Since the original transcript did not include timestamps, I have provided them in a sequential format to denote speaker changes. Based on the context of the White Bear Lake City Council, I have identified the speakers (Councilmember Edberg, the Mayor, City Attorney Magner, and Community Development Director Lindy Croft). *** **[00:00] Councilmember Edberg:** All right, public right-of-way. Only... Councilmember Edberg. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I don’t know what to think about charges. I’m open to the conversation. I don’t like it, but I do think SAC and WAC [Sewer/Water Availability Charges] become a part of that conversation at some point. I suspect so. Folks who are going to do that are going to be subject, I suspect, to significantly higher costs and they will pay—they will pay something for that. So it’s not like they’re getting off free, I don’t think. I’d like to understand where the Met Council comes down on those kinds of considerations. My sense is that, actually, a building that generates—the value of a business and the value of a property is related in part to what kind of business it generates, how much—how many dollars it generates. That’s a standard form of business valuation. Whether that—my assumption is that that actually would get capitalized into the value of the business and subject that business to a higher property tax because of the imputed increased value of the business. And so, therefore, there is a cost and a charge. Now, all of that is just assumption and surmise. So let’s study and try and figure out which of those do apply, which ones don’t, and if so, in relatively what kind of quantities. And we can go learning; that would be fine. **[01:15] Mayor:** On the fees for purposes of where we’re at now, I’d want to see what other cities are doing. I’m happy to be part of the discussion. I think we should—I think we should air it out. I tend to lean on the side of... I agree, if you have a more desirable space in front of you—and I’m making the same assumptions you are, Councilmember Edberg—you paid more for it, it’s assessed at a higher rate, and that’s the fee, that’s the amount that you’re paying. A nominal fee... and you know, we’ll keep an open mind about that, but I do tend to err on that side and kind of what you had said to Councilmember Walsh. It’s... there likely is a higher value to that and it’s reflected through their property taxes. So that’s their contribution. Anyone else have any more comments on this? **[02:05] Councilmember (Unidentified):** One more note, Mr. Chair. Clear separation of pandemic. That was pandemic; this is back to normal. So we need to do exactly what we want. **[02:15] Mayor:** Yeah, I agree. So the staff, I think—I think you have your marching orders. Yes, to kind of all the bullet points. Let’s move forward, let’s research it, let’s see what other cities are doing, and I think some kind of proposal... and we’ll continue the further discussion. But I think we’re headed in the right direction and if we can—if we can get this done, it’ll ultimately be a good thing for the businesses of White Bear. **[02:45] Councilmember Edberg:** Councilmember Edberg. Yeah, I’m sorry, one... so in the interim, do our existing relationships and approvals that were granted by council and by staff—and at the best of my analysis, they were that authority—my recollection is that it was granted by council, it should be revoked by council, not by administrative action. Until we make a decision to the contrary, do those existing relationships remain in place and available until such time that we, with reasonable notice, say "you're done, we’ve changed to a new world"? Anyway, what’s our administrative interpretation of the existing activities? **[03:30] Mayor:** Yeah, that’s a fair point. Tell you where I’m thinking with that. To me, I see a distinction between those long-standing kind of legacy patio areas and those that were specifically carved out in the last two years for the pandemic. I think we all have a pretty good sense of what that was without naming any specific businesses. Those that have been there for a long time and those that literally built kind of makeshift things for the pandemic. I see those as two different things and I think for the most part, the ones that we’re talking about that were kind of makeshift for the pandemic were the ones that were encroaching on parking spaces. So I don’t know—maybe we need some kind of legal interpretation for what our latitude is here. But it seems to me that if the council approved it, then it’s in place. But I don’t know, the devil’s in the details. Were those approvals on an annual basis? Was it perpetual? **[04:20] City Attorney (Mr. Magner):** I believe that was a temporary authorization for the pandemic. Mr. Mayor and Council, I haven’t talked to staff about this, I’m just working from original—having been the person who wrote the resolution. It was meant to grant regulatory flexibility in a number of different ways to acknowledge the fact that when restaurants were allowed to reopen, as we all recall, they were largely outside and were limited exclusively outside. So the whole idea was during the pandemic, in order to respond to these restrictions, it was the idea that staff would have some flexibility to allow this. Frankly, it was a somewhat made-up thing. You know, there’s nothing in law that says you can grant regulatory flexibility, but given the circumstances, we said, "I