[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening and welcome tonight is Monday June 3rd 202 24 this is a regular meeting of the minaka city council I will call this meeting to order and ask you to 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 [Applause] all Miss England would you please call R ra here kley here Foster Bolton here sha here Wilburn here Calbert here weome here next item is approval of the agenda and there is an addend up um Mr Funk uh thank you mayor good evening council members we have three considerations on tonight's Agenda One is related to item 14a which is the Purgatory Park master plan plain language has been revised to more accurately reflect Park direction in section two plan uh plan recommendations dogs and Parks updated Pages have been added and then additionally feedback and and a petition were received after distribution of the packet and those also have been added to the agenda and then I would just pause there and if you look under item 14a in that agenda you'll see a more specific language um that I'm referencing and then item 14 C is your second consideration on the agenda which is a related to the ordinance amending minut code section 93030 subdivision 6 relating to overnight parking restrictions staff did receive additional comments after publication of the staff report those comments have been added for your consideration and then last related to item 14d which is a concept plan for Amira Village minona 901 Carlson Parkway staff received a comment after publication of the staff report and that to is been added or has been added for your consideration so with that mayor and Council turn it back over to you thank you thank you Mr Funk so we have um an agenda and that is amended is there a motion Council M Calbert thank you mayor I move approval of the agenda as amended and a second Council m kley i second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member kley Miss England Please call roll ra agree kley yes Foster Bolton yes Sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes weome I think that's me yes okay all right everyone's a little Punchy tonight but that's that's all right so um next next item is approval of minutes and we have three sets and I think we can do all of those in one um motion approval so um item 5A is the May 6 2024 regular meeting minutes um 5B is the May 2024 regular meeting minutes and item 5c is April 19th and 20th 2024 special study session minutes is there a motion cber Calbert thank you mayor I move approval of the may6 2024 regular meeting minutes the May 20th 2024 regular meeting minutes and the April 19th and 20th 2024 special study session minutes counc MK second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member sha M England Please call roll ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes weome yes motion carries item six is special matters and we have several of those tonight the first is a Natural Resources Division overview and we have Leslie yetka who is the natural resources manager to give us that report so welcome Miss yetka thank you thank you mayor and councel um thank you for inviting me here tonight to talk a little bit about our Natural Resources Division here at the city and the work that we do and it's great that we have such a large audience for this topic I'm sure this is why they're here um just a little bit about myself um as the mayor mentioned my name is Leslie yetka I'm the natural resources manager and really what that means is I manage the Natural Resources Division which is in our public works department here at the city and a little bit about me I've lived in menona my whole life except for when I went to college um I have a bachelor's of Art in biology from mallister college I have a master's degree in horiculture where I focused on Native Plant um revegetation in wetlands and then I also have a master's degree in public affairs from the Humphrey School of public affairs which was a a mid-career masters when I realized um if I really want to influence our natural resources I really wanted to focus on policy and people so that's a little bit about my background um as far as the city I know you all live here so you're you're pretty familiar with the community um but it bearss repeating that we have uh some natural resources that are not unique to the city but really shape our community uh one is our Water Resources we have hundreds of wetlands throughout our community we have 13 lakes and Creeks um that are really important resources for our community we have a significant canopy cover so lots of trees when I tell people what makes TKA unique it's that we have a lot of wetlands and we have a lot of trees we have uh Parks we have large community Parks we have many neighborhood parks um all of those present opportunities as public land to really uh impact and uh protect our resources um a lot of our community is n is private property so while we can uh certainly manage resources on public land we really need to tap into the interest and willingness of land owners to affect uh natural resources on their own property and then one thing that also makes us unique is that we have four Watershed organizations that overlap our community and I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute so some of the challenges um we Face regarding natural resources and I won't go through all of them here but I'm I know you are aware of invasive species issues um our altered Community Forest um because we do develop our land so that we can live here pollinator loss um climate change is certainly a big impact and then people humans and and how they manage their properties and then also sort of their perceptions of natural resources and while I talk about challenges I want to make sure it's uh that it's um that I state that this is really not unique to our community it's really very common for any suburban community in the metro area so um while we like to be unique in this regard we're not we do influence the environment so it's um fortunate that we have a long history of Natural Resources protection and we have decision makers like you and your predecessors that really supported um allocating resources for natural resources protection so in our division we have nine full-time technical staff um which uh I know many of you know that's really almost unheard of for a suburban community like um like we have um we have forestry staff we have natural resource Specialists we have a restoration specialist we have public engagement coordinator and we have a Park and trail manager um who will'll be speaking here tonight later um who's also Under the Umbrella of the Natural Resources Division we also rely on seasonals throughout the year uh tree inspectors restoration seasonals and then we also participate in the Americar program so we have one to two Americar members who volunteer their service with us to learn skills related to uh Land Management and urban forestry so we are are wealthy in terms of of resources and and people so what we do and you might recognize this from actually your budget packet information um but our division really manages the Planning Development and stewardship of our community's natural resources and that is primarily Guided by the natural resources master plan that the council adopted in 2021 and so um the the focus areas again are urban forestry management natural resources conservation enforcement of our natural resource focused ordinances um during Land Development activities public land stewardship and then Environmental Education and Community engagement through volunteering through public events education and and and things like that so that that guide the master plan really does guide what we do on a day-to-day basis so just to tap in a little bit more about uh with some of these Focus areas just to kind of help you understand um what we do on a day-to-day basis and how it may impact some of the decisions that you're making so Forestry we have a forestry team we uh they work to manage um tree diseases so Emerald ashor I'm sure all of you can see the impact it's having in our community um we still have Dutch elm disease we still have Oak Wilt um but certainly Emerald ashor is at the Forefront of the work we're doing we try to replant we certainly can't replant every tree that's lost but we have a history of not only replanting on public land but making trees available to private property owners when they lose trees to disease storms um we've been a tree City USA for over 25 years now so that's really exciting um we do Park pruning uh sort of that tree care and management so watering pruning things like that um we do some research uh conservation arbic culture is a fancy word for urban forestry research we partner with the university quite a bit and then we are routinely inventorying and monitoring the forest that we do have so when it comes to Habitat restoration and certainly trees are part of our habitat but when we think about our parks and our natural areas we really focus on the whole ecological system not just the trees so if you're familiar with the natural resources master plan one of the things that calls for is development of Park habitat restoration plans so these are more specific to a specific uh to a park and they really guide all of our restoration activities in that Park um over you know a 20y year period we have active habitat restoration happening right now over 350 acres and growing uh we have a forestry mower which is a piece of equipment that really uh does a number on on Buckthorn so that's something we've been making use of lately certainly invasive species control seeding planting um and then we are uh embracing uh use the use of fire to manage these plant communities um when we can do so we also are responsible for inspecting for noxious weeds um that's we have a designated weed weed inspector for the the city and we have to respond to noxious weeds um when they're um brought to our attention um we also have a lot of volunteers um actively participating in restoration efforts uh last year we had over 400 volunteers working in our parks at various capacities and over 4,000 hours were um dedicated just to Restoration work in our park so that's really exciting and that number is growing so that's that's really good another important piece of work that we do is development and compliance work and so this is really ensuring that the ordinances that you develop um that really guide um how development happens are actually applied and enforced over time so we review all site plans that come in uh for what what I phrase our natural resource focused ordinances so this is tree protection Wetland protection Shoreland erosion and settlement control and Landscaping ensuring that we have native plants incorporated into our landscape plans and then we do site inspections to make sure all of this is taking place on a routine basis we also work to educate local contractors they're an important uh uh audience that we work with regularly to make sure that they understand what the ordinances um say and how they can uh how they can actually meet the the uh intent of those ordinances and then we respond to a lot of Resident calls as you can probably imagine people want to build a deck or build a shed and we want to make sure they're not encroaching on some of our valued natural resources um Water Resources so this is something worth calling out as I said we have a lot of wetlands we have lakes we have Creeks um we are uh responsible for uh enforcing the Wetland Conservation act which is a state law and it really helps um uh protect the Wetland plant communities in our in our community uh you may not know but wetlands are the only habitat type that is actually protected by law and so that's important that we are enforcing that um we also work um with our engineering staff in ensuring that we are meeting uh the standards set forth in the state Municipal storm water permit which is also lovingly referred to as the ms4 permit um really our portion of that is focused on water quality protection so we want to make sure the water that's going down Downstream into our ponds and our lakes and our Creeks is clean um we also coordinate with those Watershed organizations quite a bit that I mentioned um we have the minihaha creek uh we have the Basset creek 9mile creek and the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed organization so we regularly partner with them in education events also sometimes permit review uh and also project development and then we also help manage all of the green infrastructure practices so these are think of a rain Garden um type practice that's meant to improve water quality but also has plants and soil and we want to make sure that they're functioning so we actually help maintain on in parks and public areas uh education and engagement that's another really important piece that's growing for us um you may be familiar with the resilient mitaka program this is a program that offers um education and technical assistance and some incentives for property owners to actually take action on their own land and and adopt um more sustainable Landscaping practices um I know you're familiar with the mayor's Monarch pledge we continue to be a monarch Champion city which is we one of the few in the country and that means we've achieved a lot of goals related to Monarch protection but also that extends into pollinator protection in general volunteer program management I mentioned some of the the work that we're doing there that continues to grow we have habitat stewards we have Wildlife stewards we now have tree stewards which is a program we're partnering with the University of Minnesota on so that's really exciting we have education campaigns that we uh Implement so pollinator awareness Awareness Month pet waste reduction adapter drains smart salting these are just examples of some of the campaigns that we actually advocate for we develop Outreach materials we're starting to uh develop bilingual materials that we can hand out at the farmers market the open house and other areas where we're tabling and then we have different communication channels so the motanka memo the we have a natural resources eblast if you want to sign up if you don't get that you certainly can talk to me afterwards about signing up for that and then we have obviously our website in minetonka matters so these are some of the channels that we use to communicate with the public just real briefly um I want to talk a little bit about governance so sort of what what kind of shapes what we do I I mentioned the natural resources master plan but also we also refer to the parks and open space and Trail plan uh we referred to and and are Guided by the ms4 permit that Municipal permit uh stormwater permit I mentioned the newly adopted climate adaptation and action plan uh will be a guiding document for us as well there's Council policies that we adhere to the plant pest policy which is really about tree diseases uh Lake and pond policy which really helps us as we work with Lake Associations in Lake management issues obviously zoning uh ordinances I mentioned Wetland tree protection Shoreland uh Park regulations and then nuisance ordinances we get involved in as well so the primary body that we report to on a lot of the work we do is the park board they provide guidance and then recommendations and some of that some of those things get elevated to the council as well um lastly just some current initiatives that we're working on now and and and will be in the next year or so so I mentioned these Park habitat restoration plans and projects that are coming out of them that's really tied to the CIP um that you adopt every year and so we're every year we're developing more of these plans that are guiding the restoration efforts in our Parks we are also currently working on a community Forest management plan this is uh an output of the natural resources master plan it was identified as a high priority need and so that will be coming to you probably this fall um and we've we've done some Community engagement we've done some internal uh staff engagement around this plan we're just starting to develop some goals and strategies um the community relief grant program is a grant that we received from the DNR it's over $300,000 and you may have heard of this we'll be implementing it probably starting July 1st I believe and that's uh really it's Grant funds to help Property Owners sort of manage the uh loss of EAB so if you have labat trees if you meet the um eligibility requirements then you can tap into these grants so there'll be more information coming out in the menona memo and the website and things like that uh resilient manataka and volunteer programming we're continuing to try to find new audiences and expand the reach of those programs we're starting to embrace GIS which is geographic information systems and mapping and really think about the the resources we have in terms of asset management and then we also now starting to develop some strategic marketing uh planning or communication planning um we will have a survey actually being made available to the public uh and we'd love to have um council members participate too and it can help us overall develop a more strategic marketing plan for the work that we do and lastly I just wanted to add we are always happy to take council members out on on site visits if you want to see a project or get to know something that's happening in our Parks we're always happy we're always happy to to to uh make staff available for that and take you out there so with that that is all I have I appreciate the time if you have any questions I'm happy to answer all right well thank you Leslie thank you Miss yetka um and Council any any questions on our natural resources uh capabilities I I well I have to have I have to have a question so you know I I brag a lot about our city and I've been talking about us having a 58% tree cover and now I see that it's 45 to 53 I mean you know this is that's probably going to keep me awake tonight but um when I'm bragging about our city um what number should I use so that's a very good question I meant to actually say something because I had a feeling you might be thinking that and when we're as we're developing the community Forest management plan and we're working with a a City municipal Forester um consultant we're finding that there's a lot of different sources and they all say different things so some if you look at different analysis methods um like a statistical analysis is more about 45% if you look at the Met council's um growing shade program which is a mapping um they've mapped communities throughout the Met met council's uh region we're at 53% and and I know 58 was from a study I think that was conducted Years Ago by the city of Burnsville um funny enough so there's a range okay and I I don't know that there's one answer because it depends prob it depends on the method that you use but somewhere around 45 58 I should have said 58 on there I apologize it's okay I don't want you to lose sleep well it's okay I mean I'll I'll I'll get over it so Council any other questions well thank you very much um you know it is cool I mean the the fact that we have as large a public um as large a natural resources staff as we do allows us to talk about natural resources and we kind of put our money where our mouth is we have the staff and we put the work in and so it's not just lip service to something that everybody likes and I think that's um that's really important so thank you for your good work and for and for uh your team's good work thank you thank you all right so there's no action to take on that so we will move on to the next special matter and that is the swearing in for fire chief Kevin Fox and um I will turn that over to Mike and I think Karine will give him some help on that too yeah thank you mayor and Council I'm going to excuse myself from the Das and join you at the podium along with Chief Fox want be there too Chief Fox and very [Applause] good all right good evening mayor councel again can can you hear me these on okay good thank you well this is exciting moment I know obviously for chief Fox and his family but also for uh myself as City manager and for our city I think the last time that we were in front of you as a staff swearing in an oath of office for our fire chief was over 10 years ago so it's something that doesn't happen very often but it's very exciting when we do it uh just to give you a little bit of background on uh Chief fox and a little bit about our process and it really starts with our our search and we did a really thorough and extensive search and interview process and I think Mr Fox can attest to it was not an easy process uh he was appointed then on May excuse me on April April 19th 2024 and he was appointed by myself as city manager and as city manager that's my authority here at the city uh to appoint our department directors and tonight we're here to celebrate the official swearing in of Chief Fox he began his career as a paid on call firefighter in 1994 and I would say his skills and expertise shown highly throughout the interview process and are exactly what the department needs to handle the