[music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Good evening and welcome. Tonight is Monday, November 10th, 2025. This is a regular meeting of the Minnitankka City Council. 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 all. >> Miss Larson, would you please call roll? >> Kley, >> here. Foster Bolton >> here. >> Shaq >> here. >> Wilburn >> here. >> Calbert here. Romeley >> here. >> Wearsome >> here. Next item is approval of the agenda. We have an addendum. Uh Mr. Funk. >> Yeah. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council. Have two items for your consideration on tonight's agenda. One is related to item 14B, which is the preliminary plat for D. Young Estates, a two lot subdivision at 18420 Old Excelsier Boulevard. There were written comments received after publication of the report and your packet that had went out. So what you have is comments that generally pertain to the construction that's occurring on the adjacent property north of the proposed D Young estate subdivision. Uh as you notice in that correspondence, the uh commenter um raises issues and staff is engaging with the commenter on those issues, but they are really related to a separate lot. So majority of those comments again are not related to the D Young estates. And then with item 14E, which is a resolution awarding the sale and taxable general obligation bonds series 2025A for the Villas of Chasewood Housing Improvement Area or the HIA. A new day of sale report and updated resolution are attached to this item. So when the packet went out, uh there was a lot of blanks in your report just based on the sales that occurred. Uh the recommended action is to motion to adopt the resolution on the sale of the taxable general obligation housing improvement bonds series 2025A in the original aggregate principal amount of 7,970,000 fixing their form and specifications directing their execution and delivery and providing for their payment. And we'll cover that as staff with that agenda item later. And then with that, mayor and council, that is the two agendas for your consideration. Staff recommends motion to approve the agenda as amended. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Funk. Um, any questions or a motion? Council member Romey. >> I move to approve the agenda as amended. >> Um, council member Calbertt, >> I'll second. >> Thank you both. We've got a motion by Council Member Romey and a second by Council Member Calbertt. Miss Larson, please call a roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. Yes. Wilburn. >> Yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Mey, >> yes. >> Whisome, >> yes. Motion carries. Next item is special matters and we have two of those tonight. The first is the retirement recognition for facilities manager Kevin Moss. So, um, I can have you come up or I can read this first and then have you come up. Maybe we'll do it that way. So, you can take this all in, Mr. Moss. Um, so, and I'm going to put my glasses on so I get this right. So Kevin Moss started at the city of Minnetonka in 2015. He came to the city with an educational background in public administration and business and prior experience in both private and public work. This work included development, construction, and county government servicing serving serving as the facility service manager of Carver County, Minnesota. Mr. Moss has a a longtime resident of Minnotonka was also a previous member of the city min of Minnitonka economic development advisory commission EDAC. Mr. Moss has served as the city's facilities manager for the building maintenance division of public works for the last 10 years where he oversaw 10 staff and managed 15 city facilities. He was an active participant in the international facility manager association and became certified as a sustain sustainability facility professional SFP which provides professionals of the industry educational opportunities to increase their depth of knowledge related to sustainable sustainability efforts. He was promoted to um he has promoted sustainability throughout his time in the city, including serving on the sustainability committee committee for the public safety facility project and supporting sustainability through equipment selection and material reuse. Mr. Moss and his team are responsible for operations and maintenance of the city's building structures and component systems, including electrical and mechanical, heating and cooling, office setups, custodial and major capital facility projects. The facilities team supports both city employees and visitors to all of the city's facilities. Mr. Moss also has led a number of notable projects during his time at the city, including the preservation of the Burwell House, the city hall remodel, the $30 million public safety facility construction and installation of the city's first rooftop and ground solar array projects. Mr. Mas and his team also had to develop and quickly adapt to a completely new set of building facility protocols during the pandemic to ensure the health, safety, and operational continuity of buildings and occupants. Further, his accomplishments include his work as a lifetime member and former president of the Economic Development Association of Minnesota and secretary and treasurer for the Twin Cities Metrocertified Development Company, serving as a board member for 30 years along with leading efforts in the audit, budget, and executive committees for the FA past 15 years. So, I want to thank Kevin Moss for all he has done for the city as he retires from the city on November 20, 2025. And then, Mr. Moss, I'm going to invite you forward and I've got a a little momento here for you. And uh I will read this and present it and then give you the opportunity to say a few words if you'd like. >> Congratulations. I'll give you this and uh Let's see. Can I better grab those glasses again. Thank you. Human frailty is a problem. So, this says, it's kind of hard to read. A community reflects the character and dedication of those who serve it. The residents of Minnetonka are grateful to you. Kevin Moss public works 2015 to 2025. So, that's for you. >> Thank you very much. [applause] Very [applause] good. I know you're in a hurry to watch your Packers tonight. >> Well, we'll see. >> No, it's been uh a privilege to serve the community of Minnetonka and I've been a resident uh for 36 years now. We'll have our 37th anniversary on New Year's Eve. we moved in and uh it's been a great run and I appreciate everything uh the council's done and their support and city staff as well. It's been a great place to work and a great place to finish up. Thank you. >> And um Mr. Moss, Kevin, I I just want to thank you personally. I mean, I've known you for a long time. Our kids played hockey together and uh we were hockey dads together, but um thanks for your service to the city. It's um it's been great working with you. >> Thank you. >> All right, now we'll do that. >> [applause] >> So, the next special matter is a proclamation for Native American Heritage Month, and I've asked Council Council Member Romey to read that proclamation. >> Thank you, mayor. I was uh hoping that staff could maybe project it also on the screen if that's possible um so that people in the audience can see it this as well. So, City of Minnotonka proclamation Native American Heritage Month November 1st to 30th, 2025. Whereas the month of November is recognized as Native American Heritage Month, a time to honor and celebrate the rich histories, diverse cultures, and invaluable contributions of native peoples across the United States. And whereas this month serves as a time to reflect on the injustices and inequities experienced by native peoples, including displacement, broken treaties, and loss of culture. And whereas recognizing these truths is an essential step towards healing, understanding, and reconciliation, and reaffirms our collective responsibility to advance equity, injustice, and inclusion for all indigenous peoples. And whereas the city of Minnitonka resides on the ancestral homelands of the Metawakatan, Dakota people and Anashanabi Ajiway people, and honoring this land and its original stewards deepens our appreciation for the history, culture, and enduring presence of indigenous peoples in our community. And whereas the city of Minnotonka is committed to recognizing and celebrating Native Native American heritage month as a part of its ongoing dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now therefore, be it resolved that the city of Minnotonka, the city council of the city of Minnitonka does hereby proclaim November 2025 as native American Heritage Month and call upon the people of Minnitonka to learn from and celebrate the stories, traditions, and contributions of indigenous peoples past, present, and future. >> Thank you, Council Member Romey. And um a little confession here. In my enthusiasm to get to special matters because we don't have those every every time, I overlooked item five, which is um approval of minutes. And so that made it challenging for staff to try and keep all the the right stuff in front of the council. But um and on the video, but um we do have one set of minutes that uh we're taking out of order. Um and so they are the October 20th, 25 2025 regular meeting minutes. So, we just need to approve those. Council member Calbertt. >> Thank you, Mayor. I move approval of the October 20th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. >> And is there a second? Council member Romey, >> I'll second. >> All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Calbertt and a second by Council Member Romey. Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Romeley, >> yes. >> Wearsome, >> yes. Motion carries. And as good as those special matters were, we're not going to repeat them. So, we're going to we're going to move on to um item seven, which is reports from the city manager and council members. Mr. Funk. Thank you, Mayor. Good. Good evening, council. Couple things for your consideration this evening. First off, this upcoming Thursday, a number of us staff members are going to be meeting with the House Bonding Committee, and I mayor Woram is invited. Mayor Elect Rebecca Shack was invited. We've invited our local legislators as well. uh it's it's an opportunity for us as staff to showcase our bonding request of a fire station to our local legislators and to that bonding committee. So, we're looking forward to that coming up. And then also want to just mention Spooktacular and perhaps maybe a few of you may mention that as well. Just really want to acknowledge Kelly OD and our recreation team for their efforts. Uh Spooktacular is always a fun event. It's just such fun seeing uh families and young kids and all the costumes uh at the Burwell House. So, thank you to our staff and for everyone in the community for coming out and participating. You never know how the weather goes and we were fortunate again this year with some with some good weather on Halloween, at least decent weather on Halloween. Uh and then also uh two more things. I want to thank Becky Kuzzman, our city clerk, Kelsey Larson, Nicole Tingley, Tanya Witchen, which is our election staff, all of our election judges, our head judges for everyone that participated in this year's election. Uh Miss Kuzman will speak to that later on our agenda item, but certainly just want to recognize our staff for the work that they put in for our elections. goes without saying that we're really proud of our elections here in Minnetonka, the way that we conduct them with such integrity uh and honor in the way that we conduct our business. And then last um just want to reference item 14E uh which is again the bond issuance sales. Uh council, I know you're aware of this, but I think it's worth publicly saying as well that uh we had our bond rating call. It was the first time in four years that we recently did our bond rating call. That was a couple weeks ago. Uh we were affirmed uh that we are maintaining our AAA bond rating which is really reflects our strong local economy supported by our proximity to Minneapolis high resident income levels evaluated per value per value per capita and the city maintains a robust financial position over 100% of our revenue that is expected to remain stable benefiting from disciplined budgeting practices and also consistent revenue growth. So all that gets evaluated and happy to report as staff to you mayor and council and to our community that we will maintain our AAA bond rating that also get highlighted later this evening. So with that I turn it back over to you. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Funk. Uh council members are there things that you would like to report on. Council member Calbertt. >> Thank you mayor. Well, I just want to congratulate my uh fellow uh council members on their um respective uh electoral victories and to all the people that helped them. And mostly I want to thank the um election staff and our incredible election judges who work very very hard and um administer really well-run elections. I hear wonderful things from people out in the community and it is literally um democracy in a in action. So, I'm just so appreciative of um the professionalism um not only of the staff but really of the people um the the election judges. So, I just wanted to mention that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Calbert. Is there anyone else? Council member Shaq or should I say mayor elect? I think it's council member I [laughter] think at this point. Um thank you mayor. I echo uh what council member Calbertt said and also would extend the congratulations back her way. Um also and we're now we are on the path of um welldeserved recognition for the next six weeks of our outgoing mayor who has done such a phenomenal job um on behalf of the city. And so I'll say it now and we will all be saying it several times in the upcoming weeks because he deserves a lot of credit for um what a great city Minnetonka is. And likewise to election staff um it's a lot of work even when it's a local election year and um a lot of moving pieces and to all of our election judges um great work. really appreciate it and that long long early voting window makes it tricky for staffing and keeping people here when it's when it's probably pretty slow at the beginning. So appreciate all the work. And then finally, I will say my I I tell everybody this every year, but my absolute favorite event that the city puts on is spooktacular because it truly is walking into a Hallmark movie. And so the staff does such a nice job with it. They're so enthusiastic. This year we had such a great turnout because the weather was excellent. So want to It feels like it was forever ago, but I want to make sure to recognize that that was such a wonderful event. >> Thank you, Council Member Shack. Um, anyone else? Council member Wilbert. Just really quickly, I want to echo what my fellow council members have said. Congratulate them on their victories and thanks to all of our uh everybody who volunteered and supported our various campaigns. And again, uh thanks to the the campaign st or the uh the election staff here at the city that works so hard um to make sure that the elections go off without a hitch. >> Thank you, Council Wilurn. Is there anyone else? Okay. I always have a few things, so I'll try not to take too long, but um first of all, I want to congratulate the winners of the election and uh um and uh that you worked hard. You you you you won your election because of your hard work, but all of the also the incumbents won because of the excellent work that they've done for the last four years and in some cases more. Um, the other thing I want to do is I want to thank all of the candidates, people who had the guts to step up and and uh pay their $5 and get their um name on the ballot. Um, because that that you put yourself in the public eye and uh you know there's for each office there's only one winner. Um, but we had a lot of candidates, a lot of interest in the election in in Minnetonka this year. And I think that reflects well on the on the city and and I also think that the um the results of the election reflect well on the city, too, because as I listened and I observed, I think our residents are quite happy with Minnetonka and the way it's being run. And that's a reflection on this council. It's a reflection on our city staff. Um, it's a reflection on the way we do things. And I I talked to Mr. Funk the day after the election. I said, you know, this this election was a good day for the Minnetonka brand because we're a city that does things well. And the biggest issue that I heard in the election was that, well, taxes are too high. Now, raise your t raise your hand if you don't want your taxes lower. We all want lower taxes. And the thing that we do in Minnetonka is we deliver value. And I think that our taxes are not low. I'd like them to be lower, but we offer value to our residents for what they pay for. And I think that's recognized. And I think the the election results recognize that because, you know, people were hardressed to come up with meaningful issu is issues about what's wrong with our city. So as a departing mayor, I am very proud of that. And it's a team effort. It's not the mayor. It's it's everyone here. It's everyone in this room and it's it's 400 people who work for the city in um in different many different capacities. So, I'm I'm really proud of that. So, I want to I want to share that. [snorts] And then um I was not at Spooktacular this year. Uh shame on me, but I was out of state doing something else. So, I'm sorry I missed it, but I know that we uh we did a great job on that. But the other um thing I want to mention is tomorrow is Veterans Day. So, City Hall will be closed tomorrow. Um, but if you came um through the community center entrance, there is a great display um that honors the veterans that are connected to the employees of the city. And I spent a little time with that book reading through and I certainly recognized a lot of names. I didn't know all the people in there, but we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to everyone who served. And I can tell you my dad served in World War II. um his uh career um in the in the US Army was cut short due to um um health challenges. Um but um but he served during World War II. My my uncle was um actually involved in D-Day um in World War II and uh and in a lot of other places in Europe. Um but we owe just such a debt of um of gratitude to our veterans. So, if you know a veteran tomorrow, thank them for your for their service. And um if you want to learn more about the veterans who um whose family members work for the city or who might have worked for the city in the past, uh refer to the book downstairs that's in the lobby. Um it's interesting reading. And then um um I'm um I am co-chair of the regional council of mayors. We have a meeting once a month and uh we have different speakers. And today our speaker was uh former governor uh Pente and uh he was um he was very entertaining and very informative. Um he kind of uh provided some lessons on leadership and I think everyone there regard regardless of their political orientation uh took something away of value and I just want to thank governor palente for um sharing his perspective with us. It was uh very interesting and very worthwhile. So that is it for uh reports from council members and city um city managers and council members. So we'll go on to the next item which is um citizens wishing to discuss matters not on the agenda. And so this is an open mic opportunity. If you have an issue that you would like to share with us that is not on tonight's agenda, come forward, state your name and address. Tell us what you want us to hear. Um we will not take any action. we will acknowledge it and if there's any follow-up required um we will turn to staff and have them follow up with you um and then report back to us. So, thank you for being here and if you have something you'd like to let us know, please come forward, state your name and address and let us know. >> Good evening. Thank you. Excuse the athleisure aware. I'm going right to soccer practice after this. So, thank you. My name is Molly Moinin. I'm at 3929 Brown Lane in Minnetonka. I'm a longtime Minnotonka resident. I grew up here. I graduated from Hopkins and I moved back before my kids started school because of the spooktacular [laughter] and I love everything about this community. So, earlier this year, I was pleased to learn that back in 2020, the Minnotonka City Council passed an ordinance restricting flavored tobacco sales to tobacco only shops. Thank you for that. More than 30 Minnesota cities and counties now have similar protections, and I sincerely hope that this momentum leads to a statewide law someday soon. What brings us here tonight is the lack of compliance with our local policy. In 2024, Henipin County Public Health assessed 18 tobacco retailers in Minnitonka and all 18, 100% were out of compliance, selling flavored tobacco in violation of our city code. Thanks to my fantastic city council member, council member um Rome, thank you. We've been able to better understand the city's process, the log of some official complaints, spur retailer education, and finally see some enforcement action this fall, 5 years after council passed the original ordinance. While we're seeing a few retailers comply, kudos to Cub and Walgreens, most are still not in compliance. So yesterday, my daughter and five of her friends conducted congratulate and educate visits. In a moment, you'll hear what they observed. First, I'll share just a few facts. About 90% of adult smokers start before age 18. Nicotine addiction almost always begins during adolescence when the developing brain is most vulnerable. Preventing nicotine exposure in adolescence is critical because that's when addiction really sets in. Strong flavor restrictions reduce youth access and use by removing products that are most appealing to kids. But as you know, policies are only as good as their enforcement. If we're going to claim the credit and the benefit of these policies, we have to make sure the policies are communicated and followed. I look forward to the day when we can come back and report a 100% compliance rate instead of 100% failure rate. That's when we'll know we're doing right by our policies and by our kids. Thank you for your time and special thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your long and impactful service. I hope to see you out on the trail soon. I'll turn it over to the girls. Maybe they each have just a couple seconds. I mean 30 seconds or so. If they all came up together, would that be okay? >> Very good. Yes. Welcome. >> And I do have a handout too that I can lean with you. >> Should I give that here or? >> Um, yeah, you can. You can hand it here and we'll pass along. >> No. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And then ladies, come on up and tell us what you want us to hear. >> Good evening. >> Good evening, members of the Minnotonka City Council. My name is Amelia Bidwell and I am a citizen of our beloved community. I am 12 years old and a sixth grader at Minnotonka Middle School East along with my fellow peers. I love my family and friends very much and would never want to want anything to happen to them. Recently, it has come to my attention that many gas stations are not following our policy of zero sales on flavored tobacco. And that concerns me because I would not like anything like anyone I love or know to be harmed by these products. In the research I have done with my group, we have found that many stores have signs for these products at the eye level of children. Furthermore, these stores are selling tobacco and flavors from berry blast to banana split. You may be asking yourself, what can I do to solve this problem? In truth, there are many things you can do, but the main thing is to enforce the law that you have created by using your resources to make this law more voiced so that the young people in our community can live a longer smoke-free life. We hope that this presentation will help prevent smoking in the future. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day. >> Welcome. >> Um hello. Um my name is Ingred. I'm a sixth grader at MME. I love reading and dragons and I want to be a prosthetic engineer for animals when I grow up. I really care about this topic and and um because I don't want any young people to become addicted to flavored vapes. I [snorts] do not think it's right to target kids in smoking, smoking, vaping, etc. The flavors are constantly drawing more and more kids in. Me and some other sixth graders went to different gas stations and shops to investigate into to investigate flavors of tobacco and try to bring further awareness to it. I noticed that Lon and Zinn were seen repetitively at stores. I also noted that they had a video game bait that's that the more you vape, the more points you score, which scheme seems to specifically target youth. These companies should not keep selling these perilous products and they know it. I have a shout out for Cub because they had zero flavored tobacco elements and they were the only store we visited that had that. But the reason I'm here is to ask you to enforce the law and help enforce getting rid of flavored tobacco. Thank you for your time and help our city become healthier. Thank you very much. >> Hello. >> Welcome. >> Hello. My name is Isma Taha. I live in Minnetonka with my two brothers and my parents. I'm a sixth grader at MME and I love playing soccer and tennis. When I grow up, I want to be a detective. I care about this because I don't want my friends and family to smoke or get addicted. It is very unhealthy and I don't want anyone getting hurt. Yesterday I learned that it is targeted to young people and that there are many different forms of tobacco like one of the most popular brands Lon and Zen. I also noticed that there was a variety of flavors like cinnamon, mint, coffee, and more. Please help by making sure all stores ban flavored tobacco. Thank you for listening to us and for everything you do. Please start enforcing the law. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. >> Good evening. My name is Emma Reby. I live in Minnotonka with my mom and brother. I go to school at Minnotonka Middle School East and I'm in sixth grade. I love to run and play soccer. When I grow up, I want to be a teacher or a nurse. I care about this because I don't want my friends, family, and peers to get addicted to nicotine or tobacco. It's not right to target kids by flavoring tobacco and or nicotine. Yesterday, when me and my friends went to stores all around Minnotonka, I noticed a repetitive sequence of the brands Lon and Zin. I also noticed that there was a big variety of flavors like peppermint, citrus, berry, cinnamon, wintergreen, coffee, etc. Please help enforce the law and thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Hello ladies and gentlemen of the city council. My name is Caroline Hansen and I live here in Minnotonka with my mom, dad, sister, and two cats. I'm a sixth grader at Minnotonka Middle School East. I love to go running with my mom and friends playing guitar and reading the Hunger Games. Yesterday, me and some friends went to 10 different stores to either celebrate or educate shops with flavored tobacco and nicotine products target targeted towards kids like us. I think that this is an important subject because I don't want my family, friends, and peers to get addicted to dangerous products that include nicotine, tobacco, and or menthol. We learned from the BP in Glen Lake that Lon ecigarettes are popular for women in their 20s. Jewel ecigarettes are popular for women in their 30s and that and that black and mild flavored cigarettes are most common for men. Berry, grape, and mint were some of the most common flavors. We found many flavored tobacco ads on gas station doors right at our eye level, obviously on purpose. Some were very cheap at only $2. That is cheaper than a bubbler with almost double the use. So, if you want your teenager to just be bugged by you and not drugged by vapes, please enforce this law. Thank you for your time. Have a good evening. >> Thank you very much. >> Good evening. >> Hello everyone. My name is Barney Beckett and I am 12 years old. I live in our city, Minnetonka, with my mom, dad, and brother. I love to play sports and have dance parties with my grandpa. Flavored tobacco is supposed to be restricted in our community, but it's everywhere. Yesterday we observed many flavors including winter green, blue slushie, and banana split. We even saw a flavored vape with a built built the built-in video game. Who are they targeting? It's obvious. Kids like us. Please take more steps to enforce Minnotonka's flavored tobacco law. I know we can do better. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. So, um I' I'd like to thank you all for being here. um and just make a couple of quick comments that um I really you've done a real service to your community because I think we as a council when that law was passed felt we were doing the right thing and we were but to your point if we're if we're not monitoring closely and um and ensuring that the a law is followed then we've only made ourselves feel good and we haven't made our community safer and and healthier. So one I really appreciate that. The other thing I want to say is you're making a difference and I hope that you will always remember your participation in this city council meeting and that as you go through your lives that you will recognize that by being involved, by showing up, you can make a difference on a lot of issues. So, let this be a first step. I'm not going to say it's the first step, but let it be a first step in your community involvement in making your community better. It's because it's when people like you come forward that we do a better job because I don't think anyone on our staff or any of our council members here intend for these laws to not be followed. But we recognize sometimes when we when we pass ordinances and pass laws that there's got to be more than just the action here. we've got to make sure that they get followed. So, you've you've you've performed a real service for your community and I thank you very much. Is there anyone else who has something for the the council? >> Good evening. Good evening, council members. My name is Bur Young and uh we're celebrating our AAA bond rating being reaffirmed today. I'd just like to bring up a little history for you. We're celebrating long-term employees. Former finance director Dale Eggenburgger starting in the uh early 70s was a singular force for the improvement of the city of Minnotonka. He was responsible for getting the first certificate of achievement for f excellence in financial reporting from the government finance officers association. He was responsible for getting the AAA bond rating for the city of Minnetonka. Before we were 50,000 population and at that time we were one of the smallest communities in the country to have a AAA bond rating. And the last thing that Dale did was he was also responsible for setting up the community investment fund and uh having a wonderful resource for a lot of improvements throughout the community. So, I want to recognize finance director Darren Nelson for continuing that um tradition of excellence among the staff members here and uh congratulate uh our uh city administrator Funk for uh continuing also with financial excellence in Minnetonka. Thank you very much. >> Oh, Mr. D. Young, thank you. Um um financial excellence is one of the six core um pillars of our strategic plan. And I knew um Dale uh when he served here. I've been around long enough to have known him. And uh um we got many uh financial reporting awards that started under his um watchful eye, but they've continued and as you've um rightly indicated, uh Darren Nelson's been a part of continuing that. So, I'm proud of our the excellence of our financial reporting and our conservative um um our conservative budgeting and approach to things and I really appreciate the recognition you just shared with us. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else who'd like to comment tonight? >> Anyone? All right, seeing no one, we will move on. So, the next item on the agenda is bids and purchases. And uh good night everyone. Thanks for coming in. Um bids and purchases and we have none of those tonight. So that brings us to the consent agenda. And the consent agenda is items that are typically quite routine. So we will um I will read them into the record. And if anyone wants to pull an item for further consideration, uh whether you're in the audience or a council member, please indicate that. Then we will vote on all of the items that are not pulled and then we'll return to the items that have been pulled for further comment and an individual vote. So I'll read these into the uh record right now. So item 10 A is the strategic plan quarter 3 report and item 10B is the preliminary plat for D Young Estates, a two lot subdivision at 18420 Old Excelsier Boulevard. And item 10 C is a resolution supporting the appointment of Ricardo Bonner to the board of managers of the Minihaha Creek Watershed District by the Henipin County Board of Commissioners. And item 10D is a resolution appointing Bond Trust Services Corporation as fiscal agent in connection with certain outstanding obligations. So, are there any is would anyone like to um pull any items? Um, Council Member Calbertt. >> Yeah, I just uh mostly just to make a comment on 10B and I I'll make a very brief comment on 10A. >> All right. Well, then we will um well, if it if you're not going to pull it, but you want to make a comment, let make the comment and then we'll uh we'll move forward. So, go ahead, Council Member Calvert. >> Sounds good. Um just uh in terms of the strategic plan quarter three report, I just want to thank staff for the great work and the obvious progress that we're making on our strategic priorities. And um you know, uh Mr. Funk made a wonderful announcement about our AAA bond rating, which is actually part of our uh one of the action items in our strategic plan. So, thank you very much to our finance department, especially um Mr. Nelson. But, um it's just great work and um I'm glad to see we're making the progress. And then on 10B, um I just wanted to make sure um I said this, there is I watched the planning commission meeting. Um there is a lot of development on that end of town. Just a lot of development. And there is some understandable concern about um tree loss and just uh sort of environmental conditions and just things that go on. we, you know, there were some strong feelings um uh expressed in our uh addendum this evening and I just want to say that when you have fully conforming lots um people don't understand that um uh those are things that they're not violating anything specifically if they're meeting our tree ordinance and our um setbacks and the the uh buildable space and all of the things. Um we are somewhat uh our hands are somewhat tied in what we can do, but I will say that um as the development goes, I hope that people are mindful of the trees and the environmental conditions and just the nature of um sort of the the the wooded beauty that's on that end of town. So, um I will just leave it at that. >> All right. Um would anyone else like to make any comments on um either of those items? >> Um I'll just add a little bit that um you know development people don't like change. I mean that that's that's one thing you can you can say with absolute certainty people dislike change. And so when a development like this comes forward um there are going to be people who don't like it because it's a change. At the same time, people have the right, they have property rights, and they have the right to make changes um that are conforming with our um ordinances and with our policies. And in fact, um and uh Council Member Calver touched on this, when a a project is fully conforming, the city is compelled to approve it. um because if they if we didn't, we create legal liability for the city because um the applicant would have the right to sue the city and would win because a a proposal is fully compliant. So, there are times when I've sat up here and voted to approve things that I didn't particularly like, but they were fully conforming. But I will say, and I will congratulate our staff, even in those circumstances, we've always worked well with the applicant. And I think staff through its persuasion and um knowledge has enabled those developments to be developed in such a way that there is less impact than um was um feared or anticipated. Um but understand it's not like we for some developments we just throw away our values and say well we're going to prove it. No, there are some things that come forward. we have we have absolutely no choice, but we don't stop working on improving it to make it as good as it can be for the residents of our community. So, um pardon the speech, but I think it's important to put that into context. So, Council Calbert, I don't know if you'd like to make um a motion on um let's see. Well, we Yeah, if you'd like to make the motion, that'd be great. >> Go ahead. >> Um sure. Uh I >> We didn't pull those, so they're all they're all up, right? >> Right. Exactly. So, I'd like to make the motion to adopt consent agenda items 10 A, B, C, and D. >> And is there a second? Council member Shack. >> I'll second. >> All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Calbertt and a second by Council Member Shack. Miss Larson, please call the role. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Romeley, >> yes. >> We >> yes. Motion carries. Item 11 is consent agenda items requiring five votes and we have none of those tonight. So that brings us to item 12, introduction of ordinances. And um 12A is an ordinance amending sections 130.005 and 130.010 relating to members appointments and terms of the senior advisory board. And Mr. Funk, I believe you have that. Or is that No, Miss Diamond, excuse me. We talked about that earlier. I forgot to make that. Oh, Miss Diamond, pardon me. >> Thank you, Mayor and Councel. Um, this evening we'll be talking about the ordinance amending sections 13.005 and 13.010 relating to members appointments and terms of the senior advisory board. This is an introduction of ordinance. So, the recommendation this evening is to motion to introduce the ordinance and it requires four votes this evening. A little bit of background. So our current ordinance um is the number of members is currently at 15 with seven members appointed in even number of years and eight members appointed in odd number years. The challenge with that there's difficulty in maintaining consistent participation and scheduling and limits the board's ability to hold productive discussions and reach timely discussions. So propos proposed change this evening is to amend the city code to reduce membership to up to 12 members with up to six members appointed in even numbered years and up to six members appointed in odd number years. The intended outcome is to promote stronger engagement among members streamline operations and support more effective decisions and decision-m discussions and decision- making. So with that tonight, um the introduction is to motion to introduce the ordinance and there are four votes required. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Diamond. Uh council, any questions for staff on this item >> or this is an introduction, so we do get another bite at the apple on this, but um uh would someone like to make a motion? Council Calbert. >> Thank you, mayor. I make the motion to introduce item um 12A >> and council member Kley. >> I'll second. >> All right, we've got a motion by Council Member Calvert and a second by Council Member Kley. Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shack, >> yes. >> Wilurn, >> yes. >> Calbert, yes. Raley, >> yes. >> Yes. Motion carries. Um, item 12B is an ordinance amending section 150.010 relating to the appointment of the diversity, equity, and inclusion commission members expanding young adult member age parameters. And Miss Domen once again, >> thank you. I do have this one as well. This one again is a introduction of ordinance. So, the recommendation this evening is to introduce the ordinance and there are four votes needed. Again, um the background on this commission, the current ordinance limits eligibility to individuals 22 and younger. This is in regards to the um young adult positions. So, um it limits individuals 22 and younger who are enrolled in high school within Hopkins, Minnetonka or Wisetta districts or they are in an undergraduate program. Those are the current requirements in order to serve in a young adults position. The challenge with that is this definition excludes young adults who have graduated, joined the workforce, or pursued non-traditional paths resulting in limited and inconsistent applicant pools. Our most recent young adult um is at the age capacity as it stands today as well. Proposed change amend the city code to expand eligibility to ages 18 to 24 and remove the school enrollment requirement. And this is consistent with some of our other boards and commissions positions. The intended outcome is to broaden recruitment, promote inclusive representation, and enhance the commission's ability to advise on issues impacting men's young adults. Again, it's a motion to introduce. So, the recommendation this evening is to introduce the ordinance, and four votes are needed. Thanks, Mayor. >> Thank you, Miss Diamond. Um, council questions. Council member Kley, >> I have one question. When you say remove remove the school enrollment requirement, are you saying that um if they're not in school or are you talking about the location of the school? >> Miss Diamond, >> Mayor Council member Klay, it's both. So, as long as they are within that 18 to 24 age range, they could serve in this position. Okay. Um my clarification long as they've been in Minnetonka Hopkins or um Wisetta school district right or no that doesn't matter. >> No >> thank you. Go ahead Miss Dman. Pardon me. >> Thank you mayor counley. Um currently you have to be serving as an undergraduate or in the as an undergraduate program or as a student within Hopkins Minnotonka or Wiseetta districts under the new ordinance language that would be removed. Oh, that that's clarity. >> Very good. Council member Mey. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, two quick questions. Then, just following up on that, I assume they would have to be residents of Minnetonka, however. >> Yes. Okay. Um, and then secondly, you noted that this is bringing um this ordinance hopefully into kind of parody with some of the other. So, are there any other um boards and commissions that don't have this requirement already? Is this just an outlier? Are there other um boards or commissions that you know we should be looking at as well? >> Miss Diamond, >> may I coun my most of them are the similar um this would match the sustainability commission's young adult position. Um both young sustainability I believe DEI and most definitely are voting members. um park board is a non- voting member. So I know that's something that we're looking at across the board. Um however, when it comes to the age requirements, this does better line with the sustainability commission. >> Okay. Yeah. I would just I guess uh maybe consider given I know there maybe has been some issues finding young um you know board and commission members. Maybe this is something sounds like you're already considering across the board. So thank you. Are there any other uh questions or comments or a motion? Council member Wilburn, excuse me. >> Um I move introduction of the ordinance amending section 150. 010. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Council member Shack. >> I'll second. >> All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Wilburn and a second by Council Member Shack. Um, Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilurn, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Wear some, >> yes. Motion carries. Next item is public hearings. And we have one public hearing. And that is for a temporary on sale liquor license for the Rotary Club of Minnotonka Foundation for a fundraising event at 15,000 Minnotonka Boulevard. I believe we've seen this before, but the date has changed if I I believe if that is correct. So, um let's see. Um Miss Wishnack, >> no, you gave the staff report. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you. I'm sorry. I I shouldn't do that, should I? [laughter] >> It is your meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank Thank Yeah. Well, >> well, we'll see. So, um maybe I do, maybe I don't. Um so, uh >> the date is just from October. Um I'm sorry. November 8th to December 5th. That's the only >> Yes. Very good. So um we've uh we have a public hearing. So I will um open the public hearing. Well, I didn't ask council any questions on this. I think it's pretty straightforward. Okay. Now I will open the public hearing and offer if anyone would like to come forward and make any comments on this. They're not required to, but it's also an opportunity to pitch the event. And um we have a few people watching. So, if you'd like to come forward, you're welcome to. Is there anyone? And if there's no one, that's okay. All right. I'm going to close the public hearing and um and bring it back to council for a motion. Council member Calbertt. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I make I move um approval to grant the temporary liquor license to the Rotary Club of Minnitonka. >> And Council Shack. >> Thank you, Mayor. all second and I can just say that this is an event being hosted by the marsh um sponsored the liquor sponsored by the Rotary. So it sounds like a really fun event. People should register when you can register with the Marsh. >> Very good. Yes, please. Please register. And it um I I was there um um at a previous I can't remember if it was last year or the year before, but very nice event. And um the um the liquor sales and wine and beer sales benefit the Marsh, excuse me, benefit the Rotary Club, which does tremendous work in our community. And um it's at the at the marsh, which is a very um nice venue, and it'll be a very pleasant evening. So, I want to encourage as did Councilor Shaq. Um, uh, please sign up and you'll have a great time. So, uh, with that, um, Council Rome, >> just wanted to comment. It's on December 5th since I don't think we actually said the >> Julie did. Okay, great. Thank you. Just >> thank you for that. >> Get out there. >> So, um, we've had some comments and we've had, let's see, did we do the motion? Okay. So, we got a motion um [laughter] by Council Member Calbertt. Council Yeah. And a second by Council Member Shack. I'm I'm really on top of my game tonight. So, um [laughter] Council Member Calvert and Council Member Shack. Miss Larson, please call a roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Wearsome, >> yes. Motion carries. So, that brings us to item 14, other business. And we have quite a bit of other business tonight. Um item 14A is a resolution certifying the results of the November 4, 2025 municipal general election and our city clerk uh Miss Kuzman will uh provide that report. Miss Kuzman. >> Thank you, mayor and councel. So I'm here tonight to certify the results of the November 4th, 2025 municipal general election. The recommendation is a motion to adopt the resolution certifying the results for the November 4th, 2025 municipal general election and four votes will be needed. The canvasing timeline, Minnesota State statute section 205.185 sub subsection 3 requires that the city council certify the results for the municipal election between the 3rd and the 10th day of the election. So, some fun statistics. Voter turnout was 33.0 04%. So that's the second highest municipal turnout since the only other one that's beat us is 2001. So we were really close, but um we were trying real hard, but we didn't quite get there. But second highest. Um the absentee ballots that were accepted were 3,686. Election day turnout was was great at 9,586 people. Total number of persons voting were 13,272 voters. The number of registered voters were 39,879 and 293 people uh registered on election day. So did a little bit of comparison going back to 2019. You can see all the different percentages. Um we were high at 33.04% and all the other numbers we just went over, but it is fun to kind of look over it from a few years past. So, how to win with maximum possible threshold? All three seats this election won with the first round preferences. So, that's called maximum possible threshold. And how you get that is you take the number of votes. So, your total number of votes, which were 13,272, and you divide that by two plus one, and that includes all votes, under votes, and over votes. So we do get some questions about what are undervotes and what are an overvote. So an overvote is a ranking column. So in that first column is all we were looking at. That ranking column has more than one candidate selected. So that's an overvote. An undervote is a ranking column that was left blank. So again looking at maximum possible threshold. We're only looking on the first column. Okay. And all three and all three got 50% plus one or more of the votes. So, now we'll go into each race and I'll show you how that looked. So, starting with the mayor, total ballots cast for all the election was 13,272 because it was a it was the complete city race. So, it wasn't any wards, it was at large A, atlarge B, and mayor. So, 13,272. Um, to win you had to get 6,637 votes and that is our maximum possible threshold. So again to get that you take the number of total ballots cast divided by two plus one and of that um 325 were under votes for this race 10 were over votes and Rebecca Shack got 7,634 votes so she didn't we did not have to go to any tabulation on this one so she reached the maximum possible threshold so she is the declared winner at 57.52%. %. All right, moving to seat A. Total ballots cast stay the same, 13,272. The max possible threshold stays the same, 6,637. And Deborah Calvert got 10,379 votes. So at a winning of 78.2%. Seat B, the total ballots cast stays the same again. threshold stays the game the same. The under votes were 1,743, over votes were nine. Um, and Kimberly Wilburn got 7,773 votes for 58.57%. So, all three of those were winners with maximum possible threshold. We did not have to go into any tabulation with rank choice voting. So, this is as close to the traditional way of voting that you could get. The only change with this really that people ask is on election night. So when you're looking at the Secretary of State's website, there are no undervotes and no over votes calculated. So they're not put on there. They're there. They just don't report them. So the percentages are always going to be a little bit higher than when we go into max possible threshold because with our rank choice voting ordinance, we make that those go in. So we take every ballot that was cast in Minnetonka. So it takes a really, you know, it's the hardest way to win with the max possible threshold. So that those percentages will go, they will go down when we do the maximum possible threshold. So those were the three winners. Um the resources that you can go and look at all of these results, you can go to the Minnitonka mn.gov elections page. The abstract will be there. The castal record will be there. Um we have our election results page with the history which is kind of fun to go back and look at. Again, the recommendation for this is a motion to adopt the resolution certifying the results for the three races for the November 4th, 2025 municipal election and four votes as needed. >> Thank you, Miss Kuzman. Um so, um first of all, any questions of staff on um on this item? I think it's pretty straightforward, but are there questions? Um any comments anyone would like to make? You know, I'm just going to be repet repetitious and um our election staff does a great job and our election judges do a great job and uh our polls are well staffed by friendly, nice, happy people and um and that's a that's a big deal. Um and so I'm really I just want to thank everyone again and [snorts] to say how proud I am of the fact that you know Minnetonka has been a leader in um the conduct of elections for a long long time and that that tradition continues and I just don't want to lose sight of that. So uh thank you very much. So with that it's probably time for a uh a motion. Council member Romey. >> Thank you mayor. Um, I will make the motion, but first I see a couple of election judges in the audience. So, I just want to take a moment to shout out and thank you for thank them for their service and also just congratulate the city on uh, you know, kind of continually improving our turnout over the last, you know, since 2019. The increase in turnout has been remarkable. So, um, you know, congratulations to the whole city on that. And with that, I will make the motion to adopt the resolution certifying the results of the number November 4th, 2025 municipal general election. >> And is there a second? Council member Foster Bolton, >> I'll second. >> All right, we've got a motion by Council Member Romey and a second by [clears throat] Council Member Foster Bolton. Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilurn, >> yes. >> Calbertt, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Wears, >> yes. Motion carries. Item 14B is similarly um election related and it is the selection of office and precincts for the postelection review of voting systems and tabulation of results. Miss Kuzman, you're still up. >> Yes, thank you. So, we are here to do the post election, the selection of the offices and precincts for the post-election review. Minnitanka city code selection 107.070 070 requires that at canvas the chief election official which is another fancy name for me the city clerk must select by lot the office and two precincts to be reviewed set the date and the time and place for the post-election review the purpose of this is to review the voting systems and tabulation of the results the scope and conduct of the test the post-election review must be conducted in public with a sample of ballots cast for one rank choice voting election for the municipal off office office. The process is using the actual ballots cast in two precincts that will be selected shortly. The judges of the election will conduct a hand count of the ballots cast for the office selected and it will be reviewed. The judges will count and record the ballots cast. So now um we will come over uh Kelsey is the senior election um specialist and we'll pick one office in two precincts. So we'll do that in front of you. All right. Office first. a large CP then two precincts, 4 D and 4 B. All right. So now those have been drawn. The recommendation is to schedule the post-election review for November 18th, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. in the Minnotonka Council chambers with the selected offices and precincts and four votes is needed. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Miss Kuzman. Is are there any questions um for staff? The only question I have is this is a public process and anybody who wants to come and observe this can do so. Is that correct? >> Correct. It is a it is a public meeting and we put it in the sun sailor. So anybody who wants to come is welcome to come and and watch the h count of those two precincts. >> All right. So that's a week from tomorrow. >> Next Tuesday, correct? >> Yes. Very good. All right. So council, we need four votes. Is there is there a motion? Council member Calbertt. >> Thank you mayor. I move uh approval of uh uh the selection of the office precincts for post-election review of voting systems and tabulation. >> Very good. Is there a second? And Council Rome, >> I'll second. >> All right. >> Oh, and I actually I think the motion is to schedule the post-election review on Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. in the council chambers. Very good. And the select the office and precincts have been selected. So >> I'll second again. >> All right. We've got a motion by council member Calbertt and a second by council member Romey. Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilbur, >> yes. >> Calbertt, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Gome, >> yes. Motion carries. Item 14 C is modifications to Applewood Point, Glenn Haven, and Shady Crossing tax increment financing districts. And Miss Wishnack, that is your report. >> Thank you, uh, Baron Council. Uh, we have a a number of TIFF districts that we're going to talk about tonight, and it's really about modifying, uh, those districts. And before I get off into talking about TIFF and all of that, I think I should just give a little bit, and I know you know this, but perhaps the public does not know about tax increment financing. So, basically, um, and I'm really going to make this simplistic. What you're doing with a new project is taking new tax money, new tax dollars, and using it for some, and in Minnetonka, it's typically for a public purpose. It's the butt for test. but for your public assistance, this project would not happen. So, sometimes we're paying for affordable housing, sometimes we're paying for extraordinary development costs or construction or what have you um to help the project move forward and then uh provide um the project to the public, but for a period of time, the city commits to certain payments. And that is kind of what you're talking about tonight. those payments um have to be made to the whatever the um maybe there's a bond issuance or something that goes along with that. But what do you do with extra pulled money that sits in the tiff district? So I'll go through all of that, but I just wanted to give a a basic starting point for people to understand what happens with tax increment. So the motion that you'll see is we're going to modify the tax increment plans for each of these districts. So, Appwood Point, Glenn Haven Tax Increment District, and then the Shady Oak Tax Increment. Um, and I want to reflect a little bit in 2010 and 2011, and many of you weren't on the council at that point, but there was actually a jobs bill, and there was legislation created to use TIFF districts to support long-term development. And in that case, we had uh St. Trice in Glen Lake uh as a part of the jobs bill. um tiff legislation. Fast forward to 2021 again, we got that legislation. Um this allows the city to pull tax increment from its districts to then put into the affordable housing trust fund. Now, on top of that, think about the affordable housing trust fund. That's intended to help people that have uh incomes of 80% of area median income or less. And again, I'll do the math for you. It's easy. Right now, the area median income is about $100,000. So 80% and below 80,000 or below. Depends on household size and all of that. There's lots of charts that go along with that, but that's a good way to think about 80%. When we say 80% AMI, we're typically talking about $80,000 or less. Um, and I think that's confusing to some people when we talk about affordable housing. what you know what kind of salary are we talking about? Um but it it's quite a bit of money uh in terms of household. So again that legislation occurred and currently the um trust fund has an uncommitted balance of 2.3. So if you looked the ledger for that account there's lots of money sitting there but you have made uh various uh promises to various projects in the city. Some of those projects were uh tied to affordable housing development. Some was tied to rental assistance. We did the pathways program. We reallocated money because of its popularity. So there's been lots of money um promoted there as well as uh homeless initiatives. So again, you know all this, but I just wanted to remind for the audience uh sake to understand what we're doing here. So again, this legislation passed and it is allowed for the city to do this through 2026. And when you talked about the tax increment report, we do a management report every other year. And in that management report, it talks about different strategies and different ideas that you might consider as a city council to um place some of this money in for various reasons like affordable housing or um perhaps you want to do redevelopment money. There's stipulations on how you can use the money. So, we're asking the council to look at uh doing this uh transfer of money and it would allow the city to retain the increment um but also we could use that money past 26. So, this action would actually give us more time to uh use the poolled increment. And the estimates right now uh in the tiff management report it said about 2 or3 $3.3 million uh would be available for affordable housing. Now I also want to tell you what maybe the other side of the story is. So what if we um don't do this right? If we you know descertify the district for any reason that sort of thing. And so I'll walk through each district and tell you what kind of the different impacts would be. So in Glenn Haven, again, this is in the Glenn Lake area. And if you remember, we actually had special legislation to go through 2029 because there was such a downturn in um 2008 2009. We were having trouble with the tiff district. So it got extended um at that time and uh the estimated balance at that for available for the housing trust fund would be about 2.1 million. Um we actually can't modify the district. We can't alter the time frame because there's still a commitment for the bonds for Glenn Lake, the Glen Lake uh area. So we cannot um descertify early, if you will. So there's actually not an impact or a benefit to the general tax levy uh if if you descertify it. So that that's kind of off the table. The second district is the Shady Oak district. Remember this is the Shady Oak Crossing project that sits on the edge of Minnotonka and Hopkins kind of right at Main Street. This district has an obligation um for a pay as you go note which is that promise to pay for certain things uh through 20 uh 444. and it does have to descertify at the end of 2047. Um we have about $80,000 in that um district to you um transfer by the end of 2026. Um again, there would be no additional tax capacity that you could capture in this district. So again, not a huge benefit to the general fund if you descertify ear. Well, you can't descertify early, I should say. Abid Point is probably the uh the one district where you have some of that availability. Uh this has a pay as you go note that's needed through 2026. That modification would extend the term um of the district for 3 years. And I I should maybe not say extend the term. You're extending or you're not descertifying early is basically the premise. Uh the modification would also allow the city to retain about uh 460,000 for affordable housing. The opposite view of that if you descertify it early, you'd have about 268,000 additional in the general fund. So this is one where you do have some impact to the general fund. Uh if you descertify early and don't take the tiff pooling uh for affordable housing, I'm sure that all of this makes sense. Um, [laughter] if you're having trouble though, we do have our financial consultant with with us tonight, so he can kind of go through some of these things in detail if you want. We also by the end of the year will bring back another resolution. This has to do with the Boulevard Gardens TIFF district and I think we have to find out kind of how comfortable you are with these modifications and then also um we would bring that back after uh this meeting um before the end of the year. So again, back to your motion. It's a series of resolutions. One, two, three. You do need four votes to affect each of the resolutions. You can do it in one motion, mayor, if you wish. And I'll turn it back to you at this point for any questions. >> Um, thank you, Miss Wishnack. Um, council, that was there was a lot in that staff report. Um, do you have questions for Miss Wishnack or for staff? Anyone? Council member Foster Bolton. Yeah. Um, that's a lot. So, okay. So, I'm going to try to figure this or to to explain how I understand it. Um, because so basically we we we already have $1.6 million available for affordable the affordable housing trust fund. 2.3 >> 2.3 um I'm already lost. >> That's right. That's a current balance of the affordable housing trust fund. >> Okay. >> So So in the in in the um the the packet it says that that if we approve the modifications, the city would have $3.298 298 million more than could be used for affordable housing. That is that true. Correct. Okay. And so so total is like $4.9 million that we're going to transfer to the affordable housing trust fund or not or for affordable housing. Anyway, um do you want me to go one by one or you want to get it all on the record first? I'm trying to just get like the whole picture, right? >> If I may go ahead. >> Um, >> Miss Wishnack. >> Yes. Council member Foster Bolton. Um, each district has its own poolled income. >> Yeah, >> it all depends on when you take action and how much money is available at the time you take action. So, [snorts] I would say that um in this consideration, I think it's helpful to look at this page. Uh so, you have the 1.6 million of TIFF pulled and then by the time you're done with Glenn Haven, you'll have 2.1 and then you'll have 80,000 on Shady Oak, but the estimated balance is 1.5. So, there's kind of two things going on. you're you're having to change the tiff plan now because the legislation has a expiration date. You're starting to have pooling over time. And so depending on how property values fluctuate, what the projections are when the note is paid off in that particular tiff district, all of that can affect how much pulled income you can have. So, the tiff plan amendment um allows you to collect the tiff poolled money for this purpose even though you're collecting the tiff pooling in future years. Okay, >> if that makes sense. >> I kind of get it. I kind of get it. Um the the one of the questions I had was so when you say there's not it wouldn't be so it's either going to affordable housing like sort of that long-term this is we're going to do this or we could increase the tax base as Mr. Funk said this morning so that the taxpayers would pay less. I mean, we could we could buy down our tax levy or whatever. Lower our taxes essentially. And you say that's it's sort of a wash. I mean, do you have a number? Yeah, it mayor if I may. >> You may. >> Thank you. Council member Foster Bolton. It's on this slide here. So the only district that that applies to, so Glenn Haven doesn't have that opportunity and neither does Shady Oak. The only district that applies to is Applewood Point and if you descertify early >> less than $3. >> It's the $3 in taxes. >> Okay. >> That's the impact. >> Okay. Sorry, I have another one. >> Do I Can I just keep going? >> Go ahead. Um, so when we say we're going to put this away for the affordable housing trust fund and you you mentioned some stipulations, >> there are >> what what are they? Um, >> Miss Rishnik. >> Mhm. Um, Council Member Fer Rolton, the when you set up the affordable housing trust fund, you as a council passed a resolution to be compliant with the way the state law enables a city to have a trust fund. In that trust fund, you say 80% area median income and below. Um, and I'm being general about my comments. There's lots of stuff in the resolution, but that's the easiest way I can explain. um your purposes of affordable housing typically will roll 80% and below. Okay. So, so 80% and below that could be um my my my specific question is going to be when we talk about homes within reach >> like could that some of that money be used in some of those scenarios? >> Um thank you mayor and council member Foster Bolton. if you have that parameter on the program. So for instance, if you say I want to open the program uh for that particular um program, the grant program to people who make 100% of any remaining income, that fund cannot be used. If you say yes, I want to use it for 80% below. Absolutely. >> Okay. So it can be used for any anything. >> 80% below. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, thank you council member Foster Bolton. Other questions? Council member me I anticipate. >> Thank you. No, just I have a quick question or kind of edification question is um when we talk about the increment um so I think it might for me it was a hard and I'm still work to grasp what what the increment is. So, so just so people who are looking at this understand um what we're talking about when we talking about you know like the tiff what the actual mechanism is. So my understanding again is that when you establish a tiff district you're you know you have you set a baseline of what your your taxes are at that time. Um and then what you're doing is capturing the increase in value that um follows the development or redevelopment of that district. Is that correct? >> Correct. So you capture that increase for a specific purpose whether it be redevelopment or affordable housing or other allowable uses that are ordained in TIFF legislation. Correct. Okay. And so what um the pay go versus um other forms can mean that you when we say that we pull that then we're pooling that increment that means that we're taking that slice that increased value that we get in tax dollars from all three of those districts then and putting them into the affordable. Is that right or can you just clarify that for me? Mayor and Council Member Romele, I would say you're taking a percentage of the increment. So, you're not taking all of the increment. You're taking a percentage of the incre increment that was allowed to be taken by law. How we how the poolled legislation for our community was issued. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks for for clarifying that. >> Council, other questions? I mean, this is these are complex topics, so don't be shy. Um, anyone anyone else have questions? Miss Wishnack, thank you for your indulgence. So, um, >> so we've got the questions answered. Um, so, and we have a staff recommendation for each of these, um, tax increment financing districts. Um, are there you have comments or a perspective or, uh, what would you like to do? A motion? Um, any of the above? Council member Shaq. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'll just say that, you know, this isn't this isn't free money, but it is money that we haven't accounted for in many ways and it helps us further a a lot of our priorities. And, you know, we if we look at these individually, the only one that would, you know, potentially be able to come back on the roles is a fairly minimal impact. But I want to I think it's important this was brought up to me at an event recently that it's you know it does come at some kind of a cost to the other taxing entities and to our general fund. But um when I in my mind kind of do a costbenefit analysis what we're able to do and the good we're able to do with this money is well worth the cost on the other end which is relatively small. So, I'm supportive of this and um I I want to be sure that we consider these on a case-byase basis and we may have different uh perspectives for different tiff districts and but for these I think this is the right move. >> Thank council sha. Um other comments from council members >> council me. >> Thank you mayor. Um, I agree with what council member mayor elect Shack has uh her comments. I also would like to say um note that um you know the people that are impacted, the people that these programs are helping are basically you know teacher level salaries. Um, so if we're thinking $80,000 um annual salary for a single person, one person a household, um, you know, at that 80% AMI, you know, it's really kind of helping our young professionals um, you know, a lot of us who have children maybe who are starting out who otherwise couldn't afford to uh, live uh, rent in Minnetonka. So, um I think it's helping a a wide variety of people and and that's exactly what we need to have in order to continue to thrive, attract young, uh people and young families. Um so, you know, given again the costbenefit analysis that council member Shaq noted, um for me, I think uh you know, this makes a lot of sense and I'll be voting for it. >> Thank you. Other comments? Anyone a motion? Um, council Wilburn. >> I move that we adopt the resolutions approving a modification to the tax increment financing plan for the Applewood Point, Glenn Haven, and Shadio Crossing tax increment financing districts. >> Very good. Council Calbertt, >> I'll second. >> All right. Um, we have a motion to second. Um I'm going to um make a comment because I I wanted to but um I wanted to see if I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to speak. So, that was good. And and we're all good. But and um um Miss Wish and I covered this a bit, but you know, tax increment financing is a challenging concept. And uh Council Sha touched on it a bit, but you know, uh tax increment financing is where um development adds value to a parcel. So, I like to use numbers. And so let's say someone was going to come in and build an apartment building and they bought a piece of land for a million dollars and the city's collecting tax on that land based upon the value of a million dollars and then they um the developer builds a building and the new value of the land and the and the building is $50 million. So the increment is the difference $49 million. So the city would collect a lot more taxes on a 49 or a $50 million property than it would on a $1 million property. So that's the increment and um the concept with tax increment financing. Well, without the development but for the development that incremental um tax collection would not exist. And so in in some ways it feels like free money. And in some ways for a short period of time it is free money because it's money that wouldn't exist without the development. But it's not always free money because it would the only way it would be truly free money is if you presumed that nothing else would ever get developed there. But in reality valuable property does get developed. And so it may not be developed this year or next year but it would get developed. So, so there is a cost to the public because the um you know, so the money is not free because that tax could have gone into the tax base and reduced the taxes for everyone else. But I support tax increment financing. It's been a primary tool of our city to make our city more affordable. And one of our six pillars of our strategic plan is we want to be a welcoming and inclusive community. Well, if you're unaffordable, you can't be welcoming and inclusive. And so, I I think it's a great tool. I support this tonight, but you know, it's a hard to understand tool. And and I know that some people think, well, then I mean, one, they think it's a bad idea because all there is no free money. And you're right, there is no free money. On the other hand, um it um it makes our community more attractive. It enables us to have people who teach school and our firefighters and our police officers um and other middleincome jobs, living wage middle- inome jobs to afford to live in our community. So, this is um it's a hard concept. It's a it's an important tool for our city and and I am supportive, but I wanted to provide that little comment. So, I hope that was helpful to at least someone. So, we've got a motion and a second. Uh, Miss Larson, uh, please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilbur, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Wearsome, >> yes. Motion carries. Um, next item is um item 14D is a concept plan for English Rose Suites at 2000 Hopkins Crossro Road. And Miss Thomas, that is your report. >> Uh, thank you, Mayor Reome and and council members. Uh, as you said, this evening the council is going to review some concept plans for English Rose Suites at 2000 Hopkins Crossroad. You're being asked to provide feedback on the concept plan. There's no formal votes that are needed this evening. So, as uh you are aware likely, uh this site is located in the southwest kind of quadrant of the I394 Hopkins Crossroad interchange. It's roughly 2 and 1/2 acres in size. It's zoned R1, which is low density residential, and it's similarly guided in the 2040 comprehensive guide plan uh for lowdensity residential development. Low density, if you'll recall, is 1 to four units uh per acre. H I apologize, I'm missing a slide here, but I hope you can all envision the school that is located on that property currently. uh um the Oaknull Elementary School building which was constructed uh in 1920 and then an addition was made on the south side of the building in the 1950s. Uh that school closed in 1982 and the building was then occupied by Omagon which was an adolescent residential drug treatment facility and Omagon closed I believe in 2022. The Excelsier group has submitted uh concept plans for redevelopment of the site. Each of those plans involves building new 10-bedroom licensed residential care homes for people living with dementia and other uh or Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. Prior to the planning commission uh meeting which happened uh on October 30th, the Excelsier group and English Rose, the care home provider hosted a meeting uh at the end of September. Roughly 20 area residents attended that meeting. Four concepts were shown to the group. The first two uh on the screen here contemplate uh preserving the oldest section that 1920 section of the building and then two plans uh called for uh the removal of that building. In general, those area residents did express support for the residential uh use of the property, the specific type of residential use, and they preferred those concepts that removed the existing uh building. Specifically, um folks noted they were concerned about how that building um and its use may impact high levels of traffic already on Hopkins Crossroad. The planning commission then reviewed uh these same uh four concepts on October 30th. And I would say and if you've read the minutes or watched the meeting, there was general consensus that there's certainly merit to a concept moving forward to a full development um process and application process. Um the type of use is needed and the property is certainly large enough to accommodate it. Several comm commissioners noted that it would be nice to retain uh the old building, but that its removement removal and uh replacement with something different did make sense. Um they indicated that they thought either the two building or three building um uses may work. Some more specific commissioner comments were with regard to the location and the design of parking areas. commissioners um suggesting that consideration be given to uh not only convenience but maintenance of those parking areas, consideration for natural landscaping throughout and then a a general appreciation for more modern [snorts] um structure design. Following the planning commission meeting, then a fifth concept um was submitted. It was the very last item in your uh packet on this uh subject. It's shown here on the far right. It's really um again a two home project, two 10bedroom homes. Um taking into consideration some of that feedback that was received at the planning commission meeting. As the council is aware, at the concept level uh process, we as staff do not have details to review or evaluate for you. For example, I can't tell you how the storm water is going to work. I don't know how many um trees are on the site or or how many would be removed under this proposal. Really, the purpose is to get your feedback, to help inform the developer's future decisions, to give guidance on what the council may like to see if a project comes back uh as a formal application. If one of these concepts does uh move forward, uh it would likely just require two types of applications. The first would be a subdivision to um locate the different homes on different um properties. And then the second type of application would be a conditional use permit. As I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, this property is zoned R1. And within our R1 district, under the current zoning ordinance, licensed residential care facilities are um conditionally permitted for six, excuse me, for seven to 10 residents. um meaning that if the facilities came forward and they met those conditions that are outlined in code, the city would be obligated to approve them. As you also know, um facilities that serve six or fewer residents are allowed on the zoning district by state law um without any specific city review. Tonight, uh again, staff is requesting, uh that the council provide your general feedback and then answer the following questions. Is there merit for a concept to proceed to a formal review? If yes, uh which one? If you have a a preference, uh if there's not merit at all, um why? And then what would make the concept better? or or put another way, what would you like to see um specifically evaluated or specifically considered in a future um proposal? Again, no formal action or votes are needed this evening. So, I would turn it back to the mayor and to the developer. >> Um thank you, Miss Thomas. And uh before we ask the developer to come forward, I'm going to ask council if they have any questions for staff. Council member Calbertt. >> Thank you, Mayor. I I'm I'm looking for it. And in the dim recesses of my memory, um somewhere in one of our documents, it talked about the county wanting some additional right ofway in anticipation of a possible trail on the west side of Hopkins Crossroad. I think it am I remembering that right? Um, Mayor Worerome, Council Member Calvert, and and Miss Wishnack may recall. Um, typically the county doesn't weigh in at the concept plan phase, but they certainly would be um part of the review if this moved forward. I do know that the developer has already reached out to the county um to provide them with some of these concepts. >> Okay, >> other questions. Councilor Shaq. >> Thank you, Mayor. I just I think in considering this I want to make sure we're clear on the the conditional use permit that was obtained in 1983 and then ran with the property through. Now that has expired. So if the building were kept anything any use of that would be subject to the new council approval on how that would be used. Is that correct? That is correct. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else other questions? All right. Then seeing none, I'm going to ask the uh developer to come forward and if you have a report for us or something you'd like to share, please uh tell us what you want to want us to know. Hello there. My name is uh Joshua Wart. I um [clears throat] with my colleague Jill are just going to take a couple minutes to tell you about our thoughts on this concept. So I'll start. Um, I'm a [clears throat] resident of Minnitankka, born and raised in Minnitankka, been here ever since. Um, I'm also the owner of a company called English Rose. And, um, this company was founded in 1997, and we've spent the last almost three decades now, um, helping families in the Twin Cities, throughout the Twin Cities, navigate what is one of the, uh, hardest um, um, journeys in life, which is the journey of dementia. And we do that uh with excellence. And over the course of the last three decades, we've earned ourselves a a very amazing national reputation and unbelievably even an international reputation. We've had people come in from Europe to study our model and to bring it uh to places outside of the United States. And um that's the last 30 years. the next 30 years we're going to be even busier because I think as you know um the aging population or the population of seniors people older adults age 60 or 65 and older is uh exploding um in America all over the world but in America uh between 1920 and 1960 so 40 years there's going to be a 70% increase in older adults. So if you divide that by four, you see, okay, what's going to happen per decade? Per decade, we're going to have a, if my math is right, I'm not perfect at math, about 17% increase in older adults every single decade. So by60, 25% of America, one in four people will be 65 years or older. It's quite a demographic demographic shift. But the statistics are even more uh uh astonishing in the city of Minnitanka. So in America, we're going to see a 17 17% increase every decade of the older adult population, but in Minnetonka, by your own reports, we're going to see a 40% increase in the next 10 years. And so, um, we we are, uh, going to be busy and I'd be honored to, uh, to be part of Minnetonka's journey in the future. Um, English Rose, we're very unique. There's really nothing else like us. There's others that try to be similar. There's copycat models out there here in the Twin Cities, but there's really nothing like English Rose. And there's two keystones to what make us unique. >> [snorts] >> The first is our amazing staff, but our staffing model. So, in the state of Minnesota in long-term care facilities, according to Governor Walls, I forget the official name of his older adults commission, [snorts] the average caregiver to resident ratio in long-term care facil facilities is an astonishing 1 to 18. One caregiver for every 18 residents. Now, that's all long-term care facilities, dementia care, assisted living, nursing homes, etc. At English Rose, we have one staff member for every two to three residents. And so, we have a very high level of care. It's the care that everyone deserves. It's the care you would want your family members to have. And um and we've kind of invented it and perfected it. The other thing [snorts] that makes the other keystone I would say is our facilities. Dementia Care in America. I know the lobbies can be flashy, but it's kind of a warehousing model, okay, with that kind of staffing, okay? They're very large facilities. They're nothing like being home. They're it they're institutional and not but that's not the way it is at English Rose. So, we are um we have a very thoughtful and residential feel to our environments. These are very small homes um that have elegant architecture and beautifully and well landscaped yards with as much space as possible for our residents to spend outside and for them to spend outside with their family members and the neighbors in the neighborhood. And it just has a very neighborhood feel because as people age, they may lose their memories. They may lose other abilities like the ability to speak and the ability to move, but they don't they don't lose the ability to feel. And so, um, we want our residents to feel loved and to feel like they're still in home. And so, that's that's what we provide at English Rose. And as some of you know, cuz you've I've been here before, I I would be honored to be part of Minnetonka's journey and ongoing success at being a dementia friendly city by bringing and opening up the first ever English Rose dementia care home uh in your city. And I can tell you a little bit of why I'm excited about this property, but I'm not going to do that because I think I think Jill will do a good job showing you about how special this property is. And so I am excited. I'm glad to be in front of you again. Thank you. >> Thanks, Joshua. >> I'm Jill Ker with the Excelsier Group and we are English Ros's development partner on the site. Um, as Joshua said, I think I'll start by just talking about why is this site the right location for this project. Um, as Miss Thomas noted that um, the English Rose homes that we propose are classified as licensed care facilities. So, in a residential district, which is where English Rose would like to be located, um the homes are permitted through a conditional use permit. And it's challenging to find a site that meets those requirements. Um a couple of, you know, key factors. It must be on a collector road. Um each home needs to be on a full 1 acre. And then, of course, there needs to be sufficient space for parking. But again, when you find sites like that, you also they need to have that residential feel that makes English Rose feel like home. Um, so this site that we're here to discuss today at 2000 Hopkins Crossroad does meet both English Rose's needs and the requirements of the CUP. Um, in addition to that, the project has received really strong neighborhood support both at our community meeting that we've hosted, follow-up conversations that we've had at the planning commission meeting. Um, and just and the support we've seen is both for English Rose's model, but also for the location of the English Rose product at that site. Um and we received uh favorable feedback and um good feedback from the planning commission as well. So we're really looking forward to um presenting our concept today and receiving additional feedback and guidance from the council. Um as Miss Thomas reported, we've provided four concept plans for review in the past. Um and then we have added in a fifth based on some of the feedback that we've received from the um neighborhood from the planning commission and then from the English rose site team as well about how it's going to function really well for them. So in advance of that discussion I want to take a minute just to highlight the differences between each of the plans. Um so starting with um maybe I'll I'll talk about the benefits and challenges of each concept plan individually. So all plans feature singlestory single family homes that are about 7,000 to 8,000 square ft. Um we have completed a tree study and anticipate minimal impact to the tree canopy based on all of the plans that you'll look at today. Um preliminary engineering indicates that we have sufficient space to manage storm water on site and we plan to utilize um native plantings throughout our landscaping plan. There is a small wetland to the southeast corner of the site. So we'll need to leave sufficient space to appropriately design around and preserve that wetland space. So looking at um I think we'd like to start with the two home plan is our preferred plan option. Um it receives strong community support. Um and a two or three home plan received the most support from the planning commission as well. It also creates that residential feel that is critical to the English rose success. So, we've advanced the plans based on feedback as I mentioned and then I'll show the cluster home. Yeah, this last one. So, we call this the cluster house plan. And some of the feedback we got in the neighborhood meeting is that you don't want it to be so long that it starts to feel kind of institutional, right? We're also trying to make it fit on a site so that it functions nicely. You can see multiple entrances, somewhere you can bring your all your groceries in, and then also somewhere where you can have a more formal entry for guests and for residents. Um, and so this is kind of our favorite here. It's got s, you know, plenty of parking. Um, and then just breaks up some of that, uh, the footprint of the homes a little bit. Um, it's really important to English Rose to have outdoor gathering and activity space. Um, things like walking paths, seated areas, raised garden beds. Um and so we are showing that in all of the plans, but in the um homes where we keep the existing building, everything does just become a little bit more compressed and so that outdoor space um you know is it's not as robust and it's not the ideal situation for English. Um, we also really like the suggestions that we've received from the planning commission and the neighbors um about paying homage to the existing building if it were to come down. Whether that is through um reuse of some of the materials, creating some sort of a memorial marker, or maybe incorporating um a memorial or naming or something like that into the garden space, but really preserving some of the history of that building, you know, in whatever plan we do choose to go forward with. We also know that building preservation is important to the city from a sustainability standpoint and a heritage preservation perspective. We are also lovers of old buildings. So, we did spend a significant amount of time studying options for reusing the existing building on the site. Um, one thing I'll point out is that it's not a big site. So, in this home plan, if you see um the building, the distance between the corner of the building and a resident's bedroom window is probably maybe three car lengths, right? So, um what's important about that is that whatever use is on the site, it really needs to support the concept of English rows, right? They need to be synergistic uses um because that experience is going to be very tied together and um you know we are changing we we'd be changing the model from a very residential feel to something that's a little bit more mixed use. So we just want to be really cognizant that the uses would work well together. So, with that thought in mind, um our favorite idea for reuse was to um use the building as an adult day program of some kind. So, um maybe somewhere where um you know family members could um uh bring a loved one who needs you know 24-hour care, give them a break, give the the loved one an opportunity to socialize and get out of the house. Um and that would work well with English Rose. I will say that the building itself needs significant renovation, particularly if it were ever to be used by seniors from an ADA compliance standpoint. um uh widening of doorways. I mean, a lot of work. Um but maybe more importantly is that as we reached out to these providers and talked to them, um we learned that they couldn't afford to cover even just the operating expenses of this space, which we um even if we were to provide it rentree, and the same would go for English Rose. I mean, it's just it's expensive to maintain old buildings and so reuse in that way financially would not be feasible for any of the existing operators um that we reached out to. So then we looked at our next option and thought maybe a daycare could work and we get this intergenerational space here. Um and uh what we learned after reaching out to daycare providers is that daycarees do require of this size require about 35 to 45 or 40 parking spaces. So the reason we provided two site plans is just to show you that we're trying to figure out how to fit all of that on one site. We have not gotten to a plan yet um that works for both users. Um, but you know, we iterated a little bit, put it out here for feedback. Um, I will say that this plan, and Miss Thomas spoke to it as well, was not wellreceived at our community meeting either. Um, retaining a building and combining multiple uses on site would also likely require variances and flexibility from the city as well as financial assistance to renovate the building. So, um, which is why we wanted to discuss all of these options early with the council and understand which plan has the most merit to advance for a formal application and review. >> We're here for questions. >> Thank you very much. Um, council questions. Councilor Shaq. >> Thank you, Mayor. First of all, Mr. word. I just want to thank you for being um a good member of our community and being receptive to feedback in the past and you've certainly done um right by the community in the past few years and I really appreciate that. Um, my question was I, if I'm remembering correctly, when you were last here, um, and I I I understand the finances might not make this work, but I recall that perhaps that concept plan included like a music barn or something like that or some community art space. Is that a viable or even is that just so pie in the sky for this? Oh, no. I mean, >> you know, I call it the castle on