All right, everybody. We're going to go ahead and call to order the regular meeting of the Oakdale City Council, December 9th, 2025. Sarah, will you please take the role? >> Council member Moore, >> here. >> Council member Morham, >> here. >> Council member Severson, >> here. >> Council member Rich >> here. >> Mayor Zabel >> here. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All righty, last meeting of the year. We ready to get rolling? All right, let's start up. Start off with approval agenda. We have a slightly amended version in front of us tonight. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as amended? >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? And the agenda is adopted. First up tonight is our annual truth and taxation public hearing. This is an opportunity for the public uh to hear uh a brief run through of um our city's uh current tax status, our proposed budget for 2026 um as well as an opportunity to ask questions. So we will begin with a um with a presentation from our finance director, Ivonne Steppenoff, and then we will open the public hearing for comments from the audience. Ivonne, welcome. Please kick things off. >> Thank you, mayor. Uh first of all, thank you for letting me run. run through this presentation. Um I I hope we can put it on the screen already. Um and I wish I could tell you it's five slides or 10 slides, but it's about 40. >> It never is that short. >> Good. Good thing is um it is very similar to last year's. So hopefully you're familiar a bit. [clears throat] So here you go. Let me just give you a quick intro of what it is about. So per Minnesota statutes, cities with a population over 500 are required to hold a public meeting to discuss the budget and levy. The goal of the truth and taxation meeting is to enhance transparency and public engagement regarding property taxes. This truth and taxation meeting follows the approval of the uh proposed tax levy, which for Oakgdale was at the September 9th city council meeting at 7%. [clears throat] Increase from 2025. Uh oh, no, I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. uh increased from 2025 and was used to generate the proposed tax statements that were delivered to taxpayers. The proposed levy one set can only decrease. So the levy has since decreased uh from 7% to 6.2%. Uh for this presentation and for council's consideration, I encourage the public to go online for more details about this PowerPoint, the digital digital uh budget book or contact finance department. Right. So finalized in November of 2024 uh by city council to be incorporated immediately and going forward. The city of Ogdell's strategic plan starts with the mission to provide highquality, reliable services and foster a safe, clean and welcoming community. The city has identified three strategic directions. Please go to oakgalemn.gov for full details and the strategic plan document. Here are some common property tax terms and I'd just like to highlight four of them. Market value is the value determined by the Washington County assessors and what it is is a usual selling price at the time of the assessment. Market value exclusion refers to homestead market value exclusion. Um and the exclusion is based on a formula to reduce the taxable market value of qualifying homestead properties. Pay value signifies the property values used on the proposed and final tax statements. 26 values are based on 25 assessors report from the county Washington County. Median value residential property is a commonly used sample property for property taxes and their effects. Due to the nature of the property value data having outlier values with many small and large valued parcels, the median value is considered a stronger representation rather than average mean or average. So this value is included in the Washington County assessor report. Here is the general proposed tax timeline and for city of Oakdale proposed preliminary levy was set on September 9th. There are many reasons outside of local tax jurisdictions authority that influence property taxes including fluctuations in market values, changes in non-levy revenue sources, levies at other jurisdictions, and changes in state and federal mandates. Here are proposed levy and assessment highlights and I will go through this data points throughout the presentation. So I'm not going to read each one of them. It's on the slide for the sake of for this meeting. However, what I would like to highlight is that estimated city tax rate and the estimated median residential property value are calculations used um using the Washington County tax impact worksheet. We can always come back if you need to highlight any specific data points. So, 2026 budget highlights are also on the slide. I'm very happy to go through each one of them. Uh however, in general, budgeted investments include publica um investments in public safety, facilities equipment trails open spaces, and parks, and support for our growing city. And that translates into um either staff or infrastructure or equipment. All right. So, the assessment of properties is valued at market value. In other words, which is the most likely selling price in the market? Uh, Washington County provides the assessing services. This table summarizes Ogdell's value by property type per the Washington county's assessors report. Total value noted in the second column from the right is 4.3 billion. These are total values. Just a reminder, pay 2026 value was defined earlier. This is the value that's based on the 2025 assessors report. So this represents a 3.8% increase from the prior year. New construction accounted for an increase of close to 152 million and existing property increased 10 million with residential type class driving the increase. Here is a comparison of Oakgdale to Washington County and the comparison of the market value by property type. county has a higher concentration of residential and agricultural value while Ogdale has apartments and commercial industrial properties. This is another comparison this time of Ogdale 2026 values versus 2025. There have been only minor changes in this composition. This information is pulled from the assessor's report showing the percentage change in residential parcels by 5% increments. There are approximately 9,900 residential parcels in Ogdale. This is a similar graph to the prior slide, but this includes Washington County as well. Ogdale is in blue and has very similar results to Washington County in gray. This is a line graph trend of the median value residential property from 2008 to u to 2026 and it went from $222,900 to $346,200. Here's a comparison of the change in the median value of residential property from 2025 taxes to 2026 with other major uh Washington County cities. Overall, the market seems to be on the rise in contrast to the previous year's decline. This is a heat map on the percentage change in the value of the median value residential property for 10 of the larger cities in Washington County. Oakgdale is towards the middle in bold. Most recent three years um showing if you look um towards the right side of the slide, you will see 9% increase from 22 to 23, 1.6% 6% decrease from 23 to 24 and previous years increase of 1.5%. This is another heat map. This time shows the last 10 years of changes in residential parcel counts. Oakgdale in bold is in the middle again. This shows the values incre uh the um that the increase in value seen sorry this shows that the value increase seen on the previous slide were primarily due to current housing stock. Even though uh we had new construction specifically uh Willowbrook development and associated lot splits, Washington County assesses data um is a year behind year or so behind the actual data. So this is something of note. Here we have a comparison with the larger Washington County cities and the proposed taxes on the median valued residential property. Oakgdale is second from the bottom and it is in green with the increase in value for the median property of 0.8% and the 6.2 levy increase. City taxes are estimated to be 1,393,000. No city taxes compare well with others. Um we will dive into this a little bit into the data a little bit further down the presentation. Um, and I just want to highlight that these amounts are proposed just like our levy decreasing from 7% to 6.2%. Uh, and they may change. All right. Next section. So, levy components for Ogdell. Let me speak about them uh them in detail. General levy uh is approx is approximately 6.7 million with a 10% 10.3% increase from the prior year. The levy supports the general fund which is the city's operating fund. It includes the city's admin, public safety, public works and recreation programming. Capital levy which is approximately 1.6 million with an 18.3% decrease from the prior year. This levy supports the capital improvement plan and allows the city to issue less debt, including the elimination of equipment certificates, saving the city money on interest and debt issuance costs. This portion directly flows into the capital improvement plan 2026 2030 CIP debt levy approximately 2 million with a slight decrease of 0.6% from the prior year. Uh this levy is for payments on the city's general obligation bonds which have decreased each of the last five years as a result of long-term planning budgeted general fund revenues and not to be confused with the levy increase of 6.2% just the numbers are very similar the overall general fund revenues have increased 6.6%. The top number advalorum taxes includes the proposed property tax levy of 16.7 million. I would like to highlight the major changes. Uh there's a decrease in permits due to anticipated development trends in 26. Increase in intergovernmental uh categories is due to increase in police and fire state aid and decrease in other financing sources primarily due to less um use of fund balance. We have a balanced budget, so expenses are also up 6.6%. Expenditures, I'm sorry. Prim uh primary increases due to personnel costs including um police behavior, health officer, HR assistant. Okay, so capital improvement plan levy. Um let me just read the top bullet point. The city annually prepares a 5% uh a 5-year capital improvement plan and 10-year vehicle and equipment replacement plan. Collectively they are the CIP capital improvement plan. Uh there are various types of sources that are used um throughout the CIP. Uh they're included in the in the bullet points. Vehicle and equipment is the