This transcript appears to be from the **2024/2025 State of the City** event for the City of Farmington. Based on the dialogue and the context provided, here is the formatted transcript with speaker names. Note: While your context mentions Nick Lien as Mayor in 2026, the speaker in this transcript identifies himself as **Joshua Hoy**, who was the Mayor during this specific 2025 address. *** [0:01] [Music] [0:09] **John Alto:** Good morning everyone. I hope that you're enjoying today's Chamber of Commerce Day. That's what we call a day like today. This is the green lush reward for all the rain that we've just suffered through for the last week, right? And it's a great window into the Memorial Day long weekend. Please do remember to make time this weekend to remember and honor the veterans who gave all. I am John Alto. I am the president and chief mission officer of your Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce. And I welcome everyone uh in person and those watching online um to the Farmington State of the City presentation. This is the fourth of five planned state of the city events within our chamber footprint. Each of our chamber cities are very diverse and at [0:56] very different stages of their development, but they all have the same goal, and that's to make their communities the very best that they can be. We're fortunate to have a partner like the city of Farmington that shares a DCR chamber of commerce vision for economic vibrancy and growth. The city is working hard to balance the city's proud um uh heritage of growth along with the tax base needed increases to uh to to support the infrastructure that all good cities need. This is forward-thinking leadership. Uh please take a second to recognize Minnesota Energy Resources and Midwest Bank of Farmington, today's event sponsors. [1:39] [Applause] It's support like this that allows your DCR chamber programming to happen. Resilient businesses such as today's sponsors Minnesota Energy Resource and Minest Bank of Farmington um and others. Who else who anybody if you have an entity based in Farmington? [2:02] Raise your hand if you would. Come on. Midwest people raise your hand. You're based here, right? Yeah. All right. All right. Um, and so entities like that thrive in communities where safety is upheld by dedicated first responders, neighborhoods are enriched by engaged residents, and leadership is steadfast, attracting both talented employees and local customers as well. [2:28] And speaking of first responders, the DCR wishes to commend Chief Gary Rutherford on his retirement. Um, he doesn't like the limelight. He already told me that already this morning and I told him sorry he had to suck it up. Um because effective Fridays May 3rd 30th after 23 years of dedicated service to this to this city. Um you and your your team have kept the city safe for residents and for businesses alike and you should be recognized again for that. [3:06] And I leave it to the mayor to recognize your capable replacements, chief. Okay. Under Mayor Hoit's guidance, Farmington has embarked under several notable initiatives. First, inclusive recreational spaces. The 78 acre Rambling River Park has been revitalized with new inclusive playground featuring amenities like zip lines. Have you been on that yet? I exceed the weight limit. [3:35] Very good. And accessible. It looks fun though. Yeah. Accessible surfacing. Uh it's been funded through federal dollars and grants from one of today's event sponsors, Minnesota Energy Resources and support of Angie, Congresswoman Angie Craig as well. Infrastructure enhancements. The city has completed a comprehensive overlay project improving conditions and safety for residents. [3:58] Farmington's joint venture with Hayawa Broadband to build out a communitywide fiber network is unique in this state. When completed, no Minnesota city will have speeds that will be available throughout the city at that level. They are even putting fiber into the parks, providing free Wi-Fi for all park visitors. And on a day like today, that's where I'd rather be, right? Be out there in the park. So, why not? Uh then the uh next point is de uh downtown development. The Emory, am I point in the right direction? Right back here, right behind us, a 74 unit apartment complex is right here in the heart of downtown and it's open and providing needed housing um in what was an underutilized property for a long time. [4:43] It marked the first market rate multi-ousing uh in 30 years, signaling a commitment to diverse housing options, which we need. And then the last point is connect community connectivity. Farm is collaborating with Dakota County on the North Creek Greenway project, enhancing trail systems and um uh promoting outdoor activities which is on the day again like today is perfect. Construction was just completed on this project. These projects reflect a city dedicated to enhancing the quality of this city. [5:18] Before I introduce Mayor Hoy, I want to acknowledge a special friend of the DCR chamber who like Gary are finishing their service to the city. And no, Lynn, this wasn't in the copy that I sent out to you to look at of what I was presenting. Uh Lynn was um one of the first city administrators I met with when I took over my position at the DCR chamber. She was engaged, attentive, helpful, uh, whenever I had questions, and I had a lot of them, and she is one of the kindest people that I've run across in my time in this role. [5:56] Godspeed in your future plans, Lynn. And your [6:09] DCR, your DCR, and many others will miss you. Now, please welcome uh help join me in welcoming Mayor Joshua Hoy, whose leadership continues to shape Farmington's promising future boldly. [Applause] [6:34] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Good morning. My name is Joshua Hoy, mayor for the city of Farmington. It is my honor to present you this year's 2025 Farmington State of the City. This presentation is available via liveream on the city of Farmington's Facebook page and YouTube channel. It's also on Charter Spectrum channel 180. The state of the city is a celebration of our progress over the prior year and a look at the year to come. This presentation is supported through sponsorship by our businesses and community partners. As previously mentioned, our silver sponsor is Minnesota Energy Resources and in attendance we have Nicole McCarthy and our partner sponsor Min West Bank. In attendance we have Neil Anderson. Round [7:20] of applause. Thank you to the Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce for your continued support and for your dedication to the many businesses and organizations across Dakota County. We appreciate [Applause] you. I'm going to start with a little video here video here. See if we go through. [7:47] **Congresswoman Angie Craig (Video):** Hello, Farmington. I wish I could be with you in person, but unfortunately I'm in Washington for votes today. So grateful though to be able to share a few words. Thank you to Mayor Hoy and John Alto for your leadership and for being such incredible allies over the years. Federal and local partnerships are absolutely essential when it comes to making lives better for folks in our communities. Through hard work and collaboration, we've been able to get critical projects like the security fencing for the Farmington Police Department. And we still need a new post office. I always say the best ideas come from motans and that's true. These projects are born from conversations with city and county officials, stakeholders, and residents because you [8:35] know better than anyone what our communities need. I know from speaking with so many people in this room that we're all working toward the same goals. Lowering cost, keeping our communities safe, and making sure government is working for us. Unfortunately, right now, my Republican colleagues in Congress passed a short-term funding bill that failed to fund community projects this year. So, reach out to