the hill. You know, you should always know what your vision is. You may never get there, but you're at least pointing towards it. You know, my castle on the hill is a lot of acres, houses, a very amazing common space that is used by both the community as well as the residents to bring us together that, you know, including organic farming horses, a daycare center, and a day program for adults. That's my dream. That's the vision of of a what's called a and there's none in America yet. It's called a dementia village. [snorts] And this site's not big enough for that. And of course, you know, when we started, I was like, "Oh my god, this has this amazing old building on it. I want to, you know, let's do one of these concepts." I would love a common building. With two homes, though, instead of like six, which is the dream, the need for a common building isn't quite as big, though. I would love to, you know, there's still we could do interesting things here, especially when it comes to community education and and community engagement. Um, but we can't, we English Rose can't pay the operating costs, the dollars per square foot that my partners need just to pay the bills. No rent. It's confusing to me when you say that. No rent means you have to pay rent plus operating costs. That's your actual check you write at the end of the month. >> [clears throat] >> They're like, even if we go to rent to zero, you just can't even cover the operating costs. And so we there's no income generation from that building. And so then we're then we started looking at compatible uses, you know, not discos or restaurants, but you know, daycare and and then it just got really cramped and tight, but we're open to it. I mean, it's still part of the vision is still looking towards that vision. I just I'm still looking for that big piece of land. I want you to know this isn't the last. Hopefully, you'll hear from me. Sure. >> And I think you also said you wanted to make sure that for the experience of English Rose that there isn't it doesn't feel like you're entering into a parking lot, right? I mean, making it feel like home for the residents and their family members is such a critical component of that um is another reason why >> yeah, >> you gravitated toward the two-bedroom as being the right kind. Even the neighbors were like, "The building's very, as cool as it is, you know, if it was in an urban environment, you know, it would for sure be saved, but as cool as it is, you know, it's it's kind of institutional looking from the road. You don't know if that was a school or some other kind of place." >> And so having that be the biggest thing you see and then having these houses tucked behind them just doesn't it's not quite what our brand is about. Our brand is more pastoral and nature focused. So, we had a hard time resolving that. Then, when we started talking about all the parking that would be needed for any kind of high, you know, use that could actually pay the rent, you know, then the parking lot gets huge. Now, you're really not coming to a residential, you know, you're not you're not bringing mom home, you know, you're bringing mom to this to this institutional vibe environment. So, but it's still I mean, >> Council Member Rome, >> thank you, Mayor. Um, and thank you for, you know, kind of bringing this forward. I I you know, also appreciate the fact that you're, you know, trying to bring this type of care to Minnetonka. It's something obviously that we're going to be needing in in well, now and in the future as we go on. Um, so this area actually does have a a probably significant history. It was kind of obliterated. Um, 394 kind of took a lot of it out. So, you know, Oaknull School um was founded in 1920 and and so you have, you know, people despite, you know, the neighbors kind of um you know, understandable uh hesitation. There is, you know, kind of a historical place for that in this neighborhood. And it was a a significant neighborhood um back in the day. And um and so what really caught my eye about it was actually again your discussion. I thought it was so intriguing about the dementia villages which then I subsequently went back and looked at quite a bit in terms of the European models and there's even one in Canada on a 4acre site right now. So there is, you know, kind of it's starting to move this way, which I was really heartened about. And so between that and and what council member Shaq brought up about, you know, the the barn concept from the first one, um, you know, I was out walking most recently yesterday there, and like you said, it's it's not a huge building. It looks bigger right now because of kind of that terrible addition that was done later. Um, but the building itself is built into a slope. And so the front facing to the road is is, you know, kind of higher level, but when you get behind it, it is a single story. >> Yeah. >> Pretty much. So, you know, I'm wondering, you know, when you're talking about it's an institutional feel, I'm not sure it would be so much from >> your behind >> from the behind area, especially if parking was in front. And so, you know, personally, as somebody you know, whose whose family has been here for multiple generations in the Minnitonka area. It's really sad to me that we have lost so many of our historical buildings um over the years and it it really pains me to, you know, the the the prospect of losing another one. Um, and so it brought to mind uh uh something that I saw at the League of Minnesota Cities, which I'm not sure if you're uh aware of a Sandstone in Sandstone, Minnesota in Minnesota. They um preserved uh a derelict in a pretty much abandoned school in in Sandstone and um put together a coalition of funders. um everybody from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to the Blandon Foundation and other people um climate to come forward and put forward a package where they created 34 workhorse or workforce uh units in that building. Um, so I understand that the high use for um, you know, a daycare, an adult daycare would be difficult for the parking, but I am wondering if if consideration had been given to possibly putting together a package like that where it could be either, you know, affordable units um, for seniors um, you know, income qualified seniors who need care or staff who are going to be brief providing the care on site because we know that I'm sure that you know you're you're better than most but it's not the most highly compensated um uh profession and so that a lot of those people would may well qualify. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Um you know I understand the challenges and the difficulties. My husband has done his historic preservation in Washington DC and is in in commercial real estate here. But, you know, I guess I would really love to see some way to either at least save a facade or, you know, somehow reuse it, putting together a funding. And I don't know how, but um, you know, if it would be possible to maybe take a second look at that. Um, it would be a real shame to to lose that historical building in in my view. Um, and so if there's, you know, ways that perhaps the city, you know, can help, we've done that with other affordable housing projects with, you know, trying to steer people towards putting together funding packages and stacks and things like that. Just I just want to put it out there. So, um, that would be my my kind of comments, questions, and reaction. >> Thank you, >> Miss Wishnack. Did you have a comment? you >> um >> I I was just kind of reading reading u body language here. >> Yeah. Uh thank you very and just to help understand uh when we knew this building was on the market. We had done our own research very much uh in the vein of council's uh discussion. Uh we did talk to the historic architect that you're actually referring to. Uh we sit on a board together so I'm very familiar with her and uh her talents of restoring um buildings. um she had a similar reaction as the current developer did uh in terms of the finances. Um it is a difficult difficult uphill battle. Um thinking about housing was definitely on the on the mind of the the city as this property came to market. So um we have talked at length uh with the developer about um trying to look at any options any and all options. So definitely we were on the same path as you were uh in thinking about this but um we're getting more information as we go and uh the conversation remains open as I understand it. >> Thank you Miss Wishnack. Um other uh comments or questions um or questions I guess. Uh councilor Calbertt. >> Thank you mayor. You know I watched the planning commission meeting and um you know just I I work for the city of St. Paul where that we have a a greater number of historic buildings and there have been uh in recent years uh occasions where say uh you know a what some people would call say a historic library has been uh it was decided to take it down and build basically an ADA accessible building and there was great public outcry Um and uh you know these are these are difficult things and I um I greatly value historic buildings. I also know that sometimes you reach a point of diminishing returns. Um and if it's just not economically viable, it just um there's not much uh you can do about it. I do think that from the road it is very institutional looking and it's it while it's a historic building and um has historic value to the city um it I've seen other buildings with more sort of architectural interest and um I don't know that that building I mean just looking I I went there I looked in the front door and just ADA compliance issues just before you even get to the front door. Um, once you're in the front door, I mean, you just in the vestibule right right at the front door, there's immediately staircases going up and going down. Um, just the entryway itself would have to be completely redone. And that's before you even get into the interior, which as I understand is not in great condition. So, you know, if we were to reuse it, and I this is speaking as a as a recovering violin teacher who lived in rural America and I I taught in a turn of the century um school building in a rural community. Um, and so I understand the value of these buildings and the way that they can be reused. Um, but even that building, I think they were going to struggle to keep it um for use by the public. And so I'm I'm right now personally I'd like to see more maybe even pictures of the interior. That would help me decide if it's really salvageable. Um and just know more about, you know, the cost it it might take. in um you know forming coalitions to do something like this is sort of out of my realm of experience and it seems like it would be a complex effort. I'm not um necessarily opposed to it. I'm also not married to keeping the building there um if it's just unsalvageable. Um because just keeping it there to keep it there um if it if we can't find a use for it and we can't find the money um to put it to public use. I mean, I'm always thinking of art spaces and it's something that I don't think that we necessarily have enough of uh in Minnetonka. So, I mean, I'm always looking for something like that, but that's hard to um turn a profit on. Um, so, uh, one of my one of my questions really has to to do with with the tree canopy. So, I'm very gratified to hear that you're going to, uh, preserve, you know, have minimal in impact on the tree canopy in the back of the building. There are really just pretty breathtaking oak trees, very very mature oaks. And um my question would be are would any of those be coming down? And then other questions have to do with the sort of dry vial. So you're it looks to me like you're keeping the drive more or less along Hopkins Crossroads and then to the north. um sort of along the path that it it it currently um has. And so my questions have to do with putting putting more of a boulevard, having more trees along the um Hopkins Crossroads because it's it's pretty open to to see the school. Um, and then thinking if the the county were to say want additional right ofway, just making sure that we have space to preserve some some green space along the road, which really helps retain the character of um [clears throat] of of the city, which has a boulevard feel on most um on most roads. Th this this throws the the image that's on the screen kind of throws a monkey wrench because I was thinking of the four concepts and it's been wonderful to have more than one concept and this is it's very different. Um so um it it almost gives us too much to think about [laughter] but it's very interesting. So looking at this the image that we're looking on now. Can you can you explain sort of how it works? I I'm a little my sister's the visual artist. I'm the the uh musician. So I'm having trouble understanding what I'm looking at on the screen right now compared to what we were looking at before. >> Sure. Yeah. Thank you for the question. Um, so this is showing one shared access point that is an existing access point to get to both homes. Um, and you're correct that as you go plan north um that that would follow the line of where the existing um parking lot and roadway is, thereby minimizing impact to tree canopy. Um the uh we're showing um what's there as a gate house right now in the middle and you know English rolls will need somewhere to store snowb blowers and rakes and um garden hoses for the community gardens and things like that. So we thought maybe some sort of a structure um there. Um, and then from that gate house, there's a pathway to get to each of the homes. And we are showing two separate entrances. Again, as I mentioned in the presentation, it'll be important to have the main entrance for residents and guests and then the functional um entrance as well because these homes don't have garages where you can, you know, bring your groceries in, for example. Um, we are showing parking spaces in that dark brown color. And I don't know if it's too hard to flip back to some of our inspiration images, but as we thought about how to do parking here in a way that provides um, you know, multiple spaces, but makes it feel residential, we pulled up some of these images as potential inspiration for that. So, that's kind of what you're seeing in that. um and why it's broken up into multiple places versus being a parking lot, per se, right in front of the homes. Um and then, you know, we completely agree with you about the trees um and wanting to have some screening from from Hopkins Crossroad. You know, we mentioned that these >> these buildings really should be built on on main artery roads, but again, for the residents, they want it to feel like a neighborhood. So building up the tree canopy, it's not there today, but replacing putting in new trees um for the future is also really critical to the success of English Rose. So we share that vision. Um same with retaining existing trees. I don't have an a map showing where each one of them is, but I can say generally where we've put the buildings today is where it's um pretty flat and and grass space today and have really stayed away from um the existing trees, which is kind of more where you're seeing the dark green shading in the back there. And you see some pretty large setbacks. We've got 50 ft in the front and um I think >> so looking at the actual building. So it looks like you had wings if it was the long >> you'd have sort of a like an east wing and a west wing and they're sort of uh coupled. They're they're parallel in in the in the new rendering is what it looks to be. >> All right. >> Yeah. And you can see as as [snorts] Joshua's team started working with the architect about how do you lay it out in a way where you have you know for them kind of all the common spaces clustered but then having the residential areas a little bit separated. They've been really thoughtful about the functionality for the team. So laundry should be close to the bedrooms and but convenient for the staff, you know, all those things. And so that's where we've come up with this floor plan where we think it makes it look more like a traditional home from the outside um while being highly functional for the team. >> So I'm I'm going to interject a little bit. I think we're getting a bit into design weeds and I don't think that's the purpose of what we're trying to do here tonight. I think we're trying to say, you know, I think the question before us is um these are our concepts. These are our op this is our our vision. Um, is this something that we should proceed with the city or should we um are we are we not are we not on target? Because I think um we can talk about a lot of things and whatever we talk about tonight will look different when you come forward with um a proposal if you do that. So I think I want to elevate a little bit, get out of the get out of the minutia and um and focus on the concept. Does this make sense here? And then one of the fundamental questions is yay or nay on the building. Um and I think if we can provide that direction to you and indicate that we are interested, we will have accomplished something tonight. Um trying to design it here. Um um we had a mayor who did that. I'm not that mayor. Um and uh and I'm not going to design I don't think we should be designing from the deis and I don't think you want us to. So I make that general comment um for all of us so we can move things along. Anybody have any further comments? I don't want to I don't want to shut down the comments. Council member Shaq and then council. Excuse me. >> Thank you. I'll keep it very brief. I mean, I think this is absolutely a worthy concept. I think um you know this has been a challenging site for many many years for the neighbors and you know mercifully when the change happened when they vacated the site a lot of calls to me um stopped. So, that was good. Um, I think that I I really deep down would love to see a way to keep the building. I understand that that may not be a realistic endeavor. I and I don't want this project which I think is very beneficial to the community to go away for that reason but I'd like us to you know make sure we've given it the old college try to try to find a way to use it and make it valuable to our community. Um, I am sensitive to the neighbors concerns regarding that, but I think with the expiration of the conditional use permit, some of their concerns about what that could become are alleviated uh to a certain degree. So, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness and I'm sure whatever comes back to us if it does as an application will be um lovely and will give us a lot to work with. The last thing that I will say is I, you know, it's not lost on me that we had a abandoned building that was very that was a target for vandalism and and you know, nefarious activities. So, I'd hate to see us try to keep this building at the cost of having it be vacant for a long time because the economics aren't there. So, there's a lot to juggle there. But, if we could make it work, it would be great. And I I would really love to think about that. >> Other comments, Council Member Wilburn. >> Um, yeah. So echoing echoing pretty much what everyone else has said that if if there's a way to keep the building that would be great but also I it's I understand if if it just can't happen and we don't want to I would hate to see the project not happen [laughter] for trying to save this one building. Um, the only thing that I want to bring up is the the same issue last time you were here is Hopkins Crossroads is a very busy road and just I don't know like when when you're doing the design if it can be something in the landscaping. I would hate for anyone to wander into the road um or you know wander into a dangerous situation. So, however >> Mhm. >> whatever can be done to to to increase, you know, to make sure that the residents are safe. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Are there council member Kley? >> I was going to say, um, I like the concept. Um, I think it's a really good concept. Um, however, I, you know, and this may be something that's not even worth talking about, but I think about like, um, elders and people with, you know, different, um, um, medical conditions. Um, is this something that our residents would be willing to place their loved ones in and move into? Because when I I don't know, I just think about my neighbors and they how they talk about, you know, staying in their homes and elders try to stay >> in their homes. And so I think about that like have you did any study around talking to um residents and just people in this area like if their loved ones did need to move into something like that would they be willing to um you know place their loved ones in those in that care facility. >> So like 15 years ago we weren't in the inhome care business. We were only in the residential care business where people lived with us. But we started getting calls where people would say, you know, I know about English Rose and someday, you know, but we're not ready for it. Is there any way you can bring English rose to us? And so our inhome care business has grown dramatically. Mo everyone basically wants to stay at home as absolutely long as possible and that's going to be continued to be the trend in the marketplace. But there is some point where the cost um both economically and emotionally sometimes of keeping a loved one in home gets to be too great. And so then there there is a move to a what's called a residential solution. And so these homes just play a piece just by adding these bedrooms to Minnetonka, you know, is a actually pretty small little drop in the bucket of of options. Um, but there are no English Rose bedrooms yet in in Minnitanka for Minnitankka residents. And people want their loved ones to stay as close to them as possible. And so people don't want to travel far away. Um, and so we we have a lot of families, even families that we do inhome care for in Minnitanka, but they don't want to move into English Rose um because they don't want to go six miles. They want mom closer to home. And so we're bringing our residents to them. Um, and so we're generally talking, I mean, I don't know if I've answered your question exactly, but I'm speaking to the general topic of staying in home versus moving to a residence. And then when you move to a residential solution, I think most people would love it to feel as much like home as possible. And so that's the whole little market niche that I'm in with these residential care homes. And so I think there will continue. I mean, and we've we've hired a market study research, I mean, a market research company to go out and forecast, and we need a lot in Mitaka. I mean, we need there I won't even make a dent by adding these bedrooms. Uh, I I won't satisfy the demand for residential bedrooms for dementia care in the city of Minnitankka. So, there's still there's no chance that they won't I don't think I that they won't be be full. >> Well, I'm just going to say I'm for the concept. Um, I'm not really stuck on the building. I always think about homes and if this uh building was not being used then I think it's okay um to have a concept like like this. I mean it's providing a place for people to live you know um so I'm I'm for it. So I don't know >> other other comments. Council member Foster Bolton. Um, I have a friends that live in Minnetonka whose wife has got early onset Alzheimer's and she could really use her wife would love to send her there, but I know she couldn't afford it and that's my concern is affordability. This does not look affordable to me. Um, and any way you can help with that would be would be great because of all the pe all the statistics you you named very few of them are you know most of them are not they don't have a lot of money and that's one thing that I am think about and the other thing is is that didn't you mention too um reusing some of the materials from the building I mean that that seems Very cool. >> Yeah, >> that's it. >> Yeah. Um, Council Member Calbertt, >> thank you, Mayor. I'll I'll try to be exceedingly brief. So, I think that um Council Member Sha um summarize the my my feelings about the building um the existing building very well. Um, I have knocked on the door of the of the home that was at the beginning slide of the presentation, which is just stunningly beautiful >> and it really does feel like a home. I mean, it is it is stunningly beautiful inside and out. Um, I could only see, you know, just a little bit in the door, but it was beautiful. So, you make a beautiful product and I know it will feel like home. Um the uh and I also I mean affordability I mean even affordable places aren't affordable and um that's a whole other discussion. I will say we are in the middle of the silver tsunami and we can't build places um for care of um our maturing population fast up. That said, um the one thing I do think about and I don't know that we can solve it here tonight is that this is for a particular use. So even though it looks like a home, I know um the use is sort of institutional and just thinking about flexibility into the future when that purpose is no longer needed and this sort of bubble of seniors dissipates. You know, this this building is going to last past that that era. And so just thinking about the flexibility of, you know, future uses and helping us think into the future about that. Um, it's it's a wonderful um it's a wonderful concept. It's definitely worthy. Um, and like everyone else, I'm I would very much love to preserve the building, but I don't want it to be an uh an obstruction to um this project. So, >> anyone else? Council member Mey. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, well, it sounds like I'm probably the one who's most interested in trying to find a way to keep the building. somebody who trained as a as an historian lived for in Europe for quite a while. Um I always admire the way that um they can juxtapose historic buildings and modern buildings and have them complement and speak to each other. >> Um I think there's an opportunity to do that here. I'd love to see it. I'd love to see explored again the options of answering uh council member Foster Bolton's concerns about affordability by possibly looking at, you know, potentially incorporating units for seniors of lower incomes or andor staff. Again, I know you're going to be looking at this. I would just encourage you to continue to do that. It, like I said, it looks like I'm the one who's probably the most uh interested in in retaining that historic building because I feel that Minnotonka has lost so much um of of the many of the historic buildings that we did have. It would be a shame to see one more. We can always say, well, you know, we hate to see this because but that's what we've done in every other thing. Oh, it wasn't financially feasible. Oh, we lost, you know, whatever. We sold the city hall, the old city hall. We've done this time and again. And um so if there's any way that you know you can make this work that that would be my preference. Um my my sound like again probably the strongest preference of any on the council but um you know as somebody who grew up in Minnetonka >> um I think you probably appreciate the value in doing that too if possible. So thanks for listening and uh kind of gathering our feedback. I know it's a lot to kind of uh to wrap your arms around and um so looking forward to kind of next steps and I you know think it's a great concept in general and the idea and I I wish you well going forward. >> Thank you. >> Can I make one one sure >> comment to um council member Foster Balden's comment. >> Um I've challenged our our organization like hey why can't why can't we have one room you know be Medicaid certified? can't we why can't we find I I ran a not for-p profofit before this for a long time so giving to the community is kind of in my blood and so I really want to find a way to do that it's interesting though that the licensing won't allow me to do that so if we become certified to provide Medicaid we won't be able to offer it it blows up our English rose staffing model there's there's so many requirements we would have to follow that it wouldn't even be English rose anymore and so I haven't yet found a path to make it a reality, you know, other than, you know, creating a not for-p profofit that could fund, right, a room, but that's just one room, you know, and so it's it's it's not, you know, and and that that's a that would be a very unique, you know, 501c3. So, I just want you to know that I'm very sensitive to this and have challenged my own organization, but my licensing team, you know, keeps looking at me saying, you know, it's not the licensing. itself makes that impossible unless we're going to make them all medicaid certifiable at which point we'd have to completely change our staffing model. So, and then it wouldn't be English Rose. >> Um, Mr. word. I I think you've heard from everybody but me and um and I've got a lot of um thoughts and and u and mixed emotions on this because I've experienced it from a number of sides and you're probably aware of some. Um the um my mom lived in a uh in a uh assisted living and uh and she was she had dementia dementia and uh she was a wanderer and uh she lived in a fairly large place and uh one cold winter night she walked out the wrong door. The door locked behind her and the staffing was insufficient and inadequate and she uh she died of exposure that night. So, you know, I care deeply about the safety of um of residents and uh you know, am committed to that not happening to anyone else, but we know it happens every year and you know, throughout the country. So that's that's kind of a a grim example, but but it speaks to the responsibility and and your staffing model of uh one to every two and a half residents is is outstanding. Except we know also know that if your staff is going to earn a living wage and they need to earn a living wage and uh and um basically um each resident gets 40% of a person um 24 hours a day, seven days a week. um there is no way that that is a cheap model. That is an outstanding model, but it's expensive. And so I get that, but I also have um I spent a lot of time uh working on this issue with my family situation because I have two severely disabled daughters who who um uh have full-time care and um and they live in a place that I own, but um um a care company takes care of them and we're going through some transitions there. Um but you know the big challenge is finding quality help um and paying them enough to make the job attractive enough for them to want to stick with it. And it's an enormous problem. So um and you know and right now um Medicaid is a bit of a mess as um uh people who have to deal with Medicaid are aware and my daughters um um are are um dependent on Medicaid. uh they're 39 years old and um you know it's um you know and I mean that's the biggest issue in our family. I mean my wife and I were you know are concerned about this all the time and so um you know I really have an understanding of of all the issues and the challenges that families face and I have a lot of compassion for them. Um so bringing this back to your to the concept you're uh presenting um I mean the picture here is beautiful and um it's spectacular and um I'd certainly love to have that in Minnetonka and um and I think um I think that I mean we as a city are very committed uh commit committed to affordable housing but I also understand the the reality of it that if if you try and make every project check all the boxes, you're just not going to have many projects because it's next to impossible. And so we have to understand that we're a diverse community with with um diverse um income levels and diverse wealth levels. And we don't want to turn our backs on the people who are um on the lower um income side. But we also have needs on the higher income side, too. Let's not ignore those either. We need resources for all of those. So, you know, I like your concept. I think it's good. Now, there's a couple of things that that I've been very involved in the housing issue both personally and in this role. And you know, one of the things that I mean to a certain extent, you're you're talking about um uh 20 bedrooms. [snorts] Um so um you two buildings 10 bu uh bedrooms each 20 bu uh 20 um um 20 units or 20 residents. And you know if you if you look at the group home the state group home requirements six or fewer that's that's equivalent to three and a3 um um traditional group homes. >> Yeah. And one of the things we've also worked on as a city is we say, "Well, tell the state we haven't gotten legislation that favors us, but well, we really don't like group home clustering in a in an R1 neighborhood because um we get concerned about my term is serial institutions or, you know, the the amount of staffing and so forth at a two and a half um um one to every two and a half residents. I mean that that does have an impact on a neighborhood that goes beyond having, you know, a group home here and a group home there. So that that's one thing. I like your concept. I like I like the um kind of the um dementia dementia village concept, but I would say that our zoning and um our practice um doesn't fit that model particularly well. and and I I want to be mindful of what we try to do as a city because I want people to support group homes. So, I've been kind of not a fan of larger group homes, if you will, for lack of ter um a better terminology because I want our residents to support group homes in their community. And if they feel that the impact on their neighborhood is too significant and the city doesn't care, then then we lose support for group homes. And we need group homes for all sorts of things, whether it's whether it's um addiction treatment, whether it's um disability, whether it's dementia, we need them. Now, so that's where I have a little rub with myself here because I can see the benefit of this concept. and I know English Rose well enough that um you're a quality operation. You would do a great job in our city. Um I do get a little concerned about too much density for a specialized um care because I recognize that the um that the staffing requirements um and other aspects of it put put pressure on the neighborhood on the community. You know, it's good to hear that the the neighbors are generally supportive and and part of it is because I think they had a less than ideal experience with the previous use and that certainly that certainly helps. But and and [clears throat] again to the point I made earlier, you know, if we try and check all the boxes, we just won't have many projects. So, I want I want to be respectful, but and you don't have to worry about me. I'm not going to be here next year when you come back. >> So, I'm sharing my opinion, but you know, you can really ignore everything I have to say. Um, >> you're still a voting resident, right? >> I am a That is true. I am I am that. Um, but I but I mean I think there's some interesting navigation that has to take place here. And then with all due respect to my fellow council members, I I think this old building is pretty ugly and I do not have a desire to preserve it. Um, but what I do think that we should do is preserve aspects of it and um how can we honor the memory of that building or how can we take materials and build something of relevance >> uh you know on this site while we're doing we're achieving a higher purpose. I mean, I I I'm just personally I mean, I like old buildings and I like historic preservation, but I just don't think everything that is old should be preserved because frankly, I mean, this is not a particularly architecturally interesting building and the additions on it don't make it more interesting and all the challenges. I mean, I would I think there's a better place to spend money is my personal view, and I know that not all my fellow council members agree with me on that, but but I think, you know, let's focus on the task at hand is would be my comment. So, I I that's probably enough feedback. It's probably not as clear as you would like it to be, but I think I think you've got a a worthy concept that makes sense. I think that there are some hurdles um particularly around this you know about this intensity of use for you know a um you know this isn't this is an R1 district and I be want to be respectful of that and so that would be where my struggle is is this an R1 district and this is a pretty intense use and I know that I've talked to state legislators about you know legislation around against group you know um not allowing group home clustering for that very reason and I feel like if I'm if all in I'm I'm all in on this one that I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth. So, I think I think, you know, helping me get over that and understand the benefits of um kind of the village concept um um would would help help me um better sell the idea. And and again, I can't have everything. So, those are my comments. >> So, can I can I just have 30 seconds? >> Go ahead. >> So, I have two homes across the street from each other in the dinina and then the home next door came up for sale. So, I bought it cuz it was a no-brainer. I mean, it was perfect. >> And then the neighbors called a meeting. >> Mhm. >> And they shared, it was during CO, so we were at a big bonfire with hot chocolate, and they shared all their concerns about what you're talking about, just the amount of traffic, and this is a neighborhood for the kids and bus stop for kindergarten. And so I I agreed with them that and I let the house go and I didn't build a third one for lots of reasons. But what you know I'm in support of these kind of laws that don't allow the clustering. But what makes this unique and this was brought up by the neighbors is you're not really in our neighborhood. You're on this county road. And yeah, there's two, but there's no traffic coming through our neighborhoods to get in and out of these two. And so I agree with you. And I think that this one lot is a little bit of an exception because it's not in Shrew Forest neighborhood. Just something to consider, you know. >> No, I I I I mean I think and I think that's I think that's valuable and a good point. I mean, >> one of the points that I've been supportive of and I miss Wishnack and I have had conversations on that. she doesn't like she doesn't like when I bring this stuff up. But um but um you know I think I mean I think that's right. I think that there are things that that create exceptions because I've I felt that I felt that larger group homes um most communities don't allow them. We allow them by commu by conditional use permit and I would be supportive of saying well we should do that but we should make them either in or adjacent to commercial areas so so that they so that so that that makes a bit more sense. I'm very mindful of um the impacts on neighborhoods. But having said that, I think there are circumstances when you're are on a major thoroughfare and you're not having to go through the neighborhood and not having the um the neighborhood have to suffer the impacts of either um staff or ambulances which come by more often um than they would in the in the typical resident. Uh that's that I'm I'm really trying to trying to bal balance that because I I understand the need and I support the need and I want to be supportive of this type of housing, but I want to do it in a way that keeps our residents on our side and supportive because we absolutely need this housing. And if we push the envelope too far and we lose that support among our populace, then then we all lose. So, that's my, you know, that's my kind of oddball take on it, but I think it's uh I think it's important, but I think you've got a good concept here, and I think that uh um your architects and your creativity can come up with a way to um to honor the the history of of what's been there without preserving a in my view, a bad building. >> So, I think we're done. Is there anything else? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Um that takes us to um item 14E, a resolution um awarding the sale of taxable general obligation bonds series 2 2025A for the Villas of Chasewood Housing Improvement Area. And uh Mr. Nelson, I believe that's you, or is that Mr. Funk or is that Miss Wishnack? Okay, >> we have two people on the docket. I I wrote I wrote all this stuff down. I probably should have reviewed it with Mr. Funk before, but anyway, Miss Nelson, >> Miss Wish, >> Miss M Miss Wishnack, that's Mither way. That's Mr. Nelson. You [laughter] >> We probably need a break. We probably need a break, but Miss Wishnack, let's let's go. Let's go for it. I'm I'm on a roll here. >> That's all right. Uh thank you, mayor and council members. I'll just kick this off. I'm actually going to invite up Shane uh from uh Ellers and he's going to kind of go into detail, but if you remember, this is relating to the housing improvement area that you approved and you've had several actions uh to kind of affect what happened at Chasewood Villas. And so, uh this is the final kind of um bond sale. Uh, and there is a motion to adopt um the resolution awarding the sale of the bonds. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Shane and he can kind of go through what the report says. >> Welcome, Shane. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council Member staff. Um, so tonight we have before you, as Miss Swish Wishnack said, um, the bond sale results for the housing improvement area for at the Chasewood um, Villas Town Home Association. And so just uh zooming out a little bit, what housing improvement areas do, HAS, is allow cities to finance improvements that they couldn't otherwise finance themselves. And they have to go out and try to do that before they come to the city. And the city is allowed to to do that for them. The community or the the town community in this case then goes and builds the improvements in this case, exterior improvements, roofs, windows, all these things. [snorts] And then um you know that is then financed through a bond sale using the city's credit rating at a much lower rate that they would be able to achieve otherwise. The um improvements are then it's not a special assessment but it it um functions very similar to one um through fees in the Minnesota statute so that those are paid through the property taxes and it's a very secure repayment for the city. So everybody wins. They get a lower they get a lower borrowing rate. the city gets an improvement to the property. Um the residents um the these properties in these housing improvement areas generally, not all of them, but generally are naturally occurring affordable housing. I'd say this is um one that falls into that as well. There are lots of associations like this across the Minneapolis metro and in the state. Um there are lots of needs. I can see this being an area where um cities, not just Minnitonka, but you're going to get a lot of requests because you've got all this housing out there that was built in the ' 60s, '7s, ' 80s and and honestly hasn't been maintained the way that it should be. So with that, um this is 188 unit there. Um they approached the city for a housing improvement area. They provided an estimate. The good news is is that they um had substantial contingencies in that original estimate and so they've come in under budget. That was all reflected in the pre-sale report that you you saw some weeks ago. And then today we took uh two bids on the project. Um it's not uncommon to get only get two for taxable bonds like this. Um you all are looking at doing a utility bond sale here in um a couple of weeks and that would be a tax exempt issue and it's likely that there'll be more biders than that. So yes, more bids are good but two is extremely common for a taxable issue like this. And the good news is is that the spread between the two bids is is tiny. So you can see in the sale day report there, the low bid was at 4.74% and the high bid, the other bid was 4.8. So very tight bids. If they weren't tight, we would be having a different conversation, but they're also in line with um other um HIA sales that we've seen in the metro. And so we think this is a is a good result for you all. As it was discussed earlier tonight as part of the process, you guys had your AAA reaffirmed by Moody's. Um, I reviewed that report. I think it's all good news. There are just some nicks if you get down into the nitty-gritty generally about the the metro area and, you know, we're not growing as fast as Texas, for example. Well, they're they're going to, you know, rate those communities a little bit better. But you all are doing the right things. You got your AAA. Um, we're not surprised about that at all because you guys have very good finances and good staff, but that's all good. So low better is bared. Um there were a number of uh the residents there that prepaid their their assessment fee and so that's all reflected and baked into the bond sale. Um the folks that that didn't um will pay it over a series of 20 years. Um they pay principal and interest just like you do a second mortgage on your home. Comes through their taxes again uh very secure. Um we do some reworking of the numbers on the on the date of sale. And so that's why um when you um consider the resolution tonight, we want to make sure that you're considering the revised principal amount of 7.97 million and not the $8 million number that you had. So just as a note, if you all decide to approve that um resolution tonight to use the the right number, that's very important. Um with that, uh you know, again, the closing would be on December 2. Um the bid tab and sources of uses and all the details are included. be happy to talk through any of that if you'd like uh and answer any other questions. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you very much, councel. Any questions on this or any comments or a motion? We're going to probably take it pretty easy on you tonight, but you you sat very patiently back there. So, thank you for being here tonight. Council Calbert. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um Oops. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, no questions. I think, you know, this is we we've been going through this for quite a while. So, um, thank you for your thorough explanation and I will, um, make the motion to adopt the resolution awarding the sale of the taxable general obligation housing improvement bonds, uh, in the original aggregate principal amount of $7,970,000, fixing their form and specifications, directing their execution and delivery, and providing for their payment. >> And is there a second? Council member Wilburn, >> I will second. All right, we've got a motion in a second. Um, I want to make a quick comment. Um, you know, these HAS are interesting and as Shane indicated, um, there's a there more and more of them are happening, but the thing that really excites me is that we are preserving 188 units of housing in our city. And had we not done that, um, who knows what would, um, when those buildings were removed and replaced, um, the cost associated with whatever was built there, um, um, would be much higher. So, we are preserving affordable housing in our city. Um this is um this a big deal and I think it's an important tool for cities to have available and to consider um to preserve naturally afford naturally occurring affordable housing because uh um it's just such an important issue. So I'm I too am supportive. So Miss Larson, we have a motion and a second. Um please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. wear some. [snorts] >> Yes. Motion carries. Next item is the homes within reach memo and Ms. Wishnack is going to um uh take you through this, but I want to make a quick comment. Um the um this is about financing and programs that are available to um people who own homes within reach homes and um and and various other programs. And uh I just want to say that as council members um we we could be eligible for these programs or may have an interest in using these programs personally. But if we vote on this and um use um and have a plan either now or in the future to use these programs, we create a conflict of interest. So if you think there's any chance that you want to use these programs now or in the future, you should recuse yourself from the conversation on this and recuse means leave the deis and and allow the rest of the council to consider it. If you don't think you're going to use it, I mean if you don't do that and then later wanted to, you would be precluded from that because you acted in something that could benefit you. So, it's it's a it's a kind of a challenging thing, but if you think you're interested and want to use it, then you have to recuse yourself. If you don't do that, then you will not be able to utilize these programs in any way in the future. So, wanted to throw that out. Um, I don't know if I have anything to add to that, but I wanted to make sure that that was just clear to to everyone. So, we're we're handling it the appropriate way. And if I did that, okay, Mr. Nelson, I appreciate it. So, >> yeah, Council Member Klay, >> I just had one question or comment. I know I talked to Mike earlier about this because he did bring it up to me since I am a homeowner in this program. Can you also clarify what we talked about earlier for this specific um programs? Yes, I understand if I'm part of this discussion and vote on for this specific program or these these specific programs, but if there are some programs in the future, maybe 5 10 15 years down the line, if I'm still in the home, hopefully I'll be moved on. But if I was, then it wouldn't preclude me from being part of those other programs in the future if I had to be or something. So that's can um Mr. Nelson >> Mr. Nelson. Sure. >> Clarify that. >> Mayor, uh, [clears throat] Council Member Kley, I assume you're referring to a time in the future where you may no longer be a council member and yet still live in your home and and be interested in the program. Yeah. The the the uh conflict of interest laws at the state level and the city's local ethics code um only apply in their strict sense to your your tenure as a an elected official. Um, so it wouldn't apply in a private context. I I I'll always say this though whenever I'm asked an sort of a conflict of interest interest ethics question in general I will always add a c a caveat that even when there isn't a strict uh legal conflict of interest that um it's advisable to always keep in mind on a decision that if your um decision is being made primarily in a private interest and not in the public interest in your elected official capacity uh that it might be something you'd still keep in mind uh to consider recusal just to avoid any inference. I'm not suggesting there is it's a it's a decision for you to make if the law is a mandate, but to avoid any inference um of impropriy and any of the decisions you would make with regard to that program. >> Thank you for that. >> Thank you for that clarity. >> All right. And so I will turn it over over to uh Miss Wishnack and um anyone who feels a [snorts] need can do what they need to do and and we've covered that. So, Miss Wishnack, >> thank you, mayor and council members. Um, this is no action needed. So, really, it's just to provide staff with feedback. Um, no formal action would be taken. We would take your feedback and then if there was movement to do something new, some new program or something, that would also need council action at a future meeting. So, um, this is only to kind of give you the background and information. Um, we've given you this information before, but I just want to make sure it's top of hand um that you understand that Homes Within Reach is a separate nonprofit organization from the city. However, the city was instrumental in creating uh the organization, it was first run by the city and then it um peeled off into a private nonprofit uh after the city's kind of inception. That happened in 2002 too. There were 67 properties since then that have been brought purchased I should say by Homes Within Reach. Um I kind of use Walt interchangeably. So if you're at home and you hear the words Walt and Homes Within Reach, it's the same organization. Over the um history of the program, $221,000 was the average purchase price. remember way back when when this program was started uh beyond 20 years ago that purchase prices were a lot um lower than they are today. Over the past 5 years, that purchase price has risen to about 283,000. Now, if you take the land transaction out of it and you're now just talking about what the average sale to the owner was, now we're hitting that 139,000. And that was the average sales price to a new owner. And over that past 5-year period, again, the average purchase price raised to 207. So almost $100,000 change if you look at the history of the program. And then you look at more recent transactions. Um, homes within reach properties have had about 62% increase in value. We compared that to an overall citywide uh value, slightly higher if you consider all property that sold in the city uh $500,000 and lower um in that same time period. So, we were trying to kind of compare and contrast what's been happening to the property values for uh these homes. The average income of the home homeowner at the time of the initial sale was $44,311. And then you can see the activity uh over time. Some of this activity level has dropped because of funding. Uh some of it has been just not being able to find houses. That's more of the current phenomena. Um there were four purchased in one year. So sometimes there's kind of a pent-up demand and maybe they find a few units and then they um you know go back down to one in the following year. So it's kind of a little bit erratic, but at least it gives you a history of the activity levels since the project uh or the uh program was uh established. So, Homes Within Reach actually rehabs the properties they purchase before selling to qualified buyers. And I think this has been a little bit confusing, but I want to make sure that there's a clear understanding that the properties that they purchase are brought up to code standards. And again, minimum code standards. So, it doesn't mean everything is perfect and beautiful and has a granite countertop. And, you know, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about roofs, siding, windows, um HVAC, those sorts of uh basic uh basic items. Um they try to handle those major repairs and the livability improvements um before someone else buys it. And so if you actually look at the last 10 years, 17 homes were purchased. And the median rehab costs uh again before they're selling it to an owner was around 62,000 per home. So the point being there's a lot of money put into the home before it actually gets sold. Now if you look at post sale, so now we're looking at just the homeowners who bought the homes from the land trust. What are they doing? How are they handling repairs? So we found that 76% of the owners actually had pulled permits for their own homes and had done repairs. Um, and we actually pulled every permit. So, for all of 67 homes, we pulled every single permit they had ever pulled. Uh, this includes re- roofing, residing, windows, bathrooms, basements, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, AC, water heater, whatever. I mean, all of that had been covered. And some of those owners did access that original program that was set up with community development block grant money. um back um a while back $7,500 was available. It was a grant uh and it was a one-time funding options on one time funding option, excuse me. 23 owners again uh accessed those um funds. 10 owners actually access other city repair programs. So there there's a list in your packet of how many other programs we have. home enhancement and then the Minnitaka home repair which is through again CBG money uh that is now consolidated at the county. So the council asked for some scenarios maybe to try to figure out how much money would we have to do to make some effective um strides in terms of repairs or providing special assistance to this group of folks. And so this chart kind of overviews uh what your options are. So the scenario one is really just use your existing programs and maybe even do more marketing. We do a fair amount of marketing already. Um and we do targeted um mailers to certain ages of homes where we think we might have a need and a certain price range. So, we already do that kind of outreach, but again, we could do a special mailing as we've done in the past to these specific homeowners. And again, they would have access to any program that people in Minnetonka have access to. Um, like Minnetonka home enhancement, Mitaka home repair, special assessment. Uh, that's usually used for uh an emergency situation. Maybe there's a problem with I know we've this happens a lot where sewer lines have to be repaired and they don't have cash to pay the the amounts. There's also state programs, fixup funds, energy loan funds, unsecured home loan, etc. And then of course that you have private options. So if you ask me, you know, what did these other 16 homes do? Um it's possible they didn't need any major repairs and maybe they needed cosmetic or aesthetic repairs. um they could have done that on their own. So if they put new kitchen cabinets in and they put new paint in bedrooms, that all could be done with a heliloc or you know a home loan um an equity loan. So that could happen. Um it could be too that some of the homes did not qualify under the 80% of area and median income. So, while they've been in the home and you could see the transactions there, there actually hasn't been a lot of sales of homes in this program. And so, it could have been that incomes exceeded the amount that the grant program allowed. So, that could have been part of the reason. So, I think it's a lot of things going on if if you look at just those 16 homes. The scenario two um outreach would be just specifically targeted to those homes that did not access previous programs and you could put aside $120,000 to uh specifically reach those folks and put that money aside. Um again, this could be again fashioned from the u affordable housing trust fund if you keep the 80% area median income and below. And then you could also do another funding for all homes within reach owners, another round if you will, another $7,500 for each home. And that would be about $255 uh for the program. Uh we would obviously do the same outreach we had done before um and try to reinvigorate another round of grants. So with that, I threw a lot of information, a lot of stats at you. I'm happy to answer questions and provide clarity. Um, but at this point, we as staff are looking for clarity if you want to proceed with any of the options. If you do, I would recommend that you provide uh kind of um the EDAC an opportunity to weigh in and give you some advice from their perspective before proceeding. So, with that, mayor, I'll turn it back to you. >> Thank you, Miss Wishnack. Council questions for for Miss Wishnack on this on these options. Council member Foster Bolton. >> Um, so do you, so the houses that the 67 houses might be up to code. Um, but like is there any kind of check like you know what do the houses look like now? >> Do you? >> Yes. >> Um, mayor and council member Paty Foster Bolton. Um, there are a couple ways we evaluate houses. Um, one is through just general assessing and there's a rating on the houses as far as what condition they believe they're in. Sometimes they're allowed in the home, sometimes they're not. Just depends on whether or not the homeowner is um accepting of a visit. Uh, so that we have gone through and they usually get a good or a better um or best good or best. There's a classification in the assessing world for that. That's one way. Um, the second way is, uh, we did actually go out to every single house a while back and just kind of check on things. Um, and from, again, you can't tell necessarily what's going on inside, but sometimes the outside will give you a hint if if things are going well or not. Um, and so occasionally, uh, you will see some dilapidation, but, um, chipped paint, that sort of thing, maybe an older window type, that sort of thing. That doesn't necessarily mean there's major problems in the home. Might not look great, might be an aesthetic issue, but um that doesn't always necessarily mean there's major rehab issues in the home. So, um I I guess to answer your question, there are a few ways to check on it. And then Homes Within Reach oftentimes will visit with clients and talk through anything that they are interested in doing and try to help navigate with the homeowner if there are some challenges. We just had one actually uh which was having an issue again that was a sewer uh line issue and they were able to get some assistance. So >> other questions? anyone? Um I'll ask one uh while we wait for anyone else to come up with anything. But um so in the the mid uh program where it's just targeted to the 16 homeowners who haven't used the program um is there um I mean the costs are predicated on all 16 homeowners using $7,500. And um if you were to estimate, do you think that would be the case or do you think uh maybe half the homeowners would use that and some would use the maximum amount, some would use less? Do you have a kind of a a a view um of uh what you would expect if you were to if you were to out outreach with that program to those 16 homeowners? It's speculation. Speculative question. [laughter] >> Thanks, Mayor. I think uh it's hard to speculate because we had already kind of done this before, right? And so we kind of I thought we got great participation. I I never expect a 100% of the people would participate. >> Uh again, for whatever reason, >> yeah, >> don't want to do it, make too much money, uh they don't qualify, um or the project that they're thinking of costs more than 7500, right? So, new HVAC, I just did it and >> it's a lot of money. I did a new roof. It's a lot of money. So, um, some of this would only scratch the surface in some of those instances and so they don't have the maybe the matching funds to do it. So, that does happen and that maybe would hold them back from doing the improvement. So, I don't think we would have 100% no. Um, but again, it would be targeted for the folks that had not done improvements. remember that the rest of the people have pulled permits for a lot of different things. So, >> yeah. >> And and so if someone has just for example, if someone let's say someone has a $20,000 project, um the the project that they do, they can they could get $7,500 from this to pay against that and then find other sources of um um ways to either pay for financing for the balance. It's not like they have to be $7,500 projects. Correct. >> Right. That is correct. >> All right, council members, any questions or or comments on on these options? What are your thoughts? Uh, council member Kley. >> Thanks, Mayor. I just have some comments about the um the different options and then also the reason why some people may choose different um or why they may not be able to use these different um programs or because be I'm just going to speak frank. Well, I applied originally and didn't qualify because I was over the income. And then one time I applied and then I qualified for it, right? But here's the thing about this program. You end up spending a lot more on projects. I think it's very important to help people understand that and you don't get the equity for the money that you're spending into the home. So to me, you know, the $7,500 is really a good gesture for our city so that people can help with the upkeep of their homes. Um, right now I've been watching one of our neighbors who actually live in this program. I mean live in one of our well live in one of the homes in Minnetonka who owns a um um homes within reach house. And I reached out to her and I told her about the program and I told her about the $7,500. She wasn't aware of it. I I don't know if she accessed the money or used it. I'm not for sure cuz I did never go back and question her. But I've been watching her over the years really put a lot of money into her home. And right now she's actually putting more money into her home. She's installating her doors because she's having a lot of air that come through her doors. And my experience is the same with my my personal home, but realized it was going to be so much more expensive. And so I just when I think about this program, I think about the money that people are really trying to put into the homes to upkeep the homes and how expensive it it is. And at the end of the day, you just don't get the equity that you're putting in to the home. So that's why I really felt like it would be helpful for people to benefit from it. Now, some people may be over the income and they cannot access this um the funds cuz they might be over the income. So, I get that. But like when you like for me recently putting in a you know a whole air conditioning unit and a furnace and had to put $2,500 on a credit card after that. That gets real expensive. And I know this is personal, but I'm just trying to help you all give an example of like the type of things that happens in this program. You know, putting roofs on that house twice, you know, like different things like that gets really expensive. A sewer system that I put in that house cuz the floors and stuff. Like those are the things that you really don't get a chance to hear about. like I've spent over $60,000 in this house, you know, like a lot of money that I'm never going to see. And so the reason why I talk about this program and I tell people because I really want people to understand it and if we're going to continue to support this program, I feel like I like I I told Mike, I probably ain't going to be on the council too much longer, but I really just want people to be supported in this program because it does come to a time where, you know, at one point I couldn't afford to do anything. Luckily, I got a job with the state. Otherwise, I would be up creek right now. I couldn't even get qualify for this um program, the CBD, the CB program or the CBDG program, whatever it's called. I didn't qualify for it. I was over the income. Not not over the income. I didn't make enough income at one point. So that's why I just really want this program to support people who are going to be in this program because if they they don't if they're not able to access funding and I know we do have different sources of funding um through Minnetonka but all every time you everybody don't qualify for all the different fundings cuz I know I didn't and it is because I just didn't have the income to do it. My credit was A1 but they just didn't have the credit. So I just want us to really think about that like people are getting into these programs because they cannot afford traditional home in Minnitonka. So if they can't afford a traditional home in Minnetonka unless they income increase drastically and people of color income does not increase drastically. We know that people of color income make lower income. So if we're if we keep that in the back of our mind, people of color income is much lower than our fellow Caucasian folks and we have a high number of people of color in these programs. So in the future if they run into like a significant problem and they try to qualify for these programs, most likely they're not. and we have other other programs, we have other things to help them, but still are they going to qualify for it? So, that is why I keep pushing that we if we're going to support a program like this, if we're going to keep um supporting homes within reach, I think we also should um simultaneously support the people who are, you know, purchasing um purchasing these homes. Now, if they disqualify for it, fine. But what happens when they lose their home because they cannot afford to keep up the u maintenance the high maintenance maybe like a you know air conditioning unit heating system that I had to put in the two roof the you know the plumbing system like I did that twice twice in this same home two roofs and just did like a air conditioning unit and I had to put it on a credit card like that's that's pretty significant to me. So, and I know my neighbor is doing the same thing right now. I'm watching her for the last 5 years and I'm like, "Are you going to stay in this house forever cuz you're putting a lot of money in this house that you're not going to get back?" And she said, "Kizzy, I can't even afford to move." She said, "I'm upside down on my house." It was Brian Kirk who helped me. Brian Kirk told me to think different about this house. He was the one who helped me to prepare for where I was at. So, I just want people to remember that. like I don't want to set our residents up for failure when they're purchasing these type of homes because it can become a burden for them and I just don't want it to be. And I don't have anything else to say about it, but I know I've been harping on it since I've been in this on this seat of the council. But over the last six years, I've learned a lot about equity. I learned a lot about wealth. I learned a lot about programs. I learned a lot about the state of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota. if we know has the highest disparity in the country. And it's programs like this. Even though we're trying to be nice and we're trying to help folks, we also put people against, you know, we kind of put them in a little box and this has been a box. So that's all I have to say. >> Council member Foster Bolton. Um yeah, I I agree with Ky. And the other part of this is that we we constant we we talk a lot about um natural occurring affordable housing and and this is this is these are affordable homes that um will stay affordable. Um uh my house abuts u um homes within reach home and they you know it's it's it's like Mish Wishnack was saying it's it's not like run down it but like the back door used to have a like a tiny deck and then stairs going down to the backyard and that it's rotting. um the stairs are rotting and unusable, so they don't use it anymore. But I would guess that if the city came out, they would be like, "Well, it's it's okay." You know what I mean? It's code. Um and they they have a lot of chip paint and the it looks like they need a new roof. But it it does look like, oh, it's it's okay. It's livable. But I do think that I often think they need some more support. they and and I don't know why they haven't done these repairs. Um um and maybe they they wouldn't qualify and $7,500 does seem like such a small amount. Um, and but like this home is an is is is an affordable home and and and instead of us coming in and bringing it up to code like to keep it affordable and if the and if the homeowners can't afford it, we we do sort of have an obligation to the community and to keep um naturally Noah homes in our um city. We should we should, you know, not just say here these are sort of here here are programs that you can access. Go ahead, go at it. Um because you know the people that that that are buying these homes, they're already can't afford it, right? like they and so buying a home and then just just not supporting repairing the home um does seem sort of like we're abandoning and I don't know the rest of the homes. I just know from my neighbors um they work really hard or whatever. So, and it and it it seems like a problem to me and that's fixable. Cause for Shaq. >> Thank you, mayor. I I do think this is a bit of a conundrum. I'm trying to kind of give staff direction. I think that I mean I I have an appetite for scenario 2. I'm a little um there there's kind of maybe these what is it 23 33 20ish homes that have done something but they haven't used a city program that I'm wondering about. Um, but I think what my colleagues