This is the transcribed city council meeting with speaker names added based on the context provided. [0:00] **(Introductory sounds)** [0:14] **(Music)** [0:42] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Good evening and welcome to the October 2nd City Council meeting. If you join me for a moment of silence in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. [1:01] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [1:05] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, Ms. Orlofsky, roll call please. [1:07] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Michelle Volk? [1:08] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Here. [1:08] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** John Bermel? [1:09] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Here. [1:09] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Dan Wolter? [1:10] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Here. [1:11] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Joshua Lee? [1:12] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Here. [1:24] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Great. We'll now move on to item number three, citizens' comments. This is an opportunity for anybody who's here, for up to three minutes, to share their concerns or questions about an issue you don't see on the agenda. I don't see anybody. Okay, moving on to item number four, additional agenda information. Mr. Miller? [1:36] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Nothing tonight, Mayor. [1:42] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. Moving on to item number five, our Public Works quarterly update. And I'll turn it over to our Public Works Director, Mr. Oehme. [1:57] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Thank you, Mayor, City Council members. This is the third-quarter report for Public Works. So I'd like to just start off with some updates from some County projects that we have been working on. The 179th Street project, as you may be aware, is mainly substantially complete for the traveling public along the main corridor there. There is still some work left to do along Granby Trail and Old Dodd Road for paving, and then some trail work and some restoration on the central maintenance facility site. But all that work is planned to be completed by the end of the month here. [2:36] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** On the 185th Street project, the County project from Dodd Boulevard over to Highview Avenue, that project is on schedule yet. We did have a little slowdown last week with the rain, but we're seeing the gravel this week and then the first lift of asphalt is going to be going down this week as well. And then we'll see some trail paving going on after that with some restoration and have that project open to the traveling public by the end of October as well. [3:08] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Moving on to County Road overlay projects: the Kenwood Trail improvements from Jubilee to 162nd Street. That project's currently underway. Contractors are currently working on some utility improvements along the corridor, mainly storm sewer improvements. And then next, they'll work on some curb replacements along the corridor and then eventually mill the pavement and overlay the project. And that project is going to be planned to be complete by the month as well, so expect traffic delays along the corridor for the next couple weeks. [3:43] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** On the 205th Street project from Kendrick Avenue to Ipava, that project is now substantially complete. There's a couple little punch list items we have to take care of, but that project is completed. In conjunction with that project, we did construct a pilot roundabout. We still have to put the last lift of asphalt on that section of roadway in the around the wall, and that's planning to take place this week for one day of paving. [4:10] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** And Casperson Park and trail improvements—that's the joint project between Dakota County and the City of Lakeville. The Greenway Trail runs through Casperson Park, so the County is paying for that section of the trail. Trail work is planning to be—paving of the trail is going to be taking place this week and then restoration next week. So that project is wrapping up as well. [4:34] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Moving on to The Pedestrian Trail Crossing study. This study has been going on since April. The study is to gather information from the community, identify shortcomings or problem areas with trail crossings, and then for some future improvements and implement trail crossing improvements in the future with the policy in conjunction with that. So staff did a lot of public engagement with this project. We've solicited information from several community events including the fire station pancake breakfast during Pan-O-Prog and some other events as well. So we did talk to well over 250 residents throughout the community and have received over 100 comments on our project website and within our interactive map that was on the website as well. So we're digesting all that information right now and coming up with some strategy, some implementation ideas, and then I'll take this back to the council for your thoughts and recommendations, hopefully by the end of the year here. [5:51] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Moving on to the Utility Division. This year we did line about 2.6 miles of our sanitary sewer within our residential areas. This is some older neighborhoods that we've been lining. Our sewers with their old clay lines have a lot of water intrusion and tree roots that end up in our pipes too, which cause potentially some backups. So we've been lining these older sewer pipes in hopes to reduce the amount of clear water getting into our system and then reducing the likelihood of sewer backups as well. [6:36] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** With—I just wanted to show you this slide here. This, over our last seven years, is our sewer flows leaving the city. And the sewers are treated at the Met Council treatment facility. Over the last two years, we've actually seen a decrease in the amount of flow leaving the community. This can be attributed to the drier conditions, some people working from home the last two years and—well, that can contribute to that, maybe, maybe not—but it can be attributed to drier conditions, less clear water getting into our system, and then also some of the projects that we've been doing to try to help identify or reduce the amount of clear water getting into our lines here because we do end up paying for all that water that ends up in our pipes. [7:21] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Moving on to the Street Division. We did have a busy year this year with tree removal. This summer with Emerald Ash Borer taking out a lot of our trees within our community, so we've been busy with that. Pothole patching for this year is more or less completed. We are still velocity patching some high iron in the community for winter operations considerations. And then we did have a lot of street sign replacements this year—we had a lot of faded signs and signs that were out of compliance that we had to replace. [7:59] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** In the Street Division, we had two major retirements: Troy Grossman, our Street Supervisor, and Tom Spencer, our Fleet Superintendent. Both of them retired this past month with over 73 years of service to the city. They had a nice retirement lunch for them this past month. But moving