my Republican friends and tell them you need your taxpayer dollars back to our local community this budget season. [9:08] Whether it's the small businesses who fuel the local economy or the police officers who keep our neighborhoods safe, you can count on me to keep fighting for the folks who make Farmington the one-of-a-kind city that it is. So, thank you for all the work that you're doing. Enjoy the event and stay in touch. [9:28] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** And in attendance, we have representation from her office, Allison Gray. Thank you to my peers, council members Steve Wilson, uh, Holly Bernat, Nick Lean, and Jake Cordis. Thank you for your collaboration and commitment to best representing our entire community. I appreciate you consistently showing up for our residents and our businesses across numerous events throughout the year. I especially appreciate the support that you give our leadership and their teams. You empower them to collaborate and to be bold. I appreciate you. Thank you to our communications team, Karen, Tim, Harry, IT director, Peter Gilbertson. Without your help, this presentation would not be possible today. In attendance, we also have our Met Council member, Wendy Wolf. Um, we [10:25] have some representation from Dakota County Community Development Agency and several of our local business owners and community partners. Again, all in attendance, we uh your represent your representation of Farmington is not only unwavering, but we appreciate your collaboration in building a better future for all of Farmington. On behalf of Farmington's residents and businesses, we thank [10:52] you. This year, we welcomed a new assistant city administrator and HR director, David Chansky. Where's David at? There he is. Right up front. Welcome aboard. Thank you. We're going to go through a few retirements here. Uh pictured, you're going to see on the left is Jeff Jones, uh who's been with our public works department for 22 years. And on the right, you'll see Ron Lei. Ron Lei has worked with our public works department for 24 years. It's nearly impossible to summarize what these two men have accomplished over their tenure careers. [11:27] Uh Jeff has been instrumental in everything from snow removal, water treatment, uh sewer sanitary service, uh water distribution, road repair, so much more. Um fun fact, actually, uh Jeff has had the same plow route for over 20 years. Um Ron Ron has kept our when we were in trash service and and solid waste, Ron kept all of our garbage trucks up and operational on the road. [11:51] Uh for a few years, he was actually the only mechanic that was at our our maintenance facility. Uh, fun fact about Ron is he has single-handedly upfitted every single one of our police vehicles since 2002. If you join me in a round of [Applause] applause. Next, some very recent retirements out of our Farmington Fire Department. You have Jeff Alm. Uh, I believe according to his days, it's 20 years and like two and a half months. Uh Jeff Albby, 19 years, and Steven Enders, eight years. Uh thank you to these brave men for serving our community and for their commitment to their brothers and sisters across the firefighting [12:36] community. We appreciate their selfless dedication to service. Um a special thank you to their families. Their families for their commitment to their careers and to allowing them to best serve and protect our community. We appreciate each of them and their families. Thank you. [12:57] [Applause] Now, I was half tempted to make Gary come up and give a little bit of a speech, but as John said, you can't make a uh steadfast man uncomfortable until you put him in front of a mic, but I won't do that. Gary Rutherford, 23 years, city of Farmington. Chief Rutherford will leave behind him a very distinguished career, but more importantly a lasting impression on so many people from his brothers and sisters across the law enforcement community, our residents, our organizations, and our businesses. [13:33] Chief Rutherford established a new standard for community policing and has demonstrated servant leadership at its highest level. We are also extremely fortunate and grateful to have been impacted by you on behalf of a grateful community. Thank [13:54] you. If you all want to see me lose my stuff, watch a city council meeting on Monday. That's it. You know the impact of somebody when they hit you at that level for the time that you've have been fortunate to spend with them. So again, sincerely thank you, Lynn Gorski, our city administrator. four years at the city of Farmington. She joined us um as the human resources director at the city of Oatana. Uh she was instrumental in the Southeast Service Cooperative. Uh Lynn joined our team as the assistant administrator in August of 2021 and she was shortly thereafter appointed to city administrator. Um, we had the opportunity to be graced with an incredible human [14:42] being that came in, embodied the culture that we wanted at the city of Farmington. And we knew that we had the potential um to be around. We could have gone out, hired a firm, looked nationally. I mean, who wouldn't want to be in Farmington? Um, but Lynn was right there with us. And I I I'm going to share a a semi-personal conversation that I had with Lynn. [15:08] Um I looked across the table and we were talking about the opportunity and I said, "You you might not be looking for this opportunity right now, but it's in front of you and you're capable. Like your competency and your potential is so much higher than like you might even realize. That's not an option. We're not going out. Like we're going to figure this thing out. We're going to work our way through it. And my god are we grateful that we did. Lynn established when she started, she established a very robust development review process. Lynn knew that development had been an obstacle in this community for far too long. And she said, you know, the community, I don't. How do we break through this? And we said, we've we've [15:54] got to develop this very robust development review process. We have to look at what our roadblocks are. We have to engage with developers that have said yes and developers that have said no. We need to understand why. We need to communicate with our local contractors, our businesses. We need to meet them where they're at, listen to them, and find out how we can be better in eliminating obstacles. And she did that. [16:17] She laid that out. She implemented the development review process to specifically eliminate roadblocks to redevelopment and new development. Now, what she didn't see coming was that over the next 15 months, she would end up hiring an almost completely new leadership team. Absent our park and recck director who had been appointed at the time, Kelly, and our police chief and our fire chief at the time, Lynn onboarded an entirely new senior leadership team to include directors in administration, human resources, public works, community development, finance, and a city clerk. [16:59] All while meeting the needs of a growing community. If the city of Farmington was a publicly traded company, the stock would be in the garbage. You do not have a transfer of leadership of that magnitude in that short of window without having the potential for absolute collapse. And Lynn did exactly what we believe she could do. She ensured that the city continued to grow while maintaining a positive servant leadership culture. She empowered us to be bold and she pushed the envelope for what we were comfortable with. Lynn exemplifies teamwork. She exemplifies collaboration dedication and absolutely she exemplifies servant [17:47] leadership. Farmington will be forever indebted for your dedication to our community. There is a void that you will leave behind and there are shoes that need to be filled. This city does not realize right now the impact that you have had nor does it realize the potential of where it's going to go because of your