[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right we'll get started good evening everyone tonight is Monday March 17th 2025 this is a regular meeting of the minona city council happy St Patrick's Day say everyone I will call this meeting to order and ask you to stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Applause] all Miss Larsson would you please call roll Calbert here here kley here sha here Wilburn here weome here uh next item is approval of the agenda there appears to be an addendum Mr Funk yeah thank you mayor good evening Council there is one agenda item for your consideration related to item 10A items concerning Southwest I Clinic the Planning Commission reviewed the conditional use permit request from Southwest IE care clinic at their mark 13th 2025 regular meeting that was last Thursday so the packet went out Thursday the Planning Commission held their meeting last Thursday evening the Planning Commission recommended the city council adopt the resolution approving the conditional use permit that is your action requested this evening there was no public comment received at the Planning Commission and then the meeting minutes are also attached so with that mayor and Council that is your agenda for this evening I'll turn it back over to you for your consideration thank you thank you Mr Funk um Council any questions or a motion on the agenda as amended Council M calber thank you mayor I make the motion to the uh adopt the agenda as amended is there a second council member mey I'll second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member ra Miss Larson please call Ro Calbert yes R yes kley yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes weome yes motion carries next item is approval of minutes and we have three sets uh one is the January 10 2025 legislative breakfast minutes the second um is uh or 5B is the February 24 2025 regular meeting minutes and the third is the March 3rd 2025 regular meeting minutes and I think we can do those all at the same time Council M Calbert thank you mayor uh I like to make the motion to approve the January 10th 2025 legislative breakfast minutes and the February 24th 2025 regular meeting minutes and the March 3rd 2025 regular meeting minutes and is there a second council member um sha thank you mayor I'll second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert second by council member Shaq one quick comment I did um share a minor change to the minute with Mr Funk today so um it was just a minor change so with that Miss Larson would you call rooll Calbert yes ra yes kley yes sha yes Wilburn yes weome yes motion carries next item is special matters and we have no special matters tonight and uh then the next item item seven is reports from the city manager and council members so Mr Funk again thank you mayor good evening Council and happy St Patrick's Day to everyone my wife's lineage is U bless you my wife's lineage is Irish so we are um maybe celebrating it tonight but uh Happy St Patty Day to everyone a couple things for your consideration this evening one is related to the fire department the uh recently the menona fire department took the fastest fire and first responder team honor in Long association's local fight air climb uh our team here in minona climbed 53 flights of stairs in full gear and took first so really proud of our our team they train really hard as you know and evident by the very good competition and results of a a fun event but it certainly raises awareness to the work that our our staff and our team puts in uh fighting and serving on behalf of our residents also want to mention our natural resources staff presented to residents of the St alin's Mill neighborhood on the restoration plans for Big Willow Park so there's a big restoration project happening this year here several staff members also attended the shade tree short course this week which is the Midwest Premier Urban for forestry conference so again credit to our staff for our efforts on our natural resources front also then want to mention the manataka Business Council returns in 2025 and this is a really good partnership that was started last year with the wetta area Chamber of Commerce uh myself and other staff members mainly Community Development and certainly members of our mayor and Council participated in those meetings last year the first motanka Business Council is this week March 19th from 11:30 to 1:00 no one needs to be a chamber member to attend it is free and this week we'll be covering the results of the business survey that was host was conducted by Miss wishnack and the Community Development Department uh mayor and Council you'll receive those same results coming up when Peter Leatherman uh presents the annual Cur survey results along with the business survey results so a lot of good information coming up up and then grow your garden so it is just a little plug for our community garden plot at Kelly Park minaka residents can reserve a 20 foot x 20 foot plot of garden for the 2025 season there are some plots that remain so anyone that's interested can reach out to any of our staff at the marsh or our wreck department and I think mayor you'll probably cover the state of the city so we know we have that exciting event coming up this week um so certainly mayor you'll touch on that then lastly I want to mention and to my left or as you're probably watching on camera to your right perhaps or my right is our new City attorney Eric Nelson uh so welcome Mr Nelson as Miss heiney has recently retired uh we are super excited that Mr Nelson has joined us he brings extensive legal expertise leadership experience to our organization Mr Nelson uh was with the City of Minneapolis for about 24 years and served most recently Deputy City attorney uh he had led the Civil Division and a team of 31 attorneys since 2016 and his distinguished career with Minneapolis began again back in 2001 uh Mr Nelson's heard SE held several key roles including interim City attorney from 2019 to 2020 he holds a law degree from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia so with that I formally introduce and welcome Mr Nelson as Minot tanka's next City attorney and so with that mayor and Council I turned over to you thank you oh thank you Mr Funk and I just um want to welcome Mr Nelson to uh the city of minaka and uh welcome you to say a few words if you'd like we're glad to have you here thank you uh mayor and City Council Members I appreciate it I'm really glad to be here um it is really an honor um a privilege really to serve as the the minetonka City attorney um I I look forward to doing the good work of the city with you in just a very short short time I've been here last week was my first full week um I I've already gotten to know a lot of the staff who work in the Enterprise and and they're tremendous staff um supportive knowledgeable and I can tell they have genuine uh care and enthusiasm for what happens in the city and so I look forward to being a part of that team and um and doing that work with you and I look look forward to getting to know you too individually um so we can all do good work together so thank you so much great well um I don't want to speak for my other council members but we will try work hard to not make your life too challenging or too um too interesting but you are joining a great team I mean we as a council operate as a team the city staff operates as a great team and we