This transcript features the **Oakdale Environmental Management Commission (EMC)** meeting from March 17, 2025. Based on the context provided, the speakers include **Chair Girding**, **Hannah Dunn** (Staff Liaison), **Angie Hong** (Guest Speaker), **Max Lozi** (City Staff), and **Mayor Kevin Zabel**. *** **[00:00] Chair Girding:** Good evening and welcome. I'd like to call to order the March 17, 2025 meeting of the Oakdale Environmental Management Commission. Very glad to see each one of you. And for those watching, welcome. We'll begin this evening with our roll call of commissioner members present. Um, commission staff liaison Hannah Dunn will now be taking roll. **[00:15] Hannah Dunn:** Chair Girding, present. Vice Chair Doolittle, present. Commissioner Anderson, present. Commissioner Yang, present. Commissioner Lash, present. Commissioner Fenstermaker, present. Commissioner Brennan, great. **[00:30] Chair Girding:** Thanks, Hannah. Also joining us tonight, in addition to Oakdale's community development staff liaison, Hannah Dunn, the EMC city's council liaison and Oakdale mayor Kevin Zabel, and city staff Max Lozi. Welcome. Um, the next item is to move to our pledge of allegiance. So, if we can all rise together. **[00:45] Everyone:** [Pledge of Allegiance] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. **[01:00] Chair Girding:** Great. Moving towards approval of tonight's agenda. Um, everybody received a copy prior to the meeting. So, assuming no amendments or further discussion, which I'll hold at the moment. I'd like to ask for approval of the agenda for tonight's March 17th EMC meeting. **[01:15] Commissioner Anderson:** So moved. **[01:17] Chair Girding:** Thank you. Great. All in favor of approving tonight's March 17th EMC meeting agenda, say I. **[01:22] Commissioners:** I. I. **[01:24] Chair Girding:** Opposed. Great. Thank you. Next up, approval of our meeting minutes from our February 10th commission meeting last month. Um, as a reminder, that was our annual workshop alongside the full city council leading to a very robust work plan discussion and subsequent EMC meeting. These minutes were also sent prior to tonight's meeting. Is there any discussion around the minutes that we received? Assuming none, hearing none, I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the February 10th, 2025 EMC meeting minutes. **[01:50] Commissioner Lash:** So moved. **[01:52] Commissioner Yang:** Second. **[01:54] Chair Girding:** Great. All in favor of approving the minutes from our last month's February 10th meeting, say I. **[01:58] Commissioners:** I. **[02:00] Chair Girding:** Opposed. Fantastic. Thank you. Great. We'll now move to the public and open forum time in our agenda and invite any community member present to the podium and microphone. Okay, thank you. I guess we will close the super duper public section of our meeting. Um, and tonight we're moving to the next section. We're pleased to have two presentations. One first one from Angie Hong and the second one from Max Lozi. Angie is from the East Metro Water Resource Education Program to provide some updates. **[02:30] Angie Hong:** Yeah. Okay. You got you all can hear me okay, right? Yeah. Thanks. Um, and there we go. Now you can see my slides too. I was just giving a dramatic pause. So, thank you for having me. Um, I was telling Hannah that our office is actually just down the road from here on the other side of the interchange. Um, so we are neighbors. Um, but wanted to provide updates on some of the water education activities and programming happening in the Oakdale area in partnership with Washington Conservation District and the local watershed districts in the area this year. So, just for a little bit of background, um, the East Metro Water Education Program is a partnership and it is cities, watershed management organizations, counties, and soil and water conservation districts. So, you can see Oakdale lights up nice and red. Um, you are one of 16—not red in a bad way, red in a good way. Yes. One of 16 uh cities and townships in Washington County that are part of this partnership. And we've been doing this since 2006. So it's going on almost 20 years now. This collaborative approach to public engagement and education. Um, but we have more recently expanded to also include partners in Chisago and Isanti County and as well as part of a lower St. Croix watershed partnership that we have. Um, so some of the most popular things that people in Washington County know about are free site visits through the Washington Conservation District. Like anybody can sign up for those and have a conservation staff person come and meet with you and talk about is this native, is this invasive, how can I plant a rain garden, what kinds of grants are available? Uh, you can even get a free design for a planting project. There are cost-share grants that are available through the watershed districts. Um, and just kind of this whole world of education and resources and support that's available to people. Uh, we put on a lot of workshops. We collaborate with nonprofit organizations like Great River Greening to do volunteer planting at events. Um, and you know, generally just kind of trying to think of all the ways we can to engage the public in helping to protect our water and create connected habitat corridors and the kinds of things that we would like to see. Okay. So, um, in particular with the—we we just abbreviated to EMREP, the East Metro Water Education Program—um, one of the big focal points has been on engaging community residents in planting native landscapes and especially in priority locations where it helps to create connected habitat corridors for, you know, perhaps pollinators or for birds or where we can strategically put a rain garden so it's reducing stormwater runoff to a polluted lake or river. So, we do a whole lot of um outreach during the spring especially. It's a lot of workshops and presentations. Um, and I just listed a very few of them that are coming up that were most likely to be of interest to people in Oakdale. Uh, my colleague Lori Maxfield was presenting at the Oakdale Garden Club just two months ago. Uh, we had a couple of planting for pollinators webinars that are online and anybody can sign up for those. On April 12th um we have a new tree stewards program that we're rolling out and we're training in volunteers on how to plant trees, prune trees, care for trees. And basically they will then be armed with this knowledge and kind of committing to putting in 20 to 25 hours per year of volunteer work in their community. Uh, so we will be hosting two different uh tree stewards trainings, but one of them that's closest to here is coming up at Lake Elmo Regional Park on April 12th. Um, we will be at the Oakdale EcoFair and we'll have some kind of you know fun activity. And then the other thing that has in the past been hosted by Oakdale has now just moved right up the road to Rockpoint Church in Lake Elmo is the landscape revival. I'm not sure if any of you have ever been to it before, but it—what it used to be right out in the parking lot right here. Um, and it just kind of outgrew this space and had to move to Rockpoint Church. There are native plant retailers from all around the area that all come on the same day and set up booths and nonprofit organizations. And so people can right around the time they're getting ready to do their landscaping projects, they can kind of come and shop from a whole bunch of retailers all at once and get their plants and then talk to people and get advice. And we found that that's really nice because while there are a lot of native plant retailers, they tend to be spread out and so that takes away a little bit of the effort for people of having to drive around and visit all of these different nurseries. Um, so just showing a couple of photos from events that we held over the past year. Um, fun things that you should know about here in Oakdale. Um, the first is that the Washington Conservation District got two sets of grant funding for this coming year that are for increasing pollinator habitat. So, one of them is through, you may have heard of the Lawns to Legumes, the statewide Lawns to Legumes program. Um, they have one chunk of that known as pollinator pathways and it's for creating demonstration neighborhoods and we um have funding to create demonstration