[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e good evening and welcome tonight is Monday February 12th 2024 this is a regular meeting of the minetonka city council I will call this meeting to order and then we have kind of a special event today so we've got some boy scouts here from uh tro 426 so I'm going to invite them up to come up to the podium and uh one of their one of the Boy Scouts is going to say a few words and then the Boy Scouts are going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then we will continue with our meeting so gentlemen welcome and yeah you can just come on up here and uh just come on up to the podium and then uh tell us who you are and then we'll uh face the flag and do the Pledge of Allegiance good evening counil uh my name is coall uh on behalf of my troop 426 I'd like to thank you for having this opportunity today to do the pledge of Le very good well thank you well we will stand now everyone and face the flag which is my right and uh you gentlemen lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of 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 then troop 426 if you'd like to gather around for a picture I think the council will stay right here and we'll get a picture of you all and uh and then we'll move on with our meeting come on yeah stand in front of us does council want to stand maybe should we stand we can stand [Laughter] [Applause] okay few more wait I see some people in the back you good all right oh so with the Pledge of Allegiance done I will talk ask Miss England to call Ro please Wilburn here Calbert here R here kley here Foster Bolton here where some here next item is approval of the agenda and we have an addendum um Mr Funk thank you mayor good evening Council I have one item for your consideration in tonight's agenda and that is in front of you and also it's been uh pushed out to your I legislate earlier this afternoon the item for your consideration is related to 14a items concerning minetonka Flats at 5290 and 53000 Spring Lane 5295 and 5329 County Road 101 and 5301 Tracy Lane Terrace us there was information uh that is being shared additional information as it was relates to the tree data uh that was processed by staff and submitted for your consideration this all came after the distribution of the packet so that concludes the one addendum for your consideration this evening thank you mayor thank you Mr Funk um councelor Calbert I just want to ask a question about the addendum um it it it says what you just read with no actual tree information so so it okay thank you so um Miss wishnack we'll make a report when we get to that item thank you okay thank you all right so we've got an we've got the agenda and we've got an addendum is there a motion for approval councilor Calbert thank you mayor I make the motion to approve the agenda as amended and is there a second council member ra I'll second the motion I've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member R Miss England Please call roll Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes cley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries next item is approval of minutes we have three sets of minutes and they are the January 25th 2024 special study session minutes the January 29 2024 regular meeting minutes and the January 17th 2024 special study session minutes and I will note that I when I chatted with Mr funk I had a couple of little typo things that um I shared with him and they were corrected so with that is there a motion council member calary thank you mayor I make the motion to approve the January 25th 2024 special study session minutes the January 29th 2024 regular meeting minutes and the January 17th 2024 special study session minutes with the changes mentioned by the mayor and is there a second I'll second okay we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member Foster Bolton Miss England Please call roll Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries item six is special matters and 6A is the Strategic profile quarter 4 and end of year report I think we've seen some of this before but I know that Mr Funk has a presentation so Mr Funk thank you mayor counil EXC sorry about that let me start over I would like to say rookie mistake but it wasn't uh sorry about my microphone um excuse me as as it relates to this strategic profile we do have a PowerPoint presentation here for you this evening and mainly my comments are for those that are watching or listening or here present I know Council you've seen this information before and really tonight's presentation is really highlighting 2023 and really taking a look at our year and review in terms of our activity the body of work that has been done by the city counil and by our staff as we all know it's a it's a collective work um by our team both collaborative and nature between staff and our Council and our community on really advancing issues that are important to the city and and again those have been identified in our strategic profile I'm going to get a little more into the data but again I do want to just spend just a minute teeing it up and that is with our strategic profile just the importance of this document uh again for those that are watching and listening uh the city spends a great deal of time in our planning efforts and we do that to be Forward Thinking uh that we can control our own destiny and that we have purpose behind what we do here at the city and part of this purpose is really identifying where we're going in the next 3 to 5 years and so the Strategic plan that we're about to show you was developed uh a couple years ago so we're we're generally on year four of our strategic plan uh we I will end the conversation tonight here in a few minutes just with reminding you on next steps and what our next rendition will look like but we are reporting on 2023 and so with that I'd like to go to the first page of the of the PowerPoint really want to start with the Mission Vision and values and these are the first few slides of our presentation tonight because it really starts uh with our mission because without a strong Mission uh that also leaves us somewhat rudderless and as an organization we do spend that time really ensuring that um take an inventory of where we are today and then understanding where we're going as a community so with our mission statement that is to provide quality Public Services while striving to preserve and enhance the distinctive character to make minona a special place for every everyone along with that we have our vision statement our vision is who we are really in destined to be and this is that Visionary forward-looking uh statement and it says that minak is an exclusive Community inclusive community committed to Excellence we all residents workers and visitors are welcome in a beautiful sustainable Place supported by quality Dependable city services we do then have uh uh related uh value propositions I won't spend uh my time going through Reading through all those on the next slide I'll really just kind of highlight the bolded words that are in these bullet points and really with our guiding principles it really talks about this is how we go about our work uh that we're beautiful sustainable and healthy environment that we respon that we deliver excellent public services and provide affordable opportunities we also up ethically uphold Community Trust through proactive inclusive public engagement and are transparent in our operations and we also when make sure that we're Nimble uh we all know that at times government can slow turn can um those Wheels can turn slowly but we also need to be nimble and so really making sure that we are on the cost of innovation and making sure that we are able to adapt to the changing environment uh as we know change has been inevitable the last couple years so with that moving into the Strategic profile itself again our our plan is considered a three-level plan and when we talk about our strategic profile I really just spend tonight talking about our six strategic priorities that is the the Hallmark the foundation of what our goals are for 2023 those six strategic priorities are supported by 21 key strategies and then we operationalize all that work through very specific and detailed action steps in 2023 there are a little over 90 action steps and then we also measure our success um so to complement not only all of the words in our document we also generate data and government is known to have a lot of data we have lots of data but then we really are specific into which data we track and for our strategic profile we use 69 performance measures or metrics uh as we alsoo call them to really track our performance and using those as benchmarks against our performance and that's really how um we use uh use this these tools for accountability and that's really the The Benchmark and Hallmark ALS a strategic plan and how we roll this out the action steps that we perform on the city's behalf and on the council's behalf and then really measuring that success so with that I want to just spend a few minutes talking about again those six strategic priorities what listed on this page are those six Financial strength and operational excellence and each of these have a team leader and in this uh team is headed by Darren Nelson our finance director safe and healthy Community is the second pillar which is led by Scott borom our police chief sustainability and natural environment is Leslie yka our natural resources manager livable and well plan development is Julie wishnack our community development director infrastructure and asset management is will Manchester who is our Public Works director and then last is our community inclusiveness which is jcece Alexander our senior diversity equity and inclusion manager coordinator excuse me so with those team leads and I just want to thank them and take a minute just to thank them because it is a a truly the word team effort again um I know that's really an important element of who we are here at this city is really collaborative and teamwork and without these team leads it would be difficult to really make this body of work happen we involve a number of Staff members so it's really a top- down bottomup approach to our strategic planning where we do involve many of our staff in framing up the work that we do every year and it's really a testament to our six team leads that work together and work with myself our assistant city manager Miranda Damen Sissa Faulk are uh also project lead on this as we really shape this up for reporting tonight now as I as for the public they know we don't spend this much time throughout the year going through the results of our strategic plan you do get this Council as you know quarterly so after the quarters one two and three you do receive quarterly updates again that's our way of uh showing and demonstrating those that quarterly progress and then really tonight I'll spend the next 10 minutes or so highlighting those 2023 more high level year-end results so with that as you look at the overall progress again we have those six pillars and 21 key strategies so if you're taking a step back and look at a complete snapshot of the city's body of work this last year it's all colorcoded and at one of our last slides I'll show you a little bit more about the color coding but the blue in this uh overall summary represents that uh roughly 75% of our body of work was completed this last year and still as we ended the year 2023 three in December we are on track with 22% and of course some of those other colors represent the disruption just things that um other priorities come into play perhaps there's a funding mechanism issue um so there's just different representations as to why something might have been slowed up and that's very common um ideally yes we would be at 100% but the reality is when you work through strategic plans uh anytime that we can get over 75% complete is really a good year um on the right side of that graph it shows 88% progress so it's it's measured a couple different ways so while we completed 74 or 75% uh the progress as we get it's measures how close we are to really getting to that 100% completion so really when we take a step back another way of looking at it is we really got we really had a really solid year uh in terms of our progress and we're happy to again continue to report through these next few slides of what that looks like again as I work through the six pillars the first one is financial strength and operational excellence some of the highlights and again for Council you heard this presentation from staff and our team leads recently in a study session I'll quickly run through these bullet points again for those that have not seen this before one is implemented an agenda management application so that's our our legislate uh we also executed a short-term operating plan for the marsh and just the uh short timelines in in between deciding to purchase the property and then reopening its doors the completion of the Ridgedale Commons in Crane Lake Preserve and so that was an exciting finish to uh the park in the rdale Commons area and then also what's core to us as a city is our AAA Bond rating so really benchmarking ourselves every year to ensure that we maintain that AAA Bond rating for all the reasons that we've spoken of um in terms of why that's important and then really when it comes to the budget making sure that it aligns with our strategic profile uh our budget is over a 100 million and so we do spend uh considerable time with our Capital Improvement plan economic Improvement plan and other plans in the city to ensure that our budget does align with our strategic profile and that uh those and the reason for that alignment is really it's about um having the deliberateness behind what we're doing uh some performance metrics and again I won't spend a great deal of time looking at um and spelling out all of the performance metrics because we have 68 of them I'm really just highlighting a couple metrics on each of those uh this really looks at a whole gamut from our quality of water and sewer services that we're providing uh estimating our future tax levy because we are being futuristic in our planning efforts and understanding what future levies and budgets look like and then also the quality of our recreational programs and services so those are questions we ask on our community survey we measure our our success based on feedback and we do like to point out these as a way to gauge how effective we are in delivering those Services moving on then to the next slide which is safe and healthy Community uh couple of highlights noting in this pillar is the establishment of our police cadet program uh mayor and Council you know we recently got some exposure on our one of our uh cadetes as they um have now entered the program and that program has been very successful since its launch we've had also a number of data portal enhancements so I'll Point those out in a couple slides again just in terms of our transparency Center and the data that we offer to Residents where residents can go to our website uh our chief uh police uh Mr B room has enhanced the data that residents can see on our website realtime crime data and all the mapping features that we have available for residents we've also then increased our community engagement efforts just really the work that has been done by Public Safety both police and fire and the hundreds of events that they're out and about in the community and having those touch points uh with our community members uh also this last year we had our fire department Staffing strategy and Staffing study um and that was really the public safety master plan both with police and fire so that was done also this last year in 2023 and then I already noted but with safe and healthy Community just with the successful acquisition and then the reopening of the marsh in terms of some performance metrics this is really just a snapshot of the data collection system that you see on our website it's in our portal so any Resident can do a lot of different searching with the features in this website it's it's very interactive different ways to search data look at uh crime hotspots if you will it can be broken down by gender by race reasons for involvement and so there's lots of data just in terms of the interactions that police have with our community I would just note that we're one of few cities that puts out data like we do um it's we're proud of that fact because we do want our residents to know what it's like with our Police Department what's happening in our city and we are we do have that information readily available moving on is sustainability natural environment some of the highlights there is and this is continuing with the climate action and adaptation plan that started in 2023 and we're looking to wrap up that project in 2024 we also then as a city adopted the city-wide Atlas 14 flood vulnerability model and map that was an extensive project undertaken by our engineering staff in 2023 and Council that came before you uh through a lot of public engagement efforts as well and that was updated we also then started the Purgatory Park in Hillway Park restoration and maintenance plan planning uh and we're also as you know working in the midst of our uh Purgatory Park Master planning so a lot of Park uh matters uh under attention this last year and then moving on with the storm water BMP inventory don't ask me what BMP is but will Manchester is here to help me with that one but we did uh Assessments in our maintenance programming uh really through a lot of our storm water efforts as we know natural environment storm water efforts uh how we manage storm water is very significant in the city and a compliment to um our staff in in updating that that program and then last uh also we promoted the city's water conservation grant program uh again our goal is to reduce water consumption and so we do educational efforts and we do have programs in place uh systems in place to reduce our water consumption in the city moving on then to some of the performance metrics trees planted it's always a good one that we monitor that is not for the entire city because if you were to add up trees in the entire city both from public and private uh tree plantings they would be I think in excess of a thousand these are more symbolic of the numbers represented are more symbolic of the public tree planting so the work that's done by the city on some of our private Pro public properties we also then track that residential per capita water use and so really trying to we gauge to see how well our programs are doing we're trying to get those consumption uh water consumption down just knowing the scarce water resources that we have and then uh Switching gears on the right side lower right side of that graph is the so Sol installations and so part of our goal as a city is to work with residents and through our programs with um private um solar installations on private property so we do track those as well moving on to livable and well planned development some of the highlights are is the Opus area uh goes without saying mayor and Council just the work that the city has done in terms of preparing for Opus and the work that was done in terms of securing bonding dollars this last year that will continue in 2024 the housing rental registration program uh was approved and that project is initiated here this last few weeks and so that is underway in 2024 and certainly we always point out inspection just in terms of the Health Inspectors visiting over 700 facilities addressing 500 complaints in the community the building inspectors conducted over 15,000 inspections of projects this year as it relates to about 8,000 permit so certainly active uh some communities have not seen the type of growth and type of development that mitaka has seen we're proud of that that fact that we have a a community that is um seen as a place to invest and so that is a really good sign that we're remaining strong even though the economy and interest rates sometimes suggest otherwise uh and then in terms of business Outreach uh we did uh Elevate or Elevate our program to the open to business and individual company outreaches have taken a priority so we have as a staff with M wishnack and our community development team doing a lot more engagement with our business Community this last year and then also sustainability was a big priority under this category where we have started work on the climate action and adaptation plan I already noted that but that does also fall under this umbrella with the livable and well plan development some of the performance metrics and there's a number of them again but I just really highlight what's out on our website this is a interactive uh portal for housing units um this is very when I say Interactive active uh different ways you can capture data um I won't walk through all those here this evening but what this graph um illustrates from a high level perspective Without Really filing a lot of the data is that in minaka we have 9,99 total rental units uh about a third of those are affordable at 3,362 and then across the bottom of that dashboard it does show the different units based on Ami so for 30 I think it's 30 50 UH 60 and 80% Ami so it does show those and again those are very clickable in different ways you can extract the data on the map you'll see those orange colored boxes those are ways that anyone can go on our website click on any of those boxes and gain information on that particular property in terms of the number of units if there's any affordability and other property information moving on with infrastructure and asset management some of the highlights and I won't read through all the words on this slide either but certainly we installed electric EV Chargers on site uh here at our City Campus uh moving on we uh with a lot of different maintenance project ranging from the ridge Ridgedale water tower rehab uh we were looking at a water meter replacement pilot project and there certainly some Rehabilitation efforts at Willison Opus and our Birch lift station so not glamorous work that the public always sees but certainly very important work as it relates to our infrastructure maintaining the Aging infrastructure has been a focus of the city and we do note that as a major highlight this last year um I know we goes without saying that residents can expect their water and and use the sewer system and it's