The Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 meeting of the Eden Prairie City Council is Now call to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. It's customary uh during this time of the meeting for me to read an open podium invitation. Open podium is an opportunity for Eden Prairie residents to address the city council on issues related to Eden Prairie city government prior to each council meeting typically the first and third Tuesday of each month. These open podiums occur from 6:30 to 6:55 right here in the council chamber. If you wish to speak at open podium, please do contact the city manager's office at 952-9498412 by noon of the meeting date with your name, your phone number, and subject matter so we can be better prepared for you. Open podium is not recorded or televised. If you have questions about open podium, please do contact the city manager's office. Mr. O, we do um have um a couple donations to receive this evening. >> We we do, mayor. Uh very um very excited about um the first one. The second one, Amy's going to cover both of these. The second one is something that we do quarterly. Um the first one is a very unique uh exciting large donation uh that Amy is going to cover. >> Miss Marco. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mayor and Council. You know, as many people know, we have a beautiful art center in Eden Prairie, and we are really fortunate to receive a large donation in the past month. So, I just wanted to highlight that. Um, as many of you know, the Eden Prairie Arts Center is a community focused hub that offers creative programs for all ages and skill levels. You know, we see anyone from toddler age through seniors. And the building was generously donated to the city in 2008 and continues to grow in our public programs, summer camp, special events, um, and just the number of artists of all ages that we see continues to grow each year. Uh to foster our commitment to careers and leadership in the arts, an arts internship program has been discussed among staff and developed and an anonymous donation of $50,000 has been committed for two years to support the internship. Uh this position will be a year-round internship that will offer a wide breath of experience in visual and performing arts, programming, events, marketing, center management, and creative storytelling to help foster that bridge between the center and the diverse community here in Eden Prairie that it serves. Um, so again, we're just so excited for this donation and grateful, appreciative, um, and we will be putting it to great use um, and growing um, a talented staff for the arts profession. >> It It's really an amazing donation, $50,000. That's um, pretty rare. Um, the city is very fortunate. >> Yeah, I was going to add, mayor, I know obviously anonymous is anonymous, right? So you can't that's important to the person to be anonymous but I think uh this is something that this particular person's provided several donations over the years and uh you obviously want to respect their anonymity but um I mean you can't thank that person enough for the the um passion and the care they have for the Eden Prairie Art Center and and what they've given uh back to the community is is just you can't thank them enough. That's >> it's obviously something that um really supports the city. >> No, we are um filled with gratitude. Deeply appreciative. Uh council, we do need a motion to adopt the resolution accepting this amount. >> Move to Go ahead. >> Move to adopt the resolution accepting anonymous donation of 50,000 to the Edenbury Arts Center internship program. >> Is there a second? Second. >> All those in favor say I. I >> I opposed. >> Um Dr. Marco, I apologize. I forgot that you are Dr. Marco when I use the word Miz. So um um that's actually I'm I think we're about the only city around that has a a park and rec director that has her doctor. So that's pretty impressive. >> Well, thank you. >> What was it in again? Recreational something. uh is in education >> just not just but um but nothing particular to recreation or >> yeah the focus uh we looked at equitable access to decision making and urban park systems kind >> okay that connects that ties in well anyway um Dr. Merkel, I think we have another um item that is yours. >> Yeah. So, this is the time uh each quarter we accept our quarterly donations and over the past quarter we've uh accumulated a total of $4,275. Um, and it helps fulfill our mission of providing access and opportunity and enhancing the programs and events that we are able to offer to the community to low uh to no cost for our residents. And to highlight those uh businesses that have generously donated, we had a $250 donation from Custom Care Mobility for senior center events. The Summit Place campus generously donated $400 for the senior center events. Synergy Home Care, $250 for the senior center. St. Croy Hospice, $175. Landmark, $200. Um, that specifically went for our shred truck event to help support that. And Wall Trends um donated $200 for our hometown celebration, which will be coming up July 3rd and 4th. We're already seeking sponsors and donation for that festival. And then Brightar Care donated $200 for senior center events. Choice Connections $250 for senior center. Joyful Companion $50 for bingo at the senior center. Um particular donor Joan Wilson generously donated $200. Home Watch Caregivers $100. And lastly, Lion's TAP donated $2,000. that we'll be evenly splitting amongst all park and wreck events throughout the year. So, thank you to everyone who's donated. Um we are very appreciative. >> Nice. Thank you. Um and I' I say this every time we accept these donations that the city um yes, we do collect quite a bit in tax dollars, but we can't do everything. And these donations allow us to do that go that extra step uh in any event depending what was it was donated to. We're really um very appreciative of all these different groups and businesses that gave money council. Um we need a motion on this to accept. >> I'll move to adopt the resolution accepting multiple winter quarter 2026 donations to parks and recreation. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> Opposed. All right. Moving on to the agenda. Uh any um parts of it that you wish to question or anything you want to add under council member reports? And there is Was there going to be something? No, there was a a just um not a change but an addition >> addition mayor. Yes. So we have >> Go ahead. I'll give throw it over to you. >> Thank you, Mayor Councel. So we do have an item that was brought uh early this week. Add to the consent agenda and it be consent agenda item T. Um it's an added resolution supporting an application to the department of employment economic development um for the forward fund program. So basically what this is, it's asking for a resolution of support from the city council um for the state of Minnesota um one of their funds to support a business that would uh come in to Eden Prairie to a facility in Eden Prairie possibly. It's all it's all very tentative. Uh the resolution of support for a business to potentially bring uh 450 jobs by the end of the decade. Uh uh unnamed business at this time to a location that they want to keep confidential, but it's a resolution of support um at this time for what they're calling project beam. So, uh, the resolution is action that the state needs for the city to provide support. >> So, unless you had questions on it, we would just simply include it. It is already in consent calendar and we'll just um take one large vote on A through T. Any um well, that's later so I was jumping ahead of myself. First, we need to approve the agenda with this addition to the consent calendar. Uh, is there a motion to approve? Move to approve the agenda with added item in the consent calendar. Is there a >> second? All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. All right. Moving on to the minutes. We have the two meetings, the workshop and the regular council meeting held back on March 3rd. Uh anything that you wanted to correct, add edit to the minutes of either meeting? >> If not, is there a motion to accept both of them? I'll move to approve the following city council minutes. City council workshop held Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 and city council meeting held Tuesday, March 3, 2026. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> I opposed. All right. Now, moving on to the consent calendar A through T. Are there any items A through T that you wish to question learn more about? Even you could vote on it separately if you wished. Anything or can we vote on all of it? >> With that then is there a motion to approve items A through T on the consent calendar? >> Move to approve items A through T on the consent calendar. >> Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> All right, Mr. Mr. Gro, we have two public hearings this evening and I'll turn it back over to you. >> Uh, thank you, Mayor and Council. First public hearing is Chestnut Town Homes by Red Tail Residential. Uh, this is a comprehensive plan amendment. Uh, actually going from mediumigh density residential to medium on uh 5.72 acres. Uh this is a proposed uh development of 53 town home units on two properties located at the intersection of Chestnut and Carmody and Windong Drive. Um the developer, as I mentioned, is proposing 53 town home units in and around uh area that already um includes uh town home developments in the area. The planning commission voted to recommend 8 to zero that the project move forward to the city council at their March 9th meeting. the applicant is here to provide a presentation also because I I don't want to go into too much detail because staff also has uh presentation that they'd like to give because there is uh an update that staff would like to provide on some details of the project and an update of progress made between planning commission and council as well. So if possible, we would like the applicant to provide their presentation. Staff has a presentation that they would like to do and then obviously uh council could hold the public hearing and then staff and the applicant could answer any questions that um that anybody would have of um of the project. >> Sounds good. Um applicant, please come forward. Name and where you're from, what company. Yeah, my name's uh Dugan Garrison and I work with Creed Group who represents Red Tale Multif Family Land Development on this deal. Um not sure how to There we go. Thank you. Just want to make sure. Perfect. Um as uh city manager Rick mentioned, uh we are looking to develop a 53 unit town home development at Harmony and Chestnut Drive in Eden Prairie. Um I'm joined tonight by members of our project team. Um we have our civil engineer here LAX engineering our architects um with um sorry with our architects Cass Wilson and then um our also property management team as well. All right there we go. So Red Tale is a fully integrated multif family developer with experience across the country. Um they have been doing acquisition, development, construction for a very long time and they also have been doing extensive property management for all their developments as well. They currently own and manage over 13,000 units nationwide and focus on delivering highquality workforce housing with strong long-term management. On this slide, there's a few representative projects in not only Eden Prairie but um other areas around the country as well. So um just to provide a little bit of the context and high characteristic development that they provide and manage. All right. As I mentioned um this is the project team uh and we also have the property management group here today but uh we are the project managers as part of creed group applicants red tail multif family development. Our architect is Gas Wilson and our engineer is La Engineering. All right, so here's a few project details. As mentioned, it's 53 unit town home development. It's located on approximately 5.7 acres. We are providing three inclusionary housing units at or below 30% of AMI and um the development also includes 9,000 square ft of open space. We believe that it is well positioned within the existing community. Site is surrounded by existing residential uh developments including apartments and town homes. Um as you can see by the three different highlighted areas and we believe that our site is consistent with the surrounding development pattern and is designed to complement the existing neighborhood. This is an overall site plan showing a private internal drive, distributed building placement throughout the site with the integrated landscaping and buffering around the community as well as adding a few additional plantings or quite a few additional plantings on the southern half. This is um this plan seems like it's uh southern would be just the bottom here, but we're actually looking at plan uh east would be our southern boundary and that's where we added the planting due to plan commission feedback. So here's our north site plan provides a little bit more detail showing the appropriate setback requirements as well as maintaining the open space that we can and ensuring efficient circulation and access. Here's the south side. Same thing here. As I noted, um, we provided some additional planting and we've been going back and forth as well with the HOA board to our south to make sure we come to an agreement of the best way we can incorporate the planting per their liking. As well, we have added 21 additional trees as shown on this exhibit. Um, just makes it a little bit more clear as to what we actually added to the site. So, here's our unit mix. Don't want to get into too much detail here, but there is um going to be two um one story, two-bedroom units, twotory, three-bedroom units, and threetory town homes as part of this. And then here are some property elevations. Um just get quickly slide through these, but happy to go back at any point to go over any of these elevations and floor plans in more detail if there are questions. All right. So, on the next few slides is going to be our photorealistic renderings, uh, showing what the site will look like once developed from these three vantage points. Um, so just keep this exhibit in mind. I can go back to it if there's any questions as well. So, here's our first view from Winsong Drive. Shows the community pretty well developed into the area. We have a lot of landscaping around. Nice little um community park as we have integrated into the site plan as well. We believe it's going to promote a pedestrian friendly uh feel around the entire site as well as existing community. Here is our view from um Chestnut Drive from the south site. And then here is the view from Card Drive. So um once again this is a southern parcel looking uh north northwest and that is it. Thank you for your time. Happy to answer any questions obviously after staff gives their presentation as well. >> Sure council anything um in the moment we can continue on um unless you had something that you needed to ask right now. >> Uh I got some questions but we can we can go on. >> Do you Okay. Yeah. Do you >> as long as we're coming back? >> Will they be of the um developer right now or of our staff? >> No. Um actually, actually, if that's the case, then it's probably should. Let's ask them right now. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> I mean, we can always bring him back, but let's ask him right now. >> Your rendering shows some pretty good landscaping as far as growing and all that. Okay. The reality is you're clearcutting that property, though, too. Um I guess I got I'm looking at seven heritage trees going down. That's get a sensitive spot on Needen Prairie. Um and virtually every other tree is significant. There's some that are, you know, there's some in poorer condition here. I get that. But is there no way you cannot clearcut that property? I think that's a problem. I guess uh I hear it a lot over the years. Uh people care about their trees and yeah, you're going to replace some and stuff, but when you're talking heritage trees and stuff and you're talking then putting up, you know, larger sticks, for lack of a better term where it's going to take 20 years to get, you know, looking at it, it's something to consider. And I guess I can't just look at this and not say something about it. Um, and the other thing I was just looking at too, three units are included under inclusionary at 30% AMI. Um, I guess that's open for further discussion at this point here. It's just, you know, my biggest kick was those trees. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, is there no other way of doing that? We have um thoroughly investigated that specifically the southern site, right? Because that's where the majority of the heritage trees that you're um mentioning are coming down. Uh >> and it's on that southern >> concentration up in there. >> Yeah, exactly. The difficult part of that is there's pretty significant grades on that southern portion to where we'd have we have to grade out that southern half in order to make a make the site viable to develop as much as possible. Um, we've looked at other iterations of this site plan and we've been doing that for the past three years. Um, in order to try and configure the best way we can eliminate retaining walls, save landscaping, save trees, um, and just reduce impacts to the existing community or existing resources as well as community. And we believe that this is the best site plan that we could come up with >> because we had a we had a project once on Lincoln Drive um an apartment complex on it and we're talking about the trees on the lot itself. It was wooded and all of a sudden I drove past there and the whole thing looked totally clearcut. My phone started ringing. Uh people go that's not what we thought we were going to get. Uh, and that wasn't truly clear-cut in their case, but it was like 90%. And that caused a problem for me of a few people. Um, I'd just like to hear more. That's fine. You know, I think it as far as I made my point on it right at this point. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You want to ask the question now or >> how do you want? >> I I would I would say let's move on. >> Okay. I I mean just write them down and then we'll bring the developer back up because some of your questions may get answered as our staff reports or uh and I'm not sure if your um the applicant has anyone else that's going to be speaking but >> yeah let's is that that's okay move on stay handy. So >> um so we'll go now to our staff report. Um again if there's a pressing question at the end of that you can certainly ask Julie Julie otherwise we can call people back up. Go ahead, >> mayor, members of the council, thank you for the opportunity to provide a little additional information. Uh, Robert and I have a few slides to share on some of the topics that were uh talked specifically about at the planning commission public hearing, primarily focusing on the trees, noise from the construction project as well as traffic impacts. So, starting off with um the very first conversation topic of tree removal and replacement. So, I just want to to give a little background, remind the council of the provisions that we do have in city code. City code allows for tree removal, but requires replacement based on the size of the tree that's being removed. Council member Fryberg mentioned heritage trees and significant trees, and those are the terms that we use for those trees that meet those minimum size measurements that then trigger tree replacement requirements. City code also allows tree replacement requirements to be met through the planting of new trees or it can be met through the payment in loo option. Some of you might remember that that payment in loo option was provided in 2016 2017 as the city was talking about some of the infill development sites that have you know not been infill development meaning they've stood stagnant for quite some time. So then they develop a lot of volunteer and undergrowth appearing a little more robust landscaping wise than actually providing heritage and significant trees. So that uh provision was provided in order to allow that tree replacement requirement to be met as a payment in lie rather than on some sites that may not be able to support that level of tree replacement. In this slide, we talk about the the top table talks about what is happening on the site in terms of tree or tree removals. So there are 53 trees totaling 900 caliber inches of significant trees that would be removed. There are seven trees that qualify as heritage resulting in 311 caliber in. Then the bottom table talks about the specifics of how that's being handled in terms of meeting code requirements. And I just want to remind you that there's the tree replacement component, but there's also a landscaping component that is required on all development projects in that is based on the size and scale, the massing of the property. So, uh, the tree replacement requirement is a little over a thousand in, and that is being met through just a little bit shy of 300 in actually being planted on site and then a payment in lie for the remaining 785 caliber in. When you look at the landscaping for the entire site, there will be 621 caliber inches to be planted on site. 330 of those satisfy the landscaping requirement for the size and scale of the building and 287 would apply towards tree replacement. So when we look at those 621 caliber inches being provided on site, there will be a result of 161 trees planted on site, 300 shrubs, and about a third of an acre of perennial plantings that would be provided on the site when the entire project has been completed. and some of the details regarding the tree removal. The majority of the significant and heritage trees proposed for removal are along the northern property line closest to the wetland. And on the next slide, I've got a graphic that depicts that for you. And then on the southern side of the project, there are only two significant trees along that southern property line, a budding pine brook. The remainder of the uh greenery there is primarily buckthornne and undergrowth. So, as you look at this uh visual, you can see this being the southside, this kind of squiggly line, for lack of a better term, indicates kind of that undergrowth and buckthorn type of area. You can see a couple of trees included within that area. And then on the north side here, that uh tree removal area, you can see there's a a fair number of trees in that area that are being removed. Um, but when you look at the entirety of the site, there is a lot of space in between there that is not encumbered by a lot of trees. So, the edges are really where that impact is being felt from a tree removal standpoint. Some of the history on this site. So, when the reserve apartments uh to the west were developed, it was a part of the Chestnut area outlined in red was part of that project. So you can see in the 1980s when reserve came in this was largely farmland rolling hills and the dark spots on the graphic indicate uh where there were trees. So you can see historically this area was not heavily treated. It's not as if this property uh dating back uh carried a lot of trees. The trees that are there have grown up over time. The development plans actually for the reserve indicated that the whole site was completely graded. And as we look at old areas from the 80s and 90s, at one time there was a tennis court on the north and the south side. Then it looks like there was some other kind of sport court renovation that occurred there as well. Eventually those have been removed and now it's just a bare area uh ahead of this project. Since the planning commission meeting, the developer has added some more trees as a buffer to Pinebrook on that south side, mitigating some of the removed caliper inches. As the developer indicated, they've also had conversations with the Pine Brook HOA, and they are proposing to plant 12 trees offsite in the Pine Brook neighborhood. Those trees don't count towards the tree replacement requirement because they're offsite. City code only allows those onsite to be counted toward that. So, they've added uh 20 or nearly 20 trees as a part of that uh those revisions and then Robert will talk a little bit more about the traffic. But if you have any questions on the trees, I'm happy to try and answer or wait until after Robert has completed his comments. >> Any pressing questions or should we move on? >> Okay. >> Okay. Robert. >> Okay. the mayor, city council, I'll cover some traffic issues that were raised during uh the planning commission and some of the comment that we've received since then and also I'll discuss noise at the end. Um with respect to the traffic, the uh increased volumes that we're expecting with the development of this project, if you recall, this uh the site is actually has a guiding of the medium high density. And so the previous proposal that was submitted to the city had a number of daily trips increasing to 540. Now, with this being a medium density proposal, slightly less traffic, a total of 348 daily trips. And if you break that down into the AM and PM peak hours, you're seeing that there's about 24 added AM peak and 27 added PM peak trip. So, um, not terribly consequential with the system that we have out there today. And if you take a look at that bottom chart, you'll see that Anderson Lakes Parkway today has an average daily traffic of about 6,300 vehicles per day. With the development, that increases about 350 to the 6,650. Typically, when we start seeing roadway capacity issues for a roadway with these types of geometrics, it's when they're hitting 8,000 up to 13,000 vehicles per day. So, there is some room in there for additional capacity. Similarly, when you look at Chestnut Drive, existing volumes today suggest around 1,600 vehicles with the development that increases to 1,830. We're seeing about 65% of the total traffic generated from the town homes utilizing Chestnut as the ingress egress and then about 35% using Cardy Drive. So, that's the breakdown between the two roadways that provide access. But again, looking at Chestnut Drive has a roadway capacity of up to 3,000 vehicles per day. So there's still room for uh additional traffic to grow into the future. Similarly, Cardy Drive, uh we expect a roadway capacity of about 2,000. It's a slightly narrower road. It's about 3 or 4 feet narrower than Chestnut Drive. Um so that's why it has a slightly lower roadway capacity. I will point out we also did look at a four-way uh or an all-way stop condition at Chestnut Drive in Anderson Lakes Parkway. Um typically what you look for there is an accident history. We're not seeing an accident history that would suggest moving to an all-way stop. You'd like to see around five vehicle accidents over a 12-month period. We're not near that number for a for a history of accidents. You also want to see about 200 vehicles per hour on the side street for eight hours of the day. Right now, the peak is at about 130 vehicles for one hour and then it significantly drops after that. So, really nowhere near the type of volumes that you need to see on a side street for an all-way stop. Uh again, we would continue to monitor that. This is Anderson Lake Parkway is one of the the roads we keep close tabs on as far as monitoring traffic and looking for issues. So going forward with or without this project, that is something that we will continue to analyze. Also want to bring up sightelines at Cardy and Anderson Lakes Parkway. So when you're on Cardy approaching the stop sign at Anderson Lakes Parkway coming out of the um Pinebrook um town home Association area, um we've heard because of the curve in the roadway, the vertical change, the road drops. There's also a burm. There's a number of trees and branches. And you can see in this photo there are some sight obstructions that exist there. Um the large uh deciduous tree that's appears to be outside of the rideway and on the private property uh side of that line uh does create an obstruction. If you're familiar with the area, maybe learn a way to kind of approach the intersection slowly so you can see around it and then move forward in a safe manner to see on the other side of it. But for people that maybe aren't as used to driving this roadway, I could see how that could be a challenge looking for a gap in traffic on Anderson Lakes Parkway. So if there was a desire to improve those sight lines, I think you can add another 100 ft of distance, sight distance by the removal of that deciduous tree and maybe some trimming of some evergreen branches. Um, but I think that's something that um can be dealt with in the future if it becomes a problem. Looking at the accident history here over the last 10 years, I haven't seen any type of a correctable accident that was caused by uh sightelines, what I've seen is on Anderson Lakes Parkway. I think there were three accidents in the last 10 years of rear-end vehicles. So, somebody was turning left or right, vehicle behind