Good morning. Good morning. How are you? Gordell on the end there trick there. All right. Trying to make you walk. All right. All right. Good morning. Uh this is the April 8th, 2025 Cottage Grove uh city council. Well, it's a it's the EDA meeting. Hamilton city calls the meeting uh which the economic development authority meeting which I'm calling to order. Our first order of the business of our business today is the pledge of allegiance. So please rise. 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. All right. Is Alexa, you doing the the roll? All right. Yes, ma'am. Yep. Uh EDA member Scott here. EDA member Cheetah here. EDA member John Baptist here. EDA member Katada, EDA member Latac here. EDA Vice President uh Olsen and EDA President Baley here. Thank you. Uh so next on our agenda, and really this is the only thing we're truly voting on tonight, uh is the approval of the minutes. And so what we're looking for, unless there's any changes or corrections, uh motion and a second to approve the 211 2025 economic development and CVB meeting minutes. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes from the last meeting. I didn't hear did the second. Okay. Uh so we had a first uh motion by Scott, second by uh Cheetah. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Then we'll move on to number five, which is business items. And the first one um is a plaque presentation. And I'm going to put my cheaters on here because uh we do uh have two members uh that have recently went off uh the EDA. And uh one of those members is here this morning to uh uh that we get to recognize him. And so what I thought I would do is uh and and what's interesting in this case is these are uh both these members were on a little bit longer due to co and so the normal term kind of got extended for a few extra years because of what was going on with CO. So I thought I would read um a little bit about uh Dan Meyer and then Chris Kerry who's not here this morning. uh both uh served on the econom e economic development authority uh board from June 2017 uh to February of 2025. And so in their eight years of service on the EDA board uh the city did see tremendous changes uh in which they played obviously a key role. Uh these changes include many new businesses located in the city including uh Pizza Ranch, uh Culver's, Caribou Coffee, Bride and Jewel, HY, Junction 70, Muddy Cow, McDonald's, uh TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Alta Beauty, Salons by JC, and many more. And as you can tell, they they were here through all of that. That was pretty pretty amazing. They also assisted in attracting new businesses to the city's business park, including Air Gas, uh, North Point, RJ Scher, Lumberman's, Hoenstein's, and now most recently, Quickrip. And they also assisted others in their growth and expansion efforts, including uh the expansions of Renewal by Anderson, Van Meter, Lumberman's, and Upnorth Plastics. Uh these changes also added billions literally uh in taxable value to the city's tax base. In addition, helping the business to secure large grants from the state via this Minnesota Investment and Job Creation Fund uh which helped them expand and stay in the city rather than relocating either outside of the city or to a different state. Uh during their service, we also undertook a hotel market feasibility study, a housing study, a small area plan now known as the innovation village, a stadium uh feasibility study, and a CVB uh which is the convention vi bureau strategic tourism plan and funded a historical painting of the city which we in turn used to create a city puzzle in in partnership with doubt studios. All of these strategic plans and projects helped guide the city toward uh uh forward, excuse me, and will continue to do so in the in the foreseeable future. Housing was also important to the EDA and during their tenure, we had the Legends uh North Square, Grove 80, Trellis, which is Blue Stem, and many other multif family complexes that were built in the city. These projects allowed the city to grow as well as allowed many seniors uh to be able to stay within our city. Dan and Chris's determination to help the city grow in in a responsible and sustainable manner was simply outstanding. Uh so I just wanted to say on behalf of myself and the city council and I'm sure all the rest of us up here on the EDA uh uh we want to extend our sincere sincere appreciation for your outstanding service as uh an EDA board member and obviously to the city. And so uh with that, you know, it's it's interesting. I don't think you realize, Dan. I know I don't. uh you kind of look back at the years you've been doing stuff and then when you start seeing the list of all the things that you help uh bring or support within the city it it you kind of go whoa at least I do kind of go wow there was a lot happening in those you know eight years that you're on the EDA so what I'd like to do is I'm going to have you come up and I'm going to come down in front I'm going to present you with a plaque So I'll just I'll read it. It just says presented to Dan Meyers in appreciation of your dedicated service to the city of Katro Economic Development Authority and again the extended term June 2017 through February 2025. So there you go. Thank you guys so [Applause] much. And now you get to go back and try to figure out what's going on nationally with all the uh I kind of figured. See you, Dad. All right. That's always fun to be able to do that. All right. Uh so next on our agenda this morning is the Maxfield Research Housing Study and uh obviously we're going to get a presentation in this case and I believe uh G you're going to kick us off or Mary's going to come on up. Mary Bold is with Maxfield Research and we hired them to do the housing study and now she's here today to present it to you. Fantastic. Welcome Mary. Thank you. Uh, Chair Bailey and commissioners, it's my pleasure to be here this morning um to present um briefly present the key findings from the housing analysis. I know that I'm sure you've seen the larger document which