it's meant to be without without much headache and that's what our goal is at the city is to make sure that people are using our infrastructure in a way that's efficient it's effective and especially with an aging infrastructure we know that's been a concern with some of our neighboring communities moving on uh in 2023 well it doesn't feel like it right now with the weather uh this last year we had our third High highest snowfall season for the record in the Twin Cities so again a compliment to our staff that 94% of our residents during the survey still complement our services as good or excellent so just given the tough winner we had last year it's certainly noteworthy and a compliment to our staff for our snow removal efforts uh we also had a number of uh Trail connections that are noted there and Trail Improvement projects and then uh lastly uh Power Line restoration and easan acquisition for the Hopkins Crossroad Trail project as we know that's a big project coming up and really that groundwork has begun some of the performance metric number of new miles constructed uh we do hear from residents uh about trails and sidewalks and we do track how many new miles are constructed each year that way were measuring against ourselves and and understanding that we are investing in our trails and then also as I already noted with a survey with snow plowing being a significant indicator in terms of our performance last is community inclusiveness a couple of the highlights noted there is our we did hire a senior diversity Equity inclusion coordinator the council you approve the creation of the Dei commission and we recently appointed our newest members to serve on that commission and we're getting that launched and ready for our first meeting coming up I believe that's going to be March uh that we're shooting for um we also then participated for the first time in the racial Equity dividends index study which is created for created by the center for economic inclusion and so you heard jce Alexander our senior diversity Equity inclusion coordinator his presentation recently at the city council uh more of this will be coming forward we we expect in 2024 and then certainly we highlight a number of our internal efforts uh we as a city internally work on our diversity Equity inclusion efforts just from training uh we have equity toolkits and a lot of the other practices that we're installing uh here at the city couple of highlights uh really kind of reflect around uh some demographics and then again some survey questions regarding how we are what the community perceives in terms of the city and our inclusiveness um rankings um really to highlight us on those last metrics so to wrap things up uh this is our our community dashboard so this is a snapshot so when people do go to our website it is layered with information and uh Council you've seen our previous quarterly reports they they tend to be 30 plus pages so there's a lot of detail I'm trying to spend about 20 minutes here tonight going through a lot of different detail U mainly just leaving you with the message and our residents with the message that we were very successful this last year uh going to our community dashboard um those colors do are are seen here and do play out so with that green blue is really what residents can be looking for in terms of progress and success and each of those six pillars those are all clickable again and if you go to the next slide if you click if a resident clicks on any of these it does droll down to further information there's more charts there's more graphs there's the 60 plus metrics that we have on our website so certainly a lot of information uh that we share with our community in terms of our progress and I do note that on the right side of that graph uh we are recognized as a leader in terms of strategic planning um I'm very proud of that as your city manager and the work that we do as a staff uh working with you Council on setting up that our strategic plan uh working through our action steps and then delivering on those and we've been recognized by invisio who is our software uh behind all of the the work that you see here tonight uh our software provider knows that we we're really good at strategic planning and they are quick to Showcase Us in the work that we do and with that mayor and councel I'll end there and ask if you have any questions otherwise turn back over to you thank you thank you Mr Funk Council any questions um councilor Calbert I just have one quick one and I'm apologize for not asking you about it uh when we spoke this morning and that is on page three and I mean it's elsewhere it was on the slide that you were just showing uh of the Strategic profile um there were some disruptions so there's red and strategic priority number one and there was something discontinued in strategic priority number six and I'm sorry I should have asked but I didn't so I'm asking now um what what it was in uh especially on strategic priority number one and uh mayor wome council member Calbert uh I would let me do some research and get back to you on that specific disruption um from a high level perspective usually what causes a disruption and I allude to it a little bit is if there's another priority that takes place um for example we have as I noted earlier 90 plus action steps so sometimes it can be um a new priority takes place for example with our Erp system so with our Erp system this last year year a lot of Staff dedication is is going to that project it is taking considerable more time and effort than we anticipated we always anticipate they're going to take a lot more time but it's taking even more than that so it's it's things like that where with our Erp so many staff resources get drawn to one project and then we I was wondering if it was the Erp migration but yeah okay thank you callson any other questions you know I'm going to ask one um I'm going to ask of Mr Manchester BMP um I if I don't know the acronym I want to know and uh Mike mentioned it so here we go yeah mayor and Council it's best management practice so it's a term used to you know highlight erosion control and I know what that means all right that's good and then you know I just want to comment briefly um I um I really appreciate that we do this and sometimes when we go through all the detail on the study session so forth it seems a little tedious but it's really important that we have a staff that sets objectives and holds themselves accountable to it and they are accountable to us and so these measures um where we are we are really looking at the work that's being done and and measuring it and and fessing up when we're not exactly where we want to be but also noting all the things that we accomplish is really important I had a boss one time who said you are what you measure and I really believe that if if it's important you measure it and I think that this speaks to that so I just wanted to add that summary comment and I appreciate having these updates quarterly and um I think we're in a a really good spot in terms of uh 2023 and I look forward to the same rigor in 2024 so thank you so the next item is then uh reports from oops do we have to make a motion to accept that report do we have a is there a motion I I apologize all right then um would somebody like to make that motion councilor Calbert thank you mayor I I would like to first of all thank staff for all their hard work um it's a great report and it's just a great system and it really is helpful so um and I'd like to make the motion to accept the Strategic profile quarter foreign end of year report and council member Wilburn and I will second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member Wilburn Miss England Please call rooll Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries and thank you Council Calbert for keeping me on task um next item is uh reports from city manager and council members and uh Mr Funk yeah thank you mayor and Council I guess you get me twice in a row um couple things for you this evening uh one I just want to mention a chamber update um as you know we do have businesses that are are represented by two different chambers here in the city of manataka one is the wetta greater wetta area Chamber of Commerce and the other is the miniapolis Regional Chamber so if you're one of our 2200 businesses in the city you can join join either one of those our goal here U this last year and going even into 2024 from a staff level is to really continue to strengthen those Partnerships uh one thing I want to mention this this evening for you is that both the greater wi Zetta Area Chamber of Commerce and the Minneapolis Reg chamber is excited to partner with the city on New facil on to facilitate new programming for 2024 uh the programming that you'll see coming out being advertised is called The minona Business Council uh so both of these Chambers are hosting some meetings and the purpose of these Business Council type meetings is to really strengthen the ties between the city minaka Business Leaders the city to foster a thriving and prosperous business Community now and into the future it's also an opportunity to connect uh City Hall with our local leaders and we do have our newsletter and Julie wishnack our community development director and her team are doing business visits I just spoke of that in my last report we're really using these as opportunities to connect uh face to face with our business Community with the wetta greater excuse me the greater wetta area Chamber of Commerce The menona Business Council meetings will be held on March 27th May 29th September 25th and November 20th of this year the Minneapolis Regional Chamber they're having their business Council meetings on May March 12th May 7th and November 14th there'll be a lot more advertising and promotion of these events as they're coming out we're really excited to just share with you some of the work that staff has been doing with our chamber U meeting with them here in the last couple months really looking at as these really good opportunities to again connect with our businesses uh through these different settings next thing I want to mention is kidsfest uh this last week we had 2800 particip so it's really great to see so regardless of the warmer weather uh everyone that came had a great time dancing playing bigo with our minona Police Department making um treats and s'mores and other fun things so really big shout out to all of our volunteers and our vendors who made that day possible and certainly a big thanks to our staff for pulling it all together also want to mention the winters Farmer Market uh ended this past Saturday February 10th this was the final of three markets for the season uh the have been all very well attended and I also want to thank the vendors who uh worked with Mr OD day and our rec staff for these events um and also want to just mention um those that come to the farmers market so we wouldn't be hosting these if we didn't have participants so big thank you to all sorts of community who sees these as community events and come to these on our Saturdays we'll be preparing for Summers farmers market right around the corner uh lastly I just want to mention to council just to hold the date for the annual state of the city so the mayor we're is working with City staff is being planned for March 15th from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. at the marsh and then more details will be coming out soon uh we look forward to hosting that event coming up here in roughly about six weeks and then last uh Council I know you know this but I do just want to publicly say um that Sergeant Ryan pper uh passed away yesterday after a courageous battle with cancer his dedication to duty his unwavering commitment to Excellence and the respect he commanded amongst his peers really left an edable mark on our department as we mourn the loss for sergeant Piper let us also remember the impact he had on the lives and those around him his memory will serve as a source of strength and inspiration to all of us and his legacy will continue to resignate within our department for years to come and so during this difficult time really let us all come together to offer our support and condolences to Ryan's family his friends and colleagues may his memory be be a blessing and a source of comfort to all that knew him so with that mayor and councel I turn back to you thank you Mr Funk um Council any any reports Council Calbert I will try to keep it very short and I just want to say to um all the loved ones uh colleagues and um uh friends of uh Sergeant Piper uh you are in my thoughts and um I was very sad to hear the news um I also just wanted to mention that um this weekend was an event sponsored by the league of Minnesota cities it was a learning opportunity for experienced and new council members and we had an opportunity to um take a pretty deep dive on a variety of um issues and challenges that face uh cities right now so just um you know things that would help build our community things like conflict resolution uh crisis communication um uh very inclusive ways of addressing uh diversity equity and inclusion which and I I very much enjoyed all of the um presentations and also uh just taking a uh having a Roundtable conversation about kind of just the challenges of being on the council and um there are a lot of hot button issues internationally nationally and always locally and um I thought you know it's it's always good to hear how other what other cities are facing and how they deal with it and so it it just gets me to thinking we're very lucky to live in our city city with a collegial council and um there are some really uh controversial issues maybe even one will be on the agenda tonight but um I just want to remind people that uh our boards and commissions are volunteers uh we are not volunteers we are elected officials but we don't exactly get rich at this and we have um very hardworking staff and you might notice that they're sitting here after regular working hours and so I just want to um encourage everyone to understand that we may have different points of view and different ways of it of looking at things but we all want the same thing for our city which is the very best and so um when we're talking about things that uh we might disagree with people in the room about I just want to encourage people to maintain decorum and it has nothing to do with anything necessarily that we're discussing tonight but just as a general rule that lack of decorum is something that is becoming an increasing challenge across the country at every level of government and so when you uh come here to speak and when we speak to you I hope that there is mutual respect so believe with that thank you coun Council M Calbert other reports anyone Council M kley thank you mayor I just want to um remind everyone about um this Thursday that we're having The Sounds of Blackness um come to the city hall to um perform and we're going to have a food vendor there as well to celebrate um Black History Month in addition to um just I received a couple text messages and um phone calls um mentioning that um you know the tickets were really gone pretty fast and people wasn't able to get access to them um um and just wanted to let everybody know that um we are excited about the events that's happening on Thursday and um I'm sorry that everyone could not get tickets we only had so many tickets available and this is our first time doing an event like this and I'm sure um with all the excitement we will probably do something in the future and I just say just keep a lookout and um um hopefully next time you'll be able to get a ticket so thank you thank you counc council member kley anyone else council member R uh yes just echoing uh council member Calbert uh regarding um condolences to the family uh of of of uh our deceased colleague also uh thanks to the city for that wonderful report that condensed a lot of great information into a uh very succinct presentation I know as a new council member for me it's been a revelation to see the many many many invisible hands that go into the work of making the city run as well as it does I too was at the uh actually two workshops over the last week one on Municipal Finance the other one for the Newbie version of uh the league of Minnesota City seminar that council member Calbert was also at and uh again it was a wonderful opportunity to learn from experts also to meet staff and other city council members from around the state which once again made me very grateful um for the opportunity not only to learn from them but also to uh kind of understand their problems and also be grateful for uh the benefits that we have living here in minetonka um also one final kudos to Sarah Westy Kelly o day and the staff of recreation I was at the kidsfest and it was a rocking time especially the kids DJ room and I think a really great time was had by all again kudos to the staff who came in on a Sunday um including firefighters other staff to uh be at this event uh and we even got a think a KSTP uh interview out of it with one of our firefighters and by the way if you are interested being on a pay on call firefighter I think they're in need so that's it thank you thank you Council M mey any anyone else Council M Wilburn just really quickly um also I Echo sharing condolences with the family and um fellow uh colleagues of a of our fallen officer um I what was I oh I was at those those workshops too but uh uh council member kley reminded me of something so um for people who tried to get tickets to and were not able to I believe the event will be live streamed so if you go to the city website you should be able to find live stream information and still be able to watch the concert so that's it thank you Council wlbr anyone else well I feel like you don't have to too it was great um and I also was was really sorry to hear about the Fallen officer the um and you know while I I I might as well talk about a little bit about Public Safety it also includes pedestrians and four weeks ago I was in the crosswalk this was in Hopkins not in Min tanka but I was hit by a car in the crosswalk on a green light and Public Safety includes you know people walking and we're in minetonka and Hopkins too want to be um more bicycle and pedestrian friendly I just want to remind everyone to keep an eye out for pedestrians I mean um it's been it's been a lot um worse than I than I had anticipated it's trauma to get hit by a car so um just just be mindful um thanks thank you Council M Foster Bolton um did I skip anybody all right I I've got a couple of things I wanted to mention um I attended a meeting of the Regional Council of Mayors today and it was very interesting meeting and we had the climatologist from the U Minnesota Department of Natural Resources um and his presentation was fascinating and it was it was about climate and weather and they're not the same thing um but it was it was really fascinating about some of the changes we can anticipate with a changing climate some of the changes that have not occurred yet but will some of the changes that are slowing down because of what I mean it was just a very fascinating um um presentation and then we also had a presentation on um you know recent Federal legislation that makes um money available um two cities and two local governments for um um climate adaptation and at our most recent study session we reviewed a draft of our CL of the minaka climate and adaptation plan and that is available on the city website and I would urge you to take a look at that because there there is an opportunity to to look at that and weigh in I believe and we are interested in comments from um our residents but but it also talks about things that we as residents can do to make our homes and our vehicles and things um more um less impactful to the environment and more userfriendly and some of those changes are pretty significant um exchanging your uh furnace for a heat pump if for example is one pretty expensive deal and I think that there's a lot of federal money out there for those types of changes but you know if we're going if we are going to slow climate change down we have to do some big things and so um this was a very you know um I'm not an expert on this by any means but this was a very interesting um set of presentations I will get the um slides that were presented and I will share them with staff and have them um get them out to council members and anyone else frankly who is interested but um some pretty interesting things out there that um are going to help people be more um climate ready if you will because the climate is changing and that's a reality and um and there are things that can be done to help um slow down those climate impacts so I thought that was helpful um I want to uh um you also extend my sincere condolences to to um Sergeant Piper's family and and to all of to the entire community and to our staff um mitaka um does community policing so our police officers and our sergeants know a lot of people in the community and the City of minaka is not a huge organization I think we've got about 250 full-time employees and probably another two or 300 part-time employees but we're really kind of like a midsize company and we lost a key person um in our management of our city and it's a big loss and and um I just want to extend condolences to the entire city staff to Sergeant Piper's family and uh it's um this a big deal for our city so um I think we're all hurting a little bit and then um I was going to make one small plug uh that Mr Funk um omitted um the state of the city is March 15th but we want people to come and oh by the way there is free food and that Us in my experience that usually helps brand the numbers in so I just wanted to mention that because he neglected the comment on that so and it's at the marsh so uh please uh and and we've got a totally different very different format very um very strong business emphasis this year so more to come on that but that's March 15 at 11:30 A.M and there is free food you can quote me on that so that is um that is uh all the reports from Council Members tonight um item eight is Citizens wishing to discuss matters not on the agenda and this is an open mic opportunity and if you have a report that you would like to make tonight please come forward state your name and address and make your report and then we will not take any action this is just an information item that if there is action required we'll