forward, Dave Downs will be our new Street Superintendent and then Bob Mock is our Fleet Supervisor. So those two gentlemen, we're excited to have them lead their respective areas. [8:40] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Moving on to the Utility Division. We did see an uptick in water production for this year or for this quarter. From June to September, it was a little over 1.25 billion gallons of water that we produced with an average daily production of 13.73 million gallons per day. So that's a little uptick from last year. That again can be associated with the drier conditions that we've seen this summer. [9:17] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** The Mashada Water Tower is now fully painted, so that project is completed. All that's left is to put the cellular equipment back on the tower. So we hope to have the contractors and the private cellular companies replace or put that equipment back on the tower in the next couple months here. [9:39] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Environmental Services. We were honored to host a tour at some of our sites that have been funded through state funding—conservation projects and water conservation projects as well, mainly funded through the Clean Water Legacy dollars through the state. The DNR was here, and Vermillion River helped out as well. So two sites that we visited were East Lake Habitat Restoration Area and then King Park Storm Sewer Reuse project as well too. Both of those are funded through state dollars and they were really excited that we were really excited to show those projects to those agencies. [10:35] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Also, the Middle Creek Restoration project at Casperson that has been going on for the last month or so. That project is getting closer to being completed. We'll see the substantial completion here at the end of October. That was another grant that we received from Bowser and the Clean Water Legacy Amendment in the tune of $360,000. So the project is to help re-establish the creek and help reduce the amount of sediment loading getting into the Vermillion River. [11:08] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** For lake updates. With the drier conditions that we've seen in our community, lake levels have been down, so we're seeing a lot of heavy plant growth along shorelines and in shallower areas here. And actually, some of that plant growth is good—the American lily pads really help out the aquatic species within our lakes. We did have fish surveys on East, Valley, and Kingsley lakes, which will help quantify what we need to do for water quality and fish species within our lakes. With the carp barrier that's going to be going in at East Lake here very soon, we did transplant some native plants to East and Valley Lake with the goal of establishing native plants that have been removed or have died off in those water bodies over the past several years. [12:05] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** For MS4 permit updates, we are currently going to be inspecting 267 ponds, about 20% of our ponds within our community this next quarter. We did do some heavy inspections on construction sites again this year—234 inspections through all our construction projects throughout the community. We're working with private businesses and HOAs to inspect some other private storm sewer facilities within their sites. This is part of the MS4 permit that we've got to make sure that those facilities are in compliance and are working as designed. [12:47] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Moving on to Forestry Division. As everybody knows, Emerald Ash Borer is going through our community, so we are a generally infested community now. We are seeing high tree mortality and infestations of our trees within our community. The Forestry Division did inspect over 300 private properties this year for Emerald Ash Borer and working with those properties to remove those infested trees per our policy and ordinance. We are getting good compliance with those property owners—we're just working with two more property owners to get them back into compliance. [13:31] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** The Forestry Division also did a bunch of Oak Wilt inspections this year, which turns out that we're not having very much Oak Wilt in the community, but the drier conditions and the drought that we're seeing, these oak trees are being stressed out, and we're seeing a chestnut bore take a toll on some of our trees this year because of the drought. And we're working with those property owners to try to address those issues. Also from Forestry, we did have to take down another 14 trees along Ipava Boulevard because of the Emerald Ash Borer, and we're planting some trees back in October to replace those trees that we just took down. And in conservation areas, there's a lot of ash trees that were taken down in those areas that were potentially impacting private properties. In the fall and the winter, we're going to be removing a bunch of trees from all lots. [14:23] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Looking forward, we've got a lot of events that are planned. This sports equipment donation is planned for Ames Ice Arena all this month, so please bring your gently used sporting good equipment for donation and reuse. Paper shredding is planned for the Central Maintenance Facility on October 14th, so for any papers that you want to shred and recycle, please bring those to Central Maintenance. We're planning to have the grand opening of the Environmental Learning Center at Ritter Farm Park on October 14th, so if you plan to attend that event, please RSVP via the city website. [15:04] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** "Imagine a Day Without Water" is planned again for the Water Treatment Facility on October 20th, and that's a family-friendly event where there's prizes and t-shirts that will be given out, and then you can take a tour of the water treatment plant at the same time. Pumpkin composting—if you want to compost your pumpkin through this program, please bring it to the police station on November 4th and 5th, or the recycling fire station number one from November 13th to the 20th. And then lastly, the holiday lighting recycling event is planned for City Hall and Lakeville liquor stores from November through January. So any holiday lighting that you would like to recycle, please bring it to those facilities at any time of the day. With that, it's my update. I stand for questions. [16:10] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. Council, questions, comments? Okay, very good. Thank you, sir. [16:15] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Thank you. [16:17] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All right, moving on to item six, the consent agenda. Mr. Miller, any items you wanted to highlight? [16:20] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Nothing tonight, Mayor. [16:25] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Right. Council, any items that you'd like to pull for further discussion on the consent agenda here? [16:30] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yes, I'd like to pull item 6D from the consent agenda. [16:35] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, the no parking resolution on Kenyon Avenue. Any other items? If not, I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item D. [16:40] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I move to approve the consent agenda minus item D. [16:42] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Second. [16:44] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any other discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor say aye. [16:46] **Council (Unison):** Aye. [16:48] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? No. Consent agenda passes and we'll now take up item D. And I don't know, Councilmember Bermel, if you wanted to talk about that? [17:15] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah, in reviewing this item I had concerns with the change completely to "No Parking" on Kenyon Avenue because of the lack of truck parking options for those that are patroning the restaurant there during the daytime. So I was wondering if the council would be interested in exploring an overnight no parking ordinance change or signage change versus an all-out "No Parking" signage change. [17:50] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, good question. Um, ask a follow-up question to that. I know that that restaurant has room for RV parking, etc. Does a semi fit? It doesn't fit in that area, is that what you're concerned with? [18:05] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah, and I talked to management there and the spaces are not long enough for semi-truck parking. There are bus spaces and RV spaces, but the lot is not designed for semi trucks to park there, so they've been parking in the circle is what you're saying. [18:22] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. The concern with this, if I understand the proposal correctly, is the concern really is the overnight parking—people staying there for multiple hours through the next day. And I have no concern with that issue, but for temporary parking throughout the day, I think I'd like to see that continue to stay open and available for semis. Okay. Mr. Miller, somebody on staff weigh in? [18:43] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Councilmember Bermel is correct. I think our main concern is the overnight parking, and we have seen trucks park there overnight. I know staff went this morning and then looked again over lunch and the same trucks were there. So, if this is Council's direction, I'd probably recommend that you table this and then we can bring back an item for restricted overnight parking. [19:07] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I'm comfortable with that. [19:08] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All right, so I'll take a motion to table and we'll bring it back to the next meeting. [19:10] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I move. [19:11] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. [19:13] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. [19:15] **Council (Unison):** Aye. [19:16] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Motion prevails to table item D for a future meeting. We'll now move on to item number seven: Public hearing for proposed 2024 to 2028 Capital Improvement Plan and Street reconstruction plan, and the intent to issue Geo bonds, Street Reconstruction bonds, and Capital Improvement bonds. And I will turn it over to our Finance Director, Ms. Stahl. Welcome. [19:43] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. First off, I want to extend a thanks to staff and Council for all of their work on this. The 2024 to 2028 Capital Improvement Plan does take a lot of effort and it's a team plan project, and staff does a phenomenal job, so I want to thank them for that. [20:10] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** We are continuing to enhance the document so it is a good planning tool for the city. And just keep in mind it is a planning document. Pretty much the things that—other than pending budget approval—the things in 2024 are pretty set; they're going to happen. There may be some things brought to council for your final approval on those, but they're pretty firm. The years past that are more, like I said, for planning and those things certainly could change in the very near future. [20:47] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** The process that we go through for this: we brought this to the work sessions in July and August to Council. It also went in front of the Planning Commission at their September 21st meeting; they're recommending adoption of the CIP by Council as it fits the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. There are only two items that changed from the document since you last reviewed it: that would be the addition of two police squad cars in 2024, and then we had a slight increase of a fire engine—a slight increase of $100,000. So those were the two items that changed from when you last saw it. [21:28] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** Other than that, there are three resolutions that are needing to be adopted. First, after the public hearing, we're asking to approve the resolution adopting the CIP plan and approving the issuance of bonds for those items listed in that plan. We're also adopting a resolution for the five-year Street Reconstruction plan and approving General Obligation Street bonds for that portion—that one does require a two-thirds vote, keeping that in mind. And then we also approve a resolution declaring the official intent of us to reimburse ourselves from the proceeds of the bond issues. That gives us the opportunity to start putting the plans into work now; we're not holding up until we receive the bond proceeds. [22:20] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** So, that's pretty much from the finance perspective, and we have Zach Johnson here to talk more about the details of the projects themselves in the document. Do you have any questions finance-wise for me right now? Okay. I'll let Zach take over with his piece and then we'll open up the public hearing. [22:52] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** All right, good evening Mayor, Councilmembers. Just for the benefit of our viewing public, I just want to give a brief little summary of what the CIP is. The City's Capital Improvement Program is a five-year plan that is reviewed and updated each year in coordination with our annual operating budget. Its purpose is to program and prioritize Capital Improvement projects in support of existing and projected public needs. The CIP includes projects planned to maintain, preserve, and sustain existing investments as well as those designed to address strategic growth opportunities and capacity needs. It serves as guidance in delivering the highest quality of services and most efficient, cost-effective means possible. And tonight we'll highlight a few of those projects. [23:37] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** We'll start with Transportation. Starting with preservation, we have our annual street reconstruction and collector roadway rehabilitation projects. Examples of that this year included the 205th Street project. Next year we have programmed segments of Ipava Avenue and 175th Street. We have a phase two of the 179th Street / Dodd Boulevard project. As Director Oehme alluded to, the phase one 179th Street is substantially complete. Next year we're programmed to complete the modernization of Dodd Boulevard; that's basically transforming it from a two-lane county highway into what we would call a three-lane collector roadway. There's a little picture of it. And as part of that, we would also, at its completion, use this as an opportunity for a jurisdictional transfer—basically meaning that the City will assume ownership and maintenance of Dodd Boulevard in its finished state, and then 179th Street basically from Highview to Pilot Knob would transfer to the ownership and maintenance of the County. [25:00] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** We have the freight rail