This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the context of the Oakdale Environmental Management Commission (EMC) meeting on November 18, 2024. [00:00:00] **Chair Gerding:** Good evening everyone and welcome. I'd like to call to order the November 18th, 2024 meeting of the Oakdale Environmental Management Commission. Very glad to see each one of you and to those watching, thanks for joining. We'll begin this evening with our roll call of commissioner members. Commission staff liaison Hannah Dunn will now take roll. [00:00:20] **Hannah Dunn:** Hannah. Chair Gerding? [00:00:22] **Chair Gerding:** Present. [00:00:23] **Hannah Dunn:** Vice Chair Ditt? [00:00:24] **Vice Chair Ditt:** Present. [00:00:25] **Hannah Dunn:** Commissioner Brendan? [00:00:26] **Commissioner Brendan:** Present. [00:00:27] **Hannah Dunn:** Commissioner Fenermaker? [00:00:28] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** Present. [00:00:29] **Hannah Dunn:** Commissioner Lash? [00:00:30] **Commissioner Lash:** Present. [00:00:31] **Hannah Dunn:** Commissioner Yang? [00:00:32] **Commissioner Yang:** Present. [00:00:33] **Chair Gerding:** Great, thank you. Also joining us tonight, in addition to Oakdale's Community Development staff, is our city council liaison, Oakdale Mayor Kevin Zabel. Next item is to move to our Pledge of Allegiance. So if we all please rise together. 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. [00:01:05] **Chair Gerding:** Great. Moving towards approval of tonight's agenda. Everyone received a copy prior to the meeting, so assuming no amendments or further discussion on agenda items, I'd like to ask for approval of the agenda for tonight's November 18th meeting of the EMC. Can I get a second? [00:01:22] **Vice Chair Ditt:** Second. [00:01:23] **Chair Gerding:** All in favor of approving tonight's November 18th EMC meeting agenda say aye. [00:01:27] **Commissioners:** Aye. [00:01:28] **Chair Gerding:** Opposed? Great, thank you. Next up is our approval of minutes from our October 21st commission meeting last month. As these minutes were also sent prior to the meeting and assuming no amendments, changes, or discussion, I will ask for approval of the minutes and a motion to approve them for the October 21 EMC meeting. [00:01:48] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** So moved. [00:01:49] **Chair Gerding:** Can I get a second? [00:01:50] **Commissioner Lash:** Second. [00:01:51] **Chair Gerding:** Thank you. All in favor of approving the October 21, 2024—excuse me—EMC meeting minutes say aye. [00:01:58] **Commissioners:** Aye. [00:01:59] **Chair Gerding:** Opposed? Great, thank you. We will now move to the public and open forum time of our agenda and invite any community members present to join this space at the podium and the microphone. Okay, seeing none, we will now close the open forum and move to our EMC review section of the agenda, and specifically old business from last month beginning with a review of our 2024 Washington County Recycling Grant. And I think historically this grant has intersected pretty well with our annual work plan and it's grown in impact over time. We were all sent a status report in the memo prior to the meeting, so I'll invite Hannah to walk us through this. [00:02:40] **Hannah Dunn:** Yes, thank you. The memo in the packet provides the EMC with an update regarding the 2024 Washington County Recycling Grant and invites conversation about potential projects for 2025. Overall, 2024 was a successful year with lots of communication going out via social media and the Oakdale update regarding waste reuse and recycling. Other Grant activities included hosting pumpkin recycling drop-off at City Hall, providing trial kits and compost pails for the food scraps pickup program to residents, purchasing six dual-stream waste bins for Willowbrooke Commons Park to increase recycling access in our Park system, and hosting a fall city-wide collection event. [00:03:22] Looking forward, the city will apply for 2025 grant funding to support recycling, reuse, and waste reduction projects. The city usually receives around $50,000 in funds with 25% going to capital expenses. In years past, the city typically includes a couple of projects that are geared towards education about recycling and composting. Therefore, in the memo, two potential low-cost projects listed for 2025 are again: promote residential and commercial recycling through simple high-level education and promote composting as a means of waste reduction. [00:03:55] The other potential 2025 project listed in the memo is to continue increasing recycling access in our Park system. Currently only two parks have recycling, so you know, the city's committed to installing dual-stream waste bins in all parks and this grant is a fantastic fit to support this effort since dual-stream waste bins are not