them, ran into the back of them. So, not really a correctable accident or a cause of this. And then there was one additional accident. a driver on Cardy Drive was on their phone, didn't realize there was a stop sign, and blew through it and caused an accident. So, four accidents over 10 years isn't suggesting that there's an issue that needs to be resolved by this. I'm simply pointing out that you could improve sight lines if you wanted to by the removal of that tree, but that would be at the decision uh I guess of the homeowners association because that would be their vegetation. Uh next, I want to bring up pedestrian crossings because we do have two signed and marked crosswalks across Anderson Lakes Parkway. one at Chestnut, one at Cardy. And uh in doing this review, we would like to see because it meets the warrants for a RFB at the Chestnut Drive. And that's because this is a trail totra connection. Those are in our um world of pedestrian and bicycle access. That's kind of our primary routes is trails and then sidewalks are more secondary. Because this is a trailtora connections, it meets that warrant for an RFB. We're suggesting that be installed with the development. Cardy may or may not warrant it because this is a trail to sidewalk. We need to see about 20 pedestrian crossings over the course of the day. We've been monitoring it. We're close. We don't really see that. I suspect that when the warmer weather, maybe school discharges for the for session, we might see more activity at this crosswalk. So, we want to continue to monitor that. And if we do meet the warrants of those 20 crossings in the course of a day, we'd like to see that installed with the development as well. And that's something that we've been talking about uh with them. So that would make it a uh safer crossing for people that are trying to cross Anderson Lakes Parkway. Uh, and then the last thing I'll bring up on the traffic spectrum is the issue that has been brought up by a number of people about on street parking causing congestion, making travel difficult, particularly on Chestnut, but also to a lesser degree maybe on Cardy and Windong. And uh, so if you were to go out there today, you'll notice we do have no parking from midnight to 8 in the morning November through April. So during the winter, we have no parking restrictions on a portion of Card. I would suggest, and this photo was taken just a few, I guess our last snowstorm, um Chestnut Drive, it was parking um bumperto-bumper, the entire uh section of Chestnut Drive. And this usually happens when the Reserve Apartments needs to clear their lots. They order all of their patrons out onto the road so that they can clear for a day or two. I think it might be wise to post no parking on one side of Chestnut Drive. I believe the south side would be best and that might need to be an all year 24 hours a day restriction just to keep that roadway open for emergency service vehicles. We've heard from a number of residents and neighbor this can be challenging. I've heard from the school district that bringing a bus in to pick up kids can be a challenge at time. So, it might warrant doing something a little bit more aggressive than what's out there today. I will say before we did that do that I would like to visit with the HOA at both Windong and Pinebrook because I don't want spillover to occur onto their roadways. So it might mean that we need to do some more permanent restrictions on one side of the road there too. But I would like to get input from the HOA before doing that. I have reached out to the management company with Pinebrook. Um the gentleman was out of the office for a few weeks but I'd like to touch base with them to get their input but I think that's something we're very receptive to and could assist. So, so Robert, what do you envision would happen on a bad snow day when the apartments or the town homes cleared their parking lots? Yes. Where would their cars go? >> I think they would need to be a more coordinated effort where they would work with they have a total of five actual apartments. They also have one over there off Anderson Lakes Parkway. I think that they would need to sequence that where maybe in the morning people on the north side of Chestnut need to vacate the lot, park out onto Chestnut, and then in the afternoon they could go back and then on the afternoon the southside might not need to do I think and I've been talking with their management company and they're trying to do a few things to help. But I think we're on the same page here that it's more than just telling everybody to get out of the lot for the day and then come back tomorrow that it's more coordinated and sequenced and a little bit more planning goes into this. So, >> so, so Robert, if they park both side, we cannot have like a fire truck going through the middle. >> I couldn't drive my vehicle down the middle when I took this photo. I had to back up on two occasions to let another car come through. So, it is a problem. >> Okay. And then I'll finish here with Did you have another question, council member? >> Well, I can I'll wait. >> Uh, construction noise. So, city code allows heavy equipment, construction noise from 7:00 in the morning till 7 at night Monday through Saturday. It's prohibited on Sundays and holidays. Um, anything outside those hours if we were to try to work with the developer on a reduction of that uh would be outside the ordinance. Enforcement would be difficult. I'm not exactly sure how that would work, what it would look like today. If somebody is working at 9 at night, um, operating heavy machinery, resident calls 911, dispatch has a patrol officer go out, they resolve the issue, possibly through a citation if they're working within those bounds, but we have an agreement that maybe you shorten that timeline on a Saturday, maybe instead of 7 to 7 on Saturday, it's 9 to 7 on Saturday. um if they're willing to agree to that uh through concessions um that's possible to put it into agreement, but I just want to highlight it might be difficult to enforce because when that resident calls and says it's 7:30, they're pounding nails, the police officer is not going to show up. That's not a code enforcement issue. It becomes something where either an inspector or some staff member has to go out and track down and we don't have a lot of tools or a mechanism to get them to not do that. Permits have already been issued. We'd have to get creative. I can't promise that there's a really ideal solution to that, but that would be the way you address it is through a development agreement. Um, and I will say there's nothing non-standard about this development. There's no pile driving or that really aggressive obtuse type of um practices that we would see here. It's the standard construction that you see with um apartments. It's not to say that it isn't uh isn't impactful um but it's not atypical of what we've seen with almost every development in in Eden Prairie. And that concludes our presentation. >> I have um two question that because of this development we had to put the RSP right. >> Is it? >> Yeah. Because of this development or we have to do it anyway. I I think it might be a good idea do a good idea to do it uh anyway, but I think with the added traffic that it's come to our attention, it's maybe a little bit more of an acute issue that has been brought up through the whole public comment process. >> So in that case, the developer pay, if I remember right, around $ 35 to $40,000 y >> to put one of those. >> Yes. For furnish and install. >> Yeah. Is it developer pay for that? >> That would be our proposal within the development agreement. >> Okay. The second question I have is I was waiting for the developer. Um since you're there, you probably going to answer anyway. There is an internal road there, right? You mentioned the internal road in the inside the development. Who removed the snow and all that? Is that by HOA or or the city? >> Yeah, that'd be our own property management group that would remove the snow within our community. Correct. >> Private road. Okay. I think the reason I brought it up one of the development that we had that complaint coming up came up uh their internal when they've developed it HOA decided to do now something change and asking us to take over that internal road um I can talk to you about detail you probably heard that complaint so I'm just wondering are we going to have that kind of situation come up two years from now you Okay, we can chat about that too because we've had a lot of experience of that. So, >> yeah. Yeah. >> Um, council, is it okay if we go ahead and hold the public hearing and then um when we close it, if you have more questions, we can continue our council discussion and ask anyone questions we wish. So, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the council tonight on this development proposal, the Chestnut Town Homes? Please come forward. Give your name and address. >> A face from the past. >> I guess mayor, members of the city council, staff, Don Yurum. I live at 13600 Carmen Drive. So in the Pine Brook neighborhood. I've lived there for 30 years and I am the president of the HOA. >> So, I have a lot of experience in this area with traffic and trees and everything else. So, if you have any questions, I can probably answer them. Uh, I want to thank staff for the job that they did. You know, we submitted a number of questions and concerns regarding traffic and parking and um the staff did a great job to address those. The issue I'm here to talk about tonight is the landscaping. So, we had a meeting with the developer last week following our HOA board meeting and they presented the revised plan which you see tonight. We had a number of questions and concerns that we presented to the the developer which they had indicated they would answer those and provide them to us before tonight's meeting. We have not seen anything from the de from the developer addressing our concerns. So some of our concerns include primarily with the pine brook piece because that's our you know it's the south boundary, it's our north boundary. Uh it's the number of trees that are planted. There's a number of trees that are planted on our property which we need to give them permission to do. Um there's a question about sizes and um restoration with our irrigation system. There's a question about warranties and you know what happens if the trees die and that sort of thing. So, I guess my request in front of the city council tonight is we would like the city council to continue this project for two weeks or a month to give us an opportunity and for the developer to follow through on what they said in providing us with information that we can agree to on the additional tree plantings. >> Yeah. any if there's any questions I'm >> We can call you back up. >> All right. Thank you. >> Is there anyone else wishing to address the council? Well, um Don, we won't blow you off. We'll comment on that at when we begin to discuss, but um anyone else wishing to um address the council this evening? >> All right. Um we let's go ahead and close the public hearing then and then we'll um carry everything else into another motion. Do you want to make it Lisa? Go ahead. >> Sure. Just um move to close the public hearing. >> Right. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. I opposed. >> All right. Um before we actually maybe begin to discuss um any issues you think you had or I want to make sure to respond to Don Yurums as well. Um it sounded like people had more questions of either the um applicant or staff. So um should we just go down the way? Council member Fryberg, do you have some questions you want to continue with or >> Well, what I brought up as far as like the trees, uh, good presentation as far as from staff on that. Um, I'm looking at it again and uh I I guess I'm understanding that they're congregated in one area, most of them. You know, I do understand that. And uh I think I got I got some of the answers that I was looking for through that. >> Are are you good for now then? >> Good for now. >> I'm good for now. Yes. >> Um Council Member Nelson. >> Um yeah, I've got one comment and one question. Um comment is is the shrubs and the perennials and such, assuming they're properly kept and everything, sounds like they could be very good-looking. Uh, I liked those. Um, on your first um picture, you had a playground. Is that playground actually going to be part of this development? And if it is, um, what kind of long-term plan is there for upgrading and keeping it safe? >> Um, yes, that playground is part of our development. It's we have a tot lot proposed and we have some um other facilities around that area benches and so that the maintenance of that facility will also be part of the property management group's upkeep. So private. >> All right. Thank you, >> Council Member Nion. >> Just a follow-up question. Is that mean HOA pick up the maintenance on the future of that Miss Nelson was talking about council member? >> Yeah, it will be the privately maintained like HOA property management group that will handle that. So >> this is a rental. >> All this is rental. >> All all these town homes are rental. So it's their company that will >> Yeah. >> own it and manage it. >> Um I have a couple of more question. Um when I look when you presented today I didn't see in terms of you didn't speak about guest parking. >> Yeah. So there's four Yeah. Um sorry to cut you off. Um there's four guest parkings spaces on each side of uh so there's four >> so what will be the ratio >> uh well let me correct myself there's four specifically designated or eight total for both the north and south site but that doesn't include the four parking spaces per unit where there's two in the garage and two in the driveway. So um total there's umund or 2 uh 21 I think spaces right >> 53. >> Yeah. So >> and are you allowed to park on the road? Private road? >> No. >> Oh yeah. Uh no not on our private road. Not on any other. >> So so like Christmas whole bunch of guests came. Do they run out of parking space? That's my question. >> Um, if a whole bunch of guests came um there would not be enough space for them. Correct. But >> there's four. Go >> ahead. >> Yeah, there's four spaces in addition to the driveway and garage spaces um on each side of uh the property. So, four on the additional on the south side and four are additional on the north side. Um but that would allow for eight additional spaces. Is there any provisioning for EV charging in your garage? >> Uh we haven't gotten that far yet in terms of like what we would be providing, but uh that's something that we have to still consider. >> Is something that we can put in our development agreement or is that >> mayor mayor members of the council for this project? There is not a PUD that is being requested. There are not any waiverss that are being requested as a part of this project. It is code compliant in terms of all of the standard performance standards such as parking, building materials, things of that sort. Utilizing a PUB is what triggers application of the sustainabil sustainable building standard. So we can highly um I hope and recommend and that at least the pre-wiring be >> placed in so that >> make it easier. Yeah. For the res >> because that's not really expensive on the project and whole lot cheaper than you know after the fact years from now going back in and tearing walls out. >> Council member Tumi. >> Were you done because I can come back too. >> Yeah, I think so. I'm not happy with the that answer though. Okay. But I think it's in the future just chatting one the future more people renting they want to buy EV vehicle and they wouldn't have a option take I don't know how that is not even wired that would be rental property would be lot difficult lot more difficult >> remember too that um from a standpoint of if we want a policy down the road where we mandate when this type of development comes in then we have to do that upfront but we can't make policy in the moment as >> yeah I understand your frustration with this but um that's my right >> but if we as a council later on is you know if we want to study this over this next year whatever this to store this one away that when we're outside of a PUD we lose a lot of our control and power to um to mandate that >> I saw Judy sorting it >> yeah okay council member Tumi >> um thank Thank you for coming tonight. Um I am happy that this project does not have any waiverss. I'm glad that they're going to get an R RFD um put in and hopeful for another one and Chestnut. Is that it or Okay. >> Yeah. Council member Tumi. Um Chestnut would have one and it's high car would be the one that's in question. >> And then um I have a question. Are you going to be working on Saturdays from 7 to 7:00? >> We do not anticipate working on Saturdays at all. We don't we haven't done that for quite a while and we don't know any contractors that are still willing to do that. >> Okay. >> Um so the only Yeah, I'll just say no. >> Oh, good. Not anticipated. >> I'm glad I asked. Thank you very much. >> And these are good examples. So, I just want to uh take the opportunity again um as a council here to say that if we were concerned about Saturday construction, which has gone on for 50 years, but let's just say we were suddenly now to be concerned about new construction, we would want to deal with that in a policy revision. Not I mean, if you'd said, "Nope, you plan on Saturday 7 to 7." >> I was just asking because of the emails we've received. >> Totally get it. No, I'm just saying from a council perspective, if we want to change and respond to that, we we wouldn't make policy in the moment on, but we would later on this year sit down, have a conversation. Do we want to not have construction going on on Saturday or make it 9 until F. It's nice that you all are not, >> but we've had it in policy that construction can go on on Saturdays from 7:00 to 7. um as far as I know 50 years, you know, um and that's that's what happens in our and our city's not alone in that. Um but I certainly understand when it's in your backyard for a year or two, um that's that's troubling. We all get that. But the projects have to get done, too. And of course, with construction costs right now and um I won't say they're doubling, but they're they're 50% up um and with lack of workers and tariffs and everything else. So, I would think that people would want to get proponents would want to get their projects completed as quickly as possible. But, okay. Um, back to Council Member Fryberg. >> I just like to get a a point of clarification. And if it's the way I think it is, uh, a compliment. Um, I figured I'd spare. I want to say if I could say something really positive, I would certainly do. Um the larger units. Okay. The threebedroom. How many of those How many of those of that 53 are the larger ones? Is it I'm looking at Yeah, I'm looking at the two and a half threebedroom. >> Don't recall off the top of my head. Um anyone know from team >> from 30 >> 30? There's a reason I'm asking the um and the whole point being I hope it's a high number, okay? Because I think that's a real void in Eden Prairie right now as far as rental. Um you see a lot of them for sale at that you don't see, you know, there's, you know, a large unit uh that you have right there for rent very often. And that's where the compliment was going to come from. If you can tell me, you know, a good number on that. Mayor, >> I think it's I think it's around 30, but um >> Okay. No, wait. Roughly third. I'm just Okay. Roughly 30. >> Julie knows. Julie, >> mayor, members of the council, about twothirds of the units are threebedroom and one-third are two-bedroom units. So, for the inclusionary housing units that are being provided, two of those will be three-bedroom and one will be a two-bedroom unit. >> Could Could I I didn't hear the first part, Julia, that's me. Um >> twothirds of the units would be threebedroom. >> Okay, there's your compliment right there then. Good work. That's that is that is definitely a void right now. And uh we see a lot of two-bedroom ones. You see them all over the place. Various options and and a den, but a three-bedroom uh there's a lot of people that need that, you know. Thank you very much. >> So, of those three units are affordable. Two of those are threebedroom and one is two. >> Correct. That's nice. And they'll rent at the 30% AMI. >> Correct. >> That's amazing. Yeah. >> All right. I think um you may sit down. We'll call you back up if we need you. You can stand there, but I think it gets awkward, doesn't it? >> Um so I just wanted to comment a couple things. One, um to Don, >> um I I'm not comfortable postponing a a project just on a um because I think we can solve this in a conversation. So, I would direct staff um to meet with Don or meet with your um board um and and find out any of the I know you'd like some teeth to this. I get that. But, nonetheless, our staff's pretty good. Um so, if um if you meet with them and just uh to be really clear, I understand if if landscaping and trees are going in on your property that the city loses some leverage there, but I think we have other leverage in terms of our final we can approve this tonight. We still have second reading. So I think between now and second reading if our staff can meet with you and just so we understand the three or four major points and they'll make sure to communicate that then with um the applicant proponents. Um with the trees um it does seem that and I'm going to make a big guess here but 90% of the land is open right now. So we're not like clear cutting. We are clear cutting that one on what is it the northern section. Um but again um a lot of trees are going back in. Um any any development project in the city takes trees down. We know that and and I've been you know I've been at this now 30 years as Dan Yurum knows and um now I can go back to these projects that we approved back in '95 96 97 and they're I won't say overly treated because I love trees but Henipin Village you can't put replacement trees in anymore. I mean it's so tre I know 30 years is a really long time to wait but it goes fast anyway we have if we're going by law we have to approve these that come in or at least we have to have good reasons not to if they come in pretty much waiverfree um and we have these infill projects that are going to take a few trees down we know that they always have they always will but we have a great tree replacement um policy here in the city and of course we were one of the first in the state of Minnesota and we've been copied for 30 years on our tree replacement plan. Um, shrubs and perennials tot lot. That was good to ask that question, but ultimately these tot lots that are on private property and mostly like the Starring Lake town homes, that's HOA. They're controlled by the HOAs. In this case though, it would be a rental property controlled by the management, but still it's out of our control, but it sounds like they want it to be a viable play area and safe. Um, let's see if there's anything else. The EV car piece, I mean, I agree that it it just seems to make sense today for your tenants that you would want to have opportunity to supply when they um especially if se several units were available when they had an EV car. I mean, if you're not having any uh plug-in availability and some someone has an EV car, they're not going to rent and you need renters. So, I would hope that you would install some, maybe one or two in each building or something at the very least. And then the the pre-wiring is to me a no-brainer because it's fairly inexpensive. >> Um, and the construction piece we talked about. So, council, is there any anything else before we were to vote that you would like to have uh questions answered? Can I at least underline your pre-wiring for um EV parking because it really does it's cheap and it gives you um something to sell to people for a long period of time that if you have to go back it's going to cost you a lot of money when it wouldn't now and to consider that please. >> Council member Nine >> I just want to go >> same thing. Okay, we're all thinking the same thing. Yep. >> Anybody else on any issue topic? Ready to vote. Uh then we need a motion to on the final three bullets. So, I'll um also adopt a resolution for a comprehensive guide plan change from mediumigh density residential to medium density residential on 5.72 acres and adopt a resolution support of park dedication fees and direct staff to prepare a development agreement incorporating staff and commission recommendations and council conditions. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. All right. Welcome. Thank you. >> All right. Uh Mr. Ketro, we have our um second public hearing. CDBG funds. We we do, Mayor. This is something that we do every year. Uh you're very familiar with it. In fact, I think we had a public hearing um to have our comment period um for the the plan for the funds themselves. This public hearing relates to adopting a resolution approving the acceptance and the distribution of the 2026 community development block grant funds. As you know, the community development block grant funds are federal funds that are pass through funds for the city of Eden Prairie that we received from the federal government that can only be used to serve uh low to moderate income residents in Eden Prairie. So, um those funds for the city for the past many many years um we use um for a small amount of the funds that we use we pass on to our local social service agencies to provide services that the city cannot provide. And in the case that you can see in the packet that we've provided for are to uh prop for housing support services and emergency vehicle repair and to uh senior community services home program for the household and outside maintenance for the elderly. So we provide $50,000 in total funding to those programs. And then as you know um for many many years we provide about $200,000 in funding for uh many of our own housing programs. Actually we also provide $80,000 annually in funding to the West uh Henipin Land Trust Program. And that $80,000 typically allows them to purchase about one house every year. Sometimes we've we've got they've got money or grant money or other money to get two houses a year, but allows them to buy a home um in Eden Prairie that then someone can uh be able to own that home and then have a 99-year lease on the house for an affordable home in Eden Prairie as well. And then the rest of the funding then is used for our own in-house programs for housing rehab loans and first-time home buyer uh programs. So that all accounts for about $250,000 each and every year of community housing development grant dollars. So um prior to you approving the acceptance and distributions of those funds, you need to hold a public hearing and that's what you are being asked to do tonight before passing the resolution. And typically during this public hearing, we've had in the years past speakers come up from the various agencies that have benefited from our CDBG fund pass through. Um I'm assuming that will be to this evening as well. But um if you're listening from home um and you see that as part of this public hearing, that's um been pretty typical in years past. So this is a public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the council on this resolution that would approve the acceptance and distribution of our 2026 CDBG funds? Please come forward, give your name, address, and maybe what agency you represent or work for or lead. >> Sure. Good evening. I'm Brendalano Walkey. I'm the executive director at Homes Within Reach. Our home office is in Minnetonka. Mayor, council members, thank you for allowing me to speak with you this evening and to highlight the importance of our long-standing partnership between homes within reach and the city of Eden Prairie. Typically, I would stand here and share a story about a homeowner from last year who purchased a home and why they wanted to be in this community of Eden Prairie, but if not for HUD, I'd be doing that. But with HUD delays, we had a pretty slow year last year. Um, but the broader impact of our collaboration remains clear and measurable. So, I thought tonight I'd highlight the results of our partnership and how we've delivered affordable home ownership in Eden Prairie. Since 2005, we've operated in your community and we've together we've jointly invested just a little over $4.1 million to create permanently affordable homes in Eden Prairie. With these funds, we've been able to acquire and rehabilitate 23 homes. Through subsequent resales, we've helped an additional four families achieve home ownership in this community without any further funding from the city or our organization. And that's thanks to that long-term affordability built into the community land trust model. Over the past 21 years, Eden Prairie has awarded homes within reach approximately $1.2 million. We've leveraged that investment to secure an additional $3 million from county, regional, and state funding, bringing