state also to note homes Within Reach does provide ongoing education talking about annual maintenance with individual owners as you know in the past as well we've provided loan programs for people who own in the homes Within Reach program for updates and different maintenance issues in their homes in terms of the financial assistance again that number is 794 266 divided by 10 units at 79,2 per unit um over that 99-year term that ends up to be about 802 per unit per year in assistance if you're not familiar with what that means we just use that as kind of a measuring stick for how much is requested by the applicant for financial assistant then we compare it to other things we've done in the past it's not always Apples to Apples I would just caution you about this number it's just one of many things that's looked at and again 802 is in the range uh that we've had and I'm just going to go to the next slide for a second um this is the side of a lot of the projects that minetonka has had over the years it tells you what the project is how many affordable units were built the number of market rate units in it the total assistance years of afford ability and then the assistance per unit per year is that 1 2 3 4 five six column um that shows that kind of range of 500 per unit per year to 4700 most expensive as the council knows is the the mixed income rental units are the most expensive expensive to provide that affordability we've had that challenge over a number of years throughout our multif family projects the second part of this slide talks about the look back Provisions uh it really is that dollar Ford dooll decrease based on if they have project cost savings or an increase in non- city funding that would require a look back the city would retain the monies if that were to occur um the developer profit or developer fee could not exceed 8% if we're finding they're getting more than that then again that public subsidy comes down and then reviewing the home owner home buyer income qualification to ensure that they have the 60% area median income a lot of people have asked to where the where do the funds come from for the city to do this kind of assistance so on that chart there's a lot of different funding sources not all of these come from the affordable housing trust fund the proposal for this funding assistance is from the trust fund some council members do remember when the trust fund was established it was done during covid for rental assistance to occur for people who were having trouble paying their rent that was the motivation for the city to establish this trust fund in the first place what it has evolved into is the city receives special legislation to place extra tax increment pooling money into the fund all those funds then can be resent on housing initiatives specifically affordable housing initiatives we also had a payback of a very large loan loan that the city had made in the 1980s um they were required to when they sold the property to repay that loan back to the city so it took many many years for that payoff to come back so that was um actually $2 million that ended up in the Housing Trust Fund so that in addition to Tiff pooling money that is where that fund was uh funded from so hopefully that helps you understand the affordable housing trust fund mayor I'm done kind of with the financial analysis of the project but I do want to provide you with two action items for your consideration so on the left side of the screen really is what Miss Thomas talked about it's the land use items and there are three items for you to consider it does require four votes to approve those items on the right side again in a separate vote you'll be considering a resolution approving funding that's actually funded through the affordable housing trust fund again that requires four votes remember later on you will turn into the Eda there's another action that's required this is after your regular meeting the E Economic Development Authority has to also approve the contract Etc so there's more to do after this um decision is complete with that mayor I'm going to turn it back to you I'm sure you have lots of questions sorry for the extended presentation no actually um I want to thank you I thought the staff report really was quite succinct and very clear um but I also recognize that the audience has probably not been dealing with this as long or as much as we have so um you know I want to make sure that we get the questions asked that can help you know people understand what exactly is happening here so Council um staff made their report um what question you have Council M cal cal I see you're ready to go well I just have one question that I think would help people because for those of us up here that deal with tax increment financing we understand what that means but I'm wondering if staff could explain exactly what tax increment is um Miss wishnack lucky you I'm trying to think of you know you can give it to miss Thomas too if you'd like absolutely um are you ready for that one um mayor and council members thank you for the question about tax increment let me try to say it as succinctly as possible what happens when new projects occur new tax money is created that's sometimes turned into what's called increment and it's funding some other public Improvement or affordable housing there are balances left on tax increment districts city has nine current districts there's leftover tax increment cities by law can spend it on affordable housing and that is the case in what monies entered the affordable housing trust fund hopefully I got it in a very short it's a way that was good but I'm sure it's not the last time we'll touch on that tonight um other questions for staff councel CC member Foster Bolton um I just want to you guys it it was a thanks a lot it explained a lot it was great um so I'm going to ask questions just to clarify just to make sure that I understand um so the comp plan guides the density right and Zoning directs how you apply the density that's like simply put is that correct council member Foster Bolton yes okay um and then so can you go back to the slide where you showed all the puds so um like how recent was the last PUD like so like my question is how often does this happen and is it like you know every 10 years or once is it more often or mayor wisom and council member Foster Bolton I would say that we probably have a request for resoning to PUD um once or twice a year I would suggest but it's really again based on um the project that an applicant is bringing forward under Minot tanka's PU UD ordinance the city can consider resoning um to PUD only if it finds that the proposal would create a public benefit that would otherwise not be created um so affordable housing greater protection of Natural Resources a housing type that's not available in the city so while some developers may come to the city and say I want to do PUD Zone because I want to build more houses here than you otherwise would let me City staff would say well what's the public benefit in that and so we probably get fewer PUD requests maybe than other communities do because we push back and say what what is the public benefit of this request okay um and then I have a question about the the financing so so would you say that it's true that we couldn't have affordable housing without some kind of level of Public Assistance in the city mayor and council member Foster Bolton I would agree yes and then would you say that this particular development and like you you you said this but I want to just be clear that this isn't like an astronomical amount or this this Falls with than the sort of um Range I want to say yeah thanks normal or whatever range council member of foster Bolton I think that in this more elongated kind of um contract where it's 99 years you don't always get that our our typical affordable housing Covenant is for 30 years so when you see rental projects most of the time they're signing a 30-year Covenant so the price per unit per year is much higher than what you're seeing in a 99e situation like you have here so if you it just depends on how you want to look at you can look at total costs and that's kind of that fourth column on this chart you can look at assistance per unit per year which is the other column another thing people like to look at is what type of affordability level so it just depends on what your Viewpoint is on what you think is important um to measure whether or not you want to assist I will share that and I didn't specifically say this in the report that I gave but the edac did recommend approval of the financing at the 750 uh 750,000 and there was some discussion back and forth about how much was it too much um the price per unit per year all of those things were discussed at the edac um in the end they commended approval okay can one question um so they moved the lot line the lot line was moved and the there you know the the plan the finances went up right so who and we chip in who gets that money where does it go Miss wishnack thank you I'll use this chart to help council member Foster Bolton on your question about who gets what money so in every development project and I think it's hard with this one because there's a church who's the owner but in every transaction that you have there's an owner an underlying property owner and someone gets paid for their land whether it be the church private property owner the city whoever's selling the land so how they use those funds that's not the city's concern the City's concern is are they overpaying for the land those are the analysis items that we use on land costs they're actually is quite a discount on the land price in this transaction but we don't say you know here's what you can do with it land owner we don't have that stipulation and we don't do that kind of analysis with any other project does that help yeah thanks all right other questions customer kley I guess I have questions and I'm not for sure we kind of me and Mike kind of talked about where to ask the questions that I have a list of questions I want to ask so I don't know if this is the time to ask those questions this this is the time for questions not for comments so if these are questions these are questions that's good yeah so I have a list of questions super some of the questions were answered um already but I have some more questions um I wanted to know about um when the homes are developed um if we approve this tonight um how's the breakdown will be far as we have 10 homes how many homes would be at 30% 60% and 80% do you want to Mayor would you like to go one by one or what do how do you want to handle counc k would you want to do one by one or you want to read the whole list down it's totally totally up to you we can go one by one I guess okay sure M wishnack thank you mayor and council member kley so the concept of the income averaging is to get an overall income of 60% let's say for instance you have a household at 80% and you have a household at 40% that averages 60% so that's the idea that overall there would be a 60% area meeting income but individual households could vary in that um hopefully in the end it would be um 60% so are you saying that you're not there won't be any 30% it's going to all be at 60% no I'm not well can you no I'm not it would be a range okay yep so but do you know like do you have a number specific like a hard number or no is there a hard number May if I may remember cly when you have a range that has to average obviously you can be anywhere in that range as long as you end up averaging 60% across all the units so if you said who is that buyer today I don't know that because we don't have that buyer in front of the homes Within Reach so each time they certify somebody in the end it's going to have to average 60% okay so you don't really have a specific it just we don't have applications for people right now no absolutely not that's fine mhm um my next question um I wanted to ask about the appreciation um at the time of sale of home um and I don't know if you're able to answer this because you don't have a buyer or but I just kind of want to know um what would be the um appreciation and is there going to be a cap on the appreciation like homes Within Reach typical homes are um so I'm just wondering is there a cap on appreciation M wishnack council member kley yes it is the same as all the other Land Trust homes it is maximized at 35% uh can be the equity of the homeowner okay I had a question about um why didn't we cons why didn't Habitat for Humanity or Mills Church consider um building rental property versus home ownership because um for me um when I think about home ownership this doesn't really feel like home ownership this feels more like shared um I guess rental space doesn't really feel like home full home ownership um as a land trust owner um I understand what it feels like um personally and so I just want to know why didn't if we're going to have it strictly like Land Trust housing um why didn't we consider rental versus home ownership Miss wishnack I don't know if that's in your it is not but I think we'll keep track of it uh that's definitely something that habitat can address when they do their presentation as the applicant um in terms of ownership their product of production very good okay uh my next question is if we're going to approve this project and it's going to be a 99e covenant um can it be more Equitable for the homeowner especially now that I understand there is a um a cap on the appreciation um I don't think it's Equitable for the homeowner um we in our city habitat Mills Church we talk about home ownership but if we're talking about doing a PUD pu um D and we talk about this just from a it's subjective but we're talking about the benefits of the community or the benefits of the people from a personal standpoint and from a a experience and me just being subjective about it it's just like is it really benefited for the owner of the property or is it benefited from for the business so I'm just thinking about it from that perspective Miss wishnack mayor I do have an answer to that uh council member kley I think I mean we've talked about this as a group before homes Within Reach has come in to talk to the city council for those who are newer to the council this this might be newer information for you but on average the resale um resale activity in a homes within reach home about 14 of those homes have sold we have 62 uh they retain about $177,000 of equity uh in their home that's on average that's not every person but on average that is the takeout if you will that the homeowner receives when selling the property so that's the data that homes Within Reach provided back when we had our update I believe it was in 202 some 2022 I think is when that information came forward so if your question is how much Equity that that is the answer I understand your second point about um we've been talking about wealth building as well that's the city council set up the program for Pathways to home ownership which is more directed at Equity Building and not necessarily getting into Home Ownership like the homes Within Reach model so two different ideas I think I I understand your point we've talked to some residents who live in homes within reach land trust homes who I also remember walking away with zero dollars if they would have sold their homes so that came up before too so I don't know if that was factor into the 177,000 that appreciation there were definitely some extreme situations uh there were people that walked away with no equity for sure but on average is what I was referring to okay there was I had another question what would be the benefits of home Within Reach managing the these properties and what is the cost for them to manage these uh council member kley again I'll I'll refer that question to Habitat in terms of what the um discussions about the actual rates for the homeowners association are so let's save that question for them okay and and then also I just wanted to ask do the owners pay for this um for the um damages of trees grass maintenance or do this go to the um is this part of the HOA fees that will this cover h a fees cover the maintenance uh upkeep of the property right mayor and Council m kley in the conditions of approval there's a requirement for the uh group to provide the homeowners associ association documents for review so I don't have the specifics of what you're asking generally I would say however that the exterior Property Maintenance is what's covered in the homeowners association so the things that you mentioned are anticipated to be within that document okay any others um councilor kley or is that your list um I guess I did have a question about the um the land fee but I guess is that covered under the ho8 or is there going to be additional land fee outside of the HOA counc member clarification are you talking about the lease fee yes yes the land lease there's a land lease uh $30 per month that is required to be paid that's separate from the HOA the homeowners association fee okay those those are my list of questions thank you thank you uh council members any other questions for staff anyone all right well then I think that takes us to the applicant and uh if you would um like to come forward um and um share what you've got and um ask that you be brief because we've got a room full of people and we want keep things moving very good thank you mayor and council members and just for everybody in the room be mindful of your breathing you can take a deep breath we've been here for a while it is a privilege for me to be with you tonight my name is David lant I am a 21e resident here in motanka Mills and pastor of the Mills church I'm