**[00:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** The problem—all right, good evening. This is the January 18, 2023, Cottage Grove City Council meeting, which I'm calling to order. Our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance. So, if you please rise. **[00:15] Group:** 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. **[00:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. Will the clerk please do the roll? **[00:32] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Garza? **[00:33] Councilmember Monique Garza:** Present. **[00:34] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Clausen? **[00:35] Councilmember David Clausen:** Here. **[00:36] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Thiede? **[00:37] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Here. **[00:38] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Olsen? **[00:39] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Here. **[00:40] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Mayor Bailey? **[00:41] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Here. Next on our agenda is Open Forum. This is the opportunity for anybody who wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda; you’re welcome to do so. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the entryway. I end up smiling because I know who's on there and he's going to come up and chat with us. So, Mr. Steve Morris, who is a councilmember from Woodbury, is going to share some info with us. **[00:55] Steve Morris (Woodbury Councilmember):** Absolutely. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Steve Morris, 433 Bailey Lake Drive, Woodbury, Minnesota. Oh, sorry [Laughter]... Ohio State, right? Yep. I'm here this evening on behalf of the Woodbury City Council. For many years, our two communities have worked well together. Staff and councils have a history of working together towards mutual success and for the benefit of our combined communities. This partnership is strengthened by our mutual respect for each other and our willingness to reach out, ask questions of each other, and communicate. Our communities are stronger because of this, and I want to say thank you. Despite this history, members of the Cottage Grove City Council have, however, repeatedly picked on the Woodbury City Council members, as evidenced by this year's fantasy football league in which no member of the Woodbury team won a single game against any of the Cottage Grove folks. The Cottage Grove City Council and staff also handily defeated Woodbury at a joint workshop last year at the HERO Center in a marksmanship challenge; we took note of that as well. And lastly, what brings me here tonight is a hard-fought wager and bet with our mutual South Washington County high schools. When the Park boys' hockey team defeated the East Ridge Raptors, it required my attendance here tonight to satisfy the wager on behalf of the Woodbury City Council. I offer you your well-earned donuts—a tasty treat for your long council meeting tonight. I will add, however, that they were purchased from the amazing Dorothy Ann Bakery in Woodbury, Minnesota. And as I present them to you, you will also notice the colors are, of course, East Ridge gold and black. **[02:45] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, yeah. Oh, and there's enough for your entire staff. We want to make sure that we—oh my goodness, these are awesome. All right, make sure you put them... we’re great, yeah. All right, enjoy. Thank you. **[03:00] Steve Morris:** Yes, because you talked about the fantasy football league and your inability to find victory or points in that matter, yes... the record shall reflect no such thing. And congratulations to my esteemed member from the City of Woodbury City Council. I agree with you on that; we do not want to talk about who won the league because it certainly wasn't me, either. I know you do. Thanks. **[03:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thank you. Thank you for that. And I don't know what's next—we do have another eventually, another HERO Center... oh, that's okay, yep. We could do that. All right, thank you. Thanks. All right, anybody else on anything that's not on tonight's agenda for Open Forum? **[03:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, I will go and close Open Forum. We'll move to number five, which is approval of the agenda. **[03:45] Councilmember David Clausen:** Motion to adopt the agenda. **[03:47] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Clausen and seconded by Councilmember Olsen. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[03:52] Councilmembers:** Aye. **[03:53] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Number six is presentations; we have none this evening. Seven is the Consent Agenda. Is there anything Council would like to pull on consent? **[04:05] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Move consent. **[04:06] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[04:07] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen, second by Councilmember Thiede. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[04:12] Councilmembers:** Aye. **[04:13] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. So, if you're here for anything on tonight's Consent Agenda, all of those items have been approved. 8A is approved disbursement; 8A is actually specifically to pay the bills. **[04:25] Councilmember David Clausen:** Motion to pay the bills. **[04:26] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Clausen. **[04:27] Councilmember Monique Garza:** Second. **[04:28] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Seconded by Councilmember Garza. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[04:33] Councilmembers:** Aye. **[04:34] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. We are moving along here—can you tell we've had earlier meetings today? Don't get into this idea because I can see staff going, "Hey, we'll get out of here early." Public hearings aren't on this evening. 10 is bid awards; they aren't in this evening. 