significant outside resources into your community. On average, the city contribution to each home is approximately $52,000, while homes within reach brings an additional $127,000. In other words, 29% of the investment comes from the city and 71% comes from other leverage sources that we write grants to get. This is a strong return on the local investment and it shows as a testament to the effectiveness of our partnership. The families served through our work usually are typically fourbedroom or fourperson households with an average income of 58% of area median income. These are hardworking residents who contribute to the vitality of Eden Prairie but face increasing barriers to home ownership. These numbers reflect a powerful and successful partnership. And at Homes in Reach, we are committed to continue to work in your community to explore innovative and creative ways to sustain our work and ensure that homes remain affordable for hardworking folks who live, work, and serve in this community. Thank you for continued support and I'm free to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you. Thanks for all you do um in partnership with our city. So we appreciate your organization and you >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else uh wishing to address the council tonight on this um CB CDBG funding proposal? Thank you, Mayor Casease, members of the city council. My name is Jennifer Lon. I'm executive director of PROP. We are the local food shelf and social service nonprofit here in the city just located up the street. Um, I'd like to thank the city for their uh continued support of PROP in many ways, but most specifically tonight through the CDBG grants that we've been privileged to receive. Uh, as you all know, we provide in addition to food, a variety of financial and wraparound counseling services to residents of Eden Prairie who may need our assistance and uh housing or rental assistance as our um the program of highest demand historically. And so the CDBG grants that we have received um for housing have been incredibly helpful for that. a very vital portion of the funding we receive. Um, and we get funding from a variety of sources, grants, individual donations, and and, um, others. Um, and so, um, just looking at the past three fiscal years, uh, we've received either 49,000 or $43,000 total from, uh, the city in this pass through grant. Um, most of that devoted to housing. The other program that we have been able to fund is the emergency car repair uh program which has been of great assistance to um many households. Um many of our uh clients that come to us, they maybe have one vehicle for transportation to their place of work, getting their kids to school or two appointments in that. And so all of those programs have been uh very important. um uh the rental program. Um you know, we the funding that we receive uh historically uh we have gone through all of that um housing money, that rental assistance to residents who are struggling. Uh we're trying to prevent eviction and keep people stably housed. Typically, we run out of that money um from CDBG funds by January. So following our fiscal year about 6 months in, we would run through those funds. Um those needs continue to grow. Uh it is extremely high. This year I'm going to predict we'll see probably the highest number ever that we have uh assisted households with with um housing expenses. um last fiscal year, so ending June 30th of 2025, which was the last year that we had funds. I know this current year has been held up, um we served 91 households um through our homelessness prevention program. That is the highest on record. And again, I think this new fiscal year, fiscal year 26, will surpass that. We have already served 80 households in three quarters of this year. So just to give you some sense um and CDBG again has been um in the past crucial in helping us to meet that growing need. Uh unfortunately because uh the funds have been on hold for this year, we have um we are not taking any applications for our car repair program right now. Um because this is the only grant that we received for that program. Um, so unfortunately we're not able to do that right now, but we're hoping that this will that will be resolved and we'll be able to resume it soon. So, um, I just wanted to share a story. I can give you statistics on that, but to really bring to life the impact that this program has. Uh, again, I emphasize, you know, we get many requests for funding. We really try to prioritize the most critical cases, keeping people from being evicted so they remain stably housed. Um, last year we helped a single mother and her six-year-old son. The mother who was working full-time had fallen behind on rent because her one car, the one vehicle they had um, failed and it was their only source of transportation. The mother ended up having to purchase a new vehicle. of her vehicle was not able to be repaired and so she had to use all of the money she had available to to get that car and to keep working. So then she wasn't able to pay her rent. Um we were able to help this family. Uh we used the CDBG funds to help pay a month or two of her rent. So her balance uh was then brought back into compliance. So she no eviction proceedings started. the family stayed stably housed and her six-year-old remained uh in Eden Prairie schools without any disruption and she was able to keep her job and keep working. So, um that's just one of many great success stories that this wonderful program has helped us uh be able to um assist people going through a rough time. And so, I want to thank you for all the support. Uh we appreciate um the city's partnership in so many ways with us. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, and definitely thank Prop and tell everyone that works there how much we appreciate the partnership with all of you and and all the work that um, you've done over the years and we know that you're retiring and I'm sure you'll be greatly missed. Um, so thank you for all your service um, not just with Prop, but you served in the legislature. You've just given a lot to this city. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Yes, please come forward. Uh good evening uh mayor and council members. My name is John Burkow and I'm the director of the home program and the tech services at senior community services and our main office is in Minnetonka, Minnesota. And just as a reminder, our mission is to empower people as they age and to help older adults remain independent in their homes. Uh we do this for through a variety of services. Uh minor repairs, cleaning, snow removal, lawnmowing, painting, yard work. Uh we also do free safety checks to help with fall prevention. And then as a follow-up, our handy people can add uh grab bars or uh safety devices. Um our tech program has been going now for about six years. We are at Eden Prairie Senior Center uh twice a month, the fir first and third Wednesday of the month. And then actually this year we've added the Eden Prairie Library on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Uh the other thing that's very unique about our nonprofit is that we do inhome tech support. Uh I I don't know of any other nonprofit that does that. So we'll actually go to older adults home. We can help with their uh desktop computers or if they're having network issues. Uh, one of the presentations we do is how to cut the cord. So, helping pe people figure out their streaming services, making things more affordable that way. Um, as an example of someone who we serve, who I'll call Sally for sake of anonymity, uh, she's 86 years old. She lives on her own. Uh, she's been in the Eden Prey community for 20 years. Um, last year she enjoyed having a volunteer help with her yard work and gardens and she said she enjoyed visiting her with as as much as the help that she provided. Um, she also has a housekeeper that comes a couple times a month and normally our housekeepers will help with things that are harder to do as we get older like maybe vacuuming or laundry or cleaning floors and that sort of thing. Uh, and she also used our tech service to help with her iPad and and use that device better. Um, another person we had that reached out to our tech service um, unfortunately had been the victim of a scam and had lost quite a bit of money and so he was working with his bank to recover that. But it what we did was we sent one of our tech coaches out to his home, looked at his computer, you know, made sure it was safe, checked for malware. We reinstalled Windows to help make his uh computer safer going forward. One of the other things we do in the community is we do fraud and scam presentations. We work a lot with ARP and we'll go out into the community to try to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Um and we'll do presentations and education. But it's also important, I think, for people to know or people that are watching. You know, if you have had this happen to you, one of the hardest things is sometimes to tell someone about it. there's some uh shame or embarrassment that can go along with that, but we we always encourage people to do that. Um if you don't, you can be a victim of an ongoing scam because once you've been targeted, unfortunately, often the scammers will come back. Um, and just in closing, a couple of the things that I'm really proud of, uh, with our program is we also engage a lot of older adults as volunteers, as workers, and especially in our tech program. Having older adults help other older adults, I think, is a very, very valuable uh way to do the work. And uh, I'll close by saying we actually answer our phone. uh we have a live person that answers the phone Monday through Friday which uh the older adults appreciate but I think a lot of us in this room probably don't get that much anymore. So that's something we really strive to do and provide the best service possible. So thank you so much for your support. You funded us for many many years and we really couldn't do the work in the city without the support. So thank you. >> Thank you for all you do as well and home organization. So appreciate you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council this evening on the CDBG funding resolution? If not, is there a motion to uh approve the acceptance and distribution of these funds? someone. >> Yeah, I'll go close the public hearing and adopt resolution approving the acceptance and distribution of 2026 CDBG fund as recommended by the temporary human service review committee. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I opposed. All right. >> Payment of claims. Um, are there any uh expenses that you as you read through the page after page after page wish to um learn more about or question? If not, could I have a motion to approve the payment of claims? >> Move to approve payment of claims claims as submitted. >> Our second roll call. >> Council member Fryberg. >> I. >> Council member Nion >> I. >> Council member Nelson. >> Hi. >> Council member Tumi. >> Hi. >> Mayor Casease. >> Hi. >> All right. I believe it's our um final item for the evening. Um it's a summary of the city manager performance review. So this council uh in a statutory plan B form of government um where we have a council city manager uh format uh we have one employee and that's our city manager Rick Ketcho. Our city manager then goes out and he's responsible or she, but in this case he for hiring 300 full-time staff, 700, whatever, seasonal, part-time, to go out and do the work that we budget and fund and direct. So, he's the CEO really of the city of Eden Prairie, an incredibly important position. and we happen to have a city manager that is well known and well respected across really the state of Minnesota. Um we're incredibly fortunate to have him. And if you wish after I read the summary of what we um talked about in close session two week what was it now? A month ago I think something when were we back March 3rd. uh a month ago. Um you may add any comments and I'm not putting you on the spot, but if you wish to say something at the conclusion of this, you may. So a closed session is closed, right? And so it was um private information. We we are allowed to work outside the view of the public for only two reasons uh to actually close a meeting. One is to discuss any legal or lawsuit. That's not what this was about. And the second is employee issues. And again, we have one employee. So, we closed the session, but I'm going to read um a summary of what we did than a month ago. Summary of close session held March 3rd, 2026. The city manager's contract provides for an annual performance review by the city council in conjunction with a salary review. On March 3rd, 2026, the council met in closed session to evaluate the city manager's performance for the prior year. During the session, Mr. GTO highlighted the city's 2025 accomplishments that included maintaining one of the lowest metro tax rates, strong quality of life survey results, and city departments that secured over $7 million in grants. He also noted challenges related to federal immigration enforcement and provided updates on major projects including the city center remodel which remains on time and on budget. The council gave overwhelmingly positive feedback praising his leadership, communication and management skills as well as his success in hiring and retaining highquality staff. They also commended his responsiveness to the council and community and the positive environment that he fosters. The council then discussed Mr. GTO's salary considering his excellent performance review. The council determined to increase Mr. Get's base salary by 5.78%. Which results in a base salary of approximately $253,864 and to provide an additional $22,136 in employee health insurance premiums and deferred compensation. This is now my personal comments. We are really so fortunate, Rick, to have you as our city manager and and proud of everything you do. And we hear, I do, and I know others might say this, I hear all the time positive responses from other leaders in the community, from residents, and from staff about what a really great job you do. So, thank you. Thank you. You make our job a lot easier. Um, and again, you're the one employee that we hire, so we have to pat ourselves on the back. I think we did a pretty good job. So, and council, anyone else wishing to say anything? If I could say something uh worked together with Rick one way the other for about 13 years now on various commissions and stuff and the u coming from the corporate world and stuff for many years. One of the biggest uh things in judging a leader is the respect shown to him by those uh by his staff. And I guess what's always kind of amazed me, not just how good he is at his job and has been recognized as the number one city manager in the state of Minnesota, I believe was it two years ago, is that the way you carry yourself with the staff and the uh the respect that they show you and it's uh very impressive and we are very lucky to have them. Thank you, Rick. Again, no pressure, but anyone else wanting to council member Tumi. >> Whoa, >> I knew you were going to do this. >> I'm impressed. >> And I always walk away from it thinking, I should have said this, I should have said that. So, I prepared this year. So, I wrote uh Okay. Um, this year's performance review really reflects what we see every day. Steady, effective leadership and strong commitment to both the organization and and the community. um you lead with integrity, professionalism, and a clear sense of purpose. And that shows not only in the outcomes that are achieved, but in how the work gets done. We're also consistently ranked as one of the best places to work. And that doesn't happen by accident. It speaks to a positive, supportive culture where employees feel valued and are able to do their best. And that kind of environment starts with the leadership. And we are so fortunate Well said both of you. >> Anybody else? >> Yep. No, I have to say since since this >> Oh, now the pressure is gonna be You better get writing something out here. >> I better write it up. >> Hey Rick, you're awesome. It just you I don't know these people like Rick uh Lisa took two hours to write a paragraph. For me is my heart that uh you know every way I can think of I manage a lot of people. um you know your leadership um just just the way you work with not only your staff with us and your peers. Um one thing you could improve is uh sense of humor. Sometimes your jokes are not as good as mine. Um but you know it's like for a city manager >> that'll come back to haunt you by the way. Yes, >> city manager. You're you're you're very good and I thank you and uh it really lucky to have you and we are too. Thank you. >> All right, Kathy, bring it home. >> I'm going to keep it short. Thank you, Rick, for what you do and thank you for all the residents about how we live in this city and all the things that happen the way they're supposed to do and it's very appreciated. Um, staff is appreciated and I hear nothing but good things when people are talking about Eden prayer. >> All right. All well said, Rick. You deserve all of it. And we're just happy to have you. And um, we get nervous when we hear that Edina might be having a city council or city manager opening here in the coming year. But look, Edina has nothing on us. I just want to be publicly very clear about that. We're the best. A lot of it's because of you, but um no, I I don't uh fear losing you because um we just everyone has a great relationship. So, thank you so much. Rick, is there putting you really on the spot? Is there anything final you'd like to say? Super >> uh based on how much fun I make of a dinina that would be but but improve your humor. >> No, in all seriousness, I do want to make it quick. It's uh obviously it's I very lucky to work here. It's been a pleasure. uh continues to be a pleasure. As I always um I always reiterate, you're only as good as as the people you work with. And that includes the leadership from above and and the people that work for the city. And I just I just try not to get in the way and and allow the great people that work for the city to do the great job for the residents that are here. >> It's working. >> All right. Um, if there's Oh, >> mayor, you do need to vote on the salary increase. It's not on your annotated agenda, but >> Sorry, I didn't see that. >> It's on your memo. >> So, what are we doing? Just accepting. >> Um, it should be on the the cover memo you had and maybe you can >> Sure. Now, now you tell me. >> Apologies for that. There's a requested action on there. >> Seriously, wait a minute. I'm throwing my way too. >> I got it. I got it. >> Um, okay. Requested action. So, I'll read it and then one of you say I move it. All right. Actually, I could move it. I guess I'm allowed to do that. I'll move it. Move to approve a 5.78% increase in the city manager salary for 2026 and provide an additional $22,136 in employee health insurance premiums and deferred compensation. Is there a second? >> Second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I oppose. All right. >> Now, is there any um anything to yet to come before the council this evening? If not, is there a motion to adjourn? >> Move to adjourn the the city council meeting tonight. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. This meeting is adjourned.