proud of the collaborative work of habitat's Team City staff and the church to be able to present to you what we believe is a significantly better proposal than we had two weeks ago the additional land let's see shown in yellow encompasses the church playground design for preschool aged children this inclusion now meets the current low density guidelines but more importantly it opens the possibility to pursue grants dedicated to playground improvements if received it would provide funding to renovate this Park area into a new playground for all ages this possibility tangibly adds value to this project by providing our current and future neighbors a wonderful common area for their kids to play together we fully recognize that grants and funding are not guaranteed but our congregation was willing to move forward on this possibility as was the city and habitat I commend our city staff in recommending this pathway forward and I am grateful for their recommendation to approve the project before you tonight the Mills Church wholeheartedly stands behind all the great work that this proposal represents and we hope that you will too I'm honored Now to turn to our developing partners and welcome the CEO of twin Ci's Habitat for Humanity Chris Coleman thank you Council thank [Music] you greetings welcome well mayor weome members of the council I am Chris Coleman president and CEO of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and I am very happy to be here this evening to support the staff recommendation to move forward on this project you know in the conversations around puds and R1 and R3 zonings and all the different uh issues that we face and the the challenges that we've had in this process as uh the city manager has has alluded to what's lost in all that is what this ultimately is about and what this is about is 10 families that will have the joy the security the safety and the comfort of owning their own home if you've ever seen that moment where a family has the keys to their at home handed to them the joy in the face for those families that thought they could never ever own their own home it is a truly magical moment that's what we are here to move forward in the city of minaka a city that has recognized the importance of affordable housing a city that has walked the walk and now we get to talk the talk and today we can move forward on an opportunity for 10 families and 10 families that will be able to build equity in that home 10 families that will be able to use that Equity to help their children and their grandchildren buy homes to start businesses to go to college we cannot get caught behind numbers and zoning ordinances all of those things and forget that at the end of the day we will make a difference for minona families hardworking families that go to work every day to put food on the table and to provide Safety and Security of home for their families we are truly grateful to be at this point I am so thankful to motanka Mills congregants and Pastor lant I am so grateful to City staff to the staff of Habitat for Humanity and for all of you who are about to take a bold step forward to change the lives of 10 families who will call minat tanka home I will have uh Mr dipman our director of Land Development here to answer any specific questions uh that the council members wish to to ask uh because he knows a lot more about this than I ever will uh and I am grateful to have uh him here if there are any questions for Habitat for Humanity thank you so much very good thank you welcome good evening good evening Mr Mayor members of the council my name is Chad dipman excuse me uh land development director at Twin City's Habitat for Humanity I think the staff did an excellent job of explaining the project and you all seem to have a fairly firm grasp on it um so I think I'll go straight to the questions that council member kley asked um Twin Cities habitat and homes Within Reach are both home ownership programs we do not do rental development and so that would be outside the purview of uh or the scope of our work um we think that there is a distinction to be made between certainly habitat uh and a land trust model and Rental um there is an opportunity to generate Equity out of either uh affordable ownership model where there is no opportunity to generate equity in a rental situ situation um there many other distinctions I could make but that's the big one for me [Music] um I believe the other question that staff had deferred to us was maybe about the um HOA fee if I'm remembering correctly um we have a couple other projects that are getting close to conclusion where we have established HOA fees just in the last few weeks and those are at about $450 a month there are kind of three major buckets of expenses included in those the most expensive is the reserve fund um that Miss wishnack uh referenced where in we have a specialized company do a building Reserve study to establish the uh life cycle uh longevity of the exterior materials the structure of the building and um their life cycle and help us to then budget uh uh a reserve for the HOA which is essentially a savings account to cover uh replacement and repair over time second largest expense is Insurance um which would cover the structures the exteriors of the buildings and um any um the land the grounds surrounding those finally is kind of the little stuff which is uh lawn mowing snow removal the management company fee and we do employ a management company to assist um the HOA members which are the owners in the operation of the the association um and some other other minor stuff but uh it's adding up and insurance is rapidly increasing there are only two insurance providers in Minnesota that will ensure HOAs at this time primarily due to extreme weather events and I think that was everything but I'm happy to take any other questions you might have coun m c do you have a followup or I was going to ask you about I know trees are pretty expensive to remove and so I was wondering do if you know a tree needs to be removed or something if it get damaged or whatever um I know you're going to maybe refer back to insurances but sometimes insurances don't cover trees so I'm wondering is there going to any be any resources or support around that for homeowners sure uh Mr Mayor commissioner kley or sorry council member kley I remember which media I'm at um um the uh if it's wasn't covered by Insurance then that would fall to the reserve fund to cover the uh removal and replacement of that tree so it would be an HOA expense of course the HOA is made up of its members which are the owners thank you thank you um are there any other questions from Council from for Habitat yes there excuse me you yeah go go ahead council member R I didn't you didn't see me I didn't see oh yes pardon me thank you mayor um and thank you for the presentation I was wondering I was hoping you could help me understand to follow up on council member K's uh earlier question if you can help us understand a little bit more about the mix of households um that will be in the development so I understand that there's going to be um eligibility will be arranged from 30 to 80% Ami plann correct Mr mayor council member Ral um habitat's income range is 40 to 80% of Ami 4080 thank you with um the Nuance being that we do establish a minimum income based on the the affordability of the product that we have coming down the pike and so that our minimum income May exceed 40% Ami for some families on the smaller side this smaller families right depends on household size y yep correct all right um but um there's an average of 60% Ami required in the agreement I understand so I guess my question is is there a potential for that 60% average to be achieved for for example through all of the homes being uh sold to households at the 55 to 65% Ami or is there a goal to include owners at a diversity of income levels if there's not specific set asides is which was my understanding from staff could you speak to that sure Mr mayor council member ramal um or is it Ramy R but sry like the month of May I'll make you feel better I I only pronounced it wrong for the first two months so you're good good for tonight and I'll apologize to council member later um uh I guess the goal for Habitat for Humanity is to serve the applicants that we get um if our average ends up being less than 60% that would be a success if it's at 60% that will be a success for us um there's a budgeting component to that so that profarma is based on an average first mortgage amount that's based on that 60% Ami assuming an average family size which we assume based on the number of bedrooms and there's a variety of those across the different unit types um so I would say it's it's certainly within the realm of possibility that we would end up with um a narrower band of incomes than 40 to 80% so you don't have set asides for say 80% you know 80% One at 70% 60% or anything like that so there's no guarantee of that within that average of 60 you could get into that that's thank you um I do have a follow-up question then um one last one so lots of emails and conversations obviously about this uh and for anybody who I didn't get to answer the emails in the last three days I will and thank you for your input um but anyway one of reasons that many of the people that I have been hearing from and that we saw in the packet many of them support the project because they want to help those who work in the community to be able to afford to live here I heard that a number of times um at the Planning Commission meeting and then here again tonight uh Mr Coleman stated that quote the proposed housing is for minetonka families teachers First Responders and nurses who have a right to own a home um and so my question follows up on that statement and goal in that you know are there plans for either additional or targeted Outreach to househ households that currently work rent or go to school in minona Mr mayor council member R um yes absolutely and we would look to partner with the city on that effort and the school district um we do have uh Community engagement staff who work on those efforts for us um and show up at community events uh engage with the city businesses school districts um religious organizations to hold Outreach events and um make it very very public that those houses are available um for anyone in the community to purchase so you're I'm sorry if I'm understanding right you're saying that will be kind of extra Community engagement withinin yes absolutely great thank you very good is that it Council R all right any other questions Council M Calbert every time I say that you know just we're almost there and then sorry Council I me excuse me Council M Calbert go for it so there were questions at the Planning Commission about about HOAs and I just want to make sure first of all state for the record that we often ask questions about HOAs because different HOAs do different things for the residents so my parents lived in one HOA and they moved to a different state here thank you and uh they have a different HOA that does different things and so you explained what what your HOA does and there has been I I there has been some talk that there have been some projects where you know a major component of the construction um needs attention now after years from from a habitat um from a habitat project and um that the funds aren't there and so let's say just you know picking an expensive uh repair it's like there's something wrong with the with the roofs for 10 units um there I know that that the reserve fund is specifically like you were saying for the external but you know if funds run low because stuff happens and you know repairs are expensive now what happens then since I'm just wondering what happens if if funds run low for that and are there any you know contingency plans Mr mayor council member Calbert um so as I think you're aware but just to clarify um you know we are spending a lot of money now on these Reserve studies to make sure that they don't run low um but were that to be the case um I think that habitat would work with those homeowners to figure out a solution um if they wanted to partner with us um the city also I believe has some programs that may be applied uh as well as Minnesota housing has uh low interest loan programs that can be used for um exterior repairs um so we have people on staff that are post-p purchase support Associates it's homes Within Reach has the same kind of function um it is a partnership we're both um available to homeowners to come back to us at any time I just think it's a good question for everyone to think about because like you said only two insurance companies currently Ure HOAs and repairs are getting more expensive and HOAs are are in minona all the time Street repairs you know major repairs to infrastructure in the HOA so it's it's just something that I I think about thank you for your answer mayor if I may yeah because I do want to follow up to council member Calvert's question about HOAs so most of the projects that you see where the HOA has big ticket items and don't have the Reserves is because they were created prior to the reserve study law that's in place today so going forward new HOAs are required to do that at the beginning um the most of the ones we see are 1970s 80s established and they never had the benefit of doing that so they're doing it now and then they're finding these big ticket items so a little bit different than a newer project and that's why I ask these questions because we get great information like that so thank you all right Council um before I offer the opportunity for Habitat to sit down um are there any last questions you'd like to ask counc kley yes ma'am there was a question that I had asked I don't think you got answered um the last question that I had asked was what was the benefit of homes Within Reach managing the properties and are they making money off managing these homes in the land trust and what is the cost for them to manage the homes yes Mr mayor council member kley um so homes Within Reach will be charging their standard $30 a month uh ground lease fee just like they do for all of their properties they um management of the properties um or HOA will be basically no different than how they interact with their current homeowners we are cont we need to ask of an attorney um can we offer them a seat on the board of the HOA um we have not done that yet um so I don't know the answer to that um so beyond their normal interaction with home own homeowners um there is no Beyond um it's just their standard practice so the HOA is really the entity that manages the site that is made up of its members who are the owners Guided by a management company um and so there's two separate fees and kind of two separate functions does that answer your question I think it does thank you yeah all right anything else I'm not seeing anything thank you very much thank you you know um um Miss wishnack if you don't mind I have I have I have a question that's related um you know I've been around doing this long enough that I know that there have been circumstances where homeowners associations in the city have had a major expense I can think of a couple you know that were Million Dollar Plus expenses and they didn't have the Reserves and we passed a ordinance that what is it Iha is that what we housing Improvement Area Housing Improvement areas that is kind of a fallback disaster safety valve for the circumstance where something really significant occurs and the um and the reserves are not sufficient and we have a mechanism for dealing with that and I thought given the context of this it may be just helpful if you explained a little bit about how that works right thank you mayor the situation I was talking about before is when you have these 1970s ' 80s 90s uh homeowners associations that did not PR prepare properly for Big Ticket items like Roofing sighting sighting is very popular here because of woodpecker uh issues and um wood sighting that we have throughout a lot of town get this noise maker no never mind never mind different subject different subject but never mind bad topic yeah so the thank you mayor the um housing Improvement areas is a way in which a city can at the request of these homeowners to help set up the funding that's paid back over a longer period of time um through bonding or other resources of the city and it's paid back um with interest to whatever the entity is either Bonding Agency or the city so it's a really you're right it's a safety valve if things really go off the rails the other thing um with that process is we actually make them uh prove to the city that their rates are commensurate with the kinds of Reserve study information that they have so um I think it's getting much better than it used to be and definitely newer projects are much more equipped to handle it very good thank thank you for that and then for clarity because the city is utilizing its borrowing capacity to fund that there's no taxpayer dollars that go that are being transferred to these funds to help these condominiums or whatever out it's just a matter that we have the ability to get money at a favorable rate for the long term and that keeps the monthly cost lower for the properties that get into that sort of trouble so good point yes I thought thought that was I thought that was worthwhile we do care about the money absolutely thank you mayor all right anything else all right well um we have a room full of people some of whom I think would like to make a few comments and uh we welcome that um I think that you know um I kind of tell you to look around the room uh this is democracy in action and I think it's important I mean I think