neighborhoods in five different locations in Washington County. One of them is this area that's right on the east side of Tanner Lake that actually most of that area drains to Battle Creek Lake um even though it's on the the north side of the freeway. Within that area, we have funding to put in 10 to 15 new planting projects. And those can either be on private residential property. They could be at one of the city parks that's there. It could be at the school, um, you know, or at any of those commercial properties in that area also. So, we're going to be doing some outreach about that. I know that there is also a couple of the roads in there are slated for uh repaving and road improvements this year. So Brett Stolestad from our office has been talking with the city engineer about the opportunity to get curb-cut rain gardens potentially installed. Um, and usually when we've done that, we're just putting it out to residents and saying, "Hey, during the course of this happening, if you're willing to have a rain garden, you can get one for free." Um, and then the watershed district will pay for the cost of getting that installed and then you as the landowner are just agreeing to take care of it and keep it looking nice. Um, so on that topic though of planting new gardens, we also have a grant uh through the habitat enhancement landscape protection—I can never quite remember what the P in help is—but um it's to create 12 new larger planting projects around the county. And there was some funding specifically earmarked to hopefully do a pollinator planting project at Tartan High School. Um, I know that there's construction going on there so we're still kind of waiting to see if that will pan out but that is the hope. And then just always the Ramsey Washington South Washington Valley branch watershed district always have cost-share grants available for people to do native gardens and plant rain gardens and do like wetland and shoreline restoration and those can be anywhere from $500 to $15,000. So it's always available. They usually go on a rolling basis throughout the year kind of starting around April until the funds run out in the fall. But um we like to pair those with these Lawns to Legumes grants to be able to get people a little bit more support if they need it. So if you know people that live in that neighborhood, you yourself live in that neighborhood, spread the word. Um, I just thought it might be interesting to share this map with you of locations where we have previously done projects in Oakdale. So, every one of those colorful dots that you see up there on the map, 203 of them are locations where we have worked with either the city or a private landowner and did some kind of conservation project in the past. So, that's always kind of fun to see the dots. Um, we are also doing a lot of work in particular with shoreline landowners and we have a couple of upcoming workshops. One that is happening this Wednesday where we are talking with shoreline contractors about how to deal with ice heaves. There was a lot of ice heaving that happened during the wintertime. Um, I don't know that any of the lakes in Oakdale were big enough to have experienced that, but some of the slightly larger lakes up in northern part of the county, it's a big problem. Um, so we're bringing them in and talking about an ecological approach to lake shore management. We're going to be doing a shoreline restoration workshop hands-on outdoors on White Bear Lake coming up on May 20th. And then we have an online certification program for realtors that we developed last year that's just kind of always up there. It's on St. Paul Area Association of Realtors um training module and so anybody can take that and learn about best practices for shoreline. Um, then the other thing is that we have been doing a lot of work with homeowners associations in the past couple of years and they can be a really challenging audience to work with. Um, just because you have this kind of quasi-governmental entity, this board that you know nobody wants to be on and they get stuck being on and nobody is really participating in the process um you know of supporting the board—but they are suddenly tasked with managing stormwater on their site. A lot of times managing stormwater ponds and um rain gardens and all this green infrastructure without necessarily having the knowledge base that a public works department would. Um, so we have an HOA stormwater leaders course. Uh, the second one in that series is actually happening tomorrow at our office and we're doing this as a pilot with uh University of Minnesota Extension and Minnesota Sea Grant where we have uh 10 HOA leaders from different communities around the county and they're meeting with us three times and kind of learning in depth. Um, and this is a continuation of some work we did last year where we did focus groups and surveys with HOA people all around the Twin Cities area. Um, and then something else that—if you haven't ever heard about or joined us for a St. Croix River workshop on the water—we usually every summer do a workshop for local officials like environmental planning commission members and city council members and folks like that where we take people out on the St. Croix River on a riverboat and have educational presentations and talk about connections between land use and water quality. Um, kind of at the crux of why a lot of the cities participate in EMREP is because they are required to do stormwater education through the MS4 permit. And so I send out a monthly email to all of our partners and it will have information in there about things like, "this month it's all about dog poop" and "this month it's all about sweeping up grass clippings," um you know just short easily packageable information that can be shared on city websites or newsletters. Um, if we have videos we share those and we try to put that out on our platform. We did a really big push back in January this year for smart salt education and um we will be hosting a certification training for municipal staff sometime this fall and we've been doing those in partnership with uh it's now Bolton and Menk and uh MPCA for about 10 or 15 years now. Um, another thing that we do to prevent stormwater pollution is that we engage local community residents to volunteer to adopt storm drains. And so this is where you get to look at dots on a map again. Um, so far 94 people in Oakdale have adopted storm drains and there are 25,000 storm drains adopted across Minnesota, which yeah, I was like, that's pretty cool because basically all people are doing is going on a map and they're clicking and they're saying this—this storm drain, I'm going to take care of it. I'm going to go out and I'm going to uh pick up the litter and rake up the schmuck in the spring and all this stuff so it doesn't go down into the storm drain and get washed into the lakes and rivers. So, we do that in partnership with Hamline University and Watershed Partners, and we've been doing that since 2019. Um, and then last, but certainly not least, uh, we do a lot of work through volunteers and through partnerships with community organizations and nonprofit organizations that's really aimed at trying to build social capacity for environmental change. Um, we're very active in media, um, putting stuff out there on Instagram and TikTok and, you know, we've got a blog. I write stuff for the local newspapers. Um, but we do also have a cohort of water stewards—20 in Washington County right now—but we're hoping to get some more trained in in 2026. Um, so, you know, people like the tree stewards or the water stewards or the master gardeners, um, we try to utilize their support and you know those extra hands as much as we can because there's only one me and it's a big county. Um, but then one special program that I did want to mention and I brought along some flyers—so if you know teenagers in your life, you could share a flyer with them about it—um, we are trying out a career explorations program that is going to be happening in June and it's for rising juniors and seniors. We're really hoping to target students from Tartan High School just because it's, you know, so close to our office. But basically, they would be coming out for three days for three weeks in a row and just spending the full day getting to do all these hands-on what it is that we do for