turn it over to staff and they will report to me but please report to us but please come forward state your name and address and and please make your report good evening good evening I'm pleased to be here mayor and Council Diana Houston 12201 minaka Boulevard U we have a brief um PowerPoint presentation and so friends of minona parks known as F fomp 501c3 nonprofit organization and my presentation tonight is a look back on 2023 a year in review and also look at 2024 goals we're a very young organization formed in 2021 and and we have a growing base of volunteers dedicated to park restoration using science-based methods and best practices we work closely with City staff to implement restoration plans consistent with natural ra uh resources Master Plan F focuses on restoration education and public Outreach along with continually expanding our volunteer base and you can see we can use some Nifty tools in the parks that make our work a little easier so we can accomplish more um our 2023 initiatives we have three of them uh that we did and so the first one was science-based natural resources restoration and we focused on restoring uh 12 parks in the City guided by the natural resources master plan and the master Park Master planning process and as noted on the map the 12 parks are circled in the brown the second initiative uh collaborate with City and staff officials F volunteers and park leaders meet monthly with City staff and our Park stewardship meetings to Foster cooperation communication and collaboration along with joint problem solving in addition to other means of Engagement the third initiative contined to grow Outreach and education efforts included many activities included a soldout public education event oaks fire and climate change T tabling at the farmers market a wealth of resources our website social media newsletter education materials and also further development of volunteer skills this Slide by the Numbers shows the impact of our 100% volunteer organization and we plan to exceed these achievements in 2024 I think I've really noticed the big number up there almost 1,600 hours volunteer restoration that's a lot of hours and you can see it in the Parks so 2024 uh we've already started a process to educate and train volunteers beyond the basics of res restoration and so restoration involves a lot more than removal it also includes working with City staff broader knowledge of what's good and not so good in the Parks site plans and one of the most fun activities I especially enjoy which is seeding cleared areas of all after all of your hard work uh we've already started the work on um recruiting new volunteers and defining what does it mean to be a f member and we also plan to grow our donor base again we're a 501c3 growing a reserve will be used to front money for larger restoration projects and also apply for Grants and our donor button is on our website and also on our Facebook page so our website is mtka parks.org you can contact us at mtka parks gmail.com uh and also our full annual report is on our website finally I would like to thank you the city council I'd like to thank the park board and also all the city staff you all are a large part of the successes we celebrate so thank you for your time tonight well thank you so much Miss Houston and and thank you for the good work that the friends of minaka parks volunteers do that that is a big number of um of hours and I've seen the many improvements you've made in our park so thank you so much for your work it is very important and very much appreciate it thank you Mary thank you all is there anyone else who would like to come forward good evening good evening mayor and city council members uh I'm Kevin ringhoffer I live at 2200 Indian Road West in minetonka uh in in addition to uh some of the things I do in terms of working on affordable home ownership and uh other racial and Justice and economic justice issues that I work with a few different organizations I'm also part of an organization called smart approaches to marijuana Minnesota um and as I watched uh the council and staff work on things in the last study session that that related to that um I want to commend you for your your diligent work on that but I also want to encourage you and I don't know if you're getting it but to to reach out to uh other organizations that can provide the help I mean there's a whole field of prevention science that has uh evolved quite a bit over the last 20 or 30 years looking at what we do in the area of smoking prevention reducing alcohol use uh keeping young people safe and there's a lot to be gleaned I think from that as we kind of apply it to cannabis I mean there's you know three things that we look at one is with smoking it's you know both addictive and you have the smoking issues and secondhand smoke issues um with alcohol you have the intoxication issues as you pointed out mayor and also uh the addiction issues both cannabis we're going to have all three of those things and I think there's opportunities at times to just maybe reframe it a little bit and is this something that we're looking at that's more related to Tobacco or is it more related to alcohol and can we rely on some of the things that we've we've learned in those fields and apply it to cannabis as well rather than do it the other thing is reaching out I again I don't know if you're getting that kind of help but what I found in doing this work uh is that the voices that are proponents of legalization and commercialization seem to be much louder and more frequent uh than those who are in the prevention field and part of that because those who are in the prevention field often work on things that are related to government grants they may work for a county agency and they're probably Limited in terms of what they can say and how much they can Advocate and so a lot of their work come becomes really after the fact in terms of what they can do um it's it's been years since I worked for Hazelton Betty Ford and done their work but I will say that Hazel and Betty Ford and their adolescent uh and young adult treatment facility is only a little ways away that it's in Plymouth and I know that they used to uh do things in terms of community outreach reaching out to the community and providing some of their assistance uh in those different areas so just want to do that and the other thing is is you know as I've come to more meetings recently and watch the work that you do I just want to commend the council for the good work you do in terms of how diligent you are you know how and how you work cooperatively and that extends to the work with the staff um it's just really nice to see that that kind of work can be done in the political realm because all you have to do is turn on the television or whatever however you get your news and find that that's not always the case so thank you very much thank you Mr R Hoffer and thanks for thanks for paying attention and being here tonight is there anyone else yes there we go is there is there anyone else who like to comment tonight if not we will move on so item nine is bids and purchases and we have none of those tonight so that brings us to the consent agenda and the consent agenda is items that are typically routine and rather than acting on each individual item we will read them into the record and um act on them collectively in one motion and one um one vote however if someone would like to pullon KNE item um for U further consideration please raise your hand and uh indicate that you'd like to pull the item we'll pull it we will vote on the remaining items and then we will revisit that item and talk about it individually and then vote on that so I will start by reading these just two items into the um into the record right now item 10A is a collective bargaining agreement between the city of minona and law enforcement labor Services Incorporated police Sergeants and item 10B is a collective bargaining agreement between the city of minona and the international Union of operating engineers local number 49 um would anyone like to pull one of those or is there a motion Council Wilburn I move uh approval of consent agenda items 10A and 10 B great is there a second Council m r i second the motion all right we have a motion by M Wilburn and a second by council member ra M England Please call roll Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries item 11 is consent agenda items requiring five votes we have none of those tonight um item 12 is Introduction of ordinances and we have none of those tonight so that brings us to item 13 public hearings and we have two 13A is the 2024 2025 Community Development block grant funds cdbg for Urban hanpen County allocation and Miss wishnack that's your report I believe yes thank you mayor and council members uh this item is uh coming to you annually we do have this hearing every year around uh the February time frame and it's in preparation for the receipt of funds that are coming through the Community Development block grant program which is a federal program if you're not familiar with the program it really is intended to help with Community Development activities uh to build stronger and more resilient communities if you're looking for the total gamut of what could possibly be funded by these uh dollars it would be things like infrastructure Economic Development public facilities installation community centers housing rehab Public Services Etc and uh usually it serves a population that is in the 80% area meeting income range and below so that that is the intended audience for for these funds I think it's also important to distinguish what we're doing today versus what we used to do and so in 2018 and before we actually received direct allocation of these dollars for Community Development block grant funds and I should note that there's still income coming in off of loans made uh prior to 2018 and so sometimes you'll see in the economic Improvement program some of those monies being redesignated back to the county in this instance for program income and we'll put it back in the County's funds for new loans to be made so the loan repayments go back out as loan new loans for Rehab projects um also if you remember or those of you who are here would remember this um there was a direction to have a special program created for the homes Within Reach uh residents so anybody who owned a home as within reach home uh was allowed to apply for funding excuse me up to $7,500 and there are if you aren't familiar with the numbers there are 62 homes um that would qualify in minetonka and 17 projects actually were completed and we do have about $122,000 left in that fund if there are people in need that have homes Within Reach homes so post 2018 so um going to the present minetonka did join the henpen county Urban CBG program and under the arrangement with the county it really joins with other people and other City governments to pull their resources so our funding um allocations um operate from July July 1st to June 30th so it's a little bit different time frame so when you see some of these numbers in your budget documents and your EIP documents later this year it always doesn't some of the numbers don't make sense because of the change in budget year um for this year we're proposing the 15% for administration that goes to the county to operate our programs there are 15% designated for public services those are things uh like a and some of the programs that we have locally that apply for funds 1% is designated for fair housing and then most of the allocation this almost 70% is designated for this home rehab program um in general uh the 15% income does cover that the program Administration so the Staffing um if you aren't familiar with any federal programs there's a lot of compliance that's required and a lot of uploading of information and and different documents that the federal government requires it is very labor intensive I remember the years where we had that inhouse and it was um quite timec consuming so we're happy to have the county do that for us back to the public services um you know instead of just having our own pool of fund it's about 450,000 that's now available for public services um oh there's the rest of the um organizations I a homeline senior community services and sojer have received uh pass funding and the applications if you're talking to anybody um they have exactly 3 days to get their applications in so February 15th as far as the home rehab programs it's up to $20,000 it's a no interest deferred loan again it's uh for those who are making up to 80% Ami historically since a program was in accepted uh there was about there have been about 340 homeowners uh assisted and it was um providing over $2 million of improvements in the last year there there are five projects that were completed nine projects were approved and seven had completed their applications and that's just a continuous rolling um cycle of projects and some of you have been on the council for a while remember where we had lots of of um lead time for these projects and people are waiting um because the terms are so good and so attractive that people wait a long time to get these rehab monies so how do you find out about it right um how do you know that minona has this money or that the hennipen county folks have that money um is interesting we have such a good Google rate if you just typed in home rehab minetonka that's that's it three words this is the first page on the right hand side of the screen here um and it lists every single project or every single program that minetonka offers in terms of Home Rehabilitation so you can see the homes Within Reach Grant the home enhancement the rehab program energy loans foreclosure prevention deconstruction grants accessibility ramp um assistance anything that homeowners would need for financing Home Improvement loans as are there now if you're not a an online person right what do we do for you if you don't like to Google and you don't like to spend your time online um one of the things we do is um we do a lot of Outreach but one of the things coming up on February 25th is the Home Remodeling fair and so our information is shared with people at that fair looking for improvements to their home there's lots of vendors but also city government comes and and shares their information as well well so tonight uh we're recommending that you adopt the resolution and it would be to allocate the 132,000 for the uh home rehab program and then also in that motion you're authorizing the negotiation and execution of a subrecipient agreement with henpen County and any third parties that provide those services with that mayor I'll turn it back to you for any questions um thank you Miss wishnack Council questions for staff Council m c thank you mayor I I had asked Mike about this earlier um today um the 132,000 that's being allocated to the home rehabil rehabilitation program um what does that all entails does it cover the programs that you listed before that the money typically um covered in the past or is this what I guess where would the what would the money be funding or helping with because I'm kind of confused about what it was helping with before um it sounds like it's getting kind of moved from that and just going into the um housing Rehabilitation um program versus um helping all of the different programs that was listed Miss wishnack thank you um mayor and Council marbert kley uh there's actually um this percentage here is controlled by law so um under Community Development block grant uh you cannot use more than 15% to support local services or public services like uh I or homeline or senior community services so in no um in no scenario can you spend more than that and it doesn't matter if the city has the funds or if the county has the fund it's the same rule there's no allowance beyond that so we've all always allocate a lot of the funds under CBG for these home rehab programs it's been probably since 2005 I'm thinking when that original program um the use of the funds for rehab loans came up and we've been consistently doing that because we see the need and that there's a lot of people waiting for those funds so that hasn't changed and the maximum percentage hasn't changed over those years is that your did I answer the question no it's not answered I'm trying to find out is the other programs that was funded in the past are they like AA food chef um homeline are they also going to be funded some of that money or is it just going to the home rehab so that's what I'm trying to figure out uh mayor and Council M kley I'll try again um the 15% is still the same amount so the same amount goes into the Consolidated pool the city doesn't make those decisions the Consolidated pool pool of cities makes the decision on who's funded so again last year these are the projects or the entities that were funed funded I can't promise you that that's who is funded this year because it's a different entity making those decisions the benefit of joining that though is that you have more dollars than you would alone so alone the city would have 25,000 to spread across those organizations by applying for the Consolidated they have um a chance at bigger uh dollars or bigger funding so that's the benefit does that so um so you're saying that they have to apply for it through um H I guess the county maybe henen County and then that's how um it's determined through that Source yes mayor and council member kley it is determined by the henpen county Consolidated pool committee yes that's true and Miss wishnack just to fill in I mean it's been that way for the last several years it's um since 2018 yes right right okay so we haven't changed versus last year but but it prior to 2018 it was done differently okay yeah if you recall mayor um I do recall I bet you do um the and the rest of the council maybe you don't remember this process but there would be individual organizations that would approach the edac the edac then would recommend to the council certain amounts of money for uh nonprofit work uh like these organizations and so it was highly competitive we couldn't fund everybody um it was probably frustrating for the applicants because they had to go to every single City they served so for a which is a multi-city um organization they would have to approach every city for their CBG funds instead of going to One Source at the county so I'm sure it was uh a little difficult for them to process all of that um I would think it's more efficient for them the way it's set up now and I'll just add it's certainly more efficient for us because we would listen to those pitches from each of those organizations and and you know I think for for an organization like a that we all know it's um it's an important organization that is not just in minona it's in Hopkins it's in it's regional my guess is that they're getting more money than they would of going to cities individual because they have such a significant impact in in our West Metro region so I think it's a better deal for them too less work more money that's uh that's kind of a winning combination all right I I understand I just didn't want to you know not I didn't want to make sure that we was still funding these organization if we could I didn't you know didn't want to be changing something so that's why I was asking because I wasn't clear about how it was being used cuz I thought it was just going to this one pool versus spreading it out so that's why I was asking thank you thank you Council K I think it was a good question so I appreciate that um Council other questions for staff otherwise um let's see this is a u a public hearing item so um we will um I'll open the public hearing and ask if there is anyone in the audience that would like to comment on the 24 202 4 2025 Community Development block grant funds program through henen County are there any comments kind of have to ask multiple times so any comments all right then I will close a public hearing and I will bring it back to the council for comments or a motion or both anyone Council M Calbert thank you mayor I'll make the motion to adopt the res resolution regarding the 2024 2025 Community Development block grant uh funds authorizing henpen County to carry out the proposed activities very good is there a second councilor kley I'll second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member kley we've got the alliteration going on there um um Miss England Please call Ro Wilburn yes Calbert yes mey yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries item 13B is a second public hearing item and that is an on sale intoxicated and intoxicating and Sunday on sale intoxicating liquor licenses for Heather's minona llc at 5445 Eden Prairie Road and Miss wishnack still your turn it is thank you mayor and council members uh this is the second time you'll be hearing this liquor license um again this is the replacement of the kazoku restaurant in Glen Lake uh and so it's a new restaurant to that existing location um just to familiarize yourself it's kind of an 8:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. type of business um they will be serving liquor um they indicate that they will have online training for their uh waiters and waitresses as they um enter serving uh liquor at their establishment they have a 84% food to 16% alcohol ratio that they indicated on their application as a reminder we do check that we audit several businesses every year to ensure that they're complying with the city's regulation on food Del liquor ratio um we' have notified residents in the area there's a sign at the business indicating that you are considering a liquor license the police did conduct their investigative information that in investigation is shared in your private packet for this evening's meeting so uh mayor I'll turn it back to you to continue that public hearing from January 8th and we are recommending granting the licenses thank you very good thank you m wishnack so this public hearing was opened on January 8th but um I'll ask councel if you have questions first for Ms wishnack or staff it's a new restaurant in minaka established location um any questions all right then I will the public hearing is open would anyone from the audience or is the applicant here by any chance would they like if you'd like to come forward and just um tell us a little bit about your you know this you can make a little pitch too about your uh about your restaurant but uh please introduce yourself and tell us