cheap. So this grant can help fund that effort. At this time, I'd like to offer the opportunity for Commissioners to discuss the 2024 outcomes as well as potential projects for 2025. It's important to keep in mind that we can apply for up to four projects. [00:04:35] **Chair Gerding:** Great, thank you Hannah. Opening this up to commissioner input and discussion, and that's an open call for 2024 outcomes or 2025 ideas. [00:04:45] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** Can I ask you a question about the collection event? I know we hadn't had one at least not in the last year when we did one this year. What's the thought of having one every year versus waiting? Because if you put it in the plan and you get the money, does that cover the cost of having it? Is that a no-brainer? [00:05:03] **Hannah Dunn:** Yep. So the project team that worked on the fall cleanup event still has yet to go to the city council to report out the outcomes. And I think then we'll get further direction about whether we'll continue doing that. That would be an easy one, I think, if there is positive feedback. [00:05:22] **Vice Chair Ditt:** Question on the 2024: have we had feedback on the dual streams that we've already installed yet? Anecdotal or... [00:05:29] **Hannah Dunn:** I have not heard any anecdotal. When we had the grand opening event they were being used, so I had firsthand knowledge that they were being utilized. Other than that, I haven't had a chance to talk with the Public Works Parks operations staff to see how that's working out. So getting their feedback about that will be really helpful for rolling out future parks. [00:05:51] **Commissioner Brendan:** Excuse me, may I ask a silly question? [00:05:54] **Chair Gerding:** Yeah. [00:05:55] **Commissioner Brendan:** Okay, as the new person, could you just explain to me what a dual-stream waste bin is? [00:05:59] **Hannah Dunn:** Yes. Probably can't see it very well in the back. So it's got an opening for just regular trash and then one for recycling. So right now most of our parks are just one opening; all the recycling ends up in the trash. So through Clean River Recycling—that's the company, the vendor we bought those from—there's great signage. The trash side is black and the recycling side's blue, so it's quite obvious which one's trash, which one's recycling. And there's pictures of examples of what can go in each side. [00:06:33] **Commissioner Brendan:** And how much do each of those trash cans cost us? [00:06:36] **Hannah Dunn:** Depending on how big you go, through Clean River, they are between $1,500 and $2,000 a piece. [00:06:42] **Commissioner Brendan:** Wow. Okay, thank you. [00:06:45] **Commissioner Lash:** Do we have any metrics or outcomes from our pumpkin pickup? [00:06:48] **Hannah Dunn:** I don't know yet. Washington County just picked up the dumpster last week and they haven't emailed me yet with the tonnage. So I'll reach out to them. [00:06:58] **Chair Gerding:** We've got time before the applications are due, so over the next couple months when we don't have meetings, if things pop up, always free to email Hannah. [00:07:07] **Commissioner Yang:** Other comments on the grant perspective or what has been done? I guess the only thing I would suggest is not reinventing the wheel. Do you have access to what the other communities are submitting so you can read theirs and say, "Oh, that's a great idea, we should do that too"? [00:07:22] **Hannah Dunn:** I mean, we have quarterly recycling coordinator meetings for the Washington County community, so I know other communities... I don't know if they have a recycling and reuse specific newsletter, but I know that they use some of the money to have their printed newsletter. A lot of communities have used the grant to purchase dual-stream recycling bins. I know Stillwater did a very big project to increase their access. Off the top of my head, that's what—fairly similar projects. [00:07:50] **Commissioner Yang:** It sounds like there's a few good ideas in everybody's; we're not missing anything. [00:07:54] **Hannah Dunn:** Yeah. Usually, it's a combination of low-cost education and then, you know, two years ago or last year we purchased the reusable bags, which we still have some of those left over. So while we don't need to use 2025 funds to purchase more bags, that can still be a project to promote awareness of reusable bags, especially at the farmers market. [00:08:15] **Chair Gerding:** Okay. Well, as Hannah has invited, we can process this and send more ideas as we think more critically about what our impact outcomes are going to be for next year. But it's been a really successful grant and fairly, I would say, stable over time from what we know. So, opportunity to grow access. Great, thank you Hannah. [00:08:35] We move to another old business item and a continuation of last