leadership. Thank you. [18:22] [Applause] [18:48] Moving with our succession of leadership within the police department, Deputy Chief Nate Seam has been selected to appointment as our next chief of police. Deputy Chief Seam has served Farmington as a patrol officer, a sergeant, recently as deputy chief, and as our next chief of police. He has the absolute unwavering support of his team. He has a vision for a strong He has a vision for strong community engagement and for professional policing. His commitment to excellence will undoubtedly elevate our standard in law enforcement. Nate will be officially appointed at our first city council meeting in June. But if you [19:35] would please take it take this time to congratulate him soon. [19:51] The Farmington City Council approximately four years ago, we used to have priorities and I like to touch on this each year because priorities become singular way points throughout the year much like goals. Instead, we backed up and we said we need pillars. We need cornerstones of how we are going to operate, how we are going to conduct ourselves and how we are going to be known across the region. These pillars should not move. They are well grounded in the historic past of this community and also our promising and bold future. [20:25] Our pillars are our foundation. They are employee engagement and wellness, our culture. Without our people, the work can't happen. It starts with our team which is very symbolic in the recognition of appointments and retirements. We lead with our team first because without them nothing happens. [20:46] infrastructure support, our community engagement, and our quality business growth and retention. These pillars will continue to shape us as a city, how we operate, how we show up, and we will continually redefine the standard by which we measure ourselves utilizing the pillars at the city of Farmington. [21:10] Within employee engagement, culture and wellness, we have guiding principles of ensuring that all employees feel empowered, valued, and appreciated. We promote employee collaboration. We promote collaboration across departments. When our leadership team meets, park and wreck wants to hear from public safety and community development how they can be better. Liquor Operations wants to hear from park and wreck and streets and maintenance how they can be better. When you put a team in a room and you challenge them to increase the standard every day, excellence is your output. They create a respectful and trusting work environment. Our engagement within the city of Farmington and our team involves [21:57] numerous things. It involves awards banquetss for our police and fire departments. We hold annual employee recognition events, summer cookouts. We do these things to show our appreciation for our team and their dedication to our residents, our businesses, and our organization. We conduct culture surveys. We want to receive feedback on where we are and where we're going. We want to know what our ongoing improvement looks like and we let our our team define that. The next slide here is just a small snapshot of team Farmington. This was taken at Lake Julia last summer during one of our cookouts. [22:37] This probably represents 25% of the city. Next, in infrastructure support, our guiding principles are to provide the highest level of core service delivery. And in years past, I've mentioned our other guiding principle at meeting industry needs and industry standards for capital improvement. If the industry standard is here, we were here. We wanted to be here, but we weren't there. We had to be bold enough to say that we are not where we want to go. And by putting it out there and talking about it consistently, it continues to raise the bar not only for our team, but it raises the expectation [23:22] for our residents in core service delivery. As Representative Craig mentioned a few years ago, we were a recipient of a community project funding grant in the amount of $750,000. [23:38] The city council ultimately invested just short of $2 million, so 750 in the grant making up the difference into our Rambling River Center. Last year, we talked about the opportunities and what that looked like. Last year, we talked about construction starting in September. Here's a few progress photos of the work that's currently ongoing. [24:02] Our ribbon cutting should take place sometime late June, early July. Most importantly, our Rambling River Center is an invaluable asset to our community. It's a second home for our aging adults. It's where people are connected with each other. It's a building that our residents can call home. Isolation among aging adults is a rising epidemic. [24:30] We saw that during co getting our aging adults out of their homes and into a community space where they can interact with others where they can dialogue with others where they can laugh, cry, do all the things with others. Creates for a more vibrant community. It's a second home for them. [24:50] It's where they feel connected. They can be active. There's programs. There's events. the community can connect there. From small community classes to fundraisers to banquetss and events, we needed to create a space that our community could look at and utilize to every extent possible. Again, the building and the remodel will be done approximately the end of June, opening in early July. I would be remiss if I did not mention a few key community partners. Uh first, Finch and Daisy Consulting. huge huge asset to our community. Um Joy and her team continue to rally around all things within park and recreation and specifically the Rambling River Center. [25:35] Their sponsorship helped bring our transportation van into service to move the members of the Rambling River Center amongst various events in and out of our community. I would be al also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Midwest Bank and their gracious donation of over $50,000 that helped bring the patio space that you see here for our residents and the guests of the Rambling River Center to be active outdoors. One of the biggest changes that you're going to see when this building opens post remodel is the elimination of a majority of the garage. What used to be a very small fitness center has now turned into an expansive interactive fitness center that is notably continuing to be named [26:22] after Jack and Bev Mcnite. Thank you to the city council. Thank you to the park and wreck board. And thank you to the Rambling River Center Advisory Council for pulling this plan together and bringing this project from an idea to completion. Thank [Applause] you. There's a few more pictures to enjoy of the large banquet [26:57] area. You see how the garage has been transitioned over and the large glass facads, updated bathroom spaces. You want the the building is going to be unrecognizable when you go inside of it. Staying on infrastructure support, it was important that we use data-driven decision-making. It was important that we stopped emotional decision-making and started rooting our decision in data. We first had to had to collect and gather data. We had to look at things like our pavement condition index. We went across the community utilizing current technology. We spend three years analyzing the pavement. So the initial study was done and it rated everything from a zero to 100. It will subsequently be redone one-third of the city every [27:43] year. So we have the complete roads and and street numbers being updated every three years and our parks and trails will be updated every two years. So we'll do half the city year one, half the city year two. We'll continue to update our models to help us better forecast and budgetary needs, long-term maintenance, and capital improvement planning. It's the best use of technology and decision-making to be good stewards of the tax dollars in our community. The the uh facilities condition assessment also allows us to lay out a 10-year plan. It's easy