what's going on thank you um my name is Heather Asbury I have a restaurant in South Minneapolis currently called Heathers um looking forward to being in the Glen Lake neighborhood um um it's I love familyfriendly it's approachable food we cater so looking forward to working with everybody events um and now are you open or when do you open no we are they are currently still in business so um we are finalizing the sale of the building here shortly the next few weeks and then hoping to open in May very good M very good um well thank you welcome welcome to minaka thank you appreciate it um again public hearing is open is there anyone else who would like to um comment on this if not I will close a public hearing and bring it back to the council for uh comments or a motion or both councilor Calbert I'm good for it mayor I know you are so I'll just keep it uh brief I'm just uh you know I I used to work at a Japanese restaurant so I'm always sad when a Japanese restaurant closes however I'm very glad that we have another business coming into that location it you know we've I remember when that uh Corner wasn't quite as vital as it is today and so I'm glad they're coming and I uh am happy to make the motion to approve the on sale intoxicating and Sunday on sale intoxicating liquor license for Heathers menona and is there a second councilor R I'll second that motion all right we've got a motion by councilor Calbert a second by councilor R Miss angland please call Ro Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries that brings us to item 14 which is other business and we have uh two items the first 14a is items concerning minona Flats at 5290 and 5300 Spring Lane 5295 and 5325 County Road 101 and 5301 Tracy Lyn Terrace and Mr Gordon I believe you are that's your report so take it away thank you mayor council this is the um item as you noted I'll just pull up the location map here got two slides two two images on this slide this is the location on the left side right at the corner of 101 and celier Boulevard just South of Highway 7 and then on the right side is just a little more zoomed in to the parcels there are uh five of them uh kind of owned by the uh Lake West uh owner um four of those would be part of this project uh it's about four acres in size you can see some of the surrounding streets here uh 101 along the west side excelsor Boulevard on the north then there there are the connecting neighborhood streets Spring Lane uh off of exceler Boulevard and then on the South Side Tracy Lin uh Terrace uh connecting there as well little background about the property with the land use designations here shown in the red red outline on the on the left so for zoning um this is an R1 uh zoned uh group of properties as are many of those around uh the site in the neighborhood our comprehensive plan also guides it for low density uh as well so real briefly here the uh screen just shows the two proposed uh 20 unit condominium buildings uh those would be um built on three of those lots the fourth the fourth lot kind of the southern end of this Tracy Lin Terrace would just continue to be buffer but but again those are the removal of those three three homes they were built in in the in the ' 50s and um and then this is the proposal here for the 220 unit buildings so these are connected um buildings in that they have an underground parking uh area uh beneath them the access comes from Spring Lane off of exceler Boulevard kind of a um swooping securious uh Drive in there to get under the building or into the onsite uh parking um surface parking on the east side of the Northerly building uh these are um buildings that uh would be presumably constructed together uh just because of the shared amenities and the shared garages uh a lot of the amenities uh that would happen are share between both buildings um there are variances that are requested with the project um the code requires for a building of this type to have access onto a arterial uh or collector roadway not a neighborhood street um kind of unfortunate the county in this situation isn't allowing access onto either roads uh it's suggesting that the access come from the neighboring streets so the connection proposed as I mentioned is off of Spring Lane the front yard setback requirement is 50 feet and that would be reduced to 35 and then the other variance requested is for the removal of uh 64% of the high priority trees that's essentially 29% above the maximum removal rate for um high priority trees so the proposal then uh changes uh to kind of attain that density uh the zoning and the comprehensive plan from single family uh R1 to R4 and then the low density residential to the medium density residential category so these are the again the summary of those applications the comprehensive guide plan from low to medium density resoning from R1 to R4 um site and building plan review with those variances I noted and then the preliminary plat to combine um those properties into a new new parcel again as noted in the staff report this is a a project that uh if you were to deny would require just a majority vote four of seven if you were to approve the project it would require 507 with those variances uh requiring the five votes so a total of five for the whole project our staff recommendation um although the this project has a lot of history to it um it was previously approved for a single family neighborhood at a preliminary plat for that it did not make it to final plat where there were uh smaller lot uh single family homes um approved in the preliminary plat um the developer since change to this type of a program for the property we went through a concept plan as we kind of noted in the staff report for looking at the coin property for a 20 unit building and then having some residential uh uh be built between the building and Tracy ly Terrace um this came back different than that it didn't come back with a single family component it came back with another building uh so we had two buildings uh here and no single family so that's essentially the change going forward from the concept plan process I think you know during the concept planb Pro process both uh staff Planning Commission Council the three entities both thought that that was probably a reasonable approach to developing the property um in this case with the two buildings uh we we didn't think that that was maybe the best approach uh for U this uh area and we were recommending that we deny the project again based on that lack of transition into those single family neighborhoods so this doesn't represent something that we felt was reasonable to guide rezone replat and and then build the buildings um with this density and tree impact uh on on the site so that was our staff recommendation going forward to the Planning Commission uh Planning Commission uh reviewed this on the 1 of February they also uh held staff's recommendation um in keeping with the same findings uh they thought that it was too dense um although the corner seemed reasonable for more density uh the rest of the site in that increase in density was not reasonable uh so that was their recommendation going forward supporting again the staff report recommendation and that was unanimous 70 so tonight uh this is your uh final uh review of this application um we're recommending denial as I noted and we're recommending you adopt the resolution that's in the packet that uh reinforces that denial with the findings stated in the resolution and outlined here on the screen um just of note um if you're um seeing that you do not wish to approve this project again that's just a simple four uh vote uh majority um if you do want to go forward with the project if you like the project uh that will require five votes because of those variances I'm also going to um pause for a moment if you do want to go forward with the project we are at the end of our clock that means uh tonight we need to have action up or down on this project with one exception that would be if you do want to approve the project and have it go forward we're we're going to need to have the developer and the city sign a waiver of our 1599 statute the the review time uh to allow that to happen so again if you or agreement with staff and the Planning Commission to deny then uh we won't need that if you do want to go forward with an approval of some type um have the project come back direct staff to prepare a resolution to support the project then we do need that extension and and we would have that put on the record tonight during the meeting before you make a final decision on that so um sorry to dwell on that for a little bit but there's some Logistics we always have to make sure we're taken care of uh with these items when they come up to the end of the clock so with that mayor councel I'm ready for any questions but I'll turn it back to you at this time well um thank you Mr Gordon and uh Council any questions for Mr Gordon on this a proposal and and I I have one that might be relevant to all of us and perhaps it's for Miss heiney because we have six council members here not seven tonight does that what what would what with six council members what is a majority and a super majority I thought it would be good to clarify that before we proceed I don't believe it changes it but I do need to check the um I need to take a look and I will get back to you pleas please do that so then Council uh we don't have to wait um questions for staff um Council M Wilburn so I found it Mr Funk um so it um in the report it says so by city code principal access to the R4 site must be to a collector or a terial roadway roadway as designated by the comprehensive plan um and that the property has Frontage on both County Road 101 and exceler Boulevard hennipin County will not allow access to either of these two roadways um so I'm wondering so what's what's the process when like when a proposal like this comes before us then we contact the County and the county did the county give any reasons why not is I mean how does that work Mr Gordon thank you uh mayor and council member bulber and it's a really good question for this particular site um we have had uh a County Road Improvement project along 101 that happened about a decade ago um this is close to the corner uh there are future improvements that um the county and the city will do with the Excel Boulevard and Trail in the future um those um those will come those will come in the future um the intersection at Spring Lane and exceler Boulevard is it's a little tricky um where they've proposed to pull the access off from in that there are not great uh distances from Spring Lane to the intersection and then there's a very kind of short left turn lane kind of going westbound on exceler Boulevard so that makes U the access in and out um a little more challenging than probably the city and the county would prefer to have but it's just a difficult um existing condition so um although that works for um an access point it's it's not exactly ideal so as you probably saw in the traffic report we explored some ideas to look at different locations for Access um Spring Lane being one um and then back uh on Tracy Len Terrace being another one that that functioned well um so those are um those are again kind of opportunities for Access but yeah it's it's not common that we get a comment from the county that um they essentially wouldn't allow a permit onto their Road system and would push that back onto a city um uh residential street so for those reasons you know we're not um from a staff level we're not uncomfortable granting that variance I didn't really pull that out in the in the variances because it's not exactly Germaine to the path we on for denial of the project but it's it's a consideration for the project going forward um um with other development scenarios that may present themselves so I think that that's certainly something we would we would consider in the future with another proposal one more question yeah C wil continue um so uh staff report stated that um you don't feel the the transition and the wording is probably not correct but the transition between the higher density to the lower density neighborhood is not corre correct so what would what would an appropriate transition look like I it doesn't have to be specific but what's what's missing that's that's not in this project Mr Gordon yeah mayor and council member Wilburn I think um what we were presented with in the concept plan is probably something that um makes sense in this neighborhood where you have um a a coordinated effort between a a medium density uh type product and lower density um you know single unit homes um that are planned together organized together share some access facil common facilities um and probably more importantly expectations you know with with the neighborhood where um you know you're moving right to it and that was part of the the development project rather than um having having that come right up to to the edge of an existing single family neighborhood that's decades old so I think that's that's the distinction that we see here um that's the difference in um what we are reviewing and what we saw in the concept plan other questions coun ra yeah thank you mayor I have a couple of questions for staff um I understand uh there was a an addendum that came here regarding the tree uh ordinance and the counting of the trees including the high priority trees and I'd like to perhaps get a few words on that and also the definition of what a high priority tree is thank you mayor and and council member R um yeah thank you for noting the change memo that's on the I legislate it's not printed out with the individual sheet so um yeah so I'll just give a quick synopsis of that so when we were at Planning Commission we had we had difficulties getting all of the tree information packaged up correctly from the development team so that we could review it uh we were kind of running on what we thought was with what we thought the numbers were um and essentially we that was confirmed by the developer when we did get the information and did review it that we were at 64% removal of those high priority trees so that um that number doesn't change at all um we just needed to spend time to review that and confirm it for sure so that is what is in the change um memorandum for um the the meeting tonight so you get 64% removal and then they're they're actually under on the on the significant trees at at 33% when you can remove 50% so that was kind of a positive the definition of a high priority tree is a for deciduous trees are those that are 10 in and larger and then they are also those trees that are not an invasive tree or have you know some sort of an infestation with like emerald ash bore so um yeah 10 inches and larger would be the definition thank you mayor uh couple just a follow-up Zen so they could be ash trees they could be other types of trees they're not necessarily native trees it's just that they're 10 in or more in diameter they could be bu Thorn yeah so no or not because they can't be invas we're going to remove those Ash would would be something that we would actually exclude from the inventory so yeah so they would not count thank you and um just several more follow-ups uh if I could please uh could you define an R4 limit um you know kind of what the difference would be what that would mean in stepping up that zoning yes mayor council membery um this slide shows just a different um kind of density ranges for comprehensive land designations um low medium high density as there is kind of those three designations low as uh up to four units an acre medium 4 to 12 high density is more than 12 so anything that's low density um can be R1 R2 or R3 most of the community is zoned R1 uh for low density um very uh very much a lesser percentage of land is R2 and R3 and then we get in a medium density that's typically R3 R4 um probably the asteris here is we do have like plan unit development zoning um and then that that could that could fit into any of those categories so if there was a a PUD uh planned unit development that would that would fall into any of these depending on the type of density we have just one more zoning district r1a is another zoning District in the low density residential area yes counc M mey several more quick questions um is my understanding is and just maybe you can confirm my understanding of a few things so this project if uh the parcels were replatted as one uh my understanding from the developers presentation during Planning Commission is that 69% of the platted area the new parcel would be green space is that correct um bar council member r that was I do remember that um being stated by the development team okay um we've not gone back to confirm that number uh that that may be the N that may be the area that is um included in the building footprint um and maybe the parking area Okay uh just a quick eyeball of the site uh it seems like it's that may be the only thing that could possibly be included in that number and if you can also confirm my uh understanding from the Planning Commission meeting and the plans is that the height of uh the proposed uh building structures would be 35 ft um which conforms to R1 zoning um requirements is that correct for height yeah mayor and council member willas I remember that that as well and um again if we got to the building permit stage we'd have to confirm you know those numbers for sure with a building permit but that would be typical of an r1a or excuse me R1 uh zoning is 35 foot height limit okay and um my understanding as well is that this included this development kind of conformed um with affordable housing requirements in that uh my understanding was that the price point would be a approximately uh in line with some of the newer homes uh newly constructed homes or new newly bought homes in that neighborhood um and that with a 10% affordable housing uh requirement by the city for this development that would have meant four units at less than half of that price which would have brought it between three and $400,000 um just confirming that Miss wishnik thank you um council member R um I think the the point is um they are required to have affordable housing and it can't sell for more than 310 that's the maximum price point great um frankly the developer hasn't submitted you know in detail uh that information I would say we' need more information from the developer and how that's going to happen and the covenants that go with that have to be agreed to correct I understand understand that I just noting the difference between when you have a multi family unit dwelling like this versus a single family um the affordable housing requirements then kind of kick into play correct you are correct all right that's it thank you all right council member meley any um any other questions on this for staff anyone all right yeah okay counil M kley that's why I asked I was trying to decide if I want to ask the question or not but you said there was a time limit on we had to decide tonight can you explain that time limit again please it was a statute that you gave I think it was like 15.99 I might be wrong on the statute but can you explain that mayor and council member kley the the statute I referenced is exactly that it's 15.99 and it applies to um applications the city receives uh for development and the limit is 60 days by Statute we can have one extension of another 60 days by uh by our own unilateral authority to go to 120 days so the 14th of February is the end of the 120 days um as I as the slide notes a waiver is a possibility uh to extend uh past the 120 but again it has to be agreed to by both both the city and the developer to do that so yeah the point is we need action tonight or we need a waiver tonight thank you very good and and then um Miss heiney uh you have a you have an answer to the question I posed earlier I believe yes I do mayor and I'd also like to just add on to uh what Mr Gordon said under the what we call the 60-day law if the council does not make a decision tonight it is automatically approved even if the council does nothing so you have to deny or approve and what staff has suggested is if you wanted to approve you would want a resolution that set out all of the different conditions staff can't draft that tonight they would need to hear from you you know your feedback before they could draft it and and because this is the end of the 120 days what we would recommend what staff has recommending denial but if you're inclined to approve request um an extension from the develop or waiver from the developer uh so that's just depending on um Mr Gordon's comments the answer to your other question was your question was we only have six members here tonight does that affect the vote requir for five no the ordinance requires 2third of all members doesn't matter whether they're present or not if you had a vacancy that would affect the number because then you would be considered a council of six but you're Council of seven and it requires five votes thank you for that clarification so Council before we go to the applicant I just want to ask any any unanswered questions otherwise we'll um invite the applicant to come forward and and uh share your view of this proposal good evening welcome good evening Kelsey Thompson Lake West development 14525 Highway 7 in minetonka good evening council members and mayor thank you for the presentation to staff um first I really do want to thank staff we acknowledge the complexity in reviewing the items related to this proposal and since the Planning Commission meeting I've really spent some more time studying the staff report and appreciate how staff boiled down the complexity and offered a black and white analysis of this project I think staff did a really good job of providing Clarity on what we may generally agree upon um which is what I want to focus on tonight also thanks to the neighbors some of which might be here tonight in person or online we appreciate this group of caring and respectful neighbors and we hope you know we hear you in our doing our best to address your concerns um lastly thanks to our development team with me tonight is Nick Meyer from Westwood our engineering firm and Kurt fream from Lake West development um we'll do our best in answering any questions you may have tonight and we thank you for reviewing this project um we spent a lot of time on this and look forward to your deliberation all right so as for mentioned in tonight's presentation I wanted