month's preliminary 2025 work plan discussion. Hannah, did you want to reintroduce the memo and tee this up again? [00:08:48] **Hannah Dunn:** Since discussion about the EMC's annual work plan at the October meeting, feedback and suggestions were incorporated into the most current draft found in tonight's meeting packet. Many of the 2024 items were carried over, though some have been removed. The removed items include: sponsoring, coordinating, and promoting a local ride and drive or all-electric showcase. This was something in 2024, but it's been removed because the Eco Fair will serve as a good opportunity to educate people about electric vehicles. Hosting a Solar Twin Cities Power Hour has also been removed. Looking more into this, it appears that Grow Solar currently doesn't have a solar group-buy option for the Twin Cities area, so this item's been changed to research solar group-buy programs that are available. [00:09:36] And then lastly, hosting a Citizens Utility Board (CUB) Bill Clinic has been removed because, again, CUB has been identified as a potential vendor for the Eco Fair. So if they're able to attend, the Eco Fair will be a good opportunity for people to speak with expert advisors about their energy bills. And if CUB is not able to attend, there are virtual call-in energy bill clinics, so we could just promote those. [00:10:02] Work plan items that are new to 2025 and not found in the 2024 plan are in orange in your packet, just so they can jump out a little bit more. And then just to reiterate next steps: after this meeting, we'll have an appreciation dinner with the city council at the February 10th, 2025 EMC meeting. The draft plan will be discussed informally and then feedback from this discussion will be incorporated into the plan, and then the city council will approve the final plan at a following regular meeting. I'll now open up to Commissioners to discuss the changes and provide any final comments or feedback. There's still time to change things. [00:10:43] **Chair Gerding:** Thank you for that overview. Yes, Commissioners, comments? [00:10:48] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** You know, this has to do with the 2024 plan, but do we have any data on how the home energy squad rebates went? [00:10:55] **Hannah Dunn:** Yes, I get quarterly invoices. I think there's still lots of rebates and money left, so we really got to push promotion on that and encourage people to sign up. I think maybe a quarter of potential visits/rebates have been used. [00:11:10] **Chair Gerding:** I think it was 1,500 last month commented, wasn't it? That had been used? [00:11:15] **Hannah Dunn:** It was, I think, just under a thousand of our dedicated budget to it had been used, and the total budget was 5,000. So I think depending on which visit they got—one cost a little bit more—we could get around 100 households to utilize the rebate. So we're sitting at about a quarter. [00:11:34] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** Do we know if the people that utilized rebates went forward with the recommendations? [00:11:38] **Hannah Dunn:** That I don't know. When we had talked with Home Energy, they were able to give us some data, though it's very aggregated so that there's not personal information being shared. I'll have to reach out to them and see if they've got some data that shows, you know, 10% of the households that utilized the rebate went forward with an energy improvement project. I'll reach out to them and see what sort of information we can find out. [00:12:02] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** So does the grant money for that program end on December 31st? [00:12:07] **Hannah Dunn:** When we executed the contract, I believe it was a two-year contract. It was either two years from when we signed it at some point in 2024 or when the $5,000 runs out—whatever comes sooner. So there's another year at least. [00:12:22] **Chair Gerding:** Thinking about prioritization for next year, and then thank you for calling out the things that have been modified or just taken out just because they were either encompassed elsewhere or were enhancing things that would check those boxes. Are there any areas that we removed that were tied to like Grant reporting or timelines or any other things we have to think about? I mean, I feel that these are so general in scope and nature that it leaves enough malleability for the city and Commissioners to plug and play as long as it still fits the plan. Is that fair? [00:12:57] **Hannah Dunn:** Yes. The only timelines or grant reporting requirements are the Washington County Recycling Grant in terms of applying and when we get funds, and then GreenStep Cities reporting. That's always due in April. So in April 2025, I'll have to report on 2024. But at this point, that's pretty... we're a Step Five city, so we