evolving challenges and opportunities that we see in the fire and and EMS Fields I have full confidence in Mr Fox's ability to lead the department to Greater Heights of service and Effectiveness as you know Council the minaka fire department is currently implementing its new Public Safety master plan which includes adding additional career firefighting staff and increasing Staffing stations staff station Staffing during peak hours last year alone the department responded to over a record 5,700 calls for surface and participated in over ,600 hours of training so I think that really just signifies the the leadership that is needed to run a really significant operation here in the city throughout his career Mr Fox has held various roles within the department including captain of the maintenance Division and Fire Marshall he also became the deputy chief of operations in 2001 and most 201 excuse me 2011 and most recently served as interim Chief following the retirement of John Vance earlier this year so really excited to do the swearing in and oath of office for chief Fox and I would welcome City attorney Karine heiney to administrator the oath after which I assume Mr Fox may have a few words very good thank you Mr Funk raise your right hand and repeat after me I Kevin Fox do solemnly swear I Kevin Fox do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States the consti ition of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of fire chief of the city of motanka the duties of fire chief of the city of minetonka in the county of henan in the county of Hanan to which I have been duly appointed to which I have been duly appointed to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God to the best of my judgment and ability so help me guide congratulations thank you [Applause] mayor and Council the hardest part of this is now the pinning of the badge and chief fox has asked his wife Sandy to come forward to pin the badge so [Applause] Sandy all right good you it's up to you [Music] good evening mayor and Council uh it's with great pride and humility that I stand before you tonight honored to accept the role of fire chief for the city of minaka the badge which I now wear with great respect symbolizes not only a Personal Achievement but also a commitment to our community and to those who serve it as fire chief my mission's clear to ensure the safety and the well-being of our citizens to lead with integrity and to Foster an environment where our firefighters can Thrive and Excel together we will face the challenges ahead with resilience and an innovation always putting service before self I'm grateful to the city council and city manager Mike funk for your confidence in me to my family for their support and to our firefighters for the continued dedication to our shared Mission thank you thank you Chief get out of your way well thanks for being here all right and we are we are still doing Special matters and uh we have another uh significant special matter and that is the retirement recognition for uh Sergeant Steve niss so um welcome U welcome Sergeant Miss and um I guess you can sit there and I'll read this and then come up and we've got a presentation that we want to make and I printed this off today in the large print version so I wouldn't need my glasses so uh we'll be good so Sergeant Steve niss has been dedicated to serving the city of minaka for over 40 years but his ties to the city Trace back even further in 1975 Steve's father Mike niss was ired as a minona police officer where he worked until his retirement in 1991 inspired by his father in 1983 at the age of 14 Steve joined the minona police explorers he remained active in the program while he pursued his degree in law enforcement in 1993 two years after his F his father's retirement Steve officially joined the minona police department as a sworn officer starting out at in Patrol Steve responded to calls enforced traffic laws and managed criminal in in excuse me incidents his talent for the job quickly shined through and in a few short years he became a field training officer guiding instructing and shaping new recruits over the next several years Steve Took on various other roles including serving on the SWAT team instructing other officers in the use of force firearms and tasers and worked as a school resource officer at Hopkins High School in 2000 his peers recognizing his unwavering dedication positive attitude and commitment nominated him for the Glen Lake Optimus officer of the year award in 2001 Steve ascended to the rank of Sergeant where he assumed responsibilities such as supervising Patrol shifts and leading as the SWAT Commander additionally Steve spent many years working as the administrative Sergeant where he oversaw Squad maintenance handled the scheduling for the department and supervised the community service and traffic officers Steve also took a pivotal role in handling the the city's deer management program and as an advisor for the Explorer Program Steve's career highlights include his invitation to the 249th session of the FBI National Academy at Quantico Virginia in 20 attendance at this esteemed extended only to the top 1% of law enforcement professionals reinforcing Steve's exceptional dedication and Service as Steve bids farewell to his remarkable career the NIS Legacy perseveres in 2023 his daughter Becca joined the minona police department as a police officer carrying forward the NIS family tradition we extend our deepest gratitude to Sergeant niss for four Decades of dedicated service to the city of minaka his profound impact on the department the city and the community is immeasurable and he will be sincerely missed may your retirement be filled with well-deserved relaxation enriching experiences and endless Joy congratulations sergeant niss [Applause] I have a small presentation to make so this is just a small token it's a beautiful picture of minaka and on the back it says this wood was reclaimed from a majestic American elm tree at minetonka Mills Park thank you congratulations and you know I want to I want to thank you for a couple of things we want your great service the city but the Legacy that your family represents in this city and throughout the state congratulations to all the nisses and your commitment to to law enforcement it's a it's a tremendous uh um tremendous commitment that um has existed to your family and I'm uh very appreciative thank you appreciate it and then now the microphone's yours all right well I'll take you up on that for 20 or 30 minutes okay uh mayor weome members of the council thank you for the recognition tonight thank you for having me I appreciate it uh first of all I'd like to uh introduce some really important people in my life that made the uh the track here tonight um first of all my wife Angela of 32 years uh she's kept the wheels on uh through night shift and holidays and weekends and and schedules that are are far from normal and I appreciate her for that my son Ryan is with us U my daughter uh Rachel is with us and Menan one of menon's finest is right here Becca and I'm C certainly proud of them uh beyond belief um my son-in-law Ethan is here with us and Sam my soon to be son-in-law is sitting right there so it's h it's great to have them here I'm super proud of my kids and the fact that my girls have also chosen a career in public safety lucky for menaka uh in hiring another n and I assure you they're just getting better uh the fact that uh they have chosen to uh get married to fellow cops just ensures that I will probably never have a normal holiday as as long as I live um I went on a ride along here with my dad uh when I was 14 years old and I can still remember the calls that we went on and from that day on I was I knew exactly what I wanted uh I joined our explor our Explorer post as uh the mayor mentioned and I spent seven years in that volunteer capacity and from that point uh I was blessed and lucky enough to get hired here in 1993 I've spent my entire career here in menona um I fly the flag here for menaka I always have and I always will um thank you council members and city manager Mike funk for your ongoing support uh it does not go unnoticed we see it and we feel it thank you finally I want to thank uh my partners this is what shake up my partners the men and women of the menaka police department you've helped me uh help bring me home for over 30 years and I continue to be in awe with your professionalism your heroism and how you represent our city uh I continue to pray for your safe travels I appreciate you and thank you all thank you [Applause] yeah well thank you all for being here and for your and to all of our Public Safety people who came here today and uh to recognize um both um uh Chief Fox and uh Sergeant niss um your work is so important in our community and uh and we very very much appreciate it so thank you all all right next item on the on the agenda is report from city manager and council members um Mr Funk again thank you mayor city council good evening I have a couple things for you this evening uh first off really what I'm going to speak to is you know it's springtime we're rolling into summer and a lot of exciting programming and opportunities for residents coming up one of those is a service that's provided to Residents 60 years or older or have res or residents with mobility issues our minaka fire department and our firefighters can go to your house or come to to those homes and install new working smoke alarms alarms are provided at no cost thanks to a d gracious donation from the American Red Cross and so if anyone uh is listening to this uh message here this evening certainly contact our our fire department and we'll be happy to come out and make that install uh this last Saturday we did have our drop off day that was uh held at Public Works we had a really great turnout as usual and so we really want to thank our staff that was available uh this last Saturday and for residents to taking care or taking advantage of a really great service Farmers Market begins it's new summer season on June 4th so that's just right around the corner and tomorrow and that is tomorrow so it is really right around the corner uh on uh which is tomorrow Tuesdays throughout the summer from 2 to 6 o'clock p.m. also in the sense of opening Shady Oak Beach is scheduled to open on June 8th so that is also right around the corner the Burwell Burwell house also is opening and summer tours begin on June 1st and then two more items worth noting is even though it's August 6th night toight we do have uh we start that process of working with neighborhoods so any neighborhood that is interested in participating in our annual menona night toite 24 to contact the minetonka police department or you can go to our website we again we are gearing up for that on August 6 it's hard to say August when we're not even in June but we do some planning uh months in advance and then last I just want to mention that on Friday uh excuse me um Summerfest uh is coming up Saturday June 22nd so we do not have a council meeting between now and June 22nd so I just want to make uh a moment here and announce that Summerfest is on that Saturday uh as many folks know we have inflatabl sports challenges climbing walls scheduled water Wars not sure what that's about perhaps we'll get the mayor involved uh the the TT Trot pickle ball tournament this year as as we had from last year food trucks live entertainment and of course fireworks concluding it all so hope to see great participation from our community this year coming up again on June 22nd so with that mayor and Council I'll turn it over back over to you thank you all right thank you Mr Funk and council members um anything to report Council M Calbert thank you mayor um I just wanted to uh acknowledge our Police Department um I couldn't help but notice the the black ribbon across their badges in honor of the terrible killing of Officer Jamal Mitchell and a civilian also uh parished in Minneapolis and I'm thankful for their work every day um and uh I'm the wife of a career wildland firefighter and emergency manager and you always have in the back of your mind that you might get that phone call or visit from a colleague with terrible news and a family did get that terrible news a few days ago so to see um Sergeant Ness and his entire family willing to put themselves out there it is humbling and I'm so grateful and um I just also wanted to say for the people that are here especially those that live in minona the the collaboration between our fire department that just got a wonderful new Chief and uh the police department with our wonderful Chief uh Bor booom is the Envy of the entire State not every city is so lucky to have First Responders that have such a wonderful relationship and so I'm so grateful to Chief borom and uh Chief Fox for their wonderful work and I know that our fire department is in great hands with a very creative collaborative compassionate and also very funny new uh fire chief so um and I also just wanted to remark and I know that um Miss yetka isn't here but it's yet another example of the incredible professionalism of our staff that she has two master's degrees because she wants to be an excellent public service and you look at the the long list of policies and plans that you know they have to implement and all of the different kinds of work that they do I just wanted to express my gratitude and that's all I have thank you counc Calbert councilor remember ra uh picking up on that theme I wanted to report that I attended the electric uh lawn event or Lawn Equipment event last Thursday that was put together by one of lesli yea's americore interns uh Kessa Andrews they did a great job I want to thank them for putting that together looking forward to seeing more such events as we roll out our climate action and adaptation plan and um also the participants including ward 3 True Value uh owner Rory van held uh for bringing in electric lawnmowers and leaf blowers and all sorts of other things for folks to try so uh again thanks to the Natural Resources staff and the Amera cor member uh Kessa Andrew who put that together and just encourage everybody to really consider uh you know electric lawn equipment uh I recently wrote a a note to constituents saying that I've had an electric glamore for several years now five or six years now and it is so much better uh than a gas powered as is our leaf blower and stuff so um the the equipment only continues to improve and it's so much better for our environment it's so much better for our neighbors in terms of what they have to listen to in terms of the yard noise we've uh produce so again Kudos and encouragement to our residents thank you thank thank you council member mey council member Foster Bolton um yeah I just wanted to mention um kind of along the same line um last weekend Saturday I got to the end of a run um and I was at Meadow Park and I saw people coming out of cars with their little yellow Friends of the minona parks um and I decided to join them because they were on the picking garlic mustard and um it was an it was great experience they were so nice I hadn't whatever signed up um but they you know had everything ready for me and gloves and a jacket and um I told them right away cuz my husband is a big native plant guy and he's always trying to get me to help and I can always say well I don't know anything about this kind of stuff and I said to them right away I don't know anything about garlic mustard I I'm going to pull everything and now um so I worked with that for an hour I now I go around motanka like there's garlic mustard I'm gonna pick some you know I feel way smarter um and um but just how welcoming they were and how informative they were and I'm sure everybody here has done this before but I hadn't so it was very exciting and um you know they say to sign up for like whatever two and a half three hours but really I only was there for an hour and I got to leave and it felt really good so Friends of the Min tanka Parks it was great thanks thank you um anyone else Council M cley thank you mayor um I need to talk about something that's not as fun and exciting but I want to talk about um some things that's been happening in minetonka um the last week um so I know you all warned me not to go next door but I did um I received the email and um you know I re responded to a resident email about what they saw next door about me and that's fine I can handle things um I have tough skin but um what I really want to talk about is when a resident called me and say that they're walking down the street in our city with some little kids and this was a black woman with some black African-American children and they get called the nword um this woman was in my ward and she explained to me how she felt and it was really sadden to me um she's only been in this city for probably about 15 months and she has experienced this and she experienc this with little children now after she told me this this weekend another woman called me from Bloomington who talk to me about what she saw on next door I gave her um in next door I posted my number and said if you feel like you're not getting response through email you can always give me a call this is what I tell folks all the time so if they don't call me then they probably don't want to talk this is what I explained to this woman who called me in Bloomington from Bloomington she said I just want to call to see if you would answer your phone so that I can go back back and tell the folks that's saying all this nasty stuff in this next door that you actually do answer your call and you had a very lovely conversation and we talked about 30 minutes to 35 minutes and I can tell you I've had several calls in the last weekend about progator Park as well as um um parking and spent 35 to 40 minutes on those calls now if I was working a full-time job I know I would not be able to answer those calls the way I've been doing for the last 4 and A2 years and so as far as the emails I I'll say it again we get a lot of marketing emails we get a lot of spam emails we got a lot of emails I you couldn't pay me enough money to make me answer every single email and I'm not going to do it I'll answer the emails for the residents as much as I can but if I don't answer your email you can always give me a call and I will definitely take your call but um this is not a full-time job it is part-time and I love talking to people and I'm very open and I even meet Folks at their homes and I'm willing to do that but we get lots of emails and a lot of them is junk me emails and I'll say it again I do not answer every email that I receive so that part is over with so I don't have to discuss it anymore and um I just want to our residents to know when I ran I ran because some of these type of things when I talk about inclusiveness I talk about it because we are becoming more diverse in our city there's going to be people who don't have the same belief don't have the same religion don't have the same skin color I mean all kinds of things disabilities abilities even the dog park folks who like dogs folks who don't like dogs folks who want dogs off leash folks who want dogs on leash this is about being inclusive I just want our city to know as we continue to do this work in our city staff our rec staff and city council police we're all doing our work we're all doing the work that we can we're doing our very best and we're going to continue to do our very best but this is why we need to really continue to talk about inclusiveness because no woman no children in our city should have to hear some someone calling them the nword and no one should be calling me from Bloomington trying to defend me against residents in our city that's all I have to say thank you thank you Council M kley um is there anyone else council members um I've got a few things and one of them is is very related to what um um counil M koki just talked about so I um um couple back we went to the henan county um U multi-day program um on Public Safety um and at our table I'm um I talked to um a woman who is with ADL the Anti-Defamation League and she emailed me after that meeting and said that um I'm bringing together people from the Anti-Defamation League and would you I'd like to get some Mayors together would you be interested in meeting with us and I said I said that I would and um I was joined by D mayor Jim huband and uh we had a we had a very informative meeting there was a um there were two representatives of the Anti-Defamation League um re one was a regional um administrator and one was a national um administrator and um and I didn't know much about the Anti-Defamation League but but clearly the the rise of hatred and the rise of anti-Semitism in our society is it's um it's well known and so this was a very informative meeting for me and um and the thing that I learned Anti-Defamation League was started in 2013 excuse me 193 and it is the longest standing anti-hate organization in the country and they also do training for um uh for police departments and I believe um um the individ the local individual told me that over half of minano police officers have had um anti-bias and anti-hate training and you know hatred has no place in our