to sit and look back and say, "What has or has not happened? What work didn't get done?" And we could spend hours talking [28:29] through data and analytics about how we got to this point. It's irrelevant. What matters is how we're moving forward. What matters is the markers that we're putting out there at five and 10 years so that we have a very predictable budget cycle for capital improvement planning. that the increases, the updates, and the work that needs to reform that needs to be performed is predictable. This long-term financial planning will ensure that the city continues to positively position itself for several years to come. One of our most notable projects was Sixth and Maple Streets. Now, you'll know this because it's on the east side of Farmington Elementary. [29:14] This was an area that needed work for a long time. The the sidewalk on the west side of Sixth Street wasn't wide enough. There were large canopied trees. There was um there was utility roadblocks. There was drainage roadblocks. Everybody knew that that intersection of Sixth and Maple just it wasn't ideal. It wasn't ideal for our buses. It wasn't ideal for our kiddos. The entire area needed to be master planned. So, in 2024, with the help of our our city engineer and public works director, John Powell, we laid out what a what the most effective project would look like. Our time frame was school start last year. And even with all of the rain that we had, we made it. [29:58] That project has been very well received and everyone that's been through there has been aruck by the changes that have been made. As each one of these projects happens, we will continue to advance on our emerald ashbor um tree removal. Uh we're working on our reforestation plan to make sure that a tree city can truly continue to be a tree city. In addition to the Sixth and Maple Street project, there were also seven total projects for 2024. There were six mill and overlay, but the most notable was the the road reconstruction project of Sixth in Maple. [30:36] Couple overhead shots just how much the area has changed staying in infrastructure support. John hit on it a little bit and we've talked about it the last few years about the fiber buildout for too long. This community has not had competitive internet. Taking nothing away from our singular provider at the time. We've slowly started to have local alternatives be built. [31:03] When I was appointed to the Dakota Broadband Board back in 2019, we were number three in Dakota County for total miles of fiber in the ground as a city-owned asset. Dakota County was number one. Burnsville was number two. Farmington was number three with just over seven miles. Last year in my state of the city, I referred to us as having the potential to be a Silicon Valley. In today's age of technology, we don't realize how critical access to internet actually is. [31:39] It's very hard to to go through you couldn't have this presentation without it. It's streaming. We have presentation that we're wirelessly doing here. Data storage, financial information, social, your music, the Spotify, all these things stream. They all need to transfer data. We recognized that we had an asset in the ground that we owned that our predecessors had the foresight to invest and start to lay the groundwork for that critical infrastructure. We simply embarked on a partnership and a collaboration to be a very robust community. We partnered with Hayawwa Broadband for a border-to-border buildout. It ensured that every corner of our community from the underserved to [32:24] the unserved would have access to internet. We put it in 20 of our 29 parks. We used ARPA funds to ensure that we'd have future accessibility. It broadens the ability for programming from geocaching to interactive um streaming of videos to real time updating of sports information. There's so many things that we can do in a connected society, but you need the infrastructure. But most importantly, take all of that away, take all the economic development opportunities away. You know what it created? It created competition for our residents. [33:05] And the minute that buildout started, there were other companies in tow. You see companies like Frontier, Metronet, our right ofways are starting to get dug into a second and third time over. Our residents now have competition. Taking nothing away from the singular provider. When there's an increase in competition, there's an increase in the standard of service delivery. When there's competition, there's an increase in the excellence and the demand for better service. Our residents will not only be the financial benefactors of having competitors, but they also be the the benefactors of a higher level of service. That's just the start. Fiber can fiber and its [33:50] connectivity can in fact be the backbone of our future economic development and what this community rides over decades to come. Within community engagement, our guiding principles are to increase transparency in city government, to communicate effectively, to enhance outre outreach and create tools to encourage resident engagement. Our council and team continue to show up. We have high frequency resident engagement and we look at it as an opportunity to not only educate but inform our residents on all things Farmington. Here are a few pictures of the opportunities we've had over the past 12 months to engage with our residents and our [34:39] businesses. Staying within our guiding principles of quality business growth and retention, we we we use this to enhance our business activities. We do this to positively position Farmington to welcome, support, and attract development to diversify our tax base, to maintain and grow relationships. In 2023, we embarked on the unexpectedly bold campaign to positively promote Farmington across the region and across the state. We can celebrate our past while boldly defining our future. [35:15] One of those initiatives is the Emery, formerly the Dakota Motors site. This project, this property for too long stayed undeveloped. It's on a critical corner in our downtown. It's in an area where there should be robust and vibrant activity. Our team embarked out on a mission to pull in a developer that embraced the vision of our community while also filling a housing need that hadn't been, to John's point, hadn't been satisfied in over 30 years. The Emory started construction opened last October. This [36:01] investment of over $18 million in conjunction with tax incremental financing not only created jobs, but it drove workers to downtown. In my conversations with our downtown businesses, with our bartenders, with our servers. Every one of them that I interacted with said they have never seen that kind of traffic downtown. The big disruption that never happened. It was an injection of vibrancy in our downtown. And if you haven't had an opportunity to tour this building, I encourage you to do so. It is an unbelievable work of art. It meets the needs of a price point at market rate. [36:43] For those who want to call Farmington home and for those who might be living it with someone else, they might be living at home. They might be an aging adult that wants to move out of their split split level rambler or split level or rambler. They want to move into a into a building that has vibrancy. They want to move into a building where they can interact with others in common spaces. It's 74 units of multifamily development. Again, it continues to diversify our tax base. It provides long-term stability in downtown district. It supports our downtown redevelopment plan, and it is a huge win for Farmington and our businesses. [37:21] More than that, it shows prospective developers that we know how to navigate complex projects. It shows developers that we will embrace change and growth. And it shows developers that we're ready. That spurned another development. [37:44] The Yellow Tree Apartments in the Rye purchased part of the HY 13 acres in