just report on metrics from year to year, and if you improve on X number of metrics, then you are awarded Step Five again. [00:13:28] **Chair Gerding:** Great, thank you. [00:13:30] **Vice Chair Ditt:** What's the—for the additional items for consideration—are those... that section wouldn't be part of the plan, right? It would either be... we decide to put them in or not put them in at all? [00:13:41] **Hannah Dunn:** Correct. Yep. So we put these in so they will be good conversation topics with the city council at the appreciation dinner about how these fit into either the 2025 plan or future plans. You know, they're really important big things that will just need to kind of have a bit more of a game plan. So that's why they didn't get included in 2025—because they're a larger lift that we need to make sure we have buy-in and support for. [00:14:07] **Chair Gerding:** In the proposed "other" section for the 2025 draft work plan—I think it's page six of our packet—there are the preparation for the comp plan update. One is intriguing because I think in the past this commission has talked a lot about alignment, both with this commission work and then City goals, but then how that cascades in any direction—up, down, sideways—with broader Met Council and then broader Washington County and state and regional goals. So I'm, you know, in terms of an overlay or a different way to think about our plan and how it intersects, I would still be a proponent of figuring out how we visualize that at some point. [00:14:49] I know I'm monitoring Washington County's strategic plan and they just did a 2024-2029 push for strategic plan, and there's a goal in there to develop a natural resource protection and stewardship framework. So again, as we think about our work but in the broader context of other things, just a reflection of: I like seeing how we acknowledge how local governments outside of city but still within County, we should all be in alignment together. So just a comment on that piece. [00:15:20] Another question: will there be time to incorporate any early or preliminary survey feedback? I know we just got a survey from Oakdale as residents—a randomized survey—and any park system feedback specifically as it relates to our initiatives as we think about 2025's work? [00:15:37] **Hannah Dunn:** Yeah, we can certainly... the EMC will be kept in the loop on the park system plan. The community survey is outside of my scope, so I'm not quite sure the timeline on that or when feedback comes out or how that gets reported. But the park system plan, I can... I had removed it because early 2025 is when that will be wrapping up, but you'll be kept in the loop as to when there is a draft plan. So I can add that back in as an early 2025 thing to think about. Park system plan, natural resource parks—maybe even if it's a 2026 and beyond timeframe, something to consider. [00:16:15] **Chair Gerding:** Okay, thank you. Another thing that came to mind is in terms of general city purchasing: does the city have a policy that is lensed with environmental impact in terms of making purchasing decisions for the city? As we think about how to think about purchasing things with an environmental impact. [00:16:35] **Hannah Dunn:** We have a purchasing policy, but I feel like there's not, to my knowledge, anything about... we don't have a "green purchasing policy" where when we make a purchase we should think of these things. I don't know historically if we've ever explored that or if we have any research. I know other cities have them. It's certainly something I can look more into on what other cities are doing, whether Oakdale has looked into that. Certainly something to consider. [00:17:03] **Chair Gerding:** I would be curious. Yeah, thank you. [00:17:06] **Commissioner Lash:** So remind me of the timeline of how this gets finalized again? [00:17:11] **Hannah Dunn:** So we will have a dinner with the council on February 10th, 2025. That'll be our first meeting of the year. So we don't have a meeting in December, we don't have a meeting in January. It'll just be an informal discussion over dinner, and then any feedback or items that would get added or removed based on that conversation, I'll take care of that, and then it will go to Council for final approval. And then we've got our 2025 work plan. So by end of February, city council will have approved the work plan. [00:17:42] **Commissioner Lash:** So to reiterate, we still have a little time? [00:17:45] **Hannah Dunn:** A little time. [00:17:46] **Commissioner Lash:** Okay. If we come up with new ideas, do we just submit them to you or do I submit them to the whole group? [00:17:51] **Hannah Dunn:** You can submit them to me, and then any changes that I can incorporate I will then email out to the full group. [00:17:58] **Commissioner Lash:** Okay, thank you. [00:17:59] **Vice