a living. So, one day would be all about water monitoring and they get to try out the equipment and go and collect water samples and another day learning about erosion control and get to put on a hard hat and a vest and go out and inspect a construction site and you know on the final day they're going to learn how to fly drones and get to take a little drone home with them. Yes. So, um, hoping to really seal the deal with that. Um, but yeah, but it it's also that we are wanting to just introduce people or introduce youth to kind of the world of natural resource careers. Um, ones that you might need a college degree for and also ones that you might not need a college degree for because there's kind of a lot of options and a lot of times students aren't necessarily thinking about that, you know. So we'd like to try to make connections with them early on. Um, and uh, just to share, you know, one more map with one more set of dots. This is kind of our our plan for 2025 through 2027. All the different locations where we're planning to be doing events or special programming in in the next three years in partnership with everyone. So, I'm happy to answer questions if you have any questions or conversation or I can pass around flyers if you want to grab any for those high schoolers you know in your life. And if there's more left when they get down to Hannah, then she can just have them be available somewhere around here. Thank you. **[16:45] Chair Girding:** Questions. **[16:47] Commissioner Fenstermaker:** Did you—Oh, I was going to ask um how many individuals are you looking for for that career exploration program? **[16:55] Angie Hong:** Um, ideally around 10. Um, we want to keep it small enough that it's manageable and um yeah, I think 10 was kind of that target number we were looking for. **[17:05] Commissioner Fenstermaker:** Oh, there's three different ones. **[17:07] Angie Hong:** And I am not—I mean I'm going to be helping out a couple times during the week—but uh one of my co-workers, Jessica Sahutelli, who you can probably see her smiling face on one of those flyers, um she's kind of taken lead on it. She's a former high school teacher and um you know, has a lot of experience working with high school youth. So, it's something that we're hoping that will be a fun—fun new program to do. **[17:35] Commissioner Fenstermaker:** Yeah, I think it's interesting. That's why I'm asking. **[17:37] Angie Hong:** Yep. So, small enough cohort that hopefully the kids get to know us and we get to know them and don't um you know it's not so big that they get lost in the shuffle because we are hoping to that you know they could eventually come back and be interns or seasonal staff people for us sometime during college or after college... **[17:55] Chair Girding:** Or for the city. **[17:56] Angie Hong:** Or for the city or for the city. Yes. And we—Yeah, we we will tell them that. I know. **[18:00] Chair Girding:** Well, just a couple of—a few handful of comments and and reflections and then um just probably a two-parter question if I can. So, first off, thank you. Um, a lot of resources here. I think we love having the opportunity of intersecting because our work plan as my question is going to lead up to intersects with so many things that—and see if I get this right—EMREP does correctly. You've shortened it. Um, and just you just so you know, this commission as a volunteer body has adopted three drains, as you may know, in Walton Park. Um, I know many of us probably have done that individually. I've done three on our corner in our neighborhood. And then we are the recipients of a beautiful two-stage or two-year reimbursable grant from both WCD and um, Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District. So speaking to the impact of what we do now, impacting generations to come, it's happening. Yeah. Um so I guess my question really is um is is twofold. You know, our our work, as we've all talked about, is never really done in silos. We oftentimes think that it is from a work plan perspective, but we're all interconnected and related in terms of the inputs and outcomes that we—that we want. So thinking about our work plan in general, I guess what—and the things that you um had aptly noted that are coming up for you in your own space—what barriers oftentimes surface at the intersection of commissions being an extension of your advocacy, outreach, communication because we are all taking what you share and running it to ground, sharing social media posts? So from either a residential perspective, a private homeowner or a business, um I guess what kind of barriers are you seeing surface and the normal things and then what kinds of things are you seeking support or guidance or counsel from um either city staff or commissions like ours to help kind of either disrupt those barriers or educate differently or something like that. **[20:15] Angie Hong:** Yeah. Um, well, I guess the—the first challenge that we always find is just how to get the word out. And so it makes me so happy to hear that your commission is really proactive on taking those programs and messages and sharing them. Um, because believe it or not, not all cities do. Um, even though they're a part of the EMREP Partnership, you know, and they pay the annual fee to be in the program and then, you know, we—we send this stuff and it's like is anybody—has anybody ever finding this? So, you know, how are—how are people finding out about it? Um, so that—that's good to hear. One of the challenges that we do encounter is that we're really—I wouldn't say really good, but we're fairly good at getting at people who are already interested or like a certain kind of people. You know, people like you, people who are in a garden club, people who are in a birding club. Um, and then there's, you know, all the other people who exist and they're not necessarily opposed to native gardens or trees or—but, you know, they're just not—they're not running in the circle and so much of what we do because we lack the financial resources. So much of what we do ends up going through word of mouth. And so, you know, if somebody isn't in that kind of social circle, they're not finding out about it. And, um, you know, so it's always like, how do we get outside of the choir—how do we get to, you know, different groups of people that we don't already know? Um, and that is also one of the motivations for like, hey, maybe if we can engage some of these high school youth who aren't already thinking about us, you know, that helps also to engage their families or their kind of wider social circles. Um, but I would love to know, yeah, more about what the commission is planning and because, you know, what kind of support we can provide if there's anything that you have going on that um feels like it could use extra technical expertise or um, you know, like I said, there's a—there's a lot of different groups that are leveraging volunteers. Jessica, the same one who's running the um high school program, she's also filling in the new role—kind of new to us—of being a volunteer coordinator. And so um we can also lean into her a little bit too if there's volunteer events that you're needing help recruiting people for and things like that or just managing the volunteers. **[22:45] Chair Girding:** Great. Thanks. Yeah. Other questions from commission members? **[22:50] Commissioner Yang:** What—what do you think the um biggest uh success that you've had in the last couple years has been? **[22:58] Angie Hong:** Um, I think that I have seen, I mean, not just in the past couple of years, but I've been at this for almost 20 years now, and the movement of native landscaping has really, really grown during that time because I remember when I first started, it was a fringe thing. And I remember, you know, the very first demonstration rain gardens at the county fairgrounds and people, we'd actually take them on tours to see them. People would, you know, they—they bring the newspaper and they'd be like, "I saw in the newspaper that you have a rain garden here that I can visit." Um, you know, and now they're—now they're everywhere. The rain gardens are everywhere. Um, you know, there's so many schools and churches and just all sorts of places that are putting in native gardens. So, that's exciting. Um, and it seems like nobody has a look of confusion on their face anymore when