[0:00] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: That's right, we have three. Um, it's a quorum. All right. Um, we are going to, uh, call this meeting to order for the April 13th, 2023, Apple Valley City Council meeting. Uh, as we get ready to start here, we had a little reception out front for some of our volunteers, and I know some people are still, uh, catching up and thanking some of them, so we'll let everybody kind of drift in and get settled here. For any of our brand members of the audience who have signed up to speak, when your name is called, we ask that you come forward to approach the podium and address the council. Um... [0:45] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: The very first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance, and I would ask everyone to rise and join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America... [1:09] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: All right, the second item on our agenda is to approve the agenda. And Tom, are there any changes this evening? [1:13] Tom Lawell: Mr. Mayor, members of the council, good evening. We have no changes to tonight's agenda. [1:19] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Great, thank you. Look for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. [1:22] Councilmember Ruth Grendahl: So moved. [1:24] Councilmember Tom Melander: Second. [1:25] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Motion from Councilmember Grendahl and a second from Councilmember Melander. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? Uh, agenda is approved. And our next item is the audience participation portion of our meeting. This is for items not on the regular agenda. We have a total of 10 minutes for this item this evening. I know we had no one sign up as we came in. We would still offer it for anyone in the room if there's anyone who would like to speak. I'm seeing none. We will close the audience participation portion of the meeting and we'll move on to our consent agenda. These items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion unless a councilmember or citizen requests to pull an item. Councilmembers, are there any items you would like to pull from consent? Uh, seeing none. Citizens, are there any items you would like to discuss separately? All right, seeing none. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? [2:17] Councilmember Lisa Hiebert: So moved. [2:19] Councilmember John Bergman: Second. [2:20] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Motion from Councilmember Hiebert and a second from Councilmember Bergman. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? The consent agenda is approved. Move on to our regular agenda. The first item on our regular agenda is to proclaim April 16th to the 22nd, 2023, as Volunteer Recognition Week in Apple Valley. And Pam, this one is all yours. [2:43] Pam [Staff]: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. As you are aware, the City of Apple Valley is very fortunate to have many volunteers serve our city. This evening, we would like to recognize our volunteer commissioners and committee members as well as other volunteers who have contributed their time, talent, and energy to the community. The talents and skills of our volunteers have helped Apple Valley grow into the wonderful place it is in which to live and work. In conjunction with National Volunteer Week, staff recommends the City Council proclaim April 16th through the 22nd as Volunteer Recognition Week in honor and recognition of those who have and continue to serve the City of Apple Valley. The city has a policy to recognize volunteers serving on an advisory committee who have reached a recognized milestone in their service to the city. Two individuals should be recognized this evening for reaching a significant milestone. First, committee member Tanya Grau served on the Cemetery Advisory Committee for 10 years, and Tanya is present this evening. And then second, commissioner Jody Kurt served on the Planning Commission for six years, and Jody apologizes that she is unable to attend this evening. Mr. Mayor, with your permission, I would be happy to read that proclamation, and then following the proclamation, um, there are two items before you: proclaim April 16th through 22, 2023, as Volunteer Recognition Week in Apple Valley and then present that marble apple service award to committee member Tanya Grau. [4:18] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Wonderful. Pam, why don't you read the proclamation. [4:26] Pam [Staff]: Thank you. City of Apple Valley Proclamation: Whereas volunteers have enriched the life of our community through their concern, commitment, and generosity of spirit; and whereas the hard work and commitment of volunteers have made our community a better place in which to live; and whereas volunteers are a vital resource and have contributed to the health, education, welfare, recreation, culture, and environment of the City of Apple Valley; and whereas the City of Apple Valley wishes to thank its volunteers for their dedicated service and generous spirit; now, therefore, the City Council of the City of Apple Valley, Dakota County, Minnesota, in conjunction with National Volunteer Week, hereby proclaims the week of April 16th through 22, 2023, to be Volunteer Recognition Week in Apple Valley and urges all citizens to recognize volunteers who contribute their time, talent, and energy to our community. Proclaimed this 13th day of April 2023. [5:36] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Thank you, Pam. Do we have a motion to accept that proclamation? [5:40] Councilmember Ruth Grendahl: So moved. [5:41] Councilmember John Bergman: Second. [5:43] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Motion from Councilmember Grendahl, second from Councilmember Bergman. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? All right, and then we have an award to present. So Tanya, would you want to come forward? I hope you were warned about this somewhere. [6:04] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: That's it. Charles [Grawe], get up there and get that picture. There you go, a little better backdrop. Yeah, you better get that picture right, Charles. Yeah, I have a copy of the—here's a service award. It seems like it wasn't that long ago we appointed you, does it? The marble apple for your mantle. [6:37] Tanya Grau: Thank you so much. [6:39] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Thank you for the service. [6:52] Pam [Staff]: Mr. Mayor, while you're making your way back to your chair, I'd also like to recognize in the audience this evening other members of our commissioners and committee members that are here. We have, in addition to Tanya Grau, we have Alan Coles, Jan Monroe, Greg Dahlstrom, Charles Grau, and Matt Saam, all on various committees. So thank you very much for all of our volunteers and committee members and commission members. Whether you're here or not, whether you've served, you know, whether you're just newly appointed or you have served and received your apple, thank you. [7:34] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Well, we can't do what we do without that support. It's such a—we rely on that input from the citizens, right? And very often that comes through our commissions and our committees, and that's one part of it. But the other is, uh, what you often have to dig in pretty deep, right, to get the answers and get us the stuff we need. And so thank you so much for the time and the service and the commitment. Um, with that, we can move on to item 5B, which is the vacation of a scenic easement on parcel abutting 13969 Duluth Court, and Kathy is going to present this item. [8:13] Kathy [Staff]: Mr. Mayor, the petitioner of this request is the City of Apple Valley on behalf of Dakota County. The action requested will be to conduct a public hearing and consider the vacation of scenic easements on the parcel abutting 13969 Duluth Court. This summer, Dakota County is undertaking a construction project. They will be reconfiguring the intersection at Diamond Path and 140th Street on the Apple Valley side and Connemara Trail on the Rosemount side. They'll be converting it from a four-way stop intersection to a roundabout. And in order to do that, they are working with the abutting property owners to obtain additional right-of-way where they need to do that. One of the places that they do need to do that is from the property at 13969 Duluth Court. This is kind of a schematic of the roundabout; it'll be a single lane around the loop. Um, so the acquired parcel is on the northwest corner, um, and the parcel is 2134 square feet. It just so happens that that part of the property falls under a scenic easement that was dedicated as part of the Hazelwood Estates development. So this highlights kind of where it's at on the lot. The scenic easements were dedicated to provide buffer berming and landscaping to help protect the neighborhood from the higher-level traffic. So what the County is requesting then with this parcel that they are specifically acquiring because they're going to be using it for right-of-way—they're asking that the city consider vacating the scenic easement. Pretty straightforward. Copies of the requested vacation were sent to the private utility companies; no objections have been received. City staff support the vacation, so Mr. Mayor, staff is recommending holding the public hearing and adopting the resolution. With that, I can stand for questions. [10:49] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Thanks, Kathy. Let's go ahead and do the public hearing quick, and then we can take any questions if that works for everyone. We'll go ahead and open the public hearing for item 5B, which is the vacation of the scenic easement. Do we have anyone who would like to speak to this item? Anyone who would like to speak to this public hearing? One final opportunity for anyone who would like to speak to the public hearing regarding the vacation of this easement. Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and we'll move on to the resolution. And the first—maybe any questions for Kathy or staff? If not, we would look for a motion to adopt the resolution completing the vacation. [11:32] Councilmember Lisa Hiebert: So moved. [11:34] Councilmember John Bergman: Second. [11:36] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Motion from Councilmember Hiebert, second from Councilmember Bergman. Uh, all in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? And 5B carries unanimously. Thank you. Our next item is also Kathy, which is to adopt a resolution approving a conditional use permit for a drive-through window in conjunction with a class 3 restaurant on Lot 2, Block 1, Hope Alliance Second Edition. [12:06] Kathy [Staff]: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The petitioners of this request are Hempel Real Estate as the petitioner and the property owner Honey Crisp Holdings LLC. They're requesting a conditional use permit for drive-through window service in connection with a class 3 restaurant. This would be consistent with the previously approved CUP. The property is the Cider Ridge property on the northeast corner of Cedar Avenue and 145th Street at 7495 145th Street. The Cider Ridge building is currently under construction, uh, 7,400 square foot building. They began construction last year, but then construction was delayed, and unfortunately, in that time, the conditional use permit for the drive-through window expired for lack of use. So the petitioners are back simply just to get that CUP re-authorized. Um, the site plan then—again, the property is part of the Hope Church parking lot; they share parking and circulation. Floor plan: the, uh, it's going to be a coffee shop, the class 3 restaurant, and it will be located on the south side of the building. The one change that they are requesting of the resolution would be that they would be allowed to have an earlier start time. They did ask the city to consider that; they asked the city to review other neighboring, um, coffee shops to see if that wasn't true. Uh, Planning Commission held the public hearing at its February 15th meeting, and they also asked staff to take another step and to go and look at maps to see how far drive-through windows were typically from residential properties. The Planning Commission's findings are included in the staff report. We could go into more detail if the Council is interested in that, but the upshot is, at its March 15th meeting, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the conditional use permit with the start time at six o'clock AM, um, finding that noise from Cedar Avenue is likely to be louder than the drive-through, and the way the lane is configured around the west side of the building will help to protect and screen residential properties to the northeast. So with that, the following action would adopt—or approve the CUP in accordance with the Planning Commission recommendation, which would be to adopt the resolution approving the conditional use permit for a drive-through window. With that, I could stand for questions. [15:20] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: If there are any questions for Kathy? Okay. My only question is—not related to the time, I think that's fine. Um, maybe we're fortunate at Apple Valley our coffee shops and our drive-throughs are just so darn successful. The one that is located at 147th and Cedar, we spent a lot of time talking about stacking, and right now nearly every weekend, we are stacked out into the road. And we see it at chains on the—with this being on Cedar, right, do we feel like we have enough stacking that we're not going to stack cars back out onto Cedar? [15:57] Brandon Anderson: Mr. Mayor, I will turn to our City Engineer, but the one nice thing with the shared parking is that there is plenty of stacking on the site. Mr. Mayor, Council, I believe our ordinance indicates eight vehicles stacked. We've been using—we did a study a few years ago because we were seeing the increases—and we've been using 12 to 15 cars as the baseline. This site will stack probably over 20 the way it's configured. Great. Um, 12 to 15 cars stacked on a regular basis is a lot of cars, and we are seeing a trend with all businesses with drive-throughs increasing significantly. So it isn't just the coffee; it's other businesses. But this one stacks more than the example that you provided. [16:45] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Nope, that was just—that was my question. So thank you. Sure. Um, if there aren't any other questions, we would look for a motion to, uh, approve the conditional use permit. [16:51] Councilmember Tom Melander: So moved. [16:53] Councilmember Lisa Hiebert: Second. [16:55] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: We have motion from Councilmember Melander, second from Councilmember Hiebert. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? Uh, that carries. And we'll move on to 5D, and this is to pass an ordinance amending Chapter 155, Appendix act Article 2828 to the city code regulating uses within Planned Development Number 703. And I've stalled long enough for Alex to make his way to the front, so, uh, it's all yours. [17:30] Alex Jordan: Good evening Mayor, members of Council. As stated, this is an ordinance amendment initiated by Clover Life Spa. The legal name is included in your packet, but for brevity, I will keep it as Clover Life Spa, located here in Apple Valley. The action requested this evening is the technical action that you'll be taking, but essentially what it is doing is passing an ordinance to allow a massage school in conjunction with a business at Clover Life Spa. We are recommending waiving the second reading as well. The site is located at the, uh, southeast corner of 157th and Pilot Knob Road, just across the street from our municipal liquor store and south of Target. Clover Life Spa currently occupies the space and