think we can do it, we’re just going to do it," because we need the businesses to have this flexibility so they can, you know, hopefully tread water during this challenging time. So, yes, it was a limited—like I said, kind of... we took a flyer on it. A number of other communities did too, that ones I represent and others, and said, "Yeah, let’s do it. This is what needs to be done given this emergency." So given that whole context, it really was limited to that. Now that the restrictions have gone away, I would discourage further use of that flexibility. That’s not to speak of the ones that are long-standing prior to that. I’m just saying that regulatory flexibility resolution really was tied towards the pandemic and the limitations that were associated with it. **[05:50] Councilmember Edberg:** Okay, I have a question. So I’m not going to try and play a lawyer without a JD. If the resolution says that, then let us abide by what’s in the resolution. If the resolution didn’t say that, I think that requires a slightly different interpretation. So we should bind ourselves by whatever we said, and I don’t remember. So going back and researching that... I did think of one other item we should consider: seasonality. Especially for sidewalk use and whether between, you know, the end of February or the end of March and the end of October or something, as to how we think about sidewalk availability. **[06:30] Lindy Croft (Community Development Director):** Mayor, if I may offer a point of clarification on those temporary approvals: they were issued on an annual basis and they were time-limited. We had separate applications for both years, so they wouldn’t carry forward beyond the period which was the end of or middle of last October. **[06:50] Mayor:** Okay, that’s helpful. All right, thank you. Moving on to Item 10A: Quarterly Community Development Reports. Ms. Croft. **[07:00] Lindy Croft:** Thank you, Mayor. In your packet is your first quarterly community development report, so I’ll ask if you have any questions, but I do want to just call out a few things in the report. It has been a very busy year so far with a lot of changes for community development. The first page of your report is the land use activity, and in March alone, they had about 109 permits, questions, inquiries, meetings, etc. That’s a lot with the absence of a community development director. On page two, you have your building permit data, and I just want to call out three specific permits in this report. The first would be the White Bear Lake North Campus mechanical permit. That is a valuation for $15 million, and that’s a four-year project. So that’s where you’re seeing that HVAC over $15 million value there. The Level Up Academy storm shelter addition and renovation—that valuation for that project is $6 million. White Bear Lake North Campus fire suppression permit—that valuation, that permit is $1,430,000. So basically, what I’m telling you is we’ve had—we have a record year already. Those are very large projects that make up over $22 million of the total valuation for this first quarter in 2022. And then on the back, you have your—we have our code enforcement violations. The line where you see "complaints" at the far right says 22. I just want to call out that’s the total, the grand total of all those added together. We’ll have that called out a little bit differently so it’s a little bit easier for you to understand going forward. So it’s been a very busy first quarter for community development and we have several community development staff here today if you have any questions on any of these—anything in this report. **[08:45] Councilmember Edberg:** Thank you for the new look. I like the permit valuation. Would it be difficult or unnecessary—I don’t know—to divide that up? I look at evaluation of what a non-tax paying building would be versus one that will generate taxes, like the high school. I think those are two different things. **[09:05] Lindy Croft:** Okay, yep, we can take a look at that. **[09:08] Councilmember Edberg:** Very good snapshot, thank you. **[09:10] Lindy Croft:** All right, okay. Yeah, but the valuation of 15 million, that’s not... you know, I’ll keep the money. No, thank you. Keep going. All right, also in your packet is a flyer for the Phase II extension of the Bruce Vento Trail. There will be a community meeting on Thursday, April 21st, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM here at City Hall should anybody wish to attend that. We will also put that on our social media sites. And then lastly, on April 21st at 1:00 PM, there will be a groundbreaking for the Rooney Farm/Eco-Woods project development at 1800 County Road E. If anyone is interested in attending that, please let me know and we can coordinate. That’s all I have. **[09:55] Mayor:** Council, any other questions? **[10:00] Councilmember Edberg:** Did we have an easter egg hunt recently? **[10:05] Lindy Croft:** I’m not sure if we had it recently, but we did create a new event. The Police Department created an easter egg hunt. It was free, asking people to pre-register, and we had 100 slots, and that registration filled up in 45 minutes. **[10:20] Mayor:** All right, with that I’d entertain a motion to adjourn. **[10:23] Councilmember:** Motion. **[10:24] Councilmember:** Second. **[10:25] Mayor:** All those in favor of adjourning say aye. **[10:27] Council (In Unison):** Aye. **[10:28] Mayor:** We’re adjourned. Good thing we better... you.