PE hearing this is the place where residents can be heard without difficulty and I think that's really important so um I welcome you anyone who wants to make comments is welcome to to do so but I do have a few ground rules because I did watch the Planning Commission meeting to its bitter I mean very end I won't say Bitter End but it but it it was past my bedtime and um you know I really I promised my council members that I try to avoid that so I'm going to have some ground rules for um if you come to speak I want to ask you to be brief and limit your comments to two minutes and I'm going to be pretty firm on that I've got my uhu I've got my timer the handy iPhone here and I I will be timing every um every speaker um you know for the purpose of efficiency in the in the Planning Commission meeting they had a list of people and they called people up and you're always waiting for people to come up and that's a waste of time we're not going to do that I'm going if you want to speak line up now you don't have to have everybody line up at the same time but watch that line and make sure that there's four or five people in the line at any time because when the line's empty the public comment ends if you if you goofed and you missed it you goofed and you missed it so um I want to be clear on that um it's important that you state your name and address and the other thing um that I want to tell you I want to be honest with you I kind of segment the comments from people I really want to hear from minaka residents now if you're an activist and you came from St Paul welcome to minaka I hope we're treating you nicely but I'll tell you what when you comment it doesn't mean nearly as much much to me as a comment from a minaka resident and I've been asked by residents I got a bunch of emails and uh people said well could mayor could you allow um minaka residents to speak first and I said well my view is I didn't respond to that we don't do it that way but if you want to if you're minetonka resident you want to be heard early get in line right away it's it's it's under your control but um we really want to run this um efficiently um you know speak to the council address your ments here don't turn and face the audience because we are the audience that you care about we're going to be voting tonight you are not you get to vote in November um and you know um be respectful um it you know it takes guts to come to the podium and make your comments and some people are comfortable with it and some people aren't when you applaud or cheer you're making it intimidating for the person who wanted to say something but they heard somebody get cheered and they have a different opinion or booed we don't allow that here and if there's any cheering or booing I'm going to interrupt and I'm going to say we're going to take a f- minute break and then we're going to come back and hopefully the um the audience will behave better than the issue that caused us to take the break so it's just really important to be respectful to be listen to um to listen but no cheering no applauding because that's not appropriate here so um I think that's um I think that that's it and so I will open and one other comment the official public hearing was at the Planning Commission and and we are not required to do a a public hearing tonight but minaka we always do now we have an extra reason for doing that because the proposal changed between the Planning Commission and the the and the staff recommendation changed between so we have an extra reason for doing um a public hearing tonight and I want to be respectful I want to listen to as many people who want speak but I also want to move it along because I think that's important and I'm going to be I'm going to be kind of tough on time so with that line up come and state your name and address and and share with us what you have to share good evening my my name is krie Lawrence and I live at 13555 ess6 place minaka during public discussions of the Mills Church proposal there seem to be two categories either you are probably against poor people or you alone care for the poor these are straw man arguments there is a third category it's a dumb idea and a long history of dumb ideas for example daylight saving time was introduced during World War I to save energy and it was only supposed to last 7 months here we are over a hundred years later stuck with the the dumb idea this proposal will drastically change and effect on a historical area surrounded by single family homes it is a dumb idea because now it's going to become a PUD which opens the door for further development and I do believe there is going to be further development on the Mills Church property now you may say oh no that can't happen because the government promised well tell that to Native Americans who signed government treaties which were broken later by new government officials affordable housing is a valid idea but shoehorning it on a into an historical site is a dumb idea find a more conducive space when you cast your vote tonight I'd like you to think not so much about the faceless people who might move into these Twin Homes but think about the faces of the neighbors sitting here in this room right now who will be the most affected by this dumb idea they will have to live with the cost you won't I ask you to vote no thank you Miss Lawrence good evening good evening um you may have already heard from me I wrote you a letter yes and your name is I am Camille called called derero I live on in veress and I brought pictures but I don't quite know how to get them overhead okay this is just a quick example um I have a master's of landscape architecture I live on in veress 31 years and this is going to have a big impact on the character of the neighborhood I office with architects who do community housing a critical uh design tool that they use is threedimensional got it three okay threedimensional graphics and I know that there have been uh the three-dimensional graphics show the relationship of the building size massing setback to the actual location so there's another one that this one is probably more relevant to our um site it shows they use this to communicate with the client to show how this the size the 35 ft the walls the massing relates to the neighborhood at grade below grade wherever it is this is the tool they use this has not been a tool that I've seen habitat offer to any of us I've seen some U Mass drawings of an old the 12 units that they had an old plan um there's been floating buildings that you know we get a sense of what the buildings look like there's no 3D um review or investigation of how these actually look on the corner are there going to be walls of 35 ft walls there how does it actually look and I would really appreciate that um I don't think any of us any of us have seen any of this so I don't think any of us know what this will really look like and I'm just asking for that tool please very good don't address up here but you're at your two minutes so thank you and I did look I did look at your picture so thank you for your time thank you next good evening thanks for hearing me out I'm Jane Jacobson live on 1571 s in Lexington for the last 36 years and in what city motanka very good thank you not St Paul minat tanka um and I just want to thank this Council and I want to thank the city of Menat tanka for allowing my husband and I 35 years ago to be able to move from St Louis Park where we grew up to have a home here we could afford a home here back then uh my daughter just graduated oh a few years ago from from uh St Olaf and she's not able to afford a home here in minaka and I'm just so thankful that we were able to raise our daughter here I worked for the school system um mme your daughter's yeah um in special ed and I see all sorts of incomes at our schools and I see the need to have people be able to afford housing in minana and Habitat for Humanity in my estimation says it all thank you thank you so much good evening hello I do not like public speaking my name is Amy O'Brien I live at 3514 Baker Road so I am one of the people that this will directly affect 247 going forward um from the beginning from the get-go I have questioned the size of the two town homes that are on Baker Road the five homes that are on Baker Road that will be mostly affected by this are all Ramblers very low scale in particular mine and I just think that this is going to be huge and is being is too large of a development for the area so and I'm curious to know how many people here actually do live on either Baker Road in veress or Elm who will be directly affected cuz I think it's a small number sir thanks thank you very much next welcome hi my name is Jennifer I do not live in Min minetonka anymore because uh my landlord uh on Rutledge Circle sold the place I now currently live in Crystal I'm at 8427 Northern drive it's a great Community but my kids have always attended Hopkins schools and I actually am employed at Hopkins schools um I'm currently a clerk at Glen Lake Elementary I'm I've been actively looking into moving back into the area but with the pandemic with my family size I have five children um and the income that they think is okay to pay anybody at education um I'm kind of just not really sure where I'm going to go and a home in my kids neighborhood where I could put them on the bus is a huge uh time and effort and Sanity um limiter or you know increaser I should say um being able to get my kids onto the bus instead of having to drive them all together 20 minutes um I love this community I love this area and while I agree that it needs to be serving there needs to be things that serve poorer people cuz I see this and I'm like well I don't even know if I'd be able to qualify because I have five kids on the one income that math I may have to look be still looking elsewhere but the idea that I could have a a house I could have four walls that no neighbors are having to listen to five children grow up um that would be ideal that would be the ideal um and little projects like this even though they're not perfect and even though I think we should have you know that'd be great if there are more people living there because they'd be closer to their schools I know how close it is to West where my children attend um so this is me I'm one of the pores um I have a lot of things going for me and a lot of Wonderful things in my life but these types of buildings would dramatically affect uh my ability to be a really good mom and a really good member of my community so thank you thank you Jennifer good evening welcome good evening thank you my name is David Peta I live at 3740 Farmington Road um so in the immediate neighborhood um of this particular project I just want to start off by saying thank you to all of you uh council members City staff uh you guys have a really hard job um a really hard job and we've been here now 25 plus years and I've been to a number of City Council meetings and one of the consistent themes I see always is um this team's dedication to doing what's right for our community and thinking about the long term um you know we simple citizens can get pretty wrapped around the axles with emotion topics like social justice and race and affordability and are we doing the right thing um and and you do as well for at least from keeping that in mind um but you're always thinking about the long term and there's there's two elements of this project that concern me um the first was just I think mentioned tonight by Miss Stone um switching to PUD um is reasonable because it's for affordable housing and so now we set a precedent to say well we can switch to PUD as long as it's for affordable housing and now we have now we have that uh that precedent set the second is and I've I've stated this before that I I do have long-term concerns about the financial viability of the Mills Church um we've heard repeatedly that congregation is shrinking that there's um issues fixing simple things like faucets on sinks and so um invariably and inev inevitably um we will see uh a project come down the pipe that will represent a 37 unit apartment building much like we saw from this applicant the first time this project was discussed back in I believe 2020 um and I don't think that's appropriate for the very special piece of land that we're talking about our historic City Hall is right there and it needs to be treated special um and so my my ask and my hope is for this city council to do exactly what you've been doing doing and think about the long term thank you thank you Mr feta good evening mayor and and council members my name is Steve Adams I live at 11111 suac Lane uh in menaka I've lived there for well ever since 1985 so going on 39 years uh and I'm speaking in favor of this project I think it' be a great asset to the community but there are three anecdotes I'd like to share with you that indicate what the need is in this community for that when I served on the Planning Commission which I did for six years here in metaka uh I had a chance to visit a lot of different sites I was I think the only member of the commission that actually went to every site that was on the agenda even the consent agenda so um I got to see a lot of minaka and I got to meet a lot of people and one of the properties that I was uh visiting one time for some variance issue uh the neighbor came out and said you know question what am I doing there and I explained and and it turned out to be our Deputy Deputy fire chief at the time and he said if there's one thing you guys on the Planning Commission could do could you please approve more affordable housing he said I'm trying to recruit fire uh volunteer firew workers for the uh for the city and they're requ required to live within 15 minutes of a fire station and they can't find any affordable housing within 15 minutes of their fire station so they're having to live outside the city limits and in St Louis Park or Golden Valley or some other uh medison Lake some other local because menaka did not have enough affordable housing uh the other incident that I require that I remember was that uh one of the things that we approved was was uh a lot we approved a lot of rental housing at the time it was during the the real estate recession and it was a lot of rental and historic Glen Lake was being redeveloped and uh there was a where the gold nugget used to be and is again uh we were we approved some affordable housing there and there was a lot of concern among the community members there about what kind of people would be moving in and and you're just that two minutes to let you know so just kind of wrap it up thanks finish your story but go ahead Mr Adam but um I went back later and I asked the building manager who's moving into these units he said it's people that grew up here it's people that retired here and they'd like to stay in the community so I think for the benefit of our future we had to be approving more affordable housing like this thank you thank you Mr Adams and I want to thank you for your service on the Planning Commission and also you were a Hopkin School Board member and I want to thank you for your service to our community so thank you so much and it's his birthday happy [Applause] birthday good evening good evening uh my name is Ian Rosenthal I live at 3716 10th Avenue South in Minneapolis uh I just wanted to start by thanking you all for opening the space to speak tonight it's really special um so while I am a Minneapolis resident um I'm also the current housing Justice organizer over at Jewish Community Action um and in my role at jca I have the privilege of organizing alongside Advocates and tenants across a number of suburban hennipen County cities and that includes minetonka and Adina St Louis Park Golden Valley and others so I I help to facilitate this work through a table called the Suburban henen Housing Coalition so I'm kind of speaking tonight on behalf of both jca and shhc um and I'm I'm here to urge each of you to approve the Mills church project um I can tell you from my time working across the suburbs that this development is a gift plain and simple we all know how short our cities are falling at meeting the needs of the many when it comes to affordable housing the scarcity of land available to develop for lwi income families and the high cost to create home ownership opportunities means that projects like this simply don't come around nearly as often as we need right and I also want to commend the dedication and perseverance Mills church and twin City's habitat have shown en tirelessly working to make these homes a reality the suburbs have a long history that continues to shape hostility towards affordable housing through zoning and reactionary push back lowincome community members are continually barred from achieving a home in places like minetonka to have faced these barriers and pushed through to this vote is a testament to the values of both Mills Church and habitat so really I I'm just here to ask you all to do your part in pushing this across the finish line and approve this project so vote Yes and beyond that I'm also here to carry a challenge from across the suburbs which is that we are experience experiencing a housing crisis in every city across Minnesota and so we need to be using every tool at our disposal to be trying to address that so I would encourage you all to be continually creative and courageous and maybe even more bold in your attempts to address the housing needs in Minnesota thanks so much for your time thank you good evening welcome hello my name is Lisa Fowler and I live at 3851 Huntington Circle so I do consider this project to be in my neighborhood and I want to begin by saying I absolutely support the