largest portion of the levy. As mentioned previously, this decrease uh of um on the table of 6.3%. is due to replacing equipment certificates, debt, and foregoing the interest and debt issuance cost on vehicle and equipment purchases. The other three components are street improvement at 95,000, park capital at 395,000, and municipal building 70,000. The percentage change is in the last column for for each one of these capital improvement plan highlights. So we have over 89 million in capital expenditures planned for 2026. Significant projects are police building and city hall renovation, annual street reconstruction and overlay, police interceptors, park maintenance, mowers and utilities back home, drinking water settlement, sewer connections and plant expansions. It is hard to see the numbers on this pie chart. Uh let me know if you would like to uh speak or if you would like to know any specific number. I'm happy to highlight them. The debt levy is just over 2 million. It is at its lowest level since 2017. It is shown in this bar graph. Slight decrease from previous years uh last two years but still that's the lowest point we have been at. Um council continues to take action reducing that levy through long-term planning and that is the reason for for this. Equipment certificates are no longer issued as mentioned previously when I talked about BERF. Um along with looking um to other sources of revenue such as the local sales tax for the public works and police building projects to keep this as low as possible. Here's a sample city tax calculation slide based on the levy along with the updated median residential value. This is the city tax calculation which is a sample for the median value residential property comparing 25 and 26 25 actuals final numbers and and 26 estimated numbers with a 6.2% levy increase. It is estimated that taxes will be $1,393 which you can see on the bottom right. Um it represents um an increase of $36 or 2.7% which equates to about $3 additional per month. Again, it's a sample. Taking the estimated annual tax of $1,393 over 12 months translates into $116 per month. and debt, $116 per month, is allocated across the general fund. Capital improvements and debt service, including $33 for police, 19 for public works, uh 11 for debt service, and nine for capital projects. Okay. Next, I'll take you through the truth and taxation statement. These notices were delivered in November to each taxpayer. The notices include parcel specific proposed taxes by jurisdiction. An example is included on the right of this slide right here. We'll I'll go through each section in the following slides. So the top right of the uh top right of the property tax statement here we see um the so the top line is the estimated market value of this property. This market value is reduced for any exclusions or deferrals including the homestead exclusion. After exclusions or deferrals, we have the taxable market value. The class rate determined by state state state statutes is applied. The class in this example is residential homestead. Um this brings us to the property's tax capacity after you reduce it by that that class. Residential homestead for the sake of this example uh is at a class rate 1% and it is up to $500,000 of the value. This example closely mimics the median value of residential property we have been using in our examples earlier. The body of the tax statement um shows the TN so so of the TNT notice shows the proposed taxes for each jurisdiction. These levies can be reduced but not increased prior to final approval. Here you will also see contact info, meeting location, date and time. Ogdale is the third box or or second box of the content. On the back of the proposed tax notices, uh we see supplemental information for the county, cities, and school districts in the county, which is presented with the certified levy for the current year, which is 25, proposed 26, and the percentage change. Ogdale is about I have an arrow there one halfway down the uh the document and it includes the proposed amounts which was 7%. And has since been decreased to 6.2%. But those proposed taxes for the county school district and other districts. Here we have the split of um of where each dollar of taxes paid goes. If you look at the split, you'll see 40 about 40% to the school districts, 35% to the city, about 20% to the county, and the remaining 5% split amongst um various jurisdictions. Okay. Property tax relief programs. There are two primary relief programs, regular property tax refund and the special property tax refund. They are filed with personal taxes and there are a number of qualifying factors for each one of them. At this point, I just want to say please consult the state website listed here on the website um on the slide for more information. Senior citizen property tax deferral program is a state of Minnesota program. Again, there are certain qualifying factors to meet the program. Please consult the state website listed for further details. All right, so this is the last slide. Didn't feel like 40 slides. [laughter] Time flies when you're having fun, >> right? Uh so these are the action items for today. Let me just read through them. Uh we conduct our truth and taxation meeting, which we're doing. We're going to allow for public input and comments. And we will also consider resolutions that are in front of the council uh 2026 property levy uh and general fund, capital projects fund, debt service fund, and enterprise funds budgets. Uh CIP improvement plan and authorizing fiscal year 26 projects. The last uh bullet point right there is the link to the city's digital budget book. The city's budget is completely online and includes in-depth details for each department within the general fund, debt service information, and the capital improvement plan. Please visit uh please [clears throat] visit and if any questions, feel free to contact finance department. With that, I will turn it over to the mayor uh to continue the public hearing. >> Thank you, Avon. Um before I go ahead and open the public hearing, I just want to offer all of our thanks uh to you, to the finance team, to all of our staff. Um you know, we we say it frequently throughout the year. We start this process April, May every year. Um and that that's us. You know, our staff has already been working on that for a number of months already. And um our budgets are complex. Um but at the core of it all is um our residents hard-earned uh dollars, property tax dollars. And so we take our our role very seriously in making sure that um all of the property tax levy collected is is going to core essential services. Um so I want to say a very big thank you to all of our staff who have helped us through this process every year. It is a herculean lift. Um but it's also such an enlightening um process because we get to see all of the amazing work that's being done behind the scenes and what it takes in terms of resources to make sure that work happens. So, um, I want to be sure we we thank our staff for that. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. This is an opportunity for anybody in the audience that wants to, uh, share thoughts or ask questions. Um, please feel free to do so. Um, few ground rules. Please step up to the podium, state your name and address of the record. Um, if there is a question, um, our finance director or our city administrator will do their best to try and answer it on the fly, but it's entirely possible they will need to follow up with you. So, um, in that event, we'll have our our city clerk reach out for contact information and we will get you an answer. Um, otherwise, council is always available, um, anytime outside of this meeting. If you have questions about our city's budget or finances, we are here and available to answer those questions as well. So, if there's anybody joining us tonight that would like to share comments or ask questions, please feel free to step up to the podium. As I mentioned, state your name and address for the record and proceed with your comments. Oh, come on. This is good stuff. No. [laughter] Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back for council consideration. We don't have any action item related to truth and taxation. So, we'll just go into the budget levy and CIP adoption. Is there any additional presentation for those items or do we roll right into action? >> Okay. Uh, council members, who would like to make the first motion for item A? I move we wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-110 adopting the 2026 property tax levy in 2026 general fund special revenue fund debt service fund capital project fund and enterprise fund budgets >> uh there's a motion is there a second >> second motion and a second uh final comments u I'll just add one regarding the pro property tax levy Ivonne covered this um so the statements everybody gets in the mail is the preliminary levy that we set back in September Oakdale's was 7% %. We're very proud that we were able to whittle that down to 6.2%. Um, making some hard decisions. Um, but some specific things I want to call out in that presentation. We are so incredibly proud of our um, debt level as a city decreasing for the sixth year in a row. Um, being at the lowest point since 2017. This was a conscious effort that or a conscious commitment that we made as a council a number of years ago to no longer put things like city vehicles and equipment on the credit card. and we're seeing the dividends be paid every single year by our debt continuing to go down, which is very exciting. Um, at the same time though, that does mean we have to increase the property tax levy to offset that to continue purchasing those vehicles, but we are avoiding a lot of debt, which is or a lot of interest in our city. Um, which has allowed us to um remain more steady than some of our surrounding neighbors, which we're very proud of. You know, there are a lot of cities, if you look at the the back of your property tax statement, that were in double-digit levy increases this year. Thankfully, Oakdale had didn't didn't have to be anywhere near that. We're very proud of that because of those steps we've taken over numerous years to help us weather some of those fluctuations in the market and in property values. So, um we've created a good installation for our city budget and our more importantly, our city taxpayers, and we see that um in our budget this year. So, we should all be very proud