I talk about it. They're usually nodding like, "Oh, yeah. I have an example in my yard or at my neighbor's yard." That's—that's—that's a noticeable change. **[24:05] Commissioner Lash:** Yeah. Are there spots to find uh information or like resources on like more technical information on these things if we wanted to like create our own little infographic type things just to put out there, you know? **[24:18] Angie Hong:** Sure. **[24:19] Commissioner Lash:** Like on just uh a specific one of the topics—just any of the statistics or anything like that as far as things that you've already like installed or you know kind of information that's in this packet kind... **[24:32] Angie Hong:** Okay. Yeah. Um, so like that map that I showed you of the like where all the conservation projects were in Oakdale—that is on the Washington Conservation District website which is mnwcd.org. Um, and we do have a lot of other technical resources there. Um, that one is actually like—the full map shows all of the county and it's got all sorts of layers that can be turned on and off. Um, but we do also list all of our events on there if there's upcoming events. Um, you know, there's a tree sale that happens every year and people come and pick them up at the end of April. So, we're coming up on that. Most of the trees are sold out by now, but there are a couple species that are still remaining. Um, but yeah, so that—that's kind of a technical resource for native plantings. Bluethumb.org is a really great technical resource and they are affiliated with the Lawns to Legumes program, but they also just have a lot—a lot of resources on where are native plant nurseries, um, you know, online courses and modules that you can take, um, you know who are the local partners in our area and they have um a lot of stuff there too. **[25:45] Commissioner Lash:** Yeah. Awesome. Is that something you'd encourage then like—or does it need to go through an official channel or something like that? **[25:52] Angie Hong:** Nope. **[25:53] Commissioner Lash:** Okay. Sweet. **[25:54] Angie Hong:** Spread the love. Um, and just when I was thinking of Blue Thumb, it made me think also container gardens um because they do have a couple of planting designs for container gardens, which is something that um we'd like to be able to share that and have more of those at rental properties, mobile home parks, senior—senior living, you know, just places where people are interested in being able to do something um but they don't necessarily have that they can be learning in. **[26:25] Chair Girding:** Mhm. A related random—that's a two R—uh, follow-up question regarding the um the metrics on the page. Do you know—and this might be more of a question for Lauri, um W Washington Conservation District—but do you know how often they update this data? It looks like it's a G GIS poll, but it's a—it is um I want to say continually updated, but it's also so basically we have this monster database which is it's like a machine and people request a site visit and you know that information gets in there and then as our staff starts following up and they start doing projects, it's tracking the progress and then once the project is actually completed then the metrics will show up on the BMP database that will have things like what size was the planting project? Did it have a phosphorus reduction? Um, was there like a sediment reduction? Because there's also really big projects that are on there. Things like um stabilizing an eroding ravine at a farm field. Uh, so a little rain garden might not have that big of an impact, but those ones have like a really big impact. And then with the layers, you can do calculations too. You can just show all the dots that are in one watershed and be able to demonstrate like how much of a pollution reduction impact we had for particular stream or particular lake. So we do that also when we're working with the watershed districts on you know trying to clean up an impaired water body—that kind of thing. **[28:10] Chair Girding:** Okay, other questions, comments. Well, we have two words again and thank you. That was wonder—that was wonderful. **[28:20] Angie Hong:** Yeah, thank you. **[28:21] Chair Girding:** Thanks, Angie. Thanks. All right. I think next up we have our presentation from—city staff Max some zoning ordinances. Zoning ordinances. Okay. Thanks. **[28:35] Max Lozi:** Good evening and thank you environmental management commissioners. I'm excited to be here tonight with one of my favorite topics—if you can believe that. Um, yep. Um, so tonight we've got the zoning and subdivision code update. Uh, my intent here is for the—to inform you about what we've taken so far on this project and then to also let this be an open conversation with any questions you might have. Fully understand that a lot of the sections in this part of the code uh for the city code are parts that the environmental management commission might not run into as much as say the planning commission. Um, so please stop me at any point if I'm using any jargon or if there's a concept or policy you have questions regarding. Just a little background on this project. Um, our goal here is mainly to evaluate the zoning and subdivision code ordinance and diagnose existing issues. Um, zoning, um, for those who aren't familiar, uh, breaks down what is allowed in the city of Oakdale based on where the land is and the different standards that the uses on the land need to meet. And subdivision uh concerns how land is divided. Um, the city hired HKGI, a Twin Cities-based planning and urban design firm to help us out with this project. And in terms of everything we're looking at, um, it's quite a bit—hundreds of pages—but just to sum it up, we have the zoning chapter, which just some selections include zoning districts, planned unit developments, which I'll talk about a little bit later. Um, building standards, which includes designs, parking, screening, and fences, and other components. Zoning administration—so our process, procedures, due process, etc. Um, signs and definitions, subdivisions uh which is a separate chapter, trees um just the tree preservation component. The rest we're not touching and leaving to the city forester. And then planning and development, which is mainly about the planning commission. So, a few things on the objectives here. Our main goal is to make it easier to use and modernize the zoning code. Um, as you might know, we have quite a bit of development applications and growth in the city—for anyone on the development bus tour. And the last time we touched the code in um entirety was 2008 and quite a few things have changed since then. Um, we're also looking to align the code with any of the plans we've done in recent years—Bike and pedestrian plan, make it easier to implement bike and pedestrian infrastructure, ensure that everything is legal with our state statutes and federal laws and different court rulings, and then facilitate any redevelopment and development goals. We started this last March. Um, most of the time is writing the code. Um, it's a pretty complex project. Um, we are currently in the midst of getting the um first the draft ready for legal review so that we can take it back to our commissions and the city council and get some input on some other policy components and looking to adopt ideally in June of 2025. And so tonight, um, I just want to highlight some portions of the code that I think the EMC might be interested in. And if there's any other things maybe you read in a planning article or something, there's a chance that we might also be looking at it as a part of the code update. So feel free to let me know. Um, specific topics include zoning districts, parking, and landscaping and trees. So, diving into zoning districts. Um, just for a little context, there are currently 14 districts in the city of Oakdale. Six of which are residential, six are commercial, and two are infrastructure or open space districts, which include wetland and tower. There's also planned unit developments um which I'll explain a bit more in detail later, and two overlay districts—shoreland and floodplane—which we're not touching. Residential districts um comprise most of the uses in the city. Uh, oftentimes we find that the housing isn't super well defined in the existing code and the different uses are cumulative. So single family