is quite extensive and perhaps you haven't had a chance to get through it all at this point, but that's fine. Um here just write it right here. Oh, sorry. There you go. Thank you. So the project scope was to provide an analysis of housing needs for the city and then to provide a guide and framework to consider key housing priorities and current housing gaps, the um deliverable short and long-term housing needs and recommendations to guide future housing development. The data collection occurred primarily during the second and third quarters of 2024. A draft was del delivered in October of 2024 and now the presentations have occurred in March and April of this year. Oh, sorry. So looking a little bit at the primary market area. So we assess that uh well first of all when when we draw a primary market area it's with the understanding that housing demand is actually somewhat fluid and especially so in the Twin Cities metro area. We have people moving quite a bit between different communities and um we also in addition to that within a and within the identification of a primary market area there will always be some demand that comes from outside of that area which is this 30% of demand that will come from outside the area. Then so 70% of the demand we are identifying as being potentially generated from Cottage Grove, Woodbury, Newport, St. Paul Park, Great Cloud Island Township, Denmark Township, and Hastings. And then what we do with that is then we look at within that larger primary market area and the projected growth. What proportion of the demand would be capturable directly by the city of cottage growth. And within that we look at the additional areas in the other other communities, what their projected growth is going to be, what their land areas are. And then we assess and analyze where um the potential demand for certain types of housing products would be capturable by the city. So Cottage Grove is definitely growing but at a decelerating pace. And I just want to mention too that that's not unusual. So what we're seeing across the Twin Cities metro area and especially in communities that are primarily fully developed, although Cottage Grove is not at that point yet, is that we are starting to see a slowdown in terms of population growth um in many communities and we're also starting to see even though we're seeing household growth pretty much keep pace um and we're we're still seeing that um decelerating pace from this mid kind of mid area when um development really zoomed in the Twin Cities. So, Cottage Grove experienced its greatest growth between 1960 and 70 and then they had a second fairly substantial growth spurt between 1990 and 2000. Since 2000, growth has been steady but at a decelerating pace. So decelerating rate of growth consistent with most other expanding metro area suburban cities. So forale home prices continue to climb despite a modest downturn in for sale median home prices. They have generally continue to rise. We are seeing this throughout the Twin Cities metro area. We're seeing it throughout the state of Minnesota, the upper Midwest, as well as across the nation. Price increases have knocked out some entry-level buyers. Move up buyers are largely staying put because many move up buyers took advantage of those very low mortgage interest rates and so they're just holding steady. New construction is suppressed because of a slowdown in demand and supply chain challenges. A accordingly too, land prices have not decreased which further exacerbates this problem. So we're seeing challenges in terms of land costs um throughout the market. We are um I'm working with a number of different developers primarily multifamily developers and they are definitely not seeing land prices decrease. So that's kind of compressing their margins and their ability to be able to make their numbers work. Uh many are are seeking additional equity and capital stack so that they can reduce their reliance on u mortgage lending. So average rents in the S and um square foot average rent per square foot among market rate rental properties in the PMA. So that um is growing as well. There was a dir of new apartment construction in the 1990s and 2000s which then led to a substantial increase in multifamily development beginning in the 2010s. um an even greater number of units have opened recently and despite this uh inflation, we are still seeing a lot of interest among multifamily developers in developing additional units primarily because we're still having a lot of difficulty moving people into that for sale market. So their alternative is to rent at least for a period of time or for a longer term. So even though the new multif family construction has slowed um demand still remains strong and we are seeing uh very good absorption among properties that have recently opened. So rent per square foot affordable rental properties and rents. Um so we are seeing rent levels are lower for affordable rental units but I will mention too that as it's it's p it's based on a kind of benchmark uh format. So as rents rise in the market overall among market rate properties those rents that are even affordable are still also rising. And that's predicated of course on incomes rising. I think what we are seeing too is even though um these rents are more affordable than traditional market rate, we are seeing some households become increasingly costburdened even with affordable rental properties. So that some a portion of households are even having to pay a higher proportion of their income for rent even at an affordable property. So there's definitely a highly competitive funding process for tax credits and a need for multiple funding layers which also hampers new development. So, as much as we would like to see more affordable units come into the market, the resources and the process for getting those units into the market has become increasingly difficult. As rental rates climb, affordable rents also escalate, which I mentioned, which may create challenges to fill these units at the higher rents. So general occupancy housing