car storage and transload facility; this is a project designed to provide rail storage and transload operation facilities. We have another County highway improvement; this is 185th Street between the 50/60 roundabout and Ipava Avenue. This is an expansion project designed to take the County highway from two lanes to four-lane divided to address the additional capacity needed and would also include trails along both sides, which has long been an interest to the community. [25:35] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** As more of a capacity needs issue, we are looking to extend 179th Street east of Pilot Knob Road, and with that includes a bridge spanning the North Creek ownership project with the County. We also have the Interstate 35 / County Road 50 bridge improvements project. This is the number one priority for the council as far as the legislative priorities. The County has been successful in securing some funding for doing the design work; we would expect that to start here at the end of this year with the goal of moving forward in the process with construction planned in '26 and '27. There is still funding to be acquired on this project, so this is certainly subject to that, but we are making progress. MnDOT is completing their visioning study here in the next month or two, and then like I said, we'll advance into the design phase. [26:35] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** And a local collector roadway project: we have the Highview/Holyoke modernization. Again, that's taking a two-lane rural roadway and kind of transforming it into what we would call an urbanized collector roadway that provides some traffic calming opportunities, some stormwater opportunities, as well as providing safety improvements at the intersections and emergency shoulder pull-offs. This would also include another one of the priorities we've received from the community, and that's pedestrian crossings. This is a phase one here which would include a pedestrian underpass just south of 190th Street, that's shown right here. [27:10] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** In 2027, we have another County project. This is what we would consider a modernization project; this is taking the two-lane rural roadway and transforming that into a two-lane urban County highway. Again, this would include trails on both sides, turn lanes at the intersections, and emergency pull-offs along the shoulder. That's proposed for construction in 2027. That too would also include pedestrian enhancements as well. You'll see that theme—Director Oehme talked about the pedestrian crossing study; these are elements that you can see incorporated into the projects. [27:50] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** We'll move on to Parks and Recreation next. We've seen Antlers Park is progressing nicely. Here next year we have Avonlea Community Park planned. This is the newest master plan here shared from Director Masiarchin—there's some elements here that Council is aware of, that's a play area and a splash pad as well as the baseball field, or we have our partnership with the Lakeville Baseball Association. We have East Community Park phase two, including some trailhead and trails that would tie into the County's Greenway system. We have phase two of the trail gaps projects; that's a part of the park bond referendum. We completed quite a few of those improvements this year. We had two segments: one along Highview Avenue here and one along Cedar Avenue down on the southeast portion of town. Because of some of the existing topography and existing conditions, we had additional design complexities that we needed the additional time to work on, but wanted to make sure that the Council knew that we are going to complete that as we addressed with the park bond referendum. [28:55] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** We also have an opportunity to expand our Greenway system. So in 2026, we're looking at expanding the Greenway system from downtown Lakeville west to Ritter Farm Park; that would include a trailhead at Ritter Farm Park. And then in 2028, we have elements that would extend from downtown to Cedar Avenue. Both of these projects again are in partnership with Dakota County; they would utilize existing easements and right-of-way and continue to provide trail connectivity to our existing system. These are some of the elements of the county system—you'll see they have some nodes here where they'll have benches, they're incorporating the adjacent environmental characteristics nearby as well and providing an off-street path for the trails. [29:43] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** We also have a number of neighborhood parks planned for the next five years, including Voyager Park, Ritter Meadows Park, Spyglass Park, and Keokuk Avenue/172nd Street... we need a different name for that. Fair enough, I'll work with Director Masiarchin on that. [30:05] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** Then moving on to Utilities. As we talked about here, we do two things: we preserve, sustain, and maintain our existing system. Here's an example of some of our utility staff addressing that here. Director Oehme talked about some of the inflow and infiltration that's directly related to our outflow. Here's one of our staff members kind of sealing that up—a short five-second video with no sound, sorry. [30:45] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** We also then, to address capacity in a growing community, we have a planned construction of well number 23. This would be a water supply well that's programmed to be somewhere along the lines of 190th Street between Highview Avenue and Dodd Boulevard. In addition to completing the Mashada Tower this year, we have the Central Maintenance Facility program for next year. Moving on to facilities, we have the Water Treatment Facility expansion program for 2027—this is an example of what we had in our most recent expansion project. And then also we have the Central Maintenance Facility expansion program for 2027 as well. [31:30] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** Director Oehme alluded to some of the successful grants that we've had. This is an image of one of our recently completed ones where we're able to leverage state dollars to make some improvements along one of our existing drainage ways. We are hopeful and have applied for funding for next year and that particular project would be at Green Ridge Park, where we would make some water quality improvements and enhancements to that watershed area. [31:55] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** You're going to fill it in? [31:56] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** Are we going to fill it in? No. Lake management—annually we try to preserve our lakes at the highest quality possible. So we do lake studies, shoreline surveys, vegetation and fish studies, sometimes stocking, water quality monitoring where we partner with the Met Council and also work carefully with the County in addressing any potential AIS issues. We also have quite a bit of city-owned land in terms of right-of-way or city outlets, and so we strive to make sure that those areas are growing with native species and not having those kind of invasive species. So we have maintenance for that; for example, last year we did a controlled burn at Ritter Farm Park and other areas as well. [32:45] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** We also have water conservation plan improvements throughout the city as well. As part of that, we provide little videos and snippets to provide our residents opportunities to learn more about our program and how