Chair Ditt:** Other comments—I just one more actually. I actually think that this is a good list and it's a great template, and I don't imagine it will change very much. But as I think about the different areas of the environment that this focuses on, it hits a lot of things. But—and I'm not sure how much we want to put in here, I know we have other commissions like Planning and Parks and so forth—but there's not very much on Green Space or tree cover kinds of things. And I was wondering if we want to contemplate some sort of an item on our work plan that deals with that aspect. [00:18:36] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** Well, there's a Tree Board, and I'm not sure where they start and other people end and how they fit in. [00:18:41] **Hannah Dunn:** Yeah, and like I said, Planning Commission, I'm sure they have rules about what could be parking lot versus... well, hopefully, yes, on all that stuff. [00:18:49] **Vice Chair Ditt:** I also know that just in general, you know, the amount of green versus Hardscape is central to a lot of environmental aspects of our community and so forth. So I just wanted to mention it as something that you may want to consider some sort of an action here. I'm not quite sure what it might be because we overlap with some other areas, but... [00:19:10] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** Well, I think the first question is I would assume a document exists—somebody's in charge of making those decisions. If we could even just know what those things are. [00:19:19] **Hannah Dunn:** Yep, that'd be great. Yeah, I certainly think there's an opportunity to have EMC think about Green Space, open space. You know, there's the Parks and Rec Commission, and they're thinking about green space, but more in terms of parks and open field space. The Tree Board—a lot of their work plan revolves around the spring planting event and the tree giveaway. So there's definitely an opportunity for EMC to sit in green open space, almost like zoning in a way for the public spaces to be, but not necessarily the parks. Oakdale has quite a bit of city-owned open space, wetlands just along the roads, the sidewalks, and the boulevard areas. That's all potential for trees and other things. [00:20:06] **Vice Chair Ditt:** Yeah, it's a good idea. [00:20:08] **Chair Gerding:** Any other comments? Hearing none, we will take the cue from Hannah and get additional feedback to her as we prepare for our February meeting. Thank you for presenting that. Next up, I think we move to staff, commissioner, and Council liaison updates. And we're going to begin with our monthly review of our editorial calendar, I believe in coordination with and support from Oakdale's Comms Department. [00:20:34] **Hannah Dunn:** Yes. So first up for my updates is the review of the editorial calendar, and once we finish discussion on that, I have just a couple of Community Development general updates to provide. The theme in our editorial calendar for November is reuse and recycling. We posted on social media on November 15th, which is America Recycles Day, about Washington County's disposal directory. This is a great tool for figuring out how to properly dispose of difficult items like holiday lights or furniture. The theme for December is "low waste holidays," so we can promote the food scraps pickup program. But if Commissioners have any other ideas for social media especially to do with low-waste holidays, I would love to hear it just to keep new information and not try to reuse the same things that we did last year. [00:21:26] **Vice Chair Ditt:** One thing that I—maybe it's more of an information-sharing kind of a thing that we could position in a website or newsletter or something—but my wife has started a few years ago trying not to use any wrapping paper. And you know, these reusable containers... you have to find a place for them in the basement, but they're actually kind of cool. And I don't know, maybe there's already some kind of thing in our communication we send out to households, but it actually works pretty well. And having been the guy to bring the bags of discarded wrapping paper out to the trash for many years, it makes a pretty significant difference. [00:22:12] **Commissioner Fenermaker:** What did you say you used? Your wife uses... are they the bags? [00:22:16] **Vice Chair Ditt:** No, these are... we have bags, but she has these boxes. So they're like nesting. You have like a box like this that will have seven different ones in it and they're each a little bit smaller and they're hard. You just put a top on it that comes with it, and you have eight little boxes to put stuff in. By now, there's plenty of little "to/from" labels or whatever, so those get recycled as well. [00:22:42] **Commissioner Yang:** Yeah, we started doing that too in our family. We started using