society and in in our city and uh we talk about being welcoming and inclusive but as council member kley just said not everybody in our city is welcoming and inclusive and so we need to to let people know that we don't stand for this type of behavior and we defend um our residents who face this type of behavior because there is no excuse for it so that was very very interesting productive and helpful meeting but um you know it's really really important that um I think we as um I I want to talk to Mr Funk about you know things that we can do to broaden awareness of some of these anti-hate um um activities that can occur because you know um I like to say minaton is a very safe City but we're not a crime-free city and I do believe we're a very inclusive City but we are not a hate free City and so we all have work to do and so I don't have anything I just want to make people aware of that because I found that to be productive and interesting and you know um I mean we as uh council member kley said we have an Inc increasingly diverse community and people people are welcome here everyone is welcome in our community and uh but not everybody feels that way and so we have to stand up and be good examples and demonstrate how to treat people and it's not just treat people who look like me it's people who don't look like me who are different not that trust me not everyone wants to look like me but um but but um but I you know we really have to recognize that we have to be welcoming and inclusive to people who are different than we are because that makes us stronger and that makes us a community and I really believe it's important so I wanted to share that with you um the other thing I want to do is um I wanted to um I I reached out to Mayor fry and I wanted to extend my deepest condolences to uh air fry to Minneapolis uh police and you know to the family of um officer Jamal Mitchell um you know um we're getting tired of seeing police officers with and um and Public Safety officials with black bands across their their Shields um there is too much violence in our society and uh you know we really I mean we we we the situation in minaka is a lot different than Minneapolis but we're all in this together and it really is disturbing when we hear about a police officer losing his life in the line of duty and so I just wanted to comment on that because it's um it's important for our police officers and our firefighters to know that they have our support and we have to recognize these uh these horrible um incidents for what they are and stand together with the public safety people Personnel who uh make us all safe so um I wanted to make that last comment and then one other interesting thing a totally different topic well two others um one is um I'm part of the Regional Council of Mayors and we had a meeting today at Microsoft in Edina and the topic was um AI artificial intelligence and that was very fascinating I I wrote them a thank you note and said um I I learned a lot I think because because it's a complex challenging topic but it's one that's affecting all of us where whether we like it or not and so it was very worthwhile and and Microsoft um is a very interesting technologically savvy company and it was uh just something that I really enjoyed and um I'm hoping that we can uh perhaps work with Microsoft more to to expose more of our um our staff and our our councel to the technologies that they shared and then finally I want to comment one other thing this week um um Miss wishnack and Mr Funk and I um attended the um minona Business Council in cooperation with the wetta Chamber of Commerce and there was a good showing there I got to know um some business people in our community that I didn't know before and um those are um great opportunities networking opportunities and it was just a very worthwhile uh program and um and Miss wishnack um uh shared um about some of the some of the work that we're doing in minaka so that was a very very nice thing and they have whether are they quarterly meetings um and that the wetta Chamber of Commerce puts on so that's what I've got so uh anyone else before I move on all right thank you for that so that takes us to Citizens wishing to discuss matters not on the agenda so that is an open mic opportunity and if there is something that you would like to make the council aware of please come forward and state your name and address it some has to be something that is not on our agenda this evening there will be other opportunities for public comment on other topics as we get to them on the agenda so is there anyone please come forward and please state your name and address and tell us what you want us to know yeah my name is Steve lion and I live at 15237 Lin Terrace and uh I want to let you know that it's very important that you do get back to people and I had something to do with um what we experienced with councilman kley um when she replies to an email she says she will get back to you in 2 weeks okay and we have worked with her tried to work with her on a very important issue you'll hear about from me later concerning the on street parking but the essence was is is we had a a home on our block at 14819 Cherry Lane that really was and I think probably every city or every uh ward has a home you might consider an eyesore and uh and um no one ever got back to us and we took the liberty to speak to the city itself and we found found out that there there's very little the city could even do um and and it kind of goes to the later issue but the city this particular home and it's fixed now I think they sold it but it was with us for years and uh and it had Vehicles all over the all over the the actual property itself and uh and I think everybody in the neighborhood was frustrated the Realtors trying to sell homes were frustrated and um you know if we could talk to a councel person about it that's helpful okay and so just just wanted to know how important it is that you have that communication okay thank you thank you is there um is there anyone else who would like to address Council good evening good evening mayor and and Council I'm Kevin ringhofer I live at 2200 Indian Road West in Minot Tonka and I wanted to say thank you uh to the council for the approval of the Mills Church habitat project a month ago we appreciate that um that extends to the staff and the work that they did in terms of uh helping uh that project get get approved and some of the adjustments that we needed to make at the end and thank Habitat for Humanity for their part and also helping to kind of make those uh those adjustments um there were Faith communities that came together the minona community housing team love makes room and so I think there's a lot of thank yous to go around um I gathered by some of the comments that there were some bumps along the way during the process um I'll say a little little bit about that in a minute but I think the big thing is is that we have a project we have 10 affordable homes that are going to be coming to motanka uh where families can live and that's the big picture thing that I wanted to keep in mind but I do also want to add is there were some problems with the process I said this may be a good time to look at some of the processes for getting affordable housing like this approved you know does the project is there something that we can do to kind of make it uh go a little smoother and not experience some of the things that some people experience and I don't have I don't understand what everybody uh experienced I'm not on social media so I don't see a lot of that and I can only guess at a couple other a couple other things that happened but I think probably some conversations about that while there isn't a project going on uh might might be wise um I spoke to the council a couple months ago about the need to kind of make this path for affordable housing to make it somewhat smoother to make it more like some of the things that I saw like the Wood Haven project uh where it's a project on a Halfacre they're going to be Halfacre lots and that seems to be very straightforward and very smooth it'd be nice to work towards that uh for affordable housing um there's a coalition I think that has come together I think you saw that there were a lot of people who are in favor of a affordable housing um in minona uh it's not only Mills church but there are a lot of other Faith communities that were very suppor of it supportive love makes room um there's just I think a coalition that's very strong I've heard that it's very unusual to have where you where you have the number of people who are supporting an affordable housing project outnumber the people who are who are against it usually the neighbers come out more and I think at both the Planning Commission and the city council meeting that wasn't the case I think we had a lot of people who spoke in favor of the project and who were here in favor of the project um so I just think yeah it's time to consider are there some things that we can do to move forward to make it less whatever it was that that happened in terms of the last process and maybe avoid some of that but the big part is I think all there's a congratulations that's in order to the council to the staff to Habitat and to everyone else involved the Advocates and to the city of minona for their being able now to look forward to 12 new affordable homes with the Mills church project en roll and road that will have families in it soon so thank you and congratulations thank you Mr ringhofer good evening welcome um Heather 15327 Lakeshore Avenue um I just wanted to extend an invitation to the council and any community members listening um the friends of minona parks is having their annual education and social event next Wednesday June 12th in the evening downstairs in the minona community room and we will have a featured speaker Joe Walton who is the uh senior ecologist for Dakota County Parks and he's going to present on um some of the park restoration that they're doing in Dakota County including some bison reintroductions so if anyone listening would like to come and join us at the event they can visit uh the Min friends of minetonka parks website um mtka parks.org thank you thank you Miss Holm and I I want to just add um thank you for as um council member Foster Bolton indicated thank you for all the good work that you're doing in our parks and it's uh very much appreciated is there anyone else all right then we'll move on to the next item on the agenda um and that is bids and purchases and we have none of those tonight so next item is a consent agenda and we have one item on that in 10A is an interim use permit for a coffee trailer at Westdale floral and hom Garden at 15310 minetonka Boulevard is there anyone who would like to make that motion or comment or I will make the motion and a comment very good sorry Council Shack since it's in W 3 I wanted to uh congratulate and heartily support this um and we're in W 3 lucky to have two lovely uh establishments where you can uh buy and purchase uh gardening materials and this is one of them uh the other one's Tonkadale of course and uh so I hardly approve uh this and I'm very glad to see this uh coming about so thank you councilor sha and was that that was a motion correct yes that was I'll second the motion all right we've got a motion by council member and a second by council member sha Miss England Please call rooll RA yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes weome yes motion carries um item 12 or item 11 is the consent agenda items requiring five votes and we have none of those tonight and so item 12 is Introduction of ordinances we also have none of those item 13 is public hearings and 13A is a temporary on sale liquor license for bremik LLC doing business as Boom Island Brewing Company at 5959 Baker Road and Miss wishnack thank you mayor and council members uh this is a two-day outdoor event at Boom Island Brewing on Baker Road the brewery has been doing the Boom Island days for 13 years but they've only been in minaka since 2019 so it's only been a number of years since they've done it in minaka we have not had challenges in the past they have provided appropriate security as well as checking of IDs for age and so uh staff is recommending holding the public hearing and approving the license thank you if you have any questions thank you Miss wishnack Council any questions for staff all right then I will open the public hearing and ask if anyone wants to comment on this item and if the applicant's here you're welcome to come forward you're not required to but you're welcome to come forward please state your name and address good evening Council Mr Mayor I'm Casey mccauly owner of Boom Island Brewing I live at 3892 whail Drive in Shak Minnesota and we're happy to have this before you here tonight uh for consideration uh like Miss wishnack said this is our 13th boom days that we'll be celebrating uh the fourth one here in minona and this year we're going to try and make it bigger and better than ever before uh we have five bands uh slated to play during the weekend uh a whole bunch of special beverages that'll just be on sale for this weekend only we'll have three food trucks each night available which will be switching Friday to Saturday uh we have a late night DJ that'll be playing on Friday as well inside the building so there's no noise concerns about that um and we have a number of carnival games that we're bringing in and yeah it should be slated to be a great time and I hope to see some of you there and yeah thank you for uh having me great well thanks for being here thank you all right would anyone else like to comment on this item all right seeing no one I will close the public hearing and I will bring it back to the council for comments or a motion Council M Calbert thank you mayor I very pleased to uh move uh to Grant the license to uh bremik LLC Boom Island Brewing Company councilor sha I'll second all right got a motion by Council M Calbert and a second by Council M sha um any any last comments Council otherwise Miss England Please call Ro R yes and see you there kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes weome yes motion carries item 14 is other business and we have several items the first of which is the pergatory park master plan and I believe uh Mr kka is uh making that report so welcome and uh please take it away thank you very much mayor councel thanks for the opportunity tonight to talk to you about the Purgatory Park master plan I was fortunate enough about 10 years ago to move uh to minetonka and I'm in walking distance of the park and it's it's one of my favorite spots my boys run in the park and it's it's it's really quite the gem so I was fortunate enough to to work on potential for improving that Park um so I will present tonight a little bit of a background on the process how we got to this point I will walk through a summary of the feedback that we solicited from residents and what we generally heard and then I will talk through um in brief a series of recommendations to come out of this master plan process and and finally open it up for for comments and questions so a little bit of a background um parkmaster planning throughout the city was identified as a goal in the parks open space and trails plan um this lays out a process of about 15 to 20 years of a road map for planning and implementing potential Park improvements um these the plan in purgatory is to help Park Board city council and staff prioritize Park improvements and ensure that changes and Investments to our Parks continue to serve the needs of the entire Community uh we started this process back in 2023 early 2023 we hired Consultants from uh engineering firm Bolton and mink we worked with their professionals Landscape Architects Park planners Community engagement professionals um we developed a Communications plan we we looked to highlight areas of interest for potential Park improvements and we began the process of collecting feedback from Park users and uh Citywide residents the Outreach and engagement was fairly widespread um these included in-person Open House events uh popup events in the Parks where we had staff and and Consultants walking and talking to people in the park um we had a minaka matters website page for um about a year now um we had a variety of Serv is related to um the user how folks use the park generally speaking and a comment page and guest book um so the Purgatory Park master plan had a variety of considerations in it so I will present tonight um the the sections in the master plan that focus on the general Park use analysis that we found through this process of Engagement and out Outreach and the areas of potential Improvement that include our recommendations um so those would include in a general introduction to the plan itself um an overview of the inventory analysis and Community engagement um I will talk through this idea of sense of place which I'll get into a little bit more um this concept of park access both um pedestrian bike trails and vehicular parking um I will talk through the red barn site I'll have a picture of this this is Red Barn on exceler it's a parcel adjacent to the overall Park um but it's in consideration as part of this master plan I will talk through General design standards these would include Trails for instance withd and and maintenance strategies for trails and finally I'll end on dogs in the park dog dogs being a a a highly utilized um amenity in the park a lot of folks go to the park for dogs so a little bit briefly into the inventory and Analysis process um we look to um early on in the process sort of document current Park conditions through a series of field visits and meetings with staff forestry folks Public Works folks Parks maintenance people what are they seeing in the park um what takes us a lot to maintain um what are bright spots in the park um sort of to lay out the the the road map for engagement um we reviewed reference documents these would be the post plan that I referenced earlier and the natural resources master plan that Miss yes yetka commented on earlier um to make sure that those plans were um in the back of our minds as we prepared this master plan document and then we identified priority areas of focus those being um what what the parks used for most um most consistently so through the community engagement we received uh well over 600 com uh survey responses initially when we asked folks what they use the park for um we we hosted uh six in-person engagement events one being at unmap Brewing one in the community center here we received well over a thousand written comments um we hosted that min Tonka matters page and it was it was quite engaged with um we had signs in the park um for well over 3 months um signs that uh pointed people with a QR code to our minaka matters page to engage with the process and like I mentioned we received quite a bit of writing comments um the draft master plan was um was made available to the public after the last Park board meeting in May um this was available for 30 days for public review um minute taka matters we recorded comments in a variety of ways related to the draft master plan that we presented there was a guest book and responses to uh General survey questions in um in the effort to to get responses from folks what they thought of the draft master plan we received uh 76 resident um survey question responses to the plan feedback uh 13,000 unique page views and 39 mapping tool submissions so quite a bit of Engagement um overall what we found is Purgatory Park has very regular Park users so 67% of the folks that we surveyed visit the park at least once a week that's that's quite a high number um so local residents are using the park most often um there are also numerous out of the city park users and the and the park is pointed to um by locals as sort of a word of mouth destination being as as special as it is um so overall regular Park users tend to be fairly close by to the park um but with that said most users drive and park at the main parking lot that's just off of exceler Boulevard um so what we found was 54% of people drove 2 to five miles generally speaking um most most frequently used Park accesses were that primary entrance off excelsia with the stola road on the east side being the second most used um so what we found is most people go to the park to walk the Trails um Purgatory Park has beautiful Trails through a variety of ecosystems there's Prairie there's Woodland there's Wetlands most people go to the park to use it for the Trails um we did we do see quite a bit of leashed and offleash dog usage in the park folks generally responded that um that's one of their their main reasons for going to the park um what we heard is Park maintenance is generally adequate um during covid we saw an increase of foot traffic so that leads to some trailer Road erosion and some uh trash not being timely picked up but our Park staff do their best to keep up with that and we heard we heard feedback to that effect um Park amenities that we heard need a bit of a refresh would include um benches throughout the park sometimes not cited in exactly the right locations um the interpretive signage in the park related to some