**[0:00] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** 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. Thank you for your help on that. **[0:39] Dan Wietecha:** I want to acknowledge that all council members are present and a quorum has been established and Mayor looks like the mayor is just joining us but if we could uh Claire Henderson call the roll and each council member indicate their presence for the record. **[1:11] Councilmember Mya Beck:** Beck here. **[1:11] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay that looks like the mayor just joined us I did I'm so sorry I don't I have no clue. **[1:11] Dan Wietecha:** No problem mayor are you present tonight? **[1:11] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** I am thank you for joining us thank you. **[1:11] Councilmember Mya Beck:** Acting Mayor Beck, we have just completed uh the roll call and determination of a quorum. **[1:11] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay thank you okay I'd also like to uh tonight welcome our new city attorney Corey Land from Lavender Gillen and Miller. Corey, welcome. **[1:56] Corey Land:** Thank you your honor. I um I appreciate the opportunity to represent you. I'm very excited uh so I'm I'm looking forward to all of the new opportunities and experiences that we're going to go through together. I'll do what I can. **[1:56] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** You will do great thank you. Okay tonight we have a proclamation declaring a city-wide food fight during the month of March for Minnesota FoodShare and Hastings Family Service. And as you all know the Minnesota FoodShare March campaign began 40 years ago to help restock food shelves after the busy holiday season. This year help is needed more than ever. Hastings Family Service provided food shelf assistance to 73 percent more families in December compared to April of last year. Your help will make a difference and I encourage you to join our citywide fight against hunger. Councilmember Vihrachoff, if you would start our proclamation. **[2:43] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Whereas Minnesota FoodShare has coordinated a March campaign for over 40 years to restock food shelves throughout the state of Minnesota; and whereas one in ten Minnesotans are food insecure and do not have access to adequate food on a regular basis; and whereas Hastings Family Service serves an average of 100 families each month in the food shelf and has served the basic needs of our community since 1970; and whereas 46 percent of our community members who visit the Hastings Family Service food shelf indicate that someone in the household has skipped a meal because there was not enough food... **[3:29] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** And whereas the generosity of our community makes it possible for Hastings Family Service to provide help and hope to our neighbors who lack food, housing, clothing or transportation; and whereas all the gifts of money and food throughout the month of March are proportionately matched by Minnesota FoodShare. Therefore be it resolved that I, Mary Fasbender, Mayor of the city of Hastings, do hereby declare a city-wide food fight during the month of March to restock the food shelf at Hastings Family Service and fight hunger in our community. Thank you Council and thank Hastings Family Service for all they do for our community. Also tonight we have a presentation for Spring Lake Park about planning for Spring Lake Park by Lil Leatham of Dakota County. Welcome Lil. Chris, did you want to say anything? **[4:14] Chris Jenkins:** Mayor and council, a pleasure of mine to introduce some partners over at Dakota County and specifically with the Spring Lake Park master planning process they've been going through for the past year, year and a half now. Some of our great neighbors here: Lil Leatham, one of the senior planners; Tom Lewanski with the environmental side; as well as Joe Walton with the environmental side with Dakota County as well. Uh, here tonight to present just a little bit about what uh what the plans are for Spring Lake Park, where things sit, and what new things you might see at Spring Lake Park in the next year to 10 years. So with that Lil, please. **[5:48] Lil Leatham:** Thank you Chris. All right I'm gonna try and share my screen and um let's see how that goes. So can everyone see the screen and just a title slide? All right excellent thank you. Um all right good evening and members of the council thank you for having us. Tom, Joe and I are the leads on three projects in Spring Lake Park Reserve and we are um and collectively um we're here to tell you what's going on really. So I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that Spring Lake Park Reserve is a place where Dakota people lived, prayed and buried their relatives. The park encompasses places that are significant to the cultural identity of past, current and future generations of Dakota people and this has influenced the plans and future improvements in the park. So tonight, Joe, Tom and I will present highlights about upcoming park plans for the park and we'll take a moment to talk about how the community can be involved and then open it up for question and discussion. Currently there are three projects occurring at the park: first, the Master Plan which is a long-term vision for the park with focus on what the county can accomplish within 10 years; the second is the park's first Natural Resources Management Plan; and the third is reintroduction of bison to the park. As Chris mentioned, we started the process for the Master Plan and the Natural Resources Management Plan a year and a half ago and we're in the home stretch now. We have both plan documents available for public review between now and April 4th and we're hoping to have the plans adopted and fully approved by this summer. And so the two plans build on the park's natural assets. Spring Lake Park has five miles of Mississippi River frontage and we want to provide more access to the river. The park has some of the highest quality natural resources in Dakota County and we want to restore and protect and allow visitors to experience those resources. And the park has a rich cultural history. People have lived in the area for over 8,000 years and there are Native American sites within the park. Because of this, we've been working with the Historic Preservation Officers for the four Minnesota Dakota tribes on how to best protect and interpret those cultural resources. And with that I'm going to turn it over to Joe Walton who will really briefly go over the highlights of the Natural Resources Management Plan. **[8:54] Joe Walton:** Thanks Lil. Can everybody hear me? Great. Hello um Mayor and Councilmembers, it's I'm really glad to be here tonight thanks for inviting me. Um the Natural Resource Management Plan or NRMP for short is a detailed guide for the restoration and management of the ecosystem, the biotic communities and the natural features of the park reserve and was developed in conjunction with the update of the Master Plan. Work plans which outlined activities that are prioritized and associated costs were developed for managing each of the following three fundamental ecological components of natural communities: vegetation resources, water and soil resources, and wildlife resources. Regarding managing vegetation, one of the highlights of the plan is that we intend to restore the entire park reserve within 20 years as well as maintaining all restored areas into the future. Regarding the management of water and soil, one of the highlights of the plan is that we will be stabilizing badly eroding ravines and erosional areas that occur along the trails in the park reserve. Regarding managing wildlife, one of the highlights is that we will be restoring a lost ecosystem process: the grazing of prairies by reintroducing bison, a keystone prairie species and the former premier grazer of North American grasslands, to a select area within the park reserve. Lastly in regards to funding, we will be diligently seeking external funding for our activities as is our regular practice and as outlined in the NRMSP, the Natural Resource Management System Plan that we made a couple years back for the whole system. For example, we recently received a clean water grant for over 450,000 dollars to help fund eroding ravines in the park reserve. Next slide please. Target plant communities have been identified and are a system in which future conditions are designated for particular plant community restoration in sites across the park reserve. These communities have been used to develop management units that help organize our restoration activities and set us up for grant submittals. On this slide management units are depicted. The plan guides restoration over the next 20 years in three phases where management units are prioritized by factors such as ecological quality, habitat connectivity, conservation needs and visitor high use areas. Shown on this map green indicates Phase 1 years 1 through 5, yellow Phase 2 years 6 through 10, and pink Phase 3 years 10 through 20. The speed at which restoration is to be implemented will depend upon funding and staff capacity to oversee the process and with that I'll turn it back to Lil. **[12:20] Tom Lewanski:** Actually, Tom Lewanski is going to talk a little bit about the bison project. Mayor Fasbender, council members, good evening thank you for inviting us to talk about this park and about this exciting project. The prairies of Minnesota and Dakota County were maintained over thousands of years by the climate, fire and grazing. As Joe alluded to earlier, the primary grazer was the bison. The last wild bison reported in the state of Minnesota was in Norman County around 1880. Dakota County has been restoring hundreds of acres of prairie in its parks and we're planning to reintroduce bison at Spring Lake Park Reserve to add that important grazing component of this native plant community. It's our plan to begin construction of the infrastructure needed to keep the animals and, I know what you're thinking, park visitors safe this summer. We anticipate bison being on site during the fall of 2022. We're working with a loose-knit partnership called the Minnesota Bison Conservation Herd currently made up of Olmsted County, the Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Zoo that are trying to re-establish a herd that has no detectable cattle gene of about 500 animals. So we're going to be joining that partnership and that's where we'll be getting the bison from. So with that quick—I could go on for decades about this—but I'm going to turn it back over to Lil so I don't go too far down that trail. Thank you. **[13:58] Lil Leatham:** Thanks Tom. Now I'll turn back to the Master Plan and the recreation plan for the park and again the goals for recreation are to allow visitors river access, to help them learn about and interpret the cultural landscape, and to allow visitors to experience the high quality natural resources with low impact trails. There are three phases that improvements have been divided into and the first phase is years 1 through 5 and there'll be natural resource restoration throughout all of these phases. The focus of the first five years is on the west side of the park where the archery range is today and there are two main projects. The first is as Tom just described, bison reintroduction and associated visitor services like viewing platforms and additional parking. The second main initiative is a new small watercraft boat landing at the area that is currently known as Bud's Landing and that's off of Fisher Avenue. The east side of the park or Schaar’s Bluff area, the focus will be on cultural stewardship studies and this is the area of the park that has the highest concentration of indigenous resources or indigenous sites. Moving on to priorities for the second phase which is years 5 through 10, focus shifts to the Schaar’s Bluff area and we'd like to renovate the existing picnic and play areas and transform the Gathering Center, which today is used primarily for private rentals, into a more public trailhead that is staffed for visitor orientation. In the center of the park, it's very light touch, but we're proposing a new natural surface trail that's very low impact to connect Schaar’s Bluff to the west trailhead and allow visitors more access to more of the park. And then on the west side we'd like to introduce riverside camping; again low impact camping, walk-in and bike-in tent camping, and then camping on the islands between Spring Lake and the Mississippi River. Long term we have two dream projects. The first is on the west side: it's a new interpretive center and it would be focused on the Mississippi River and the prairie ecosystem including bison. And on the east side the historic Star Farm is currently the county's maintenance area; that'll be relocated and we'd like to redevelop this area as a use area for picnicking and events. So that is the summary of the plans. I'd like to talk just a little bit about how the community can get involved. As I mentioned, the Master Plan and the Natural Resource Management Plan are out for public review now through April 4th. They are on the county's website with the ability to comment. There's also summary information; the plans are quite long so you can get the idea from the summary information. We'll have a Zoom community open house Tuesday March 23rd from 6 to 7 pm. The format will be a short presentation followed by opportunity for questions. And then a fun thing that's coming in mid-March is we're going to do a digital self-guided scavenger hunt called the "Forever Wild Goose Chase" and it'll allow residents to visit the park, have some fun, and also provide input on the plans and you can do that without reading the whole documents. All this information is on the county's website if you go there and search Spring Lake Plan and if you follow Dakota County Parks on Facebook you'll know when the scavenger hunt is up and you can get reminders and updates. And also signing up for the parks e-news is a good way to get information and that concludes our presentation and with that we'd love to answer any questions or if there are any comments at this time. **[18:31] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay thank you Lil and Tom and Joe. Council, any questions or comments for any of these people? See Councilmember Haus. **[18:41] Councilmember Angie Haus:** I'm sorry I didn't catch the timelines. When again is it that you're hoping to introduce the bison into the prairie area? **[18:54] Tom Lewanski:** We will probably have the bison on site October of 2022. **[18:54] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Okay all right thank you. **[18:54] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any other comments from council? Chris, anything to add? **[18:54] Chris Jenkins:** Uh no not at this time. They're just uh excited about what our neighbors are doing over at Spring Lake Park. A lot of a lot of neat things for uh our residents and the residents of Dakota County so it's uh it's great to have them in our backyard. **[19:41] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yeah it's great, one of the uh well-used parks in our area that's for sure. So thank you again for your presentation and we look forward to more moving forward. **[19:41] Lil Leatham:** Thank you for having me mayor. **[19:41] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yeah thank you. Councilmember are there any corrections to the minutes from regular meeting of February 16th? Uh seeing none they are approved. Comments from the audience. For public