the bags—the cloth bags that you get at Michaels or whatever. We've been using those for the last two Christmases trying to phase out wrapping paper as well. I think it's a good idea. I didn't think about that until now. [00:22:58] **Vice Chair Ditt:** Yeah, makes a big difference and it's true when you have two or three bags of just—well, especially if you have toys that are in big boxes, exactly. Paper. Yep. [00:23:10] **Chair Gerding:** Hashtag "Green Gifting." Yeah, the whole thing, why not? It's a great idea, and they're very well-made reminder sheets or tip sheets that other agencies or cities might have. So to Commissioner Ditt's point, why reinvent the wheel if we have something we can just share? "Green Gifting"—use that. Any other ideas? [00:23:32] **Hannah Dunn:** If not, I can move on to some other updates. As planning for the Eco Fair starts to ramp up, I'm hoping that Commissioners can brainstorm some creative ways to reach residents and groups regarding the Eco Fair. We don't need to discuss it now, but over the next couple of months when we don't have meetings, it'd be great if all of you took some time to think about specific groups or people to reach out to and target. Of course, the city will promote the event on social media and in the Oakdale update newsletter, but we just want to make sure that we're casting a wide net in terms of letting people know that this event is going on. So, next couple months as we have a break, just shoot me an email whenever about ideas. [00:24:20] And then a reminder that at a summer meeting, we determined a schedule for Commissioners to clear the drains that the EMC has adopted in Walton Park and the City Hall parking lot. So if you've had a chance to get out there during your assigned month, please feel free to email me with an update or you can share your experience during the commissioner updates. [00:24:40] And then lastly, the park system plan is progressing along nicely. The project team has been to two Council workshops this fall to discuss the summer engagement and receive initial Council direction on concept plans for all of our community parks, neighborhood parks, and then a few other special use and natural resource parks. The goal is to have all of the concepts finalized by the end of the year and return to an early 2025 Council workshop to begin discussions about cost estimating, prioritization, and funding. I will continue to keep the EMC in the loop and share when there's a draft plan to be reviewed. Any questions about those updates or other things going on in the city? [00:25:25] **Chair Gerding:** I don't think so. Thank you. Commissioner updates? [00:25:28] **Vice Chair Ditt:** I just have one. I was drains—I am drains for November. And I went the day before election day, so Monday. And I mentioned before the meeting started that I cleaned the drains, but my only question was when the leaves were going to be picked up by the city folks, because it's the parking area. Any leaves in the entire parking area end up next to one of the drains once it rains or the wind blows. So I picked up a lot of stuff, but that was my only question—is kind of what was the schedule if somebody was going to come and do it anyway or should I go around the whole zone? [00:26:08] **Hannah Dunn:** I'll talk to Public Works and see. [00:26:10] **Vice Chair Ditt:** Well, I mean, that was the only... but I cleaned them and that's what I expected was leaves. So that's when they had started falling; there was still plenty on the trees and, you know, it's the season. [00:26:21] **Hannah Dunn:** I'll get more clarity from Public Works on their schedule so that we have a better idea in the fall when the leaves start to drop how we should maybe plan around that. [00:26:30] **Vice Chair Ditt:** The good news was there wasn't trash though, or non-organic material. That was very, very nice to see. [00:26:37] **Hannah Dunn:** Yeah, no kidding. [00:26:38] **Vice Chair Ditt:** I brought several buckets anticipating, you know, paper and plastic, and then natural stuff that didn't occur. So that was good. [00:26:48] **Chair Gerding:** Great. Other commissioner updates? Hearing none, we can move to the last update section of our meeting agenda, and we'd like to invite EMC's city council liaison, Mayor Zabel, to present. The floor is yours, Mr. Mayor. [00:27:03] **Mayor Zabel:** Good evening everybody. Whoops, there we go. First and foremost, welcome Laura! We are very happy to have you here on the EMC. One seat away—one seat away from being full strength, which is our goal. We want to get that last chair filled. So as we all know, the EMC has a lot of work coming up, and well, currently and coming up, and so having a full board would be a great thing to have. So if anybody knows of anybody that would be interested in serving, that chair on the end is open, so please