restoration efforts is a bit outdate um there is certainly very outdated WF finding in the park and the park rules are generally out of date a little um showcase of what our engagement events look like Community openhouse event um walking around in the park and finally collecting popup board Post-it results um I believe that one was at unmat Brewing so people were quite engaged so a little bit about sense of place um so what we heard from the F the folks in the community is that they are interested in reinforcing purgatory's Park um the beauty the natural beauty of the park and the and the recreational opportunities that currently offers them um this would um further you know we look to the opportunity to experience Solitude and and walk amongst nature in the park um folks were interested in supporting the use of the park for exercising the walking jogging bike riding those passive recreational opportunities that we look for in our Park systems um we would like to support uh the park as a Community Gathering space we heard from a lot of folks that the park is where they see their neighbors it's where they chitchat with folks uh as they watch their dogs run around um so dog walkers birders and natural resources volunteers are the folks that really view the park as a community Gathering space so this master plan would seek to reinforce that and finally to protect and reinforce the natural resources the the natural resources of Purgatory Park really being the the defining sense of place of the park and the experience of the of the folks that go there um so in terms of recommendation for the sense of place um we would look to adopt design standards related to the park materials and construction detailing um this would include interpretive signage strategy that would highlight um restoration efforts would highlight unique features of the park and those would be done in a in a tasteful way um not to clutter the park but do it appropriately in terms of placement and messaging of those interpretive features um we would look to you know enhance those special places in the park um there is a Old Trolley line on the North side that a lot of folks don't know about there are some significant overlooks in the park as we perform um more and more restoration throughout the park we're we're opening some interesting overlooks that we could potentially enhance with some benches or or general uh Park wide views especially the creek which is a a real highlight of the park Purgatory Creek um a little bit about parking access um related to Trails and parking recommendations um we would like to reinforce the trail system including the primary and informal Trails sorry one second um so the primary Trails there's really two types of trails there's the primary Trails the ones that we actively maintain and then there are a lot of informal Trails through the parks through the park the primary trails are those ones that are actively maintained by the city they're generally about 8 to 10 ft wide we try to plow those as best as we can throughout the witer and there's also a lot of informal Trails through the park uh these have developed over the years folks cutting through the Woodland and the Wetland areas um these informal Trails include uh you know a variety miles essentially of foot path through the natural areas um we would seek to develop Trails mapping review and remove redundant trails that some of these Trails tend to go down slopes in inappropriate ways that can increase erosion um we would standardize Trail maintenance practices this would include um surfacing of these particular Trails the formal and the informal ones and um determine some standards around Trailside mowing where it's appropriate or where it may impact restoration efforts um and finally we would develop clear and consistent Trails mapping and way finding to help folks make their way through the park um as part of the master plan process um we we identified that a lot of cars park on the stola road C culdesac um this is uh somewhat of a informal Park entrance that has developed into um a pretty consistent and widely used Park Lo Park entrance location um one of the recommendations for the master plan would be to um review uh the safety conditions of this particular culdesac at this point um and we would look at the potential of improving this uh parking location uh this study would include a public process and formal council approval um this would be a design effort excuse me um as part of this study we would look at um uh counting the amount of folks that use this particular location you have a l to yeah sorry um need to catch my breath here no problem presentation um so to study this stola road culdesac for a safe and accessible vehicle parking and and consider the uh removal of this potential parking um in favor of identifying sorry [Applause] um I'm just feeling a little dizzy that's right can we take a break yeah should we take a break yeah let's take let's take 10 minutes yeah yeah I know I'm just feeling a little lightheaded yeah we'll take a break e e e e e for [Music] e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] e for for [Music] e for e as many well all right everyone we're going to get started here in just a minute all right so thank thanks to everyone if you were here for the Purgatory Park master plan um that has been postponed and I need to turn to the council and ask for a motion to table the item for tonight Council M Calver thank you mayor I will make the motion to table the Purgatory Park master plan and Council I'll second the motion all right we've got a motion by Council M Calbert and a second by Council m r I will I will say that when this comes back stay tuned um the city will um through our communication efforts will indicate when this is going to come back and I will also say that when it comes back um there will be opportunity for public comment on the plan it will not be a formal public hearing but that's neither here nor there there will be opportunity for input from residents um on the master plan when it comes back to us at another meeting so with that uh Miss England would you please call Ro R here kley yes Foster Bolton yes Jack yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes weome yes and we'll take council member mes here as an affirmative indication on on the motion so uh we'll do that so um so we will come back to the Purgatory Park master plan in the in a future meeting to be determined so that brings us to the next item which is an amendment am um an ordinance amending section 83515 subdivision 7 of the minaka city code relating to storage of waste containers and Miss wishnack I believe you have that I do thank you mayor and council members uh the current regulations regarding and we're going to just call them waste containers because that's the easiest way we have lots of different waste happening in our households and uh even though we say in the ordinance today waste yard waste recyclables organic materials we actually kind of uh change that in the in the new ordinance they're to be kept at so located so they're out of view except on the day of collection that's what today's ordinance says as you heard during your study session we receive as a city about 135 complaints per year over the last 10 years for garbage cans not being in the proper place for instance they're out front of the garage they're located in various places other than being screened behind a fence or in the uh person's garage uh a lot of times though we have neighbors who could complain but they complain about multiple people in their neighborhood umu so you might get one complaintant but three addresses so that could happen uh in this situation off to the right you can see the city's enforcement policy as I read through some of the feedback that we got on this ordinance it's always interesting to me um about enforcement and if you look at our community survey only about 40 I'm sorry 60% of the time people report issues that they're concerned about so you have to remember people are not reporting um all of what they're seeing so that when we're on a complaint basis system that's very important um a lot a lot of people say well why does the city regulate this in the first first place why do we care about location of garbage cans and and some of it has to do with keeping you know refuges in a secured area so it doesn't end up in the street it doesn't end up in the storm sewer doesn't end up on our lakes and Wetland so that that's purposeful also keeping cans away from streets that have to do with snowplows or other cars of the traveling public as you know some streets can get a little bit narrower in minetonka especially when the snow is on them like in this picture and it can get quite congested and then also uh just an aesthetic you know there could be some reasons that people like the look of just a container being in an area so when you had your October study session in 2023 you talked about you know should we just remove the language about out of public view you talked about allowing uh cans or containers to be placed behind the front building line of the home and not being screened and then you also just said well what if we just continue with the existing language and so you had some discussion around each of those so that was in October then in March you had the community survey and again for those who don't know it's not for the council but for the audience members who don't know there is a statistically significant survey that's conducted every year and when they asked about this issue just generally do you think waste containers are a problem or an issue that minetonka has and about 32% in 23 and 34% in 24 felt it was a minor issue there's some people that feel it's a major issue but most people don't think it's a problem the majority of the people do not I think it's a problem in the city then on April 8th you did have a council introduction of the ordinance after that introduction then it was placed on minetonka matters which is the public feedback portal for the city and we did get a number of inputs not as much as the parking but we did get a fair amount of inputs on this you could see the full report of everything and all of the public comments and the attachments which is a report from Inka matters what we try to do is just categorize or comments maybe not specifically but just say were they generally in support of the change about 23 comments said they were seven said with changes they would be comfortable with a uh an amendment 46 of the respondents indicated they did not support the change that was proposed so the new ordinance and the proposed language that you have in front of you this evening is except on the day of collection and I think we got some feedback today um that talked about the night before so we have some alternative language for you on that uh waste containers for residential dwellings must be located either inside the structure or if outside the structure behind the front building line of the dwelling I'm going to stop there and point to the picture on the left so that's what the ordinance says is allowed for outside storage screening of containers is preferred or recommended but not required so I'm going to go with uh the picture on the right we would prefer this and this is what's required some kind of screening either with fencing or with um uh bushes or plantings or what have you that's what's required today we would not require that in the new ordinance for approval if the council wants to approve this it does require four votes of the C Council there is an option of course not to adopt the ordinance at all so I think staff always has a recommendation we indicate our recommendation would be to adopt the ordinance um I would say that we feel it's a policy decision of the council so I think you can go either way on this um and I think you know based on public opinion there's both view viewpoints if you will on whether or not you should adopt this and also you have to kind of consider all of the community input on the survey as well so with that mayor I'll turn it back to you to uh discuss whether or not to adopt the language on waste containers all right thank you Miss wishnack um first of all um Council any questions for staff on on what was presented anyone coun R yeah I was wondering do we uh have the community survey question wording uh available if not that's fine but um when you when we asked if it's a problem is it a problem under the you know either H people having people putting stuff out or having things in view or I just want to make sure I understand how the wording is sure because if it's like the overnight parking it could be interpreted in two ways sure um let me uh mayor and council member R let me read the question specifically too uh the survey question is please tell me if it which in this case is the wording is waste container is a major problem in manat tanka a pro minor problem or a problem not at all that's the exact wording waste container storage c yeah I'll just make a comment that is somewhat um unclear it could be interpreted in multiple ways so it's a list of questions so there are I think there are five in this category so you think this is a problem this is a problem and you go by subject MH yeah so it can be interpreted in my reading of it when I remember I went back and and read that is that it is is it a problem currently or people leave it out or is it a problem that you know you have to deal with things the way that they are and it's an issue that you have to provide screening right mayor and council member melee if I may mayor react thank you the the point of this is getting a pulse right it's not to say is an ordinance needed or not it's really how big of a deal is this to people and and leave it at that and then when get into more of the ordinance then that's when I would use them in a Tonka matters like what do people think of the actual language the first one's a pulse the second one's kind of specific thank you very good other questions anyone all right well um I think we'll um take public comment on this issue I I know that um we've received a number of emails and Communications with different residents so if you would like to speak to this item please come forward state your name and address and share with us what you choose to share good evening welcome hello Thomas murck 1694 Grace Bay Boulevard I have a question about the the pulse um because it looks to me like from these uh surveys uh what you saw first in feeling the pulse in the community uh was that actually absolute majority does not see does not see it as a problem and then when you outline it for the uh or gave it to um the public opinion uh you got an absolute majority that does not support it and so then you make the conclusion that we are adopting or we are proposing this uh ordinance and I don't understand when you have an absolute majority saying it's not a problem and then more people say we do not support it why bring it forward that's just my question and and the and I I will take a shot at answering that but we discussed it as a council and um there were some on the council that indicated that they wanted the question considered and so we agreed that we can bring it forward in a meeting like this nobody said no one said that I'm going to vote for this or I'm not going to vote for this they basically said that it's a legitimate question let's bring it to a council meeting and discuss it and and and have a public forum on it so both the both this one and the parking one um we're we're kind of discussed in the same way and that's why it was brought forward it was not um it was not gee we think a majority of people want to do this it's um okay is this an issue and is it is is does it uh warrant being on a regular meeting uh council meeting agenda and we agreed that it did thank you so thank hope that's helpful good evening yeah uh good evening Steve lion 15237 ly Terrace and um you know just learning how this process works it it does seem like you raise a good question about the surveys and it's certainly true with the parking but with with this who knows what that tells us and um it just seems like the the wording might have been flawed um you know like example on the parking it says that uh that very few people um see it as a problem but would it be a problem if you adopt it on street parking and and so I wonder about that and then I also wonder about both these ordinances um are being endorsed by the people here right that's the way I read it the recommendation you're talking to the council not to them okay yeah so direct your comments this way and then if you have con questions that we'll we'll ask the the staff to respond okay all right so but is that not something the council can answer is how how it just seems seems like a disconnect to me when you do a survey and is overwhelmingly against it but then you get a recommendation that says we're in support of this or or we're recommending to the council that they pass the ordinance and I misunderstanding the process yeah a little bit I think you know and I'll let I'll let Mr Funk comment on that but I you know in my conversations with staff you know the staff is really indifferent on this but based upon the will of the council expressed informally in a um in a study session they felt that they should bring it forward so then they're in the situation where okay do I do I make a recommendation well if if you I think the point is and perhaps the City attorney wants help me but if if you if you want to adopt this here's here's a here's a proposed ordinance but uh the staff doesn't know whether how we're going to vote on this they're not I don't think there I don't think anyone's advocating for anything at this juncture very good thank you and I hope I explained that reasonably good evening hello Joel Stone 16930 Grace Bay Boulevard motanka um the public facing on this uh mayor council me members and staff the public facing on this question came up and the very first statement on the public facing web page that everybody saw including me was that the city of m t proposing an ordinance that provides more options for property owners for placement of their waste in reality no new placement op options were offered and when you see the 23 supporters there if you read the detail all 23 of those people are saying wow we can take our trash out of the garage now and put it on the side of the house but they can do that today under the current ordinance so there's no new placement options so I would submit that the first statement on the public facing of the web page is false and that's everything that comes after that is fruit of the poisonous tree and it can't like it throws off the counts because the support is for moving it out of the garage next to the house and that's allowed today so um the feedback is based on a false initial state and everything comes off that and then I brought this up like I don't know 3 weeks ago again I'm sorry for my tone but I did bring it up and nothing changed it's still the false statement is still there and people are thinking hey they're giving us a new option to move it to the side of the house but um you know I watched the Kia wer uh thing and there there are a lot of residents really upset but it was handled so well you know staff presented unbiased in my opinion they very unbiased uh Council everyone up here asked great questions the the people the public comment they came up and they asked questions and I remember you wrote everyone down and you read them back to staff and they responded to everyone some people were happy with the answers some weren't but at least everyone was heard um um so I I think the the false statement at the beginning that there's new placement options I don't think the English language has any ambiguity there you can't see that there's new placement options being the same placement the same location okay now you can take the screen down and so my request is to start the process over um I think the parking and the trash are intertwined they're too close together I'm afraid what'll happen to the city council will say you know there's two proposals here this is a red herring nobody wants more exposed trash in our neighborhoods let's throw this one out but let's pass the parking they're so intertwined I think that they should be separated different nights different proposals different surveys and um have true questions true statements accurate statements and um I don't want to go down the slippery slope where false statements are made everyone's running around people are upset and um there's a lot of these respondents questioning the motivation like why who wants more exposed trash in our neighborhoods makes no sense and parking you know Park are we going to do different public comments for parking they they are two separate items on the agenda so they're they are indeed separate so my ask is to start over start the process over but both with parking and with trash don't just send the trash one back to the starting line and let the parking go through separate them both uh thank you thank you are there any other comments good evening mayor council members Kathy Parish 14701 Copperfield place I might