Vermillion River Crossing. We went through we we just had the community development agency here and we've been talking about diversifying our housing mix for several years, the need for price points, the rising number of residents under the ages um under the age of 34 and over the age of 60. those two we practically lead the county for demographics but we don't have the price point options. So when we started working with Vashall and his team they came in and they had a hard ask. They wanted something that looked like nothing Farmington has had. 167 [38:31] units of market rate. There was no tax increment financing attached to this. The only concession that the city of Farmington had was a little bit of forgiveness on an assessment that was deferred on the H High property. It was a very very wise and insignificant amount of money in the grand scheme of things when you talk about a 38 to40 million investment. A developer that looked at a number of communities and decided to start writing the checks and and bring the opportunity here. When we went through the groundbreaking, I had the opportunity to talk to Vashall and his partner and I said, "What's your biggest takeaway with the city of Farmington?" And they both looked at me and they [39:17] said, "You all just make it easy. You eliminate roadblocks. You don't put all these constraints. We're here. We want to develop. We want to build. We want to support. Help us." Deanna, three months, four months from when it was initially brought to council to where it was approved and they were on their way. That project happened immediately because we had in years prior started our development review process. We have our development review committee meeting weekly going through and identifying prospective projects. [39:54] The net result is 167 additional units working into um our absorption number of available market rate apartments. This is a huge opportunity for the city of Farmington. These pictures are actually a little bit older. I tried to get something recent. We had a little bit too much rain, but if you drive by there, you'll see a building that's approximately 50 ft tall that has vapor barrier already on it. Their dryin's been done. And again, you have 50 to 100 contractors every day in Farmington supporting local businesses, driving money into our community, creating future homes for our residents and those considering Farmington as a place of [40:42] residency. I would also be remiss if we did not talk about Denmark Trail. When we partnered with our Dakota County Commissioners and the co Dakota County Community Development Agency, they were looking for partners to eliminate roadblocks and points of entry for their housing model. We walked into them and said, "What do we need to do? [41:06] How do we support you? And most importantly, how can we get out of the way? What do you need?" They already own the land. They just needed somebody to say yes. They need somebody to embrace 40 units for the first time will be one, two, three, and four bedrooms. Now, these are adjusted market index pricing. [41:27] There's a waiting list of thousands of people with preference to Farmington residents. This is a grand slam. Again, when you collaborate with your with your other organizations, with your municipal partners, and you find ways to eliminate roadblocks, it's amazing how quick those opportunities come to fruition. We continue to drive in the realm of diversifying our housing mix because it will we know it will continue to support our employers. It will support prospective developers, prospective employers. Most importantly, it puts people in Farmington to spend their money in Farmington, to participate in programming, to be volunteers in the local nonprofits, to support our religious organizations. When you bring [42:13] people to our community, they're involved in our community. We need to continue to elevate the number of people that can call Farmington home. Now, we have to get into some of the not so pretty stuff, but this is our current reality. Since I started serving in 2019, I've I've seen this progression of again taking nothing away from prior councils, those that have served before. Our elected officials and our staff did what they had to do to get us to a point. [42:51] For too long, people have raised their hand and talked about economic development. They've talked about trying to eliminate the roadblocks. The reason they say that is because they need to create new revenue because what we don't want to talk about out loud is the cost of service. We don't want to talk about the cost of deferred maintenance, the financial needs of this community in the years to come. [43:17] So with the help of Kim Summerland, our finance director, and all of our senior leadership team, we went through and we did an extensive analysis of our next 10 years and our capital improvement planning. We had to lay out a financial plan. We had to know what the what the road map looked like. The reason I say it's ugly is because we don't want to talk about it. The city sits on an annual budget with expenditures approaching $20 million. [43:44] Looking at that top line, there is $67 million in capital improvement plans over the next five years. $67 million. A few notable things that we have to look at and how we're going to get these projects done and how we're going to ensure that our team has the tools and the resources to deliver the highest level of core service. We have a replacement of fire engine number two. [44:14] We have police squads, extensive amount of PD equipment. As the state continues to put burdens on use of force, there's more equipment that our team has to take on. Good initiative, unfunded mandate. It comes on the backs of our residents and our taxpayers. So, we have to create create revenue opportunities to ensure that our team has the tools to deliver at the high level that we want. our mowers, our street equipment. There's $6.5 million over the next five years just on vehicles and equipment. In maintenance, there's $13 million just in maintenance, $26 million in facilities, $1.4 million in trail improvements. [45:01] 2019, and I use 2019 because that's when I started. That's my first snapshot. The city of Farmington had approximately 50 miles of trails, trails, and paths. With a 20-year replacement schedule, that's two to two and a half miles of paths and trails per year that have to be budgeted for. We were budgeting for 6. That's a going out of business strategy. That math doesn't work. You can't crank up the volume right away and just start doing the work because what are you going to have 20 years down the line? [45:32] The same problem. So, you have to start to phase in all of these long-term expenditures and you have to use data to make the right decisions to not further burden your taxpayers. There's 1.4 million in just trail improvements on top of the monies that we've already allocated in prior years. There's $5 million in street work mill and overlays. There's $2 million in storm water management, $3 million in emerald ashbor and tree removal. As our police department continues to expand and meet the rising need of our community, they've outgrown their space. Last year at the state of the city, I talked about how we would embark on the conversation about what that expansion look like. We have the [46:17] plans. Our challenge this year is getting it done for next year's budget. supporting our police department to ensure that they have the space to properly secure their equipment and ensure that they can continue to deliver at the highest level that our residents want. $14 plus million for an expansion to be done. $5.5 million in water storage. The good news is that money is sitting aside that was earmarked. The money is sitting there for the water tower. Watching the natural naturally occurring development will determine where that water storage tank is ultimately placed. And our team's looking at alternatives for ground storage