all work together and we all care passionately about the city so welcome we're really excited to have you here all right uh council members other anything else that uh you would all like to share Council M calber thank you mayor um many of us on were at the National League of cities uh Congressional conference this past week um where we uh you know learn in sessions we participate in some of us participate in committees and we meet with our federal legislators to promote uh priorities that are important to our committees and our cities and um I'm on the national league of cities energy environment and natural resources committee where uh the topic of the the funding changes in the federal government uh loomed large because there were so many uh kind of groundbreaking environmental um programs and uh a lot of that is changing um uh and but the most uh interesting part of the uh committee meeting was a joint meeting with the technology committee where we talked about Ai and data centers and their Nexus with the environment and um data centers are a necessary part of our you know improving technology but they are huge um they put a huge strain on the environment so um one thing that I learned is that a data center uses 3 to 5 million gallons of water a day to cool the um to cool the center because they get so hot they use posos chemicals to prevent fires again because they get so hot and they they put a tremendous strain on the electric grid because they need a lot of electricity to run and they generally establish in rural areas taking Farmland offline so um it was a very interesting topic of conversation that's going to be uh a growing issue here in Minnesota because we're water rich and there are a lot of big companies that use a lot of data that are uh eyeing um places in Minnesota for data centers so that was one thing um and we did meet with our legislators and we have some wonderful legislators that are very responsive to the needs of cities um and uh I would say that the topic of um uh non-t taxable Municipal B bonds was number one and affordable housing was was way at the top the other thing that I did in the last week was attend the minona family collaborative at minaka school district and that's a group of nonprofits that's uh supports children and families in minaka school district and in in the communities um that the school children live in and the topic was um we had several uh speakers and the topic had to do with um the new um approach to immigration and its effect on um children in the school district and families and what some of them are experiencing so um it was uh very informative and um you know they're really trying to put the children first um and some of the children are are experiencing some um I'd say call it hazing um and threats uh children getting threatened by their bosses saying that they're going to deport their families if they don't do this or that and I just really want to call no matter what your political leanings are we need to be kind to one another and one of the reasons that I love being a part of city council and attending things like the national league of cities is the national league of cities is nonpartisan thousands of Municipal leaders from all over the country gather to do what's best for their communities irrespective of their political views and um I just really think it's so important to um approach things from a data driven lens and not be hyperbolic or you know make people um that can't help their circumstances uh go through things just because we're being unkind so I call upon people to to uh call upon their better angels and uh I feel very lucky to be a part of minona family collaborative because they do amazing work from housing support to just academic tutoring to grief support counseling um food and security work um all kinds of social work and just really making sure that students and families of menona school district are um surviving and thriving so that's what I've got council member sha thank you mayor I know this seems like a long time ago um and so council member cal probably slipped her mind but we also spent some time at the Minnesota capital a couple weeks ago to talk with our legislators there about some of the um bills that we're promoting and our bonding requests from the state and I think it was obviously there's challenging budget issues at the state as well but it was very productive um time well spent and we were able to meet with all of the folks that represent um the city of motanka so fingers crossed that we might get some progress hopefully at minimum some of our our our Tiff requests will um will be approved and that's an important one that doesn't cost the state anything so we're going to continue to push for that and I also want to um take a moment to welcome Mr Nelson um very excited to have him here and I'm I'm committed to making your life as easy as poss possible so thank you talk is cheap yes council member kley thank you mayor um I just want to say on Sunday um I got a chance to um participate in a speak and engagement um with a group group of folks that are um just coming together to talk about housing and to talk about um how we can um work on housing issues across the state of Minnesota and so um it was a really good group of folks there just really um committed to doing the work and um it was good to see that so many people really care about affordable housing um zoning um different um styles of thousand different um places where we can have houses located at and um you know he heard some really good stories around but I really I wouldn't okay they were good stories but also what people had to go through to try to get housing and so I was able to share my story about how I moved to minona in 2008 and um the program that I purchased my home through but also um was able to tie it back to you know young people I know a couple of my nephew my nephew Liv in St Louis Park paying 1,500 um he's 23 years old my um niece um I mean my daughter's my friend's daughter lives in Brooklyn Park P 1800 and we're talking about young people and so um I know that we're addressing housing in our city so I just really want to always lift that up because um as we as I just stated and housing is getting more and more expensive and we're talking about for young people um Elders are getting pushed out of their homes and so um with the prices of taxes and then um some on fixed incomes and so it's it's really good to have organizations um really um out there speaking up up about um why it's so important that nanka and the state continue to work on um affordable housing and to really address some of the issues and I know that we're doing good work in our city um but again there are a lot of folks out out there who are really um making sure that uh we keep pushing forward with that so thank you thank you counc m kley other com Council thank you mayor uh like most of the the rest of us on this day I was also at the National League of cities Congressional conference and I'm a new member of the NLC Community economic development committee and uh so that was my first meeting and I'm looking forward to kind of diving in and looking at issues related to uh Economic Development a big topic was uh housing Supply in general and affordable housing of course in particular um and it was it was interesting to be able to share uh at my table kind of some of the things that we at minaka are doing and you