to my left and right have maybe touched on a greater issue that we might need to think about because I know one of the things that happens is when these homes are sold, right, homes within reach, they're subject to the to the land trust and then homes within reach will come in and kind of do it again, right? Fix them up to sell them again. So the money is going to go into this at some point one way or another. And I wonder if this is a bigger convers this is the conversation for today. I think we should do option two. I'm questioning about people who haven't used city resources yet but have done something. Do we want to open it up to them? So that's the direction. But a larger future point is do we need to be working with homes within reach on this on how they're supporting and maybe they are but you know you have somebody with missing stairs or you know bigger issues not kind of bordering cosmetic slashcode but nobody I mean I've got you know I've had some areas in my house that I wouldn't want anybody to see while we've been trying to get them fixed up. Um, but you know, what can we do to maybe make sure that we're not having people who are living in in inadequate conditions and also just kicking the can down the road for when Homes Within Reach gets the house back and then they have to put a bunch of money in into it at that time anyway. Is there a nexus there? and maybe that's conversation for our next housing study session, but that's what's come to mind as we've talked about this today. >> Other comments? Council member Romey. >> Thank you, mayor. I just have a couple questions. Um, so, and I should have asked this earlier, but it just kind of came to mind. are these programs like the CDBG that just went away, that's what we're talking about replacing um basically it seems like um with city money to replicate the program that we went away because it went away because we actually gave money back because it wasn't fully used. Um, so could people layer that like our our regular like you know home enhancement programs and also do the CDBG before >> Miss Wishnack. >> Thank you mayor and council member Rome. I think um [snorts] it depends. [laughter] So it depends on the program and it depends on the parameters of the program. So uh some of the state programs and local programs have different parameters. Um some of the programs that we note here are one is a CBDG program, one is not, one is a loan program. Is that a low interest 1%? You know, so I mean there are all kinds of different scenarios I can think of. Um, and the other thing I was going to say is that you're right about the CBDG money. Yep. There was money left on the table for sure. Um, and you're not beholden to the 7500 either. I mean, that's what we offered before. I mean, you can make any number you want in that that column and it just moves the number on the bottom. So, um, do do with what you will on that side as you feel appropriate. But um again to answer your question, I think it depends on what the project is, depends on what the income is, and it depends on their capacity to have a loan in addition to a grant. And I think that sometimes will get in the way um if they have too much debt on the house or in other uh consumer debt. So >> all right, thank you. >> Um I will um Oh, Deb, go excuse me, Council Calbert. Go ahead. Sorry, just just one quick question. So, it considering where we are in the year and we have some people uh that are paying attention to our money very closely right now, our budget and so forth. We already approved a preliminary budget and if we if we um approve uh scenario two or three say um how does that fit into our current budgeting just just because there are people paying attention to this? I know. >> Sure. >> And we're some of them. >> Yes. And we [laughter] and we are some of those again. Mayor and council uh member Calbertt, you if you use the affordable housing trust fund, you wouldn't impact the general fund levy. Um and so that would be a non-issue. Um if you use a development fund, again, non-levy related fund, there's fund balances in various economic development areas, but um you have choices on that um without having to impact the general general fund budget. >> Thank you. Um, and just a quick comment, which is that I I very much appreciate um the insights of Council Member Kley and Foster Bolton. Um, and I also know that uh, you know, with every passing day, things get more expensive. And so, uh, I'm very co I have many, many, many, um, repairs I need to do to my home. and it it's all just very expensive. So, I appreciate those comments and that's all I have. >> So, I'm going to kind of jump in and maybe throw out a couple ideas to see if they have any purchase here. I I I I too um I mean, the fact that we probably have money in the affordable housing trust fund um to fund some of this is is encouraging to me. It doesn't really have a direct impact on the levy. Um, two, um, we spent a lot of money to get people into homes. Um, but maybe we should spend a little bit more money to keep people in homes because I mean it to me it's a tragedy and it does happen. I mean I'm on the homes within reach board. I'm terming out soon kind of coincidental with my departure as mayor. Um, but you know it it breaks my heart when we have a homeowner fail. have somebody who was excited about buying and owning their own home is part of the homes within reach program and for whatever reason, I mean, there have been foreclosures, there have been other issues and and they have not been successful homeowners. If there are things that we can help um people be more successful as homeowners and and I mean we trust me, I mean I call, you know, it's the honeydew list. I mean, I have a list of things um that don't work at my house that I need to get after. I mean, that's just the the joys of home ownership, but but some of them are significant that can really make the difference between somebody being able to stay in a home and not and you know, it's just a terrible feeling to have something that you have to do and not have the resources to do it. So, uh like Council Sha, um I I think um scenario two is a good place for us to start. um that makes sense to me. And I would also argue given the inflation in the cost of home repairs, I would argue that maybe we should make that number um $10,000 or 125 um and um and and go with that. And that doesn't mean it's it's the last action on this that the council will take, but let's recognize the inflation that we've experienced um from the time that this program was created and and create a pathway. Um, you know, I don't want to get the city into business. I mean, I don't want to get us into the home inspection business, but if somebody can make a case that their their house needs um, you know, for livability purposes, the example that Council Member Romey related about somebody who can't use their back stairs because it's it's too dangerous and it's it's rotting off the house. I mean, you know, we have an interest in in helping people get that done. So, creating a path. So, so my quick and dirty recommendation would be, you know, increase the um let's say increase the amount by $5,000 to 125 um and and focus on the the 16 homeowners that had not accessed the previous programs and target them first and see what happens. Now, admittedly, you know, the people who've asked us access programs were limited to 7,500. Um so, we're going to 16 people haven't used it. Now, it's a more lucrative program. make, you know, are we creating another set of unintended consequences which we should be aware of, but but I think bumping the amount a bit makes sense because clearly the cost of materials and the cost of labor have gone up significantly and so reflecting that would make sense, but I think a more finite program like scenario 2 makes more makes more sense at this time. That would be my thought. Council member Foster Bolton. Yeah, I I would actually like scenario three, but as a compromise, maybe have those 16 homeowners that or the ones that um accessed that program have access to the $5,000. Yeah. >> You know, like um but my first reaction is we should, you know, have it be available >> for everybody. But and it isn't that much. Even 125 is not that much. And the other thing is is that we all have repairs that we need to do for sure. It's just that, you know, um I feel like we have access, more access. I mean, the people that buy these homes are are poorer than than we are probably and that don't have as much access. And um because, you know, we all need to do repairs on our homes. It's just it's a different it's a it's a different scenario um for people that are own the homes within reach. >> Council Klay, I think you had a comment. >> I was just going to say I agree with what council member Paty just said, but um I would go with um scenario three. And the reason why is because I know that everybody's probably not going to qualify for the program or um maybe not even apply, but I don't want to say, well, you you get it. Oh, you get it. You get it. You get, you know, like I would rather they have the option to apply or be eligible for if they're eligible for it. But I know that everyone's not going to qualify for this program. But I rather see, okay, at least it was out there. It was presented to them and maybe they don't qualify and maybe we don't use it. That's great for us. It's not being used, but to have present the option for people if they are eligible, I just rather have that option for them. So, in the interest of moving things along, would someone like to make um a motion and um and see um council member or Miss Wishnack? >> Well, Miss or No, that's right. We're not needing a motion. We need provide Miss Wishnack, go ahead and say what you wanted to say. >> For clarity, um one of the things thrown out is 125 for the middle program. That was one option. Um which obviously increases the bottom line. I did calculate it for the scenario three. Again, we were using 34 homes or half of the access to get to 255. If you increase that to 125, now you're at 425 um for the program, $425,000. So, just so you have um some understanding of what the but I don't hear clear direction, so it would it would be helpful. We yeah we we do need clear direction. So does do council members have a preference? I mean we we um we've heard about scenario two scenario three um making a decision you know the tariff on is four for a 125 for a scenario three is of four and a quarter and I think um I think it would be let's see um if we add 80 so it' be 200 for the second one if we went to 125 I think so >> I'll check your math mayor It was quick and dirty in my head. where we were. >> I was just wondering if a compromise might be to um bump it down to 10,000 um to, you know, because that's a pretty significant jump. And I know it's needed. Um but just to see, I mean, I'd hate to run out of funding if over 50% of people apply or are awarded and are eligible and then have the program run out. Um, so that's just >> and um >> and I would I guess I would also um favor scenario two at this point. >> So >> can I clarify? So you said what's the compromise >> instead instead of 125 per grant >> 10 10,000 instead of 125. So that reduces the cost somewhat. Instead of 200, it would be >> to Sorry, can I have another? Do I go ahead? >> So are we are we getting close to um draining that fund then? Like this would be new, >> right? But the um affordable housing trust fund. >> Well, you would take it off the balance which was as we talked before 2.3 million. >> Okay. Okay. That's what I'm asking. >> And then if you you just made transactions to add more money into >> Right. Yeah. >> Right. >> And the other oops, Go ahead. >> So there's two So there's over $2 million in the affordable housing trust fund right now. >> Right. >> That's >> So the other thing is that if we provide direction tonight, which we intend to do for one of these scenarios, that does not preclude the council from saying, "Let's see how it works, and then if we need to add more, we can." And so that that's kind of why I liked scenario two because we could see how that appeals to the people that haven't used the program. If there's significant demand there and and I think it should be a bigger number than 7500 but I'd be fine. Round numbers work really well for me. 10,000 would be fine as a as a first step. And then but then you know if if the demand is significant we we can we can decide to do more down the road. But I but I think I I think the idea of helping people stay in their homes and improve their homes or or or keep them up to up to snuff for lack of a better terminology is is a desirable outcome. >> Um >> so >> mayor, I I kind of agree with that approach because we're not slamming the door on anything. We're actually opening the door on something that kind of just went away. Um, and I think uh I think this can be sort of a a data point also. Um, starting to find out, you know, I I think it would be great to find out from residents that use the program. You know, did this pay for everything or how much of it of whatever they were using it for did it pay for? I think, you know, we need to start um gathering some data about what the most common home repairs are costing right now um that people would be using it for and um sort of adjusting in the future. But I I sort of agree. I'm comfortable with scenario two at about $10,000. >> Council member Wilburn. Um, I would just like to say if we go with scenario two, um, have some sort of outreach for everyone to to say if these funds were available, would you make use of them? Would you have a use for them? Because there might be these 16 homeowners didn't reach out because they don't need it or whatever. And and there's still this other group of people that need the money. And if we don't so like basing our decision on what these 16 people do may not be indicative of what of the overall need. So I think we need to communicate with people and find out what the need is. >> I I I think I I would I would agree with that. And in fact if we do scenario two I'd say we should also do scenario one. I mean there should be that outreach and making people know that um you know these are these resources and oh by the way we can learn and we have these we have these new resources available and again let's monitor it and if the if the demand is great let's expand it. if um if this covers it or if we find that we don't spend the amount that we've allocated, we can we can reach out more deeply. But use it as kind of a learning opportunity >> because we want to help people stay in their homes. And I think I think the middle option with a little higher number probably would would provide both information and support to people who want to help. And that's that's a good first step, but not necessarily the only step. Does that work for everyone? >> I think that's good. Miss Wishnack, is that direction? >> Um, I think Mayor, um, I think we could do a couple of things. We could bring back the scenario too with the extra money, 10,000 for the 16 as I heard you discuss. I kind of saw the headshakes. Um, I think it's probably good to, you know, we'll set this up sometime this year, right, by the end of the year and come back to you with the program parameters. So that's going to take some time to develop. Um then the next step probably Mike and I had talked about this earlier. You probably should then go back to the EIP and be more methodical about how you're approaching this. And that might be the time you look at further information. you know, when we look at all the programs and all the uses that you're pulling out of the affordable housing trust fund, because I think >> it's easy to say, yeah, there's a balance, but then what happens when a project walks in and needs 1.7 million, you know? I mean, >> yeah. No, I I totally agree with that. >> So, there's I think there's more work to be done. Um, I think we can get the small program off the ground pretty easily, but then you probably should take a bigger stab at it when we come back with the EIP. Does that sound like a fair way to handle it? >> Yep. Council member Mey, >> thank you. Yeah. Um, I I really appreciate those comments because I was thinking that, you know, if we implement here, then we're taking away from a potential new construction of affordable housing elsewhere. So, that was has been my concern with that. So I appreciate that answer that trying to balance that I think is important. Thank you >> Foster Bowl. >> You know I just want to comment though that the we we talk a lot about it's not sustainable development like is you know with the Mills church it was development it was it was with Armani. Is that what it is? Armani >> new construction. >> It's new new construction. And we talk a lot about how new construction is too expensive. It's too expensive. Well, we have an opportunity to do re, you know, to rehab this. And I just um I I don't want to, you know, set aside most of the money for new construction when we constantly talk that it's talk about it not being sustainable. So, that's that's my comment. >> No, I I I and I just comment on that. I I I I think that's a valid comment. At the same time, I think what what Miss Wishnack said is that um we don't want to we don't want to propose a program that's big enough that upturns the apple cart on what we're trying to do with the affordable housing trust fund. We want to we want to spend our money intelligently and this this a new program and I think we're I'm sensing broad support for it. Um as as Miss Wishnack said there's more work. Let's let's let's do this as kind of a test. Let's learn from it. Um and uh and and I agree with you. I mean, we want sustainable programs and Noah programs are far more sustainable than new construction programs. So, so I think having that orientation and bias, but but we also want to, you know, we're we're kind of running and gunning here a little bit and um and to maybe upturn our priorities that have been well considered in the EIP um because this feels good. I'm I'm a little hesitant to that. So, this is small enough but instructive enough that we can make progress and then we put our finger on the pulse and take another look at it six months down the road or a year down the road. Mr. Funk. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Just be very brief. I appreciate again Miss Wishnack's comments as we were talking through that earlier. I think the other thing to just keep in perspective and why that staff is suggesting that is with the affordable housing trust fund that was created not too many years ago by special legislation and so that was created through some excess pooling gift pooling dollars and tonight you took action to kind of supplement that again. But that's not a forever revenue source unless we unless state law changes and other things come into play. And so really when you think about the city, where we're really thoughtful as a city is our long-term planning. And so really coming back next spring, re-evaluating the EIP, taking a look at then kind of the fundamental structure of our affordable housing trust fund, the long-term revenues that come into it, and then your your disc your discussion at that time on just fundamentally where do those dollars go? whether it's and I think you were already saying this, how you balance that out between new and existing homes. How do we best utilize those affordable housing trust dollars because eventually they're going to be depleted. So, we want to be thoughtful and strategic on how you move forward in that. So, I think you'll have that opportunity next spring as well. >> Thank you for that. Are there um this is not a voting item. Is there anything else from anyone? Otherwise, we'll move on. We're almost to the end, but we do have an EDA meeting. Don't forget that. But um the next item on the agenda is appointments, reappointments, and we have a park board young adult appointment. And I believe, uh Mr. Funk, I'll turn that over to you. >> Thank you, mayor. I'll quickly turn it over to Miss Dmond for the report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'll be brief. Um the young adult seat on the park board has been banket for several months. Um Eric Kolski recently submitted an online application for the position. Mayor Resome reviewed the application and recommends Eric's appointment. So with that, the recommendation this evening is to appoint Eric Kolski as a young adult non- voting member of the park board effective November 11th, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you. And and since I made that recommendation, I'll make that motion. Would someone like to second it? Council member Wilburn. >> Second. >> All right. Got a motion by the mayor and a second by Council Member Wilburn. Um, Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilurn, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Romey, >> yes. >> Yes. Motion carries. Next item is adjournment. Uh, council member Wilburn. >> I move adjournment. >> Um, and is there a second? Council member Calbert. >> Second. >> Uh, we've got a motion and a second for adjournment. All in favor say I. >> I. We are adjourned. >> All right. But don't go away. Um, we do have um an EDA meeting that I don't think will take long, but we do have to do it. So, um, I will pull up the agenda here and um it is thankfully it is still uh Monday, November 10th, 2025. This is a meeting of the Economic Development Authority. I will call this meeting to order [snorts] and ask Miss Larson to please call roll. >> Romeley, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilbur, >> here. >> Calbert, >> here. Where's some >> here? Yeah, we're all We're all here. Well done, Council. [laughter] >> It's getting late and we're all getting a little punchy. So, um, we're all here. So, next item is approval of the agenda. Is there a motion? C. Uh, Commissioner Shack. >> I move approval of the agenda. >> And Commissioner Foster Bolton. >> I'll second. >> Okay. We've got a motion by Commissioner Shack, a second by Commissioner Foster Bolton. Please call roll. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shack, >> yes. >> Wilbur, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> We >> yes. Motion carries. Next item is the um meeting minutes of the Monday, September 8th, 2025 EDA meeting. Um is there a motion to approve? Commissioner Calbertt, >> I'm I move approval of the September 8th EDA meeting minutes. >> Is there a second? Commissioner Foster Bolton. >> I'll second. All right, we've got a motion by Commissioner Calvin, a second by Commissioner Foster Bolton. Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Rome, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Calbertt, >> yes. >> Yes. Motion carries. Item five is business items. We have one 5A is the modifications to the Applewood Point, Glenn Haven, and Shady Crossing tax increment financing districts. Miss Wishnack. >> Uh, no other report uh for this other than what we heard at the council meeting. >> Very good. And it's very similar to what we did in the council meeting. So, is there a motion to approve? Commissioner Wilburn. >> I move we adopt the resolution approving modification to the T tax increment financing plans for Applewood Point, Glenn Haven, and Shady Oak Crossing tax increment financing districts. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner Calbertt. I second. >> All right, we've got a motion by Commissioner Wilurn, a second by Commissioner Calbert. Miss Larson, please call roll. >> Romeley, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Shack, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Wearsome, >> yes. Motion carries. And now everyone's favorite motion. Commissioner Wilburn, >> I move adjournment. >> Is there a second? Commissioner Calbertt. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Commissioner Wilburn and a second by Commissioner Calvert. All in favor say I. >> I. We are adjourned. >> [music]