versus air storage. We have to look at what those costs are over 20, 40, 60 plus years. We have to be very [47:05] wise in how we're directing the use of these funds. There's $6 million in um there's $6 million in Farmington East and Farmington West uh water and sewer trunks. So, new lines, new water and sewer. You can't have development without primary services. We have to invest and start to build out our water and sewer to ensure that when these development opportunities come up, we can move forward on them. There's over $3 million in park improvements. There's $18 million in street and right-of-way improvements, and that's just 2025 to 2029. If you look out 2030 to 2034, we've already identified an additional [47:51] $60 million of work that needs to be done. This is not a comfortable conversation, but it's the reality. If we don't do something about it, if we don't have new development and redevelopment, one of two things is true. Costs go up or services go down. [48:12] I, for one, don't accept either. There's a natural gradient in cost of living and inflation and the rising needs of a growing community, but the disproportionate balance of residential to commercial industrial has been out of whack far too long. This go takes us back to our unexpectedly bold campaign. The city council is the economic development authority. We are the five that have given direction to our team to go out and find the projects. When they come back, it's going to be uncomfortable. Our job is to ensure that those projects are safe, they have vibrancy, and that they can actually come to fruition. But they're not comfortable. This is worse. [48:58] I choose uncomfortable over not getting this work done. Our budget, simply put, our budget is not in line with our replacement and m and maintenance schedule and absent new development and redevelopment. That burden cannot be on the backs of our residents any longer. We've worked too hard to get our tax rate down from the upper 60s into the low upper 40s, low 50s. There's going to be a slight creep up over the next four or five years, but without that new growth it's catastrophic. So, how do we do it? This map, again, we comprised this last year. This map shows the municipal [49:43] boundary of Farmington. I'm going to walk through this a little bit slower because I want to make sure that we absorb what we're actually dealing with here. The green is agricultural land. The yellow is residential, schools, parks, open spaces, and roads. The red is our current commercial industrial land use. Brown is either egg preserve or some form of protected land use that requires numerous years to come out of. The black crosshatch cross-hatched section that you see is land that has been identified in our 2040 [50:29] comprehensive plan as future use for commercial industrial. Now when you look at the top right corner the northeast quadrant you'll see there's a lot of green there. And when you drive 190 195th over towards three or vice versa you see a lot of land to the north. There's two predominantly two property owners there. [50:50] North half, south half. The southern half of that entire parcel went into foreclosure. Went into foreclosure a few years ago. It went through a redemption period. It wasn't redeemed. It's bankowned. The bank is going to go out and find an end user. We're working through there was some some u mild litigation about the planned unit development that the city had entered into and who had the rights to it. The long and short of it is just because you drive by land, just because you see open spaces doesn't mean it's for sale. It doesn't mean it's being marketed. It doesn't mean that it has the infrastructure to support the future development. It simply means that it's land that exists. The constraints behind [51:38] it are what we need to work through. But for the foreseeable future, you could almost take the Northeast Quadrant out of the equation, at least for the next few years. Something could change that surprises us, but re reasonably. We've we've abandoned the water tower placement in the northeast side. We talked about land acquisition could still come to fruition, but that land is bankowned and there's a lot of constraints around that. As you look up Flagstaff, there's a handful of land owners. There's a lot of land that's in Egg Preserve. I for one am not going to tell a land owner what they can what they should do with their property. It's theirs. When they and their families make the decision to market it, to sell [52:25] it, to explore alternatives, that's on them. We're here to support them and help them in every way possible. But we will not use public or eminent domain to go and take property from a landowner. That's a non-negotiable. You look at that map and you see a lot of different colors. What we see is the opportunities that are in front of us. Our team goes out, they market to different developers, they talk about the opportunities, they talk about our infrastructure. These projects will slowly start to come to fruition. [52:59] But make no mistake, there is a heightened sense of awareness and a sense of urgency to get these projects done. We know what our capital improvement plan looks like. Developers don't care. That's not their problem. It's our problem. We need to put the two together and create opportunities to take the burden off our residents and our taxpayers. Brings us to the hot topic of the last 12 to 18 months. [53:30] And more reasonably, this topic extends decades back. Minnesota and specifically Farmington is continuing to receive significant interest in technological parks and data center opportunities. Question is why? Why here? Why are they looking at us? First, it's our climate. Minnesota is prime for large energy users due to our mild temperatures and low cost of cooling. [54:01] These facilities can operate without the use of water for cooling except for days that exceed 90 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit. Depends on the coolers and the servers that are inside these buildings. According to the department, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Twin Cities metro area averages 13 days annually where high temperatures exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit. On these days, water usage can be upwards of 2 million gallons per day, depending on the size and scale of the project. [54:37] For context, the city of Farmington's appropriation of water from the Department of Natural Resources is approximately 880 million gallons annually. A user of a large data center technology park opportunity could utilize and receive appropriation for anywhere between 40 and 70 million gallons. It's less than 10% of what the city's total allocation is. [55:07] But if you focus on 2 million a day and you carry that out over 365, that's a whole different story. I'm going to say that again. Averaging 13 days a year at 2 million gallons with an appropriations permit of approximately 40 to 70 40 to 80 million gallons when the city uses 880 locally. [55:35] We control the zoning. We work together to determine what those opportunities look like. The regulatory agencies like the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Department of Natural Resources, the Met Council, numerous others set guard rails in place that we cannot violate. We cannot arbitrarily say, "Yeah, I understand the rules. We're going to go this way anyway." It doesn't work like that. That's why in arewide environmental reviews are done to ensure that all of those key stakeholders are looking at the community identifying needs that we may not or identifying constraints or parameters that we need to work within and that's exactly what we'll do. The [56:22] second reason is access to electricity. The capex line runs through our community. Decision made by others. It came through the community. It was built a long time ago that offers access to high amounts of reli reliable electricity to the site. The