demand. So demand projected for owned housing, detached and attached. There's strong demand for market rate rental housing. There is a need for all housing products across the spectrum. So affordable housing is the most difficult to develop, whether that be that middle market tax credit affordable housing or deep subsidy housing. due to high development costs and significant financial gaps. And these demand figures um were generated for 2024 to 2035. They're also were separated out between this first six-year increment 2024 to 2030 and then 2030 to 2035. So senior housing demand demand for senior housing will continue to increase over the next 20 years largely due to the aging of the baby boomers. Assisted living and memory care are still recovering from the pandemic. But I would say to you that we are seeing increased demand for assisted living and memory care from the market. What is creating some significant problems is there are definitely labor shortages among caregivers. And so we are seeing all senior housing um service enhanced senior housing developments continually trying to hire labor to be able to serve the population which they have or are trying to attract. We do still do have some um facilities especially among the memory care components where they are not able to utilize all of their beds even though there's demand for that again because they do not have the proper labor ratios to be able to care for these individuals. And we believe that that is going to continue especially in the short term potentially in the long term and it will negatively impact again this ability to satisfy the demand in these service levels. So why is the entry level and middle market missing? Well, there's a lot of different reasons for that. So some of it is zoning regulations, some of it is density requirements, some is design and material requirements, permit and impact fees, infrastructure costs, building code changes, and those building code changes um don't necessarily always occur at um the regional or local level. They are also impacted by the state and we've seen um different state regulations come down that have significantly impacted building in different areas of our state. Um, some of those have been reversed, but others I think, you know, it's important for us to consider how how those building code um regulations and requirements may hamper our ability to provide the housing that we need to serve our residents and also um just in general people in our state. We have increasing labor and material costs. Land acquisition costs are also increasing. We have financing challenges for smaller developers and builders. So, especially during the Great Recession, we lost quite a few of our smaller builders. Um, we are trying to attract national builders to Minnesota. That has occurred to a modest degree, but we really need um more national builders to consider the Twin Cities in Minnesota as a place to develop. Lenders are tightening underwriting standards. Bank regulation is increasing with some bank failures. And we definitely need economies of scale. So key takeaways, population and household growth was strong last decade. There is some increase in family households, but not enough to overshadow those without children and singles living alone. So again this speaks a little bit to the ratio between population growth and household growth. So we are seeing strong percentage growth in households largely because we are seeing shrinking household sizes and so so that we still have a definite need and demand for housing to house those households that are being created even though many times those households have fewer people. Cottage Grove's near-term growth is led primarily by the millennials and baby boomers, resulting in demand for housing products at opposite ends of the spectrum, although there is some overlap in market rate rental housing and forale town homes. Growth in the 65 plus cohort will dominate over the next 15 to 20 years. So, what housing products are needed? So early on I think a lot of um developers and the general overall market thought well we'll just develop senior housing and that will kind of take care of this aging 65 plus group. Well over time what we've seen is especially among that younger group they are really not ready for senior housing. So that perspective of what senior housing is and what products are attractive to this group has started to really shift. And so again, we're starting to see that idea of like more the detached villa, the twin home, the cottage style home, and more independent products be attractive as this group starts to age. The average age for assisted living and memory care has now pushed well into the early to mid80s for people if they even move into that product at all. So, um, early on, so right now in terms of a market penetration for senior housing in the Twin Cities, we're probably at somewhere around 17 to 18% of that age 65 plus market, which is still a relatively small proportion of our overall 65 plus age group, which means that there's a lot of people in their single traditional single family homes. There's a lot of people kind of looking for that interim product. Forale and rental housing will combine to increase the housing stock in Cottage Grove. As low density land supplies decrease, it will be important to target locations for higher density development. For senior housing, active adult products, both rental and for sale, will continue to be popular. High home prices enable seniors to sell and relocate to more convenient housing products. So between 2024 and 2030, demand is estimated for about 1,900 for sale units, 933 rental units, and about 1,023 senior units among all service levels, which is um that's a pretty diverse product group. Um but I will tell you that um the majority of that demand is for active adult product whether that be for sale or rental. The market continues to be challenged as to how to bring needed products to the market innovation and creativity and not business as usual and that's the presentation. Fantastic. Well, thank