of that. >> Yeah. I could add to that. >> Thank you. Yeah. And and to that same effect, right, we here on the council, we all live in town. We got the same truth in taxation in the mail. First thing you do is you flip to the back and say, "What is every city doing?" And I was looking at it and every city in Washington County with over 10,000 population [snorts] just has a larger staff to provide services by nature. Uh I was really proud to see that the hard work that we did here in the council, we were the second lowest in all of Washington County in terms of the tax level we put forward. And the truth is is healthc care costs have gone up significantly in staff. Um there's a lot that goes into it, but it really means that the staff here um put the interests of the residents first to provide the best services they could without doing anything that's going to uh make it difficult for residents knowing that it's a time right now where people are struggling financially. So really proud of the work the city staff did and the city council. So I'm glad we're doing what we're doing. You know, I also want to call out one big change that's um coming next year in terms of our city services, the roll out of behavioral health and mental health supports um through our police department. Every single year um we see the the calls for service for mental and behavioral health um issues continue to climb and they're off the charts. through a a a tested and true partnership with Washington County. We are so excited to bring that service to Oakdale um to address those needs in our community in a way that we've never done before. So, you know, it requires an investment. Um we are we are excited to address those needs, those very real needs that exist in our community through a proven model that has been um replicated throughout Washington County and the entire east metro. Um, so when we do look at staffing additions in our community, that is one area that as a council we felt was incredibly important for us to take that that that large step and begin rolling out that service for for our residents. And that is reflected in our 26th budget. >> Mhm. >> Any other comments? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And resolution 2025-110 adopting the property tax levy and the associated funds is approved. Uh one more item. I move we wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-109 approving the 2026 to 2020 or 2030 capital improvement plan and authorizing fiscal year 2026 projects, vehicles, and equipment. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Final comments. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. opposed and the 2026 CIP and verf and everything else are approved as presented. Uh let's move into approval of minutes. Two sets in front of us. First up, workshop meeting minutes November 25th, 2025. Council members, any changes or corrections on this set of minutes? Seeing none, I'll look for a motion. >> So moved. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And the workshop minutes from November 25th, 2025 are adopted. Uh, regular meeting minutes November 25th, 2025. Any changes or corrections to these? I'll look for a motion. So, move. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And those minutes are adopted as well. [sighs and gasps] >> Oh, back into public hearings. We got We got three of them in front of us tonight. Uh, let's start right at the top. uh a proposal for Oakdale garage garage lofts live work units um involving resoning a conditional use permit prelim plat final plat site plan and a highway noise variance we got it all in there >> Luke welcome will you please walk us through this agenda item >> yes thank you mayor and councel so uh the location of this request it's 6138 highway 36 Boulevard north so it's located east of eastgate apartments so this site does have frontage off u upper 51st street. The site itself is about 2 and 12 acres and there are some trees on the property. Uh the developer is requesting several approvals to enable the development of 12 live work units. And the definition of a live work unit is that it is a dwelling unit in combination with a shop, office, studio or related workspace within the same unit where the resident occupant both lives and works. So it's both it's a hybrid um a residential dwelling unit and a commercial element as well. So there are five land use approvals for this request. Uh resoning, conditional use permit, preliminary plat, final plat, and site plan. And there's also a highway noise variance because the site is adjacent to Highway 36. So uh you may recall back on July 8th of this year, the city council approved a comprehensive plan amendment to reguide this area, the what we call the the Glen Brook area or a portion of it to uh from um reguide it from commercial to mixed use consistent with the adopted Glenbrook small area plan. So that was a neighborhood plan that was completed by the city a few years back. So the mixed use category allows both commercial and residential uses. The zoning of this uh particular property is B1. That's our commercial district. And the proposal is to reszone it from B1 to MX. That's a brand new zoning district that we just rolled out earlier this year. This year it's uh the mixeduse district where lived work units are conditionally permitted uses. Uh resonings are evaluated primarily by two criteria. And the first one is consistency with the city's comprehensive plan. And then the second one is the ability for the site to be served by existing infrastructure and public services. So as detailed in the staff report in the agenda packet, staff finds that the resoning request is appropriate based on the criteria. Here's a look at the subdivision plat there on the screen. So the proposal is to replplat this site and uh create two lots. So lot one is the northern more um site the lot there the larger one that would contain all 12 live work units. And then outlaw A would also be created here along Highway 36 for um it would essentially be set aside for future frontage road if one gets built along uh paralleling Highway 36. And that is consistent with the Glen Brook small area plan which identifies the need for a frontage road through this area. and a future access is shown thereof um um within the outlot and it would provide a hammerhead turnaround for vehicles to make proper movements throughout the area throughout this development. Uh the the outlot must be covered by an easement [clears throat] for future rightway. Uh so as shown on the plat a portion of the unimproved alley along the west side of the site which is shown in orange there on the screen that is proposed to be vacated and the developer must submit a formal uh vacation request to do so. Also as part of the planning and subdivision process park dedication requirements is required. Uh the live work unit aspect of this proposal requires a conditional use permit and is subject to seven general review criteria and staff finds that all of those seven criteria have been met as detailed in in the staff report. So additionally live work units are subject to three specific criteria which include the following. So the first one is no retail sales can occur on site. Uh the second one is no commercial vehicles or equipment shall be stored outdoors. So everything has to be contained within the structures. And then the third one is that service or repair of motor vehicles shall be prohibited. So no auto body repairs, no oil changes occurring within these units. So staff is also recommending a few additional conditions uh to the conditional use permit or the cup to help minimize impacts to the surrounding property and I'll cover those in just a moment with in the in the resolution. So moving on to some site plan details here. Again, access to the site is off Upper 51st Street. Uh the fire department has reviewed the the proposed private street and the site layout and they find it acceptable. However, parking cannot occur within this private street uh because we want to ensure that vehicles can make proper maneuvers in and out of the site. As such, signage must be installed to prohibit parking along the private street as well as a hammerhead turnaround and the trash collection area. Similarly, signage must also be posted to prohibit snow storage in the in the hammerhead turnaround and the the trash collection area. In terms of parking, each garage and uh slashworkspace is shown to accommodate multiple vehicles. So, in internally, including large uh trailers, other large vehicles there. Additionally, on uh the the driveway, the exterior driveways, each unit would be able to accommodate a couple more vehicles. So, the park parking requirements of the city code have been met. Uh, just looking into trees and the tree uh requirements of the city. Due to the presence of some trees on the property, the applicant must provide a tree preservation plan in accordance with our zoning regulations. A preliminary landscaping plan, as you can see on the screen, has been provided, but um the landscaping plan must be updated to include additional vegetation, additional screening along the portions of the site that are adjacent to residential properties. So, here are the draft floor plans. So, the the lefth hand image shows the garage workspace, which is approximately 1,700 square feet. And then the right-h hand image shows the living area which is approximately 1,400 square f feet. So the uh the live work units must be designed in full compliance with building and fire code and specifically fire suppression systems. Here are some more sample elevations and these are the facads for the larger building. So there's two buildings if you recall from the the previous images. So this larger uh unit would contain nine units. And then um [clears throat] just a quick mention in terms of exterior building materials. Um the zoning code specifies certain types of exterior building materials that have to be utilized. [snorts] Here are a few more sample elevations. So that the top image shows the north elevation of the 9-unit building and then the middle and bottom images show the smaller three-unit building. So finally, this image shows a cross-section of one of the units. So the building height is proposed at 36 1/2 ft, which is under the 40ft height requirement. Also, there's uh an image or a couple images actually of the trash enclosure in the bottom right hand of the screen. In terms of the the