HOAs in particular or commercial properties can reduce their water consumption. For forestry, we have our annual maintenance program designed to maintain our existing assets there. And finally, equipment and technology is just a regular acquisition and replacement as part of our regular cycles. As our equipment approaches its end of its life cycle, we program replacements and acquisition as well. [33:23] **City Engineer Zach Johnson:** With that, I'd like just to take a moment. As Director Stahl alluded to, this is a time-intensive process that involves a number of people, a number of our partnering agencies, local cities, and County staff as well. So we're grateful for their partnership in helping us with that. I will stand for any questions. [33:43] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, Council, any questions? Okay, seeing none, this is a public hearing so we'll open that up if anybody has a comment about the CIP. If not, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. [34:10] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I move to close the public hearing. [34:13] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. [34:15] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All those in favor say aye. [34:17] **Council (Unison):** Aye. [34:18] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Public hearing is now closed. Any further discussion about the motions in front of us related to the CIP? [34:30] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** The only question I have is if number two requires the four-fifths, should one and three be made into one, or...? [34:33] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yes, that's probably a good idea and a way to approach it. Other questions? [34:37] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I just have comments. I want to echo some of the comments that have been said. I think it's somewhat anticlimactic here, all the work that goes into this, for the discussion. We can't really do justice to the amount of work that goes into this kind of a plan. I do just generally want to comment—I continue to be concerned about our debt level as a city. I think it's on the high side... maybe my finance committee service is speaking here a little bit. I'm concerned a little bit about the debt level, but as I try to explain to people about that infrastructure, infrastructure debt is good debt. It's spreading the cost of the projects—not just the current users paying the costs of it. If we paid in cash, it's really spreading that cost over time so future users are paying for these projects as well. So I think this is a really good plan. It's the first one I've been here for, so I really have enjoyed getting to know the details of it and again, thanks staff for all the work there. [35:45] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I'll just say I like the whole story map website. It's great. It really—I mean, you think about just looking at the CIP on paper, and this is a way better way to visualize and understand. So I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Seeing no other discussion, I will take a motion on items one and three. [36:06] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I move to approve the resolution adopting a five-year Capital Improvement plan from 2024 to 2028 and approving the issuance of General Obligation Capital Improvement bonds, and I move to approve the resolution declaring the official intent of the City of Lakeville to reimburse certain expenditures from the proceeds of bonds to be issued by the city. [36:35] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Second. [36:37] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any further discussion? And just to clarify, these are on the staff reports actions one and three. Any further discussion? Okay, if not, Ms. Orlofsky, roll call please. [36:45] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? [36:46] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Aye. [36:46] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter? [36:47] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Aye. [36:47] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee? [36:48] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Aye. [36:48] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk? [36:49] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aye. [36:49] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? [36:50] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Aye. [36:53] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, now I'll take a motion for item two. [36:56] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I move to approve the resolution adopting the five-year Street Reconstruction plan 2024 through 2028 and approving the issuance of General Obligation Street reconstruction bonds. [37:05] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Second. [37:10] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, is there any further discussion about item two? Seeing none, roll call please. [37:15] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? [37:16] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Aye. [37:16] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter? [37:17] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Aye. [37:17] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee? [37:18] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Aye. [37:18] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk? [37:19] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aye. [37:19] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? [37:20] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Aye. [37:22] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. Motion prevails. We will now move on to Item B: Public hearing adopting resolution for assessments for unpaid special charges. And I'll let our Finance Director give a quick overview of that. [37:38] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** Thank you again, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. The city is doing this as a way to minimize our losses due to bankruptcies and by assessing these unpaid charges to taxes. The charges include costs incurred by the city for, for instance, mowing grass, nuisance properties, false alarm charges, and unpaid utility bills. In order to recover the unpaid special charges, the city must follow state statutes—and we're following statutes 444 and 429—and our city ordinance. [38:15] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** Those procedures provide that we have to adopt a resolution declaring the unpaid special charges to be assessed and establishing the date for the assessment hearing for those charges. We did send out the public notice of the hearing to the customers, everyone that was on the list, also posted on the city website and published it in the newspaper. When we're looking at the delinquent utility bills that you saw the list, it is roughly $691,000 and 893 accounts is what makes up that number; that includes the interest and the administrative fee that the city collects. We had four nuisance abatements for $924, and then false alarms there were five properties for that and that total was $1,716. So those are the amounts that we're looking at to adopt tonight. [39:15] **Finance Director Julie Stahl:** The residents who got the letters had an opportunity to pay up until September 15th before they came to this list in order that we could prepare it for the Council packet. There still would be payments that can come in prior to tonight so they'll come off the list, and as well they have 30 days after the adoption tonight to pay it without any