to focus on the positives um when I reread the staff report and preparing for tonight's presentation it stuck out to me that there's a lot we generally agree upon which I want to acknowledge for this site we generally agree that uh we appreciate the unique architectural design so if I could rephrase this statement I think we agree that that we like the way this looks we generally agree that we appreciate the single level living housing product we generally agree that the neighbors expressed concerns about minimizing the impact on traffic and Wildlife we generally agree that a comprehensive guid plan amendment is appropriate at some level additionally we generally agree that a resoning is appropriate as some level as well we generally agree that a low density single family isn't appropriate for the area on the corner of 101 in exceler Boulevard and we generally agree that Medium density residential is located adjacent to low density residential in the surrounding area and is appropriate and consistent with basic planning principles so for clarity the two examples in the immediate area area that this section of the staff report are referring to that we provided in the narrative are Hunter Ridge which is just on the other side of the high school and caros place which is Northeast on 101 and 7 these are just examples highlighting that historically medium to low density residential is an appropriate transition in uses and are compatible which is what we're proposing at this site we also generally agree that an increased density seems appropriate in the exceler Boulevard and County Road 101 quarter and agree that the traffic study report concludes that this road supports the road support 40 units of this use at this site and lastly we we agree that the city has a need and a goal for more affordable housing and this project offers four affordable housing units instead of two units like our concept plan would provide we um we do want to acknowledge that there was a discrepancy in the tree calculations which I understand um PL staff is planning to further review if there's an inkling for approval tonight from Council um we feel confident that we can work this out with staff to resolve this issue and so while we agree upon all of this um we can also understand from a planning perspective why staff would recommend denial of this project and why planning commission would agree with staff's recommendation looking at this black and white some of the hesitation is really around how much density and how much of this parcel should be resed so we considered this and more and found it's really not so black and white we considered being mindful to the neighbors's feedback to limit disturbances in traffic and preservation of the green space that they're currently used to we considered a low intensity use we considered minimizing the environmental impact and abundant spatial separation we considered the intuitive transition in land use intensity we considered meeting the housing and land use goals outlined in the comprehensive plan and we considered designing a product that looks good and fits in the area we also considered the limit ations of the impact from the County Road 101 reconstruction takings so with all of this take into consideration it really boils down to that we have a location here at the corner of 101 and county or and County Road 3 or exceler Boulevard that supports 40 units of medium density residential the roads were designed to support this traffic and which is difficult to find other sites in the city that that allows that the access doesn't go through or impact an existing residential neighborhood which is a rare opport opportunity to seriously consider and we have a developer here tonight that's willing to do this product type that allows us to use green technologies and minimizes energy consumption meeting sustainability goals 40 units of flats is a is a needed product type in the community it offers life cycle housing that aligns with the goals outlined in the comprehensive guide plan this provides four units of affordable housing and offers high quality materials that give it a Timeless character and appealing look and missing from our renderings is all the trees which we're just eliminating so that you can really see through and see the product itself additionally this is a plan that's 85% open space of that about 69% is green so really talk about preserving Green Space as planned does that and more over half of the site will really go untouched not only will we preserve all this green space but our plans enhance the ecology by planting more native trees and helping to restore some of the dying woodlands in this area on top of all that this is a low impact low intensity use that creates a transition going from the high intensity corner to the low density residential and not only does it provide that downward transition but it's Des designed to bring energy up and out through the Spring Lane access to limit impact on the existing neighborhood to the South so to bring up an analogy if you had tickets to the Super Bowl and even if you got them for free and spent all the time getting to the Super Bowl combating traffic finding your seats paying maybe $30 for a hot dog right you wouldn't leave at the after the halftime show nor would you leave at overtime and I bring this up because we just really don't want to miss an opportunity here or cut the opportunity short where else will this opportunity arise when the growing population demand in minetonka is expected to reach 61,500 by 2040 with an increase of over 7500 new residents compris of about 4,700 new households over the next 16 years so it's almost 300 households a year we understand that you might have some questions tonight in particular about why we moved from the 20 units and single family concept to the 40 units of flats which we're happy to answer those for you um but if there's any inkling for an approval here tonight we're open to some conditions and are confident that we can work with staff to address whatever items to resolve um we are willing to sign a um extension for the 1599 rule which I think we may have already signed and submitted to staff um with that I conclude my presentation and happy to answer any questions you may have thank you Miss Thomson um Council questions on um the Lake West presentation anyone tal speak at once M council member Ry yes thank you for that presentation and uh it was kind of a summary or a short and condensed version of what you presented to the Planning Commission uh so appreciate that um I remember some of the residents some of their concerns you know the fact that this has uh this particular site has had a number of plans that have gone come and gone um and unlike a variance a resoning and a comprehensive plan um Amendment it doesn't stay with the project it stays with the property um and so I think you know for me that's a concern um and you know what's to to say that this plan won't change again you know we don't have a lot of specifics on any of the Green Technology that is supposedly being used uh and things like that so you know asking for an amendment for to a comprehensive plan and for a rezoning to a project for a parcel in which the plans have changed multiple times um that we don't have guarantees that this particular plan will stick um you know in in its details um if if that should happen again my understanding is is that from the Planning Commission that again this would just convey with the owner for example it was sold um so can you you know speak to some of those concerns um that I and as well as the residents have expressed yes thank you um um council member rali um so to address some of those concerns that have been brought up by the neighbors and here tonight um the zoning as we understand the in the comp plan Amendment would stick with the land um but to bring forth any project we would need to go through building permits and come up with um that process so not just anything could be built on the land without you know following that procedure um this plan in particular what we're really want you know wanting to do with the property is um offer the the condo Flats um which is a single level living product that would bring more density to this area but in result would really open up the green space that we would wouldn't be able to do with the single family housing so I'll bring you to our concept plan that staff mentioned on the leftand side um you may be familiar with this plan so in this plan we had the single family homes on the bottom um there are actually Four single family homes there including 5311 Tracy Lin Lane and the 20 unit building on the um northern part of the parcel um with this plan this actually is less green of a plan than um with the 40 unit condo Flats um when we really studied the I think somebody had mentioned that the the details were in the devil were in the details and so when we started studying those details and the environmental impact um the 40 units of condo flat really offered this green buffer space that's just south of the the buildings so the Tracy Lin Terrace neighbors would really have an unchanged entrance into their neighborhood um we also explored you know being able to put into amenity spaces with just a 20 unit condo flat it just doesn't really support the amenities that we'd be able to provide with the 40 units um also with the green technologies I recently read an article by the en environmental pollution agency or um um Environmental Protection Agency that really talked about the use of um attached products versus single family homes and how we're able to be much more sustainable in the way we build the homes and also how it cuts down on energy consumption just by using shared walls and obviously less square footage per unit um so we really feel like this is a a better plan um to move forward with but if there was something that you know tonight we wanted to to look at um you know if Council and mayor had some ideas on some on tweaks tonight um that we could work with staff on to to come up with a resolution on this we're happy to do that thank you other other questions Council M kley I just want to know has there been any traffic study in this area um because I know that's one of the concerns uh I went to the neighborhood neighborhood cuz it's in my neighborhood and and um drove around like 10 times it felt like I'll tell you but um you know traffic is really a big concern in that area and so I just want to know have there any have there been any traffic study because it is pretty busy in that area um you know I my daughter went to skinny and Clear Spring and so that's that is a big concern so do you have any feedback on that question yes great question and thanks for bringing that up council member kley um we did do a traffic study uh the city hired srf a consultant um to do a traffic study and the report came back with um that there will be no that the roads will continue to function um as they are so that the roads do support the 40 units of condo flats and I'll mention that the traffic study that was performed form Med it you know just calculated as if 40 units of condos were to be you know in this place it didn't take into consideration um that these would be condo Flats typically catered toward empty nesters so just maybe a little bit of different travel patterns than your typical single family household would have um so we think that likely the impact on traffic would be even less than what the traffic study is reporting but um ultimately it did conclude that the roads would operate um and function as they are one more question MH um if you did the 40 units um in this area do you do you have an idea how many folks possibly could live in this area cuz it would it be like one bedrooms two bedrooms I mean what are you thinking that's a great question most of the the units will be two bedrooms two-bedroom plus Den um there are a few one-bedrooms so likely one to two people per unit um so under 80 depending on if you know it's two people I'm not really sure on exact numbers we could come up with a range right thank you any other questions anyone all right I think I think that's it for now that doesn't mean we won't have more questions later but uh we'll kind of uh work work through the process so is there um we had a public hearing we've had it this has been through the Planning Commission and the formal public hearing for this project occurs at the Planning Commission but um we always do like to ask if um residents would like to make any comments um on this project if we have residents that live in the area and have comments we'd like you to invite you to come forward we're not looking for long comments but we are um if there's anyone here who wanted to address a council on this project U please come forward state your name and address and let us know what you would like to uh what you'd like to share with us and if there's no one no one's required to come because we we all did look at the Planning Commission and understand what was said in that public hearing is there anyone all right I'm not seeing any Public public comment on this item so we will bring it back to the council for comments Council M Calbert thank you mayor I've been actually around long enough to remember some other proposals in this General vicinity that have not come to fruition and um I think um I think some of the things that were said in tonight's presentation have some Merit if I'm uh you know I think as we as I watched the Planning Commission meetings and we also took a first look at um the housing product the the general design was compelling and attractive and uh the applicant is correct that single level living is very hard to find you often find town homes with stairs and um so the idea of flats is is great I think there is some Mar to some amount of density on the corner there um and uh so I think that you know a lot of the presentation had had some Merit however um I think that the points made in our packet by staff about the elements that are problematic and and kind of repetitive the some of these these issues um from Lake West are kind of repetitive issues um and I think one of the things that that I really appreciated in the Planning Commission uh meeting about the two Lake West projects in front of us tonight is when Cher Su um mentioned you know we don't want onerous we don't have ordinances to be onerous we have ordinances because they reflect the values of our community and in the city survey year after year trees are the number one reason that people live in minona so um you know think looking at the uh anticipated tree removal uh it it's it's an issue um the storm water management apparently also would not meet our storm water rule um the affordable housing uh part of The Proposal is undefined which makes it um less impressive and less compelling to me [Music] um and uh I you know we have a wonderful staff that understands development and not just development but high quality development that that um makes makes our city make sense um and so I I think that you know they've already said that they're that that density makes sense on the corner but that it needs to be stepped down to have an appropriate transition between medium density and low low uh density residential and um they're right so um there's just not a an appropriate downward density transition um so while um I think there are some you know things that are really compelling there are also some problems that have not been sufficiently resolved um for me to approve it tonight and so I will be a no vote tonight other comments council members Council M thank you mayor um I would agree with uh my colleague uh council member Calbert uh I believe there are some very you know compelling things about this project the sustainability the affordability albeit undefined um the Aesthetics the appropriate location and uh the fact that it does fill many smart growth uh goals and plans uh however this does require amending our comprehensive plan and rezoning which is always problematic and um the only thing that I I am concerned and so I will probably I will be voting against uh or for denying The Proposal however I just want to as a caveat note some concerns about doing so in that when we are denying these projects um not withstanding some of the issues that are are still there I worry about um incentivizing larger homes on larger uh parcels which is not the way we want to go if we want to you know encourage uh more sustainability more affordability um and and so forth in minona which is in desperate need of more housing accessibility for middle and working class folks as well as for our seniors who are trying to downsize so um we can talk about this again in regards to the next project um you so again I I will be voting against uh a for denying uh this project but I would encourage this and other developers uh to continue to work on projects like this and uh also uh we might want to consider at some point with the climate action adaptation plan coming online um our energy action plan both of which uh came online since our 2020 uh you know kind of comprehensive plan uh redo that at some point uh as those especially the climate action adaptation plan comes online we may want to look at an interim review of our comprehensive exam uh plan as well as our zoning and with that I will thank you Council M mey anyone else Council M Wilburn um so for me it's when uh in order to approve a variance request uh that the request has to meet the pr practical difficulty standards and I I don't think it does um so really that's we can discuss all the other things and and you know I agree that uh it it there's always um for me you know there's the tension between environment and and and wanting to be environmentally friendly but also we need places for people to live and we need affordable places for people to live and and and striking that balance so you know some other things can be discussed and and though we really are not uh generally in favor of of going against the tree ordinance but those are things that can be discussed but if there's if the if you don't meet the Practical difficulty standards then we can't Grant the variance and and so we can't approve thank you councilor W are there are there any other comments I mean it appears that that um there are not going to be enough votes to um approve this proposal there are probably enough votes to deny but um does anyone have any other comments I don't want to cut anybody off but I do want to move things along um I'll just add a couple of things that the proposal was not very specific on affordable housing um but I think what what the proposal does is it meets the minimum of the city's affordable housing policy if you're going to do multi multif family housing you're going to do affordable housing but it didn't offer anything extra and um I've been I've been doing this a long time and typically when you're asking for a lot of change and you are you're asking for um a complant change you're asking for a zoning change change and you um are asking for variances and you're coming in at the minimum of the affordable housing that doesn't typically pass the minaka smell test although I don't really I'm not sure there's a minaka smell test but um but you know I think um you know because at the end of the day I think this is going to get to n tonight but I also think that greater density at this corner is not going to go away tonight but it needs to be different and that's generally what I'm hearing from my council members as well so um you know I think we're in a position to take a motion to deny and um we should do that and move on but I don't want if anyone else has any comments that they would like to make on this project um please do otherwise I'd be looking for a motion um on this item counc Calbert thank you mayor uh I will make the motion to adopt the resolution denying the minona flats proposal is there a second I'll second the motion all right' got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member Foster Bolton Miss England Please call R Wilburn yes Calbert yes R yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries and this item is denied and um I've got quarter to nine I think we could take a five minute break 7 minute break and come back at let's come back at 10 minutes to 9: and uh we'll try and move through the last item thank [Music] you all right ladies and gentlemen we're going to get we're going to get started again we are at item 14b which is a preliminary plat of Emerald Estates with flood plane alteration permit and tree removal variants at 253 255 2511 and 265 Plymouth Road and Mr Gordon your still your turn thank you mayor uh this is my last golf still your turn I've heard it many times but still your turn thank you I I love being up so uh this is uh the Emerald Estates as you noted and just to refresher here this was previously called Uh Wood uh uh Woodbridge Estates uh in a previous proposal uh shown on the screen here where the access came off of Plymouth um under this proposal just some of the things that we had commented when it was at Planning Commission were the significant alterations to the topography to the flood plane and at that time kind of an unknown um uh level of compliance with the tree ordinance so the new proposal again and this was reviewed by the Planning Commission on February 1st was uh a change in that previous proposal uh to the layout um and to the name so Emerald Estates again the new name here and access coming from Emerald uh Lane to the north the lots are um increased from 13 in that previous to 14 uh there's been quite a bit of uh flood plane reduction here uh Al alteration um there's been a lot of flood plane uh area comp uh compens atory area added and that's both to the area that is flood plane and then for uh treatment as well um the roadway the lot area Dimensions um and setback variances are are removed uh in this proposal but there is still a tree variance and um I'll get into that in a moment here so again this is a a street system that comes off of Emerald Lane into a culd toac on the southern part of the of the site 12 of those 14 homes are accessed off of that new roadway connection and then two of the homes would be afforded access from Plymouth uh Road and then the the um the drive uh connection there U kind of adjacent to Amy Lane across the street in terms of the tree uh variance with the project uh there are kind of three three factors in this the