feel free to make recommendations. [00:27:38] This past Tuesday, the city council met. Couple items of note: first and foremost, one of the responsibilities that the city council has is serving as the canvassing board for local election results. So in a weird quirk, we didn't have to have a special meeting; we could do it at a regular city council meeting. So we canvassed and certified the 2024 election results. A big congratulations to Kari Moore and Gary Severson for being elected to the two city council seats. Also a very big thank you to our residents for approving the local option sales tax extensions overwhelmingly. I think one passed with 68% and the other one 71%. So those two authorizations from our voters will help close the funding gap on the two capital building projects that we have going on and coming up. So that is definitely a big sigh of relief to get those. Also, we promise no more sales tax questions, so we are done for at least the next 25 years. It's not going back on the ballot, so that is a good thing as well. [00:28:43] The other thing of note at our city council meeting on Tuesday: the city signed the development agreement for the Tanner Lake parcels. You may remember it was the old Tows on the Lake and Blackie's, as well as Harmon AutoGlass. The city acquired them in 2008, 2009, 2010 kind of around there, and we've been sitting on them; we haven't been able to get them developed for 14 years. We have found a tremendous developer who will be turning it into townhomes and apartments. We are very excited for that. There will also be public amenities: a boardwalk along the lake, some shoreline restoration, and a boathouse that'll be a rentable gathering space for residents. [00:29:26] So that project is moving forward. It's a bit of a unique one that involves the city Economic Development Authority (which is also the city council), the City, and then a private developer—so kind of a three-way agreement. But we're keeping our lawyers busy working through all those contracts. We hope to keep that moving forward. The developer has indicated they wouldn't mind breaking ground on it yet this fall if weather cooperates, so we will see. But if not, then definitely in the spring. [00:29:56] Two city council meetings left this year—hard to believe—but just two meetings to go. But we will be busy. Left on our to-do list for the year: adopting the property tax levy and finalizing our 2025 budget. If anybody got their mail today, your property tax estimate, I guess, was in there. That estimate is created using the preliminary levy the city council had to set back in September. We are pleased to report that we have been able to trim that down a little bit further. But overall, you know, we'll be looking at a 5.9% tax levy increase pending adoption by the city council in December. [00:30:35] But if you also turn it over and look at it on the backside, we are a lot lower than our neighboring cities. We honestly believe that that's for many reasons, but the city's emphasis on paying down our debt... our debt service paid will be dropping again next year, which is good. So that just frees up the pressure on the property tax levy by not having to pay interest on the credit card as much. So that is something we are incredibly proud of. I think it's the fourth straight year that our debt annually is dropping. [00:31:08] Lots of good things happening there. Our Truth in Taxation meeting or hearing will be on December 10th, so if any residents have any questions about our budget, please feel free to attend then. It starts at 7:00 PM, I believe. Yeah, it used to be 6:00 PM and I think we bumped that back. So if I have that wrong, I'm sure there'll be a Facebook post to correct that later. But it's just a great opportunity—our finance director does a lengthy presentation of everything that's in our budget, we open up the floor to any residents or any attendees to ask any questions, and our staff does a really nice job breaking down where every dollar of our property taxes paid goes. So in full transparency, we want our residents to know what their money is going towards. December 10th—great opportunity to come and check out that presentation. That's it! That's all I got. A lot going on, but I am happy to answer any questions you may have. [00:32:05] **Chair Gerding:** Quick question about the development south of Oakdale by Tanners. I can't quite recall for those of us that were on the bus tour—I've already forgotten—can you share and remind us what kind of environmental things you were considering or talking about at least with developers? Or is it too soon? [00:32:21] **Mayor Zabel:** Well, so stepping back, I mean, we know a lot of the environmental issues that that site has had just being a crumbling asphalt parking lot. So we're pleased to get that all—I don't want to say fixed up because