interest being charged. Any of those payments that come in, those will be removed from the final certification that goes to Dakota County. With that, I'll stand for any questions before we open up the hearing. [39:50] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council, any questions, comments? Okay, this is the public hearing, so if there's anybody that wants to discuss this issue, you can raise your hand. Okay. I will take a motion to close the public hearing. [39:59] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Move to close. [40:02] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. [40:04] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All those in favor say aye. [40:05] **Council (Unison):** Aye. [40:07] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Public hearing is closed, and I will take a motion to adopt the resolution. [40:10] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I move to approve resolution adopting assessments for the unpaid special charges. [40:15] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Second. [40:18] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any further discussion? Roll call please. [40:22] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? [40:23] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Aye. [40:24] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter? [40:24] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Aye. [40:25] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee? [40:26] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Aye. [40:26] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk? [40:27] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aye. [40:27] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? [40:28] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Aye. [40:35] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Motion prevails. Thank you very much. And we'll now move on to item C: Organics recycling facility ordinance amendment. And so I think we'll have a presentation from Bioenergy and the potential staff report as well. Okay, come on up. Good to see you guys again and sorry it's a more formal setting than the last time we got to see you. [41:05] **Anthony Cecil (Bioenergy Devco):** Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. My name is Anthony Cecil, this is Julie Berry. We're here on behalf of Bioenergy Devco, a global leader in anaerobic digestion. We are in seven different countries. We've built over 250 facilities and own and operate 150 of those facilities. We have 25 years of historical data to back our technology. If you're not aware of anaerobic digestion, it's basically what you think of when you digest something—there's organic input and there's two outputs: a gas output and a soil amendment. [41:40] **Anthony Cecil:** This is some of our sources of feedstock that we'll be utilizing in the area; this is from our facility in Jessup, Maryland—organic materials, fruits and vegetables, stuff like that, and they're all local sources. There are two broad products of our development: sustainable energy, which we're able to generate or produce electricity up to 1.1 megawatts, and we also have organic soil amendment that is dried and pelletized, dewatered and stuff like that. Basically, we are advancing our environment for Net Zero and decarbonization goals and also just good, renewable, sustainable, quality gas for the community and the environment. So basically, this is a short video of our process, then I'll hand it over to Julie. [42:55] **Anthony Cecil:** You can make the cursor... there's no volume? [43:06] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I bet it sounds great. [43:08] **Anthony Cecil:** It's so great, I can't even describe to you how awesome this narrative is if only you could hear it. I don't think it's... no, you can't... they're grayed out. Oh dear. [43:38] **(Video Voiceover):** ...visual inspection. The driver then exits the facility, runs over another scale, and we know how much feedstock he left behind. The inspected feedstock is then lifted by front loaders and tipped into the hopper where augers move the material to the next stage. Contamination—non-organic material—is separated out while water is added to the organics to create a slurry. The organics are then transferred into one of our pre-tanks depending on the characteristics of each feedstock. Like a good cook, we want our main tanks to have just the right ingredients to feed our microbes. Microbes need a balanced diet to do their work, so from our pre-tanks we carefully mix them into our large digester tanks. [44:30] **(Video Voiceover):** The materials in these digester tanks are continuously mixed and kept at a constant temperature to keep the microbes inside happily digesting. As the biogas created from the process rises, the double membrane at the top of the tank rises too. Biogas is then pumped out of the tank and sent to a gas filtration skid to be filtered. The gas can be sent to our combined heat and power unit, which helps us heat our tanks and power our operations, then directly into the grid, replacing fossil-fuel-derived gas. The solids left behind in the tanks are called digestate. This product is pumped out of the bottom of the tanks, dewatered, and turned into a compost-like material rich in organic nutrients, enabling sustainable agriculture. Any remaining water is either recycled back into the process or filtered through our on-site wastewater treatment facility. So there you have it: organics diverted from landfills and incinerators turned into renewable energy and organic compost rich in nutrients to build healthier soils. Join us and embrace a vision where environments and economies thrive in harmony. Anaerobic digestion: Nature's recycling engine. Visit www.bioenergydevco.com to learn more. Welcome to the Maryland Bioenergy Center. [46:11] **Julie Berry (Bioenergy Devco):** So, I know that you guys saw a lot of this back in January, and so this is mostly a refresher. One thing that came out in between then and now is the EPA has been working on this overall issue of organics filling up landfills and how to divert that organic waste. Over one-half of the Earth's habitable space is actually devoted to food production, but of that food produced, one-third of it gets thrown away. And so just like two months ago, they created a food recovery hierarchy for solutions to this problem, and in there was waste-to-fuel conversion like anaerobic digestion called out specifically, as well as the soil amendment. So I thought that was an interesting tidbit. [47:15] **Julie Berry:** That video that you watched was from our fully operational facility in Jessup, Maryland, which is the Maryland Bioenergy Center. It takes in 115,000 tons per year of those food residuals and produces 16,000 tons per year of digestate, which often can be used to speed up the maturation process of things like compost. It's part of the Maryland Food Center Authority, which is the region's largest food producers and the most dense. These next few slides are just a quick look as you drive down the street of what it looks like. So those are the two big fermentation tanks, and this is the receiving building. You'll note in a slide further on that per Councilmember Volk's request in January that the receiving building be what you see from 225th rather than the tanks, we did switch up the conceptual plan to accommodate that request. [48:30] **Julie Berry:** As far as energy production, it's 340,000 million registered thermal units per year for the natural gas, which doesn't mean anything really to anybody, so that's why we have the equivalent figures on the screen: more than 12,000 gas cars