know kind of some of the more Innovative things that we're trying to do and also learning from other cities and I'm looking forward to you know kind of sharing some of that information with council at an upcoming study session um and you know kind of making sure that we're doing what we can and following best practices and data different practices um from around the country um as well as sharing our good ideas that we're doing here um so yes that's it thank you thank you cery um CER Wilburn did you have anything nothing tonight okay um I've got a I've got a couple things I did I just did not want to ignore you um so the um you know I I tended quite a few of the things I mean I looked at my calendar and we haven't been together since March 3rd and a lot has happened between March 3rd and then and and I'm not going to be overly repetitious but clearly the city day on the hill and we did have very good meetings with our state uh representatives and that was that was valuable um housing is is um not the only topic but is certainly a big topic um in all of our conversations with elected officials um when I was at um I attended a meeting a mayor's meeting at NLC that had to do with Workforce opportunities for people with disabilities and as a parent of um uh adult children with disabilities that was a very informative and and u a worthwhile meeting and I probably will get more involved in that topic because I think it's important and it's also as we consider the workforce challenges that we have um I I think that there are people with disabilities that are underutilized resource and um you know I want to encourage our employers and our city to be intentional about looking at people with disabilities to fill some of the roles that we have so that was a very informative meeting not one that I had attended before so um I'll I'm sure I'll be doing some followup and getting more involved with that um let's see the um last Thursday I had the opportunity to serve on a panel uh with the wetta West Metro um Chamber of Commerce and that was at um that was in wetta at the wetta Country Club and I sh shared the de with um wetta mayor Andrew Mullen um Long Lake mayor um uh Charlie Miner and Plymouth mayor Jeff washy and that's always an interesting group they challenge us with some pretty challenging questions and I I think that was uh that was well attended and I was I was able to tout the good work that minanga has done um on housing and I've made the point uh numerous times um to various groups that even though not all cities are as well positioned to do some housing things that that motanka is all cities have a responsibility to be involved in um Housing Development and affordable housing development and I think that um we have to figure out some of those paths as we work at the capital on housing issues there's a lot of different ideas on how to get there but we all share share the same goal we need more housing and we need more affordable housing um there's there's pretty dis quite a few disperate ideas on what needs to be done to get that housing but there's no argument that the housing is needed so let's figure out a way to work together and and I and i' I bragged a little bit about minona on that front too um we hear about a um a housing shortage in Minnetonka or in Minnesota of something like 100,000 units and I've extrapolated the housing development that we've had in motanka and we represent less than 1% of the state if you multiply our success times a number like a 100 or greater we would not have 100,000 shortage in fact we would not have a shortage so we're doing some things right here now we're well positioned but if some of the things that we're doing to develop housing could be shared across the state we would do a better job and part of the housing crisis would be solved in Minnesota so I really believe that and I kind of want to evangelize um and have um Miss wishnack evangelized on some of the pro programs that we've put in place um to develop housing because and and we're you know we're very well situated and not every city is as well situated we have to understand that not every every city can do what minaka has done and frankly having a light rail line coming to minaka has driven a lot of Housing Development and not every uh City in the state can say that but still realistically we've been Innovative and we've put together some programs that drive dve the development of Housing and affordable housing and I want to do everything I can to share that with elected officials and have all of us share with elected officials um at the capital and even at the federal level on how we can work together to develop more housing and more affordable housing so I think that's important um then you know On a related topic um there was a mayor's meeting today um for Lake minona Mayors and I did not organize it but because we have a nice city hall and a nice Community Center I ended up hosting it um but Tom um Tom Fletcher who is the mayor of Greenwood called together the lake minetonka Mayors and we got together and met with um Senator Anne Johnson Stewart to just review some of the issues that um are at the capital and our concerns as Mayors and that was a productive meeting um Senator Stewart and John Johnson Stewart said something that was interesting and perhaps a bit hopeful because we've all seen the budget forecast um the amount of money available for cities and for a lot of things is not going to be um not going to be as much as we need or want um and she said that there is some talk at the capital it's not a done deal by any means but but looking um looking at bonding for the bium not just for one year to might maybe create um some more um funds available in the near term I don't know if that's going anywhere that might just be uh I'm maybe sharing a rumor or maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all but but I thought I'm I'm encouraged by the fact that there are um there are some Creative Solutions that are being considered and um uh attempted in a very challenging legislative session with um with um it so closely divided between um uh Republicans Democrats and you know we're going to have to work together knock on wood let's see if we can do it so um anyway that's what I've got but um A lot's happened in the last couple of weeks so so that takes me to item eight which is Citizens wishing to discuss matters not on the agenda and this is an open mic opportunity if anyone has anyone or anything that they would like to present to the council please bring It Forward state your name and address tell us what you want us to know no action will be taken tonight but we will um refer it to staff and they will follow up with you and um and on the issue and then we will get a report back as a councel so is there anyone who would like to come forward at this time anyone at all oh we have someone sorry small good evening welcome good evening uh I'm Kevin ringhoffer I live at 2200 Indian Road West in minetonka and I want to talk about um affordable housing first thank you for the opportunity to speak and I want to thank the city of minetonka for taking on the zoning rewrite process uh to look at how we can provide more housing and more affordable housing in minetonka and I hope as we go through that process we can think and kind of turn over every stone to look at kind of every possibility although minona is doing a lot of things well I think there's