uh Woodland preservation area which includes um um kind of the middle of the site uh that tree removal is uh 10% over what the code requires code requires 25% of a woodland preservation area can be removed and a woodland preservation area is again that native uh habitat uh that's 2 acres in size that's a essentially the the short definition of what a woodland preservation area is so 10% uh in excess of the limit is being removed on the WPA for high priority trees again those are those deciduous trees that are 10 Ines or larger uh that removal is 50% that is 15% above the maximum allowance for removal of high priority trees at 35% and then lastly significant trees those are those trees that are 4 in to just under 10 in the limit is 50% and this removal would remove 71% so a 21% exceedence of the code during the Planning Commission meeting uh the developer um spent some time talking about practical difficulties and I'm I'm not really going to talk about practical difficulties other than just to remind the Council of what the definition or the standards are by which practical difficulties are measured so it's those things that uh the property owner proposes to use the property for in a reasonable manner not permitted by ordinance the plight of the landowner doe to circumstances that are unique to the property that are not created by the landowner and the last one here if a Varian is if if a variance were granted it wouldn't alter the essential character of the locality so those are the standards by which we always measure variances and the last thing here economic considerations are not part of those factors in in considering to Grant a variance or not so just keep those in mind rolling a clock back quite a ways here uh in the 90s as this section of Plymouth Road was developing uh there were a number of parcels that uh were large and deep and had Frontage on Plymouth Road and those Parcels shown on the right hand side of the screen show those areas and those um years that there was anticipated development um wanting to happen before uh the the neighborhood developed and then effort to kind of fully realize the rest of the development south of this neighborhood on Amy Lane and um the to the area to the south on The Duda property uh the city put together a plan that would essentially identify how a future Street connection could occur uh off of the southern end of the street so it looked at uh a future Street connection uh Parcels that could Parcels that were included in there and then the u connection back to again that street Network so that was a plan that was adopted um as an official plan for for this property uh it was also recorded against properties to the north that were developing to put those Neighbors on notice that a street could come from this neighborhood to connect the rest of the property to address some of the issues that were um being talked about at that time with future Road Connections and driveways on the Plymouth Road so that's just some information okay so this is kind of a quick summary of our staff recommendation for this project again we're not in a position tonight where we're recommending approval of this plat and that's mostly because of the trees so as as I noted uh those anticipated removals um exceed the code in all those three primary tree areas that the WPA the high priority trees and the significant trees um we we understand that this property is going to develop at some point in time the question isn't if it's or necessarily when but how and this proposal really doesn't check the boxes in providing a development plan that that fits our goals and our code standards uh that we can recommend approv of and again that's primarily based on the tree removal so there's too much development or not enough development in the right spots to preserve the trees you can look at that both ways um we don't have a plan that we can look at in either of those ways that we would recommend approval of tonight so that's the that's the takeaway Planning Commission felt the same about the project uh they thought essentially there was too much tree impact uh because of the development uh they supported the staff find ings and they were unanimous in their support at 70 so our recommendation back to you with support of the Planning Commission was to deny the proposal for uh the the preliminary plat with the variances uh we've put the findings here as were noted before kind of lastly uh we are also at the end of the time frame to review this so we do need to have action tonight and um if you wish to follow the staff recommendation and adopt the resolution that denies the preliminary platin variances four votes are required to do that if you're on a path where you would like to approve this project in some fashion um that's a five vote item and we would also request that you um wave or excuse me it wave the review time so we could provide findings and a supportive resolution to approve the project have that happen at another meeting so similar to last project as well so with that mayor councel I'll turn it back to you for any questions of Staff the developer is still here very good for your questions later thank you thank you Mr Gordon um first I'll turn to council and ask if you have questions for staff anyone I'm good for a couple on this one um you're looking at the um plat that is before us um and and it's always hard to uh look at these in isolation uh we just faced um a situation um in the item that we just voted on where um the county did not allow access to um a road from a proposed development and um here we're we're seeing in this plat two driveways onto Plymouth Road which is a county road as I understand it and um you know so I'm asking is that you know how does the county and I'm not asking you to speculate on the County's view but how do they view um you know driveways coming off onto a County Road and would that be viewed in in a different way than a um Street access off a County Road mayor and uh Council the county out has review Authority because this property with access drives are directly onto the road so they have permit author to issue uh a permit or deny a permit or require conditions on a permit that they would afford access to Parcels my um my speculation is that they would want a Consolidated Drive uh on the two lots uh shown here uh from Plymouth Road if if these were approved um they might also want to explore access back to the rideway on the north side and see if there's some other Solutions there as well as that would uh connect with uh Amy across the Amy Lane across the street so there's probably a couple of different ways to look at this going forward again the the plat process tonight doesn't necessarily um dictate how that access is a is afforded but it would have to be in some fashion going forward okay thank you for that that's helpful and then my my second question um not surprising it has to do with trees and um while I am not intimately familiar with this property um we've certainly looked at it numerous times and I've I've been there um and it's my understanding that there's a lot of ash trees on this property and with Emerald ashor we're not counting uh ash trees in our surveys um but the numbers that are before us don't include um ash trees and any of that removal that is taking taking the ash trees out of the equation and these are all of the other trees is that correct I just want to be absolutely clear on that yeah mayor that is correct this is an infestation area that was identified a couple years ago um so all of the ash trees that are on the property are are not included in the tree count the property they may still exist on the property I have one correction too I I inadvertently said the connection across the street was Amy Lane that Amy Lane is to the north Woodbridge is across the street thank you to my colleague Julie for catching my a thank you covered a lot of ground tonight we um understandable so are there um before um counc Council m wber i I know I could I knew I could PR a question out of somebody here just a quick question um what's a woodland protection area Maron Mr Garden mayor and council member wurn in in very simple sense uh Woodland protection area is a native remnant of of um Upland area in in minaka it's got a tree resource that's native it's got under an understory that's also has a plant Community that's that's compatible with that and it's also two acres in size as at a minimum uh so that Remnant has to be of some significant size to um matter so simple sense that's the definition all right I'm going to ask if there's any other questions otherwise I will invite the applicant again to come forward and um and uh share your presentation with us welcome thank you for being here tonight thank you I'm back all right good evening Kelsey Thompson Lake West development 14525 Highway 7 in nanka um but first thanks to staff again for working with us on this we appreciate your suggestions and guidance and thanks to the neighbors for being out here tonight um and a thanks to our development team with me tonight is Luke holstead from LS our engineering firm um Joanne Duda the property owner of the two bigger Parcels on the screen 2615 and 2511 Plymouth Road who unfortunately had to leave early um I believe she broke her leg so those big thanks to her for coming out tonight we also have Adam Niblick from Taff law who will be speaking tonight on behalf of the seller and Lake West and Kurt fream from Lake West development um so thanks again to to council members and mayor for reviewing our application this evening um so on the screen I've highlighted the subject properties the two Parcels on the south we typically refer to as the Duda properties after Miss Duda um are highlighted in Orange and then in yellow are the two Northern Parcels that we refer to as the Irving properties for a total of just under 112 Acres um to give us some background and just to jog your memory on how we got here from the concept review phase you're likely familiar with the image on the right hand of the screen um this is the loop through site plan when we were just considering the Duda properties for development but because of an access issue we were somewhat forced to buy the northern product properties for Access which is how we got to the plan that you're reviewing tonight so I'm showing that Loop through plan on the screen again um in comparison to then the plan that we brought forth um that wasn't reviewed by Planning Commission or Council um but this was then um that the plan that um that Lauren had showed on the screen so this is where we really thought we were in alignment so after we acquired the parcels to the north for Access because just some backstory for some of you that don't know the county was not allowing access um where that southern road comes in where there's an existing driveway on the south that was our preferred access point kind of trying to loop around the WPA area and the county was saying no to that access point in fact they're really saying no to the northern access point as well their preference is to put the access through the middle of the two Parcels on the left which would go right through the heart of the WPA area taking out too much of the WPA area um so that's then why we moved our access to the north which we thought we were in alignment um with the city and the county by utilizing the Woodbridge trail ride of way that's planned access it aligns with the Woodbridge Trail across the road um and we're being mindful of the neighbors this seemed to be the appropriate access however once we um got into the details the county was requiring a 300t long um turn lane that's the kind of brown on the left along Plymouth Road that would require retaining walls and removal of more trees that um wasn't really desirable by really anyone um and then because of the city there's a rideway that's highlighted in yellow on the right hand of the screen next the number one This was um this is really what's driving some of the the incumbrances that we're we're um having on this property really that this um the city's past planning when they decided to take the bur Road Road right away and give it to the two adjacent Property Owners back in 95 um so again as I mentioned before the county really wants us to access the site in the middle of the two Parcels but again that goes through the WPA area removing above the the threshold there um so when we met with well before I get to that so the the Woodbridge Trail axis also ends up going through the flood plane which is highlighted in brown um so this was another no no from the city and so when we met with staff they guided us to go through the emerald Trail um extending that culdesac which brings us to the plan that you are reviewing tonight um so this plan has a it's a 14 Lot plan it extends a culdesac from Emerald Trail bypassing the flood plane and serving 12 Lots two lots will use the existing access on the upper Northwest with a shared driveway um following staff's suggestion of using the emerald Trail access the this plan is in conformance with the code on all requirements except for this plan would require a tree removal variance so our former plan had um variances from RightWay and lot depth um so we removed all of those variances this plan did meet the trees however this plan would need uh the approval of a tree removal variance um I just want to note that the tree ordinance does not apply to projects with the density of no more than one unit per acre so if we came in or anyone came in with an alternative plan for this site at that density of one unit per acre the tree ordinance would not apply there is an exception to the tree removals that the city may allow removal over the threshold if we were providing reasonable use or access to the property this is that same map um this was printed and taken right from this the staff report um but this is the map that uh the city calls their official map to suggest Street alignment on the east side of Plymouth Road showing these properties split up into fif so the properties the four par the four Parcels that we're proposing tonight splitting up into 15 Lots so this is a little reasonable ility test that we did um comparing the average lot size of what we're proposing to the neighboring Lots so averaging out all of these Lots we're coming down to a 72 acre average um some other reasons for just like reasonable use of this land it is an R1 single family there's no resoning um again comparable lot sizes within the immediate area it aligns with staff's Road configuration map that was previously presented and that there are no variances requested except for the trees which is really due to the P City's past planning taking of the RightWay we this looks like a lot of math but it's quite simple we just took a 500t radius around this property um averaged out all the lot sizes and it came down to an average of 66 Acres so again we're coming in at 72 acres for our average lot size compared to the neighborhood so just a reasonable use of the property for those 15 or 14 um Lots so with that I'll conclude uh this portion of the presentation and I'll invite um Mr Niblick to the stand good evening welcome good evening uh mayor council members um as Miss Thompson suggest or as Miss Thompson introduced earlier my name is Adam nibl with the law fir fir of Taft in Minneapolis um and I'm here on behalf of the property owners as well as Lake West development to submit that um the substance of the staff report indeed actually supports a preliminary P plat approval as proposed with the included uh variances I say this because if you look at the ordinance mechanics there is indeed alignment between the proposed development and the city's planning and policy goals specifically surrounding the preservation of the Woodland preservation areas high priority trees and significant trees as as well as other natural resources upon the property strict adherence to the city's tree ordinance would cause practical difficulties specifically because of circumstances to this property which are not created by Lake uh Lake development Lake West development um as Miss Thompson gave clear uh and succinct overview of earlier not all the circumstances uh you that are present preventing issues for this property um are created by Lake West specifically the flood plane there are steep slopes the quantity and sign quantity of high priority and significant trees the existence size and location of the Woodland preservation area um which is about 2.72 acres and sits adjacent to the county road um as well as the city's 1995 vacation of burlwood Road rideway um also the henip County's uh comments with regard to the points of access to the property all of which uh collectively create various significant site access uh issues um which are causing uh practical difficulties for the development of this property um I I would submit that uh lak West development has gone through a number of iterations in trying to developed this property responding to the various uh City uh concerns with regard to specific uh variances and other aspects um and this is a very reasonable use um I would also like to submit uh uh for your attention that the Woodland preservation area um Provisions within the code um just talk about area being excluded um and there is a southern spur of the Woodland protection area that is identified I believe on one of the previous uh planning Maps um which shows the uh reduction of the the southern spur bringing the Woodland preservation area below uh or above what is allowed to be excluded I should note or what I'm what I'm noting for the record is that uh notwithstanding the fact that that area is being excluded from the Woodland preservation area the trees not all the trees in that area are actually being removed um and I think there's also a question from our side as to when that area is excluded are the excluded trees that are not being removed being added to the population of both the calculations for the uh highly High significant trees as well as the um high priority trees so staff did acknowledge in their uh in reports that there are are uh issues with respect to this development specifically related to uh limited access the topographical uh characteristics of the of the property um and other resources that are presenting development challenges uh but suggest these are not practical difficulties um because they do not preclude all development of the property uh those attributes though uh need not preclude all property development um to cause practical difficulties the requested exceptions to the tree ordinance by way of the variances requests are and indeed harmony with the general purpose and intent of the tree ordinances and they are also consistent with the city's comprehensive plan the plan if you look at it um is encourages the utilization of protection measures included in the zoning and subdivision ordinances to one preserve Woodland preservation areas two preserve high priority and significant trees and three preserve other areas other natural resource areas on the property as Miss Thompson um indicated earlier uh if the development of this property drops at a density of below one unit per acre the application of the tree the city's tree ordinance becomes inapplicable that is the protections that are currently existing in the ordinance to protect the Woodland protection area uh significant trees as well as high priority trees goes away which means a developer could come in and they can develop the property notwithstanding those regulations uh this site is susceptible to such type of development specifically because of those unique circumstances that I talked about earlier the topographical issues the flood plane issues the access issues all amount to very difficult conditions for which this property can be developed and this development while necessary uh variances are required um would produce a development that actually produces uh or preserves more trees than a development that came in um that that had a larger lot size larger houses lower density but aren't applicable to the city's uh uh tree ordinance I'd also like to highlight that there is a unique provision in the city's tree ordinance that specifically being section 314170 um which in addition to a variance request allows the city council to REM to uh uh allow the removal of protected trees over the prescribed percentage if one um the removal would promote a public good such as providing reasonable access to a property or two the removal of some trees would promote the preservation of important or unique natural features of trees on the property here as I explained earlier uh the approval these variances would indeed um promote the protection of more significant trees characteristics on the property because while the while the uh while the variances are required they are required at this density which would protect uh the uh the lot and of itself from being developed at a much lower dens dense use um where larger Lots larger houses would be uh developed um but the WPA as well as significant trees um and high priority trees would not be protected having reviewed all of the uh planning materials as well as the applications um but I I would also be remiss um to not mention that with respect to the Woodland preservation area mapping uh and certain aspects of the overall tree ordinance calculations um there are a number of conclusions that are drawn from subjective rather than objective criteria uh and those uh drawn conclusions would be arbitrary and capricious um if the council relied up on them today uh specifically the WPA area uh map has changed um those boundaries um are kind of a moving Target um specifically also with the issue that I talked about earlier it's still unclear whether or not that southern spurt area which was removed from the WPA if those trees that are not being physically removed but rather being taken from the WPA area are being added back to the stock of trees um for those calculations of both significant trees as well as the wood or as well as the high priority trees and I do have a couple more comments [Music] um specifically as was talked about today um I think one of the biggest themes is there are practical difficulties there have been a number of development opportunities that have been floated um there have been uh various iterations of plans and plats that have been analyed ized um and there was a comment earlier I Believe by planning staff that you know this