is allowed in the same district where we allow very high density apartments. Um, and there's some inconsistencies with the comp plan. Uh, generally when we're working on the residential component of the code, we're looking to put things into tables so that it's easier to see exactly what's allowed, where you live, um what the standards are, and then align the uses with any state statutes, and then streamline some things, open up some other uses as well. Moving on to business or commercial districts—um, half of these districts really aren't used much at all. Um, Gateway uh which is one of our districts that just comprises the northwest corner of 494—694 and I-94—is just four parcels. Um, limited business is two or three parcels and C-1 is just a handful of parcels uh that are mainly gas stations. Um, generally each of these business districts lists what's allowed individually. Um, some there are some pretty unusual and specific ones laid out. Music sheet stores, dance halls, um, things that might not be super common anymore or maybe we can better just define that as goods and services or something more simple. So, we're looking to simplify that, create tables to see exactly what's allowed. You can just look up your address and see what's permitted in the district. Um, looking to make sure that we have appropriate standards for each use and considering um some additional standards and for industrial buildings for infrastructure. Um, we're a little bit unusual in this regard. Um, so cell towers or radio towers have to be their own specific parcel of land whereas in most cities that's just allowed as part—say part of an industrial district. Um, so we're wrapping that into one district to try to simplify things. And then wetlands we're looking at using as an overlay district instead of having a parcel zoned as a wetland since wetlands don't follow nice clean lines um like a lot of our residential parcels do. So planned unit developments are a special kind of zoning district um which is pretty common in Oakdale. It can be for either residential, commercial or a mix of uses. And it often involves um a developer in the city negotiating and getting a—giving a little bit of zoning flexibility in exchange for maybe some features the city might want to see. Um, 29% of the land is currently zoned PUD. Uh, a lot of it there just weren't standards that were considered back when they were developed. It was just an agreement. The houses were built and it was left at that. So there are portions of the city where it's a bit of a gray zone of say someone wants to add on to their house or um install a greenhouse. It's—it's unclear exactly what's actually allowed there. Uh, we were considering reducing the minimum lot area for a PUD and then um making sure that there's just more standards in general for PUDs to follow. Um, for reference, there are some planned unit developments um that the city develop came up with the standards for itself and serve as sort of special districts including the Helmo station bus rapid transit oriented district and the Greenway station as well as the Tartan Crossing area which is by—and entails the area by Highway 36 where the Oakdale Mall used to be. Um, we're not touching those at all. So, I just wanted to go through. We're sort of trying to combine these to the best of our ability, help streamline and simplify things. So, R-2 and R-3 are almost identical um zoning districts. That's low density and low-density housing uh which are just becoming one low-density housing district. We're combining um neighborhood commercial and community commercial into one zoning district. We are adding a mixed-use district um to allow for more um walkable areas where you can combine businesses and residential um components um as well as um combining the gateway district and limited business into employment zoning. So I think corporate campuses or office and renaming some others and uh making wetland a overlay district and just making tower part of industrial. Um, some of the changes that apply to residential areas uh which might be of interest. Currently, no changes to the R-1 lowest density district which comprises less than 10% of the residential land in the city. Um, the R-2 district we will allow or are proposing to allow um two dwellings, townhouses and courtyard cottages. A courtyard cottage is sort of a newer um housing type that we haven't seen much of in Minnesota. Uh, but our consultant brought up as might be a good fit. It's essentially a few smaller uh single-family houses that might be a bit closer together and are surrounded by a shared garden or courtyard space. We're also adding that use to the R-4 district and for our high-density R-5 district um we're removing duplexes and single-family units um just to keep that more focused on high-density multi-family. I want to talk a bit about parking because that's somewhere where we're proposing a good chunk of changes. Um, we find a lot of the time that the current parking requirements exceed a lot of the needs of the community and are higher than other cities. Um, we're looking to consolidate the requirements, make them easier to follow um and put them into a table that's where you can look up the use and thus how much parking is allowed. Generally, we're looking at reducing minimum space counts across the board. Um, making it so that less pavement overall is required for each development and it focuses more on which parking um which uses actually need that much parking and then simplifying how it's calculated. Right now, the zoning code um requires parking to be calculated in many cases for things that we won't have the information for after a year or two. For example, a lot of industrial properties are calculated based on the number of employees. The amount of employees in any given industrial zone is significantly lower than it has been in the past and that changes from month to month even. So, uh, it can be challenging in the future when someone wants to reuse that property for us to know what's going on then. So, just kind of a fun question—if there's um any uses in the city you think are particularly overparked or underparked, um feel free to share those and we can make sure that it's lining up with our current parking standards. Um, I know we've heard before that a lot of the the large grocery stores, some of that parking never exceeds more than a third of the people parking there. Um, movie theaters, industrial offices oftentimes don't—don't reach anywhere near even half of the amount of parking. **[40:15] Commissioner Yang:** Mhm. Feel free to chip in if there's any other. **[40:20] Commissioner Brennan:** Dock 86 is uh that's pretty excessive. That's the old movie theater lot. That's ridiculous. **[40:30] Max Lozi:** Yeah, we actually made a special category just to reduce that parking and it's still quite a bit. Um, so we are looking into reducing that one quite a bit as well. Ideally, there are actually two commercial sites attached to that Home Furniture. Um, we—we're hopeful one of them will be a restaurant or bar eventually, and that might lead to a little bit more parking demand, but it's probably—it's pretty excessive at points as well. So, landscaping and trees. Um, generally we're looking to consolidate and clarify the standards. Um, there's currently two different landscaping standard sections and they overlap a bit and it's confusing. And the way that ordinances work is whichever one is more um strict, you just follow that one anyway. Um, so we have two really right now where we're not following one. Um, we're looking—um, I should change that. We're not so much adjusting the tree count as changing how it could be calculated because we want to make sure we're not reducing standards for landscaping, but sometimes the—right now it's based on the term "landscaped green area," which isn't defined. And we want to consider recalculating or changing how that's calculated or at least better define it so that it's—say defined as the area where impervious surfaces are required in a given development or something similar just to make sure no one's challenging on the—challenging us on that. Um, tree preservation, if you're familiar—um, whenever a new development goes into Oakdale, if there are existing trees on site, they're allowed to remove a small amount by right and then the remainder of the trees um need