always room for improvement and as someone said I heard one of the discussions about this said that you know with all the players involved with the city council staff and Advocates and more uh we can do some really positive things I ask you to consider allowing the state to be a player in that uh with some of the legislation and support the state in creating legislation that is Statewide to increase housing local control is important and I agree with that um and I hope the bills going through the legislature in this session have tried to take into account some of the concerns that were expressed in the last session about local control but I do want to add that local control has been used in ways to advance discrimination and discriminatory practices in housing and that is continued for a long time and I think by allowing this the state uh with some of the bills that it's looking will eliminate that not eliminate that but lessen it in in many areas of the state um I think you we may be able to do things here well in minetonka but it may be difficult in other places and they may need that assistance and mayor as you said we're doing a better job of producing housing than are some of the other places in the state and they may need this push they may need this uh to stop the discriminatory practices but also to increase the housing I think it can also be better for minetonka it might allow the state to do some lifting that doesn't have to be done at the local level and lessen some of the contentious situations and the opportunities that do come about to create to create affordable housing and I think it can be better for the whole state in terms of encouraging other places to lessen the discriminator discriminat practices and to increase housing so I thank you yeah and ask you to consider how the state can help Advance housing here in both minaka and the state so thank you thank you Mr ringhofer um is there anyone else all right well then we'll move on um next item is Birds bids and purchases and there are no bids and purchases tonight item uh the next item is the consent agenda and those are items requiring major a majority vote and we read those into the record and vote on them all in one motion or one second if someone wants to pull an item for deeper consideration we can do that but tonight we only have one item on the consent agenda it and that is a conditional use permit for Southwest iare at 12983 Ridgedale Drive so unless someone wants to pull that is there a motion council member Shaq thank you mayor I move approval of consent agenda item 10 a council member Calbert thank you mayor I'll second all right we've got a motion by council member sha and a second by council member Calbert um Miss Larsson please call Ro calber yes R yes kley yes sha yes Wilburn yes we some yes motion carries item 11 is consent agenda items requiring five votes and we have one of those and 11a is solar unpubl buildings grant program and if would someone like to pull that or is there a motion for that council member Calbert thank you mayor um I'd like to make the motion to adopt uh approve item 11a solar on public buildings and is there a second council member R yes I'd like to second but also take a moment and congratulate staff on this and also point out that um because of the way that that uh this deal was structured uh that you know a uh solar on schools which was championed or solar on public buildings which was championed by our former minona city council member now state representative Patty aim we have access to this funding um and also from the federal uh government's uh direct pay program which was part of uh the IRA program um uh which provided for environmental investment in our communities across the country because of that uh over $100,000 project is something that minona is actually going to be um relying on our tax levy and our taxpayers for um only less than 25,000 of that it'll have a economic payback of approximately less than five years I believe and um it will will save a lot of money as well as help us meet our environmental and sustainability goals the climate action and adaptation plan so well done staff and uh well done motanka mayor there's so I made the motion to adopt the resolution but it's and but there's also to authorize staff to proceed to construction um on three solar public sites and to amend the 2023 and 2024 cips and um so that that is the entire motion which I did not make all right and uh thank you Council M Calbert and I assume second is uh in place second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member ra any other comments on this one U Miss Larsson please call roll Calbert yes R yes kley yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes weome yes motion carries um item 12 is Introduction of ordinances and we have no ordinances to be introduced tonight so that brings us to it item 13 public hearings and 13A is a temporary on sale liquor license for Immaculate Heart of Mary Church at 13505 excelsure Boulevard and Miss wishnack I believe you have that report thank you council members uh mayor and council members this is the annual permit that you uh consider every year for their event which is held on June 28th uh it is no different than previous years if you have any specific questions I know the event organ iers are here uh with that mayor I'll turn it back to you we're recommending granting the license very good first I'll ask Council if they have any questions I'm seeing no questions well this is a public hearing item so I will open the public hearing and we'll invite anyone like to speak and and also um there are a few people watching um um online or um on local cable access so you can do a little advertising too if you so choose do my Spiel all right my name is Kelly Dene I'm the business administ ministrator at Immaculate hard and Mary Church and I thank you for your time tonight and your consideration this is our fourth annual block party um it's a familyfriendly event we encourage and invite anyone in the community who wants to partake of a fun run Bingo llamas classic cars we have a beer garden aand in the evening I know that it coincides with the minona community day but our day starts earlier so you can come to ours first and then come over here later in the day so uh we encourage anyone who wants to participate it's open to everyone thanks for your time well thank you and and we wish you the very best for a successful event thank you thank you so um is there anyone else who would like to comment on this item seeing no one I will close the public hearing and I will bring it back to the council for uh uh answer a vote Council M Calbert well we're happy to support this effort and uh I'm sure it'll be a great event so I encourage people to go and I'd like to make the motion to Grant the license for the temporary on sale liquor license for Immaculate Heart of Mary all right is there a say council member sha thank you mayor sorry um and I'll I'll push for good weather it seems like about 5050 on that day so we're hoping on the right side of the 50/50 uh I'll second well it's a church to you you can pray for good weather too I mean that's that's that that's an option but I'm not pushing anything here I'm just trying to uh State the obvious so uh we've got a motion by Council M Calbert and a second by Council M sha um Miss Larson please call rooll Calbert yes R yes kley yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes weome yes motion carries next item is an O is um item 13B is an offsale intoxicating liquor license for BA BSA liquor House LLC doing business as strong liquor and wine located at 11048 Cedar Lake Road M wishnack thank you mayor and council members again a an ownership change here that we have of the strong liquor store uh right off of Cedar Lake Road um the new party uh the BSA liquor LLC is a three party um ownership structure uh they do of course have to go the through the normal process so tonight is uh just opening the public hearing and then we'll follow up with the in-depth investigation for the council to consider on April 21st thank you thank you m wishnack um Council any questions on this item uh it's pretty routine I think um so this is a public hearing item we will open the public hearing take any comment and then we will continue the public hearing um to a later date which is April 21st 2025 so I'll open the public hearing and based on what I heard from Miss uh Larson today we do have someone um on the phone for this item is that correct M wishnack so I will the public hearing is open and if um if the uh technicians can make um um the uh person who would like to speak to us um um bring him forward on the phone that would be great and we'll listen to what he has to say he or she has to say excuse me just wait mayor till they unmute them no no one's on okay we excuse me mayor and councel I believe you can proceed without the caller okay very good all right well seeing no one coming forward to speak on this item um I will clo no I will not close the public hearing I will look for an action to continue it councilor Calbert thank you thank you mayor I'd like to move to continue the public hearing to April 21st 2025 very good is there a second ra thank you mayor I'll second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member R Miss England Please call roll calber yes R yes kley yes sha yes Wilburn yes weome yes motion carries item 14 is other business and we have two items of other business and one is um um well 14a is the 2025 um assessment report and M Melanie putts has that and Mr funk I don't know if you want to say anything in advance otherwise I will turn it over to miss putts thank you mayor and Council I do not have an introduction for you this evening uh Miss putts as you know is our City Assessor uh so he's put together a report for you many of you have seen that uh in the council packet uh maybe I'll put Mr Nelson on the spot if he has anything else to add in the intro if not we turn over to miss putts thank you Miss putts welcome and thank you all right thank you mayor and Council I'm Melanie futz and I'm the City Assessor and tonight I'm here to provide you a summary of the 2025 assessment report so before I begin I would like to take a moment to recognize staff who worked on the 2025 assessment and the assisted in this report first Aaron castner who was promoted to our commercial appraiser position in September our three residential appraisers Amy Weber Amy mcamera and Michelle Lee who join the team in November and Lori Goodman our assessment specialist okay so before I dive into all the data I wanted to take a moment to go through the process on how we arrive at those values every year and give you a little insight into that so our process starts right after we conclude our local board every year and we start with doing our revaluation or Quintel process we're tasked to view about 20% of the city's properties annually and we're required by law to view each property at least once every five years so during this time staff is busy inspecting properties we send out letters to the properties in the area prior to visiting to let residents know that will be in the area and give them a few options they can call to schedule a time for an interior inspection or fill out an online survey regarding the characteristics of their home then in the fall we review permits so we look at all the permits that have been pulled throughout the year to determine if they have any effect on the new market value at this point we also send letters to the properties informing them that we're reviewing and ask them to call us to discuss the work being done and potentially set up a time for an appraiser to visit their home and view the work depending on the scope of work also in the fall we look at our sales study and so this is a main component in our process and the mass appraisal process our annual sales study runs October 1st through September 30th annually and as we review these sales we stratify them based on style size and quality to compare them to where our current values stand and then we make adjustments either raising or lowering values to be in line with what homes are selling for then in on January 2nd that's the assessment date set by State Statute and in mid January all of this work comes to fruition and we turn in our assessment following turning in the assessment we get ready for Value notices to get sent out and prepare for our local board and I'll cover that process a little later in the report now we'll jump into the data this start slide starts with the total estimated market value for 2025 at $13.86 billion this is an increase of about 270 million from last year and about a 2% increase overall this is 12 years of consecutive growth and a new high for the city eclipsing last year's previous high of 13.59 billion here's a quick overview of the value changes by the most common property type these overall growth numbers are what we refer to as the gross percentage change and they include all the new con ruction in the figures the single household residential Market was up about 4.1% and Lakeshore about 88.9% Condominiums are decreasing by 7% and town homes were up about 2.3% the apartment Market did decrease by 1.2% commercial properties were down about a half a% and the industrial Market was up 1.1% [Applause] all right taking a closer look at the residential Market here we see the number of single Household Sales throughout the sales study the sales volume remained low over the last year as the market continued to experience High interest rates and there was a relatively low supply of homes on the market over the last year the information and data we received from these sales is what we used to analyze and establish Market values this chart illustrates the inventory of single household homes by sale price referring to the sales on the previous slide so only 1% of homes throughout the city sold for less than 300,000 this year and about 20% sold between 300 and 450,000 so we have 21% less than 450,000 overall then properties over 450,000 we have comprised the rest of the sales 79% and looking at the sales that took place for this assessment 33% sold for over 700,000 next we'll look at the median home value so this chart shows the 10-year history of the single household home and with the 2025 median value increasing to 5213 shows us a positive sign that our residential Market remains strong here we have a three-year comparison with how we are performing compared to our surrounding communities these numbers reflect the net growth where most of the report is looking at growth change so they do not include new construction data in other words they show the movement of existing single household homes so the residential increase of minona was 3.3% for the 2025 um this is the highest of our neighboring communities um