one just doesn't check all the boxes um and you know after reviewing all the materials um and after uh reviewing this plan specifically and comparing them to um the the ordinance mechanics as well as the specific characteristics of this property and all the access and topographical issues and tree issues um the projects that would check all those boxes would most likely result in a higher percentage of significant trees WPA and high priority trees being removed from that site so I submit today that uh the development that is in front of you with regard to this plat um if approved with variances would indeed actually conform to not only the city's zoning code because of its priorities but also the city's comprehensive plan which actually puts a great deal of attention on the protection of these trees as well as the topographical nature of this property and I'm willing to stand for any question questions if there are any Council any question any questions can we well I'll tell you what why don't you take a seat we'll call you back if need be but we'll we probably have a few questions for staff thank you so questions for staff if you'd like councelor wurn I mean so many questions but um let let's start with so it was the interpretation correct that the tree ordinance um does not apply if there's one unit per acre or or less yeah mayor and council member willburn the the provision in the code for development densities that would uh essentially avoid compliance with the WPA is a density range where you're at an an unit per acre or less so um that that on the surface is is correct there's always other issues in reviewing a plat but um that's that's that's what the code States about avoiding compliance with WPA okay can you speak to then the the mapping of the WPA and this the southern spur that was mentioned yeah mayor and council member Wilburn uh the WPA is shown in the in the dash line here uh on the map and there's a there was a question that was raised by the applicant about the disconnected uh n of the uh here to a lobe down here uh our our natural resources staff has has reviewed this property many times probably more than almost any other property in the community over the past couple of years so very familiar with the site very familiar with um The Ash in infestation uh anald ashor infestation and then the WPA area so you know based on our review um and based on the grading plan that was provided for this property the staff report uh is we're standing behind the staff report and what is the WPA and what is not the WPA very good other questions council member Foster Bolton so um they mentioned that the that the city gave away um some property to the um in 1995 the vacated property they vacated the property right and so and gave the land to that's what it says in the here but it says that that's what thereby creating access difficulty for Lake West and justifying the tree removal variants and then so I don't know how that fits like is is that is that true too but also like you guys talked about earlier the county um I guess I don't understand how that fits like did did do you know do you even understand my question I do okay I do uh mayor and council member Foster Bolton um the area that was referenced for vacation um is on the adjacent uh neighborhood and that connection is right here so there when the neighborhood was platted there was a right of way that was platted uh through to connect to this property and then after platting and after homes were built the Neighbors on either side of that RightWay um petitioned the city to vacate the right of way and so in a vacation process um the city has to review that it has to determine if it it has uh interests in the right of way uh for the future and the city determined that it did not and so it allowed the vacation request by those two neighbors those two adjacent owners to proceed and then they vacated the so the land was vacated and given back to those property owners that that was that's a request that comes from the neighbors that's not initiated by the city so uh the land was given back to the neighbors um that that that was kind of posed as a practical difficulty um from staff standpoint there are other opportunities to provide access to the property um they're not going to come from the West or from the East anymore those are those have been given up um and they're not going to come from the south either because there's all private property along the South there are access opportunities along the north uh and along the west so again this this this property um is not um landlocked it does have access opportunities I'm Miss heiny mayor if I could just add to that um this property and the owners of this property would have been provided notice of that street vacation and there's nothing in the record to indicate that they objected thank you for that so Council other other questions for staff councilor Calbert thank you mayor um I have two questions uh in the Planning Commission meeting uh one of the Commissioners asked about there's 's this property which is quite large and there's another largest property right across Plymouth Road that is also up for development and the idea came up regarding an environmental review so this was 11 days ago now uh for that meeting but um I just was wondering what uh sort how normal is that is that something that we could do is that something that we do do um what would it take to do it and maybe do it of a piece because we have properties on both sides that have similar um you know heavily forested uh heavily sloped uh you know drainage you know storm water management issues a lot of similar issues and of course Wildlife uh and tree preservation issues mayor and councel um we have had a little bit of um experience in the last few weeks on environmental review and um kind of explaining the different levels of environmental review and neither of uh the projects U council member calfor identified are going to meet any kind of state level review okay they're they're too small uh in land area and the number of Lots in in other factors that would hit a minimum threshold for environmental review as you know we do environmental review all the time here at the city level uh with the codes that we have in place and other um things that we need to follow that are state or federal guidelines like Wetlands uh for example flood plane uh this has um uh features on it that are going to require a lot of environmental review with a project uh like this or another one going forward because it has flood plane it has trees uh there are considerations for slopes uh as well so there's a lot of environmental review that we do that doesn't hit those State thresholds um that we answer questions on all the time to get to uh you know answers for development or you know construction that happens all the time um within the city so um yes the answer is yes so my second my second question has to do with the intent of the one unit per acre and my understanding is that it wasn't to give developers license to mow down the trees just because they could or they wanted to or they had they felt they had some compelling reason to it had to do with the fact that if it's just one house per acre there would be no need to remove an inordinate number of trees that would that would violate the ordinance it just was sort of like don't need to do it because it just wouldn't shouldn't couldn't happen am I understanding the original intent yeah mayor and council member Calbert that's that's accurate the um original tree ordinance in 2008 anticipated you know having to accommodate different scenarios for development and uh one of those scenarios were just larger Lots like exist in some parts of our community that do have quite a few tree resources that would qualify for wpas and you know the the respect that some some of those owners probably have for those trees with or without a WPA so it just acknowledged that um if you're going to have a lot that was that size you probably weren't going to build a house that was was a half an acre large and remove half of the trees on the property um and so that was another just alternative within the ordinance um I that it just made me think of one more one more question one more question okay one just one go ahead coun you um so uh you know I spoke with with Mr Funk this morning I had a chance to speak with M Miss winck earlier today and um you know I've walked this property several times we've had other uh you know developments come through and as I understand it and and you know just having walk the property the general Contours of what's on on the screen right now um seem to you know make some sense because the most developable properties is towards the the back of the the east of the property um and there was some discussion at the Planning Commission about you know it this can be tweaked a little bit there I think they're 85 trees that are needed to be protected to to get to our ordinance and there are a couple of of extra homes are is is by removing a unit or two would we be able to get to tree ordinance here mayor council member Calbert that's a really good question about U if there were less Lots planted less development impact what is the resulting tree um uh savings that that's the question um I think everyone uh during the the Planning Commission meeting every every planning commissioner kind of recognized that there's there's something about this proposal that was really similar to a concept plan from a few years ago that was very close to getting to the tree um ordinance um requirements and um at that time that that developer did not proceed with it this this one has a similar approach where they're developing the the West excuse me the East and the South sides of the site that avoid kind of more of the slopes um still hasn't gotten to the tree issue yet so I think um I think there the Planning Commission was certainly on to you know just take in this and and trying to do something more to preserve more trees and you know get to a more developable um plan thank you all right I've got I've got both Council M Wilber and counc member ra council member W I'll let you go ahead and then I'll do a council member ra um so regarding the the access and and what the county will allow or recommend um so was there is it accurate that the the county wanted the road through the middle going through the WPA um and if so or were there other Alternatives offered and if not is it your opinion that that more trees would be removed going that way than what's being currently proposed mayor and uh council member Wilburn um it's kind of a collision of interests here uh where the county would like the road generally centered in about the middle of the site and that's about where the the intersection of the slopes and the trees occur so they're they're not in a position where they're knowing what our ordinances are or um have a lot of visibility to that so they're just looking at where the where are the best sight lines you know going north and south on Plymouth Road uh for people turning in and out of of a PO potential Road that's the best spot for it from from just that limited view of how to program this the site uh from the city side of it yes that um that may be the more difficult um point to ident to to locate a road because you're going to have to contend with the WPA uh you have to tend contend with slopes um now again if you were developing at a you know a lot per acre or less um that you know maybe that works but there's still other things that are in in play and that's not under consideration tonight so um I think again keeping the focus on what's in front of us is the most important thing um going forward um there's a lot of hypotheticals with a lot of other approaches that have been tried as well and I think that uh let's just we should just focus on where we're at tonight coun ra thank you mayor I think my questions have already been answered asked and answered very good anyone else um I've got a couple I mean this we've all known that this is a challenging site and there have been a few um things that have been thrown out um this notion of one home per acre um how many homes um given the size of this parcel the newly combined parcel with a two cell or the two owners how many if if we said okay we're going to allow one I mean we're going to go with the one home per acre idea concept whatever um how many homes would that be how how large is this parcel and and when we say one per acre does that include property taken out for roads and things like that or does it is it just a gross you know if it's a 10 Acre Site one per acre is 10 and is 10 Lots or do we look at it differently so just give me a sense for this parcel yeah mayor and Council that's a uh a good question uh for uh looking at this WPA interface and you know we're going to look at the I'm going to guess it's it's eight or nine Lots probably it's going to depend on how the Lots lay out uh we're going to take the ultimately the road out of there with the plat because that'll presumably become public road uh could be private road it could factor in actually so there's a little bit of a question about that we don't prefer public or private roads here so we probably are going to want a public road and wouldn't want to require that um but that that's my guess is probably eight or nine Lots okay all right that's helpful then um you know I know staff knows a lot about um designing developments um but that's not your job um but you probably throw out a few ideas along the way and um there are different tools in the toolbox um in terms of trying to get to um something that would um meet or be very close to meeting the requirements that are in our in our tree preservation ordinance and um and some of those tools may be I mean certainly you could have fewer Lots I think that would be one tool um and probably a logical tool um but then there's also the whole thing where we have um rather than develop at R1 we've used PUD to reduce setbacks um and so forth and puds can be allowed I believe according to the law that if there is a public purpose um you can um you can um use a PUD to um um I don't know if it requires the right word or recommend a PUD or allow a PUD um but a PUD could be a tool to that would change setbacks in different places that would preserve trees and um and and change the uh change of proposal so my question is this do you think that there are utilizing some of these other tools would enable a reasonable development of this property in such a way that would comply with our tree ordinance mayor and Council I certainly see see that what I know about this property and the and the couple of years that we've looked at different proposals there there is a path to reasonable development for this property uh the question is the number of lots ultimately to that would result and and result by meeting all of the ordinances that are in place so that is that's the question that we don't have a good answer to could you you could you get there through the Avenue of a planned unit development to reduce some setbacks have some um different types of standards for the project um maybe I think what uh we've seen other developments struggle with on this is is what is the public purpose uh for a site that sits along a county road has a public Trail already along that public road what what is the public benefit that would be um something the city would approve um that that's a that's a more difficult question for a single family uh residential project than it is for a multif family project or a mixed use project so that's that's the proposition um to any developer that's that's helpful the other just kind of observation um I mean trees have value um the city believes they have value Property Owners believe they have value um I think um the representa um the P person speaking the the attorney you know wanted to float the the idea out there that gee if if we do one one uh lot per acre you could end up with no trees well that's only if you're not very smart in my view um I think the the premise that the um tree preservation ordinance is based on is that um if you have acre lots you have a lot of room for trees and I lived in a place one time where I had an acre lot and guess what I had a lot of room for trees I planted a lot and there were a lot there and and so this notion that um we have to be daunted by that concept because we're going to lose all the trees well that's only if uh um if you don't uh if you don't really care what the what the property is worth so I I'm I'm not daunted by that that threat that's not a threat to me um so I think you know as I look at this I think that um well anyway that's that's I'm getting more into comment uh but you know the you know the question is I think there is a path forward that may be different than the path that's in front of us tonight so um we do have residents here who would like to speak if there's no more questions from the council um I will invite people forward there's been a lot of um there's been a lot of conversation I want to keep it brief we haven't done a very good job of that yet tonight but if um if you could kind of share your thoughts and concerns and questions that you'd like to have um answered we'll uh we'll do the best we can absolutely Ashman Patel 2431 Emerald Trail uh minona I'm here today I think I represent the entire neighborhood we have a petition um that's got 28 signatures on it and a couple of the neighbors have gone for the winter so we couldn't get a hold of them and I think after one of my others neighbors wants to say a few words too so I'll be brief as I can firstly we don't oppose development of the lot we do acknowledge that lot is going to be those lots are going to be developed right it's just a question of what fits in with the tree ordinance and what fits in with what's in the community today I think um we're grateful that the tree ordinance is saving us today I'll be honest with you right but um some of the other issues that we think you guys should consider Maybe not now but in the future as this lot gets developed is one there's another development going in across the road from Amy Lane right so so the just that traffic on Amy Lane and Plymouth Road is going to double or triple right there just from the residents um Amy Lane only contains two homes today but those that lane is home to Hopkins school buses manona school buses Blake Breck metr Mobility Amazon UPS so many vehicles come through that lane on a daily basis as well as all the residential traffic um the cuis act that we're talking about opening up that's where all the kids play not just the kids in our neighborhood but the kids from those other three lots come and play basketball there too so it's a great Gathering Place and it would just be a shame to lose it um just going to say a couple of more things here real quick um there's also some existing water issues that are detailed in our uh petition where you know we're we're wondering if those water issues are going to get worse over time as new development comes in and nobody's really addressed that um Jane's going to talk about the traffic study so I won't say anything about that um you know staff mentioned earlier you know 30 40 years ago the intent was to open up Emerald Trail right but time has passed people have progressed and we've created a really thriving community that we believe you know deserves to be preserved it's fabulous everybody knows everybody if somebody leaves their garage door open you get a text or an email or you know go close it for me it's it's a really nice Community um I know they had a really nice lawyer here today uh coming to talk about you know their perspective we thought about getting a lawyer too but then we thought let's see if the process will work for us first right so we went to the Planning Commission the Planning Commission um supported the tree ordinance and we hope today that the council will take the same position that's all and and you know Lake West again we're not saying you shouldn't develop we're just saying you know do it in a way that preserves our culter Sac that's all thank you thank you Mr Patel um s anyone else welcome good evening sorry I had to sit around so long thank you mayor and councel and City staff Lake West development my name is Jan palansky and I live at 2452 Emerald Trail and I would like to just discuss a couple of things one is uh as Ash me mentioned uh there has been no traffic study uh we have a lot of concern regarding our kids playing on the culdesac um biking walking uh there are no sidewalks and we have a lot of foot traffic bicycle traffic skateboarders people walking their dogs and so we are very concerned about Emerald Trail being continued uh through to the new development there's a lot of controversy regarding the County's position on access to Emerald uh access to this new development via Plymouth Road and we think that needs to be clarified because there have been multiple propositions regarding that and um we feel a traffic study needs to be done to assess uh accessibility and mitigating The increased traffic that's going to happen at the intersection of Plymouth Road and Amy Lane both with the current uh neighborhood that is there existing it's very difficult already to access Plymouth Road making a left or right turn but in particular a left turn out of the neighborhood because there is a hill coming from the uh from the north coming south uh that makes it very difficult to see traffic as it is currently um if a development for Wood Haven is going in across Amy Lane that's going to increase the pressure and I noticed that there was an email from Ashley Mel the County Planning person to Susan Thomas that got put in the packet from the Planning Commission agenda packet and she to quote her said regarding the consideration of access to Amy Lane we know that site distance is tricky at this location as well we are seeing a lot of potential additional pressure on this intersection of Plymouth Road and Amy lane from this proposal as well as the development on the west side of Plymouth Road if an approved proposal for this site includes access to Amy Lane city and county staff may need to discuss options to add turn Lanes now I know one of the the objections was a turn lane onto the northern access of this new development but you're not getting out of the issue of turn Lanes uh if you have access at Amy Lane so there's been significantly more development since the 1990 