capex line's there. The money was invested. It was identified that at some point end users would come along. That's why the money was invested. City of Farmington didn't say, "Hey, come do this." Our neighboring communities didn't say, "Hey, come do this." The power cooperatives worked to put it in place. [56:58] They invested in their future. They looked at electricity like we look at fiber. Third, the state of Minnesota has significant sales tax exemptions. Those are for the end user. Those are for the contents. It does not, and I'm going to say that again and very loudly, it does not include local property tax exemption. [57:27] You build a building on property that's valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. The developer pays the bill. The enduser receives the benefit of sales tax exemption. Again, that was put in place at the state legislature years ago. It's expiring in future years. [57:45] There's talk of it being extended. This perfect storm has been created by people outside of Farmington. we happen to be in a situation where we could potentially be a benefactor of a project of this size and scale. [58:03] Fourth construction workforce. Construction workforce availability and readiness. Local construction firms across the state offer access to craft labor that ensures large build large projects can be built on time and within budget. I've been on the meta site in Rosemont twice. Both times I've been there, there have been no less than 700 craft laborers on site working. [58:33] That's not counting administrative and support. That's not counting nursing. These are hundreds of workers that both live in Minnesota, that live in our communities and in our region, and come in from outside the region. They're not here for 30 days. They are here for months and years. The economic impact and the amount of money that gets invested in your community just through your craft laborers can't even be quantified. If what we've heard from our downtown businesses from a 74 unit apartment complex is any indication of what we're going to experience with a sizable project where it is hundreds of laborers [59:22] for years upwards of a decade. We don't have enough businesses. We don't have enough restaurants. We don't have enough gas stations. We don't have enough. So what does that do? It creates opportunities for other businesses to invest in the community and build us out. That is astronomical for a community of our size. That's why they're looking at Farmington. We are a perfect storm for these opportunities. [59:59] Now, we have a responsibility to our residents, to our businesses, to our environment, to all of the governing agencies to ensure that we do this correctly. It's not black and white. [1:00:17] There is legislation that is black and white. There is local policy that is black and white. And then there is the gray. The gray is where you have to operate. There are guardrails. You work within them. If the guardrails are here, you can work to here. [1:00:35] Uncomfortable is not the same as saying it's unsafe. Uncomfortable is not the same as saying harmful. Change is uncomfortable. We have been beating this drum for years. We can't get out of our own way. [1:00:57] We have to embrace opportunities. We have to say, do we want the amenities of the community? Do we want to make sure that we are an amazing community within a county where people want to live, work, and play, or do we want to let it deteriorate? Do we want to let it degrade over time? Do we want to reduce services? It's either being done on the backs of our taxpayers and our businesses or it's being done through new capacity and opportunities. What are the benefits for us beyond the things I've said? The benefits economic development. [1:01:36] I briefly hit on how these projects can significantly stimulate the local economy by attracting businesses and generating new economic economic activity. The construction of and operation of these data centers involves a significant investment, hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars, which can lead to increased demand for local goods and services. [1:02:01] Your local businesses become the benefactors of economic development and redevelopment job creation. These projects create several hundreds of jobs. I hit on that. Those jobs are in security, craft labor, IT, and management. They attract other businesses, furthering opportunities for employment. It's a giant sphere. You need housing, you need economic opportunities, you need workforce, you need it all. It all works together. Infrastructure improvements to support these types of projects. Local infrastructure like roads, power and internet connectivity can be upgraded. [1:02:46] This directly benefits the broader community by enhancing their quality and reliability of services. Much has been said about the power. Much has been said about brownouts and how projects like data centers are going to cause all of our power to stop. We're going to have these rolling brownouts. Here's something to think about. [1:03:08] When you look at a 24-h hour period of time, 6 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., there's off peak and there's and there's on peak. When you look at your power, 6 a.m. the peak is down, the demand is down. As it goes through the day, it increases, gets to 4 to 9:00 p.m., it spikes. Okay, that's the demand. You get that natural spike during 4:00 to 9:00 p.m., it teeters off overnight and drops into the early morning hours. But the overall usage of electricity in the community is here. So if your bar for usage is here and your demand has a spike and then all of a sudden you get a very large energy user, what happens? The total demand on the grid and the total amount of dependable reliable electricity is raised that that on-off peak becomes [1:03:54] almost non-existent. It becomes so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I'll let our electricity partners educate you further. They have ex extensive resources available. But you want to talk about finding a way to get your local energy costs to be more standard to have them have more balance which directly affects us. Have higher energy users come in. The providers of this energy are not going to open a floodgate and say they're downstream. We ain't got to worry about them. They work within the public utilities commission. They work within the guard rails. They know what power can be put into the grid. They know what the end user's demand is going to be. They buy those credits, right? [1:04:40] That equation is not at the local level, but it is our responsibility to our residents to ensure that those opportunities when they show up that we find a way to work through the constraints and if it's not viable, it's not viable. But we have a responsibility to say yes until it's a no. I'll say that again. We have a responsibility to say yes until it becomes a no. Last uh actually I had two more points here. Your community partnerships, your corporate social responsibility. Large developers engage in local community projects in legacy projects. They support educational programs. They comm they contribute to community projects. Overall, they help [1:05:27] enhance the quality of life in our community. And depending on your priority level, it increases tax revenue. These projects significantly boost local tax revenues through property taxes, not sales tax. We had asked Ailers to look at the project in East Farmington. We had asked them to do an analysis and give us some projections based on valuations that received from the developers using the project and this slide estimates for valuation over the next 10 to 15 years increase from a few million dollars annually. Take that back. Valuation over the next 10 to 15 years increase from a few million dollars to approximately [1:06:14] $500 million in taxable value. This one project alone could draw 1 million to city, school, and county taxes in 2026, increasing to $4 