with the exception of Bloomington all of the cities were within 1% next we'll dive into commercial industrial and apartment Market this graph shows overall growth historical value changes including new construction the commercial industrial properties are shown in dark blue and apartment properties are in light green as we see here the combined commercial industrial properties show a slight decrease it's 2% and then the apartment Market decreased at 1.22% here we look at the commercial industrial um Market kind of B sector um the office Market was down 3.2% overall with many companies working hybrid or remote um less office space has been needed than previously before the pandemic so many companies have reduced the amount of space they occupy resulting in higher vacancy rates throughout not only minetonka but the Metro the industrial Market continues to increase with moderate growth as rents remain high and vacancies remain low and our retail Market continues to be a strong sector of our commercial Market at 4.35% growth here we'll see the net commercial change as compared to the surrounding suburbs the net change for minetonka of .6% is still above the average of the surrounding cities of negative 1.2% this can vary from year to year as each city is impacted differently depending on the makeup of their commercial properties another important function of our office is handling the tax Court appeals the most recent St statistics available are for the 2023 values taxes payable in 2024 as you see the 2023 pay 24 had a consistent number 67 stayed the same from last year of petitions filed however the total value in those petitions increased to almost 1.8 billion um in the calendar year 2024 staff closed out 70 cases and that compares to 99 the previous year the number of closed cases can fluctuate quite a bit annually based on the tax Court can calendar and staff's proactive approach to working with attorneys and Property [Applause] Owners now we'll take a look at how the values that we set correlates to the tax capacity this chart shows who Bears the burden of the taxes of each sector so looking at the two charts we see that Residential Properties make up about 72% of the total market value of the city however their tax burden is only 63% this is because they have a lower tax capacity rate compared to commercial industrial properties similarly although the commercial industrial properties only make up 15% of the total City's value their tax burden is 25% due to the higher tax capacity rate set by state legislature the tax capacity by property class can change annually um based on changes in growth of different property classes and can also be affected by property tax law changes now we'll go through the appeals process um which is kind of where we're at right now in our assessment year so um once a property owners receive their value and classification notice if they have any questions the first step is to contact staff the majority of concerns can be resolved through this informal review if the property owner isn't Satisfied by staff's decision they have the option to appeal to the local Board of Equalization and the local board at minona is all of you as city council acting as our local board um they typically consist of two meetings in the first meeting um consists of reading into the record all the taxpayers who wish to appeal their property value and the local board also approves any uncontested changes that require board action at the second meeting or reconvene the local board will make decisions on those values still being cont Ed our local board looks to appointed real estate professionals who visit the properties between the two meetings to advise them in the decision-making process if the property owner is not satisfied by the decision of the local board they may appeal to the henpen County Board of appeal and Equalization however they must first appeal at the local level prior to being heard at the county if the property owner isn't satisfied with the result of the County Board they do Reserve their right to appeal in the Minnesota tax Court up till April 30th the year taxes are due so the option to appeal the 2025 value through Tax Court ends April 30th of [Applause] 2026 here's a quick glance of an example of a value notice generated and sent by our office this informs a property owner of the market value and classification of their prop property as of January 2nd 2025 this is a value that will be used to generate their tax bill next year and it informs the property owner of the dates and methods of appeal that I just mentioned and here is an example of a prior year tax bill these are mailed by henpen county in March and the taxes you see are based on the previous year's value sent last March the only appeal in this case would be to the Minnesota tax Court this calendar highlights some important dates for the 2025 assessment and I'll highlight the ones coming up um March 28th is our requested deadline for property owners to file a formal appeal to the local board and then the local board will meet April 7th if we need a reconvene that would meet on April 2 1st April 30th is the last day for property owners to file tax Court petitions for the last year's assessment and then June 16th is the beginning of the henpen County Board of appeal and [Applause] Equalization I do want to highlight a few legislative changes that actually went in place last year but they're impacting the 2025 taxes first is the Homestead market value exclusion that was modified um the Homestead market value used to phase out at 43,800 and last year's for last year's values increased to 57,200 so this will be the first year that it in is impacting taxes and then the their new tax capacity rates that were changed at legislature um the first is class 4d1 lowincome rental classification that has a new tax capacity rate of. 25% um for any that qualify previously the first $100,000 in value per unit was set at 75% and then value over the 100,000 per unit was at0 25% now it's all at the 0. 25% and lastly there's a new um um classification 4d2 that was established for owner occupied housing on land owned by a municipal or nonprofit Community Land Trust the new tax capacity rate for these types of properties was set at 75% previously these properties were taxed as residential so their first $500,000 having the tax capacity rate of 1% and over 500,000 at 1.25% so again first year that that's the taxes are impacted there and lastly here's our contact information for assessing staff regarding property values or classification or any assessment questions all inquiries will be directed to the appropriate staff member responsible for that area or Market sector and thank you so much if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer Miss putts thank you for your report it was excellent I really appreciate it and I'm going to inform the council that they don't have to call you at this number or email you they can ask questions right now if if they have them so Council any questions for Miss putts um council member sha thank you and your report was very well done and and it's easy to read it and understand it just one question jumped out at me as I was listening um so on your pie chart of the distribution of sales by price and you've got that 1% at under 300,000 does that include condos and town homes as well thank you council member sha that is only single household homes yep thank