be a little slow on how this was even brought up but why is it an issue why is it on the agenda why why is it why can't we leave it the way it was or is still is why is it on an agenda to change it and and and I'll answer that as I I think I mentioned it to it earlier that a council member um indicated that there was a concern about it and so we as a council discussed it and thought that it could come forward as a question to be considered by the council so were there complaints about the trash issue so the way I read this if it attract complaints of they're on the street or they're exposed or they want to put it on the street and expose them the opposite well we'll comment yeah yeah okay okay I I just I don't understand the rationale behind it just leave it the way it was it makes the city look better I live in a neighborhood that there is one particular house that keeps her their trash there for weeks on the street and I've walked it up and I've put it on the side of their garage I guess I could call the city and they could come out but I'd rather just move it on up but I just see it as an eyesore and our City's too pretty for that thank you thank you um any other comments staff Council mayor um sorry um Michelle Nelson I live at 14711 Copperfield place I think we've done so many things to make our community so beautiful and now you want people to just put their trash alongside of the house I live in the same neighborhood as Kathy we have a very nice neighborhood and yet we have a neighbor who leaves his trash can down at the end of his driveway 247 7 days a week sometimes the garbage pick is picked up sometimes it's not is that what we want to look like I mean why I don't I guess I'm with Kathy why why are you changing this or ordinance I think if you change it you're going to see everybody with their garbage cans right outside the garage it's just the way things are things aren't getting better in neighborhoods they just aren't thank you all right is there anyone else we're going to try and move things along here so come up or we'll uh we'll call we'll end this and bring it back to the council all right so thank you for your comments um counc sha thank you mayor I am going to take the bull by the horns I think there's some context missing in how this conversation came to be and I'll speak on behalf of the council member who brought this up last year and there was a trash battle in his neighborhood and there it's a neighborhood with small garages um a lot of uh growing families families with multiple drivers in their home so full driveways um not room for trash in the garage and there it was causing a lot of strife certainly some neighbors didn't like were reporting trash cans being left out some neighbors felt that their trash cans were they had no place for them so that kind of kicked off a a discussion we heard from more people it wasn't just this former council member but it was other people from around the community and it was really important to us we talked we talked for a long time about it to say let's address this this seems to be an issue I certainly have a lot of empathy for folks who live in more modest homes with smaller garages and um big families residing in the home the suggestion certainly I was at the meeting the suggestion that there was some grander arter alterior motive that related to trying to increase density or any of that was not um was was certainly not a motive I can I can assure you of that the one thing that I'll just give my opinion I this isn't an issue for me it's not something I hear about a lot but when it is a problem it is a real problem for folks and I am sympath pathetic when these 1950s 60s 7s style houses were built these modest homes everybody had one round gar metal garbage can that could easily fit in the corner of their garage we're asking people to to keep recycling people certainly still need regular trash and people are wanting to use Organics Recycling and they're busting out of their space and so um you know I can I I can empathize with the need for it I'll be honest I could go either way on this this is not a hill that I would want to die on I I think the people who care about it really care about it but what the survey is saying most people don't really care about this issue so that's kind of the context and again it's so frustrating to read the comments with this idea that the city council is is just up here trying to figure out ways to pull the wool over people's eyes it's just we all have many of us have full-time jobs and we are not um toiling at night thinking about how we can scheme on our residents we're just trying to get all of our work done so that's my defensive response thank you councilor sha councilor M um yes I have a question and a comment thank you mayor um my question is or just wanted to confirm something and a followup from council member sha is the current ordinance as we see here um allows there to be already outside the garage storage um it has to be behind the front line of the property the main thing that we're talking about here is whether has to be screened or not so just wanted to clarify that for everybody in case it's not clear clear cuz I've had a lot of residents contacting me about this um and I think that there was a little bit of lack of clarity on that and it's certainly something that we can look at maybe doing a a little bit differently next time um to make sure and I would also comment that also there are different ways that a proposed and again this is a proposed ordinance comes to the council one way is through surveys another way is through study sessions that um that percolate up through our city council study sessions that come between regular meetings so there are any a number of ways but just because an ordinance is proposed up here and and brought before the council doesn't mean that like you said we're we're we're scheming to do this so I just wanted to do a little bit of kind of public education on this system of how things work and percolate up to us that's why we're having this hearing and this me meeting to allow residents a chance to to give additional feedback on that as we consider this so please don't uh you know kind of Labor under the false impression that there's something already been predetermined here it has not and uh you know we're up here to hear the information digest all of uh the information that staff has presented in the packet from minona matters and then make uh the best decision that we can based on our values and our understanding and evaluation of that information so you know please I would just ask people to uh you know act in good faith and and and not necessarily jump to these negative conclusions or conspiracy theories because it doesn't do any of us any good so um with that that was my comment and uh uh and I guess my question uh again it was already confirmed with the screening so uh thank you for that make that comment thank you council member meley council member Wilburn yeah so sort of echoing what my fellow council members have said I don't want to like dwell on this too much but that these two ordinances are separate we consider them separately there was no sort of plan that oh we can get we can get the second one through if we if we if we get rid of the first one that's none of us have have time for that kind of for that kind of thing so they're separate we consider them separately are we don't make up our minds before we before we come to council so um and as uh council member Shaq uh indicated it was brought by a council member as an equity issue and and then I just wanted to talk about the the the numbers the survey results so the the the first the community survey a much larger sampling size of people of of people answered that survey um the public comments is obviously not a it's it's self- selected right so it's not people being randomly queried it's people that chose to answer the the question and as you know it's human nature that if you're unhappy with something you're much more likely to go and make a comment about it than if you're happy with it or don't care so when I'm look you know I we've had since I've been on Council there have been several things where people will say well look there's there's more people who who are against this or there's more people are in favor of this I don't just look at at the numbers I take that into account but there are more things to consider than just the number of people who weigh in on one way one side or the other coun kley thank you mayor I just wanted to make a comment about a person who live in minaka that has a 1967 home and um have three containers in my garage and um it's very crowded and now um with the yard waste container that we're paying for I might as well um call them up and say can you deliver my waist container and then that would be another container in my garage well even though there's only two people in my household um four containers in my garage is a lot of container um my understanding about the ordinance we can't have the um waste containers on the side of the home leses shielded with what you see in the picture with the shield on it um and so um I just think of homes that have this type of issue or either have more people in their homes and just don't have the space Maybe got um it's a two-car garage like my garage and there's other homes that have two-car garage don't have the the parking space the long driveway I mean that is some of the reasons why we did talk about it um and it is an equity issue we talked about that as well and so I'm just bringing more information on why we consider this um yes do sometimes people leave their waste cans at the end of their garage um driveway I mean but and they probably shouldn't because it doesn't look good and you know we we want our um residents to make sure that they're removing their waste cans right away sometimes you know there are folks that don't do that they you know like you said you have a neighbor who's not um being a good neighbor we call it but um for us not to have another option for folks who do have have smaller garages and do have a larger family and there is a way to meet all the needs without saying that oh we're going to have trash cans on the end of the garage or trashes everywhere you know um I'm not convinced of that and so I'm just going to say that I'm just not convinced of it so thank you council member Foster Bolton yeah um the first house that we moved to in minetonka had a detached single-car garage and so we were never able to put our garbage in the garage and we never did to be honest but nobody complained um and so when we moved to the bigger house we didn't put our garage our garbage in the garage then until I became a city council member and became aware of this ordinance and I was like wow we didn't even know and um so it seems like it's a problem it's usually you know a problem when a neighbor it bothers a neighbor in which case then if somebody would have said hey put your garbage cans away we probably would have I mean granted there not all the neighbors are like that but it's it seems so few and far between that this has become this problem that um I'm you know I'm I'm agree it it doesn't it had not occurred to me any of this before um I became a city council member to be honest other comments councilor Calbert yeah so you know one of the things about ordinances is that staff has to enforce them we don't have to enforce them it creates work for staff and so first of all they're not likely to recommend um you know there was some uh misunderstanding about the what the recommendation was and my goal is not to create a solution in search of a problem or create extra work for staff that is or unenforcable ordinances and I live in a 1954 Rambler with a very small uh tight two-car garage and um we got we got emails and comments from people that were weighing in on this issue describing how they have retaining walls on the side of their um driveways so there's not you know if you can't fit it in the garage there's really not any place to put it and because these older homes have such tight gar they're not they're not designed for containing cars and all of the modern things that we have to do like you know three or more uh trash or recycling or Organics containers so it it came up because there was a trash War uh it came up because a particular council member was trying to help a a a neighborhood sort of balance their competing interests while trying to maintain our beautiful city so you know we take great pride as as one of our residents uh mentioned we have a beautiful city and we want to keep it that way and um we also you know have to be mindful of uh you know challenges that certain households have in meeting ordinances that said because we are a complaint based enforcement City unless somebody you know somebody really has a problem with what their neighbors are doing there is always recourse and it is enforced it goes to staff and they enforce the ordinance and so um you know I certainly have been kind of ambivalent it's just uh as as regards trash because I'm very sympathetic because of the kind of house I live in um and uh and because of some of the comments that we got but I also feel like it it clearly in in the surveys and the comments it's it just is not a big deal to most of the people in the city and so for me personally um I'm kind of if if it ain't broke don't fix it kind of person and so I personally I just don't know that it rises I I was happy to try to support a colleague that was trying to Wrangle a neighborhood uh that was really unhappy about the situation on both sides of the issue um and uh but I'm not sure for myself personally that um I want to make a huge change and create extra work of enforcement for staff so that's kind of where I'm falling on this issue Council r r sorry I do not want to belabor this at all but again I want to uh question and clarify we already have an ordinance that allows people to put their trash and recycling containers outside of their garage behind the front line of the garage the only thing that we are deciding here is whether it has to be screened or not again I have to comment um you know again following up on some of my w 3 neighbors and others here tonight that you know we do indeed our vision statement is to have a beautiful sustainable place and I do feel if we are homeowners responsible homeowners unless there's extenuating circumstances such as a retaining wall right up against your garage that you can't put it up behind the front line of your house or garage which actually I don't have a garage so I actually do have this situation but um unless there is that if you're a responsible homeowner it shouldn't be a big deal to screen if you're renting a home then have your landlord indeed um can can should be responsible for doing so um if there are issues then you know maybe approach the city if you're having trouble uh installing a screening or some sort of enclosure but I think that you know we we need to do what we can to uh maintain this city as a beautiful sustainable place so I'm not inclined to change the ordinance at this time like we are Public public comment is over so have a question those visuals are uh in conflict with what she's saying well they are not they are but no we're not gonna excuse me we're not gonna we're not going to debate it that that part of the meeting is over and we are now under discussion so you get to listen um so counc Council M Wilburn so um sorry I um so I will say though that it could potentially be a problem for someone to screen that's a financial output to provide screening and not everyone has the financial means to do that um and I and I also would say that I would say the new proposed ordinance would be less um less for staff less work for staff because there's more options so that it'd be less violations um so again that's and so yeah and just again to clarify so under the current ordinance is the picture on the far right that's prefer preferred under the proposed or ordinance but required under the current ordinance so under the proposed ordin ordinance you can have stuff on the side of the house with or without screening but it we'd prefer it to be have screening very good any other comments anyone I'll comment um you know I you know we sometimes get to decide kind of small things and um and I I want to uh but we do care about the way our community looks and I my preference is to not change an ordinance that applies to everybody rather have homeowners who are having problems complying contact the staff and work work out a oneoff um to because it's it's more efficient and um and I think that you know I know that we do have um home owner repair Pro um programs we have homeowner I mean I don't know if if this could qualify or not but if somebody needed screening and they couldn't afford to do it I mean I I would rather work off individual problems than um then change an ordinance that could have an impact upon the whole community and then kind of reduce the standard and have a real impact on how our community looks I want to be compassionate to people who struggle with this but I don't think it's that many and I think that I mean by and large it's you know I think that um screening could be you know you can you could buy an arbor V at the plant sale for not too much money plant two of them in front of the corner of your house and you have screening um so I you know I think that there are there are there are ways forward that um handled the equity issue um and I think that you know doing this more surgic Ally rather than changing the ordinance would be my preference so that's that's my view not saying it's right it's saying it's my view so we probably do need a motion either to adopt or not adopt this ordinance um would somebody like to make an or a motion mayor before you make that motion I just want to make sure uh the City attorney can wait in on the except on day of collection comma or the evening before I think is a propos which Karine if you can verify so uh Miss yeah excuse me uh mayor and council members if you wanted to address the fact that most people put their um containers out the night before you could say except on the evening before and the day of collection and then the rest of the proposed ordinance would remain the same if the council is moving to adopt all right so so do we have to um do we have to indicate that we'd prefer that language before we decide to adopt or not or or if somebody makes a motion they have to indicate they'd like to include that language if the motion is to adopt the motion should include the proposed language that the Mover would like in the ordinance and then if somebody wanted to amend that motion you could have a motion to amend but if there's a motion to adopt include the language um if the council doesn't want to adopt you request a motion and if there is no mo motion forthcoming it dies all right so councilor ra uh thank you mayor another question can we make a motion not to adopt but to amend so that we can do the uh containers out the night before you could move an amendment to the existing ordinance with the language just just adding that and I believe uh just adding that on the evening before okay or on the day of collection you could do that I think that's within the scope of we had an ordinance introduced and that Council Amendment tonight would be within the scope we wouldn't have to start the process over so councel R it's up to you if you'd like to make that motion you're welcome to do it I will make that motion uh I would make the motion to uh not adopt the proposed ordinance and instead to amend thank you uh the current city regulation ordinance that states that waste yard waste recyclables organic materials and the containers in which they are kept must be located so they are out of public view except on the day of collection and the night before collection very good yes period just a suggestion you don't need the first part you can simply move to adopt an ordinance amending section 83515 by adding all right and the E and the evening before at the end of the sentence I will make the motion then to uh maintain the current city regulation 83557 um with the addition of accept on the evening before collection very and on and on the evening before collection except ex yes no except except on the day of collection and the evening before collection very good so we have a motion is there a second to that motion Council M Calbert a second all right we've got a motion and a second Miss England Please call roll R yes kley no Foster Bolton no sha yes yes Wilburn no Calbert yes weome yes so motion carries so that takes us to item 14c which is an ordinance amending minaka city code section 930 .03 subdivision 6 relating to overnight parking restrictions and and uh M wishnack okay here we go uh thank you mayor and council members again this is a a very similar discussion uh you had talked about um I think you know what we talked about in the study session last October is uh you know there's a lot of open communication that needs to happen between residents and the city staff uh a lot of times we have reasons for having parking regulations talking about Limited parking maybe on their