to be replaced usually on a 2:1 or something similar schedule uh in order so that when a new development comes in, we'll at least get that tree canopy back in the future. Um, we find that this is our trickiest part of the code to understand. Um, right now there are three scenarios where it kicks in. Um, grading—grading is pretty well defined. Um, building and development—neither of which are defined. And whether or not building and development are the same or if they stack on top of each other, we—we have trouble figuring that out. So we're proposing some new um criteria. So, anytime we have a major residential subdivision, we'd want to make sure those trees are replaced, um, anytime a new uh commercial, industrial, institutional, or multi-family project comes in, uh we require what's called a site plan. So, we would make sure it's implemented there as well. Grading, we're going to keep um new principal buildings. What that is is a principal building is the main building on any given lot. Um, so if you live in a single-family house, your—your house is the primary uh building and your garage is accessory. So if there happens to be an empty lot or you knock down your house and build a new one, we'd want to make sure tree preservation comes in. And then if we remove more than I think we're proposing 25 or 30% of trees on an undeveloped parcel um then those be replaced just to prevent a developer from clear-cutting a empty parcel or something like that down the line and then that way they don't have to pay it in the future. Uh, we want to make sure that we're covering that scenario. So that is a summary of hundreds of pages of code and there's a—there's a lot of material that I'm not covering and I realize I likely spoken a good bit of jargon there so I really do want to open it up for questions or any comments or policy questions etc. **[44:45] Commissioner Lash:** Yeah I have a question. So, for the wetland districts, I know you're turning them into overlays, but is there—the existing water uh wetland districts—are they all being changed to like R-1, like the open district, or is that a case-by-case basis for that? **[45:00] Max Lozi:** Yeah. We admittedly, we still need to check with our legal department on some of that. Um, the Minnesota state wetland laws are actually more um aggressive than our wetland district. Sure. Um, so whether or not it's an overlay or it's removed, the protection would still be in place. Um, because that ordinance was written quite a long time ago. Um, there are some components of it that um we need to patch up including giving ourselves the ability to delineate wetlands which just wouldn't—that's not how the process is followed um today. **[45:45] Commissioner Anderson:** Um, I just want to better understand the word—because you kept using the word "replace" right—when it comes to tree preservation. Replace—what I know what replace mean—but when you say replace that means replace it within the same area or with—like within the same lot? **[46:00] Max Lozi:** Mhm. Yeah. So generally we would be looking to replace it within the same lot or development or at least nearby. Um, at least that would be for the applicant. Uh, we've structured it where that would be financially probably the best option. Um, we are going to put in something that would allow it to be put in a nearby park or collect a fee in lieu if it's last-case scenario. Um, but generally we would look for it to be replaced on site to mitigate the loss of that tree to its localized impact if possible. **[46:40] Commissioner Brennan:** There's been a lot of um talk about the the Tanner's redevelopment. So, is that a candidate for the emerging mixed-use designation or is that something entirely different? Just kind of trying to think about how we should think about how to think about that. **[46:58] Max Lozi:** Yeah. Oh, I appreciate that. I think the Tanner's Lake development would be a great candidate if we were doing it um like a year in the future after we've adopted this because we don't have a mixed-use district now. Um, we were kind of held back by the zoning for that project and uh we ended up working with a consultant to draft a brand new planned unit development um just in that—that style of development isn't considered in our code right now and ideally after we adopt this it would be. **[47:35] Chair Girding:** Thanks. **[47:36] Commissioner Yang:** Yeah. Why aren't um you mentioned there are six business districts. Why aren't three of them being used very much? **[47:45] Max Lozi:** So, so as I answer that, I—I want to preface that some of this might be speculation as you know, we—we some of these districts we adopted when we formed as a city in 1974 and they've been added to, removed, rezoned, merged over the years and finding the intention behind it can be like a needle in a haystack, especially when record-keeping wasn't as great. Um, the gateway district uh is intended to create sort of a gateway use for that parcel off of 94 and 694. Create something big and flashy and exciting. So that's the intentionality with that district and we're trying to keep that intentionality there. Um, with limited business—I will be honest, we've looked at the commercial district and compared that one and we're not sure. We can't find documentation. Um, it's possible it used to be more different and it was loosened up over the years. Um, sometimes it's just a matter of being hard to—hard to tell after a long time period of time. **[48:55] Chair Girding:** Thinking ahead a little bit also—well, first thank you for all of this. My goodness. And I just generally grateful as a commission to have the opportunity to have line of sight and awareness in terms of process and where we intersect and what kind of counsel or thoughts you want us to muse over on this. Um, do you have a general timeline in terms of what we would expect to see next as we also plan for our next commission meeting in May? **[49:25] Max Lozi:** Yeah, I can—I can give a general um timeline. I do want to preface that things can come up with zoning code updates, but uh right now we're looking at getting our first legal draft done and ideally getting it back mid-May or mid-April in which case we would take it to the city council and planning commission in which case the uh text would become available and I'd be happy to share that with Hannah once it's available so that that can be sent on to the EMC. Um, and then we'll go ideally in June look to adopt in which case the text will be available and we'd welcome any input. We're also working on creating a map that shows the zoning districts as they are now and how they're changing and it'll have some text—if you click on your house or a parcel, you know, and in a few sentences um try to say what that actually means for you. Um, so we're looking to have that tool up uh around the time that we take it for um initial input to the city council and planning commission. **[50:35] Chair Girding:** Thanks. Any other thoughts, comments? Great. Great. Thank you very much, Max. **[50:45] Max Lozi:** Yeah. Thanks very much. Thanks environmental management commissioners. And again, feel free to reach out to myself or Hannah if you have additional questions with this. **[50:55] Chair Girding:** All right. Well, moving on uh to the next section of our meeting tonight, we have our EMC commission review. Starting with I think uh old business from last month beginning with a recap and status update of our upcoming EcoFair next month. Hannah, do you want to provide a update? **[51:15] Hannah Dunn:** Yes, absolutely. We are just over a month away from the EcoFair. Um, things are really starting to take shape. Um, in your memo there's a ton of new information. Um, the food truck is confirmed. That's normally the one that's at our farmers market. So they will be there. Um, delicious food. Um, recreation department is still um finalizing some family-friendly activities, but um you know Angie said that they will have uh likely a—a family activity at their booth. Master Gardeners have said um that their milkweed monarchs and pollinators team will have um some fun activities. Uh, and then I'm still trying to see if Gateway Cycle might be interested in the bike uh repair clinic or if the Oakdale Library—I've reached out to both of them um but nothing's—nothing's confirmed or taken shape quite yet. Um, but I'll