comments we have options for comments to be emailed prior to the meeting as well as an interactive feature during the meeting. For the email comments they have been forwarded to the city council and their receipt is acknowledged. Please recognize that items not on the agenda will not be discussed this evening. We ask the attendees to use the raised hand feature and they will be invited to speak one at a time. I also would like to remind everyone that the public comment period is not intended for an extended dialogue. Please note that there is no public hearing tonight. Is there anyone who would like to speak to the council? I see Amy Fox would like to speak. Welcome Amy. **[21:02] Amy Fox:** Hello here we go hello we can take a little bit it took a little bit to join that's okay. All right well good morning good evening mayor and council people and city staff thanks for letting me speak real briefly. I'm Amy Fox, I'm one of the owners of Spiral Brewery and also the co-secretary of the Downtown Business Association. I know you all were aware that I attended the last city council meeting but didn't speak when the public hearing um when the time of the public hearing came about and you know at the time I didn't feel it was necessary based on all of the previous feedback and consultation we had provided on the matter on the parklet matter to be specific. Um but based on how the discussion went um the Downtown Business Association leadership thought it was pertinent for me to read the following statement and just so you know this is like an abbreviated version of what I emailed um earlier. The Downtown Business Association or DBA would like to request your support in the adoption of the proposed parklet ordinance. As you know this last year has been long, trying and incredibly difficult as a small business. The effects of this pandemic have lasted longer than anyone could have anticipated a year ago and we sadly know that we'll be feeling them for potentially years to come. Recovery is not around the corner for bars and restaurants. We are nearly in month 12 of operating in a limited capacity. We expect limited indoor capacity to be required for quite a while longer. Businesses are hurting, we need your help. Last summer we saw considerable help with the rollout of the first generation of parklets. Yes the execution was hasty but it was necessary we could see any so we could see any form of relief and I can speak personally from the brewery that i that our outdoor seating is one of the main reasons we were able to survive the last year. There were certainly parts of last year's parklets that we must improve upon for the years to come. Eric Moss and city staff have been working with our businesses over the past three months to gain our feedback from all those affected both positively and negatively by the parklets through surveys, countless one-on-one conversations and once much consultation with the DBA. City staff compiled ample feedback to inform the proposed draft ordinance and afraid to be frank at this point in the pandemic and this point in the parkway process we are frustrated by the lack of definitive support by council members and the sentiment that we're moving too fast. We have been working hand-in-hand with city staff for a year now in trying to implement a program that will positively affect businesses downtown and continue to draw tourism to the heart of our city. We need your help to survive this year and continue our economic relief process. The DBA is supportive of the parklet ordinance as presented and request that the city council adopt the ordinance this evening so that the parkway construction arrangements can begin immediately. So thank you for your time. I'm planning to stay on through the discussion and vote so I'd be happy to answer any questions if anything comes up okay. **[24:07] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Amy. Anyone in the audience wish to speak on anything else tonight? It looks like Tasha Nelson has requested to speak and John you brought her into the meeting. Would you like to say a few words? **[24:45] Tasha Nelson:** Yes so Amy said it quite well I just wanted to reiterate that I felt that it was important that the ordinance into place so that word that this is is something we can continue to do not just last this year but going forward. Um people really enjoyed the parklets and I took the time to meet with a contractor and Arab City and we had kind of done some discussing as far as what's going to work best. It's I've had a great experience working with Eric and John just trying to figure out the best solution for this for everybody down here. Restaurants have been shut down for 11 weeks and then another eight weeks and it's just been a challenging year. So i i hope that you all see the benefit to having the downtown and the benefit for retail as well as as restaurants and I will also stay on the call for questions. **[25:32] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay thank you Tasha. I don't see let's see uh Amy Vanzi. There she is. **[26:33] Amy Vanzi:** Sorry it's weird being on this end of it. Um this is Amy Vanzi from Beloved Boutique and I as a retail business downtown fully support the parklets again this year and going forward. Um the atmosphere that this created last year on top of this pandemic really saved I think a lot of our businesses. Hear me? Oh okay you were shaking your head so I didn't know if you could hear me. Um yeah I just feel that it's something that really creates a solid entity downtown. You know having the the parklets and having the restaurants be able to have their customers safely be down there brings us the retail businesses you know it keeps them down there for them to fee you know go around and shop and so I just really want to um you know see this going forward. This winter has been a really hard cut coming from a retailer. This winter has been very hard. Um I I don't think I mean I'm gonna be honest if I hadn't moved expanded into bridal Beloved Boutique would not be open. So I wanted to put it out there and I want to fully have some full support for these parklets thank you. **[28:06] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thanks Amy. I see no other hands raised. Oops sorry one more Jenny Green... do you want... come on... not working okay. I see no other raised thank you all for your comments and the speaking of the parklets in a little bit yet. So council are there any items to be considered? Okay council I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. **[30:05] Councilmember Angie Haus:** So moved. **[30:05] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Second. **[30:05] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Haus. Councilmember Vihrachoff seconds that. Council any discussion? Clerk Henderson please call the roll. **[30:05] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). Motion prevails. **[30:05] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay tonight under community development we have a second reading to adapt ordinance and amend the city and the parklets. Tonight in the audience we have Community Development Director John Hinzman along with Eric Moss. Welcome John and Eric. **[30:50] John Hinzman:** Sure well I'll keep my comments brief mayor. I've got Eric Moss, our Economic Development Coordinator, who's been instrumental in preparing the newest ordinance here for parklets within the city. Eric will go through a summary of what has changed in the ordinance since the last meeting so I'll turn it over to Eric. **[30:50] Eric Moss:** Thank you John and members of the council. We'll go through a lot of detail we went through this in-depth last meeting however from the last city council meeting there were two main areas that council had a lot of questions that asked staff to do some additional research on