11 is the regular agenda and we do have one item this evening, which is the Southeast Industrial Park Third Edition and RJ Schinner preliminary plat, final plat, and site plan review. And Emily, you're going to walk us through this one. **[05:05] Emily Schmitz (Community Development Director):** I am, Mayor and Council. I'll go as quickly as I can while giving you all the information, as you're moving along quite efficiently this evening. So, the applicant, Opus Development, on behalf of RJ Schinner, has submitted two requests before you this evening. The first being the preliminary and final plat for the final Southeast Industrial Park parcel down there at the end of 91st Alcove, and a site plan review for a proposed building to be about 126,000 square feet with the opportunity for an expansion of an additional 78,000 square feet. A little bit of history: In 2016, I believe Hillcrest Development came to you with a concept plan for this particular area, and at the time, that concept plan just included two buildings on the acreage at the end of 91st Alcove. As we jump forward to 2018, NorthStar Sheets was before you for their development and construction of their 161,000 square foot manufacturing building on—I'll call it the east side of 91st—and then they came back to you in 2021 needing to expand; business was good in the box business. I shouldn't say that; I believe it's corrugated cardboard. So, they expanded with some additional parking and some additional area. We had one site left. So, RJ Schinner is interested in constructing their distribution facility. They're here this evening, so I'm going to let them speak more to their operations. But before you: the final plat proposing Lot 1, Block 1 for their building, 126,000 square feet, potential for an additional 78,000 square feet, and then an Outlot A, which RJ Schinner will continue to own. If they need additional area for expansion above and beyond that 78,000 square feet, they would use this Outlot A, or there is potential that they may find a different user, so that would come before you as an additional site plan. The site plan as a whole before you gives you an idea of the orientation on the site of that 126,000 square foot building with a potential future building. We wanted to be sure that this was something that would fit on this proposed outlot as we navigated forward. A little bit of detail: of course, we look specifically at the parking. As you can see, their proposed parking is a little bit less than the parking stalls that are required; however, their activity on the site does not require that many employees to be parking there. As staff, we recognize that having that "proof of parking" on the site—if at such time that they do need those additional spaces, we can work with them, and that's a condition of approval this evening. Hillcrest Development worked into their agreements with both NorthStar Sheets and RJ Schinner to ensure maintenance of 91st Alcove as well as any of the pedestrian ways along there. So, 91st Alcove, to be clear, is a public right-of-way but is privately maintained. Regarding tree preservation, I know Councilmember Olsen is passionate about trees—I also feel his passion—so we worked through a tree inventory to ensure that they are not planning to remove any trees above and beyond what they are permitted to remove, and they are not, Councilmember Olsen. So, it's excellent news. They're also looking to ensure that their landscaping is focused on the west side of their project area, which, if you're familiar, is adjacent to Hamlet Park. So, we want to make sure that we're creating a really good buffer there as they start to develop this site. Finally, the architecture: those Precast panels that are common in our industrial park, including texture and color adjustments throughout those long stretches of walls with some windows, and then some canopies at the entrances to break up those long walls. With that, as I mentioned, you have folks from Hillcrest, Opus, and RJ Schinner here this evening. If you have any specific questions about their projects, staff, of course, is here as well. **[09:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. First for Council, any questions for staff at this point? All right. Who would like to come up and speak on the project? **[09:30] Joe Mahoney (Opus Development):** Good evening, Mr. Mayor and councilmembers. Joe Mahoney with Opus Development, 10350 Bren Road West in Minnetonka. I have Mike here as well, who will introduce himself in a minute, but we're very happy to be here again. We've had great success and I absolutely enjoyed working with the City of Cottage Grove and building on this business park here, as well as Renewal by Andersen and a few other properties throughout the community. I think Emily did a great job explaining the project. If there are any questions, myself and our civil engineer are here to answer them. **[10:05] Mike Wentlin (RJ Schinner):** Mayor, Council, my name is Mike Wentlin. I'm the Vice President of Operations for RJ Schinner. I think I have to give my address—that's a long one. I just want to say that we're very excited. We have outgrown our warehouse where we're at now. One of the things with talking to Cottage Grove is when we've told our employees that we're moving to Cottage Grove, a lot of them were very happy about that. So, I think we made a great decision. Can't wait to get going on this project; we very much need the space and hope to continue and grow with Cottage Grove in the future. **[10:45] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** So, I was just curious—you know, it's kind of tucked back behind NorthStar Sheets and so forth. How many trailers or trucks are you going to have going in and out of there? **[10:55] Mike Wentlin:** We run a traditional distribution center. We are going to have inbound trucks—probably in the neighborhood of 10 a day—and then we have about eight or nine trucks that we have to make deliveries. Those are going to be parked there overnight, and then they'll go out in the morning, be gone all day, and then come back, get reloaded, and then go. **[11:15] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** And you obviously kind of coordinate with NorthStar Sheets a little bit on their traffic and so forth? **[11:20] Mike Wentlin:** Yeah, we met them. They seem like they're very good people. I don't think that's going to be an issue at all. **[11:25] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you guys for coming tonight. You made the right decision working with Opus; they're great, so you'll be very pleased. Two things: first of all, Emily mentioned that I'm a "tree hugger," and that's true. One of the reasons that I like trees so much is because they provide that buffer between public spaces and private spaces, and you have that going on with your proximity to Hamlet Park. So, I would encourage you to be very cognizant of that because that makes a big difference to the residents and users of the public space. One thing of note is you've really left yourself a lot of space for expansion, which I think is wise—better to get that out of the way first than be stuck later on. What sort of timeline do you have in