continue trying to um get—get more activities in that space. Um, and then promotion plan. Uh, our community—our communication specialist is back from leave. Um, so there's been um an event created on Facebook and we'll continue throughout the next month and a half to—to push it on social media. Um, the—a flyer has been created. I will be sending that out shortly um to the EMC. You can share it on social media. You can share it with friends. Um, I can print some off for you if you—if you'd like hard copies um to just spread the word. Uh, the Suburban Community Channel's presence has been requested. I'm not sure if they're able to make it, but they were at our Little Brook Commons grand opening. They're at lots of city events and they make really lovely short videos that capture the day. Um, and then, you know, I listened back to the minutes, wrote down all the ideas that you came up with at the February meeting. So, we're looking into some of those to see if we can incorporate them into the communications plan as well. And then we have over 15 vendors confirmed. Some will have multiple tables. So hopefully that space starts to really fill out. Um, we've got—every—we've got a whole variety. We've got some energy efficiency home energy vendors. We've got lots of native landscape pollinators uh vendors. Um, Merit Chevrolet—they'll have an EV. Um, they'll have a table, but they'll also have an EV in the parking lot if people want to take a look at it. It won't be a ride and drive component, but it'll just be there if people have got questions. Um, solar, uh, pollinators. Yeah, it's we kind of hit all the different sections when we started brainstorming vendors um months ago. So, that's really taking shape. Um, and then the expectation is that commissioners are there to help. Um, I don't have specific assignments quite yet, but I'll as—as things start to um kind of—we start to get them finalized, I can send those out just via email or we can always just kind of figure it out the day of. Um, but setup should be starting around 8:00 a.m. Uh, and then teardown should be wrapping up by 2:00 p.m. Um, so please let me know if you're only able to make it for a portion of the day. Um, we'd love to have you there the whole day just to kind of help—help it move along. Are there any questions or comments? **[54:30] Commissioner Lash:** Looks good. **[54:32] Chair Girding:** I sense a theme tonight, but a comment again of thank you. Like we always wonder how to help and we're always here to help. And it's just—it's I don't know if it's a last-minute Minnesota thing. We're just—it always comes together at the last minute, but I know that's not—that's not due to anything that's been not happening or happening at the city level. So, it's just vendor commitments and participation and communications. It's always a 30 to 40 or 45-day window I've found in planning events. So, thanks for doing it. This is very exciting. So, happy to be there. Yeah. **[55:10] Hannah Dunn:** Any other questions or comments for that one? Great. All right. Thanks, Hannah. No, moving to new business. I guess another update from Hannah, our—I guess regarding our 2025 fall cleanup event. **[55:25] Hannah Dunn:** Yes. Yeah, I'll recap. Um, the 2024 event—it was um a fantastic day, really successful. We had over 300 cars come through. Weather was a little uh iffy at—at some points, kind of cold and windy, but that didn't stop people from coming and dropping off um their waste. Uh, we had four different vendors there with Tennis Sanitation—they were collecting general trash, small engines, appliances, and then Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations—they were the electronics vendor. Um, that was kind of a partnership with Washington County. They covered the cost of Dynamic to be there and then Dynamic was the ones who were actually taking and recycling the electronics. Second Chance Recycling—that's a really awesome uh group that organization that takes mattresses and actually breaks them down and recycles them. I think um we collected 69 mattresses and 96 were actually recycled and only 4% were landfilled. So uh that's another really great partnership between Ramsey Washington uh recycling and energy center and um—and Second Chance. So they offered discounts. So, um, the R&E covered most of the costs for labor, transportation, recycling and then um the city was only responsible for $10 per item. And then ME—Metropolitan Mosquito Control District—they picked up the tires for free. Um, so those vendors really made the event possible. Um, the—the attachment is the flyer from 2024 if you're kind of curious um what the prices were. Um, and then the table in the me memo really breaks down how much we actually collected, which was—it was quite a bit. So um that all—you know we kind of kept it out of the landfill—moved it to—you know what we could kept it out of the landfill and then moved it in the right—in the right waste stream. So um with the success of 2024, council is on board to have an event in 2025 and have annual events going forward. So the date for this year is Saturday September 20th, same timeframe 9:00 a.m. um to 1:00 p.m. It'll again be at the current public works campus um just down the road. Um, same vendors pretty much will be there. We do have a different um small engines vendor um keeps—keeps them out of landfill, refurbishes uh the small engines. Are there any questions? We're still quite a few months away, but we're already starting to plan for that event. **[58:15] Chair Girding:** Just to—I guess point of clarity, did we have any type of specific small engine partner at 2024 event? **[58:20] Hannah Dunn:** Tennis took them. **[58:21] Chair Girding:** Oh, Tennis did. Okay. **[58:22] Hannah Dunn:** Tennis took them. Okay. **[58:23] Chair Girding:** Okay. **[58:24] Hannah Dunn:** But this—this the Pete's Small Engines—that's who's—that's who Maplewood uses. Um, so they reached out and um we're going to go with this person, this vendor. **[58:35] Commissioner Fenstermaker:** Given budgets, are we anticipating roughly the same amount of fee structure? **[58:40] Hannah Dunn:** Yes. Um, council when we went back uh January, they were supportive of keeping the fees similar. Um, we kind of have to see what the vendors like Tennis—if they raise their prices, um, it might be possible that we raise ours just a little bit. Um, but they're going to be very comparable. That was—that was council's direction. **[59:00] Commissioner Brennan:** Other comments for cleanup. I have my list ready. **[59:05] Chair Girding:** Great. Thanks again. Well, next up, I think we move to staff, commissioner, and council liaison updates. And I think first up, we have a review of our 2025 editorial calendar and always in coordination and support from Oakdale's comms and communications department. Um, if you'd like to walk us through what's in front of us and we can provide some insight. **[59:30] Hannah Dunn:** Yes. Thanks. So first staff—please update just to walk through the editorial calendar and then I have um just one general community development update. Um, so using uh the conversation about the editorial calendar at the February meeting, I kind of reworked some things. Um, a lot of great suggestions from commissioners. Um, so looking ahead: April EcoFair will be um the main focus; May um it was one of the commissioners ideas to move water conservation to that month—we're also going to keep walk—bicycling and walking in that month too because that's when national bike month is and bike to work week. So um it'll be kind of a—a dual theme that month. Uh, June um renewable energy and energy efficiency. I think June last year had been renewable energy and now we just kind of added energy efficiency. It'll be good time to get people thinking about things that they can do in their home before it gets cold or even ways to make your home more energy efficient during the summer. July is still going plastic free uh just because it's Plastic Free July and there's just a lot of good um resources and um momentum in that month for that theme. August again miscellaneous—just whatever is timely, relevant. Um, September is also staying the same with electric vehicles—it's National Electric Drive Month. Um, October, um, I kept as energy efficiency as well um as maybe just another fall push for um you know winterizing your home, thinking