project for a variety of reasons um and I have a little bit different point of view to share that I'm not sure has been shared before um and that is regarding the uh historic nature of the neighborhood and in my neighborhood on my street we have a lot of those signs about historic uh neighborhood um and there are definitely historic buildings and sites in this neighborhood but it is not by any means a historic district or historic neighborhood in any way shape or form and in fact what I would like to do is commend the Mills church for saving old city hall or Old Town Hall I'll get to that in in a moment but the city or that part Community has changed a lot over the last 25 years since we've lived here it used to be what I would call a rustic neighborhood but it's our already been changed by many people who have come in and supersized houses and I don't have an issue with that either it's like you people need a place to live and PE people should have the freedom to choose what they want to do in terms of where they live um so regarding the Old Town Hall Back in 1970 the city sold the land and the building to the Mills Church there was a covenant that required that if they wanted to knock it down the city could buy it back for $1 but the city doesn't really want to move Oldtown Hall so it is actually Mills church that is sponsoring and putting time into saving that historic building and I'm with the and we're we're at two minutes just so you know oh no anyway so anyway great job everybody the History part of this is I don't know I'll just leave it at I'll I'll I'll say that this will probably not be the last conversation that occurs on Oldtown Hall so save it for another time I will do that all right good evening welcome good evening thank you um council members and mayor um I'm Alan cousins and I live on green Ro Drive um I just have some questions for you um based on kissy's uh questions uh it got me to thinking um wondering what's the average time people own home Habitat for Humanity homes and we're not going to answer those now just go through them we'll note them and then we'll see if we can get them addressed sure sure and if there is a cap on how much profit you can make on your home does this create an environment where there is a housing instability lack of commit commitment to the community due to people wanting to sell to Maxim maximize their profits on a panum basis think about that one and does pud zoning have any Ram ramifications or benefits to properties that touch another PUD because and from what I've heard and what I learned when I was on the Eda there are some serious ramifications for properties that touch PUD which means that any T any property that touches a PUD can then become a PUD is that still the case why does minaka Mills Church need additional money for this land if the owner of the church is so committed to this proper project I noticed that he got up here and said this is a great project especially in the last two weeks I would think of as a great project in the last from at from two weeks ago if I just made $888,000 too so thanks uh thanks for your time and I appreciate all you're doing Take Care thank you Miss cousins welcome thank you um my name is Teresa trout and I live within a block of the church and I have lived there for um just over 30 years I guess in May I think it would be 30 years and so I I wanted to say that I bought that house as a a nurse as a single person um and it was something that I saved to do I my first house was in St Louis Park um I had roommates in my house and um you know another nurse and someone else and then I had a little equity and I bought this house um I um was a single parent for several years in that house I saw our neighborhood go from many original owners and I would I just want to interject that it is a historical neighborhood the house across the street from me was the very first house that was built um it is a historical neighborhood and a lot of original owners um a lot of um um a couple policemen teachers um uh the house across the street from me was owned by a volunteer fire fighter so this emotional impact of of affordability I just want to say I don't think I know of anyone that's in opposition to affordable housing I really don't think that's the issue um the people that I've talked to are concerned about um increasing the density and changing the zoning so I again if I didn't say it I am thankful and I was just very impressed at the Planning Commission meeting how people were just trying to balance the facts and the emotion and doing the right thing so I I uh do appreciate that and I feel like the decision has probably already been made but I want to say that um to um say that the neighborhood is against um affordable housing I don't think that's the issue I think it's the zoning and um I think our neighborhood is very inclusive and I'll also say that I worked for more of more than 40 years at HCMC so I worked with a very diverse population I was very committed to that I also worked for 11 years as a realtor so I will tell you I I know where there's a will there's a way you can find affordable housing and I've found you know first-time home buyers homes in many situations I just want to balance this and encourage people to continue to you know do do the right thing and kind of separate some of the emotion I I I'm probably getting close to my time yeah you are you are at your time yeah so thank you and um I just think we need to carry some respect through this whole thing and um to blame the neighborhood for um being against affordable housing is not the case I I think we we have a right to want to preserve um what we thought we had and so thank you thank you have a good night good evening good evening my name is David Hoy I live at 3 629 Farmington Road I'm a backdoor neighbor of council member Foster Bolton um I wear this badge I think everybody in here who wears this badge has no problem with affordable housing I was hoping there would be five or six single family homes constructed on this unused part of the church property that's not the case that's not on the docket today it's something different but um my biggest concern if this goes through is the success potential of this property and I compliment council members Calbert ra I think I got that right and kley for asking pointed questions on what happens after it's built what's the success potential of this project what if people default on their mortgage who finds the next buyer do they walk away in the red or in the black and what are the details financially that will make this a success because if it goes downhill my biggest concern is will it take my property value down with it will become a blight in the whole neighborhood so I'd love to see it be highly successful but I felt like we've been a little bit stonewalled on the financial details on the far end that could make it a success so that these people aren't hung up to dry that do move into these places so I prefer to see single family homes on the site I wish you would consider that but whatever will be will be thanks for your time thank you Mr he good evening good evening everybody thank you for this conversation the opportunity to speak with all of you I'm Dan Nar executive director of IC Food Shelf um we do food jobs and housing as wraparound services to support our community we are just like Chris Coleman had mentioned that we see the faces of those affected by housing every day in our work we see the impact fact that affordable housing is the crisis situation not just here in motanka but around other communities in our state and our nation affordable housing is critical and I'm asking that we all be brave as a leader in the community as IA supports our community in a number of different ways I really like to look at a strategy of how we as partners in our community can really come together and talk about having crucial conversations that are not just this property but how we can have crucial conversations that address the bigger impact of what we can be doing and how can a play a part in that I also want the community to understand and know the impact that the city of minaka has made in our community IC has been a benefactor of a lot of funding enormous funding that has been given to us as a contractor to help support affordable housing in our area which is crucial to helping the support and the livelihood of families coming in the could be coming in from other cities to go to school they could keep coming from other cities to have jobs IC has met that challenge and increased our borders to make sure that we are responding to those and I want to thank the city of minona for being such a great partner in that process thank you Mr Nar and and I want to thank you for the good work that IC does I mean you're an important part of our community and um that you know the things that you do for people who live in minaka and around minaka is significant so thank you so much for um your support of our community as well good evening good evening my name is Dr Jen West Morland um I spent over three decades of my life living in the city of minona um about two years ago I moved to the Hopkins school district portion of Edina and so I appreciate you letting me speak here tonight um I'm here because we serve the same Community this is my seventh year on the Hopkins school board um I was proud to serve with Steve Adams who spoke earlier and between 150 and 225 students in the Hopkins school district have experienced homelessness over the past year these students are not faceless they are my CH my child's friends they are the children of my friends and they deserve safe and stable housing in their Community another um Hopkins community member Hopkins schools Community member spoke earlier this evening and talked about the impacts of historic underfunding of public education on our employees in Hopkins schools and one of those impacts is that new teachers make just over 30% Ami and so we're talking about Educators who are serving our our students every day we're talking about our valued support staff in Hopkins schools as well I have the honor of representing our community um the heading home henpen task force we are a Continuum of Care partnership convened by henpen County to eliminate homelessness in the county and no matter how you define affordable housing we are experiencing a gap of tens of thousands of units throughout hanpen County and this would be a powerful I think this would send a powerful message not just to our manataka community here our larger Hopkins schools Community um but our Suburban Partners as well um in terms of the importance of working together to address this Gap so thank you so much for your service thank you good evening good evening uh my name is Jason Palm I live at 14816 Highland Lane in Minnetonka um I worked for five years as the associate director at ICA Food Shelf and I currently work for the last eight years at St David Center for Child and Family development and been around a lot of our minona families that have need that struggled to make ends meet and have talked a lot of them and um you know what they would say is over and over and over housing is the most significant problem it's the hardest thing for our family it's what keeps us in the struggles that we're in and this project is the kind of project that makes affordable housing possible for those kinds of families um I think it was Sean is it sudor from zono a month ago that presented to youall um I was there that night who said a project like this is really what most cities need to be moving toward in the future it's at the major arteries um it's um providing this kind of PU in an area like this um so I think kind of leaning into their study and what they said is really important for us to consider um I'll also say as a member of Mills church I've been there for 23 years um I'm a part of the team that is um looking to renovate and rejuvenate the town hall I was a part of um bringing to the historic registry a few years ago doing a conditions assessment currently hopefully putting money into that in the future um you know I really think historicity of that area is very important um I also think though if we talked to families um 50 100 years ago who would say what's important about the historicity of this area what they would say is the homes the being able to raise our families here um they look at their neighborhoods and I think that would be far more of the story that we want to be able to tell about the historicity of the area than just the beautifying of it or that town hall um and I think that's an important thing to consider so thank you very much thank you Mr Palm appreciate it good evening good evening uh mayor and Council um my name is Craig Nelson I live at 12824 Burwell Drive about you know block and a half away from the build site um people have been talking about faces and that's why I am up here I want to put a face to what uh Chris Coleman talked about the families moving into these places if they get built um I'm one of those faces uh due to life circumstances a father that that uh was absent a mother with health issues I spent the great majority of my childhood living in a subsidized uh rental unit over in in St Paul and my mother eventually worked her way out of um her health issues began working and through a special program she was able to get a special mortgage to buy a house in St Paul in Kom Park and I just want to say that happened when I was a junior in high school the joy happiness and pride that our family had when we were able to move into that house and call it our own was just um it was awesome just awesome my mother stayed in that home until she could no longer take care of it eventually she uh got her own mortgage for the house um these are people that we should care about and they will do well thank you appreciate your time thank you Mr Nelson good evening thank you mayor council my name is Rachel Williams and I live in the Glen Lake neighborhood at 1416 Kinsel Road in minnona I am a licensed architect specializing in sustainability I've seen many higher density projects built in the 17 years that I have lived in that neighborhood we know that neighborhoods are always changing minetonka Mills no longer has any Mills in that industrial sense your decision today is who wields the power in deciding the changes for this neighborhood favoring the hypothetical fears of the status quo will just perpetuate the existing biases around gender race income and ability I encourage you to listen to The Proven track record of Habitat for Humanity and actively support higher density home ownership opportunities that are better for the environment develop generational wealth and create a more walkable Vibrant Community I implore you to approve this project and support the future residents of our diverse city thank you good evening Council my name is Scott rabber I live at 3715 Farmington Road about a block away from the Mills Property uh $6.7 million for 10 dwellings that's $67,000 per dwelling that's a lot of money that's a lot of money for for one dwelling it seems fiscally irresponsible to spend that much on one dwelling um since most of the homes in the area weren't purchased for that probably couldn't be sold for that now single family homes that are there um the neighborhood loves the affordable housing that's already been brought in there's a family on Elm that's really what the neighborhood love to see more single family homes where people could have a yard they could gain more Equity with $6.7 million to build single family homes on this property and give families an opportunity to build true equity in their home that's all that the direct public the direct neighbors are asking for is stay within that R1 don't go with PUD build homes they're like in the area so more families can come in and can enjoy the area and the equity that they can build in a home it's really all that we're asking for we would love to see affordable housing come into this area and we would love to see it happen in single family homes thank you thank you good evening good evening mayor where are some council members my name is Jennifer Mt and I live at 5261 Beachside Drive I also represented our community for eight years on the Metropolitan Council and when the city's comp plan came in and it said that we want to make room for more diverse housing we want to make room for more affordable housing this is exactly the kind of development that I thought our city was seeking I am really proud um that the church was willing to offer more land I'm proud that you were working with Habitat to accommodate the concerns of nearby neighbors and I'm proud that our city staff are offering a recommendation to approve I am a yimi I want this development in my backyard I live at Beachside my husband and I moved in in 1996 we were the people firsttime home buyers seeking affordable housing my development when after we had lived there for 20 years it required new roofs it required new siding it required new driveways we had built up a reserve such that we could make those improvements before coming here today I was walking through my neighborhood I urge you to take a look at it Beachside has 42 quads 168 units before coming here I was walking around the block with families with our puppies beautiful crab apple trees beautiful gardens this is not going to be a sar on our community what a affordable housing means is that the people who are good enough to work in our community are able to afford to live here that they can have a joyful life and a stable home for their family I urge you to approve this development thank you Miss Mt and thank you for serving our community good evening