you, uh, Mary. And, um, it's kind of interesting because, you know, as obviously the mayor and elected, um, what I find kind of funny is, you know, over the last, I don't know, five, six years, so to speak, maybe a little longer, um, uh, some people in the community think we're growing way too fast. And it's funny because you look at your data and it says we're kind of and our intent has always been to be, you know, careful with how we how we grow, but and and you use the word decrease uh in or suppressed, if you will, uh with regards to how we've been how we've been growing. Um my my one question and I'll open it up for the EDA here for any questions that they might have. So when you're when you're seeing that, it does at least it appears to me too that I hear from a lot of um individuals that want to move out of maybe a single family bigger single family home and they want to go into like a a villa like you said they don't necessarily want to get into a senior component if you will and so villas or one levels whatever seem to be the seem to be the thing that everybody's looking for. The challenge I'm hearing, and I don't know if you want to speak to it, is when they want to do that, um, they want to be able to go into from this house to this house and not have any debt. In other words, it's just, you know, they took the money they made here and they put it into here. And if anything, maybe they have a little extra, which what we're hearing, at least what I'm hearing, that is not happening. Are you seeing that as part of the the information that you've you found? Yeah. So that is an extremely right well especially right now um that's an extremely challenging situation and the primary reason for that is when we're looking at the villa developments. So largely those lot sizes right now for most villa developments have been between that 50 foot and 55 foot wide lot. So, we are seeing some that have been pushed down to maybe as low as about 42 or 40. That's getting a little skinny on that traditional villa style. But the cost to put those on the market, what we're seeing is most of those units traditionally in the villa style are in that $450 to $500,000 range. And when a senior is selling their home maybe in that like 300 to 350, they're seeing that price gap. And we're seeing that across the market. It's um maybe they are able to opt for a twin home, but even so, we're seeing twin homes even come on the market at much higher prices. What um what we aren't seeing in the market that we were seeing I would say just pre great recession is we were seeing some developers put in what we call kind of a cottage style or quad style concept where we had four units on a lot or a a pad and they each had an attached wall. Now, that is not necessarily what the overall market um ideally prefers, but when those units were developed, they sold like hotcakes because they were in that kind of lower price point where somebody could sell their home and move into that with almost on an equal to equal basis. And I' I've tried to be promoting that a little bit, but it hasn't it hasn't so far kind of taken off where um developers or builders have kind of grasped onto that yet that maybe they might want to try that product in the market. Um I think we can kind of keep encouraging that because it is harder. you know, there not all that many households that can sell their home and then suddenly buy a $500 or $550,000 or more detached villa. So, I I totally understand what you're saying. Uh it is occurring. It is a challenge. And I think especially too in this period even though seniors are able to get top dollar for their homes, it is hard to make that bridge financially in terms of as you said and then have no debt. I'll have one more question then I promise I'll turn it over to these guys. You you were commenting about trying to get more national builders if you will and obviously you know we've got like LAR and Dr. Horton and those out here. Is there somebody and I guess I really don't know. Is there somebody very large out there or more large out in the in the So David Weekley has recently um been seriously looking at entering this market. They are a very large national home builder and um we've had some conversations with them. They are eyeing different markets here in the Twin Cities and and in terms of coming in and starting to do development here. Okay. Um there are uh one or two others I can you know go back and take a look to and maybe I can just provide the names of those as well. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, sure. No problem. Um EDA um uh EDA member Katada. Yeah, you cited that labor was an issue, land acquisition was an issue. Um, are you getting any feedback from any of the builders on how um market volatility related to to imported uh materials such as lumber is going to have an effect on the market? Uh well, it's a little early but because things have been happening so rapidly. Um but I will tell you that will affect our situation. I I I frankly I am concerned. I am concerned because we moving into this current situation. We have had significant demand and need for housing. We we are have been for about 8 to 10 years behind the eightball in terms of developing enough housing to be able to meet the demand not only here in the Twin Cities but across the country. And I'm very concerned about our ability to be able to maintain some kind of modest or reasonable cost balances in terms of being able to provide housing products that people can afford. I'm not sure where all this will level out. I guess my hope is is that even with the proposed tariffs that we have that eventually uh cooler heads will prevail and that we'll roll some of those back once we start to see the economic uh results in our market because we can at this point I believe we can ill afford to to fall further behind in terms of providing needed housing. Thank you. Okay. Mhm. Any questions down here? Uh, Mr. uh, EDI member Cheetah. Yeah, thank you. Um, so I guess following up what the mayor was saying about national builders, is there