and bring back some some answers. One of those primary items was with relation to whether or not a parklet could utilize the street surface if they didn't want to or if they chose not to use a platform. When we looked into this a little bit further with the city's building official and the definition of the work site within Minnesota State building code and accessibility code, the actual absence of the platform itself then negated the term site and that's the requirements of what a site must include or entail from an accessibility standpoint. So by eliminating that we then found additional room to navigate essentially to make sure that we're adhering to building code as well as accessibility code and that the parklets could in fact use the street surface as the base surface for the parklet. If a business was to utilize the street service they would be required to utilize a ramp that is ADA compliant to bring those with accessibility issues down to the street surface and then within the park that have an area designated as available to those that with that may have accessibility issues. The other related to compact and contiguous and this is in reference to where alcohol is served with the alcohol and liquor licensing. A lot of information right there but essentially the way in which staff sees um that this would be implemented would be that with an application a business would indicate or dedicate an area along the sidewalk that would be a part of their parklet but it would not actually have any physical improvements such as a fence or anything like that but essentially a city council would memorialize that area as being part of the parklet and that would provide the contiguous aspect to a compact area that would be designated and walled off located off as you were with the parkland edges. We have provided that and shout out and thank you to City Clerk Henderson for contacting the Alcohol Gambling Enforcement Division. I got it in writing that what staff has proposed is acceptable and is legal and so we feel comfortable moving forward with that. City attorney may have some comments on that as well if council has questions. So with that we saw those as the two kind of biggest questions that council had for staff following the end of meeting last um two weeks ago. Here you see a graphic kind of showing what staff would see that looking like with the example of where the parkway is located. The designated connection—again that area is shown in a bounded box by this image—but it would not actually have any fencing or any physical improvements done. Of course then the pedestrian route would be kept free and clear and if they had a sidewalk cafe you know that's still adjacent to the building but just to show kind of what a rough site plan might look like that would show the contiguous nature of the parkland itself. With that staff is requesting that city council approve uh ordinance establishing parklets section 90.17 and amending chapter 34.03 fees. If council adopts the ordinance we've prepared a resolution for summary publication of that ordinance and with that I will stand for questions. **[34:40] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Eric. Council, any discussion? Councilmember Haus. **[34:40] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you your honor. Um thank you Eric for revising the ordinance. I was very pleased to see that you met with staff so that um to allow for the parklets uh to be to utilize the surface of the street um if if so requested. I think that that is just really key you know for some of our restaurants who aren't cash um they just don't have the cash flow right now to be able to to pay for a major structure at this point and so that is greatly appreciated. And I just wanted to make sure that um that new section that you had referenced that section F about the building code requirements paragraph 3 um I don't know the the new city attorney had reviewed this correct? Um I was just a little worried about how it read um because that so it's under building code requirements um that paragraph three it does look like it's providing an out but it seemed a little fuzzy still. Um I just wondered did the city did the court uh Ms. Land did you have the opportunity to review this and to ensure that that wasn't contradictory to the other provisions that were before it for instance I was most um worried about the curb interface because as you read it it says you know that thou shall have these things and then under F building code requirements that paragraph three kind of gives an out but it doesn't say um anything that I don't know it just didn't seem very clear that it was um it was giving leeway that you know none of the other provisions um within the curb interface um didn't apply to it. **[36:59] Corey Land:** Your honor, members of the council, I'll be honest I did not focus on whether or not there was contradictory language between this and the other section um I certainly can take a look at that to make sure that it is clear. I know that staff has looked at this aspect very specifically and so I'm sure that they have uh have wrestled with it to the ground but I certainly will take a look at it. I apologize I don't have an answer for you right now but I didn't I did not focus on that. **[37:10] Eric Moss:** Okay thank you um I can respond to that as well. Um city attorney Land did not review that specific she was provided the ordinance review and did find some good feedback with respect to um policy limits uh related to insurance. With respect to the curve interface question uh whether or not they use a platform the curve interface still comes into play with respect to the ramp that would be required down to the street surface and so that's why that's in there and it would be applicable it's just a matter of whether or not it's a matter of how much width um of the parklight whether it's the full parking platform or just the ramp that would need to adhere to that curb interface specification. **[38:40] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Oh okay and then I just had one other follow-up question. Um I'm sorry maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention in the last hearing but I was wondering um in regards there's a whack and sac review it was under um what is this page was page eight there's not pagination on these but um section six paragraph F where it says payment of whack and sac licensees shall pay any applicable whack and sac opposed as a result of the additional seating offered within a parklet. So I was just looking for clarification as to how is the Met Council handling um this during the pandemic when they don't have full capacity within the restaurants and then and then so if they're can you just speak to that a little bit and what's the what's the amount of time review that it takes for the Met Council to do such a review if it's required right now? **[39:16] Eric Moss:** Mayor Fasbender, Councilmember Haus, staff did reach out to Met Council with respect to SAC and WAC. They indicated that 1200 square feet would be the threshold for which additional um SAC and WAC would be necessary. Being that we're limiting this to two or three spots at most we're looking at 400-450 square feet perhaps and so these parklets would not be large enough to hit the threshold to require uh review for SAC and WAC. **[39:16] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Okay what a relief. All right thank you that's both now and post pandemic wonderful okay thank you. **[40:03] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thank you I would like to make a motion to adopt the ordinance to city code as it is as it pertains to parklets. **[40:03] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Second. **[40:03] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay thank you and Councilmember Haus second that. Uh discussion? I see Councilmember Vihrachoff has her hand raised with a motion on the table. **[40:03] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you honor. Um welcome Ms. Land. Real quick the connection between the restaurant and the parklet that we're naming it: whose insurance covers that? Is there insurance is the city liable at all in that space getting out to that area? **[40:03] Corey Land:** That's a great question uh Councilmember Vihrachoff and Mayor, members of the council. The what the city is doing by offering a license is it's giving permission for this area to be crossed. It is a public right-of-way and so ultimately I think if someone were to be injured in that few steps to get to the parklet space there would probably be litigation that would involve the city because it touches city right-of-way. So it would be a determination of level of fault and who's responsible for maintaining it at that point. If the property owner—which they have to insure it because they have to include that contact and contiguous space within their license with AG—so they will include that area. We're insured for all rights of way they're insured for their alcohol license so it's going to be the competing what exactly caused the issue that caused the damage to someone uh who's the contributing person at fault. So the answer is yes the city will probably be brought into something and held responsible if the city had a you know something wrong with the curb or with the sidewalk if there was some kind of a heave that caused a trip and fall or if the uh business put a table or did something else in that right-of-way space that caused the person uh to hurt themselves. So it's gonna be a case-by-case basis but ultimately long-winded answer to your question is the city could be held responsible. **[42:15] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Um since the motion's been made I just want to make make it clear here. I I am all in favor of this concept of helping businesses out. I brought it up at the last meeting and I know you asked us not to go into I just want to make sure that the community understands we're asking questions about long term here. We're changing ordinance. I think we should be doing what we did last year to help these businesses get through the pandemic and parklets because i've heard from some: is the parklet a public piece of property that anybody and everybody can use under this current ordinance? I'm understood that this is a private business use only the person next to a can't just go use it it's going to be used by whoever has that spot. That's why I think it needs more discussion about public space because it's a public road we're going across the public right away and our attorney just said there is a chance that we might be liable on behalf of the city. That's my only concern. I wish we would do what we did last year just to get us through the pandemic and do this the right way when we change an ordinance so with that I'm going to vote no but I want to say I'm in favor of them. I just don't like the way this ordinance is written um because I think in two weeks we're gonna find out there's so many questions about where do these go who gets them and then what parking spots give it up and then who makes that determination? I got a lot of questions to go with it so thank you. **[43:09] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Vihrachoff. Councilmember Haus. **[43:09] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Your honor um I'd just like to follow up with what Councilmember Vihrachoff just said about this the selection and the use of the parking spots and I actually I don't I I agree that there needs to be uh real consideration and thought um as to how some of those spots are taken. I know that i'm one of the individuals who was asking to speak, Jenny Green; they've sent a couple emails that about their concerns. They own Level Up which is right adjacent to the Busted Nut and I know that the Busted Nut intends to move ahead with a parklet. And just um I would ask that when there are um when these discussions are happening you know just for there to be some inclusivity um and in particular you know in that first what we're calling—I like to call it Block 1—you know which is uh the first section next to the bridge there um between the frontage road and and the stop sign that um folks are on board and and maybe they're I would just you know suggest to staff that there actually be you know a meeting of those who have put in requests and then other you know business owners that are down there so everybody's kind of aware of what's going on and how it's going to look and uh I'm just so that you know that everyone feels that they're part of the team and that there's um some some vetting of it going on so that the same situation doesn't occur where Level Up doesn't have a convenient spot for folks to stop and and grab a cup of coffee and come and go. So anyhow that's that was just my concern and I just wanted to voice it on behalf of Jenny since she couldn't get on thanks. **[44:41] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council discussion? The motion floor. Clerk Henderson would you please call the role? **[45:28] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (No). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Abstain). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). Motion prevails with one abstaining and one dissenting. **[45:28] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council at this time then I'd like to have accept a motion to approve a resolution to the city council of the city of Hastings authorizing publication of a summary of the ordinance establishing parklet regulations within the city of Hastings. **[46:14] Councilmember Mya Beck:** So moved. **[46:14] Councilmember Angie Haus:** I'll second, your honor. **[46:14] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Beck and a second by Councilmember Haus. Another discussion? Councilmember Vihrachoff? **[46:14] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Oh yes. Yes. Now you're under your ask it's just to publicize this, correct? **[46:14] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. So Clerk Henderson please call the roll. **[46:14] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). And that motion prevails. **[47:01] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Tonight we have a resolution site plan a special use permit for Simply Secure Storage, 2030 Spiral Boulevard. For this item we will have an introduction by Community Development Director John Hinzman. **[47:01] John Hinzman:** Thank you Mayor Fasbender and city council members. Before you as the mayor pointed out two actions related to a new development within their industrial park: Special Use Permit and Site Plan approval. Special Use Permit deals with the use of the property being used as a retail facility within the industrial park and the site plan being for the development of the site itself. I will note that the votes on these are a little bit different. A special use requirement does require six of seven council members uh to vote affirmative for that uh. Site planning does require a simple majority. So let's take a look at what we are looking at tonight. We have this property here, 2030 Spiral Boulevard industrial park, Enterprise Avenue over here. We have Glendale Heights housing development on this side. You may recall that Simply Secure Storage—Chad Samarawa—had property down here last year for another mini storage site which is under construction and finishing up, has uh approached the city and HEDRA for acquisition of this property over here for construction of another mini storage site. We did have the Planning Commission review this at their last meeting; they did vote 7-0 to recommend approval of that. We did have no members speak during the public hearing however we did hear afterwards there was a member of the public that that had wanted to make some comments and was was unable to at the meeting. The comments that he had submitted via email pertained to uh some traffic and road conditions in the area along Spiral Boulevard and so I think those have been forwarded to the Council and I'll add those in. So the site itself looks something like this: singular entrance coming off of Spiral Boulevard, mini storage units over here, be a gate around the facility similar to the other site. Just look something like this when you're looking at Spiral Boulevard: enhanced architectural views and these would be the other elevations within the site. Different type of units here: we have mini storage units and whether term business storage units over here. The business storage units would be assisting uh small business owners in the startup of their businesses as well, so something that HEDRA was keen upon supporting. So before you is the resolution for this Special Use Permit and the site plan. I could stand for any questions that you may have and Chad Samarawa I believe is in the audience as well thank you. **[50:03] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you John. Council any discussion? Not seeing any then I would accept a motion to approve a resolution of the city council in the city of Hastings granting Special Use Permit approval for operations of mini storage, a retail and service business within the I-1 industrial park district located 2030 Spiral Boulevard. **[50:03] Councilmember Angie Haus:** So moved your honor. **[50:03] Councilmember Leifeld:** Second. **[50:50] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Haus second and Councilmember Leifeld with the second. Additional discussion? Sorry Lisa she was first. Um Clerk Henderson please call the roll. **[50:50] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). And that motion prevails. **[50:50] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council I would also accept a motion to approve a resolution of the city council of city of Hastings granting site plan approval for mini storage located at 2030 Spiral Boulevard. **[50:50] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** So move your honor. **[50:50] Councilmember Mya Beck:** Second. **[51:35] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Leifeld, second Councilmember Beck. Discussion? Clerk Henderson please call the rule. **[51:35] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). And that motion prevails. Thanks John for your efforts tonight. We also have a resolution to approve land credit sale for Custom Sawdust. For this item we will have John just continue. **[52:22] John Hinzman:** Thank you mayor, city council members. Another activity within our industrial park, this one a little bit uh step before the last item we had. This is a preliminary land credit sale and concept plan approval for Custom Sawdust and I will share my screen here to show a little bit about this location. So we are looking at this property here; this is the Hastings bus garage, 31st Street East, Commerce Drive to the north. So this is a land that is a piece of property 1.3 acres owned by the city. Custom Sawdust is proposing to acquire this property through the land credit program and to build a uh 5,000 square foot industrial building on the site here. HEDRA did take a look at the land credit acquisition and the concept plan at their last meeting, recommending unanimous approval of the uh of the acquisition as proposed. With the land credit program there is a combination of things that go into determining a land credit: one would be the evaluation of the building—or the valuation of the building after construction—as well as the jobs that may be created. These would be new jobs that would be created in Hastings with this property here. It would be what we would term a a partial credit in which the land would uh have a cash transaction of about 48,000 dollars. So that would be funds that would come to the city and a part of that would be credit; so about half credit, half cash in the transfer. So what the Council is asked to do tonight is to consider the attached resolution that would authorize staff to move forward in preparing the land credit uh transaction and direct the applicant to go forward with the site plan review through the Planning Commission and Council. So this is what we're looking at for a property... and this is the proposal by the applicant at this point: shop and office at this point, parking lot area here, entrance out to 31st Street. And this gives a little indication of what the building's going to look like here. Again the proposal will go through a site plan review by Planning Commission and Council priority action by the Council so i can stand for any questions that you may have on this thank you. **[54:32] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you John. Any other any questions council? Councilmember Lawrence. **[54:32] Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Thank you honor. John I just real quickly out of curiosity, what was the uh jobs created from this? **[54:32] John Hinzman:** Thank you Councilmember Lawrence. Not much on the job creation end of it. There was a little bit of an increase in salary; I think there's about one job altogether that would be created. **[54:42] Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Thank you. **[54:42] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Lawrence... John that whole property that first shot you showed us, is that all city property? **[54:42] John Hinzman:** Yeah let me put that back up again mayor so we can take a look at that and i'll go back to that screen here. Yeah this is all city property here, so three separate lots. **[54:42] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Got it thank you. Any other discussion council? Council then I would accept a motion to approve a resolution for the city council of city of Hastings um approving temporary measures for operations of commerce. **[55:27] Councilmember Mya Beck:** So moved. **[55:27] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Second your honor. **[56:13] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Beck, second your honor Councilmember Leifeld. Any additional discussion? Clerk Henderson please call the role. **[56:13] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). And that motion prevails. Tonight under administration we have a budget amendment for seasonal parks maintenance and for this item we'll have an introduction from Dan Wietecha. **[56:13] Dan Wietecha:** Thank you Mayor. Um this is the the formal request is a budget amendment uh so that's why i'm bringing it as the administrator but really it gets at the the whole focus to it is improving maintenance in our park system. Now we've got was it 33 parks and 30 miles of trail and really just an awful lot to maintain and appreciate I think particularly this past year with everybody trying to find things to do with uh during this Covid environment, really appreciate the the parks that we have available. Maintenance has been difficult for the past few years and we've certainly heard uh comments from council members as well as the public. Take those to heart. Parks and Rec Director Chris Jenkins, a number of discussions with his staff, came up with a plan to better address maintenance uh this summer and then may need some adjustments but believe it'll be a good model for going forward. Uh essentially what we would do is uh have three teams and each team would be assigned to a set of you know 10 or 12 parks depending on how it divides out best. Additionally a team that would do uh small area mowing as well as a summer help for ball field maintenance but the key piece are these three maintenance teams. So if Pioneer Park uh had some sort of uh concerns about maintenance around the the sign and the landscaping, previously we might have had different work crews go through there; another employee was picking up uh the trash and another employee went in to do something and who do you talk to when there was half a dozen different employees at different times in that week that went through there? So what this does is uh having assigned parks to each team brings that accountability so it's real easy to you know hey we've got an issue uh in making sure it's taken care of but also uh having dedicated parks brings some ownership to it. So although like to believe that and do believe that there's a great deal of pride in the work that our employees do, it's a little bit different when it's their team or their team's park rather than the entire department. So i really want to move forward with this plan. One of the difficulties we've had though the past few years is getting fully staffed and if we want to have a team with two summer help to a parks keeper, we need to be able to get those summer help on and we've had trouble hiring those the past few years. We've tried a youth crew that didn't really wasn't as effective as we had hoped. In talking with Dakota County, neighboring municipalities, precision landscaping uh believe that we're below market rates on wages for summer help and that's the the part to the budget amendment: is asking for 43,000 dollars that covers wages and FICA Medicare expenses in order to increase these wages to a range of 14 to 15 dollars an hour to make us more competitive and able to get fully staffed in order to address the park maintenance. I can certainly stand for any questions on the administrative side and Parks and Recreation Director Chris Jenkins is also here if you have questions on the operational end of it thank you. **[1:00:02] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Dan. Councilmember Vihrachoff. **[1:00:02] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you honor. Um this might be for Dan or Chris. Um how many employees do we—did we do the homework of how many employees are we getting? Could we get on their current rate what was approved um for your pay structure? If we didn't enhance how much we were giving the current applicants could we add two more seasonals to get through the summer? I'm trying to look: is it a quantity thing or quality thing? I don't—i personally want to stay out of how you do it i just like you to do it do your best and i want to be more on the policy side of it. So i want to support you. It looks like funding is a source and the question would be then where does the funding source come from as a budget amendment? Is it coming from dollars we didn't use last year, fund balance or where it's coming from? But long story short I support the efforts, I am excited about the opportunity to kind of get some focus in on the park system. Thank you. **[1:01:37] Chris Jenkins:** I can speak to a broadly Mayor and council. Did not run the math exactly on potential number of employees with current budget allocation. I can tell you that uh we have struggled to hire folks for park maintenance um because the competition specifically here in town and in neighboring towns uh that that Dan spoke about is is very high. So to be able to attract the number of employees, the quality of employees, and to be able to retain them throughout a season after investing time and effort into those individuals for our needs is it's a very big challenge. So we're hopeful that being more competitive in the the wage side of things will allow us to keep some folks for the duration this season and will allow us to attract folks that that are happy working here and the plan that Dan detailed for you. We've got a number of employees split out: so we'd have three employees that we'd be looking to hire for six months; we'd have four employees we're looking to hire for four or five months; and then four for four months and then a number for three months just knowing that we do get some high school and college-age kids that are good but we also want to attract some of those folks that might be you know semi-retired or maybe they're retired from some other category of work and we can attract them and retain them year after year. Uh most folks we do retain year after year are are some of our best employees. **[1:03:10] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Chris. So yes Dan please. **[1:03:10] Dan Wietecha:** I'm going to quick um screen share i'm going to find my uh find an email and we did look at current budget versus um too many buttons. All right did that come up? Yes. A prior year we might have without the the increase in wages we might have uh been able to get at that eight or nine range maybe even touch the 10 but in prior year budget the issue we were running into about a 60,000 dollar figure uh we were never getting that full you know you know reaching that nine employee piece even if the budget would have allowed for it. So uh really we're wanting to get to 11. The old budget might have actually allowed 11 except for the the difficulty hiring but you can see here um increasing that wage and this is at the 14 dollars we start to just at five employees max that out and at six employees start surpassing what was previously budgeted. So that's where you're seeing that cumulative total bringing it up to 37,000 in this figure, about 40,000 plus FICA Medicare for the the budget amendment. So we did look at what the current budget would allow uh and it really limited on on the uh the higher wage level. The other question that Councilmember Vihrachoff had had to do with where the money would come from and at this point it would come from fund balance. The question of using leftover money from a prior year—well at the end of the year it rolls into fund balance it doesn't automatically carry over at least in an operational end like this. If it was a project we were in the middle of uh or some sort of capital expense that might span over a couple of years we picked that up with a carry forward but but typically not an operational piece like this. So it would come from fund balance. **[1:06:14] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Dan. Councilmember Haus. **[1:06:14] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you I'd like to thank staff thank you Chris and Dan for brainstorming about um what it is that you can do to shift the structure and um and make teams more accountable and um for the areas in which they're they're they're tending and so we appreciate you um doing what you can to um just change up how it is you're doing operations and i think that's great. And i'm you know supportive i underst i i get it it's competitive out there especially if um you're competing with private sector perhaps um more of the you know the blue collar um construction trades right now where um it will probably be a a competitive season you know with that and so i understand. So i'm supportive but i just i know that last year with the pandemic going on it really threw a monkey in the wrench with hiring and so i was curious as to what are your intentions right now with are you going then to as you normally would hire back seasonal employees on the schedules that you have you know for all parks and concession stands and then the swimming pool areas also? I'm just curious. **[1:07:00] Chris Jenkins:** Mayor and councilor i i can answer that to my best of the best of my ability at this point. Uh for sure with park maintenance we would very much like to be fully staffed as as we learned last year that that work never goes away and and we need to do our absolute best to make sure that all of our parks and facilities are maintained well. For the pool specifically uh currently the guidance is at 25 capacity and uh our manager will be starting a week from today so her and i will sit down and discuss what current guidance is and and look to both the state and the Minnesota Park and Recreation Association and see kind of where the guidance if they have any insight on where that guidance will be. Our intent at this point is absolutely to open the pool um but as we know there's some uh some wrenches that can be thrown into our plans. To what degree we will need to staff that with the numbers of people we just don't know just yet. If we're at 25 capacity i envision probably a little bit different operation um what that is at this point i don't know and again when our manager comes back next week that'll be some of the first conversations that we have. Adult sports and concession stands and those sorts of things i i envision those running just as they they have in the past. **[1:08:31] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Okay um thank you for that Chris. I'd just like to put a plug in: i'm glad to hear that you're i'm looking at seriously opening up the swimming pool and just something that i've been fretting about and i know this sounds like i'm a worrywort and too over you know overbearing of a mom but just that we're providing those swimming lesson opportunities for kiddos if they didn't get that last year and so i get concerned about there being two years where community youngsters aren't getting opportunities for swimming lessons and what could potentially happen if they didn't have that kind of education education. So i just feel that we have an obligation to provide that so that was it thank you. **[1:09:17] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Haus thank you Chris. Any other comments or Dan? **[1:09:17] Dan Wietecha:** Just real quick to follow up on on Chris's comments. Uh we actually are recognizing that there's a lead time that it takes us to go through the hiring process. We're actually already advertising for the aquatic center and uh hopefully this this budget amendment will be approved this evening we'll be advertising for the summer maintenance within a day or two. **[1:10:02] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay thank you Dan. Uh council I would accept a motion to approve the budget amendment of 43,000 dollars for seasonal park maintenance. **[1:10:02] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Moved. **[1:10:02] Councilmember Leifeld:** Second. **[1:10:02] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Haus and Councilmember Leifeld with a second. Additional discussion? Clerk Henderson please call the roll. **[1:10:02] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). And that motion prevails. **[1:10:49] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Chris i'm so excited it's going to be awesome love our parks. Okay we have a 2020 budget amendment and fund closures. For this item we will have City Administrator Dan speak to us again. **[1:11:35] Dan Wietecha:** Thank you um first just real quick want to point out there's a typo in the title of the resolution in the packet. It should be the 2020 budget not 21 so i just want to make sure that we we get the the right piece as we go forward. Um uh this really is a bit of housekeeping we we typically do uh after uh the the end of the year at the end of the start of the new year. This year it might be a little extra housekeeping because uh Covid had a number of different effects on our operations. So you know as mentioned earlier the pool being closed or some of our other activities certainly slowed down and reduced revenues as well as in many cases reduced expenses at the same time. The other piece obviously we had the CARES funds and about a million dollars of that um coming into uh city accounts uh which was certainly unplanned or budgeted. So uh from the budget amendment standpoint it really it's housekeeping to recognize that a lot of activities in '20 were different than we had anticipated going forward. A couple of those show up in some smaller areas with LeDuc special revenue or the cable access funds uh just actual numbers being different than we have projected. One that i do want to point out is the hydro plant which had some higher expenses last year with some repairs and maintenance as well as being out of service as well as just some water levels did not produce the revenues that we might have liked it to. So the net effect of that is it is short on cash which makes it difficult to make a transfer to the city uh general fund but the other impact of that is being short on cash we don't want to deplete it entirely and we want to keep some cash available for unexpected repairs or maintenance for the facility so we want to keep some some some balance there. Staff recommendation is not to transfer a quarter million dollars from hydro to the general fund as we had anticipated at the start of the year. The other piece that's in the the memo there's a number of fund closures. Most of those uh if you look at mill and overlay fund 2016 improvements, city hall remodel, 2017 improvements, 2018, 2019, some bonds in debt—these were funds that were established for a particular project that year and somewhere we have a new fund opened up for the '21 neighborhood project this year but as those projects are completed we don't need to keep them on the books. So finance staff is recommending that we close those funds. If there's any residuals in there it would be put into a debt redemption fund which is something that we either use to pay off additional you know payoff debt payments or at times we've used that to fund smaller capital projects. That's the long and the short of all the numbers here; uh really it's a matter of bringing our 2020 uh figures in line with how they actually occurred as well as closing out some funds that are either no longer needed because their past projects or past debt or uh over the years we've done some restructuring and rolled the mill and overlay fund for example into a different fund and it's just it's still hanging out there on the books and should be cleaned up. But if there's any questions i'd certainly stand for those. **[1:15:27] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay thank you Dan. Any questions council? Okay if not could i accept a motion to I would accept a motion to approve a resolution amending the 2020 budget and fund closures and transfers. **[1:15:27] Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** So moved. **[1:15:27] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Second. **[1:16:12] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Lawrence with a second. Additional discussion council? Clerk Henderson please call the roll. **[1:16:12] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). And that motion prevails. Any other any announcements council? Nope. I'll give you a list of meetings: Thursday March 4th at 4 o'clock there's a Public Safety Committee meeting; Monday March 8th 7 pm there's a Planning Commission meeting; Tuesday March 9th 7 pm a Parks and Rec Commission meeting; Thursday March 11th 6 pm there's a HEDRA meeting; and our next Council meeting is Monday March 15th. With that i would accept a motion to adjourn. **[1:17:44] Councilmember Mya Beck:** So moved. **[1:17:44] Councilmember Angie Haus:** Seconded by Councilmember Haus. **[1:17:44] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** No discussion Clerk Henderson please call the roll. **[1:17:44] Claire Henderson:** Councilmember Vihrachoff? (Yes). Councilmember Haus? (Yes). Councilmember Fox? (Yes). Councilmember Leifeld? (Yes). Councilmember Lawrence? (Yes). Councilmember Beck? (Yes). Mayor Fasbender? (Yes). **[1:17:44] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** And that motion prevails and with that i will wish you all a meteorological spring is here it's March 1st so enjoy the sun thank you.