mayor we are some members of the council it's okay there's no trap door I promise like this I'm Rachel Holmes I live at 5514 bimy drive in motanka and I'm a 16-year resident in a town home there one thing is I can assure you that homeowners associations work our uh roofs and siding and everything else is kept in very good repair uh Lawns are kept mowe snow is cleared it's a great place to live if I were to try to buy my home at today's prices I probably couldn't and I suspect others in the room may feel the same way I want this affordable housing development to be built these these Twin Homes to be built because we need more affordable housing in the city where people can build equity Mills Church believes in preserving the history of the community and as such has done a lot of work on the town hall and will continue to do so I'm excited about this project and the opportunity for more people to own homes in vatanka and I encourage you to vote for yes thank you good evening good evening my name is Dan McCarthy I live at 15608 Randall Lane which is just west of the Glen Lake intersection in 2008 Tom Wartman proposed a big Redevelopment project in the Glen Lake Area there was a lot of neighborhood oppos opposition to it the traffic would increase we'd have to tear down the old gold nugget historic gold nugget today the new Gold Nugget restaurant is a is a huge asset in that Community there's 52 apartment units over that complex of uh of businesses I drive through that intersection every day I've never been held up by traffic it the traffic is no different today than it was um you know before that project the the current project with uh the 10 units proposed um I don't think would add any more traffic to that that intersection the church at one time I've been attending Mills church for 30 years um at one time it had over 500 people attend on a on a Sunday morning the Tuesday Morning women's Bible studies were were packed the uh youth groups on Wednesday nights there was a lot of a lot of going on in that intersection in and out um today there are two two churches that use that facility for their worship um resource West just rented the town hall uh St David rents other space from us so it's it's still an active complex there it's well used so I think these five units would make be a a big asset to that that corner as well thank you thank you thank you oh good good evening hi thank you mayor Rome and council members my name is Megan Morrison and I'm a homeowner at 4517 Jersey Avenue North in Crystal but I'm here because I grew up in minetonka went to Hopkins Public Schools K through 12 and graduated from Hopkins High School at the top of my class I left the state for college but returned here to teach fifth grade because I love it here and deeply value growing up in motanka however I couldn't afford to buy a home here so I ask you to support this project so teachers like me can afford to buy a home here in the future thank you so much good evening good evening thank you mayor and Council we appreciate your time and the explanation that was offered tonight my name is jeremi palan and I live on Willowwood Drive here in minaka according to the most recent census data hmic County lost a net total of 22936 residents over the last 3 years that's the largest loss of res in the history of henan County so I think that's the factual backdrop against which this conversation needs to take place at large it's important to delineate the issue and so I think a lot of people have vocalized that they support the idea of affordable housing here in minetonka the issue before the council tonight is the particular building site is this the most appropriate place where we can do that and offer that benefit to the community and so if you look at the particular partic uh previous residents concerns if you drive up and down anywhere near that projected impact site it's overwhelming that the people who live there who will be directly impacted by this decision oppose it and the signage proves that they've taken the time to post that to let people know with their feelings on it and so I think it's important that we give extra weight to the voice of those who will be directly impacted by this decision and they've made their voices clear and they do oppose this project they don't want to see multiple dwellings multiple houses on those particulars they've asked for a single Home Solution and so I would ask you to take that into consideration so on their behalf and on behalf of every minaka resident who wants to see that historic neighborhood protected I am urging you all to vote no tonight thank you thank you good evening good evening mayor uh Pastor John Nelson I'm the senior pastor G sub Lutheran Church in Hopkins half of my members are minona residents and live in that neighborhood around the site um I've had the benefit and privilege of working on three different sites just like this one in chasa one in St Louis Park it's generally been a the only way this is possible in our type of a community is when a Church offers up their land at a discounted price that habitat can come in and create this kind of space um I know the Pastors in those other sites and the families that have moved in and revitalized that neighborhood around their churches and I just want to share what a benefit these uh Twin Homes have been around that church and that Community uh I realize it's a massive uh change from what some of these families are used to on that site um I also know Bob Johnson who grew up in the historic minaka Mills Town Hall when it was a mertile in the 1910 1920s member of our church and actually supported habitat in our habitat projects every year him and his wife uh when they were members of our church and in his spirit I wanted to share that thanks thank you good evening good evening my name is Jackie SM and I live at 11309 Oakvale Road North I understand that change can be hard and you can make yourself crazy wondering about worrying this and worrying that um I'd like to say Oakvale Road North is two blocks north of minona Mills Town Homes that's 31 Town Homes I can see no discernable impact on our neighborhood with 31 Town Homes two blocks away so I don't believe that having 10 Twin Homes is going to drastically affect the lives of people who live near there I'm also a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of minaka which began its existence in historic Burwell school um we met in one of the rooms there um our church is Minister is on Beacon's board um and is an advocate for affordable housing many of our members have gone down to the capital and support of affordable housing and I feel blessed today to speak for affordable housing in my own home suburb to help 10 families buy a home I understand as a school social worker how important stable housing is for the success of the children and I really would like us to be able to support that in my own suburb I also have a feeling that City Hall really doesn't mind if there are 10 buildings that are going to be built next door to it thank you thank you good evening good evening Mr mayor council members my name is Thomas H I live at 1 3714 Orchard Road sort of around the corner I guess and I bring the perspective of a man that swung a hammer on a fair amount of habitat builds over the course of my lifetime and I just want to I want to say it it changed the way I look at a lot of the world back in the old days the habitat model was the person who was going to be acquiring the home had to put Sweat Equity into it and so you got to swing a hammer next to the person who was going to be living in it and I can't tell you how many times it was a single mother and she would talk to me about what a GameChanger this would mean for her to have a a secure home stable housing a good Community to send the kids to and and all the other things that we all know that that we all own homes know about uh it changed my perspective on the world and it changed my perspective on people who don't look like me and don't earn the kind of money that I earned um and and so I've become an advocate for low income and affordable housing ever since and work Beacon which just mentioned I I spend a lot of time with Beacon and so I I would encourage you to to vote Yes for this project uh and let's create some more stories from those people that are going to be living there thank you thank you good evening Mike MTI 3700 Baker Road minaka uh as early as uh just as recently as February 1st 2024 in debating the subject of Emerald Estates uh the council said the comprehensive plan and ordinances are intended to establish a reasonable expectation for what property owners and developers alike can do with their prop property the city is obligated to provide owners and developers with reasonable use this is not obliged to allow maximum use of a property particularly when that property requires variances to ordinance and Zoning standards uh apparently minaka is willing to financially Grant an additional approximately 45,000 just to get this project uh in the extra land guaranteeing the lower density uh we have seen no guarantees that the project will meet the R1 neighborhood standards and with surrounding homes nothing's been listed specifically in the master plan uh as far as Heights lot size Green Space Etc so I think these should all be considered I think we should consider still going back to an R1 residential designation with single family homes thank you for your time thank you Mr Manning good evening hi chair and committee uh my name is Andrew Cornelius I live at 14719 minetonka drive just right over there I live in 104y Old Farmhouse that's surrounded by duplexes in that area over there um they have been wonderful neighbors there's actually one house that on that neighborhood that is a part of the um not the habitat houses but the other houses in with reach homes reach yep and my neighbors have been phenomenal they helped redo the driveway they do have the money to upkeep this stuff and it's it's been a good program I don't live very far from any of the other people around here we live maybe three blocks from this proposed area I think this is a good project um I also mow the church property I can tell you that the only thing historic in the area is the original foundations of houses built for the you military coming back and there were much smaller houses and that is the original house so I think what is being proposed here is actually going to really be nice and I'd rather see this and for the families I also have a huge tional attachment to this land it's where I did VBS I grew up I went to the church since I was three um so I'm sad to see it go but I'm also so excited for the families that will get to live here and how that benefited me as I was growing up thanks thank you Mr Cornelius good evening good evening um my name is Sylvia Heyman uh I live at 9200 West 28th Street in St Louis Park just over the bridge from minetonka and I work in Hopkins public schools and I ride my bicycle past this site um every time I work at West Junior High um I am uh just want to speak to the it sounds like a lot of the concern here is with the zoning variants so I just want to address that directly and um so uh historically single family zoning has um been a huge barrier to uh the ability for people to afford housing um so people who want to build something other than a single family home have been blocked from being able to do that by these types of processes needing to happen in order for that to take place um and so I just wanted to point that fact out that the reason we don't have enough affordable housing and that we're in this housing crisis is because of um these zoning laws that keep people out of affordable homes um and I appreciate that this process is taking place and that this is being considered and I'm really excited for this project to move forward thank you thank you so I see no one else in line so our public hearing is over but I want to thank thank everyone who um uh one you really did a great job of sticking with the time limits I hope I wasn't too rude in enforcing those but um uh we heard from a lot of people in a relatively short period of time I think that's a success so now um the opportunity is to uh to bring this back to the council for discussion and um and a decision and I think we can get that done so um we have the staff recommendation well go ahead get the right slide up there m Miss wishnack thank you so we have two separate action items tonight you know we have land use items and we heard about that and then the financing item because there uh there is a financing aspect to this project so um um Mr Funk again excuse me thank you mayor councel I just would uh ask that Ken heiney or City attorney just address the council before you begin your deliberations on both action before you this evening very good as you teed up mayor uh there is land use considerations and then there's Financial considerations and there are distinguishing factors between the two of those that I believe it's in your interest to hear again a perspective from the city attorney guiding you in the future thank you in my enthusiasm um to move things forward I um I overlooked that little detail so thank you for your comments Miss heiney thank you um mayor and members of the council um it's really just a reminder that there are different legal standards that apply to the two different types of decisions that you're making and while all of the testimony that was provided during the public hearing um was intermixed some of it was about what the land use is going to be what the buildings are going to look like um you know what the impact is on the surrounding neighborhood all of those land use types of issues but some of it was about um you know whether people will develop Equity how it's going to be financed all of those things and so the financing part any facts on that are not relevant to the decision about the land use and so for purposes of um the public to understand what your decision is and if there were a court to ever look at it um it is helpful if you keep those comments separate so that it's clear on the record um when you're talking about the land use and what factors influence your decision on the land use versus what factors influence your decision on the financing which is a separate issue so um along those lines then should we just have our conversation first on the land use items and then and then revert to the financing items that'll keep it simpler that would make the record really clear and then and then if we if we get off script you can kind of let us know and so that we can make this as simple and straightforward as possible is that does that work for everyone coun wilb I kind of have some comments I wanted to make that weren't that don't exactly fall into that so I don't well let let's risk it okay well let's let's let's do the best we can to kind of separate the two but if you know I mean if you have a comment that you want to make don't feel constrained if um if we're getting into the deep water we'll we'll find out okay so I um Council M Wilburn absolutely all right so um I made I have some bullet points here so I don't forget everything and and so it hopefully is succinct um and I just going to put it out there I'm going to I'm going to say some of the things that we don't usually say so uh but first I wanted to start off uh thank you everyone who showed up and and um and for uh stating your your positions respectfully um I appreciate that um and I want to say that I don't believe that there are any villains in this room um and I've spoken to people that are in favor of this project and people who are are not in favor of this project and for some of them there seems to be some assumptions of ill intentions on the other side that I just do not believe are accurate so I I am hopeful that whatever the decision is tonight that people can have some conversations and and and come to some some understanding and have some Harmony um so in specific some neighbors have uh have felt that they're being unfair unfairly mischaracterized as racist and so I wanted to just talk to you about what it means to me when I talk about the the zoning history and racism so our modern zoning um in in many of our cities and towns ac across the United States have roots and policies from more than a hundred years ago where the explicit goal was to exclude um in the words of urban planner har Harland Bartholomew was to prevent Movement by colored people into finer residential districts so with that at the back um backdrop um and as racial covenants and other exclusionary practices became illegal zoning was a way to legally continue to exclude certain people so why do I bring that up now none of us were born when these things first happened I have no reason to believe like when they last looked at zoning that anyone was sitting there twirling their mustache saying we're we're going to keep the brown people out um the reason I bring that up is because let me find this actual statement um systemic exclusion does not need active participation but rather it takes active dismantling so people who are are are perpetuating some of these systems can be unknowingly and unintentionally continuing exclusion so as I I have mentioned um some n neighbors feel that they have been unfairly mischaracterized um and they say that their objection is to density and not affordability and I have no reason to doubt that they are sincere in that in in their objections um and I understand how frustrating and harmful it is to have people make assumptions of about your character but I would like you to consider some things nism based on class and race does exist in motanka I have heard