a reason why we're not seeing as many national builders in the Twin Cities and the Minnesota market. So I will say to you that over time what we have seen in our market and and this is not necess we've seen periods where national builders and national developers have um m come to the twin cities and they've stayed here for um potentially a period of time and then they tend to move out of the twin cities or out of Minnesota primarily the twin cities. Some of that is because our market our market grows. It grows at a very steady pace and it grows at um and we tend to maintain um good levels of occupancy especially in our multifamily units. But what a lot of national builders are looking for is they're looking for those what I would kind of say super growth markets. So they're looking for the much larger markets like the Austin market or North Carolina market or uh Tennessee where growth is occurring consistently occurring at large doubledigit um rates. So they tend to follow even though I think it's you know we have like I said we have been able to secure and maintain some like py lonar they have been in our markets for many years but attracting especially too we've looked at larger multifamily um larger multif family developers come into this market and they stay for just kind of about five or six years and then inevitably we see them go elsewhere. were um I as I said we have a very solid and um steady market but we don't have sometimes that larger growth spurt that they're really looking for. We we actually have um the other market that is of course attracting a lot of um development is Phoenix the Phoenix market in Arizona which is yeah expand exploding let's just say it's exploding yes Mr. at Baptist EDA member of Baptist. Yeah. So, um my question is obviously we know what we have and we know what we don't have. We don't have explosive growth, but we do have steady growth. Um would that be attractive to more of a regional player? And my second part to that question is the reason is the reason why we're going after the national builders. Is it because they provide more economies of scale and could could produce housing at a lower rate or if we went after the regional players that you know could be okay with the steady growth that we have and not you know chasing double digits. Could they still produce at the same level that those um national players are? So that's a very good question and I thank you for that. Um so I would say to you that I you know national builders do have some economies of scale primarily in terms of their buying capabilities. Once they get in this market though they are subject to pretty much the same regulations and cost structures in terms of development costs and land pricing that other builders are subject to. So, I think that the players that have been in this market for a long time, um, they're very solid. And I would say that I think that we have a lot of very good builders here that you we would still want to court them. I think that sometimes what happens is I think the difference really sometimes is that sometimes national builders coming in they bring a little bit of innovation and creativity that sometimes our local regional builders, you know, have become comfortable. You know, it's like, oh, we've been building here for a while. We really know it works. It's kind of we just want to kind of stay in that, you know, niche versus being challenged a little bit by, oh, here's somebody coming in that's going to give us a little bit of a run for our money because they're bringing in something that's new or a little different. Um, so I think it's I I would while I really appreciate that we have really good solid regional builders here, I think that trying to attract that national builder gives us a little bit more of an edge in trying to bring in some products maybe that we haven't thought about before. EDM member Cheetah. Yeah. And you had mentioned uh like that the builders are still subject to the same local regulations here. I guess and as I look at both city and state government, that's the number one thing we can control. I mean, we can't control the price of land and lumber from up here. So, I guess as we're looking at expanding housing opportunities, what are some of the things both city of Cottage Grove and Washington County and even the state of Minnesota can be doing to roll back regulations or look at different things, you know, whether it's zoning policies or what have you to really unleash growth without having to pour a bunch of taxpayer dollars into it. So I think so a lot of it really has to do I guess with again as you said kind of local zoning regulations and density requirements. Sometimes it has to do with restrictions on types of materials being used or even the the lot sizes, minimum lot sizes. And um so I think you know to be sensitive especially when we're trying to develop products that aren't at the entire upper end of the spectrum look at opportunities and ways that we can um shift or adjust some of those previous uh criteria and regulations to be able to encourage um again those economies of scale I think in the market. So um in the market what we're seeing is we're definitely seeing that we have no essentially almost no entrylevel housing but in order to build that we really do need to look at opportunities and options for products that we may have considered developing or were developed like many years ago. And by that I mean some a creative ram smaller rambler or a creative um one and a half story expansion bungalow. Um so so getting people into a product that they can grow with. I mean those homes still remain popular in the market today. I mean, when we look at people who are looking for reasonable and affordable housing, I mean, especially in some of the in communities like Cottage Grove or even Roseville, I mean, those products sell right away. It's not it's not that people don't want to live in them. They do. I mean, granted, it's it's um in those may those houses may be older, but what if we developed something like that that was brand