about energy efficiency. November's reuse and recycling might be a good time to promote a lot of the different Washington County recycling campaigns—food scraps pickup. Um, there's America Recycles Day November 15th. So um that's going—I think that was the theme for the for 2024 as well. And then December low waste holidays is always just a good reminder to people to try and reduce waste um during those times. And then ongoing content through the year—I added at the bottom just promotion of the food scraps pickup program. That's just always something we're going to pro—promote. And then just general sustainability—that had been a suggestion for a theme, um, but I think again we can just weave it in throughout the entire year. Any questions? **[1:02:15] Chair Girding:** Just a comment. You did change it up. The—the flow seems more—it seems more robust and comprehensive and now it's all the way through December. Thank you. **[1:02:25] Hannah Dunn:** Oh, yes. It's great. Any other comments from commissioners questions? Okay, thanks again. Thank you. Then general community development updates before I forget. Yes. Um, Gold Line opens this weekend. Um, 4 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 40 seconds is the most recent countdown on their website. **[1:02:45] Chair Girding:** I'm sorry. I apologize. You have a countdown clock? **[1:02:48] Hannah Dunn:** They have a countdown clock. **[1:02:49] Chair Girding:** Got it. **[1:02:50] Hannah Dunn:** I just have their site up. Um, there's all sorts of opening day activities. So, if you wanted to participate, um just Google Metro Transit Gold Line. You go to their webpage and it's pretty much the first link right at the top. Um, there's ribbon cutting. Um, there's a ceremonial first ride leaves the Woodlane Park and Ride at 10:45. Um, for from Saturday, March 22nd to Friday, March 28th, there's free line—free rides on the Gold Line. So, good time to take advantage of—just—just take a little trip on the Gold Line with, you know, no particular destination. Um, see what it's all about. And then um at—at the Woodlane Park and Ride and then I believe at Sunray, there's um all sorts of events going on. Kids Art Table, um the meet Metro—you can meet the Metro Transit mascot, Skip Traffic. Um, I didn't know they had a mascot, but could be a good opportunity to um check it out. Uh, who named that one? Like the snowplow? All right. So there's food trucks, there's hot chocolate, cookie cart. Um, could be a really fun opportunity if you've got nothing going on. So, just wanted to share that. Um, but that's all on their website. So, if you just Google Metro Transit Gold Line, you can find all of that and keep track of the countdown if you'd like. That's—that's the big update. **[1:04:30] Chair Girding:** All right. Well, thanks. Guess moving on. Um, commissioner updates. Anyone of you have fun things happening—like to share with this group? Time starts now. **[1:04:40] Commissioner Brennan:** Just a plug again for the uh Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed uh program. Uh, they're not—definitely not a reimbursable grant and then one and done. They also have maintenance and ongoing grant. So if anybody's considering how am I going to actually steward and care for this beyond what's in the scope of the agreement and all the stuff that you normally do as caring for natives and rain gardens and swales and everything—they can help. So just to say it's not—not one and done. There's ongoing maintenance grants that you can apply for. So FYI. Yep. **[1:05:20] Chair Girding:** All right. Well, Mr. Mayor, we'd like to invite you, our EMC city council liaison, to present. The floor is yours. **[1:05:30] Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, everybody. Um, staff pretty much took all of my updates, which is pretty great. I'm not mad about that. **[1:05:38] Chair Girding:** You have a countdown clock? **[1:05:40] Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Many probably. The—the gold—my gold line countdown clock has been eight years. So we are very excited um to see not only that project come to fruition but all of the the development and infrastructure improvements around that project. Um, you know here in Oakdale obviously without the bus rapid transit line things like replacing the 4th Street bridge which was woefully inadequate and unsafe um and the construction of the new Helmo-Bielenberg bridge—Woodbury likes to say Bielenberg, but our name first. Um, things like that wouldn't happen without um this—this Gold Line project. So um even if you know residents aren't utilizing mass transit, there are still benefits that they can enjoy um throughout our community, which is very exciting. Even you know new bridges all the way down the line from—from Woodbury all the way to St. Paul. So it is a pretty exciting time. We encourage our—our residents to come check out the the ribbon-cutting events on Saturday, the community celebrations, and just hop on the bus, check it out. Um, they're—they're going to be pretty cool. So um and it's a nice way to see what's going on in other communities along the route as well. So, we hope everybody takes advantage of that. Um, in terms of what council has been working on, you know Max uh did a great job—the the planning and zoning update has been a pretty big lift on our plate uh for the last—well, year. Recognizing that our community is changing, the things like parking mandates have really changed in terms of how consumers interact with, you know, commercial spaces. Um, Commissioner Brennan, you brought up Home Furniture—you know, that was uh reducing their parking minimums was probably the first one we did a handful of years ago that really started opening our eyes to say, you know, consumers are interacting with businesses differently than they ever have before. Then we had COVID where people were driving up to get their groceries—obviously that changes um our behavior as local government as well. So um all of these plans are kind of coming together at the same time which is pretty exciting. You know, add in things like the the park system plan update—council is starting to look at numbers associated with a lot of those ideas that came from our community. So that's rolling right along. We're getting close to finalizing that. The Bike and Ped Plan which I think all of our city commissions worked on 2023–24—Hannah I'm looking at you—it was adopted in 2023 and had it been kind of a multi-year process—so, you know, it—it seems like we have a lot of these planning conversations taking place but for a community that is growing, um a community that is now 50 years old, we are re-looking at our infrastructure needs as a city but also as a region—so all of these things are kind of coming to a head all at the same time. So, it's kind of exciting. Um, otherwise, the—the big thing that's going on right now is we're just gearing up for a very big summer infrastructure season. So, from the annual street improvement program which will be taking place south of 7th Street, west of Hadley, kind of in the—the Tanner Lake around Greenway area. Um, we're repainting a water tower—the one west of 694. That's always a big and very expensive endeavor, but it hasn't been done for 25 years. Um, also looking at our routine park improvements—we have that going on as well. So, a lot of those infrastructure programs or projects are taking place this summer. So, there will be some disruption. There will be some detours. We appreciate everybody's patience, but the work has to get done. So um that's always um something to look forward to as spring turns to summer. Other than that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Nothing. All righty. Thanks everybody. **[1:10:45] Chair Girding:** Thank you. Well, I think this brings us to the end of our agenda for the evening. Our next meeting uh the EMC will occur on Monday, May 19th at 7:00 p.m. in council chambers. If there is no further discussion, I'd like to call for a motion to adjourn tonight's um meeting of the EMC. **[1:11:05] Commissioner Anderson:** So moved. **[1:11:07] Commissioner Lash:** Second. **[1:11:08] Chair Girding:** Awesome. All in favor of adjournment of this meeting say I. **[1:11:12] Commissioners:** I. **[1:11:13] Chair Girding:** Opposed. Great. Meeting adjourned. Thanks everyone. **[1:11:16] Everyone:** Thank you.