it with my own ears and affordability requires a certain amount of density so the outcome of denying of denying density is denying aord affability and even if that is not your intention that is the outcome and I can tell you as personally as um someone who when you point out a a a harm that has been done by others whether through direct participation or or tangentially um participating in a harmful system you point that out to them once they get ask the how dare you accuse me of being racist even if that's not what you're accusing them of they will eventually get to well that was not my intention and intention is does matter it is important it does not erase harm so um I just would I'm hopeful that all of you when you're considering what you're asking for there is that that byproduct that if we if we don't have a certain amount of density then we can't have a certain amount of affordability and the the um let's be honest most people who don't want certain people in their neighborhood are not going to come up to the microphone and say I don't want those people in in our neighborhood they're going to talk about neighborhood character they're going to talk about uh density they're going to talk about all those things so it is it is difficult for an outside Observer to distinguish what your true intentions are so and again the people I talk to wonderful people lovely people I I completely I have no reason to to disbelieve them when they say they don't object to affordable housing I just don't know think that they've thought through what objecting to density really means um so and finally I think again you know about using the city monies towards these towards this project or any other project you know should it should it go through as uh council member Foster Bolton asked and was it was um affirmed that we just can't get affordable housing without some sort of Financial uh contribution from the city and I believe like if we are truly committed to affordable housing then we need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk so um that is where and I want make one final uh set of statements so I'm a I'm a yes and person so when when people say you know we need to work on maintaining our naturally affordable naturally occurring affordable housing yes and we need to have more multif family dwellings in in commercial areas yes and we need to provide housing for people in all stages of life at all income levels yes and we need to have housing like this condom Twin Homes other opportunities for ownership and at the end of the day should this pass there will be 10 families that will have an opportunity to own a home that might otherwise not have that opportunity so that is my my thinking on the proposal before us thank you council member Wilburn council member sha excuse me thank you mayor um you know the people that showed up in this room tonight I'll be honest I mean it was a it was a respectful great crowd if you would have told me that this crowd was involved in some of the comments that I saw on social media some of the leaks that went to the media um some of the discourse that was happening behind the scenes I would tell you were a liar but guess what I saw it and so I don't think this project I just feel compelled to say this project did not bring out the best of us from any aspect from the supporters from the opponents from the neutral people honestly it's really a bummer and the one last thing I will say is I am enormously defensive of our volunteers and I saw some really crappy things said about our planning Commissioners after that Planning Commission meeting these are seven people who spent 5 hours of their Thursday night to listen to folks in this community and they were shamed online and I just it infuriates me to no end so with all of that being said I I these people are volunteers give them Grace you can direct your vital at me that's fine I signed up for this job and worked really hard to get it um anyway I'm going to move on to the project I um you know one of the things if you've been paying attention to the meetings for a long time is I'm very supportive of taking areas that are border areas that are on arterial roadways that transition into neighborhoods and bumping up the density I don't you know I I have reservations about significant density and and that um that's a separate conversation but this is the crosssection of two arterial roadways adjacent to a commercial District adjacent to a lot of institutional use these are lovely Twin Homes we've got Twin Homes just down the street that um are very transition I mean you you wouldn't even really know that they're Twin Homes I think this is the right mix for this area and it occurred to me as I was listening to some of the comments that this were this was an area that was also developed for people after World War II there are some uh as affordable places for people to come live after they served in the war and I think what we're really trying to do is honor that history of the area with this project and I agree there's there is history in the neighbor neighbor Hood but it's also an incredibly eclectic neighborhood there are mcmansions there's been tear Downs there are little cabin looking houses I mean of the areas in minona I'd say this is some of the most eclectic so I support this project I'm really glad we found a way to make it work the I want to make a comment about PUD you know one of the first I I was driving by it today there's a little development that's h I'm about 8 years old it's one of the first pods it's how I learned of pod when I was on the Planning Commission it's regal Oak Drive I believe right off Shady Oak Road so maybe a half a mile from this project and it's a PUD and it's a lovely little neighborhood and you would never know I don't think if you drove if you weren't sitting here that night approving it um You probably wouldn't recognize that it's a PUD but it allowed us to make some decisions about getting some houses that made sense for the area in the area in a very meaningful way and so um I'm not concerned that this to me affordable housing will always be a public benefit so I am not concerned about this s setting any kind of negative precedent we worked really hard to get there I hope that reassures the community that we think about these things we don't rubber stamp these things we're many years in the making on this and I think it's the right project for the right area so I will support the land tonight we'll talk about the financing later thank you councilor sha who's next councilor kley um I'm just going to say that um you know the comments that I made tonight um I made a lot of comments I asked a lot of questions well many questions I was asking um because um I know that it's important for families to um create generational wealth um I know the experience um but also I know how important it is for families to have stability um it was programs like this that helped me have stability for 16 years um but having the stability I also Now understand what it means to own your land I Now understand what it mean means to create generational wealth I understand what it's like to have my neighbor sell her home that had a twed two-bedroom home and I have a four bedroomroom home she walked away with 40,000 I would have walked away with 0 if I would have sold my home a year after hers so um that really impacted me and made me think differently about this type of program um but I know that it's important for um families to have a stable home I think about it now that um you know for 10 families to come into um minona to have a place to stay to have a um a place to call their home um I think that's a great thing um one gentleman got up today and talked about um having a place to stay and how um it makes you feel when you can call a home your home and how excited um you know he was and I it made me reflect on when I purchased my home in minona and how I felt I only looked at one home and I said this is the home I probably should have looked at several homes but it was just one and done um um and I could have chose another city um I had enough I I had a traditional home I could have I could have moved to Brooklyn Park I could have moved to Minneapolis and still had a place to live and I want I own the land so um I know that we can't solve this here tonight um I know that this is not subat tanaa thing I know that this is a state thing this is this is this won't get solved here um I know it's but I also understand how important it is for someone to have a home and so I'll say tonight I will support um you know the um land use consideration so thank you council member kle council member Foster Bolton um a couple of things to reiterate what um council member sha was saying about this being an arterial um intersection and its location um to two arterial streets and so it's logical to see higher density on this site and I I hope that um and as as higher density moves West as we can see um that this actually this particular project locks in four units per acre so for 99 years so I mean that is um sort of a a lucky thing that this is happening now because it could be more and um so I hope that we can appreciate that that's that's a good thing um and also what I wanted to say that throughout this development the concerns of the neighbors have always been carefully considered um leading to numerous adjustments and compromises the separation of the buildings from the original planning the lowering the height the changing to the three different designs um the diversity and the housing housing um and I think the efforts by the staff the developer the neighbors and the church reflect our commitment as a city um to balance the need of affordable home ownership in the interest and well-being of our community members um I think this is the right decision for this city and um and speaking of the 10 families I'm looking forward to welome welcoming them to this community so I too support the land use thank you other comments Council council member R yes thank you mayor um just just uh following up on some of the other comments that have been made um for me in my thinking about the land use uh the comp comprehensive plan compliance was a key element um so now that it is in compliance with the comp plan's low density designation of four uh maximum four homes per acre that makes it the same as the surrounding neighbors um it eliminated also that risk that paty was just talking about of uh the project falling through and then future altern owners for whatever reason if that deal were to fall through then future alternate owners being able to develop up to 20 six units on the site which would have been the case if we had had to amend the comp plan so that was a really key consideration for me in this process um I do agree with the next level down in terms of the actual zoning the rezoning to uh the Pud because it still adheres to that low density designation uh that's stipulated in the comprehensive plan as the current use um and then according to its use according to our comprehensive plan um it says most residential neighborhoods that contain existing single family homes in the city are designated for low density res residential uses although low density uses include detached single family housing types other residential housing types such as duplexes and attached town homes are included Prov provided that the overall density does not exceed four units per acre this land use district is established to recognize the Primary Residential development pattern in the city and accommodate housing goals including affordable and mid uh mid-priced housing so for me you know that's key that's what we're accomplishing here um to me the size and the massing is reasonable um the size and the massing which several neighbors have talked about and I understand that concern um but the size and massing of the five Twin Town Homes you know essentially duplexes is really no more than five large single family homes would be on that site um and by the way I'd love to have a conversation about the ballooning size of single family homes in minona but we'll leave that uh for another time it's not the issue here but I do understand and empathize that this will this even this change will likely be an adjustment for the immediate neighbors um and I understand that because I've been in there shoes uh I live in a small 1600 square ft house um I live next to another one that was the same size that when the neighbor died it was bought by a developer and a 4500 square F foot house was put in instead Which is far larger than what these Twin Homes are going to be um it was an adjustment but you know we've made it we like the neighbors it's all good life has changed and we all adjust to it and I think the plans for this development show that it it's going to have green space it's going to be well-maintained it's attractive designs um so yes uh for me I had to adjust to less privacy a little bit more exterior lighting than I was used to but again I think that's going to be the same here but you're going to you know it's it's doable um I also am favoring the Pud because it's going to allow us flexibility um you know to do things like maximizing the setback for the kigs the couple who does live on the remaining parcel that's part of this little campus and so I think allowing having the Pud here will allow us to you know do things for them and do other things hopefully for the neighbors that you know allows the flexibility of use to do things instead of having condos you know to set up these variations in terms of the spacing the um spacing between the town homes and so on that will help make this project a good one for the neighborhood as well so in terms of the land use um that is my thinking and so I am inclined to approve the land use on this thank you councilor ra and Council M Calbert thank you mayor um I want to thank everybody for sticking it out for all these years and uh especially because having been at the very first two listening sessions this project was always already going sideways the comments were already ugly so thank you council member sha for um just saying how it's been um and uh so first of all I just want to say I live on Baker Road I live about a block and a half from this church this is my neighborhood you are my neighbors and so no matter how I vote there was a gentleman here saying that clearly everyone was against it those are the signs and then there are the many people that I've talked to several of whom live in our neighborhood um that are for it and so uh I think it is really important to make sure that we understand there are no villains and people have shown up and fought for what they think is right they love their Community they love their neighborhoods and I just wish that that some of the rhetoric in the media at the state legislature and on social media had been a little Kinder and especially to our staff and I just want to say I think that uh it's very important to call out um really some of the vile comments that were made towards the Planning Commission but our staff who has has been professional and creative and consistent about what you know what zoning um implications there would be for different iterations of the project and what it would what would be required to get this pass they were consistent all along and so I just applaud their professionalism they're cool Under Fire even when people were treating them very poorly so thank you for that um and also the game the game of telephone so I got angry emails about things I have never said and done from people on both sides so I must have been doing something right because nobody knew how I was going to vote so um and I do want to say one thing that is a little bit about the finances but not really when I was asking questions about the AG ho OA it's not because I have I I worry in particular about this HOA or the you know it's just we have had issues with HOAs that had big expenses that they you know had trouble paying and so I just wanted to make sure that people in the audience understood you know this is no different than any other HOA it's there to take care of the property so I just want to make sure that people understand that I want people to know that my husband grew up in a house with a dirt floor and that my mother was the daughter of immigrants and grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn New York and um became a PhD and it would be considered by a lot of people those people so um when we talk about redlining and and exclusionary zoning one of the things that I do think about is she lived in Brooklyn New York and if if if density was the the key to affordability New York City would be the most affordable place so it's a little more complicated and I do want to talk just a little bit about that and you know later so why am I why am I supporting this project or not we do need Diversified housing stock we don't have enough town homes or duplexes we do need affordable housing it's a national crisis I have members of my family right now that are dealing with all kinds of health issues and housing issues and so it's something that I I personally you know deal with in my family life all the time this represents in terms of of uh density again to arterial streets but also although my my colleague uh council member Wilburn talked about you know low density being exclusionary one of the reasons we all live in minona is because it is a thoughtfully orderly developed Comm commun Community there is thoughtfulness to the way we develop and one of the things that I think makes more sense now that we have arrived at um this number of units um and in in a configuration that will not be 12 up to 12 units per acre this is the kind of transition that does make sense for the kind of street that I live on um in terms of the land use there and I want to reiterate there have been several really important projects that we have already approved um and other projects that we considered and tried to get approved and walked away because the Planning Commission was trying to do the right thing and they wanted more shared amenities between a market rate apartment building and an affordable apartment building all affordable with 133 units at 30% area median income we lost that project because they were fighting so hard to be anti-racist and that's why some of the comments towards them were so hurtful to me um we have uh a project in Glen Lake that we have approved it's not built yet the funding for this project is not yet fully in hand 's not a guarantee and so for me to have a PUD that is Project Specific and not a zoning that is L specific that would allow that kind of density with several dozen homes there um is it just makes a lot more sense to me in terms of thoughtful development while achieving our affordable housing goals um and also I mean people are talking about the historic nature of the area there was a house directly across from my house built in 1905 I literally got zero phone calls or emails when they tore that down nothing that's minaka Mills it's right down the street so um you know and right now that section of the historics what people are calling historic is mostly an asphalt parking lot the other thing is that each of these homes is really expensive it's very very expensive they're you know inching up towards six $700,000 a piece which should make people in the neighborhood where some of the homes are that much or more and some of them like mine are half that um these are valuable homes these are valuable brand new homes that by the way are a lot bigger than my house for some of the units that they're talking about so they're beautiful homes that will give people a place to live you know our professionals our teachers our firefighters um I love the idea that um there might be a way to upgrade the playground because the church did relinquish control of that land um and uh I like that there will be an HOA that maintains the property I like that it will be owner occupied and can't be sublet I like that there are sustain sustainability features like solar that are part of the project um and I just want to to say also that there are neighbors that feel like they're going to be impacted and they will be impacted and I especially think of the kigs who are the most decent kind thoughtful people and um it's a huge change for them and so when people came up to the Planning Commission were talking about you know uh or or wrote later that it was fear-mongering when people said that you know you're talking about hypothetical what if what if this why are you talking about what if well the kigs never thought in a million years that there would be 10 town you know 10 town or four town homes and two duplexes or whatever right next door 10 units they they never thought they'd be surrounded change does happen and so what I want to do is make sure that we are achieving our affordable housing goals while um you know under understanding that there are unintended consequences things happen and the project you know might not get funded and so if we had changed the comprehensive guide plan it really would have had some some really significant unintended consequences for that property so I think all in all that um I'll save the my comments about the the finances for the next conversation but um uh that's what I have so far so basically um and with a little trepidation because it is my neighborhood I am for this project thank you so I guess my turn um and and based upon the the votes I really don't have to say anything because it's it's clear that there are enough votes to support this but those of you who know me know I can't quite let you off the hook that easily although Miss wishnack is hoping that I do um so you know change is hard and um you know you're looking at here up here at seven people who are in the change management business that's really our job um and so if we don't want to make the tough decisions we shouldn't be doing this and um you know we are here our job I've learned a lot of things I've been doing this for a long enough time that people who come before a city council or call me up on the phone they really want me to to agree with them they really want that but you know what what they really care about is that they're heard and listened to even if I don't agree with them if I show them the respect to listen to their perspective and then make a decision that's different than what they want most people are okay with that because this is about respect and you know I have to agree with what um council member sha and others have said this has really been sausage making it's been pretty ugly on both sides and it would be nice that when this is done with whatever decision ultimately gets made and we kind of know which one will get made that maybe there would be some people saying you know what I apologize I let the ends justify the means and I was wrong and I apologize for some of the things that I said either in a conversation or in social media now I'll tell you I don't know what was said in social media I don't look at it but most of my council members do and and I think we really need to be cognizant that we are a community and you know um you know there's you know I I I started out I jotted some things down you I wanted people to understand the roles because I think that's been confusing um the applicant tonight is habitat they are the developer of this proposal the church has been involved a lot but what they really are is they're they're selling their property they're the property owner and they're selling the property it's unusual for a property seller to be involved in the process so the agree the churches but but I would also admit that the project wouldn't exist if the church hadn't taken the initiative so it's a little bit different ball game but you know we I think it's about about respect and and I think we really need to be respectful to one another and if we did something that was a little out of line um I got a note from Mr kanig um who saidyou know what I was raised better than I got mad the other night and I was raised better than that and I apologize and I went and sat in his living room and and he said the same thing over again and I said well you know the fact that you sent me that not it tells me that you were probably raised pretty right and I think we should all examine how were we raised and how do we expect to treat one another you know I've I've been a little cynical about the love makes room um uh theme you know I started out thinking about you know slogans are powerful and I'm a marketing guy and if I throw out a slogan um I could expect that you would know what brand I'm talking about if I say it's the real thing you know what I'm talking about if I said from the land of Sky Blue Waters you'd know what I'm talking about well I think that we need to be intellectually honest and the church is getting close to $700,000 for that land when I first heard about this project and the numbers weren't out I was under the impression that the church was donating the land now that's a big ask I'm not saying they should but you know what makes projects happen love helps but it's the money and we're going to talk about the financing a little bit um but it's the money that makes projects happen whether it's done by a nonprofit or Donald Trump it's the money that makes projects happen and that's really what we're talking about and if there were no money involved in this thing we wouldn't be having this conversation so I'm a little cynical about that slogan because I don't think that's what it was really all about and so you know I'm I'm concerned about some of the inconsistencies that we've seen in this process but at the end of the day I look at things in terms of will the city be better if we do it or if we don't and um you know I was a ward council member for 20 years or 15 years excuse me I don't want to overstate the case but um and I wasn't a classic I mean I was a business guy who somehow ended up being a council member and that's a separate story but I always tried to take a strategic view if a project was benefited the entire city at the expense of my War I was okay with that um I um I I felt what what I want to do is what is best for the entire city now change is going to happen and change is uncomfortable but but the reality is change needs to happen um there is a housing crisis in the in the United States and in Minnesota but I want to share some statistics too because I really do feel that our staff kind of got dragged through the the mud and the blood on this thing and it and you know if you read the the um the editorial in the strib that said love makes room but not in minetonka that one really irritated me I could use stronger terminology to describe what it did to me but but that one really bugged me but if I look at how we do as a city in terms of affordable housing I asked for some statistics here so in the last 10 years there have minaka has developed 3,720 new homes living units of which 860 or you know over 25% were affordable now minona represents less than 1% of the population of mineta or Minnesota and we have a housing crisis and a lot of numbers get bandied about I've testified at the capital and done all sorts of things and a number of that gets thrown around that we are short a 100,000 units of housing in minnak I in Minnesota it's a housing crisis and people say well where does that number come from it's huge well I want to tell you something that if every city in the state did what Minit tanka has done in the last 10 years it that would have been 394,000 units of Housing and 91,000 units of affordable housing if their cities were like motanka we wouldn't have a housing crisis but guess what we got dragged through the mud and the blood because some housing Advocates didn't like the fact that our staff made made a recommendation that I agreed with because I don't believe this became a good project until we did not need a comp plan change because as as council member Calbert discussed there are projects that we've approved and they didn't get built why don't they get Built Well interest rates went up developer went belly up bad things happen I can't predict what's going to happen tomorrow and neither can habitat and neither can Mills church and neither can anybody else in this room so we have to plan and manage against the unintended consequences of the unknown that's part of our job we are change management um that's our job we do change management so I'm going to tell you that I support this project and I'm going to vote for it but I really hated this process I really feel that there are Bad actors throughout the throughout the process and it's just a little bit embarrassing to think that that's happened in minona so I support the project because it's a good project and our city will be better off if we do this but I would like to think that the next time we do this we we can do it better and we can do it you know I'm a Christian um I go to church on Sunday and the thing that I'm commanded to do is love one another not love people who look like me not people who are um who have the same values who vote for the same things I do I'm supposed to love everyone I'm supposed to love the people I don't like and and that's what we're called to do and we need and and so as I look at this project we need this project our city will be better off it probably will create some discomfort for some people but our community will be better off and I feel my job in this role is to ensure that our community is better off so sorry for preaching but um but I I'm pretty passionate about this because I just think that we allowed the train to go off the track a little bit and we can do better than that next time so um I think we know we don't have to vote on this we're gonna let's go to the financing item and um miss wishnack or anyone do you want to say anything before we do that or we'll just talk about the numbers go ahead mayor all right um Council ver Shack thank you mayor I'll keep it I'll try to keep it brief you know I think that when we look at the cost of affordability and I thought that chart was really helpful I I think it makes a lot of sense I it's not lost on me that you know we lost a we we've lost a couple big projects for a variety of reasons Market related reasons we lost a full affordability project several years ago because one piece of the puzzle didn't didn't come together I mean it was a huge piece it was some some significant grants um but the city was going to put in I mean there there were a lot of pieces of the puzzle we appreciate all the pieces the puzzle the city on this project is a huge piece of this puzzle and that is a testament to the commitment that these seven people and the people that came before us and I will call it by name Miss wishnack and her tenacity in developing the affordable housing trust fund and I cannot understate how significant it is for us to have this we are one of three cities in Minnesota that has this opportunity to fund projects this way so I'm for it this is this is a good use of this money but it is a significant piece of making this project happen the way it happens and the church is contributing and and you look at that list there's 12 sources of funding on that list and so um I'm I think this is great and I think I mean I'm going to say it we deserve a pat on the back for this contribution and as the mayor said you know I we haven't gotten that and that's fine I guess I'm a middle child so um I'm used to it a middle child and a lawyer and a council member so if you want to know where the chip on my shoulder came from now you know um so anyway that's that's all I have to say council member kley yes I want to say I commend um the um all of the folks that contributed to the cost of building these units and um again um you know I don't like all of the ways we got there um you know I'm not going to sugarcoat it I don't like the 35% cap um I think that we can do better um however it seems that this is what it's going to be um like I said it's a state a state issue this is not um a motanka issue it's a state issue um as we continue to talk about equity and the generational wealth Gap income gap uh we we look at minorities we look at women um people of color um all of the things um as the W the Gap um income gap continues to widen um when we talk about purchasing homes um I'm always thinking about that um I know some folks in here may not consider that that but I do um because it's important as we continue to create affordable housing and as we continue to make sure people have a place to stay um and so when I think about that cap 35% cap um to make sure it's affordable um for the next person who may purchase it um some of these homes Land Trust homes never get sold um because you know they can't some people who live these home may not be able to ever move out to buy purchase another home because affordability and we know the cost of homes are increasing and so um people purchase homes and yeah they may some people may stay in a home forever but I think his people ideal is this is a starter home and yeah we can say oh it's a starter home and you can create enough wealth or Equity to take that and go purchase another home I told you my deal 2012 try to sell a home 0 so um you can't tell me that because I've heard it from people in minneap who own these homes I've heard it from people in minat tanka who own these homes so you can't tell me that until I see it done or hear about it m multiple times but I've also heard that people couldn't do it so um it's you just never know and so um I know that we need the affordable housing we need people to have home ownership and um need a place to stay so um you're able to make it happened um folks joined in and supported it and our city supported you know I know everyone don't supported and I commend everybody who came and spoke and um set their peace on whether they supported or not um and I respect everybody in our views and um and I just ask folks to respect my view but um tonight I am going to support it because I know that it is important for folks to have a place to stay so um I'll just say I support it thank you and who's next councilor Wilburn um so I just wanted to say before I forget um when I talked about zoning I'm I'm not in any way suggesting that we like get rid of all the zoning and have a free-for-all legally we can't do that anyway but even if we could that's not that's not what I'm suggesting and and the reason I even brought up the historical exclusionary process is when people say well these are the rules um we need to consider that the rules weren't always um the rules weren't always uh made Fairly and so when I'm thinking of when when are times when we can make changes to the rules and this is one of them in that I also agreed with what people said about this being a reasonable place to have slightly increased density um as we transition to the to the more commercial area um and I'll just pretty much Echo what uh council member Shaq said about the this is a reasonable use of funds and um also commending the staff and and uh you know in minetonka on what we have done I'm just one of those people that we always can do more right so that's it thank you Council M Wilburn council member Foster Bolton thank you mayor um and I I'll I'm just going to agree with my fellow council members and also