new? I mean, one of the one of the things that we always see in the market is entry- level buyers kind of push back sometimes because they don't want to do a lot of sweat equity, you know, so they don't want to go in and have to redevelop the entire home when they move in. Well, if we could figure out a way to develop products that were brand new where they could move in and even if they did pay just a little bit more for those products, maybe not the top level, you know, everything would be new. So, they would at least have a period of time where they didn't have to start in, you know, buying the home and then investing a lot of money in redoing it. And it potentially would offer them if they needed to add on, they could add on to that home as their family grows. Yeah, fair enough. I really appreciate that. I'll let others ask questions. Okay. Uh, idiot member Lak. Yeah. Um, so regarding senior housing Oh, I'm sorry. regarding senior housing living. Um since there will be a demand over the next 20 years, it seems like that pressure will create keep the demand but then also keep that price higher where they're not able to move laterally without debt. Um what are your thoughts on kind of condo style living with amenities? So, I would say that I think condo style can work as long as it isn't necessarily in a traditional three-story apartment building. So, you can develop a condominium product that is like a town home style product that is actually a condo. It's not a town home. Um it I think the biggest issue that we see there though is we if if that product is going to be developed it still needs to be that single level living. We've really had a I mean there is some demand for that. I think we've still had a little bit of a push back on that kind of quote unquote condo um especially in that apartment style building type of situation. Um there's and and I think it's primarily because condominium has gotten a little bit of a bad name. Um I will say cooperative senior cooperatives have been extremely popular and they're still popular. I mean we have waiting lists at most of the cooperative developments that exist in the Twin Cities. And I would say that's definitely one product that would be very attractive in Cottage Grove. Um it's a little bit different um financial framework but again um that product has just proven to be extremely successful. Okay. Um I hope that answers your question. Yeah. I guess one followup question. What is the difference? So in a cooperative situation there's it's a little bit more of a collaborative situation in terms of community. I think people who move into what we've seen is people who move into cooperatives tend to have a little bit more of a cohesive community um feeling and environment. But the the technical difference is that there's one blanket mortgage that is placed on the property and then the residents buy shares but they pay down that blanket mortgage. So they um basically purchase a right to live in the unit and then they pay down the blanket mortgage. But I think what is more attractive about it is really the idea that a condominium well condominium has a little bit different structure in terms of how um how expenses are assessed. And there's been there are some actually there's a bill before the legislature currently to somewhat restructure some regulations and for homeowners associations. We're not sure exactly what will be the outcome for that, but I think that there with some condominium developments um there's been a little bit more of a push back in terms of how associations operate. Um, and maybe it's just because the cooperative product is so new. Um, but older cooperatives have continued to be pretty popular. Um, and also usually in the cooperative you can get in at a lower price. So you can you have a little bit more flexibility in how you want to pay monthly. So if you enter at a lower share price then your monthly amount is higher versus if you pay a higher amount to get in then your monthly is lower. So there's more flexibility for the individual resident. Okay. Uh any other members that would like any questions at this point? Great information by the way and good questions from everybody. All right, Mary, thank you so much for coming today and uh sharing the study. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. We appreciate it. Thank you. And I guess uh before I uh turn it over to uh uh Gretchen for doing the development update, I'll just mention it's it's interesting some of the for example, I do specifically remember the co-op. Uh we did have a to that point we did have a developer that was at one point looking at doing a co-op and I don't know uh what caused them decide not to. I don't know when you get up there after G if you wanted to mention I don't know that we know uh but we have looked at that as an option too as an additional type of housing uh option here within the within the community. believe was going to be down in the dunes site uh with I think it was with a previous developer though I think if I remember right um and then what we are looking at with the study just so we know as the EDA is our staff is then kind of relooking at our zoning to see okay do we need to expand or contract certain types of zoning based on the needs that uh we appear that appear that we're going to need to be focusing more attention on um I will just share that we just had a workshop as a council um uh for everybody that knows the tank property which is just down the road here off of County Road 19. There is a developer that is in the process of uh with a shared with us a concept plan of starting to build on the other side of County Road 19 and getting us some ideas. Uh, we did see a new housing type that's smaller. Kind of I'll just be frank, it kind of freaked me out a little bit, but I'm going to go look at a couple other communities that have them. Super duper small twotory. I think it's kind of what you were talking about with the loft thing. Uh, very tight though development. But to your point, I think that's what gets the price down. Um, the