highway noise variance, this is specific to the city council. It was not reviewed by the the planning commission. Um the [clears throat] as required by our ordinance, the applicant is um uh seeking a highway noise variance due to the site being located adjacent to Highway 36 and the applicant submitted a traffic noise impact assessment. The results of the assessment reveal that noise levels exceed the thresholds established by the state. Minnesota administrative rules allow for higher noise levels if certain conditions are met, including the use of certain construction materials for the buildings and staff finds that the noise variance is appropriate provided that the developer utilizes the appropriate construction materials. So to conclude, as detailed in the the staff report on file, staff finds that the request complies with the city's comprehensive plan, the zoning ordinance, and the subdivision ordinance. Uh just as a reminder, the planning commission held the required public hearing for this request back on November 6. And when I say public hearing, that was specifically for the land use applications. Uh there is a public hearing requirement for the the noise variance that is held by by you, the city council. Uh the planning commission recommended approval and staff recommends approval of the request subject to the conditions in the agenda packet. So bear with me. I'll I'll be reading through the resolutions here. So the first one is resolution uh 2025-112 and eight conditions of approval here. So first one is approval of a resoning to the MX district. Number two, no retail sales shall occur on site. Number three, no commercial vehicles or equipment shall be stored out outside. Number four, service or repair of motor vehicles shall be prohibited. Number five, customers visits shall be by appointment only. Number six, each unit uh shall be limited to to no more than two non-resident outside employees. Number seven, commercial [clears throat] operations shall be conducted fully within the structures. Number eight, signage uh for the commercial operations shall be limited to one sign up to 5 square ft per unit. Moving on to the next resolution. So, it's 2025-113. I So, I'll skip uh conditions that I've already mentioned previously. So, I'll jump into number two. Uh, approval of a conditional use permit to allow lip work units. Number three, execution of a development agreement. Number four, approval of site civil construction plans. Number five, obtain any necessary approvals for vacation of property. Number six, obtain or include easements on the plat uh necessary easements on the plant. Number seven, recording of an easement over outlaw A for future rightway. Number eight, satisfaction of park dedication requirements. Number nine, uh the final plat must adhere to the city attorney's plat opinion letter and uh the developer must also adhere to the recording instructions from the city attorney. Number 10, the developer must submit a tree preservation plan. And number 11, permits and approvals from outside government agencies must be obtained and proof must be provided to the city. Jumping to the next resolution 2025-114. I'll jump right to condition number six. So approval from um must be obtained from the fire department for proposed hydrants and fire department connections. Number seven, provide details on rooftop ground mechanical equipment and screening. Number eight, and the applicant actually has already done this one. Um enlarge the trash collection area to two dimensions that are acceptable to the city engineer for turning vehicle turning movements. Number nine, submit a phototric plan. Number 10, adhere to exterior building material requirements of the zoning code. Number 11, install signage to prohibit parking along the the street, the turnaround, and the trash collection area. [clears throat] Number 12, install signage to prohibit snow in the turnaround area and trash trash collection. And uh number 13 is an update to the landscape plan to include additional screening elements along the property lines for that residential property. So just one more resolution here and this is the the noise resolution 2025-115 and just one condition there. Exterior windows and doors must meet Minnesota noise standards. Uh so just a quick reminder the noise variance is subject to a public hearing. Uh, the developer is here in attendance if you have questions and staff is happy to answer questions, too. Thank you. >> Can you walk through all of those resolutions and conditions again? [laughter] Happy to. Luke, thank you. Thorough as always. We appreciate it. Council members, any questions for Luke right off the bat? >> No. All right. How about questions for the developer? >> No. All right. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. Just a reminder, the public hearing for this item is for the noise variance only. Um, similar to the public hearing for the truth and taxation, if you have any comments, please feel free to step up to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and proceed with your comments. [sighs] Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back for council consideration. Council, let's just dive right into the resolutions. I'm thinking, uh, who wants to who wants to lead on this one? >> I'll start. >> All right, Council Member Severson. >> Uh, Mr. May I move we wave reading and adopt ordinance number 957 resoning certain property for Oakdale garage lofts at 6138 Highway 36 Boulevard North from general commercial B1 to mixeduse MX. Uh there's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Final comments. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And ordinance 957 is adopted. Next, >> I'll move we wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-112 approving a conditional use permit for live work units at 6138 Highway 36 Boulevard North with conditions included in the attached resolution. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Final comments. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Resolution 2025-112 is adopted. Next, >> I'll move we wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-113 approving the preliminary plat and final plat for the Oakdale garage lofts with conditions included in the attached resolution. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Final comments. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And resolution 2025-113 is adopted. >> I'm glad you said that cuz I lost track where [laughter] we were. >> Got you, Gary. >> I move we wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-114. in approving the site plan for Oakdale garage lofts with conditions included in the attached resolution. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Final comments. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Resolution 2025-114 is adopted. >> Okay. And lastly, I move we wave reading adopt resolution 2025-115 approving a variance for highway noise levels at the Oakdale garage law. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I was going to say somebody jumped in. We can't stop now. Uh motion and a second. And final comments. >> Yeah. I am excited for this project. So, thank you for coming to Oakdale. >> A very exciting new housing type in our community. It is. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. In a in a parcel in a shape that has always had a bit of a question mark on it, you know. Yeah. So, we're pretty excited for that. Uh any other comments? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And resolution 2025-115 is adopted. Welcome to Oakdale. >> Uh another public hearing in front of us. a request for a secondhand goods dealer, precious metal dealers license. Do we have a staff presentation on this? Chris, do you want to summarize it? >> Mr. Mayor, city council, I absolutely can. Um, what is before you is a request for um precious metals dealer license and new secondhand good license for an event that they're hosting um January 13th through 17th, I think, um at Hampton Inn. So, um city code currently requires that you approve those licenses. We don't have um a specific mechanism for an event, but the request fits under the city code referenced here. So, we're asking for your support and approval on that per the requested motion. >> Uh council members, any questions for Chris? Well, at this time, I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for this agenda item. Similar as before, if anybody has any comments related to this agenda item, please feel free step up to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and proceed with your comments. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back to council. Uh, council members, can I get a motion? >> Make a motion to approve a new secondhand goods dealer license and a new precious metals dealer license to Andrea Rojos of Premier Gold, Silver, and Coin Association LLC, conducting business at 436 Imperial Avenue North. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Final comments. The only comment I want to make uh maybe just flagging this for council as we've kind of started this internal conversation about business regulations in our community um you know this is just one of those quirky ones that kind of fell in a gray area and so staff absolutely did the right thing following the process we have in place but as we think about okay a two-day coin expo I is that the true intent of what we're trying to get at with this ordinance. So, I've asked um our city administrator to kind of flag this example and roll it into that that business regulation com uh conversation we're going to have early next year just cuz it's a one-off. So, and it feels like that's a good spot to kind of iron out some of these details. So, uh motion second. We've had a little conversation. All those in favor say I. >> I. [clears throat] >> Opposed. And those licenses are approved. Uh lastly, revisiting or revising the fee schedule for 2026. Uh staff presentation. Chris, >> mayor, city council. This um annually we do a fee schedule for the following year. We continue to enhance and refine it. We added a table of contents this year to make it easier. There is a lot on that fee schedule and so we want to make it for as easy for folks um to find what they're looking for as we can. There aren't many significant fee increases. There are some for cost of living increases. is the cost of doing business uh 3% but generally um the fees have stayed relatively similar to last year except for that. Okay. >> Uh council members, any questions for Chris? >> All right. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and open this public hearing. Same rules as before. If you'd like to speak to this agenda item, please feel free. Step up to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and proceed with your comments. Whoa, slow down, everybody. All right, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back for council consideration. Two actions in front of us tonight. Who would like to make the first motion? >> I move we wave reading and adopt ordinance number 955 revising the fee schedule for 2026. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Final comments. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And ordinance 955 is adopted. >> Next one. >> Move we wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-107 authorizing publication of ordinance number 955 by title and summary. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Final comments. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And resolution 2025-107 is adopted. >> That's a lot of public hearings. >> Yes. [laughter] Made it to open forum. >> Open for usually that's in the first two minutes. >> Yeah. >> Here we are 45 minutes in. We'll get there. Uh we're at open forum. Before we open up the floor to any comments of anything that's on anybody's mind, we have uh two things um that I want to cover. First off, a proclamation recognizing National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day in the city of Oakdale. Whereas in 2015, partnering organizations in support of law enforcement officers nationwide established January 9th as National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. And whereas law enforcement officers of every rank and file have chosen a profession that puts their life on the line every day for our communities. And whereas these officers have answered a call to public service that is demanding and often unappreciated. And whereas law enforcement officers play an integral integral part in society by protecting and serving. And whereas on National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, residents have the opportunity to thank them for their service and offer a token of respect. And whereas all residents are called upon to take time not only on January 9th, but throughout the entire month of January to show support of law enforcement officers. Therefore, I Kevin, mayor of Oakdale, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim January 9th as law enforcement appreciation day in the city of Oakdale. I know I speak for all of my colleagues and all of our residents when we offer our our deep appreciation to our Oakdale PD. Absolutely. Some of the finest men and women around. Um especially in the profession. They do an incredible job every single day in uncertain to say the least circumstances. Um so Chief Newton uh please extend our deep appreciation to your entire department for everything they do in our community. Thank you. [applause] >> Thanks Larry. Somebody's got to get the applause started. We appreciate that. Uh we also have an announcement announcing our 2025 volunteer of the year. Uh city council, we swung out uh and we went into the field for this announcement, which was pretty cool. Each year uh the city recognizes a volunteer in our community or group um that goes above and beyond in in supporting our community in doing absolutely outstanding work to enhance the quality of life in our community. Uh this year we were so excited uh to stop out at the intersection of Hadley Avenue and Stillwater Boulevard and recognize Oakdale Santa as our 2025 volunteer of the year. Uh Santa has been stopping at that intersection in Oakdale for more than 35 years. Um each year hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of families stop out, take pictures with Santa. Uh kids share their their wish list with him. Um truly a a focal point of civic pride in our community. We are so deeply appreciative to Santa um for everything he does and all of his elves do uh in decorating that beautiful fence line um being out there in all kinds of of weather and conditions and just spreading so much holiday joy in our community. So we were we were truly honored to go out there and recognize Santa for literally decades of um volunteerism in our community. So congratulations Oakdale Santa. Uh we're still under open forum. This is open mic night. Anybody who has anything on their mind, regardless of what the topic is, if you'd like to chat with council, please feel free to step up to the podium. Similar rules as before. Name an address for the record and share whatever is on your mind. Seeing none, all right, we'll move into consensus motions. Whole bunch of them tonight. Council members, we have A through O in front of us. I'm just waiting for that day when we get to like double A. You [laughter] know, >> it's going to happen. Y >> A through O in front of us. Uh for anybody that's watching, consensus motions tend to be non-controversial items um that don't require individual consideration or debates, but we do offer council members the opportunity to pull any of them for individual consideration if they so choose. Council members, do we have any of those in front of us tonight? >> Yeah, I'd like to pull consensus motion O for a few comments. >> Sure. All right. Council mo uh council members, can I get a motion to approve A through N as presented? >> So moved. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. A through N are approved as presented. Council member Morham. Item O. Why don't you give us a quick summary and what you want to talk about? >> Yeah. Item O is the hiring of our ice cream contendants in the city of Oakdale. And this is near and dear to my heart because my kids have applied for and taken this role before. But I think it's really impressive that so many young adults, it's their first chance to interview for a job. It's the first chance to serve in local government and it's really cool to see the energy that they bring to it. In fact, we've got one of these people here tonight that drove through a snowstorm just to be here on the day that he was hired officially for the city. And I love that energy. I love that commitment. So, I just want to say thank you to all of these people that are coming here to join the ranks city of Oakdale. Welcome. And this is usually the start of something that can grow into something so much more as you grow with your work in the city. So, thank you. and you get a vote on it this year. >> I do. It's not one of my kiddos. >> No conflicts of interest, right? >> Uh would you like to make the motion? >> I would love to make a motion to approve consensus. Motion O. >> Uh as presented as presented. >> Uh there's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And all of those ice rink attendants are hired. And we're actually going to have ice this year, which is pretty exciting. I think the high on Saturday is zero. So [laughter] yeah, it's always nice when we can get those rinks opened uh and and get people skating on them. Uh let's check in with our advisory boards and commissions. None none of them met. Um so we will move into award a bid. Nothing there tonight. So we will move into staff reports, community development. Luke, come on down. So thank you, Mayor Council. No presentation for this one, so I'll keep it brief. So, this request uh the conditional use permit at 76 84 Stillwater Way. It's a proposal for an oversized additional garage at um at the the address I just noted. The garage would have two floors with a gross floor area of approximately 2100 square ft and the parcel is about 1 acre in size. There is an existing attached garage on the property and uh second garages and oversized accessory buildings are allowed through our conditional use permit process. The planning commission held the required public hearing for this request back on November 6. Uh several neighbors did speak in opposition to this request. Uh noting concerns about height, size of the structure, proximity of the site or proximity of the the garage, proposed garage to existing solar panels and potential commercial uses there uh within the the proposed structure. The planning commission did recommend approval of the request. Um, so as detailed in the staff report on file, staff finds that the request can meet the ordinance requirements subject to certain conditions. So staff recommends approval. And we'll jump to the resolution which is 2025-108. So seven conditions of approval here. Uh the first one is that the structure shall meet setback and height requirements. It shall not exceed 2100 square ft in gross floor area. The structure shall not be used as a dwelling unit. Garage doors shall not exceed 10 ft in height. A building permit must be obtained for the use. Uh removal of any existing temporary accessory structures on site. And finally, no commercial activities shall occur within the the structure. Happy to answer questions. Council members, any questions for Luke? >> Yeah, I had a question. That's my work. >> I'm curious and not necessarily particular to this application, but just in general, I think garage businesses are becoming more of a popular thing and I know people have started their businesses in their garages before. So, when we put a condition like this on an additional building, what happens if someone's found in violation? Mhm. So, council member, if it's very difficult, you know, in terms of um essentially launching an investigation to see if there's business being operated out of a within a structure, but we would follow our code enforcement procedures. We would consult with the city attorney's office to see if we would have to revoke the conditional use permit, see if there's any other type of enforcement activities that we the city would pursue. >> Sure. And yeah, it's one of those things that it's difficult, right? Cuz I've heard in my years on the council of complaints of someone running, say, a car repair business out of their their house and they see a lot of cars coming at all hours of the night, but you're not necessarily going to knock down a structure when someone violates their use. So, >> I think that's where the the fine structure comes into play. Um even um even up to the point of criminal charges against the property owner. I think of um a past situation where we had an inoperable recreation vehicle