taken off the road, equivalent to nearly 8,000 U.S. households' electricity consumption. And if you think about the size of Central Park and all the carbon sequestration that the trees help with, it's actually 82 times the size of that. As far as building materials goes, it's just your typical precast construction. [49:15] **Julie Berry:** From sort of a zoomed-out perspective, this site is part of—it's like the southeast, far southeast corner of the Adelman annexation that you guys would have seen back in 2021. The house that's right next to that red star is the Adelmans', so they're obviously well aware of what is likely to come into this newly industrially zoned area. There's that conceptual plan we were talking about, so we moved the tanks on the north side so that they would be adjacent to whatever other industrial business comes in on that side for Launch Properties, which is taking care of the whole site, with the receiving building being what you see as you drive along 225th. And again, you can zoom out and sort of see that there is going to be a public street that will be utilized to access this site rather than coming off of 225th. Launch Properties will be taking care of that in conjunction with the City of Lakeville; they've already had discussions with Zach, etc. [50:15] **Julie Berry:** Some development characteristics: there are some jobs created during the construction cycle and then about 15 to 20 permanent employees. Two 12-hour shifts, Monday through Friday, is the bulk of the receiving as far as trucks coming in and out. There's limited receiving hours on the weekends, but operationally it is 24/7. No hazardous waste or outdoor storage. And because there was an AUAR done as part of the Adelman annexation and a traffic study performed as part of that, Kimley-Horn did a comparison to see what the truck traffic would be like, and our site actually reduced the number of peak trips. So as far as the intersection, it'll be better than even had been anticipated in the AUAR. [51:15] **Julie Berry:** We're big on community engagement, so as we move forward with this process, we'll be talking with the City, with local groups, reaching out trying to get recommendations, going to some of those events that the Public Works Director had been talking about to try and get the word out, partner with neighborhood groups, take advantage of any educational opportunities that we can with local schools, even universities, counties, stuff like that. Donations of that soil, because you can actually use it in your own garden. [51:55] **Julie Berry:** We've also had a lot more discussion since January with the County, with the State, with the City as to what we're going to need for permits and approvals. So this is just a quick rundown of what we're going to need per the recommendation of the City Administrator and the Community Development Director and yourselves. What's before you tonight is a zoning ordinance text amendment to permit an organics recycling facility as a conditional use in order to have those restrictions put on the use so that you're not seeing it just any old place in the I2 District. [52:45] **Julie Berry:** When it comes to again the Jessup site, you can see the green star is where we are—we're quite bundled in by all of these other food producers, and those food producers are very cognizant that there not be any odors, that there not be any vectors or nuisances that might be attributable to them being so close. So although we much prefer to be on a bigger site like in Lakeville where we can have more room to put buffers and landscaping and everything in, we're still able to meet our best management practices even on a really small footprint like this and not have our neighbors impacted in any way. [53:40] **Julie Berry:** For odor management, everything's fully enclosed. You saw on the video about the roll-up doors, how the trucks come in, they're containerized, and so just the trucks entering and exiting is the only time those doors are open. It is a negative air pressure in that building, so anything that might go in and out during the time that the doors are open is then cleaned with biofilters before expelled. And where the feedstock is placed onto the ground before it's put onto the augers, that is regularly washed down as well after inspections for contamination. [54:15] **Julie Berry:** Your typical traffic control, best management practices—we meet all the standards. Nuisance abatement, dust control, landscaping. We'll contract with a pest control company to ensure that and get ahead of any issues. It's fully automated, records and inspections and all of that, so everything is produced really standardized. And then we're OSHA compliant, everything's pretty typical for emergency response, and we work closely with local emergency response agencies to get everybody on board and make sure that we're all prepared. [55:00] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I got a couple questions for them. So, a couple things. I didn't realize that it's a 24-hour facility. What time will trucks be delivering? Is that just daytime or...? [55:12] **Julie Berry:** So operationally, it's 24/7. For employees, it's two 12-hour shifts. But for receiving, it's like 6 or 7 a.m. through about 4 p.m. [55:20] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Um, one other concern just to share. There was a neighbor—she grows lavender just south of you—and she was concerned about the smell. So if you'd be willing to reach out to her, that would be helpful. I know that you have covered that, but I bumped into her in downtown this week and she wanted to make sure that I said that to you. [55:40] **Julie Berry:** Yeah, absolutely. [55:41] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** And then, have you had conversations with any of our waste haulers about residential? Like if they plan to do residential organic pickups, or is this strictly a commercial product? [55:53] **Julie Berry:** So right now, the only thing that's being contemplated in the area is possibly a pilot program with Dakota County where they might do compostable bags on a residential pickup where it's the residents separate, but that hasn't moved forward substantially, so we're not counting it as part of our feedstock profile. But we'd be open to that as they move forward with it. [56:15] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah, I know they just kicked off some Blue Ribbon Commission on Solid Waste or something at the County. And then lastly, my other question, and maybe Tina has some insight into this too. Obviously, I think that there's—where Minnesota is going for electricity generation and these ideas about being carbon neutral—has there been a conversation with neighboring businesses for them to buy electricity directly so they can call themselves green powered, or how is it going to get onto the... are you going to work with Dakota Electric or how does that portion...? [56:55] **Julie Berry:** Yeah, we have discussed that and natural gas as well for the gas output, but that hasn't been—we haven't finalized that. And frankly, there aren't a ton of businesses yet, so as Launch—this is sort of like they're putting all the infrastructure in place for us, and then the rest of the Adelman site will be much more pad-ready and so we'll talk to those businesses as they come in. [57:25] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any other questions before we get Tina's report? [57:30] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Just a quick question about... I guess, watching that trucks come in there, what's the radius? How far out will people be delivering from? Is this something that's hyper-local? Is