is seeking to expand into a vacant area. Upon communication with the city, it was found that a massage school use within PD 703 would not be a permitted use, thus the requirement for a code amendment. As stated, the zones—PD 703, Zone 6. All properties within PD 703, Zone 6 were notified of this change. There were no comments at the public hearing from within the zone. One other competing business did make minor comments; however, they were not pertinent to the ordinance. Right now, the ordinance is working along the lines of a vocational school. So the applicant applied and worked with staff and the City Attorney to find a use to be able to allow a massage school in conjunction with their massage therapy business. Expanding this, staff worked with the applicant so that this could apply to multiple businesses rather than just the specific use of massage—thus the use of "Vocational School" rather than just a "massage therapy school." This will then allow for businesses such as barbershops, beauticians, etc., to also have a type of trade or vocational school. Right now, this will only apply to PD 703, Zone 6. It will not be within the general zoning code aside from the definition. The definition will allow additional districts to utilize the zone, but were not analyzed as part of this application as it was a specific application from an outside party. Vocational schools—just to give you a brief outline of it, the full text is contained there on your screen—but it is essentially a trade school or post-secondary school providing a practical skill for the type of business in which it is in conjunction with. One of the primary goals of the ordinance was to ensure that if a new use was added to PD 703, Zone 6, that that use did not essentially exceed the original permitted use. This was modeled after the ordinance that staff made for the Institutional Zone. And if you recall, that was to allow for ancillary retail sales in conjunction with a permitted use in the Institutional Zone. Utilizing that as a model, staff and the City Attorney have created this ordinance that also requires it to be ancillary in use to a permitted use within the zone, limits its square feet, requires that all parking for both uses be able to be met on site, limits the number of hours of operations, the number of students, and that all school classes and activities must occur within the building. I do believe the applicant is present this evening if there are additional questions; otherwise, I stand for any questions. Again, the second reading is suggested to be waived. [21:11] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Nobody can alliterate tonight, can we? Um, councilmembers, are there any questions for Alex? We don't have any questions. Um, yeah, I know the applicant is here, but we'll go ahead and just take the item if there are no questions for them, if that's okay. So we would look for a motion to, uh, pass the ordinance amending Chapter 155, and that motion should include the recommendation to waive the second reading. [21:38] Councilmember John Bergman: So moved. [21:40] Councilmember Lisa Hiebert: Second. [21:42] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: We have a motion from Councilmember Bergman and a second from Councilmember Hiebert. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? That one carries. And our last item, 5E on the agenda, is to pass an ordinance amending Chapter 123 of the city code regulating massage therapy licenses. And Chief Francis, walk us through this. [22:15] Police Chief Nick Francis: Good evening. So, um, within the city code, there's two different parts, and we're talking about the same project you just learned about regarding Clover Life Spa. The portion I will discuss is a massage therapy business and massage therapist license. That ordinance—the massage therapy business license ordinance—goes back to 2011 and had a couple primary objectives. The first was to ensure legitimate massage therapy businesses are operating in Apple Valley, and the second was to ensure that massages are delivered by properly and professionally trained massage therapists. So anytime someone puts in an application for either a new business or it's a new employee of that business, they have to go through the licensing process to make sure they have legitimate schooling, the business is a professional business and not one that's, uh, erotic or has folks that are untrained. Um, so ownership from Clover Spa approached the city to request to review the licensing ordinance with the intention of starting a massage school, and they explained a reduction of available massage therapy schools in Minnesota post-pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, there were over 12 schools; post-pandemic, only five remaining, and none of which were in the southern suburbs. The primary request was to update the licensing ordinance to accept COMTA-endorsed curriculum in addition to being an accredited institution. And I'll kind of walk through that difference because I had to learn that and spoke with the folks at the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation. That's the gold standard for massage therapy training and education. Both of those statuses—endorsed curriculum and accredited institution—require compliance with COMTA instruction standards. So that reflects a