parked in a driveway for many years to the point that it became a health hazard and it actually became legal action against the individual for contempt. Um, and so non-compliance with code enforcement always falls back to the individual, either property owner or the entity responsible. And it's a long process, but it does uh it does yield results eventually. [laughter] I don't think um anybody necessarily [clears throat] envisions the end result being removing a structure, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Yep. No, that's very helpful. Thank you. >> It's not the building's fault, it's a person's fault, >> right? Um the only comment I would offer on this so each conditional use permit um presented and considered in our city gets uh evaluated under the exact same seven criteria. Um it is written into our code. I don't know even state law maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I I assume everybody uses the same set of rules. Um condition two uh is essentially the does it fit within the the characteristics of the neighborhood. Um as a council we have subjectivity here. um rooted in um past considerations of other similar structures. Uh on this specific item, I I respectfully disagree with staff's interpretation of fitting the the character of the existing neighborhood or meeting the character of the ex existing neighborhood. And so for me personally, I feel like that condition is not met under a conditional use permit. You have to meet all seven criteria in order for it to proceed. So, um, in its current form, I would disagree with, uh, the approval of the conditional use permit because I believe that it has not or it does not currently meet those conditions. Doesn't mean it can't. Um, it plans can be revised, but in its current form, I do not believe it is there. >> Yeah. And to follow up with your comments, mayor, I think that the square footage and the height of the property, um, trying to think of anything else in the city that's been approved to that effect, right? And that's when you think about zoning, when you think about uh a neighborhood, it's about keeping it consistent with the building surrounding it, right? So I I feel the same way. [snorts] Um with well with all of that, you know, in mind, you know, as a council, we have we have options we can exercise here. Um it can be uh something we send back to our staff and ask that they um share our concerns if it is the concerns of a majority of the body um with the applicant in hopes that plans can be reworked. Um it that I would say that is probably the most common path we have taken in recent years. Um or straight of denial is also within our reach. Um we just would have to really hone in on those specific reasons. Um if we feel as a body that um something could um some middle ground could be reached here, perhaps we want to take that step and just send it back to city staff table it for the time being and bring it back at a future date. I'm seeing a lot of head nods. Would anybody like to make a motion to that effect? >> May I move to table this for action to the January 13, 2026 meeting? >> All righty. Uh there's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Any comments? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. Uh we are tableabling resolution 2025-108 uh to our first meeting in January. Um Chris, does staff have clear instructions on our our intent for this going forward? >> Yes, Mayor, City Council, I believe we are clear. We will go back and speak with the applicant and see if we can make any progress. >> Thank you. Uh engineering, Mr. Bachmire. Oh, it's time for street reconstruction again. [laughter] >> It's the holiday gift that keeps on giving. >> Yeah. Will we ever catch [laughter] up? I don't know. >> I don't have 40 slides tonight, so I >> Well, that's good. That's good. >> So, as the mayor mentioned, this is the uh 2026 street improvement program. We're presenting the feasibility report tonight and we'll be asking the council to call for the public improvement and assessment hearings in January. So with that I'll start the uh presentation uh ju just to get an idea of the um project area. It is the neighborhood Greenway Avenue, Second Street, Grafton and Fourth Street and Third Street Court. Um Granada Avenue was in the initial u resolution initiating the project but we've removed that due to the age of the pavement. It's uh was not reconstructed with these streets in '95 and 97. It was actually redone with the neighborhood to the north in 2007. So the existing payment is only 18 years old and the city has not invested a lot of money in maintenance. If you go down there and drive it, there is no patching on that roadway. So the objectives of our annual program is primarily uh to improve safety uh to control maintenance costs uh and also to replace water manes that have a history of breaks in this area. There have been over 30 water mane breaks uh in all the streets combined and also to improve the efficiency of the street lighting system down in that area and to eliminate service barriers. Uh just to give you a flavor of the conditions down in this area. Just a series of uh pictures. This is second street. You can see the amount of uh patching that has been done on the street. You can even see the areas where there have been water main breaks. Uh kind of the rectangular patching. The other ones are just pavement condition type patching. Uh this is Third Street Court. Again, there's just been a lot of uh failure in that area. Not water main breaks, but just pavement failure. Uh this is Fourth Street. Again, the amount of patching and you can see uh the different colors that indicates we've been back multiple times. Um so patching is very temporary. This is also Grafton Avenue. Again, you can see the extent of patching and and Grafton turning into Granada. This is Greenway Avenue. Uh it's interesting if you can look on this picture, there's actually four rectangles as you go down the roadway. Those are all water main brakes. >> Uh Green Greenway Avenue is a collector street. It was overlaid um in in 2012. Uh but the pavement conditions are such that it should be reconstructed along with the balance of the project. The proposed improvements that we have in the feasibility report include the removal and replacement of the asphalt, removal and placement of the curb and gutter in those areas. Uh replacement of the water man on second Grafton and Fourth and Greenway Avenue. We're going to be looking at sanitary sewer ceiling uh based on televising that will be done uh for any spot repairs that may may need to be done. also will be televising the storm sewer system to identify uh any areas that may need to be patched. We also uh will be as part of the design that you'll be seeing in February uh having to do surface water improvements to meet the Ramsey Washington wershed district water quality requirements. Um so, uh that'll be part of the project. As part of the improvements, uh there will be some trees that will need to be removed. Uh we've talked previously about uh the trees that will need to be removed along Greenway Avenue for the sidewalk. There's approximately 15 for the sidewalk. There's eight on the east side of the road uh for where they're too close to the water services or the curb to be salvaged. And then on Grafton second, third, and fourth, there's 27 trees that are going to need to be removed for similar reasons. 10 of those are ash trees. Uh, nine are too close to the water services and eight are in poor condition. I've actually had a couple of property owners call since we had our neighborhood meeting asking if we were going to be removing this particular tree that they wanted to have removed. >> Um, so it seems like the concern has been more about uh removing some of these trees than it has been to to preserve them. We do offer replacements for those trees that we do remove. That's part of our program. We'll also be replacing the street lights with LED fixtures. Um, council's aware that we will be installing a sidewalk along the east side of, excuse me, the west side of Greenway Avenue from Hudson Boulevard up to Seventh Street. Um, also we'll be evaluating the street signing and replacing where necessary. Uh, we're also coordinating with the private utilities, Excel Gas, Electric, Comcast, and Lumen for any utilities that may be need to be replaced as part of their systems. This is the neighborhood area uh that we're doing and and so you can see Greenway Avenue and the sidewalk is identified along there. Second, Craftton and fourth and third street court and you can see the street lights that are going to be replaced in those areas where we're replacing the water man. Uh third street court there is no history of water main breaks. So it's one area that where the water man will not be replaced but the balance of the neighborhood has had u a sign significant amount of water main breaks. So we're proposing replacement the process we did hold a neighborhood meeting on November 5th. Uh we're presenting the report tonight and if the council accepts the report we'll be asking to call for the public improvement and assessment hearings on January 27th. Uh we're also looking to have uh the plans back to you for approval in March and award the contract in April so that the contractor can start in May and complete by September. uh the project financing the the first column I have here is what was reflected in the CIP and the column on the right is now the revised CIP excuse me the feasibility estimate it was a little bit higher about 5% more and I will say we did back out the greenway avenue improvements um in that CIP column so it is an applesto apples comparison uh but generally the feasibility report it uses unit prices based on the average of all the biders of projects where the DIP uses the average of the low bid. Uh so generally that's uh why you see a difference between the two. [snorts] Uh the assessments are 910,000. The uh CIP had estimated 815,000. The difference really is the uh CIP estimates about 70% of the frontage is accessible, but in this particular case, there were only five of the 26 corner lots that were not accessible. also was a very low percentage of non-accessible frontage. There was no open space. There was no park areas adjacent to the street projects. So, as a result, there was just more accessible frontage. The assessment rate that we used was uh the same uh was a uniform application. So, there's