this something that's regional? Where are you going to be getting all of the waste? [57:50] **Julie Berry:** It tends to be regional. It really comes down to what works best for those providers. They might be relatively close to us but closer to a landfill, and so not too keen on maybe coming to us. We try and incentivize that, but obviously the farther that you get away from the site, the harder that is because of the cost of hauling. [58:15] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Thanks. No questions. [58:20] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, Tina? [58:30] **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Mayor, members of the Council. I had a couple of slides if Zach could switch that. Bioenergy Devco LLC has applied for a text amendment to add an organics recycling facility as a new conditional use in the I2 zoning district. So whenever you're changing a zoning... could you get that full screen, Zach? Whenever you change a zoning ordinance, you're affecting all of the districts. So this would apply to any I2 zone, so you have to take careful consideration when considering an ordinance of the implications that would have on any I2 zone property. [59:15] **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** The first thing that we needed to do—and this is probably user error—is to change the rules and definitions section and to create the definition for the organics recycling facility. So we're defining that as the recycling of diverted organics and food waste to produce sustainable energy and soil nutrient through naturally occurring biological processes known as anaerobic digestion. [59:45] **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** We're adding that as a definition and then within the I2 section—which is section 11-87-7 on the I2 District—we're adding this as a conditional use. And as a conditional use, we can add conditions to kind of control the type of use and the things that we want controlled pertaining specifically to the use. So that includes: the use would have to have all County and state types of licenses; the organics recycling facility must be connected to sewer and water; it's requiring that it's all non-hazardous material, all born from plant or animal origin; the organics facility is not to be open to the public unless there is an amendment to the conditional use permit; and all processing operations have to be conducted entirely within the facility. This is very intentional for this district. And then any type of feedstock processing products or the byproduct that you saw in the video, all has to be within enclosed; none of that can be stored outdoor. And the addition of "feedstock" was added during the Planning Commission meeting as a recommendation of the Planning Commission. And then the organics facility shall be open at all times for inspections by proper authorities, and all non-proprietary records shall be available. [1:01:05] **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** So all of these conditions would be rolled into that zoning ordinance as attached in your packet. We did hold a public hearing on September 21st with the Planning Commission and, except for that change to add "feedstock" within the control of the outdoor storage, they did recommend unanimously for support of this. And I would stand for any questions. [1:01:30] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, thank you. Any questions? [1:01:34] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** When you made note of not accessible for the public, does that mean for special events as well, or...? [1:01:40] **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yeah, I don't mean for that. What we mean is, you know, just coming and dropping off your organics. If you think there should be clarification to that, we can add that, but that's the intent—is that someone's not collecting a bunch of organics and just showing up. They have a whole system for how the materials are going to be accepted and so forth, plus just pure screening and just understanding and knowledge of where the materials are coming from. [1:02:15] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Yeah, I'm okay with that as long as the spirit of the language there is that those community engagement ideas that they had brought forward are still allowable. [1:02:22] **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yeah. [1:02:25] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Other questions? This is not a public hearing, but I'm going to open it up to if anybody in the public has a comment. I see—if you want to come up, give your name and share your address, that'd be helpful. [1:02:45] **David Domack (Public Speaker):** Hi, my name is David Domack. I work as a consultant for Dunham Enterprises. I'm just here today to endorse what Bioenergy is doing. We see a lot of synergies to our businesses in collaboration. The one thing I did want to add to the Mayor and Council is—I've been in Dakota County for 35 years working with solid waste recycling and organics, and there's a real emphasis, you probably know about this, but the MPCA is pushing for a 75 percent recycling rule by 2030, and this is one of those steps that we need to get to that level. So that letter is just doing that endorsement. So I appreciate your time. Thank you. [1:03:40] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thank you. Any other comments or questions about the amendment in front of us? If not, I will take a motion to approve. [1:03:55] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Mayor, I'll make a motion to adopt an ordinance amendment to Title 11 Chapter 2 and Chapter 87 of the city code. [1:04:05] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. [1:04:08] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any further discussion about the amendment? I'll just say from my perspective, I really appreciate Bioenergy coming in January, coming through the process and kind of holding our hand through this—it is something new, so we appreciate that. And also, we're grateful for your investment in our community if this works out for you guys. So we're grateful for that. And with that, I will turn it over for roll call please. [1:04:30] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter? [1:04:31] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Aye. [1:04:32] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee? [1:04:33] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Aye. [1:04:33] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk? [1:04:34] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aye. [1:04:34] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? [1:04:35] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Aye. [1:04:35] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? [1:04:36] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Aye. [1:04:38] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, congratulations. Very good. We'll move on to items eight and nine, unfinished and new business. Council? Nope. Okay. Announcements: the next regular meeting is October 16th here at City Hall and our next work session is October 23rd at the Water Treatment Plant on 185th and Ipava Avenue. And with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn. [1:05:12] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** So moved. [1:05:13] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. [1:05:15] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All those in favor say aye. [1:05:17] **Council (Unison):** Aye. [1:05:18] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Adjourned. Thank you. [1:05:25] **(Music)** [1:05:51] **(Video Ends)**