property or in an area um perhaps you have unauthorized parking happening there could be some intrusion into private property there could be lack of off street parking provided on the site um sometimes we have abandoned or inoperable vehicles that is uh an enforcement situation in the city and then also we have City Maintenance operations uh in public works that impact how people are parking and where they're parking and uh when that can happen I think some of the discussion the council had was you know we have a changing demographic we have various household sizes uh people are remote working more often and really some of that that kind of conversation through covid and and afterwards caused the city uh I think to talk about this issue of parking regulations I think there are some things to consider uh inadequate enforcement could be viewed as as one issue and I'm talking about again this reporting of issues so you have people some people reporting it in some neighborhoods because it's bothersome to them and other neighbors uh maybe just don't feel the need to call and do the enforcement so there's probably some haphazardness about enforcement and then there's of course disputes about enforcement let's say you don't have enough parking on site and that's your only choice is to park the vehicle on the Street and um this is in the overnight hours that I'm talking about and so you could have some disputes about unfair ticketing and not having enough um options for folks we did talk about this too during the study session when the original overnight parking um uh ordinance was adopted it was in 1956 that was pretty much when the town was founded and that was when uh the idea of prohibiting parking at that time between 11:00 p.m. and 7 a.m. was the original ordinance and then in 1972 uh there was also a limit for only 2 hours and in 77 it was changed to 6 hours no more than 6 hours in in a spot and the ordinance is you know at the time they were they were talking about promoting safety um there wasn't a lot of Street lighting there's still I would say pretty low level Street Lighting in the city some streets are narrow some are wider and allow for a little bit more room and at that time after dark activities were not as common you can see that in 19561 was kind of the shutdown time and now moving that to 2: a.m. was um kind of a um a change in time and as the decades went on on street parking also was viewed a little bit more like an urban issue and not so much as a Suburban pattern uh that occurred so how do in enforcement work uh we do both have enforcement mechanisms in the police department as well as in Community Development and we do receive parking complaints it really depends on what it is and that's how we respond to it the online portal system is mostly how people are complaining about that or direct calls to the p uh police department staff does reiew the complaint we decide what the appropriate action is and then if there's a violation confirmed we actually contact the responsible party first uh and then inform them of the complaint we try to work to resolve the complaint so if someone's parking overnight we try to you know uh cheap Bor booms here they'll issue written warnings uh first and then they will move to citations after that if there W is not cooperation to help you understand the police department has received about in 2022 739 parking related complaints of those 136 were for overnight parking the 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a a.m. time slot and in 23 the police department had 625 parking related complaints of which 132 were for that same time period there's also situational things that happened so you have parking issues we had the new development on uh Fairfield and there was lots of harking complaints there so we did some observations and then we um did do a total no parking on that street just because of the narrowness and kind of the congestion that was happening so I think that's the point to of the ordinance that's being considered tonight it doesn't change any of the prior Council actions for instance in this neighborhood Fairfield I got a few phone calls from the Neighbors in this neighborhood thinking that that would change their situation so anything that you do tonight does not unroll a previous resolution uh enacted by the council for a no parking area and we've done that in various areas so you can see I think by the high school well both High schools there's various um no parking requirements and so it depends on the street there are many resolutions over the years that have been passed for that and that doesn't come undone if you adopt a new ordinance so I wanted to make sure that I was clear about that during your October study session you talked about leaving it as is you talked about eliminating it entirely just letting people park in the street at all times of the year um but there was a conversation about uh winter issues and snow emergencies and all of that that would have to be enacted if you did the anytime parking um on the street and then option three tended to be the one that people talked about the most um and that would just be eliminating the 2 to 6:00 a.m. during April and October so that was in October and in March again the same kind of language was used in the community survey asking people if they felt it was a major problem or not a little bit um closer on this one uh 54% didn't think it was a problem um at all and then minor problem 40% and 6% felt it was a major problem same thing April 8th the ordance was introduced and then we did receive a lot of online um commentary if you read the report closely there was over a thousand views of it so there were a lot of people paying attention not as many saying what they thought but a lot of people were aware of the city's um at least the proposal to do something different in the ordinance so nine supported the changes nine said well maybe if you did some other things um that they wanted and so there were lots of suggestions there and then 82 of those respondents did not support changes at all in the ordinance so again the same situation here where you have um adoption you can adopt it it requires four of you to agree on the ordinance or to not adopt the ordinance and basically take no action so mayor it's with that I turn it back to you I know another hard discussion thank you Miss Miss wishnack and um I will first ask Council if they have any questions for staff on this topic anyone council member Wilburn uh so city manager Mike Funk and I talked about this um this afternoon I know the way the proposed ordinance is written there's no um it's just a a blanket ordinance for the city except for as you explain areas that have already been designated no parking um but some of the some of the concerns that have been have been expressed are people that live on narrower streets where they feel it would be a safety issue to have a street parking and so is there any way to evaluate different neighborhoods and say maybe you know only one side of the street or not at all so yeah Miss wishnack yes thank you uh this involves uh obviously public works but it also involves the police department um in terms of the enforcement side of it so Public Works take carees the signage and the evaluation on whether or not the signage should be placed please then enforce it after the installation um any neighborhood can request that uh evaluation be done I think the problem tends to be that while it sounds good in concept that they don't want parking in front of their home then it kind of becomes reality when we talk about the signed locations and then you don't have any place for visitors to park if especially if you have a smaller driveway or something like that and so while the that's what I find the most often happens where it sounds like a good idea and then the realities of it set in sometimes it works okay with a one-sided parking um situation but uh again anybody can ask for that evaluation and conversation to occur and that does flow through Well's uh department and public works okay and one other question um we also discussed whether um police and fire if they have any concerns about this ordinance as far as being able to respond chief borom good evening I'm glad I'm glad you had a chance to come up because you've been hanging around for a long time uh council member Wilburn uh you know example that you know so it's really no different than the daytime so if there was an estate sale on a street during the daytime at 2 p.m. you'd have cars parked on the street so it would it would apply at night as well we we find and I worked with I talked to police chief Kevin Fox and they have the biggest pieces of equipment and they navigate through all our streets whether it's daytime or nighttime so I don't I don't see that being a factor Chief you're the police chief Kevin Fox is a fire chief did I say police chief you did you did just you see it's getting late you know that happens we're none of us are as good later at night but I wanted to be clear all right Council other other questions you know I've I've got one um so you know we've all had the situation where we've got kids who are grown up and they come home and uh they're they're there and I you live in a house that has um uh got a driveway but it's a shared driveway and so I don't have as much space and you know if all my kids are home or you know for the holidays or whatever and you have maybe maybe guests and and they're staying overnight and um and boy we don't have enough space so we'd like to park on the street is there is there a workaround that if I have somebody who's going to be parking on the street that I can call the police department and say Hey you know overnight we're going to um we're going to park on on the street um um FYI how does that all work do you do that yes mayor short answer yes in in the current ordinance there is a a provision that allows me and actually the city manager to to provide temporary changes to the to the parking restriction you know it might be where it's no parking we go and cover no parking or the opposite where you may have an event uh that you want us to flag one side we'll go out and we we mark one side of the street so kind of to your point on the earlier on on the cycle it's those those one-offs if there's if there's a need for an event we'll go out and assess it and and make it work for the homeowner without having to change the entire city very good thank you for that so Council before we will take public comment on this but Council any other questions or anything that you'd like clarify before we move to public comment yes Council R May thank you mayor um I'm looking at the proposed ordinance and I do have a question um point of information I guess that uh could you confirm so during the summer months then would a vehicle be able to be in one place for longer than 6 hours so are we looking at days on end during these overnights if we allow the overnight parking if we were to go ahead what would this mean for um kind of continuous parking uh you know kind of for days on end would that be allowed um mayor and council member R it does uh still have the language in any one place for a longer period than 6 hours I think uh when we talked about this during the study session that is a very difficult portion of the ordinance to enforce um it would require you to track that vehicle and and make sure that it's been sitting there for 6 hours I I think that's been the challenge in the past but technically yes it's still in the [Applause] ordinance anything are you good it's yeah so I I I'll tell you a recent circumstance that um there was a car parked on the street outside my house that I didn't recognize and I know the police chief so I took a picture of the car and the license plate and I said check this car does this car belong here because I didn't recognize the car and he said oh the the last name is X and that X was my nextdoor neighbor so but it wasn't a family member who lived there but maybe they were on you know they went away and and the car was there for a week but I said well I have no complaint then I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a car that somebody stole and dropped or something like that and you know I think it's things like that that we have to you know we have to pursue these one-off things and check them out because you know cars do get stolen and cars do get dumped in neighborhoods and things like that and we want to be able to check those things out but again it's that painting how broad a brush do we want to paint with is kind of the question I would ask but anyway I'll leave it at that um any other things before we go to public comment otherwise um anyone in the audience like to comment on this and if so please the rules are the same come forward state your name and address and make your comment and we're going to try and move this through this kind of quickly so if you think you want to comment get ready to go good evening um evening mayor we are some members of the council my name is Jan Malcolm I am at 17488 Hampton Court um I grew up here and just recently moved back to minetonka after living in the city of Minneapolis for most of my career um I appreciate the the discussion and and I want to start by thanking you for your service um I think there are some parallels and you've already heard about that from the prior topic to this one just in terms of the the benefit to the community of better understanding the thought process of how things come before the council and and and to what degree the case for change has been made um and it seems in this instance like the prior and perhaps to a greater degree as I think one of the prior commenters mentioned um this really seems like a a very significant change um for the city and um I think some of the safety concerns that were present when uh when the ordinance was first introduced are still the same and arguably with the rising crime that we've seen uh some of those safety concerns I would say are exacerbated so the question is what are the benefits that are being sought and I've heard U members Express convenience um to family and visitors um but whether there is a way as I think mayor you suggested to try to find a more surgical approach um might make a lot of sense I I I if I understood the prior discussion the 6-hour limit staying in place while the overnight restriction is removed really seems like an illogical combination to me so I my suggestion or request is that this this be um continued for at least more study about or discussion about whether a more targeted approach would make more sense thank you thank you for your comments and um Miss Malcolm welcome to minaka I didn't know you lived here and thank you for your service to our state thank you yeah again Steve lion 15237 ly terce um you know it does sound like the law needs to be changed at least six hour thing but um you know in our neighborhood you know parking is a big deal we don't have a lot of people parking on the street um they might have two cars per household maybe two people per household but it does seem like it's a uh problem um in search of a solution um if you look at most of motanka you've got homes that worst case are a short driveways like ours um that can hold four cars and you have a maybe a one or two car driveway or or garage and so well what circumstances are we are we having a regulation to to handle anybody that has five or more cars and if we did have an extra car and we want it to be in um with the law we could park it on our lawn that's not against the law in minaka and we found that with the case of this house that I mentioned earlier um they had all kinds of stuff parked on their lawn they never had anything parked on the street though and we're talking buses we were talking shuttles and there wasn't much we could do about it and uh you know I have some experience with parking um I'm a process server and I go all over the Twin Cities and I have to park I have to find a parking space but I also see what seems to happen with neighborhoods that uh that that that allow more parking where there's no connection between um cars and uh and parking spaces and it does seem like it it does make the neighborhoods go down faster um if you have if you allow cars to be parked on the street overnight you're just going to get more cars it's that simple and and lived in Minneapolis we had a car that was there for a year okay we called and we had to keep track of it and it was there for a year it was pretty much abandoned but you got to have regulations and you know we talk about surveys um it's great that we heard from the um Police Department I was wondering that uh First Responders how about the trash companies um where I live we see trash companies come all day long we live on a culdesac they spend a lot of time figuring how to get the trash how to get through the CU act they're not even worried about the cars it it is problematic and uh I would just say that um it's nice to um you know if you're going to do it it just seems like something you could Target um to the areas where it's most needed you know deal with the one-offs sort of thing rather than make uh the rest of the city pay I do think it's a nice attribute of the city that we have these nice clean streets without any extra cars on them and uh that in the tree cover is one of the things that uh I appreciate about the city thank you you thank you is there anyone else you can come up too we'll just keep things moving uh Joel Stone 16930 gra Bay Boulevard mayor council members and staff um I want to say great job on the minona boulevard walkway to the grovin schools that is so nice I not as a huge project probably for a lot of people and it makes it so much safer every day for the last three years or I don't how long it's been I've been watching it slowly progress and it was a such an Endeavor and it made it so much safer I see kids on that every day with their parents with the bikes made it so much safer now we got this and um our roads are narrow in minetonka so I know people think and and it's true you'll say technically the roads have not changed to be more narrow but now we have curbs cars used to be able to park up on the grass up on the sand half the car would be off the road now there's a curb now this road the parking roadway is narrower even though the dimension of the road is the same but it turns out it is narrower because of the curbs um and there's no sidewalks so now Mom comes along you see this every day I'm you know Lake Shore she's and her dad pushing the stroller and she has to go out middle of the the road and here comes a garbage truck well what do you do it's that's not safe it's not making it more safe and night parking does not mean night parking we say this is about night parking no night parking means all week parking now a car can sit on as um um Miss as you stated it's really hard to enforce the six-h hour rule or any rule if if I see a car on the street at night I know something's wrong if uh we pass this rule car could be on the street it might be okay it might not be might be there for a week I don't know but it can be and this ordinance in the ordinance it says it it provides um consideration regarding safety it doesn't sound like safety to me that's one of the stipulations in the actual ordinance right up that was part of the agenda for this bullet point um let's see and parking is already allowed By Request as you I'm glad you brought that up I've requested it many times you know have some family or bigger group over and that's that's great what my ask would be is to do it like other cities do um at Minneapolis Institute of Arts um parking rules are different around there it's a residential area they have signs you know certain signs only for residents can park here you have to have a pass or whatever you know like you mentioned surgically with the trash surgically if you want to do uh some some special case go in and and make rules for that special case on a Case by case surgical basis you know if there's not enough parking in the area not enough garages not enough driveways go ahead and address that but to make it Citywide I think is um is is not good for safety thank you thank you good evening welcome good evening uh Chris Faulk 17560 Hampton Court minaka um I grew up in motanka and I've lived here all my life um it's a beautiful beautiful city it's a safe City this is my first time to the city council and I'll let you know why I they've always just done the minetonka thing they've always just you know it's we all know how we we bought here for a reason people like it the way it is so I've never had to well I'm here um it's not safe our streets would not be safe and I will I will encourage all of you to go to mme when it gets out of school and look at the side roads I live off of one of those side roads and all the moms and dads are parked to pick up the kids and there are kids walking home and there are neighbors walking their dogs and I'm driving my car trying to get into the neighborhood and it is dangerous it's very dangerous and it happens twice a day now we want to have cars parked on one side of the road all the time you wouldn't be able to get up and down the