no change there. Uh the other funding that changed was the uh surface water management. We went from 120 to $300,000. Again, that reflects the additional water quality improvements from the Ramsey Washington Wershed District. Um, so that will be part of the plan. Uh, but the balance of the funding sources are consistent with what was reflected in the CIP. This was just a map just kind of showing uh the lots. We uh use the frontage. We call it the adjusted frontage. We measure the width of the lot at the building setback line. Uh that's consistent with the city code that identifies lot width in the zoning code at the building setback line. Uh we cap the width at 80 feet for single family residential. And then for corner lots uh we they don't get assessed twice. They only get assessed for one side or the other depending upon where their driveway is and if they were previously assessed uh for the other frontage. So we do take that all in consideration. the commercial lot. We don't have a minimum lot size for commercial property, but what we look at is uh our appraiser had indicated you cannot assess more than 10% of the land value. And in this particular case, there was one single family lot that low voltage uh down on the corner of Greenway and Hudson Boulevard. Their frontage was capped to the 10% of the land value. Uh so that is reflected in the assessment role. And these were the resulting assessments. Most of the lots along Greenway Avenue are 70 ft in width and some of the other lots are capped at 80 ft on the loop. Uh the council action we are requesting tonight is for the council to accept the feasibility report to call for the preparation of plans and specifications. Also call for the improvement and assessment hearings on January 27th. We also have in here the plans and specifications for the overlay project. We like to do these two projects together as one project if possible. With that, I'd stand for any questions the council may have. >> Council members, any questions for Brian? Seeing none, let's dive right into the recommendation. >> All right. Make a motion. >> Taking the long one. >> It's the long one. It's true. I'm channeling Jake here. All right. Make a motion to wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-111 accepting the feasibility report for city project R2026-01 2026 street reconstruction authorizing the preparation of plans and specifications for city projects R20261 and R202602 declaring the cost to be assessed and ordering preparation of proposed assessment role and establishing a public improvement and assessment hearing for January 27th 2026 at 7 am or as soon afterwards as possible. >> That wasn't a very Jake like you got it all right. Right. >> Not even here and I'm still ragging. [laughter] >> You need oxygen. [gasps] >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second that one. >> All motion to second. Final comments. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And resolution 2025-11 and subsequent actions are authorized. >> All right. I will make a motion here to authorize the mayor and city administrator to enter into service contracts with SE to prepare the plans and specifications for city projects R2026-01 and R2026-02 in the amount of 23,400 and 52,700 respectively. >> Uh there's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Final comments. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And that authorization is given. [sighs] Last half page of the four-page agenda. We can do this, folks. Jim, I hope you got nothing for us. >> Mr. Mayor and Council, nothing I could possibly say would could exceed your excitement over considering the feasibility report for the 2016. [laughter] So, I I'll be happy to answer any questions though. >> I look forward to that report every year. Yeah, >> I can tell. >> Uh, any questions for Jim? >> No. All right, let's check in with our city administrator. Chris, you got one item. Mayor and council. Um, thank you for making a long night fun. I appreciate that. [laughter] Um, >> what choice did we have? >> Yeah, right. Make the best of it. That's great. Um, Don Tyson, owner's rep, is going to go through this request for the city hall police project. [snorts] >> Thanks, Chris. Evening council mayor. Once again, I'm Don Tyson, the owner's representative for the police expansion and city hall remodel projects. The agenda tonight we're going to go through, you see the topics there, a little bit of background, the project schedule, bidding process, pre-qualify request for vacations, and then your city council approval recommendation and certainly be here for questions. Little bit of background. [sighs] Uh your capital improvement program does include an remodeling expansion of the police department along with remodeling of city hall. Uh there's a great project team that's been brought on board. Uh BKV Group is the architect. across the Anderson and construction company who is working on the public works project is the construction manager at risk and then certainly city administration and the police department uh leadership team that you have as you know you've had two workshops actually three counting tonight uh on the project so far to talk about the project uh project schedule it really starts with the pre-qualification of contractors which we'll talk about a little bit and you see the rest of the events that are going to happen to have a construction start in June. For the public, I do want to note next Monday night, we will be having a virtual openhouse and on Tuesday the 16th a liveerson openhouse on the project and there will also be a video of the uh open house project posted to the project website after that. So, there'll be a chance for public input uh next week and then you see the planning commission will be looking at the project on January 8th. But it's really to kick the project off, we need to pre-qualify contractors. And what does that mean? Because that is something different that the city has not done before. A little bit of more background on that. Uh the city is utilizing the construction manager at risk process to deliver the project. That is similar to what you did on the public works project, but since uh that project, things have changed. Uh we have seen on the public works projects benefits there that you see there starting with qualifications based selection which uh results in the professional team being selected uh value engineering which tonight you saw the some of the results of that that can happen and also maximizing the number of contractors on the job. uh public works project. We had 148 biders uh looking to work on the project and at the end you get a guaranteed maximum price to to deliver the project which is really really good. So what's different since the public works project the state legislature did pass a new statute on how you use a construction manager at risk or CM abbreviated up there. So it was done after that and since that time and since this project came on board we worked with Jim's excellent legal team to put together the process of how we work through this and it really starts and now let me go through that process. Uh the competitive bidding is handled by the construction manager at risk. It's not something that the city does but it starts with approving the request for qualifications to prequalified contractors and that's an RFQ. The construction manager in this case once again is Cross Anderson. They'll go out and solicit that information from contractors in this RFQ and gather all that information, review it, and then bring it to the city for agreement on who is the list of qualified contractors that can bid on this job. Uh so they'll advertise it just like we advertise for bidding a project like Brian's Street Projects, but it's a it's an advertisement for getting your qualifications to submit on the project. And then once the agreement is the city agrees that who's these qualified contractors, Cross Anderson will go out and solicit bids from them to do the work. That process as you see there between two and three to going out there soliciting contractors, putting it together and reviewing with the city takes two to about two months. And that's why we want to start that now so we can have contractors on board to get the project started in June. So, this RFQ or request for qualifications, there's key items in there. I just want to point out what what's in the RFQ. What are contractors going to need to submit? We're going to ask for what's their experience with sim with at least three similar projects the last five years. Not only the firm itself, but also the staff that will be assigned to it. So, somebody who's never built a police department or a city hall that we're going we're looking for contractors that have experience with complex projects like this. what's their ability to complete the work? Uh, kind of relates to their experience. What's their firm safety record, which is always important and also what's their firm quality assurance plan. So, that kind of gives you there's more than this, but that's kind of the highlights of what we'll ask for from these firms to qualify them in order to bid on the work. Uh so with your approval tonight and our recommendation is you do approve the subcontractor request for qualifications for the city of Oakdale police expansion and city hall remodel project dated December 11th 2025. That date is not today. That date is the date that Cross Anderson will issue it and go on the street with this. So that's uh I believe Thursday. >> So okay, anybody have any questions for Don? Seeing none, Chris, is there anything you would like to add? >> No, I I think this is um Oh, thanks, Mr. Mayor. I do one thing. I do think this is a pivotal point for the project because this is we're we're moving and and everything's going to have be happening in the next six months at lightning speed, but this is a first kind of major step and then, you know, then we're going to do a bid package and we're finishing detail design and a lot's going to happen in the next six months. So, um thank you for the support and the good work of the team. done as owners rep has been absolutely critical. Our partners um BKV and KA for the construction manager have been um wonderful to work with. So, >> okay. Uh anybody have any questions for Chris? All right. I'll look for a motion. I >> move we approve subcontra subcontractor request for qualifications for the city of Oakdale police expansion and city hall remodel dated December 11th 2025. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Final comments. All those in favor say I. I. >> Opposed. And the approval is given. Thank you, Don. >> Safe travels home tonight. >> You, too. >> Uh, council presentations. Anybody want to go first? >> Sure, I'll go. I'm sure you will much more eloquently address this than I do, >> but the city treelighting event last week was a wonderful event. It was It was great. A >> little chilly, but >> a little chilly, but you know, we had a big We had a big bonfire. >> Big fire. >> Santa Claus was there. It was awesome. >> Anything else, Gary? >> Nope. That's it. Andy, well, we're looking this way. What do you got? >> Yeah. Know, I've got a couple things. Uh, one is I just want to issue a correction from the last meeting. I gave an update under the parks and rec commission meeting uh talking about recycling in our parks. And I had learned after the fact that uh in fact, we do have separate recycling bins for a reason because recyclables need to go in there. So, it's something we'll bring up to the next parks and rec commission to make sure that we're getting more of those out to the parks. But, I just wanted to set the record straight and please recycle whenever you can. Oakdale appreciates it. >> Thank [snorts] you for that. >> Yep. And then one other thing is, man, I'm sitting here right now watching plow trucks go back and forth. Thank you to the streets team in public works. It's a busy night. So, we appreciate you >> and early in the season. I mean, I think I saw on the news yesterday, we've had the same amount of snow to date as it took until like mid January last year, which is >> either we've been spoiled in previous years or we're just back to normal now. Who can tell? So, uh, how about down here? Council member Rich, Council Member Moore, what do we got? >> Um, well, as this is the last meeting of the season and I'm new on board, I I sincerely thank all of the city staff that have welcomed me and taught me um, and the council as well. So, thank you very much. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Moore, anything? [clears throat] Having lived in Tennessee for 12 years and moving back to Minnesota, um I just Yes. the snow like I just keep watching the lights go back and forth out there and um it is so much fun to have my Tennessee child live these Minnesota winters and um I appreciate so much the staff that let us do that safely. Um and also to that I think at the um tree lighting ceremony I was working as welcome um I guess uh committee of one out in the parking lot and as people were walking up they were um seeing me and I was telling them where to go and I thought it was so much fun because two different families had to turn around and go back the other way through the parking lot because their children saw the giant snow mountain in the backside of the parking lot and the snow mountain trumped Santa Claus in front of them. Um, and I just I I thought it was so much fun. But what a wonderful event. And so I just want to echo what you said, Gary. It was um it was fantastic. And I was also next to the bus, the school bus, and so many kids stopped. Bus bus. So um so many things out there that got everybody excited. Um that's for sure. It was a wonderful event. >> When I left, there were I think three or four kids playing on that big snow pile. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Which we do not encourage for liability reasons. [laughter] >> Not the place. Not the place. >> Yeah. Uh, no, I would echo all those comments. Um, anytime we come up with a new crazy idea for a brand new event in our city, um, we never quite know how it's going to go. Um, >> our staff absolutely knocked it out of the park. Um, everything we could have ever hoped and dreamed. Um, already thinking about ideas for next year. I know our staff kind of rolls their eyes at that, but um the feedback we got from residents was, you know, they're excited to have these kind of new offerings, these new events in our community. Um things that really bring us together, I think, uh I think we all believe at a time when we really need it the most. Um and to do it, you know, with with holiday spirits, um here at city hall, it's just a cool opportunity, you know, weather be damned sometimes, but um to to come out and just be with one another, which was really nice. So, a big thank you to all of our city staff for absolutely incredible work on that event. Thank you to all of our residents that came out for that. Um, we can't wait to do it again next year. We'll we'll figure it out with construction. We'll figure it out. [laughter] Um, another announcement, stop by the Discover Center this Saturday, December 13th. We have the Oak Dillor Market going on 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. Uh, dozens of vendors out there. So, if you're looking for some some holiday gifts um or some sweet treats or just want to do some shopping yourself, this is a great opportunity to shop local with some of our local vendors um at our beautiful nature preserve and discovery center Saturday morning. Uh Santa's magical red mailboxes are back here at City Hall and the Discovery Center. Um if you would like to help your little ones write a letter to Santa and drop it one of these red mail red mailboxes, we ask that you do it by December 15th. Uh if you include the child's full name, age, and address with each letter, uh I bet Santa will write a letter back. Um so we hope you can take advantage of that as well. Don mentioned it. Uh we're going to have two open houses next week, one virtual, one in person, giving our residents an opportunity to learn more about the uh proposed police expansion and city hall remodeling project. Um the virtual one will be Monday, December 15th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in person. and we'll be right here at city hall on Tuesday, December 16th from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. Um, great opportunity to provide feedback as we go through what will be a generational investment in our in our police department and our city hall here, which as we all know is the public's buildings. So, we definitely want our residents to come out and share their thoughts and and ideas for what those buildings can be. Um, all details available on oakdalemn.gov of and we will promote the or push out the video of the virtual open house on our social media following the event or you can find it on our YouTube. Uh, one of our absolute favorite events of the year, Winter Wonderland, is coming up on Saturday, December 20th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Discovery Center. By far one of our most popular events. Even if it's, you know, rainy and warm and there's no snow, uh, a thousand plus people come out. It's a tremendous event every single year. Um we could not do it without the partnership from the Oakdale Area Chamber of Commerce, all of their members, um volunteering, sponsoring all of the the food and the beverage and the activities within that. Um also a huge thank you to our recreation department. They do amazing work with it as well. Um amongst the activities, horserawn hay rides. We'll have a petting zoo, bonfire with s'mores, uh breakfast, holiday face painting, visit with Santa, candy cane hunt, and more. Are we doing lunch again this year? Hot dogs. Yeah, >> I don't know how the chamber is. Yeah. I'm looking at Larry because you're here and you're with the chamber. >> Yeah, usually we do breakfast and lunch, don't we? Hot dogs. >> Yeah, >> I think I saw that that they were going to do. >> We're gonna say yes and hope for the best. Yeah, [laughter] >> I don't remember that. >> Perfect. Yeah. Well, it just says breakfast. I'm like, well, wait a minute. That's where I get two two meals that day. [laughter] Uh we hope everybody can join us. Such a great great um partnership with the chamber and an event for our community right before the holidays. Uh, finally, as we kick things off, uh, two and a half hours, no, one and a half hours ago. Um, I mentioned this is our last meeting of the year. So, on behalf of everybody here at the city, we want to wish everybody a safe and happy and healthy holiday season. Um, it's going to keep snowing. We know that. Please be safe out there. Um, a reminder, the uh, city facilities will be closed on December 24th and 25th for the holidays, but our emergency services are always available. Um, also a big thank you to our emergency personnel who work over the holidays providing that very critical service to our to our residents around the clock. Um, we so deeply appreciate your sacrifice on working on those holidays. Let's pay the bills. Uh, we have claims roster in front of us. November 26th through December 9th, 1.4 million and change. Anything we need to pull out of there or we just don't want to spend that amount of money? [laughter] Already spent it. Sorry. Uh, no. Can I get a motion? Make a motion to approve claims as presented. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Bills are paid. Uh we're going to adjourn and roll right into a meeting of the Oakdale Economic Development Authority. Uh calling this meeting to order. Sarah, will you please take the role? >> Commissioner Moore >> here. >> Commissioner Morham >> here. >> Commissioner Severson >> here. >> Commissioner Rich >> here. >> President Sabo >> here. Uh council members or commissioners, can I get approval of the agenda presented? >> So moved. There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. The agenda is adopted. Next up, approval of minutes October 14th, 2025. Any questions on these minutes or any questions? >> Okay, I get a motion. So moved. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion to second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And minutes are approved. One business matter in front of us and it's routine. It's just an extension of the previous agreement. So we're going to forego the staff presentation. I'm going to make a recommendation to authorize the EDA president and executive director to sign the amended and restated ERRA with Tanner's Lake LLC on behalf of the EDA. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Motion a second. Any comments? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Authorization is given. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. We're done. We're adjourned. Thank you and good night.