that it's um it's it it's a lot of money and it's it's it seems daunting when you first hear this and then um but it but then when m m winck wish KN said that it's within the range um it made me feel a little better about it um and I also really admire Miss wishnack I seriously I mean it's largely brilliant what she does it's incredible so um so I I support this as as well thank you council member um council member ra did you want to go or anyone cmer Calbert you good I'm not trying to call on people but I'm doing that I'm fine talking about it so just you know once again affordability is is complex and here in minetonka land prices are so high it is even with L of density it is hard to make anything affordable the kinds of variables that go into affordability have to do with the quality of the schools the Green Space the retail the commercial the job opportunities Transportation quality infrastructure we have all the things it's why all of us live here we actually live here I'm sure all of us because we wanted to live in a community that looks like this and I work for the city of St Paul where they are trying to do undo some of the harms that that happen in urban settings where you lose the green space and you just you know some of the quality of life issues uh aren't quite up to uh minaka standards they want more trees they want more green space they want this they want that because it's a we have a great quality of life and we want to preserve it here and that's why I felt being where this is that that this transition to a to a higher density at this level made sense in terms of the money it's a lot of money it's also very well within the bounds of what new construction costs and that is the conundrum that our country find itself finds itself in there are some cheaper places to develop but it's still wherever you live Rel relatively expensive to develop if it's not the land it's the labor if it's not the labor it's the materials so it's just very hard to develop I would say looking at there was a chart that we saw earlier in Miss whack's presentation that showed the list of the different amounts that we contribute per unit for affordability mostly in rental housing but um possibly in other kinds of housing too too and I happen to know that with homes in with homes Within Reach it is about $510 so this is you know a little bit more than that it's also a little bit different than most homes Within Reach homes which are refurbished existing naturally occurring affordable homes this is new construction so in in the context of how much we spend per unit this is relatively you know at the lower lower end you know you think about the Burke we fought for affordable units more affordable units in the Burke and that was over $4,500 per unit per year so I feel like it's it's a good value I do feel like the questions that the economic development advisory Commission of which I am the liaison um from the council um ask some good questions about you know why certain things are so expensive and why if the labor is donated the homes are this much I still I don't quite understand that and I also have I have some uncomfortability I'm a little bit uncomfortable with sort of the arrangement with with a house of worship where they're essentially getting reimbursed by the city but I will say that affordable housing like the pastor in the back of the room um mentioned before you can't do this kind of project without somebody donating land and it's very often a house of worship so I'm I I'm willing to uh move forward on it because this is um a pretty good value for the amount that we're putting in even though I think we can see that the way affordable housing works needs a whole new paradigm and it and density isn't the only answer to it there are many factors that are going to go have go into it and you know this kind of money year after year is going to be really hard to sustain so um but uh in general yes I'm in favor of the um funding council member R it's your turn all right I will try to be succinct um I agree with most of the other comments here especially the fact that this is expensive but that's the environment that we're in right now um I look forward as well to talking about other out of the-box ways of thinking uh in the future that we can look at at housing in this regard uh especially affordable housing I do want to uh say Kudos because I haven't yet to the staff who deserve major major Kudos again for as council member Shaq said for creating the affordable housing trust fund that is allowing us to do that I did want to point out a couple of things and a major thing is that um as far as I can see here by the listing of the partners involved is that after mhfa which is Minnesota Housing Finance Authority which is contributing 14% to this project minona is the second highest funder for this project 11% we're higher than hennipen County Home Pro program which I used to work on as a affordable housing and when I was working affordable housing higher than the Congressional directed spending higher than cdfi higher than EXL solar Rewards or IRA solar and higher than the amount of the donated land or the discount and I should say that Mills church is offering so again that is something that the city is doing and um you know I applaud my fellow council members as well as all of the partners who are contributing towards this project and I hope that um folks will recognize the place that minetonka is the role that we are playing in this as well so with that I will uh support the financial request councilor Wilber all right I'll try to be quick um I just wanted to say that so you know it's it's it's not my job to tell anyone how to feel or who to trust but I just and I haven't I I haven't read all the news stories or heard all the news stories and I haven't read the social media so I don't know who said what um but I will say that I know a lot of people um associated with the love love makes room and um the you the church is getting they are selling the land they're selling the land at a discounted price so that is a contribution to the affordability and I I know that a bunch of these people that are supporting this project are doing it out of love so I don't I just don't want it to I don't want that to hang there that it's it you know that that slogan can't be trusted um that's just my personal view so I just wanted to say that thank you thank you counc Wilburn I think it's my turn um you know and I will say that um you know I I looked at at this a lot um from a lot of different ways and you know I'm I'm I'm shared some kind of visceral responses but but I know that that people have been passionate about this project I don't doubt anyone's sincerity or anything like that but you you know the the biggest hurdle for me is the numbers um $673,000 per unit cost is causing me to say you know what this is not a sustainable model if we are going to I mean I have to fess up I live in a twin home I live in a PUD my twin daughters who have disabilities and I own the house that they live in is a twin home when we were talking about all these different things my thought was how about Twin Homes because I think Twin Homes make sense and when I look at you know if if you go down Shady Oak Road and you look at some of the new houses that have been built in streets that have been cut off of Shady Oak Road you know there are some houses there are very nice houses and they're they're not they're they're the same size are bigger than these twin homes where two people are going to live so you know in terms of changing the character of the neighborhood I'm having a hard time thinking it's you know this a dramatic change in the neighborhood but I am choking on $673,000 cost per unit when I look at where this funding is coming from the majority of these dollars are taxpayer dollars and I salute our affordable housing trust fund but the reality is our taxpayers are paying that I mean if it's Tiff even if it's leftover Tiff the reality is those are taxpayer dollars and so I take it very seriously it's a reflection of Minit taka's values that we are willing to put taxpayer dollars into projects like this but I think they have to pass a smell test and at $673,000 I'm not sure we're going to want to do too many more of these and I think I think fund housing needs to be fundamentally reconsidered the strib the other day had a story about a house that was built in Maine it was 3D printed now did it look like a house that you're going to find in in tanka no what was it a reasonable place for somebody to live yes and when you think about a house being made out of sawdust and glue and a piece of equipment well maybe that took a lot of Labor out of building that house and made it much more affordable because land is expensive but the driver of this project is not the cost of the land it is the cost of construction and maybe just maybe stick Built construction is not the future of affordable housing or any housing for that matter and I want to challenge my fellow council members but I want to challenge leaders in our state and habitat and homes Within Reach and any other organization that's contributing to this we have to look at doing housing differently one of the crises we have post pandemic is that we've got beautiful new Office Buildings in Opus that don't have any workers and we T and the cost of converting a office building to a traditional apartment building is enormous that's not the answer but maybe what we have to do is rethink what does housing look like you know I mean I lived in a dorm um there's people in the military lived in Barracks it's not what you aspire to but housing is fundamental if people don't have a safe place to live they have no ch chance but if we continue saying well you know what it's it's got to have a it's got to have a pitched roof and it's got to have siding and maybe a little brick on the front and it's got to have a certain amount of Green Space around it we are not ever going to solve our housing crisis we need to create we need to get creative and I was thinking you know what if you would took an office building downtown and said well you know you can't turn it into Apartments because you know the elevator down the middle and all the rest rooms and all those facilities are in the middle you can't turn those into single family um units because into apartments and you know what you're probably right what would happen if you said well uh affordable housing for some people and you know I don't want to I don't want to be I don't want to be biased in this but what if affordable housing was a bedroom and um a a living area and then you had a common area and then oh where all the in the middle of the building where the elevator is and the restrooms are you had common restrooms and a common kitchen and you built a community one floor at a time I mean I'm not saying that's the answer I'm saying we need to get creative because if we just think that we can only have houses and Twin Homes be the answers to affordable housing and they're going to cost $700,000 a piece we're talking to oursel if we think we're going to solve the problem so I'm going to support this tonight I support I support spending this money but I'll tell you what um and and I'll also say that the project that the city is doing on Rolland road to provide two a duplex and two uh home housing for two families the numbers look the same you know and we got the land pretty darn cheap um but the numbers look the same so we have to think we have to get creative we have to use the creative energies of what made this country the great country it is to find creative new Solutions because we need affordable housing people who move here have no chance without housing we owe them a solution on housing but if we try and do it the same way we've been doing it I think we will fail and failure is not an option so I support this project but I'm going to choke on doing it again two years from now at the same with the same numbers we've got to find a better way I really believe that I'm committed I I'm committed to dedicating my effort and my time as a leader in our community and in this state to help that process so I think okay I preach a lot tonight I apologize um I think we need a motion don't speak I want council member sha thank you mayor I was um going to make the motion but I was really waiting for maybe a slide to come up that said same what the motion sorry that that my screen my screen went away and I couldn't pull it up fast enough um okay cuz I had already opened the Eda report uh let's see I will make a motion to approve the land use items and the financing items we're going to do this together right right is that good enough as as recommended by staff that's what we're approving very good so that's a motion by council member sha is there a second council member Wilburn I will second all right we've got a motion by council member sha and a second by council member Wilburn Miss Faulk would you please call Ro Wilburn yes yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes weon yes motion carries thank you all item 15 is appointments and reappointments we have none and item 16 is adjournment is there a motion to adjourn council member Calbert so moved is there a second second okay a motion by counc Calver to Second by councilor Wilburn all in favor say I I we are adjourned but we do an Eda meeting which goes pretty quickly but you don't have to stick around for it but we're going to jump into that in just a moment it's we're good you know why why don't we do that just end it anybody need a f minute break yeah let's just do it then they can clear out and we can finish we let just quick five minutes s minutes left in the third quarter I don't think I'm going to make it that e e e e e e e e e e hello jerrym [Applause] good to see you Jerry all right everyone we're gonna get [Music] started I know it's good you're welcome well I have to ask about your daughters how are they they're great we're on camera excuse me mayor excuse me mayor and councel we we are on camera if we can begin he didn't hear run camera all right everyone um it is still Monday May 6th and I'm thankful for that um this this is and and I expect that we will it will still be May 6 when we finish so this is a regular meeting of the Economic Development Authority it is Monday May 6th I will call this meeting to order and I will ask Miss Faulk to please call Ro R here kley here Foster Bolton here sha here Wilburn here Calbert here weome here next item is approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve Council R I'll make a motion to approve the agenda and a second Council Calbert second got a motion by and it's not council member now it's um commissioner ra and um commissioner Calbert um Miss faul please call Ro ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes weome yes um next item is approval of minutes we have one set of minutes it is the January 8 2024 Eda meeting minutes is there a motion to approve counc uh commissioner Wilburn I move approval of minutes from January 8th 2024 and is there a second commissioner Calbert so we've got a motion by commissioner Wilburn and a second by commissioner Calbert um Miss Faulk please call R ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes weome yes motion carries item five is the business item and five a is items concerning Mills Twin Homes located at 3521 Baker Road and 3522 Elm Lane and two unassigned addresses Ms wishnack I believe that is you thank you mayor and or Commissioners sorry president and Commissioners Mr President for you Mr President I got it um I just wanted to clarify kind of why the Eda uh works on this and the council so on the council side you're approving the use of the money through the affordable housing trust fund that's a council action this is actually the contract uh and approval for that contract by adopting the resolution um implementing that so hopefully that makes sense we kind of did it all together for each one and kind of replicated it but if you wanted to really parse it out that's the difference between the two actions so thank you very good thank you Miss wishnack so um that's it right that's your report all right we need a motion commissioner Calbert or a question I have a I just wanted to make a quick comment that on page 23 of the project information which is all also in the financial information for the previous meeting I think there's a typo and it may not be it might just be not understanding but it says the developer releases from and Covenants and agree so I think it's the developer releases from any covenants and agrees and it's it's in both thank you and I like I read it over and over I'm like is it just me so yeah and that could be covered by um nons substantive changes to the contract so we can cover that and fix that thank you can you say that again it's non-substantive so we can change that as at a staff level even if the contract is approved I it was just hard to understand so I circled it thank you so we've got let's see we've got a motion in a second and we voted correct or no we haven't Ved we haven't voted okay Miss fa I'll make I'll make a motion okay commissioner I'll second okay we've got a commissioner Calbert made the motion commissioner Wilburn seconded it m faul please call Ro Ry yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes wurn yes Calbert yes weome yes motion carries which brings us to everyone's favorite item adjournment is there a motion to adjourn Comm Comm commissioner Wilburn I move adjournment and is there a second second commissioner Calbert so we've got a motion by commissioner Wilburn and a second by commissioner Calbert all in favor say I I we are adjourned [Music]