they're not fixing the parking lot—but getting that impervious surface removed. Limiting stormwater runoff into the lake is obviously a big area of focus, and a lot of that shoreline restoration is pretty important work. The city adopted a shoreline ordinance, I think two years ago, in partnership with the DNR to really set some firm parameters around how adjacent property owners interact with the shoreline, how the city government regulates access with that shoreline. A lot of that will help with water quality in Tanner Lake. [00:33:07] **Chair Gerding:** Awesome, thank you. [00:33:09] **Commissioner Lash:** Is there any... where's the plan listed? Is it on the city website for the development? [00:33:14] **Mayor Zabel:** For the development itself, yes. So at two meetings ago, we—the city council—approved two site plans for different building layouts, configurations, heights, etc. The big difference there was just site access, so there was some negotiation still going on for the developer to get access to certain parcels of the site. So the city adopted two site plans to give them flexibility depending on what happens, so they wouldn't have to wait for another city council meeting to come back and get that approved. So the site plans are out there. The development agreement should also be out there; it should be in our last Council packet. So anybody that wants to see the repayment terms on the land sale, the payment schedule, etc., it's all out there for the public to view. [00:34:04] **Commissioner Yang:** For that development, has there been any talks between the city and the developer about any environmentally friendly development, also like electric vehicle charging stations? [00:34:14] **Mayor Zabel:** So within the city code, there are parameters around putting in EV stations, etc. The city, I don't believe, requires it, but we do have the zoning parameters in there if a developer chooses to do so. That was something that the Planning Commission tackled a few years ago just to create that framework to allow developers to do it in terms of complying with the building code, etc. So the pieces are in place if the developer chooses to do that, but the city as far as I know does not require it. [00:34:47] **Commissioner Brendan:** Can I just ask you one other question about the development? I'm visualizing it... and you said it's the Tows on the Lake site? Is it like Denny's? Am I on the right side? [00:34:59] **Mayor Zabel:** Right, that side. You are. Yep. So Lake View Terrace condos, the red brick building along the water—it'll be just to the west of that in the asphalt parking lot there. And then it actually extends down to the south more along the lake, so between the condos and, I believe it's the Live-In Hotel parcels there too. So it's a very odd-shaped parcel, and it was actually I think three or four parcels originally that are being conjoined together for this project. [00:35:32] **Commissioner Brendan:** Is that why—I don't know—is that why it took so long to maybe have an interest in that? [00:35:38] **Mayor Zabel:** There's a lot of quirks there. So there's a sewer main that runs right through the heart of it; that was always going to have to be relocated, and that was a cost. You know, in my time in city government, we've had hotels, medical office space—a wide variety of projects come in and inquire about it, start going through the process, but it's never come to fruition. There was actually one parcel there that was still privately owned that the city did not own, so that complicated it further. You know, whatever developer would come in would have to acquire that parcel as well. Yeah, so a lot of quirks. And then being on the lake, just the water table—so typically a developer would be looking at substantial underground parking, etc. That's a challenge there being next to the lake. So just a lot of quirks that had to be accommodated in order to make it feasible. But the developers got there! [00:36:34] **Chair Gerding:** Congratulations. We are very, very happy to move that project forward and get some taxpayer money back from the acquisition cost. Any other questions? Wonderful, thank you everybody. [00:36:46] **Mayor Zabel:** Thank you. [00:36:47] **Chair Gerding:** And this brings us to the end of our agenda for the evening. Our next meeting of the EMC will occur on Monday, February 10th, 2025 at 7:00 PM in council chambers. If there's no further discussion, I'd like to call for a motion to adjourn tonight's November 18th meeting of Oakdale's EMC. [00:37:05] **Vice Chair Ditt:** So moved. [00:37:06] **Chair Gerding:** A second? [00:37:07] **Commissioner Lash:** Second. [00:37:08] **Chair Gerding:** All in favor of adjourning tonight's meeting say aye. [00:37:11] **Commissioners:** Aye. [00:37:12] **Chair Gerding:** Opposed? Great, meeting is adjourned. Thanks everyone.