place as you think about initial construction and then ongoing growth? **[12:15] Mike Wentlin:** Right now we're in 75,000 square feet and we have two auxiliary buildings that we're putting—one's 21,000, one's 20,000, and one is 16,000. So, we're a growing company. One of the biggest things is we’re not only going into 20 or 30,000 square feet more than what we need because we want to be ready for that growth. We have the ability to go to 78,000 and well over 200,000 total. We don't want to have to do this again; we want to grow where we're at in Cottage Grove. **[12:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** What does that look like in terms of job growth as well? **[12:50] Mike Wentlin:** Right now we have about 20 to 25 employees. I could definitely see that growing to 30 to 35 in the future as long as we keep growing, which we plan on doing. Sky's the limit. **[13:00] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** We love to have good-paying jobs here in town for people who are looking for something and want to work close to home. So we're very grateful. **[13:10] Mike Wentlin:** Yeah, and we also have, like, gala sales meetings here, so hotels and the whole nine yards. **[13:15] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Perfect. Well, we're grateful that you chose us and we look forward to working with you. **[13:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Wonderful, thank you. I know Councilmember Olsen was mentioning the growth piece of it. So you're here before us tonight; if it gets approved, when do you think it'll actually be opening? What's your goal? **[13:30] Mike Wentlin:** End of this year. **[13:32] Mayor Myron Bailey:** End of this year? Okay. I know I believe I know what's going on with it—if it was me, even two months would be great. Well, either way, it looks like it would be great. Council, any other questions for the applicant? All right, well, I'll say welcome in a few minutes, maybe here. How's that? Thank you guys. **[13:50] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Mayor, I'll move that we adopt Resolution 2023-010 approving the preliminary and final plat to be called Southeast Industrial Park Third Edition, which includes one 12.66-acre development lot and one 5.84-acre outlot for future development. **[14:10] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen, second by Councilmember Thiede. Any further discussion? Seeing not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[14:18] Councilmembers:** Aye. **[14:19] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Who would like to do the second one? **[14:22] Councilmember Monique Garza:** I move to adopt Resolution 2023-011 approving the site plan review for an industrial development on Lot 1, Block 1, Southeast Industrial Park Third Edition, to include approximately 126,200 square feet and a future expansion of 17,800 square feet. **[14:38] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so I have a motion by Councilmember Garza. Do I have a second? **[14:41] Councilmember David Clausen:** Second. **[14:42] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Seconded by Councilmember Clausen. Any discussion on this one? All right, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[14:47] Councilmembers:** Aye. **[14:48] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Now we can say—now we can say welcome to Cottage Grove! Thanks, yep. Thank you, guys. All right, well, like we said, moving right along here. Number 12 is Council comments or requests. I will start with Councilmember Garza. **[15:05] Councilmember Monique Garza:** We're about to have our sixth snowstorm in seven weeks. I want just to reiterate my great appreciation for our Public Works and our Park staff who are doing overtime every week to make sure that our roads are passable and safe. Thank you. **[15:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Absolutely, hear, hear. I’m pointing at Ryan—make sure you continue to pass that along to our team out there because I'm sure they're going to be busy starting maybe late tonight or tomorrow morning. Who knows? There you go. All right, that's it for you? All right. Councilmember Clausen? **[15:35] Councilmember David Clausen:** Mayor, I will yield my time. **[15:37] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I'll move on to Councilmember Thiede. **[15:38] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** You know, I'm good. **[15:39] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. So, Councilmember Olsen? **[15:40] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Nothing. **[15:41] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. So the only thing I had on mine is just a reminder to the public that the next council meeting will be Wednesday, February 1st, at six o'clock here in the council chambers. I will be doing the State of the City address. This has become an annual event, and I'm looking forward to sharing with the public a lot of great things that have happened over the past year and a lot of awesome things that are going to be happening yet this coming year. Some of us are—well, we are kind of holding things in our back pocket right now on some opportunities for businesses and such that have announced that they're going to come to Cottage Grove that we haven't shared yet publicly. So, you'll be able to tune in that evening to hear what some of those new businesses that are going to be arriving at Cottage Grove—that have signed up to be here—will be. So we're pretty excited about that. I know I am, and I've had many people in the public through Facebook and such go, "Oh, just give us a hint!" and I'm like, "No, no, you got to watch. Come either in person or you can watch on cable access to see it that evening." So with that, and then again, I also want to just publicly thank Woodbury Councilmember Steve Morris, obviously, for our little competition between cities. Again, it is a breath of fresh air, frankly, to have such a great working relationship now with our city to the north. So I'm glad that we can continue to do that—and we'll continue to win in these different things! There you go. 13 is Workshop Open to the Public; there are none this evening. 14 is Workshop Closed to the Public; there are none. And so I'll move to—motion for a motion to adjourn. **[17:35] Councilmember David Clausen:** Motion to adjourn. **[17:36] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Second. **[17:37] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Olsen. All those in favor? **[17:40] Group:** Aye. **[17:41] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? We're adjourned.