proposal to put Emerald Trail extended into this new development uh which has increased the pressure and mayor you mentioned that um earlier that if it's important enough you need to measure it and so I conducted my own informal traffic study uh on January 23rd 24 uh 1 hour 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. just to measure what the traffic load was just the volume and there were three 359 cars that went Northbound at the intersection of Amy Lane and Plymouth Road and southbound traffic through that intersection was 422 cars there were there was one bus stop that occurred at 4:30 and that caused a 10 car backup on that road and there were four vehicles that entered our neighborhood at Amy Lane to access Emerald Trail and five cars that went out of it um traffic studies are really important important in terms of not only the volume of cars going through that intersection in particular that's going to be increased with the two developments both Emerald Estates and Wood Haven but it's also about speed and safety um a radar speed study would be important to uh to assess what cars are actually traveling at it's a 35 M hour speed limit posted on Plymouth Road but people go much faster that than that 40 to 45 miles per hour and so that would be important to study as well as the sight lines for that intersection um this development plus the proposed Development Across The Street are going to be very tricky as mentioned by Ashley Mel in her email um that may create a very dangerous situation if both of those developments feed onto that one intersection and so uh there has been no traffic consultant as part part of this development um and so I would hope to suggest uh that there would be a traffic study a more formal traffic study to assess the safety of this intersection um and regarding the trees uh that's one of the main reasons we moved to minetonka we love we love the trees our whole backyard is a conservation easement area both for tree preservation as well as flood mitigation we have a retention pond and a drainage site that goes through our neighbor through our backyard and we love the trees that's so important to us to to preserve them we also do solar uh and we're one of those homes that's in that in that count from last year and despite that um I Would S I would ask everyone to consider ultimately we preserve our trees we value our trees but we also value our children and citizens of min in ataka and we're very concerned about the safety of emerald Trail um for both children that use uh it to playay and ride their bikes as well as access of us adults uh and teenage drivers driving through Emerald Trail to Amy Lane and accessing uh accessing Plymouth Road so in in summary I would hope and suggest a traffic a more formal traffic study to look at volume speed sight line um and to uh assess accessibility on the county road to this development to help mitigate the traffic pressures at that intersection so thank you thank you miss pansky all right is we we don't applaud so um are there any other comments are we good all right um well I'll bring it I'll bring it back to the would you I sure you may yes briefly yes thank you would it be possible to put the presentation back onto the screen just briefly I just wanted to clarify a couple points if that's okay thank you um so I just think that there might have been a question I forgot who asked it but about the southern spur and about the WPA area yes so this was the wp area outlined in the black dotted line and highlighted in that tan color when we came forth with this proposal on the screen um that later was redefined I think the week of our Planning Commission meeting we got a note from staff that this area was redefined um and so what that did was it juts in a little bit and creates a skinnier portion of the WPA area I'll use the cursor to show you this area I don't have the grading plan unfortunately on this presentation to show you but what um I think was being referred to about the southern spur is even though we're not removing um a portion of these trees City staff was calculating this entire Southern spur as being disturbed as a part of the WPA area because calculating trees within the WPA area is based off of like actual area calculation not the trees if that's if you're following this so I think what was being mentioned was that this they're counting this whole leg as removal of the WPA area but we weren't proposing we're not proposing to remove all of these trees so then would those trees go back into the calculations of high priority and significant trees outside of the WPA area so just wanted to address that um I I don't remember who asked the question but um there goes CER Wilburn yeah yeah okay so so that's where um Mr Niblick was explaining about the trees then would go into savings versus just being counted as removal um another point I just wanted to quickly touch on so just a reminder that yes we're reviewing an application tonight that involves all four of these Parcels all 11 and 1/2 acres of the this site but you know originally when we came forth with our concept review you know we only had um control over the two Parcels The Duda Parcels um that was the issue with the access being vacated the Burwood Road access which is why we acquired the parcels to the north was really we were buying access to use either Woodbridge Trail or Emerald Trail so that comes at a cost right um so if we were to go down to a lot count of like let's just say like 11 or or 12 or whatever it is it doesn't really make sense to buy those Northern properties to gain access when we can come in off a Plymouth Road through the middle of the WPA area decreasing in density um and just going to bigger lots that doesn't that allows us to go into the WPA area since we wouldn't need to um follow the tree the tree ordinance would not apply does that make sense are you following kind of that rationale um so that's how that kind of appes there um do you have any other questions for me I felt like staff was kind of taking a lot of the questions from from you all um and I just while I'm up here does Lake West own all of these properties um all the properties are under control of Lake West but not own doesn't own so none of them have been purchased correct okay I mean that's an important clarification because right now it's you you've got you've got rights to them but you don't own them at this juncture yeah okay very good that's a good clarification um Council any any last questions otherwise I yeah coun Wilburn you're going to be tired when you get on your plane so I am but that's you know that's that's comes with a territory um the the okay the trth that confused me what she just said so can you tell me like how how are the are the trees counted when we're when we're doing the tree inventory and talking about which trees are are affected and will be removed yeah M Mr Gordon thank you mayor council member Wilburn the the tree ordinance requires uh under the WPA that the WPA be contiguous and connected and so the disconnection of that creates you know not WPA area that still doesn't remove the the trees that are in that former area from tree counts those are always there so um again our natural resources staff has reviewed this we're sticking by our staff report and the numbers that are contained within it absent any absent um that WPA discussion there's still a high priority in significant tree uh exceedence for the subdivision right so to be sure I understand correctly so anything that's inside the dotted black line is considered WPA and so the amount of trees allowed to be removed fall under the WPA and then anything outside of that not WPA but you still count the trees yeah there's I mean the the trees um there's an area standard for the WPA and then there's a tree count that applies excuse me broadly to the site that's both in and outside of WPA I think just I that's what I was going to say um Lauren that you can't um look at them in isolation you have to look at the acreage of the WPA and you have to look at the total loss of trees on the site and they're not synonymous right so if you look at the if you can pull the chart that you had before um at yeah the staff presentation again this is the chart for compliance with the ordinance and I just I think the way the applicant is describing is a little confusing so this is what I would use to make your decision C melee did you have a question or a comment or question I think I think just confirm I think you answered it so you know just because the area because of the cut off the separation that's why the area was decreased because it has to be contiguous but the trees in that non-contiguous spur are still counted in the overall got it thank you very good call anything else any any did you have any other last comment I don't think I have any last comment yeah than thank you well I'll bring it I think we'll bring it back to the council um we have a we have a decision to make um well I have let's see um yeah well let's let's start our comments also I want to say that um we're missing one council member tonight and um council member sha um it pains her to not be here because this um this property is in her Ward and she had a long planned um family vacation that takes her to a place somewhat warmer than minaka even this year and um and so she wrote she wrote an email to um to uh Mike and me um and I thought I would share that because she wants her views represented so I'm just going to read it without uh without commentary so she wrote I I watched the Planning Commission meeting and reviewed the packet I want to thank the neighbors for their engagement in this process and their thoughtful comments at the Planning Commission meeting and through the concept plan process their input has been helpful and in many ways made the proposed project better I appreciate some of the changes and adjustments the applicant made since December when the project was previously scheduled before the Planning Commission while I would prefer a project with access from Plymouth Road that issue really isn't before the council tonight and has not factored into my feedback I fully support the staff's recommendation to deny the application nothing I heard at the Planning Commission or reviewed in the packet provides me with a compelling reason to suggest that this Council should prove tree ordinance variances this significant I would not vote in favor of this project I also want to mention that I am extremely disappointed by the applicant's threat of a different project that would decimate the WPA suggesting that making this presentation was simply an attempt at full transparency feels disingenuous while of course I worry about the prospect of destroying the WPA we should not be threatened by that Prospect into proving a different project that still requires major variances this is really a disappointing approach particularly from a developer committed to the continued development in motanka it would behoove the developer to review the history of City surveys and get renewed understanding of what a valuable resource and amenity trees are to our current and future residents thank you Rebecca so I share that from council member Shaq so and perhaps that's a good way to um tee off our any comments that we have um council member Calbert thank you uh mayor um I Echo everything that my colleague council member sha said I too uh appreciate the engagement by The Neighborhood it did make it better um I appreciated the work uh you know to make this project better and and it doesn't go unnoticed by me that this is a diff you know the the larger properties in minaton that remain are the properties that are hard to develop and that there are difficulties but there are not insurmountable difficulties and I also want to acknowledge that I you know having been on the Planning Commission and uh for several years and now the city council for six years they don't make recommendations to deny lightly so um they don't re relish it and neither do I um but I agree with everything that council member Shaq said and um uh I was so shocked at the tenor of some of the comments made to the Planning Commission by the developer um that that basically did sound like a threat and I actually had a conversation with the daughter of the previous owner and um Mr fream many many months ago where um you know that kind of uh kind of my way or the highway you'll you know we can just take out the trees if we you know do this it just doesn't it just doesn't make me feel uh inclined um to you know look past things that might make me uncomfortable I too wish we could have you know different access that is not what we're voting on and you know I actually think over time um we have uh communicative brilliant creative hardworking staff I think access issues will be um addressed I really appreciate the comments about traffic I I'm on Plymouth Road all the time I'm very familiar with that general area and the the um access issues the safety issues and I agree that you know making sure that we're keeping pedestrians cyclists and um people in cars safe is very important um as regards the comment about loss of a ride of way you know decades ago um that's a decision that was made at another time by other staff and other council members and I am not about to exacerbate um issues um that were made by other uh you know in another era and um I just you know as regard there are many challenges here uh this is really close I think I think we could get to uh an approval with some changes I don't think it's I don't think it's this kind of binary choice that we were given tonight of you know mowing down all the trees and having eight homes or having exactly this proposal and um so uh I think it's clear that I am um you know I think you've met a lot of a lot of the you removed a lot of the variances and I really appreciate the hard work that it took to get there and I was so hot really upset about the tenor of these comments about you know we could just do this which one of the Commissioners referred to as the nuclear option just really takes me AB back um that it was hard for me to even acknowledge that yeah they they really worked hard and you know uh the setbacks the flood plane um and uh the lot areas and so on and so forth so I appreciate the good work that went into that and I'm a big enough person to acknowledge that but it was really hard for me to say that tonight because the rest of it just really bothered me and it's not the first time Mr fram's come before this body several times asking uh uh to to cut down trees with no you know on on a on Speck homes basically so that they could better Envision what the property would look like without trees and again you know we we have these ordinances because they reflect the values of the people in the community and trees are among the highest value uh uh qualities um Treeline streets is what people want and um the dud toas were blessed to live on this property for a long long time surrounded by nature and um you know I I am in favor of development but sensible development that meets our ordinances so that it reflects the values of our community so it's a no for me tonight con Wilburn um so I I concur with my colleagues I'm not going to spend a lot of time on on my reaction to the threatening language but um could we go back to the slide on practical difficulty um so there there seems to be a a disagreement on on what constitute practic practical difficulties obviously the staff is has stated that there is not a practical difficulty developer feels that there is um there's no question that this is a difficult property otherwise it would have already been developed um and you know that it's always been a difficult property but and you know when when when the points were being made I was thinking well yes that that's true that that is difficulty that is difficult it is not the fault of the landowner that you know some of the topography and and um challenging is however if if just having I mean having your property be you need every property is different so every property would meet the Practical difficulty requirement if that was all it took so again you know I I'm I haven't been a council member that long this is my third year so I haven't had as much experience as as as uh some of my colleagues but I'm I'm I'm trusting staff on this one when they when they say that no this doesn't count as uh as practical difficulty thank you councilor wurn anyone else councelor R uh yes I'll Echo all the comments uh made thus far I am also even newer uh one month instead of three years and I do uh uh look to staff and also the Planning Commission and making these decisions however at the same time not having had the history and such before um I do hope the developer will think carefully and you know come back with a something that comes closer you know gets us to the tree ordinance I'd hate to see you know that land get redeveloped and and have the the trees taken away because of Any you know issues here uh tonight or in general so I would just encourage um the developer if you go ahead and decide to pursue this further um you know to do something that is more in accordance and brings you closer I understand that you know obviously you need to make some sort of profit um but you know I would ask you to to go back to the drawing board in good faith with with us and work with staff and try to come up with something that helps get us closer H or meet the the tree ordinance needs meets your needs um and is also smart and responsible development and Redevelopment for Minot Tonka thanks but I will be voting uh to deny very good so any other comments all right well in the interest of time we'll we'll keep U moving forward um Ju Just a just a couple of comments um you know this piece of property um it looks like we're going to deny this tonight um this property is not going to go away um and uh Lake West development is not going to go away and um you know I I was I found that the the talk about the easement excuse me got that happened in 1995 and I remember the night we passed our latest tree ordinance I made the comment well we just made development more expensive in minona and we did we did I mean the tree ordinance is not an insignificant um impediment to um get over for a developer but it is clearly reflective of Community Values we have a 58% tree canopy in minaka because which is the highest in the Metro because people value trees and trees are important to the identity um the natural environment is talked about in what we talked about earlier tonight in terms of our core values and our strategic plan so um the tree ordinance is a meaningful hurdle but it is not a wall that cannot be overcome and um you know had you know the talk about the easement vacation in 1995 if we were if we were building if we were developing based upon 1995 rules well it would already be developed yeah so 1995 is in the past and it's not really relevant what's relevant is the the laws that we as a council are required to uphold and that's our tree ordinance now that doesn't mean we never allow variances and we never um um uh ignore or or we always ignore the challenges facing a property we ra we understand practical difficulties but we also know that we have objective criteria that we as a council value and so I too am going to support the staff recommendation I think it's valid I think there is a path forward and it it may the path forward may be one one uh unit per acre and if it is I'm pretty confident that they're not going to turn it into um into a guard with no trees I'm pretty confident that's not going to happen I am not daunted I'm that may have been a threat it wasn't a threat to me because trees are valued in our community so if we end up with a development that is one one um home per acre so be it um but I think there's other paths and I think through creativity um staff and the developer can come with will develop a different concept going forward but I will admit that we're talking dollars and cents um um the developer doesn't own this property he has an interest in it chances are the seller will get less with less density chances are because I think that's the way the economics work um so by denying this tonight we're probably taking money out of the property owner's pocket um but our job is not to maximize the value of a property owners or or make a developers uh numbers our job is to protect the values of our community so I'm going to vote no um I I don't think this is the last we've heard of this tonight but I think we also have to understand what exactly is happening here when we when we deny this proposal so those are my comments if someone would like to make a a motion Council M Calbert thank you mayor I'd like to make the motion to approve um the resolution Den in the preliminary plat of Emerald Estates with flood plane alteration permit entry removal variances is there a second council member Foster Bolton I second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member Foster Bolton Miz England Please call Ro Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries item 15 is appointments and reappointments and 15a is an economic development advisory commission edac chair and vice chair appointments and Mr funk I believe you've taken that report yeah excuse me thank you mayor councel uh real quick for this evening's last agenda item uh resolution 2010- 15 states that the chair and vice chair of the edac will be appointed by the mayor annually with confirmation by the council and for tonight's purposes uh staff is recommending Lee Jacobson as the chair and an didinsky sabuka as the vice chair of the edac so with that mayor and Council I know it's a very short report uh we do need your motion to appoint our chair and vice chair of the edac and what we're looking for is a motion to appoint those two individuals Council m w I move that we appoint the two individuals listed by our city manager thank you and councilor R I'll second that motion okay we've got a motion by council member Wilburn and a second by council member r m England Please call roll Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries final item on the agenda is adjournment um is there a motion council member Wilburn I move that we adjourn is there a second coun council member Calbert so we've got a motion by council member Wilburn a second by council member um Calbert um Miss Ang no all in favor say I I we jurant you're getting in a [Music] [Music] plane [Music]