question is, you know, as I hear, and I'm sure, uh, my partner next to me here when he was on the council hear a lot, you know, every time we we start crunching the lot sizes down, uh, we don't hear from the people that are buying those lots cuz they're happy. But the existing residents of Cottage Grove are like, "What are you doing? You got house on top of houses." and and so there is some challenges that you know for perception versus what the I'll call it the upcoming generation is looking for um maybe not such big lots and part of it I do think is a cost factor too uh definitely so I mention one thing absolutely so we are actually seeing some larger builders both um Lamari and David Weekly start to do single family homes on lots as small as 65t wide I mean, so that's a big push down from where we were seeing them before. Yeah. And I I'll I know we have Emily in the background there. Emily, the one that they were proposing, do you know how wide those were? 28. Well, 28 is 28 small. It is very small. I mean, it looks to me um it almost looked like a mobile home, but two or three stories tall, right? Um, but yeah, that was what we're talking about when this one uh piece of it that they were looking at. Not the whole property. I want to be very clear. There was mixes and things, but that's the kind of stuff we're trying to figure out. You know, what fits, what doesn't fit, what are um, you know, what are people buying? Um, so it is interesting. This study is going to help us uh guide for the next, you know, 10 10 or so years. So, okay. All right. Any other questions? All right. Thank you again for uh coming and sharing with us. All right. Uh we'll move to C then uh which is a development update. Uh G, you want to walk us through that? You pretty much have the rest. I'll just keep going down the list. Yeah, we'll just we'll just run through it because they're all just updates and no action items are um expected. I will say on the the housing comment, having come up from Houston, Texas, Mary would know this, but uh the uh the smaller lot, three-story, sold like hotcakes. David Weekekley built them everywhere in Houston. And uh it was a beautiful product for younger families to get into cuz they don't actually mind the stairs because they know what baby gates are. So, just so you know, as you're thinking about it, that really is good for the market. Okay, let's go over our updates today. So, the Beige Book, you can see uh from reading the report that employment increased slightly since the last report in the winter. Price prices prices increased and wage growth was moderate, consumer spending was flat, construction activity was slow, and commercial real estate activity remains relatively flat and residential real estate sales grew moderately. Manufacturing experienced some improvements with the tariffs. Now, we don't exactly know what's going to happen this next round. Agricultural conditions were weak and oil and natural gas exploration remained unchanged and minority and womenowned businesses continue to report lower sales and profits. So on the community development updates, Gerber collision, the roofing material, you can see from the photo, and the exterior walls are installed and they're going to start excavation for the interior slab and probably probably already have Bangs Kitchen. We're very excited about this. Their interior improvements are almost are complete and the final building inspection has been approved. Washington County has uh approved their final health inspection and their grand opening is this Saturday at 3:00 and the mayor will be present at that and that for many of you who know is the former location of Ho King. It's going to be very exciting and Mr. Vang is very happy to be opening Taco Bell. You can see that the uh from the picture that the exterior signs are complete and they did some minor interior renovations. your low zone water treatment plant. Interior painting of multiple rooms is still ongoing and again as we speak probably a lot of this is already done. Installation and painting of the process piping continues. HVAC duct work is almost complete and install installation of the interior brick and platforms between the horizontal pre-treat tanks has been completed. other projects, Luan Luwellyn Apartments, which is Roarers Park High School and Buffalo Wild Wings Go. All of them have their plan reviews underway. And Emily is still here if you have any questions about the projects. And again, they're probably going along a lot faster than we uh have uh done right now. So, all right, on to the other updates. The property purchase and the hotel RFP in December of 22. Just a as a reminder, HBS hotel study was completed. It did indicate that there was uh a need for a 90 room branded hotel in the city and potentially the most ideal locations were 80th Street, Jamaica, and then also near the 73 acres adjacent to Walmart. You authorized an appraisal to be done in November. That was finished in early February. In December, while we were waiting on the appraisal, um we started the hotel hotel RFP. In March, we made an offer on the property after the council had an executive session and we will meet again with the owner on Monday. So hopefully the offer will be accepted, but we'll see and we'll report back accordingly. And then in May, the members of two three of the members of the EDA board, the mayor, um Mr. Kada and Vice President Olsen are going to go to ICSC. So at that uh event we will showcase the hotel RFP assuming all all goes as planned and then we'll also showcase the other properties including the 73 acres the properties that are still available in the business park and others to developers at ICS. So that's all ongoing and happy to answer any questions about that. All right, any questions so far on either the development or the hotel study? Okay. Yellow tree project updates. This project in August of 2024, the community development department was um contacted by the Yellow Tree development for a proposed 164 unit multif family project at Outwood D. Everwood. It's along