street you wouldn't parking cars all night long on the I believe the police department just hired a new detective for strictly the purpose of handling the vehicle crime in motanka and they're stealing those cars out of garages you want to line the streets with cars do you not think the criminal element will think that's a great thing we don't have street lights we don't have sidewalks for the walking these are just some major things that have come to my attention I would highly encourage you to consider please do not do this to this beautiful wonderful suburb thank you thank you Miss Faulk is there anyone else Thomas mik uh dear um mayor and council members uh I just want to say um I'm From 16940 Grace Bay Boulevard uh I just want to say I heard few times I heard the word um which kind of justifies uh these propositions seemingly uh the word that it's done for inclusivity or Equity I want to say as somebody who's uh married to a uh my wife of color and from a neighborhood where there are several immigrants and people from other countries this is offensive and I hear that and they would be concerned offensive uh to hear that for those people it's done for inclusivity just want to say that thank you thank you is there is there anyone else all right then I will bring it back to the council for discussion and comment and uh a motion and we don't even have to discuss it we can just make a motion if you'd like thoughts coun Co like to make a comment so um I wanted to make a comment um I did talk to I believe his name is Stephen um he called me over the weekend and talked about parking on the streets and I do you know I listen to him talk and go on about why he thought that um parking wouldn't be safe and I agree um after listening to him that on some streets parking may not be safe you know I thought about like Exel here and um you know hearing the resident talk about um at mme um you know needing to go around the the cars when parents are parked so I agree with that on some streets but then I also know like on some streets on side streets and neighborhoods you can park on those streets and um I think it is okay to park on some streets so I think um maybe not on all streets where you need parking um um but on some residential areas um I think it would be okay um to park on those streets um and so you know far as crime and all of those things I don't think that it increases crime um or would increase crime um if you're parking on street I don't know how that would impact anything but um to each his own opinion um but um I agree in some of the instances where yeah maybe it's not as safe but um so I don't know that's just my thoughts thank you council member cookley council member sha thank you mayor um I want to start by saying I think our ordinance in regards to parking needs some work I think that um there whether that is even just a online permit that you can print out that we have a available that allows you up to 3 days or something I don't know um I don't I'm not sure that this is it I think what we're in both regards we're saying let's be prescripted let's be prescriptive to allow parking let's be prescript prescriptive to consider onetime circumstances to me both of those things require a tremendous amount of work and so I'm not sure we want to be in a position where we're asking people to constantly have us solve their parking problems you know we'll deal with it if they come to us on the flip side you know I agree I I am concerned that there are some streets that it's very dark it's very narrow they have special considerations it's windy it's a cack whatever it is where maybe ongoing parking is just not going to work and so now we're getting I think we'll get an influx of requests if we pass this ordinance for no par parking requests and that will be a a tremendous amount of work for staff so I still think this is a problem I still think it we need a solution to help people again this came up in covid this is something that was a real problem that people came to us with they were working from home their young adult kids were coming home and being home and that has not the pressure valve on that has not totally released particularly in the summer when you have college students returning home and are really home all summer long it is an issue so I I'm not prepared to move this ordinance forward tonight I think we need to troubleshoot some ideas a little bit more I do want to say parking is allowed on the streets Park people can park on the streets when trash is being picked up I I think I respect the people that made comments tonight I think some of it's a little bit of a distraction because many of the issues that are being addressed mme those are all issues that happen in the daytime when parking is allowed on the street and we have all parked on the street we all need street parking so I you know I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water either um let's keep thinking about what makes sense here and maybe we can talk about it in a study session next year um but I'm just not I'm just not there today Council council member R thank you mayor um I would agree with council member Shaq um we have online Perman I love one of I was really interested in one of the comments um regarding uh suburbs of Chicago which require a daily check in if a car is going to be parked on the street overnight which enables the city to know that a car is connected to a resident on the street H that it's a simple very simple process and if the license plate has not registered the cars towed or whatever there's enforcement so I thought this was an interesting idea again maybe something that we can um you know kind of explore in some followup uh to this and I also agree that some of the uh kind of situations that were brought forward by uh residents I you know understand it but they're they're already existing this this would not change that so the issues with daytime parking are issues because we have on street parking during the day so I I guess you know I I didn't quite follow the logic of of those comments um but again if we have an online uh process for getting our fire permits um you know then maybe we can look at instituting something similar for either an overnight you know for our kids our kids are having some friends over um we have relatives is coming in to stay for the weekend or whatever and it's a simple online process or something like that um hopefully that's you know hooks up with the police department's uh uh you know kind of information system and and looking at that but again I think this is not ready for prime time in terms of this ordinance and that we need to take it back and do some more work thank you councilor Calbert thank you mayor yeah I I agree with um my colleagues on and I also you know thinking about all the exceptions or possible unintended consequences one of the things that I think about is we've worked really hard to beautify the City by doing things like burying utilities and um I I start worrying about being a forest of parking sign you know parking instruction signs and so I I feel like this sort of got the conversation started and helped build awareness first of all about how people on different sides of the this issue feel and I thought it was um very you know I know I know where the mayor lives and I know that neighborhood very well it's very different than mine and that's the thing about minaka every neighborhood is extremely different I live on Baker Road one of the busiest north south thoroughfare you can park on Baker Road um it you know is it a great idea probably not but sometimes like my next door neighbors parents uh come to visit and her children come home and visit and so they sometimes park on the street my parents are afraid to back out of my parking uh out of my driveway because it's such a busy road and so you know I you know I think about that we're talking about overnight parking and so when I think about the m um children coming home I know there are marriages coming up and there's probably going to be things happening at the house you know to be able to have a couple of relatives over I I feel like this is a problem we can solve by you know permeating or coming up I think we can come up with some solutions that kind of thread the needle here but I don't think we're quite there yet and and so I hope that this discussion about uh both of the ordinances that we're just that that we're discussing tonight kind of helps clarify sort of how things come forward and the fact that you know we don't come up here with our minds made up and things come forward from colleagues or from people in the community and that sometimes the recommendation from staff on adoption or not adoption is highly technical it has nothing to do with how they feel about it it doesn't do mean they want us to do it one way or another it actually like in development um proposals it it just means that it doesn't violate anything and so they have no legal basis for denying um for recommending denial and so you know some of what you're reading in the packet doesn't mean that they're saying you know propose the ordinance they're saying that the decision we have to make is approval of the ordinance or not so I just hope that that just this this conversation shows that you know we didn't come up here with our minds made up we're not ramming anything through we're literally noodling on it we've had study sessions about it and um you know one of the things that I really appreciate about our staff and this council is they're extremely thoughtful and we bring it up because it was important to somebody um and not necessarily important to us because we are we are here to represent um our constituents so um I agree with what everyone says and I feel like we're we're getting there but we're not there tonight Council M Wilburn yeah so there are some some issues that these discussions have brought up and and I'm just too tired excuse me sorry wasn't expecting I'm too tired to address them right now but I will tell you first of all Equity is not just skin color or what country you are from but if I tell you that I am concerned of something because of equity that is my my motivation and I take offense to the implication that it is something else and that is it thank you C bber uh Wilburn is there are there any other comments um I'm I'm sensing I mean I can comment on this I'm sensing that there's not enough um there are not not enough votes to adopt the ordinance so we can take no action and make no no motion and just move on so does anyone want to make a motion or should we just move on all right we will consider we will consider this matter um closed for for today and uh we may pick it up again but um yeah the what I'm looking at in front of me says uh do not um adopt the ordinance it means no action so we will take no action tonight so thank you for everyone's comments um that brings us to item 14d which is a concept plan for Amira Villas minetonka at 901 Carlson Parkway Miss bnak thank you mayor and council members uh this is a concept plan for a Mira at as you said near 901 Carlson to remind you what a concept plan is and what it is not um it is not a formal proposal it's a opportunity for people who are proposing a project like this developer to gain uh some input from the council about where their plans are at what you think of the plans and uh whether or not you think the project has Merit so that's really what we're doing um as you recall the developer holds a neighborhood meeting they go to the Planning Commission they also hear from the public there uh you just have a discuss discussion tonight you don't have any public input at this stage um at your council meeting and then depending on the outcome they'll go through and have a an approval uh or an application rather if if they want to proceed so the project that was built uh last year at open the Amira here that's 186 units of Housing and it's for seniors and the proposal is to the south of the building and this is the proposal for Town Home units and so there are various types of town home units that are in the concept elevation package you can see here some of the package views uh and kind of the perspective drawings that are here the interior layouts of some of the units again I won't get too in depth in this because the developer or the applicant will uh get into the specifics the the input that we've received so far at the neighborhood meeting uh obviously United Property is the controlling uh interest in the property they are age restricted um it would reduce traffic versus a hotel which was originally anticipated in the plans as you might be aware um there was some suggestions to add staff and amenities and also give existing residents the first opportunity to lease and I think there was some conversation about opening up housing stock later on at the Planning Commission there was some concerns expressed about shadowing and stress on the existing amenities and some of the construction activity being impactful to people living in that building the Planning Commission did like the larger unit size and about opening up that inventory was talked about they suggested reducing the number of building but increasing the number of units talking about more density and more intensity because it's a fairly intense building uh with the Carlson Towers there um today they also talked about uh there was marriage and the concept moving forward um there was lots of discussion as well I don't have this on the slide but about sustainability items and some of the ideas um that uh they always talk about with developers uh when they come forward in terms of um water reuse and solar and all of that so the questions for you tonight is there Merit for the concept to proceed to a formal develop review uh if yes why if not why and then the other question is what would make the concept better and may before you do that maybe uh hear from the developer and their uh the applicant about what they're proposing very good that sounds good and I would invite the applicant forward and uh you know as our normal practice give us your name and address and then fill us in about what your vision is for Amir villis yeah good evening mayor members of thanks for hanging in there there with us been a very active evening here I think oh there we go excellent thank you thank you uh thank you again for um reviewing our concept sketch for Amir Villa's minetonka um I will try to briefly run through this as uh some of this is redundant to what um was in the um the U the agenda the the packet um want to respect your time this evening so as you well um are aware of we opened Amir minetonka in June of last year 186 unit active adult 55 plus uh Independent Living Community um the project we are looking at is just uh the parcel just just to the South this is a perspective standing on the lot looking North at the completed building and the amenity deck that that you see uh before you there oh sorry so just to touch on some of the project highlights uh the the the design of the building that we're proposing here is a little bit unique in in the sense of a town home multif family it's a little bit of a hybrid approach our attempt is really kind of maximize the density that we can get there um while still listening to the market as to what they're they're looking for out of out of their housing options um so we're proposing nine three-story buildings uh very Urban designed walk up front door um all the garages are located along the rear um inside a private drive so in a sense they're they pseudo um out of out of sight from from the public eye as much as as possible a shallow pitch roof uh these are three-story buildings um so Trying to minimize that height using a shallow pitched uh uh roof and all the exterior materials will be of high grade complimentary to the existing buildings uh in the Carlson um Community there um each building will have a private entrance a little stairwell um and then a private elevator um elevator is called the lul elevator so it's not a it's not like a full-blown commercial elevator but it is the it is a commercial elevator but a restricted use so they're just not as not as large again um our target market here is an active adult 55 um you know maybe a younger senior is really um who we're who we're hearing from for for this product uh guest parking uh will all be located on the east side of the site this drive aisle is already constructed um as part of the original improvements with Amir Min aanka so there's currently 23 stalls located on the on the West Side um sidewalks will provide connectivity around the site and connectivity for our residents to access Amira minona um the southwest corner over here really haven't developed that yet but we're just looking at adding some level of amenity space for for not only these Villa residents but the community as a whole the Amir minaka 186 uh unit residents as well um looking at the the units um again 28 units again just hearing um what we've learned from from our Market there um Amir minetonka a year later will be almost 90% leased up um with a a large waiting list uh for the bigger units um the only units that are really left are are of the smaller variety um so trying to understand what is the best use for this 2 and 1 half acres or 2.2 Acres uh to the South there and really try to identify how can we best youze with the larger units um larger units going just horizontal there just isn't enough real estate to go horizontal with larger units so um took this design and tried to kind of stack them um so there are two units above above garage space um so each each unit here um will be of two or three bedrooms again larger variety 1600 to 2300 square feet we haven't finalized um the square footage yet but they will be have the larger variety the largest home available at air minaka is 1470 Square F feet so just the one starting here at 1600 is substantially larger than the largest one at Aira um so each home will be you know kind of age targeted design you know one Lev living um you know maybe your you're familiar with a town home where you kind of walk in off your garage and then it's really all just steps and that's really what we're trying to avoid here so the lowest level is really just parking garage and then some some um private Space Storage mechanical mudroom that type of stuff and then there would be a stairwell or a garage or I'm sorry a stairwell or an elevator that would gain them access to the second floor which would be units or to the third floor which again would just be so there's no stairs within the confines of the home itself um oversiz decks upscale finishes again just what we're hearing from from the market um expansive Windows because we can have this opportunity of having three four you know um um exterior walls we can take advantage of of more Daylight and then each home will have its own climate control uh furnace air conditioning Mechanicals and so on this was also in your packet from uh from the neighborhood meeting that was conducted on on May 9th we we talked to had a lot of great conversations um I I won't go over all these items but we did um hear some feedback from planning commissioner members as well so we're taking all this feedback in into consideration and really appreciate your feedback tonight as as well if you haven't had an opportunity to stop by Amir metaton I would invite you to do so it is a gorgeous a gorgeous community gorgeous addition to the to the Carlson Center a gorgeous addition to minona um just trying to give you an idea of some of the scale and the uh the quantity and area of amenities that we have this is just the amenity deck that we have out out um in the backyard kind of looking South um at the this is kind of looking South at the the area that um that we're proposing for the mirror Villas um again I won't go into too much detail but you can just see the the amount of mity spaces um seeding areas fire pits um this space right here is the um is the green space that's on the north side of the site um it's a very large Courtyard there's actually a very large green uh Green Space just a grass grass area um and then of course we have uh Community Gardens um on the south side of the site as well inside the community again just um lots and lots of amenity spaces Club room great room sky Lounge Library um you know parlor each of these are different spaces you can you can get a sense of the scale the size the Finish levels um they are just so well received from our residents and we're excited about maybe having the opportunity of bringing 28 more homes to be able to share in in these amenity spaces um again just more more amenity spaces if you can if you haven't had a chance I just we're we're so proud of this this uh this community really is our Flagship Amira um this is our third building we've opened in in the the metro area and just trying to figure out how to do more of them because they it really is is beautiful um just some quick takeaways um it opened up in uh June of last year it is managed by Great Lakes management and we are proposing that the Villas is really just synergies between the two it it is very similar resident similar age restrictions they will have full use of all the