you that's good to know other other questions councilor Calbert I'm not going to ask a question I just know um I I've been reading my packet for the econom IC development advisory commission which is this Thursday where we have a commercial market analysis where it sounds like we're going to do a deep dive into that um because I do think that that is just I think every city is going to be grappling with the commercial market so um I'm really looking forward to that and I think it's going to come back to the council eventually um because I think in all of this um you know they have a larger tax capacity than the percentage of the market and um you know it's but as the commercial if the commercial Market continues to shrink which it likely will it just continues to put pressure on our residents um with residential tax capacity so I I'm really looking forward to that um discussion and uh being able to discuss it amongst ourselves here thank you any other comments or questions um I just wanted to highlight what Miss putz talked about the um new tax rate for land trust homes um because you know when you own a Land Trust home you don't own the land you own the home and um historically prior to this tax change people who owned a land trust home and not the land were taxed based upon the value of the home including the land so they were actually taxed on a portion of what they don't own so this Improvement by the state legislature is good I personally don't believe it goes far enough because um you know it reduces the effective tax rate to for most land trust homes by 25% which is not insignificant but the land represents a greater proportion of the total value than 25% so I think there's more work to do there but I'm am pleased that there's a recognition that Land Trust homes are different and should be treated differently and I'm hopeful that greater changes could be made made so I'm I think it's a move in the right direction but I'll also say that I don't believe it's enough of a move because I I think that people who live in Land Trust homes and we support um Community Land Trust through uh Walt and other programs um we we want to make sure that they're Equitable and fair to the people who live there so I I think that's just something that I want to mention to make people aware of it um it's a good program but I think the taxation could be better so anything else Council so we have to accept the um the assessment report correct so um is there a motion Council M Calbert it looks like you want to make that motion yeah I'd like to make a motion to accept the assessment report and is there a second Council M sha thank you mayor all second all right we've got a motion by council member Calver and a second by council member sha and and again thank you to our assessment team and Miss put's excellent report but I know that's a team effort so thank you so miss Larson would you please call roll Calbert yes ra yes kley yes sha yes Wilburn yes weome yes motion carries so that brings us to item 14b which is Villas at Chasewood hiia development agreement and um Miss wishnack that's your report thank you mayor and council members um this is you've seen these slides before so don't think that you um haven't but I want to go over it because it's been a few months since you've seen them so what we're talking about tonight is the housing Improvement area for um Chasewood area and and the Villas and what happened is uh this development was built in 1989 it's 21 buildings in size um and there were a lot of building deficiencies noticed in these 188 units of Housing and uh we talked about there uh being issues with ineligibility for financing that sort of thing there were all kinds of challenges that this HOA was facing so the city Council um had a public Hearing in January at that meeting and again here are the steps that maybe get a little bit fuzzy at that meeting you did the public hearing to adopt the fee resolution and in that fee resolution you kind of established the exact fee for each home and what they're going to be paying the effective date of that ordinance was February 27th and the reason that's important is there's a waiting period for the city council or the city to um let folks decide whether or not they want to appeal and there's a 45% requirement for them to appeal the city only received one petition to appeal as you know they had really strong support um when they first came in there was almost I think over 80% support for it to remind you of what this the total project costs are lots of different things going on in terms of construction but the total uh amount with the soft cost loan cost all of that is about $12.5 million so the uh estimates that you have on this chart that we showed you before just to remind you have a monthly fee for a one-bedroom of $486 and a two bedroom for $606 the total assessments are on the left side of that screen a one-bedroom is $57,200 they do have time to prepay that's from February 27th till June 18th um I think that a lot of people kind of look at it should I prepay should I not prepay after the prepay payment window ends you are not able to then pay that assessment off in a transaction so that assessment keeps going um for the life of the bond issuance um sometimes people will take this time to refinance that maybe they'll take out um a home equity loan whatever the situation is maybe they have uh funds that they can borrow from some other source they sometimes do that to then not have it on the property and have the assess fee so there's a variety of things that people do to address this um we have had some prepayment activity already and so um that will continue as I said through June of this year so the next step is really the construction part of this and so what your action tonight involves is the development agreement between the city and the homeowners association and that actually has to be signed and executed before any construction can be begin and it's not unlike a developer and a development contract that we signed with development people building new construction it'll talk about events of default um it'll talk about what the project is involved you know what's all involved what they're promising to do um the other thing that's important that you understand is it also requires them to report to the city about their financial viability every year so there's a section on uh compliance with the city and financial information that's um provided to us on an annual basis they have to do that for the life of the bonding um process and the reason we do that is because obviously when these HOAs were set up there wasn't enough money put away right new law required them to make sure they have maintenance plans and that that's all changed over the last uh decade and so that has improved the situation but in these situations where the city's stepping in and helping Bond and obviously the homeowners are paying the city is not paying for this but uh we want to make sure they're in sound fiscal position as they move forward so we'll continue to monitor um that issue as they go through the bonding process that also helps when they have changes of leadership maybe they change property management companies all these things that can happen over a 20-year period uh when you have a bond so the Villas they're actually in the process of doing the finalization of their construction financing so the way it works is they'll have a