East Point Douglas and you can see on the map the circle. It's kind of near the legends and behind Kohl's. Um it's a market rate complex. The city council held a workshop on March 19th to see about the project and to talk about an abatement that was requested. It's a challenging site. It's a nice project. It fits into the housing nut housing study needs. And they requested a tax abatement of 10 years and not to exceed $880 $848,800. And that agreement, if it moves forward, would have also a look back provision just like TIFF does. So overall, the council at the workshop thought it was a good product, understands the challenges of the development, and agreed that if it were to move forward, they were amanable to a tax abatement. I'll just I'm going to make a piggyback plug in there. The original there was an article in the paper, I think it was the paper. Yes. Um that had a larger number out there just for the EDA. Yes. Uh that is what they wanted, right? We said along with uh Ellers who does all of our financials for the city that they would not qualify for that higher dollar amount. So the amount of money that Eller said that they should qualify for based on the true I'll call it true hardships was the $848,800. So just so if you see that out there I think it was in the business journal or something but yeah finance and commerce um it was out there and I some people were asking why are we giving 1.2 2 or 1.4 million. It's like we're not um we're not doing that. So, I just wanted to make make that clear for our EDA here, too, so that they're aware of that number or what the real number is. Thank you, President Bailey. Yes. Uh it was 1.5 million and it was 15 years. And uh the uh we did actually correct the writer of the article and told them, so okay, next time if it moves forward and you update it, make sure you use the right numbers. and they just didn't know because that was in the original staff report. So, okay. All right. Dominion's certification of compliance. This become this comes before you every year. They're required to file an annual report to say that they're in compliance with their tiff plan and the development agreement that the EDA has with them. It requires that 80% of the building units be affordable senior housing and then the other 20% remains affordable, but it's not necessarily just for seniors. And that's true of all of our TIFF agreements. Um the ratio may be different, but you can allow others disabled and people who are income challenged to move in that are not seniors. Um, in February we received their certificate of compliance along with their actual tax credit report and it shows all of the folks uh the rent they pay, the size of their apartment and then at what ratio are they and they all remained at about 60 to 50% 60% to 50%. So they are in compliance and um the only reason we don't put that in there is because it has a lot of private information in it. you just see the certificate saying they swear they are in compliance and have reported it correctly to both the state and Washington County and happy to answer any questions about that. Okay. Any I know she's whipping through these which is fine. Any questions on that? Um, uh, EDA member, uh, Kabato, I, if I recall correctly, was it last summer or, summer before, there was some concern with residents of this complex regarding the rate of increase. And, uh, if I remember correctly, after looking through those rates of increase, they were within the specified amount, which I believe was under 12%. But the at that time rental rates across the metro were rising at you know double digit rates annually. Uh and so while it was within the the specification for keeping their tiff and their um affordable housing dollars that they received for the project, uh those uh tenants were upset and I think I think reasonably upset. But um again, absent these tiff conditions, those rates could have come up much higher to try and meet market rates. So uh even though it's not a perfect system, I think this is still a good uh mechanism for the city to help develop affordable housing. Absolutely. And those questions were addressed um later on with the mayor and some of the folks from Dominion uh because part of it was all of those extra fees that did aren't covered by the uh HUD cap, right? You know, like for your um parking space and for certain things related to maintenance. Electric. Yeah. And electric. The search charge on the search charge on the search charge. Right. Yeah. So proud to say that the mayor Bailey, president of the EDA, uh made um some good headway with that. So hopefully it'll remain that way. Good. Okay. And then we're almost done. We just want to note that on May 13th, you will not have your regular EDA meeting because we don't have any action items, but you will have your June 10 meeting because we will have a number of action items for you to consider. This is the upcoming meetings calendar. Uh, Administrator Levit wanted to especially point out that next Thursday is the volunteer banquet. So, even though the RSVP has closed, if you will let staff, any one of us know if you've not said you were attending and we'll make sure that we put you on the list. Absolutely. And other than that, there's a lot of ribbon cutings coming up, so we'd like to see you there. Yes, definitely. Looking forward to this Saturday at uh Vangs. Oh, yeah. That'll be very exciting. All right. Just to be official, we do not have any public hearings, uh, no other business, no workshops, um, no presentations. I will just ask, is there any other uh, EDA member requests or comments that they want to make on there? All right. Well, then I guess we will have one more motion in a second. Who would like to make the motion to adjurnn? Council member Kat. All right. So, Council Member Katada made the motion to adjurnn. Do I have a second? EDA member. Or EDA member. Thank you. See, I'm losing my mind here. Who who would like to make a second? Second that motion. All right. Second by Edia member Peptist. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone.