This transcript has been formatted with the appropriate speaker names based on the context of the Lakeville City Council meeting. **[0:00]** Heat **[0:24]** up here. **[0:38]** Heat. Heat. **[1:00] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Good evening and welcome to the February 17th city council meeting. If you would join me for a moment of silence in the pledge of allegiance. **[1:36] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Orlofsky, roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Taylor. Oh. Oh my goodness. I was in—I was in my office. Sorry. My apologies. Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Here. Oh, I thought you were going to raise your voice up for us or something. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Here. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, very good. Um, now we'll move on to item three, citizens comments. Opportunity for those to address the council for up to three minutes. If you're here for an issue that's on the agenda, we typically will open up conversation, but so this is usually non-agenda items. **[2:11] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, seeing none, moving on to additional agenda information. Mr. Miller. **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Mayor, just one thing to note. Uh this is a second meeting where we're doing um new business and we did um put a disclaimer on this item that we won't begin item 9A or B until 6:30. And so if we do end up— **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So slow down. **City Administrator Justin Miller:** —slow down or we'll take a brief recess if we finish the rest of our business until 6:30. **[2:33] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okie do. Uh moving on to item five, presentations, and we'll turn to our police chief Brad Paulson for our police department's quarterly report. **[2:48] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Good evening, mayor, members of the council. I can certainly add a few slides on the back end to uh extend this to 6:30, but I won't do that. Uh so here tonight to present our fourth quarter report from 2025. We do have uh in our statistical portion towards the end of the presentation some annual statistics as well. But all of our work is framed under our mission statement which says that we exist to ensure an excellent quality of life in Lakeville by serving and protecting in a professional and innovative way. Starting off with some hiring news in quarter 4. Uh we had four patrol officers that uh began in that position uh in early November. So Fletcher Silverell is not new to the police department. He was a community service officer for about two and a half years but new to the sworn position. Graduated from Rasmussen University. Next up is Victoria Ruck, who also graduated from Rasmussen. Prior to that, she uh received her bachelor's in criminal justice from the University of North Dakota, and she was also a community service officer for us for about a year and a half. **[3:52] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** The next officer is Brandon Johnson. He brings 11 years of sworn law enforcement experience, most recently with Carver County Sheriff's Office, and prior to that, McKenzie County, which is out in western North Dakota, kind of in the oil field region. Brandon does smile. I promise you that. I saw him smiling this morning. He just got out of field training, so he's an awfully happy guy right now. Uh and finally, Derek Phost. Uh Derek comes to us um also graduating from Rasmussen and Southern New Hampshire University. Uh but some good experience with Minnesota Army National Guard as a military police officer for six years and security officer including a field training officer at the Mall of America for six years. We've had really good luck hiring Mall of America staff over the years. A really good training ground with uh good experience and training that they get. It's uh certainly a city uh in and of itself up there. So good place to hire from. And then uh in the community service officer role which as you could see we hired uh a few of those as police officers. We have a new CSO Haley Nelson. She started with us uh part-time back in August but quickly moved into a uh full-time role in uh in October. **[5:03] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** She's currently studying criminal justice at Normandale and she works our evening shift as a as a CSO. Uh so that group you can really see is a good cross-section of kind of our overall hiring with uh some homegrown talent from within our agency growing up in the CSO roles uh bringing in a lateral hire uh and then also someone that just has some some outside experience and is new to policing. So a good look at kind of our hiring strategy as a whole. First Center update. Many of you joined us uh earlier this month on a walkthrough to to see kind of the progress that's going on down there. Uh some exciting news. Our facility manager starts with us on Monday. Austin Rohrbush, more to come on him later, but he comes from a facility management role with Ramsey County uh overseeing some of the correctional facilities. Really good uh building management experience that he'll bring to to the First Center. Uh and on your last agenda, you approved capital membership agreements with uh Apple Valley, Northfield, Elco New Market, and Farmington. So, really excited to have those agencies as partners. Uh and we continue to have really good dialogue with the local educational institution on uh hosting a skills program. So be really great to get some students uh in that facility. **[6:16] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Uh again highlighting the the regional aspect of the training that will go on at the First Center. Some of our uh events where we partner with public safety foundation certainly uh the fourth quarter is high on um the holidays. On the left there is Santa in blue and on the right is Shop with a Hero. Uh just a quick differentiation of the two. Santa and Blue uh these are kids that uh our staff interacts with throughout the year uh with them or their families during times of need. Certainly some pretty tragic and traumatic situations. Our staff submits their names. Uh we have a very private event where we uh provide some some gifts to them and interact with them and their families uh at the Heritage Center in in December. And then on the right, Shop with the Hero, which is out at Target. Uh we team up with uh Lakeville Fire Department. These are are primarily middle school age kids whose uh names are submitted by our school resource officers uh who spend time shopping with a first responder or two picking out gifts for their families. So really special events. All of this uh is is made possible by our public safety foundation. Uh as we know they do a lot to provide uh equipment and um you know different types of uh needs for both the police and fire department. These are examples of just supporting the community as a whole. A lot of the work that they do has far-reaching impact. And then uh just highlighting there was some photos and captions of uh some of our community engagement efforts in the fourth quarter. Again, around the holidays, we had Toys for Tots, our pink patch project uh back in October, coat drive with the winter season approaching uh back in the fall. Young Citizens Academy is a two-day kind of a a micro version of our regular Citizens Academy aimed at high school youth. And then uh our inaugural Police, Pizza, and Polar Express event in December. **[8:10] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Training and development again an area of um uh priority for our agency is professional development. I won't read all the bullet points there, but you can see a real um cross-section of of training that we do. Certainly all of the mandated training that comes with our licensing uh but most of these are uh over and above uh the bare minimum. We we uh train to exceed a higher level than the minimum. That's what we expect. That's what we believe our community expects. So photographs here on the lower left is uh firearms training as you could probably see. Uh but our instructors do a really good job of taking training and constantly changing that. So, a lot of people think we're always, you know, standing on a line and shooting at uh fixed targets, but they do a really good job of creating uh more real life situations. And there we're simulating kind of a uh some door thresholds in a hallway as we move and shoot. In the middle there is our defensive tactics training with uh with one of the dummies and a Velcro suit. **[9:07] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** And on the right photograph is training out at Ritter Farm Park with our crime scene unit team. They utilized some uh blood hounds and and hid some objects and and did a full-scale training out there last fall. And then uh just highlighting two um officers or or staff members here. On the left is officer Eric Craig who was named the uh 2025 South Metro SWAT operator of the year, which is a pretty pretty darn big honor that's voted on uh by the team members. Um, so that was uh really really great to see Officer Craig um receive that award at their banquet in December. And then on the right, Sergeant Alex Johannes completed the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command, which was hosted this year up in St. Paul. He graduated the 10-week program uh right before Thanksgiving. So that's a pretty significant training. Uh and good work by both of those individuals. Getting into our uh statistics for the fourth quarter and for the year. So, fourth quarter case files, police reports written, uh we were slightly above our pace for 2024. And when you look at that, uh year-over-year, um about 240 extra police reports were written in 2025 versus 2024. **[10:24] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** One case to highlight here that touches on uh some of our our training, which we, you know, talked about in some of the earlier slides uh but puts it in a real life uh case example. This was a traffic stop that was initiated by an officer uh for an equipment violation. Uh and upon approaching the vehicle, he he believed the driver to be impaired. Um which is problematic in and of itself, but also observed several children. Um I believe four were under the age of 10 years old without any type of restraint. Um car seat seat buckles, very dangerous situation. Um he arrested the driver for um DWI, brought him back to the police department where our trained phlebotomist was able to draw blood after a search warrant was drafted, approved and executed. Uh and then the driver was subsequently released while we um await blood results. Those blood results have come back with uh a positive for a significant level of THC. So charges are pending in that case, but uh a good impaired driver to take off the roadway and uh avoid injury to himself and potentially family members. Our crisis response unit calls uh which we highlight uh in each of our reports fourth quarter uh again that number um the CRU 88% number. These are calls that um routed from dispatch directly to crisis response that police were never involved with. So 88% of those calls that came in for Lakeville jurisdiction uh were handled without police involvement. Um which is really showing uh that this program this uh routing directly to social services is working. **[12:03] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** And if you look at that for the entire year um again those numbers are up over 80%. Uh I think coming into this we were looking at somewhere in the 70 to 75% range we would have been happy with but uh even better than we expected. So for 2025, that's 90 calls for service that um in general the person calling did not want the police department there. Um so they get more of what they're looking for and it also frees our staff up to to handle other calls. Reported calls for service are in parentheses down below the dates there uh for fourth quarter. So our calls were down a little bit from 2024 and when we look at welfare check uh being up uh about nine calls and then our mental health calls are up um about 33. So uh the mental health calls we do see peaks and valleys with those depending on all things from weather to holidays to um significant regional or world events. Um but a lot of uh a lot of work continues to be done in that space with our social services support liaison and the embedded workers that we have inside the police department. **[13:12] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** And again when you look at uh the entire year 2025 versus 2024 uh welfare check numbers down just a little bit and crisis mental health calls are up which is pretty consistent with what we saw in the fourth quarter. Uh moving into the traffic side, traffic stops in the fourth quarter were pretty consistent within about five of 2024. Uh but our accident numbers in total were up both property damage and personal injury. Uh those can be impacted by significant snow events um which we had several in in the fourth quarter of 2025. **[13:51] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** And then year-over-year, uh, again, traffic stop numbers were down just a little bit from 2024 and both property damage and injury crashes were up. And we always continue to look at injury crashes specifically uh or if we see a real high number uh at an intersection with property damage just to look for ways that we may be able to uh prevent or impact some of those from um traffic enforcement with different things to roadway engineering all of those areas that we look at to try to limit the amount of crashes that we see. Looking at our uh calls for service in comparison with some of our neighboring jurisdictions. You can see there in fourth quarter uh on pace pretty much with Burnsville a little bit behind Eagan and uh ahead of Apple Valley. And then uh for the year in total again pretty consistent with what we saw in the fourth quarter. Criminal offense reporting for fourth quarter of 2025 versus 2024. Our driving under the influence numbers were up. Um I don't believe that that's because we're seeing more impaired drivers out there. I think it's more proactive enforcement that we've been able to do. **[14:58] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Uh aggravated assault and other assault numbers are up. Uh and that a pretty big drop in damage vandalism uh for the fourth quarter. And then for the year-over-year 2025 versus 2024, again, pretty consistent with what we saw in the fourth quarter. DUI numbers are up, assaults are up, uh property damage, vandalism, and motor vehicle theft were all down. Uh and then the next couple slides here were um responses to some questions that that um council members had at our last presentation. So when looking at DWI um alcohol versus other drug impairment in 2024 um 90% of our DUI arrests were alcohol-related. Uh that number dropped to 83% in 2025. Uh again, I don't believe that we're seeing necessarily that many more drivers out there that are impaired by chemicals outside of alcohol. Uh but I think our staff are better trained in locating those and um working through the process with the drug recognition experts, phlebotomist, things like that. When you look at the actual chemicals of those numbers, THC far and away leads away. Other controlled substances are kind of grouped up into those categories, but probably not a real surprise with the impact that we're seeing with THC. Uh and then roundabout stats. This question came up as well. Um so October 15th is about the time the new striping went in at the roundabout at Kenwood Trail and 185th. And you can see there 2025 versus 2024 almost identical numbers. So not seeing a real impact there. Of course, you know, when there's snow on the ground and things like that, that mitigates any kind of striping, but um that question was asked and there's your response. So, thank you. **[16:50] Mayor Luke Hellier:** You bet. **Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Finally, our social media presence just highlighting some of the things that uh we're putting out there to balance uh some of the heavier topics. Um certainly the the pink patch in October, National First Responder Day, where we honored our staff, but also our police, fire, and EMS partners as well. And then Halloween and holiday related posts. I didn't make it till 6:30, but happy to answer any questions you may have. **[17:14] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council questions. Joshua. **[17:39] Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Thanks, Chief. As always, day-to-day work is amazing and uh the what's included in this report is just uh incredible what you do each quarter. So, thank you and to your team. Um I just had a curiosity question related to traffic enforcement on the interstate. Um I typically don't see officers out there, but a few months ago I noticed one and I didn't know what our strategy was around that. Um, and if there had been a change in enforcement on the interstate versus on local roads. **[18:07] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Yeah, there's no directed change. It's it's a little bit officer specific. I will say we don't spend a lot of our time doing traffic enforcement out on the freeway just because we're supplemented by the state patrol. You know, that's their primary area focus. Um, so for a crash, for instance, that is their responsibility. We may assist or we may write one if they're if they're tied up. So that is not an area we primarily focus on. We're more local streets, but from time to time an officer may do some enforcement out there if um if they feel the need or if the time of day fits. **[18:25] Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Sure. So it's still a fairly rare um traffic enforcement. **Police Chief Brad Paulson:** I would say fairly rare, especially during the daytime. Uh just it's a little bit tougher with the volume of traffic out there to do a lot of traffic enforcement. So, none of the numbers in this quarterly report around traffic enforcement numbers are related to any changes to what we're doing out there. **[18:45] Councilmember Joshua Lee:** All right. Thanks. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** John. **[19:00] Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah. Just uh I want to echo solid report as usual and it's really cool to see there's a few things that jumped out at me. The flow of people from CSO to officer positions and the internal promotions and that movement is incredibly healthy and a sign of a strong department and I had the opportunity to tour the First Center—that's an impressive building and uh looking forward to that and there's a benefit for the community there too. And uh on the um on the topic of enforcement I'm really excited to see the rise in DUI that—if there is a threat to our community, that is one of the high ones. Um people driving under the influence and uh so kudos to your officers for being out there and proactively enforcing that. **[19:30] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Thank you. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thanks, Chief. I'll just say, you know, on behalf of the council and the city, you know, the last several weeks have been pretty difficult for law enforcement. I just want to extend my gratitude for your professionalism and compassion from the department. So, thank you for that. **[19:57] Police Chief Brad Paulson:** Yeah, we appreciate that. Thank you. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thank you. Okay, moving on to item six, our consent agenda. These are routine items for the council. Council, anything you want to further discuss? If not, I'll take a motion. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Councilmember Volk. **[20:14] Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Is there a second? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. See none. All those in favor say I. **Councilmembers (In Unison):** I. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I. Opposed. Consent agenda passes. We'll now move on to item 7A, short-term rental ordinance, and we'll turn over to Community Development Director Miss Goodroad. **[20:36] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Good evening, mayor, members of the council. Um, at your July and December work sessions, we discussed short-term rental ordinance. Um, the current zoning ordinance allows for renting of rooms within each of the residential districts. And when we discussed this, um, the council wanted staff to create a more robust ordinance and something that was centralized in the city code. So, the proposed amendment is to title 9, building regulations of the city code, which includes the rental registration language as well. And so, we'll be adding a new chapter to that title 9 section. So, that is one of the ordinances before you this evening. The second ordinance is an amendment to title 11 in the zoning ordinance which basically strikes off the reference to renting of rooms in each of the residential districts. So it's single family all the way through medium density residential. So we're taking it out of there because we're adding or creating this new centralized short-term ordinance in the city code. And so the Planning Commission needed to hold a public hearing on that portion because it is part of the zoning ordinance. And they did that back on February 5th and unanimously recommended approval. So then the short-term rental language um again in that complete ordinance includes an annual permit from the city, addresses occupancy standards, parking requirements, management requirements, and enforcement language. And it limits the maximum of two short-term rental permits per person and entity. Again, this will go into effect immediately. We'll do a similar rollout as we did the rental registration. We'll add something to our website, make it user friendly, have an application process with the fees and so forth. So, the ordinance will be here. Um, you know, we'll kind of dissect what the ordinance says, make it easy to follow. Um, so anybody who is going to utilize this, it'll be really easy for them to follow along. And I would stand for any questions. Okay. **[22:36] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council questions, comments. Councilmember Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Um, just for the public's sake, uh, Director Goodroad, could you, uh, just verbally delineate short-term rental versus long-term rental, and the fact that we're talking specifically right now about short-term? **[22:53] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Thank you. Yes. Um, Councilmember Lee, the difference is, uh, short-term rental is anything 31 days or less. Once you were to—if you were to rent a home or rent an apartment or a townhouse longer than that, it would fall under our rental registration ordinance. So, this is truly—it's your Airbnbs, your VRBOs, those kinds of things. **[23:15] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thank you, Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah, I just uh just a comment. Um this is very well written and it's solid. I think it's a great complement to the long-term rental registration ordinance and uh there's information in here. Um and I know that as you develop the application process, we're going to be able to provide homeowners real specific performance standards for their tenants so that just so they can communicate those. So I think this is very solid for somebody who's going, "Well, I want to rent my place. What does that entail?" And then in terms of us being able to enforce that too. **[23:58] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Thank you. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Other questions or comments? Council Lee. **[24:23] Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Just a comment. I mean, I think one of the things we're reacting to is a market trend right now where outside entities are trying to take massive amounts of real estate. Um, they're from all over the nation and the world. And so I think in our case, we're getting ahead of the curve. Uh we have a high percentage of home ownership in our community. And I think for the most part, we want to keep that while also providing strong guidance for those situations where rentals are something that a property owner wants to do. Uh something that our current ordinance just didn't really catch up to. This is an ordinance that needed to be looked at because at the time of its original birth, Airbnb was not a thing um or were any other platform. So I think this is a nice catchup ordinance and there are some things within it that I know you and your team created that weren't really modeled in other policies and I think we're really being a leader in this ordinance. So appreciate your work on this. **[25:08] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Thank you. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah, I'd agree. Okay, councilmember. Uh, ready for a motion? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I am. I move to approve ordinances amending titles nine and 11 of the city code and summary ordinances for publication. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Is there a second? **[25:28] Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any further discussion with that? Roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I. Okay. Very good. Now we'll move on to adopting the fee schedule for the permit that we just approved, I believe. Correct. **[25:48] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yes. So, there's a resolution before you to adjust the fee schedule to incorporate the fee for the short-term rental. So, it would include the application fee of $100 and the renewal of 50. **[26:06] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. Is there any discussion? If not, I'll take a motion. Council Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I move to approve a resolution amending the 2026 fee schedule to include short-term rental application fees. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** And a second. **[26:22] Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any further discussion? Seeing none. Roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** I. **[26:45] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Very good. Ordinance and a fee. Okay. Moving on to item C. Public hearing for vacation of right-of-way from the Deer Park plat and dedication of easements. Public Works Director Mr. Oehme, lead this up for us. **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Good evening, mayor, city council members. Uh quick background on this item. Uh the property owner at 16535 Legal Avenue has requested that the perimeter right-of-way around his property be vacated. Legal Avenue is in the northwest corner of the community. A public hearing is required for this vacation and the city does not have any issues with the vacation as proposed. Just a real quick background, a Deer Park plat was recorded in 1887 and really doesn't have any relevance to current or any future improvements in this area. Um the right-of-way proposed for vacation is shown here in red and the city does not have any current infrastructure, streets, or utilities in this plat in the right-of-way in this area right now and the city does not have any future plans for installation of any infrastructure in the future. **[28:02] Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** And then with that vacation, the staff has been working with this property owner to dedicate roadway easements along Legal Avenue. The area along Legal Avenue lacks formal easements and we really appreciate the property owner working with the city on these easements to get the road in some sort of right-of-way so we can maintain it in a good manner. So, with that, I would stand for questions and request that a public hearing be held. **[28:23] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Council, any questions? Okay. This is a public hearing, so I'll order public hearing open. If there's any comments, come on up and state your name and address for the record. **[28:45] Steven Buck (Resident):** Good evening. My name is Steven Buck. I live at 16530 Judicial Road. Um, my question is, it's kind of hard to figure out exactly what's going on with all of this. So, right now where I live on Judicial Road is the west end of what I believe you guys have called Vine Street and that runs from Judicial Road to Legal Road. The property owner adjacent to me to the east is uh Glen Clots or his heirs. Those are two properties that are currently undeveloped and the public right-of-way that ran through there ran from Judicial to Legal. And I'm curious, is the east end of that—what is Vine Street, aka 165th Street—going to then be closed, which would mean that if there was any future development that it would for sure run across the front of my property. **[30:00] Steven Buck (Resident):** The reason that's a concern for me is that the city approved the construction of my home back in 1966, long before I was there. And my front yard is only 50 ft away from that public right-of-way. So any improvement to try to make it a road or having a lot of traffic coming through there is a concern to me. And if what I understand is going to happen happens, that will be the only option in the future. I would not be very happy about that. So that's my question. Is that going to close off the east end of that public right-of-way for public use? **[30:31] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Good question. Maybe I'll go back to—oh, the Vine Street. **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Vine Street. Yeah. So the proposal is to vacate that portion of of the right-of-way. Um, from a traffic perspective, Legal Avenue is a very narrow road. Um, I think it's less than 20 feet wide, very steep grades on each side. Um, from a city traffic perspective, uh, we really don't think any more traffic should go on Legal Avenue. It's—and the area north of here on Legal Avenue also doesn't have any dedicated right-of-way as well. We still need to work with those property owners for dedication of right-of-way along Legal as well too. **[31:36] Steven Buck (Resident):** Yeah, for 15 years I've been maintaining that piece of gravel road in front of my home that I do not own. I do all the snow removal. I do all the maintenance of gravel every year as it gets washed out. Um I just feel, you know, let's go ahead and vacate the whole Vine Street, right? We'll do it from east to west, from Judicial all the way to Legal and close the whole thing off. And then you're going to say, "Oh, then you're going to landlock the property owner to the east of me." Well, no, they could come in on another. Let's go ahead and leave that one. I mean, it just it just doesn't seem reasonable to me when there's a public right-of-way that's existed there for all time as far as I know since the development was done to close off one end to benefit one property owner at the potential cost to another. **[32:28] Steven Buck (Resident):** Anyway, I am opposed to this. Take that under consideration um as you move forward. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thanks for coming. **Steven Buck (Resident):** Thank you. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Mr. Oehme. **[33:06] Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** One other um point for the vacation on Vine up here. Um there is no road access or driveway currently along that section. Um it's very steep grade and be very difficult to construct an access along that section of a right-of-way. That's another reason why we thought it would be okay to vacate that area. **Steven Buck (Resident):** I guess what I say is if somebody else would have been maintaining that for the last 15 years, it would probably be an okay area to get in and out of. Same way I took care of mine out in front of my property. So, thank you. **[33:27] Darren Schmidt (Applicant):** My name is Darren Schmidt. I am the applicant. Uh I live at 16535 Legal Avenue. I also have the house at 16471 Legal Avenue. So, uh since 1887, there's never been any of these roads in red constructed. Obviously, somebody had the idea for a bunch of city blocks in the middle of the woods. Um never happened. Not uncommon in this area as the other people have developed the property around here, they've had, you know, their portions of the right-of-ways vacated by the city as well. Uh that road right-of-way in between my two properties is only 30 ft wide. It'll never be a road at 30 ft wide. Um, and my understanding is the family that inherited Glenn Clots's property to the west have looked at that and the current grades to transition from that right-of-way to their property are too steep to actually make work in a 30-foot right-of-way anyway. **[34:37] Darren Schmidt (Applicant):** So uh they're currently marketing those two lots as a 10-acre parcel. Um so there's two 3.66-acre lots there. So, they're counting on you vacating all those road easements to my west anyway. So, um I think you know Paul's been very good to work with. I think we've come up with some great right-of-ways for the city to fix at least a portion of Legal Avenue that I can fix. Um the rest of it is up to other neighbors and Paul to deal with, but um you know, we've got a cul-de-sac finally this year on the road. I mean, we've made, I think, great improvements out there. We just need to get your as-traveled in some right-of-ways and I guess fix these uh road easements that you don't need. So, um I think it's a pretty good plan. I mean, we spent probably 10 months working on this. So, I think we've come up with a good solution. So, thank you for your time. **[35:34] Mayor Luke Hellier:** So, the property immediately to the east there with that building that's showing here—you own that as well? **Darren Schmidt (Applicant):** No, I own the property to the north. So, the one where it says Legal Avenue. So, I own both sides of the of the current road easement. **[36:00] Mayor Luke Hellier:** I see. And then you access your home on Legal Avenue, correct? **Darren Schmidt (Applicant):** Yep. Which I've been doing since 1998. So, I've been there 28 years. So, it's a much improved road. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. And is there—this question for Mr. Oehme—is there any timeliness on this? I mean, if we, you know—I'm just trying to make sure everybody's treated fairly or that if we needed to add another conversation or if we approve it today, we can work with Mr. Buck to figure out a solution for him. I just want to make sure that everybody's treated fairly in this process. **[36:29] Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** From a city staff perspective, there's no reason why this item couldn't be tabled and continue with some more discussions. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. I don't want to do anything that fixes it for one person and causes problems for another person till we look at—it's kind of an interesting area that's undeveloped over there and I would like to look at the whole area as a whole even though it's not going to happen you know here there but look at it more big picture than just one picture. **[37:00] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Hang on. Go ahead. No, both of you. Hang on, Mr. Oehme. Go ahead. **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** That's fine. And we can work with—can you continue some more discussions on the vacation of this whole area too? It's a complicated area. It's been around, you know, like I said, from 1887. So, um it's a work in progress. **[37:26] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Um, it sounds like this is maybe moving towards a tabled item anyway, but I do have a question for the applicant in terms of what was the impetus for uh, the vacation of the easements? **[37:43] Darren Schmidt (Applicant):** I can answer that question. And I mean the—there's been certain neighbor issues on the road and those have got the city to actually put the cul-de-sac in that should have been there in the '90s. So, as part of the process, basically the city's granting of this vacation is contingent upon me giving them the road easements. I've made it the same way back. So, you don't get the road easements if you don't vacate the property. So, um, it's complicated. My preference since last March is we just get this fixed. So that's why I've done everything I can, you know, I'm not gaining a ton of property because as you saw on the other slide, I'm giving a bunch of road easements to make Legal Avenue actually work. So, currently it's on my property for a good chunk of it. Some of that's abstract property, some of it's Torrens property. So, it's complicated to say the least. So, I would prefer we fix Legal Avenue as much as we can at the same time, but I would prefer we just fix the whole—my whole property there and I'm done. How's that? Um, so I mean, like I said, I mean, I think everybody felt it's reasonable as people come in. Um, they're going to ask for the same vacation stuff as, you know, all these neighbors keep coming in just as they've been doing for, well, I know since the '90s, so I can't attest to beyond that, but thank you. **[39:27] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yep. Okay. One second. Any other comments for the council? Hey, Mr. Buck, you have something else you want to add? I don't want to turn this into like a debate in our meeting here, but if we're going to—out of character typically have you come back—but go ahead. **Steven Buck (Resident):** I just wanted to point out that the easement is only 30 ft wide on the west end along the west end. Also, it's one piece that's 30 ft wide from end to end. I have no problem with any of this that's going on. I just feel that the vacation of the Vine Street—and if I was Mr. Schmidt, I'd be asking for the same thing because that just guarantees that nobody will ever access those other properties from Legal Avenue. He says they can't anyway. **[40:15] Steven Buck (Resident):** So why not just take that off the map and leave it alone? Why guarantee that any future development in there is going to run 50 feet from my house as a road, which isn't really ever going to be a road. It's going to be a public right-of-way and continue to be unmaintained by the city because there's just not enough room for a road there and the property owner to my north will not sell because for years Glen Clots was trying to buy property from him to make a road in there so that he could develop those lots. I just feel that I think his plan is great. I think it works great. I think it's a good idea for Legal Avenue. I think the Vine Street piece should be taken out. If he says it's undrivable and unusable, he should have no problem with that being removed from this and do the rest of it and then I feel like I've been treated fairly. Thank you. **[41:09] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, Mr. Oehme. Would you prefer tabling and solving that amongst the property owners or what makes the most sense? **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** I think we can continue the discussion. **[41:24] City Administrator Justin Miller:** Mayor, I might recommend that you close the public hearing. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yep. **City Administrator Justin Miller:** And then we can—and then table action. **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** One quick question. Do you want to table it or continue it to a date certain? **[41:40] Mayor Luke Hellier:** I don't know if we have a date certain, so I would—whatever it means to table to a future meeting. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Is there a second? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. **[41:56] Mayor Luke Hellier:** All in favor say I. **Councilmembers (In Unison):** I. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Close the public hearing. Now we'll take a motion to table this for further discussion. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I move to table the item for further discussion. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Is there a second? **[42:14] Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any further discussion on the motion? Uh I appreciate your patience. I know you've been working on it for 10 months, but if we're this close, let's make sure we we do it right and treat everybody fairly. So, I appreciate that. With that, roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I. **[42:40] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, we will have staff work with you guys and we'll move forward on finding a solution that makes sense. Um moving on to item eight, unfinished business. I don't believe there is any. Um and then we'll move on to nine, new business. And what I'll just say—I'm sorry I had the stomach flu I missed the first time we did this. This is a new thing for us. We've been doing work sessions which are a little bit more informal separate Monday night of the month and now we're trying to figure out if this makes sense. So you're more than welcome to stay for these items if you want but kind of the technically the council meeting is basically finished for today but you're all welcome to stay. So, with that, we'll move into our first of our two items, the Cedar Avenue corridor land use and market analysis, and our Community Development Director, Miss Goodroad, will give us our staff report. Thank you. **[43:14] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Thank you. Community development staff have been working with a consultant, TKDA, to study the land use along Cedar Avenue between 185th and 200th Street. And one of the main reason for this is we want to align land use with what is reality from things that have been changing. When we did the 2040 comprehensive plan, there was a lot more intense development within this corridor from not only a land use corridor mixed-use designation as well as a higher density designation because of the assumption that the BRT was going to extend from Apple Valley through Lakeville. That is not included in the Metropolitan Council's Imagine 2050 transportation plan any longer. So, it's necessary to reassess the market conditions and determine what appropriate land uses we should be considering as we've moved towards our 2050 update. We are not intending to make any comprehensive plan changes right now. This area is mostly unserved by sewer. It's extending through the Amelia Meadows development. **[44:01] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** But there is time to do that. This study will help inform those decisions for when we update the 2050 which we will be starting that very soon. So we did have a market analysis done. Staff did a design charrette to come up with a land use plan based on that market data. We met with some of the large property owners, not all owners, but with the larger property owners who have the most acreage. And then we'll be getting letters out to other property owners. Several of the smaller property owners live out of state. And then we presented this same presentation to the Planning Commission at their meeting on the 5th. So, I'm going to go through that same presentation. Basically the approach to this study was really research, understanding existing conditions, the market analysis really looking at different options for land use and coming up with that small area plan. **[45:28] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** So from an existing condition standpoint there's not a whole lot to study. This area what we affectionately have been calling the "donut hole." The transportation corridors is Cedar Avenue 185th on the north. And then you'll notice this dash line. And so the county will be studying this next year the realignment or the alignment um of the 185th extension as it extends through the remaining property within Lakeville and then into Farmington. So this will be a joint study with Dakota County, the city of Lakeville and Farmington. And then we've got 190th, 200th Street and then Cedar Avenue. Um, from a natural resource standpoint, Grand Prairie Park is at the very north portion of the project. There's a lot of topography through this area and then there's lots of fingers of water, creeks, and streams that run through this area that need to be acknowledged and protected as development occurs. And so those are kind of the base existing conditions. **[46:17] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** What we really tried to zero in on then was what's going on around the area. So again, you can see some of the large property owner names. Um you can see some of the developments that have occurred around it. Berres Ridge, Reserve at Cedar Creek, the new Amelia Meadows. So this is kind of the start of the development within this corridor. This is kind of the first project that was approved—well, it's probably going on two years ago and is into their third final plat. **[47:06] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Question for you, Tina. So is then for the sewer to come from the south—the conversation say oh if the — potentially move their farm or whatever that may open it up coming from the east but is that— **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yep. So the sewer was right here. Amelia Meadows is extending up through here. Um and there are a couple of different paths. It will extend all the way to the north and then cross over to the east. And then there is another alignment that I think is kind of right about here. Um, so there are a couple of paths to extend it over to the west side of Cedar Avenue, but it does take, you know, that willing seller and that willing buyer to keep that development occurring because again, this only occurs once we have development in place. And there's no expectation from a property owner, no matter what planning we do, that any property owner has to develop. It's totally their choice as a property owner. **[47:47] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** So the market study—really the intent of it—is to provide analysis to really kind of understand and develop based on kind of current market conditions. It really just provides that baseline and as we know markets can change so quickly and we've been seeing that over the past several years especially within retail markets. But the overall methodology was really looking at the site analysis, our current demographics, economic analysis, kind of that competitive market. What are the forces that influence this area? Um and then come up with a forecast of demand uses that are considered in this study area: single family homes, town homes, twin homes, multifamily, restaurant, retail—it's kind of a combo—and other commercial land uses. **[48:33] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** So some of the strengths that we all know: large vacant parcels, so great open opportunity for development when it presents itself. Cedar Avenue provides great connectivity to Twin Cities—you know Apple Valley and then Twin Cities beyond. Um we've had strong commercial growth and then with that um or strong housing growth and with that we've been seeing increase in commercial development. Um it's close to retail districts both along Cedar Avenue, what we're doing along Dodd 179th and Cedar, but that you're also going to see that as a weakness because we're also challenged with the mass of retail that's along the Cedar Avenue corridor north up in Apple Valley as well as what we're building in Lakeville or what is existing in Lakeville as well as the new 179th in Cedar. So there's only so much of that market that can be captured within this area. Some of the other weaknesses that were brought up is the lack of the east-west roadway connections that will be resolved as 185th is extended and then other connections to the road east-west connections can be challenging. **[50:00] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Do we have a time on 185th? **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** I don't know the construction timeframe. It's being studied within the next year. So being that it's being studied and a final alignment is determined over the next year, then the construction of that would then be dependent on development. And because that is the furthest from the sewer, it's going to be a while. So with all of that being said, demand estimates are shown within windows of 2025 to 2030 and then 2030 to 2040. We will then spread those out a little bit more as we look out to 2050. So the intent is that this whole development is not probably going to happen by 2040. It's going to extend past that timeframe. But you can see heavy on acreage for single family demand and attached town homes. Apartments drops off down to 12 acres in the first timeframe, up to 24 acres in the second timeframe. But that restaurant and retail is pretty small. Um and again really needs to be captured in very key areas. **[50:59] Mayor Luke Hellier:** So—is single family say three and a half? **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yeah, we'll that'll have to be adjusted. So key findings: overall site's going to work really well for residential. I think we all know that our absorption has been good and has been steady. Um based on the intersections that we're planning for, we will have good traffic counts to support retail, although it may not be as much as we all might want it to show. Um, so again, some of the guidance for this is to really look at where that residential is located, having that higher intensity kind of clustered in key areas along Cedar Avenue, and then downzone that area as we're expanding out from Cedar Avenue, set aside parcels near those major intersections for retail. Um and then really look towards connections and ways to utilize trails and corridors, park space to protect those greenway areas. **[51:45] Mayor Luke Hellier:** So—the area like closest to Cedar Avenue—where you're saying you want more density and so forth—is there like a zoning ordinance or something that we can develop—just like how commercial mixed-use—where we kind of made where we can still try to encourage some more retail and commercial than I think we're thinking here, but maybe not directly allowing residential without like council input in the future. Does that make sense? Like how can we structure that way where to the market this is kind of what we're comfortable with, but depending on what else is happening in that area, we may not approve it without some input from the council, I guess, is my point. **[53:09] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yeah. Yeah. Um I think there's ways to do that through um you know, we're really focused on land use versus the zoning part of it that comes after we determine the land use. But um there could be ways through a new mixed-use type of land use and then subsequent district that would make certain things through CUP and so forth. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I just—I mean I don't want to tie our hands. The reason I say this is, you know, you think about pre-pandemic and how shopping has changed. Who knows seven years from now if the—if we have radical market shifts again that all of a sudden acreage for commercial—or—I have no idea, but I just don't want to tie our hands. **[53:32] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Okay, that's a good point. So, I skipped ahead since you went right to the plan. Um, but I'll back up a little bit. So again, just for context, this is the 2040 plan. So what we're operating under today, and you can see the breakdown. 64% of the land use area within the same corridor is guided for low and medium, 14% at medium, corridor mixed use at 14% and parks at 8%. Looking at the land use types that are being proposed in this concept plan—again, single family, we'll up that to three and a half units an acre in the 2050 plan. The attached twin homes or attached town homes and twin homes, that density may have to move a little bit. It's really going to depend on where we're at overall citywide and apartments at 25 units an acre. To prepare the concept review, we took all of that information and our natural resource engineering and planning team did a design charrette to come up with the land use plan and then we shared that with the property owners. **[55:05] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** And so the framework for this really focuses on connectivity. So utilizing the major corridors and really positioning commercial along our major corridors and centralizing some commercial adjacent to Grand Prairie Park knowing that that's going to get a lot of traffic. Let's put some resources, some restaurants services right near that park. And then along—this will probably be—this is 190th, maybe 195th. Um again some more commercial to really pull from the south. Again, these areas can still be modified. This is not set in stone. Again, this is a framework for us as we prepare the 2050 plan. And then the next step is really where does the high density make sense? It makes the most sense again on these major corridors. And then taking that density and trimming that down as we leave that major corridor and extend into the east and west sides of the development. Um added an area for a neighborhood park. Obviously, a search area is being reviewed as the whole parks plan is being updated. This area is being studied and it's thought that a neighborhood park may be located here. And then again, protection of those greenways. So, all of those green fingers are areas that need to be protected. These can—we can take advantage of these through land use. Um different types of development can take advantage of the view corridors within these areas, trail corridors, greenways, etc. And then really looking at a strong east-west and north-south transportation throughout the development. **[55:29] Mayor Luke Hellier:** So, um, what type of conversations do we have with Dakota County and Apple Valley to say, "Okay, we're talking about dumping a ton of traffic probably heading north on Cedar" and, you know, for Apple Valley's purposes and the county as they kind of program and figure out how to move cars through that. How does that kind of interplay with what we're doing? **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** You know, for this and then going into the full year and a half process for updating the comprehensive plan is when we start having those conversations when plans are being shared with the county with our adjacent jurisdictions, what's happening, get the feedback from the county on this plan. Um, so again, from a phasing standpoint, this was just kind of a schematic of what could happen based on the progression of sewer. Not saying that these timeframes is exactly going to pan out. Um, again, development just kind of takes a life of its own when you have those willing sellers and buyers, but this is a sequence based on the sewer and water. Um, we do meet the overall average net density, exceed those a little bit, so we're in a good place right now. And this is a good test because as we update our 2050 plan, we have to have a staging plan and within each staging area, we have to be able to demonstrate that we're meeting three and a half units an acre for our developable property. So, this is a good test to demonstrate that that can happen. **[57:29] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Is this all 194 or is it some in 192? **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** I think it's all 194. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So, again, we're not asking for council action, but looking for um input. Um you can see kind of what our focus areas have been for developing this framework. Um when we met with um some of the larger property owners um we did get positive feedback. I don't think anyone was too surprised at the changes because of um the change to the BRT line. Um so they all responded well um you know made sense. I think some are here this evening um just following the process. Again, we have been very clear that we're not jumping into a land use change right now. Um, this step was to inform how to go about examining this area in our 2050 plan. And that's all I have, but would, you know, take any feedback that you have. **[58:47] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council questions, comments. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah, just a quick comment. Um because I I agree with the uh the retail piece um that we don't want to hamstring ourselves and we want to have some flexibility there because the thing that strikes me about this as I looked at it is—and in reading through the materials—you know, there's an acknowledgement that there's a lot to the north and I look at this and I go this could end up being in terms of for the south of Lakeville and you have Eureka and you have Farmington. I I just I don't know what exactly what this will look like in terms of how people are going to use the commercial and retail areas. So I think it is good to be able to maintain some flexibility there. But overall the plans— **[59:35] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah. I mean one thing that pops into my mind—I remember when we had that meeting—Planning Commission, EDC, and us with the commercial real estate people. I'd be curious to get feedback from people like that because they kept saying, "Well, we don't know where to tell our clients to go because you're too spread out. You don't have a corridor." So, could this be to supplement that a little bit? And I don't know what the right answer is, but I'd be curious to hear. **[1:00:03] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yeah, I would like to do another session like that as a kickoff to our comp plan. And having the market study for this area will help inform them, but then to get their feedback too as brokers working every day in this area. **[1:00:19] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah. Good. Okay. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Just real quick, I looked up the school district map. Um it looks like that very northeast corner where that is um looks like that part is 192. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Okay. **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Rest is 194. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Thank you. Helpful council on your comments. I appreciate kind of teeing this up. And— **[1:00:36] Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah, I guess the only other thing that I was uh looking at was what's going on in Farmington. I know there's a lot of development that has to take place to come west that way. But in terms of their zoning maps, it looks like medium to high res—residential is what's zoned currently. **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Mhm. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Do we know where they're at in their next comp plan process? **[1:01:03] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** They jumped into starting theirs before kind of we're all starting it. So, we will be connecting with them. Um I think they are wrapping theirs up. Um so yeah, we do need to pay attention to how those adjacent—not only the roadway connections—will impact and work with them on where they want those alignments um as well as abuting land uses. So we will visit that because this certainly would be the closest retail hub for any potential residential that goes on in Farmington. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Maybe they'll finally get their grocery store. Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Yep. Thank you. **[1:01:58] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, we'll move—I guess it still would be, wouldn't it? Uh, we'll turn over to our Parks and Rec Director Joe Masiarchin to give us an update on the park system master plan. Good evening, Joe. Welcome back from vacation. You look rested. **Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Appreciate it. Uh, good evening, uh, mayor and council. So I'll be doing an update tonight on the process for our park system master plan and an update on where we're at in that process. Um, as a reminder, this is really our parks, it's our trails, it's our open space plan. It's all combined into one now just called park system master plan. So, this plan ultimately will be our next 10-year plan which will help to guide the future of our park system. Um, it's designed to reflect the community's vision for the system and we'll talk a little bit about the process that we're going through in order to make sure that we're gaining as much community impact and input along the way. Um, the plan will ultimately though be integrated in with other city plans including the comp plan that Tina was referencing. **[1:02:59] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Uh so to date we've gone through a series of community engagement and stakeholder input sessions and that's happened in a number of different ways since we started this planning process back in August. Uh first, the consultant and myself attended the Lakeville Art Festival where we worked with residents and talked to residents about the plan and started gaining input there. Uh this past fall, we released a community-wide survey. Received over 1,300 responses on that and the information that was in your packet for tonight's meeting included a lot of the information that we gained from that survey. Those survey responses—it's really over—I think we're at 190 pages. So that's your synopsis version. **[1:03:45] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Um, and then, uh, we've also held a quite a few different stakeholder meetings. That includes Lakeville's youth athletic associations. Uh we've met with youth, active adults, and art programmers and advisory board members and staff. Uh we've met with our parks maintenance staff. We met with Lake Marion Association and representatives from Dakota County um to talk about parks and trails specifically impacts in their 2050 plan and how that might impact um our plan. And then finally um we do have a technical team—is our project team that we've been meeting with um about every 3 months and that's comprised of members of the Parks, Rec, & Natural Resource Board as well as a um representatives from quite a few city departments. So uh kind of a robust group there of about 14. **[1:04:38] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** So I'm going to talk a little bit about the findings and again this was included—this portion was included in the packet—but there's a couple of things that I do want to highlight through this. Some kind of exceptional scores I would say that we received. There was a whole variety of questions that we asked throughout the planning process through that community survey. Two of which really jumped out at us that we wanted to share. The first question was: "So for Lakeville's parks, would you say that they're well-maintained? And do you agree strongly or strongly disagree?" ranking in between. Well, 82% of respondents say that they feel that our current system in its current form is well-maintained—agreed and strongly agree. The other one that really jumped out in that is "I feel safe when I use Lakeville's parks and trails" and that number also incredibly strong over 90% saying that of the respondents they feel that our parks and trails are safe. I always like to caution with these though—take these with a grain of salt. You know obviously there are things that we can always do to work on our maintenance and to work on our safety within the system. But from the respondents that we've heard from so far I think they were really great scores. **[1:05:41] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** One of the other things that we focused on with the planning process was to look at how our existing parks are being used. And so we focused on that both in the summertime and in the wintertime. Um so starting with residents gauging whether or not they use specific amenities on a daily, multiple times a week, multiple times a month, multiple times a year, or never. And our trails—I don't know that that's really a surprise to anybody—ranked incredibly high. 75% of residents say that they use them either multiple times a week or daily. Um, but also our natural areas, our playgrounds, the natural surface trails, you know, our picnic shelters and gazebos—all of those ranked incredibly high. Um, of course, you know, how well our athletic facilities and athletic decks—how important those are and how well that they're used. Um, but areas I would say that may be ranked a little bit lower in this that fall into areas that are maybe specific to an individual resident like dog parks or tennis courts or horseback riding. Obviously ranked lower in the scoring system. I again would not say that that's a surprise. Um, it still means that those are amenities that are important to the community, but ultimately does impact I would say how many of those we need or how we spread those around the community. **[1:07:07] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** The other area that I referenced would be winter recreation. Um so hiking, sledding, pleasure skating, hockey, we know from other reports that we do how well that those are used. Um to be fair, we don't have designated sledding hills in Lakeville. So I'm guessing that might be All Saints or other areas. But it is one of those things I think that would be interesting to look at as we look at other park development in the future um and an amenity that I think we could probably capitalize on. Um but again, I don't know that any of this is a shock, but I think it's just good information in general. **[1:07:43] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** One of the other things that we did focus on was what would you wish is available—either increased access or more of within the community. And I'll be touching on this a little bit more as we go through the presentation. Water-based amenities obviously rank high. Splash pad, you see, is listed on there. We know that's going to be opening here in a matter of a few months. Um but access to other water amenities whether it be kayaking, fishing, um other increased swimming opportunities, you know, those also ranked incredibly high. Our nature trails and trail connectivity also hit this list primarily because of a request for increased or improved crossings. Um so that was one of the topics that's come up quite a bit as we talked about the trail system. Um, but other than that, it's our natural surface trails and pollinator areas. It ranks lower when we look at the number of miles that we have within the system. So, it's good to know there's maybe a little bit more of a request from the community there. **[1:09:00] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** We've also heard throughout this process about indoor recreation and that happens—happened to come up quite a bit as we talked about recreational programming, but also came up as residents spoke about meeting space or party rental space. Um, and we've also heard about it, as I'm sure it's not a surprise, through the athletic associations as well. Uh, and then playgrounds. Playgrounds hit this part of the survey on a couple of different areas. One: designing them for all ages. Working on more accessibility and then also, looking at—focusing on destination structures as we look at replacements within some of our larger parks. **[1:09:24] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** And then jumping into the synopsis on some of those needs as we've seen them come through the process to date. Um so looking at our system as it is right now. So making sure that we're taking a look at our existing park facilities. It's one of the things that is maybe a little bit different in the way that we're structuring this park system master plan than what we've done previously. We're trying to look at our existing properties as much as we're looking at the future for future growth and trying to make sure that we're gauging other important improvements—maybe within a small pocket park—an area that maybe hasn't seen as much of an investment from the city over the last 10, 15, 20 years. So that's kind of an area that we're trying to focus on. **[1:10:09] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Um, aside from that, as we do look at growth in the future and where things continue to go, and again tying into what Tina was referencing, making sure that we're keeping an eye on land acquisition as we need to look at other neighborhood parks as development continues to grow. Um, reviewing our existing parkland specifically, that would tie back to some of the requests from the athletic associations and the way that we use our properties. Uh, and then making sure that we're keeping up with growth and maintaining what we already have. Those were all sentiments that we've seen throughout the process and some of those specific things again as I've referenced you know looking at playground varieties again hot topic—making sure that we aren't just looking at kind of similar structures at every park—making sure that we're trying to differentiate and make things a little bit more exciting. **[1:10:55] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Athletic associations—the big topic there was a request that we look at parking, that we look at our restroom facilities, that we look at how we're maintaining all of our fields to see if there are ways that we can increase access at those facilities and improve usability. Um so those were some of the the big topics that came from the athletic associations. Water access—we kind of touched on natural areas ties back into again some of what Tina talked about where we would look at using those natural corridors and pairing it with trail systems as connectivity and looking at different ways to preserve some of Lakeville's natural beauty. Aside from that, looking at how we're using our existing buildings and that ties in with the park shelters and the facilities that we use year round for recreational programs. It also ties in with how we utilize the Heritage Center and the Art Center. Um, so you know, kind of those topics in general. And I don't think it's a big surprise, but the big question that came out of the survey so far has been "community center?" **[1:11:50] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Uh, and one of the things I did want to touch on here was one of the engagement opportunities that is still currently available. Um, so we currently have released a Pinpoint map, which was announced in the newsletter that was just distributed. You can see that it's already been used pretty heavily by the residents, but it's an opportunity for you to go on the map. You can zoom in on an area and you can flag something that you just like within the system. Uh, you could flag something that you think, hey, this is a great idea, something I think you should look at. And then you can also flag things that you think maybe need improvement or attention. Um the benefit to this map is that it is interactive. So you as a resident can jump on it frequently and look at it and see "what have my neighbors said" and you can like or dislike or disagree on it. So, it's a really easy way for us to be able to start taking data that was system-wide in the community survey and really narrow that down to neighborhood parks, specific crossings, those types of things. So, we're really excited about the way that this process is going so far. Uh and that will be available through the end of March. Um so, you've got a ways to continue to participate in it. **[1:13:16] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** We do also have two other upcoming engagement opportunities. First, there is going to be an open house which will be here at city hall on March 4th. And then we will have a table and representatives from HKGI, our consultant, that'll be at the Lakeville Community Expo on March 21st. So, just another way for us to be able to continue to engage with the community and receive feedback. I do also just want to kind of do a review, a quick review of the project timeline. Again, we started this back in August of 2025. We anticipate we'll be done sometime in September or October of 2026. Um, we're currently at that, I would say, midway point in the planning process. We're still gathering community input and doing the needs assessment. So, that's still important information. So, as I've had residents reaching out and asking how they can engage—as I've referenced—there's still a number of different ways that they can engage, including being here in person with the consultants. Um, but there will be a second open house coming up as we continue to move through the process in May. Uh, and then we'll be working on a statistically valid survey as we head into early summer. Um, our goal with that is to really try to use it as a way to verify a lot of the facts and findings that we found through a lot of these other methods. Uh, but ultimately we'll be moving into a final report and another review from council here as we head into the fall. And with that, I'll stand for any questions. **[1:14:40] Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council questions, comments. When you say heavy conversation about the community center, how heavy are we talking about? **Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** I would say it depends on the group. And that's a topic I would say kind of ties back into scope and scale because a community center can mean a 100 different things to 100 different people. Um, so I would say where I see commonalities are access for year-round space, walking tracks, those types of things, access for recreational programs, but again, it looks like so many different things. So, it's very early in the process for me to kind of pinpoint that. **[1:15:25] Mayor Luke Hellier:** I just want to give you—the community survey results, the layout of that and the website is just very engaging. So great work on this. You could spend hours on here clicking around and— **Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Yeah, we should get an award from the league or something. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Um, with this current survey, the piece that's missing is, you know, what are all your wants? But how much are you willing to pay for this? And so with the statistically significant survey coming up, is that an element of part of that survey? Well, it's not "how much you want to pay for it," it's "how much do you want to pay for it continually for years on down the line," right? I mean, and I think that's a really important part of knowing what are folks willing to do for that. **[1:16:13] Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** And I would say so where where it gets challenging is this conversation of future development or large improvements—is that a next year issue or is this a—you know, are we planning for 10 or 15 years down the road because that dollar amount changes dramatically. So, I think the goal at this point is to try to identify the bigger priorities, even if that means um looking at, you know, acquiring property for neighborhood parks or those types of things. So, we have the time to plan and go through that process. In the same way that the park bond referendum had very specific questions about your willingness to invest in it, I think that's probably the right time for very specific questions. But I think a question of "are you willing to engage" in a way makes sense. So yes, it's something we can definitely look at. It's just how specific is the question. **[1:17:01] Mayor Luke Hellier:** So—okay, thank you, Joe. Fantastic. **Parks & Recreation Director Joe Masiarchin:** Of course. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** No other items on the agenda. I'll take a motion to— **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** So moved. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Second. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **[1:17:16] Mayor Luke Hellier:** All those in favor say I. **Councilmembers (In Unison):** I. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed. All right. We're adjourned. Oh, I should have known. Our next council meeting is March 2nd. Sorry.