bank do the construction loan and that keeps us from having to manage or deal with their Construction issues and then at the end when that's ready to be paid out the construction loan is converted into the bond that's issued by the city there was some questions today about um taxable versus tax exempt bonding tax exempt bonding goes away what happens um I would say just simplistically interest goes up and they pay more for that the HOA would have to understand that in talking to our bond Council highly unlikely for this project knowing the timing of when they would be issuing bonds probably in the fall um if something changes there's a kind of transition period if you will for the tax exempt uh bonds and going to taxable so in her opinion um highly unlikely that it will affect this project but it could um affect other projects that the city's involved with I think that were that was all the questions I received um the action that we're recommending as staff is to adopt the resolution approving the development agreement uh both four votes are required for that adoption and again we'll be back with you on the bonding side of this later this year with that mayor I'll turn it back to you uh we did have uh Julie Edington on the line I think she's dropped off but if you have any questions she's in contact with me and if I can't answer them we can get them by email thank you thank you Miss wishnack I'm I'm disappointed that Miss Edington did not want to sit and listen to this riveting meeting she must be on her TV because she's she's emailing me so she can hear you but we she can't interact with we're all good I I think we're fine so counc do you have questions on on this item okay I'm sorry I have questions um first could we go back to the previous slide please so um you know the annual fee includes interest what is the interest um rate involved in the annual fee that the residents will pay do you know that off hand I can't remember off the top of my head but um I can look it up okay well here's here's save that question I'll answer it later the so I you know me I'm I've been sitting here doing arithmetic um and so I look at the total prepay opportunity for one bedroom two $57,000 and 71 ,000 and then I did the arithmetic on 20 times um the annual fee and there's a lot of interest there in fact the interest is more than the principal and so that's I I mean according to M if I did this right I did I multiplied the annual fee times 20 um and compared that with the total fee for the prepay and you know for the one bedroom it came to $116,500 $60 and I'm not alarmed by that it's you know when you when you buy a house you often pay more interest than you do pay principal um um over the life of a mortgage but I just wanted to make sure that that was clear and that we all understood um you know what what the what is involved in the difference between paying overtime versus um paying upfront may be so I just um so I have an answer sorry I just had it at my fingertips here it's 7% and it is a 20e term right and so and that sounds about right that sounds about right so the numbers the numbers are working I think that all makes sense so and one caveat they do have to pay administrative fees and they also because we're operating a bond and then there's an overage charge for securing there's 105% of the bond that's paid because there has to be security for the city for future payments so there's that sprinkled in I just wanted to understand that piece and ensure that the council understood that piece and roughly what the order of magnitude of the of the interest was in this um that sparked a question so you're so all of those things that you just mentioned Miss wishnack are in yes they're included in that and cor okay all inclusive number okay thank you sorry all right no that's good so that was my question you answered my question thank you are there um are there any other comments and we can go to the next page now for our action um are there any other comments by council members Council Calbert just very quickly I I would I'm I was probably not the only one but I was really concerned since it was such a topic of conversation at the national league and at the state capital about non- taxable municipal bonds so um thank you for answering the question all right very good any other comments or questions um I I have one uh again sorry um you know this is the third of these I've done in my time as a council member we we we did um the one along Cedar Lake Road we did the one with Cloud9 and now this one and you know it's really unfortunate that a property gets in this position but I'm really proud of our city for being Innovative and stepping up I don't know how many other cities um in the state are doing hias but but essentially what we're doing here this is 188 units of affordable housing that is being saved through Innovative programs now it's not cheap it's not cheap for the residents um one could argue gee that affordable housing is no longer as affordable as it once was but this housing would go away and if these buildings were scraped and that was basically the other option do you believe that there would be 188 units of affordable housing put in its place and I'm pretty sure the answer to that is no so when I've been in a lot of housing meetings with different city groups I brag about this I talk about this needs to be part of one of the tools in our toolbox to save affordable housing because housing is so expensive we prove that at Mills Church housing is so expensive if we can save affordable housing and save naturally occurring affordable housing we are going to save tens of millions perhaps hundreds of millions of and we need to increase the supply of affordable housing so I'm really proud of this I I'm going to also maybe I'm I'm wearing my evangelist had a little bit too much but I really think it's important that we share this story and help other cities look to ways that they can save housing through this Innovative concept and I think uh I take my hats off to our staff for bringing this to us a long time ago so I'm definitely in support so if someone like to make a motion Council or go ahead Council I'll make the motion but I'd also like your comments sparked a thought that I just wanted to make sure that um again congratulating staff but also making sure that our residents understand that this is a cost neutral uh you know kind of project for us uh we are helping out you know this development but ultimately this is a loan that will be paid back to this city and that incorporates also some Consulting fees and so you know kind of our staff time and efforts for this so that this is something that is revenue neutral um for for the city's tax base so with that I will make the motion to adopt the resolution approving the development agreement is there a second Council M Shack thank you mayor I'll second all right we've got a motion motion by council member ra a second by council member sha Miss Larson please call roll calber yes ra yes kley yes sha yes Wilburn yes weome yes motion carries um that brings us to item 15 appointments and reappointments we have no appointments and reappointments tonight so item 16 is adjournment is there a motion council member Wilburn I move adjournment is there a second council member ra I'll second all right we've got a motion by council member Wilbur and a second by council member ra all in favor say I I we are adjourned [Music]