amenities uh 28 homes which trying to strike the balance between enough homes but not so much height not so much density just a nice nice good feel um for for the use of of the property um The Villas the larger homes are really are what are in demand is what we're hearing and then um 10% of the Villas will meet the income qualifications for the city of minona so that being said um appreciate your your feedback as as we would uh be hopeful to prepare an application for this very good um so I'll ask the council if they have any questions for you before you sit down and then we'll uh we'll move forward so Council Wilburn um so I have a couple of questions but the first regarding the stairways so um are there stairways in inside the buildings but not inside the units is that is correct um would you be able to pull up that floor plan again that may be helpful yes thank thank you um so if you can Envision this is a this is an idea of a I'll stop trying to drive yeah uh if you could scoot it to the yeah I think maybe that's all so as you can see here the lowest level is garages Flex rooms mud rooms mechanical rooms the front door as you see kind of in the center of the building that's really the only stairwell that enters into each one of the buildings and you take then either the stairwell up to now what you see on the right side is is the second level and um you have a entry door to the right or an entry door to the left and that is your home so once you're in your home which you can access by elevator or the one common stairwell there's no stairs within the home and then you take the stairs with the elevator up again to the third level where there's two more homes so e in this picture here there are four homes um the larger homes have a two-car garage which again we really hear um favorable responses from the oret having an opportunity to have a two car garage uh versus a typical multif family where you just get a parking stall in the garage and that that's it uh the smaller homes were proposing a single stall garage but um nonetheless there's additional driveway space for guest parking Plus 23 stalls on on the east side of the property for additional guest parking over there so did that answer yes it did than you okay thank you um so my other question is not related to the plan itself and I was told you were giv a heads up this so so it doesn't look like I'm ambushing you here um but we we've gotten some Communications with concerns about uh some of the the subcontractors or the uh companies that you work with and so one are are you aware of those allegations and two what do you do as a company to ensure that any any um companies that you work with are following proper practices and there's no wage the or worker abuse yeah um that was brought to my attention shortly before the meeting tonight um I don't think it would be appropriate for me to respond to the communication that was received because we have not had an opportunity to review that but at which time um we as a company would be happy to provide a formal response to the council here um but I do have a statement from from our company that I'm I'm happy to share with you that we take concerns voiced by subcontractors both Union and non-union very seriously subcontractors on all company affiliated projects are required to comply with federal and state labor benefit workers compensation and wage laws if we learn of an unfair Labor practice practice accusations made against subcontractors who have worked on our projects we investigate the accusations in close partnership with our general contractors and when appropriate we'll stop working with certain subcontractors thank you Council are there other questions thank you um any other questions for the applicant are we good Council R of course sorry yeah sorry about that um sorry I do have one question um uh and I what uh sustainability uh aspects are will you be bringing to this development and plan going forward yeah so at at this stage we have not really developed the plan set as much but yes we do um we will take uh sustainability measures into our design practice EV charging Outlets um water efficient um fixture we I do just um plan on enrolling in the energy design assistance program offered by Excel Energy and CenterPoint Energy which they help they help kind of guide decisions for uh the most energy um efficiency that we could design to um so we will take all those things into account as we further along the the the the plan set okay mayor may I follow up with a comment you may thank you mayor um I would highly encourage that um you're a flagship the current uh development uh apartment building is a a flagship for air I'd love to see this be uh these Town Homes be a sustainability Flagship something that we can point to in minona we just passed the climate action and adapt adaptation plan uh you know we do have goals in terms of uh Green Building practices and would love to partner and see that happen here for this and something that we can point to in this community and something that you know you can use an as an example to others in and beyond our community both for you and for other developers I look forward to learning more and seeing this come to fruition and seeing you work with staff and those uh and and Excel and our other partners on things like heat pumps and other options that can make this the best possible development something that we can be really proud to have in our community so thank you yeah thank you for that feedback are there other questions for the applicant all right now you get to go sit down butk but thank you very much for your presentation and um and I will say that I've been to Amira on numerous occasions and it's um it's a spectacular building and um I'm not surprised that you're uh you're as filled up as you are so so um this is a concept plan and uh we've got three questions before us again Abracadabra um there they are and uh so um Council let's just address these questions and we can get out of here um what are your thoughts on um you know this concept moving forward Council M Calbert I'll start on this one um I actually think there is Merit for this concept I watched the Planning Commission meeting and I agreed with um with a lot of what what was suggested there you know this area is is sort of ripe for density and so this this provides some density and I I appreciate that you're trying to keep this sort of neighborhood feel by not having too much height or mass but the suggestion was to add a story to one of the buildings or or so without sacrificing the size of the units and in order to provide more green space which I thought was very intriguing and I like that um and I thought the you know they had been concerned about shadowing I think um you know we want to make sure that we're not shading people out especially if they if they haven't been shaded before um I think the con I think the concept is lovely and I will say I just moved my parents from Ohio where they had a Villa style home on a just gorgeous place it was it was mission impossible to find single level living which is what it is just so hard very expensive this is a housing type that we really need and so I'm very excited to see um you know it's sort of the same kind of concept as where they they're living except that there these are much larger it's a much larger building that they're living in and oh oh but that did get me to think are these is this rental or is this owned that was one of the things but I I'm sorry I forgot ask um uh so yes these are rentals these are an extension of the current uh Rental Community next door at at Amir nanka all right and I I if I if I may we really appreciate that comment um from Planning Commission as well in our design the garages are what Drive the ability if you just add another floor you don't have any garages there's nowhere to put the the vehicles other than surface parking um but res this resident demographic isn't necessarily um wanting to park outside uncovered so we we really appreciate that just trying to trying to keep the design in context of you know we're trying to maximize density height all that with the ability to park vehicles in a garage parking I mean it's just a problem yeah no we we really appreciate the the feedback though than thank you all right other questions uh council member Foster it's it's a comment CU I read the notes for the Planning Commission and I agree with Maxwell when she said you know um to get rid of some of the buildings to Save Green Space um and I drove by there today and it's stunning it's gorgeous it's lovely again um but it but I I I'm like wow we could have some density here and um and I have to say it too that this looks really beautiful and really nice but um really expensive um and so it's going to price a lot of people out and I know we're going to have affordable housing in minaka and all that stuff I just need to say it out loud um that it's another I mean I think it's a it's there's total Merit for this but I just wanted to point all the stuff out that I usually do about affordable housing mayor I wasn't i w i i wasn't quite done before you're fine you're good so no worries I I mean you it's valid valid comments one of the other things is that um there are you know PE mature adults that are fully independent and they're not ready to move to a tiny place they're accustomed to living in a larger home um and they're not ready for these so one of one of the housing types and all new construction is expensive the affordable homes that we just approved are $700,000 to build so I mean it's just it's just going to be expensive because that's the world we live in right now but I but I do really appreciate that the size because that is kind that this is another unicorn the single level living at this size so it's very hard to find and um I know the Planning Commission was um really excited about it um and uh what would make the concept better I mean they talked about places for dogs uh there is Green Space nearby so it may not be an issue um but it's a point well taken because this is this is a very dog friendly City and um it's something that people would appreciate um but I you know that what would make the concept better there's not all that much in it it's kind of a barebones concept because it's conceptual but just having a lovely Landscaping plan that has a lot of natives um uh Native plantings would be great and anything that you can put in um to help us achieve our sustainability goals um uh to council member Ra's Point uh I think would um you know make whatever the concept is better but I really do like a lot of of what's there and if we can figure out I mean to have to to have that property where it is and and not have a certain level of density it's not a disqualifier because I know what you're going for but it it almost it almost seems like a lost opportunity in some ways so just throwing that out there other coun Wilber or go ahead yes so I would Echo what's been been said before about maybe finding a way to do have higher density and my environmentalist heart when I when I hear about the the two-car garages that and we but I also understand the market and so um I would say yes there is Merit for this concept go forward I like the idea of EV charging you know and I wouldn't if there's two EV Vehicles parked in the garage then I'm not not as unhappy not as unhappy about it um uh the other thing I would um you know echoing what council member ra said as far as sustainability um I had the uh opportunity to visit a um a development in Minneapolis where they're doing something called Low embodied carbon where they look at aside from um sustainable things like heat pumps for heating and cooling and and other environmentally friendly things that you add they also look into carbon um that's produced in the building materials and the if there's a tear down reusing the material all these things for the overall carbon footprint of building that property so if you could you know do some investigation on that and and um and I can even get you in touch with people who know more about it than I do um that would be my suggestion other comments council member sha thank you mayor um I will say I think the Planning Commission addressed almost everything that I was thinking I mean I think this is beautiful I think it makes sense um you know I'm not worried about the shadowing considering that this project came to us with that parcel being a hotel and so you know that was certainly anticipated for that I mean it's approved there so um I I do you know we you have been here before and you know how difficult it is to get high density projects approved in this spot it wouldn't be difficult to do something much bigger and so a a little bit of me it's like oh we're really missing an opportunity here because this is a spot but I understand that the idea of balancing that with the uh housing product and the you know and and having some diversity of product and getting a few affordable units is certainly enticing as well so I I I think it has Merit I wish we had were taking advantage of this space um for a little bit more density this you know that area also has a ton of Green Space I'm not overly concerned about that parcel being overused because there is a lot of um natural features in the Carlson area alog together other comments Council M kley thank you mayor I would say that um I'm always for housing I mean um I you know always prefer some more affordable housing or affordable housing um but you know that's not the case but um you know if we can get homes for people um I'm always for that so um that's all I have to say I don't have much anyone else Council M yep final um so just getting to the questions yes there's Merit um you know I think this is a good development to do uh a good site to do this adjacent to a miror 1 one it can share the amenities so it is sustainable in that sense um it's adding to the sense of community it's good design it's good dis uh addition to the neighborhood um the fact that it's 28 units you know if it if it does draw you know in terms of our affordable housing concerns um one thing that commissioner Banks brought up and the Planning Commission that I thought was well said is that you know if this draws especially from you know current minaka residents who decide to rent there then it opens up some housing opportunities in minetonka hopefully um so you know he was very in favor of it for that reason I Echo that um glad that it's including the city mandated affordable affordability uh units um and again everything else has been said in terms of making it better again encourage as Planning Commission did the sunlight study um to make sure that we're doing the potential buffer between the pool you know between the main uh building and the potential Villas in case there's some Landscaping that can be done that can assuage some of the residents concerns that we've just heard most recently this afternoon if that's possible as well um and uh you know again the storm water I remember from the Planning Commission that's going to be stored underneath I think that's a prime opportunity to potentially use that storm water for irrigation or other things like that so it encourage um you know exploration of that and the other sustainable ability uh things that we discussed um so th those are my comments one other comment I really appreciated the staff's reports explanation of the concept plan and the application including the role of residents for anybody who's still watching at this point um and uh while I'll just quote from it while the city has an obligation to provide information and feedback opportunities interested residents are expected to accept the responsibility to educate themselves about the project and the review process provide constru of timely and germine feedback and stay informed and involved throughout the entire process I encourage the residents of Amira to do that and I encourage minona residents of every project around regarding every project to do the same so thank you staff thank you councelor R any any other comments otherwise I'll I'll I'll weigh in um you know I like I like this proposal I totally understand the the demand for single Lev single level living um you know I I I remember when my my um in-laws were um looking at a place to live and they wanted they wanted to move out of their home and U my father-in-law really really um wanted to own a place and not rent a place and turned out that they couldn't work it out um the the place that they wanted to go to wasn't ready for them yet and and I said to him well Rich you have to understand at your age everything is rented and and you know and I think you get to a certain point in life where you know I mean renting really does make a lot of sense because who needs the you know what do you need the equity for and uh and so I think I think having a rental product targeted to people that are 55 plus really has a lot of um a lot of logic and you know most of the things that I would recommend have been covered but I have a few other a few thoughts and you know so um I would encourage you as a developer to read the climate um action and adaptation plan because there are a lot of suggestions in terms of what we as a city are going to be working toward and encouraging our residents to do and the types of Investments that we are hoping that they make in their properties to be more um more environmentally conscious because it you know it's not it's not if we need it we need that now so I think that there are some ideas there that might be helpful to this project um I've I've heard my fellow council members talk about the opportunity for density and you know I think about that a little bit because I I mean I like what you're proposing here and I totally get when I looked at your layout I totally get the parking issue um you know so for high-end you know you're this this a high-end development and you know um people really like having garages and and I think that's great but in listening to you talk about um the fact that Amira um the the first phase of Amira is fully rented except for the smaller units you know part of me wonders and say well if if we felt we needed greater density you could build another building and not have those small units in it and achieve some of the same things that you're um you're trying to achieve here maybe not as distinctively and so forth but but there are p paths perhaps to both greater density and the larger units that are in demand and I totally get that I mean people live you know a lot of people live in in in very nice big houses and they're they're in their mind they're still downsizing but they need some they need Elbow Room and they need space and so I mean I think that's the conundrum um but I think you know you and I'm not saying I don't support this project but I also think there might be other ways to achieve what you need for the market with a different building that could offer for perhaps more units and so that's I throw that out as a as a for what it's worth um but you know I I went to the groundbreaking um at the first Amira I went to the ribbon cutting um I went and campaigned there in the last election um and it's um you know it's a it's a phenomenally beautiful building and um my uh sister-in-law and brother-in-law live in a mirror building in Bloomington and they really like it and um you know I just think that's a product that there's a significant need for and people who live in minaka like the idea of staying in motanka the location is so convenient it's a fantastic location um just in terms of freeway access in terms of amenity access in terms of access to um Southdale I mean you know I don't have to sell the location you already know that but but I think that the idea of opening up existing homes to um younger families as people move here but still have the opportunity to stay in motanka that's a powerful notion and that's a I I think that's a real selling point um and uh you know I I was maybe a little surprised to hear that you're um you know that it's the large units that are selling but then when I think about it when I think about you know my situation what to what would I want that that's the type of thing that I'd be looking for so I think I think you're really on a on a good track and I would just encourage you perhaps with your with your architect to maybe consider some you know some um density increasing opportunities there but but I think this looks great the way it is too so I don't want to uh um I don't want to uh send you on a wild goose chase but but I you know I think we we have to ask those questions and to just optimize this you know this great piece of property so those are my comments and so I think we're just about done okay thank you Miss wishek apprciate I hope that I hope it's helpful it is thank you thank you so much so item 15 is appointments and reappointments we have none and item 16 is adjournment is there a motion to adjourn council member Wilburn I move adjournment is there a second council member calber I will second all right all in we have a motion by council member wber and a second by council member uh Calbert all in favor say I I we are adjourned I know [Music] [Music]