million annually by 2028, $6 million annually by 2030, and 6.5 million annually by 2040. These projects are not easy. These projects are not comfortable. [1:06:46] The perfect storm of resources, of readiness, of willing and able land owners to sell have created an opportunity for the city of Farmington to move forward with. Projects like this solve the greater problem. They're uncomfortable. They're not ideal. [1:07:06] There's no utopian Sim City where everything is perfect in the perfect location. But we can ensure that it's reasonable. We can ensure that it's viable. And most importantly, we will ensure that it's safe. This does not, this illustration does not account for all of the additional economic development across our community that comes as a result of projects like this. The dollars invested or the dollars spent with our local businesses. [1:07:49] transparency. We have found ourselves in a position with a significant project that creates angst for many. It's not just neighbors to the project. It's residents and businesses throughout our community. They share that with us. We listen. We hear it. [1:08:13] We hear it. We have committed to transparency. We have committed to following the regulations, the statutes that are required by law. We have gone beyond that. We have opened up additional public hearings. We have had community engagement sessions and we have been present. [1:08:37] There's a detailed list through that QR code and that link goes to our website that will clearly lay out and has for months the timeline, the minutes, the agendas, the notes, the data, and the information. It's there. It exists. You don't have to like it. You don't have to agree with it. [1:09:06] But it happens and it will continue to happen as this project moves [1:09:17] forward. I could talk to you for hours about economic development. My peers, our team, many across our community could talk for days about what it means to be in Farmington. But it's important that you hear from the people who have identified Farmington and have chosen to come here and invest. Farmington is on the move. [1:09:42] Across our city, something special is happening. From downtown storefronts to industrial parks, from innovative startups to long-standing family-owned shops, our community is alive with energy, ideas, and ambition. This is more than growth. It's a movement powered by people who believe in Farmington's potential and are bold enough to build it together. In the next few minutes, you'll meet some of the business owners, visionaries, and everyday change makers who believe in our community and are driving that momentum forward. Their stories are not only inspiring, they're proof that Farmington isn't waiting for opportunity to knock. We're opening doors, taking leaps, and creating something [1:10:27] remarkable. This is just the beginning. Let's take a closer look at the spirit of progress that's redefining what's possible right here in Farmington. [1:10:44] **Business Owner (Aerospace Fabrication & Materials):** Aerospace Fabrication and Materials uh was formed 25 years ago, uh just last August, and we've been in Farmington now 20 years. We originally moved into the area because one of the things we were looking for was a place to grow. We just could see the potential in the uh in the community both in expansion here at our site as well as the people in the community coming to work with us and for us. [1:11:12] **Business Representative (Kemps):** Uh Kemp is a Minnesota company. Uh it's headquartered in St. Louis Park. It's been here since 1914. Today in Farmington, Kemps makes all of our cultured products that you can find in retail stores here. Uh that includes Kemp's cottage cheese, uh which is extremely popular right now, sour cream, and a product you might have heard of called Top the Tater. It's a Minnesota institution. Uh and this is the only plant in the United States that makes Top the Tater. [1:11:47] **Business Owner (Local Shop):** You know, when I was looking for a place to purchase, the city was so helpful in me finding a spot. I walked across the street, introduced myself, they set up a meeting with me instantly. Um, you know, within that week, right? And I met with like a group of people from the city and it made me feel really like important and [1:11:57] that I mattered and that they wanted my business here. So, that really solidified um, you know, this being the place where I wanted to really be. [1:12:04] **Vashall (Yellow Tree Developer):** you know, Yellow Tree, we we started as a kind of urban infill developer in Minneapolis and uh really started branching out. You know, we're looking for a cities that are wanting new housing and open to developers coming into the community and being a partner with us. So, that's what we loved about Farmington the city is that it felt like a true partnership. Barriers can be a lot to development and when you can find a city that's willing and able and and part want to partner up on the development like this, it it's it's a great process. [1:12:36] **Academic Representative (DCTC/Inver Hills):** Dakota County Technical College and Inenver Hills Community College have been longtime partners with the city of Farmington. Currently, we have over 460 Farmington High School students who are attending one of our two institutions. Over 100 of those are are high school students who are earning early college credit. And what's exciting is we have this opportunity to continue to build out concurrent enrollment opportunities with our high school partners uh creating more access to college for for Farmington students. [1:12:59] **Developer (The Emery):** Well, when we approached the city of Farmington to talk about bringing Emory, uh, we talked about how positive it could be to bring that to downtown. Uh, bring something new, bring in some new life, engagement, activity to an important main street in downtown. In the city of Farmington, [1:13:21] they were truly instrumental in this whole process. All along there was engagement and positivity towards our shared goal and what this project could mean for the city. and they really pushed that along and and saw that vision and everybody was aligned along the way that helped make this happen. [1:13:42] **Business Owner (Local Shop):** I mean, you walk downtown, people know you and I think that's really important. [1:13:48] **Business Representative (Kemps):** What's important to Kemps and DFA, Dairy Farmers of America, our owners are a lot of the folks that work here, their kids go to these schools, you know, so we're trying to be as supportive of the community in many different ways as we can and it's very easy in Farmington. [1:14:09] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** What you just heard is only a glimpse of the spirit and momentum that is pulsing through Farmington. These stories reflect a powerful truth. New and longtime businesses alike are thriving. They are growing and redefining what's possible right here in our city. That energy is contagious. Here in Farmington, we don't wait for the future to happen. We shape it. We take pride in being unexpectedly bold, in pushing boundaries, lifting each other up, and turning big ideas into real results. [1:14:52] But the real engine behind our success isn't just our strategy. It's not our infrastructure. It's you. It's all of you. It's our passionate business owners, our dedicated workers, our fearless community leaders, and every resident who believes that Farmington can be more and is more. Every single day, we face challenges. Yes. [1:15:21] But we've met them with courage, with creativity, and with collaboration. And now we're stepping into the future with more momentum than ever. Thank you for your vision and for your support. Thank you for your hustle and for being the soul of this city. [1:15:44] The state of our city, it's not just strong, it is bold, it is bright, and we are just getting started. Thank you. [Applause] [1:16:10] [Music]