consistent level of expected academic and technical training. Both of them require annual reporting, notification of curriculum, and comply with the recommended changes of rigor. The accredited institution takes two to three years of operating at a cost of about eight thousand dollars, while the endorsed curriculum can be done in 90 days at a much less cost. Some, um, schools will start with the endorsed curriculum and then move to the accredited institution, but you can't become accredited until you have some graduates and some deliverables and, and kind of more of a history of being an institution. Right now, there's 42 accredited institutions and 12 delivering an endorsed curriculum that are endorsed by COMTA. And city staff, after working through it, discussing it, doing some research with the folks at COMTA, we're confident that the endorsed curriculum will meet our expectation to properly and professionally train the massage therapists. Another thing is that those Clover graduates would be eligible to obtain a massage therapy license in Apple Valley from the City of Apple Valley, whether it's at Clover or somewhere else. We want folks to be able to practice within the city. Um, so the proposed changes are: adding the delivery of endorsed curriculum for licensing eligibility; removing some language from a former accrediting agency that no longer exists—so as long as we're in there, we're making all the updates that we think are concurrent and contemporary; we're adding a little clarifying language related to the practice of cosmetology to make sure folks know that in cosmetology, if you're massaging the hand or foot as part of a pedicure or manicure, that does not require a massage therapy license. Uh, also reduces the minimum requirement of seven to three years of full-time work experience for the national exam certification process. Three years we thought was still a good amount of training and probably more sustainable for folks to endure. Um, so the requested action is to pass the ordinance amending Chapter 123 of the city code regulating massage therapy and, again, to keep this on track with the previous one we spoke about, recommending waiving that second reading will keep them both on the same track so the business can do what they need to do. I'll stand for any questions you have. [26:15] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Any questions for Chief Francis? You're comfortable with this? [26:19] Police Chief Nick Francis: Yes, worked—it was a true team effort between the Police Department, planning, City Attorney, kind of all getting things coming together. We're all comfortable. [26:21] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Good. Perfect. All right, with that we would look for a motion to pass the ordinance amending Chapter 123 and that would include a recommendation to waive the second reading. [26:27] Councilmember John Bergman: So moved. [26:29] Councilmember Lisa Hiebert: Second. [26:30] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: We have a motion from Councilmember Bergman, a second from Councilmember Hiebert. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? And that carries unanimously. Thanks everyone for working through this one. I think, right, all good things require some review and changes. We've done them, and it's been 10 years, so thank you. [26:45] Councilmember Ruth Grendahl: It also might be nice if there was state licensing so there were standards that are absolutely uniform for the entire state, not city by city. [27:01] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Absolutely. All right, that brings us to staff and council communications. Tom, do we have anything from staff? [27:12] Tom Lawell: Mr. Mayor, none tonight. [27:14] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: All right. The only thing I have is just a—once again, it seems like we do this every council meeting—but a thank you to our public works staff and our police and our fire and everyone else who was out on the night of the 31st and the morning of the 1st dealing with a pretty nasty snowstorm once again. So, uh, thank you all for getting the roads cleared and, you know, it was a tough day. I saw plows even struggling to move their way through that one. So thank you all. Any other council communication items? [27:43] Councilmember Tom Melander: I'm hoping next meeting we don't have to also say thank you for another good job. I hope we're done with those for a little while. [27:54] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: I'm out now. Um, looking to approve the calendar of upcoming events. Our next regular city council meeting is Thursday, April 27th, at 7:00 PM. And with that, I would look for a motion to approve the calendar. [28:16] Councilmember Ruth Grendahl: So moved. [28:18] Councilmember Tom Melander: Second. [28:19] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: We have motion with Councilmember Grendahl, a second from Councilmember Melander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Opposed? And we'll take a motion to adjourn. [28:34] Councilmember Ruth Grendahl: Motion. [28:36] Councilmember Lisa Hiebert: Second. [28:37] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Motion from Councilmember Grendahl and a second from Councilmember Hiebert. All in favor? (Aye.) We are adjourned. Thank you.