##VIDEO ID:3OTiX2of6AE## welcome to the mountain city council meeting for Tuesday September 24th it's uh 6 o'clock in Mountain City council chambers can we rise for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we got our agenda do we have any amendments there is a resolution in front of you to be added to the consent agenda which will be item D that was a recommendation that came from the docs miss or doc commission meeting on Thursday so it was just past the council deadline but we're trying to get it in for the season here okay so the resolution we have will be D on the council agend or sorry consent agend okay so I got that uh amendment can I get an approval or a motion to approve the agenda with that Amendment um I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda with the amendment of adding um item D okay I got a motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right that passes okay and then we got the consent agenda uh we only have a couple things uh approval payment of claims we got the minutes from the regular meeting and the workshop and uh the pay request for the 2024 crack ceiling project and then of course what we just put on there which is resolution approving the 2024 Waterside comments rip wrap work is anybody want to talk about any of those or um I don't need to talk about any of them in particular but if there's any questions on D I'm on the docs commission and it was just uh kind of like a much smaller version of the Brighton Commons project earlier this year okay so it's you know dos fund funding and is this what we talked about earlier where all the erosion has happened yes where the ri WP is like gone yeah yeah okay so we got our consent agenda can I get a motion to approve it uh I would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda okay and uh second second all right roll call please counc member m i council member castalano hi mayor Hol I all right all that pass this thanks okay number five we got comments and suggestions from anyone that their topic is not on the agenda okay not hearing anybody um and before we go to planning I'm going to have oral police come up real fast and give us the update on their end welcome mayor C Council thanks for having me yeah um so this report I've ran was between August 27th and uh September 23rd um so far we've had about 108 calls of service to the m area nothing has been uh significant everything seems to be toning down with school starting uh we still continue to have a few things uh one thing I know is now we're up to within that month we're up to about 12 DWIs in the area that being said though that is also our department has been proactively participating in tzd uh State Grant to uh put extra squads out on the road sides to specifically enforce traffic so that's could be most of it too because the guys have been very busy with that I actually have one out right now it's running just straight traffic so that could be some of it but it is that time of year too that we could see some jumps like this um then we've all said like I noticed to a couple liquor law violations that would be two open bottles um in a vehicle and then one or age consumption so those are just some things that stuck out to me that I noticed was kind of trending um school will be back in session everyone seems to be adjusting well um SRO has reported me that uh there's no unusual activity in o or Shirley Hills or Grand View uh she says she's pretty much much busy right now with teaching D classes and that's consuming a lot of her time so that's a good thing to see one thing she did point out to me we've already had our first uh stop arm violation for the year um she's investigated um so that being so we have we have one officer at least a shift during the day during school bus hours that gets into a vehicle on their own doing uh unmarked and follows buses around just to make sure people stay in compliance with that cuz that is a major safety issue that we do not tolerate and we uh handle them pretty quickly and as efficiently as we possibly can okay um or just heads up that Orno and Madina area uh we've been hit with a couple burglaries in the last few weeks um the the crime collaborative in the area so it's made mostly made up of investigators in our area and cisa a crime analysis group that tend to um Trend these things they know the group they've dealt with the group um they don't know if it's the same group or if they're just using their tactics but we have uh up patrols uh during the day uh Oran has been out very uh diligently in the neighborhoods patrolling um stopping cars that don't belong in the area when they can or suspicious activities with uh solicitors and people just walking door to door they've been foll following up so we make sure we're watching the area as best we can and that being said we have to make sure our citizens are using their alarm systems that they have and they're locking up their houses so okay um other than that there ain't much again I think I brought up last time oh Surf Side Center View Beach everything seems to be leveling out we've had one written warning um one of the officers on the overnight caught one person trying to bow hunt or bow fish from the shore carp so they just can't do that after hours and they chased him out but nothing major from that as I saying the last last Council I told you guys about our SWAT team again this week Saturday our me and the SWAT team will be heading to Camp Ripley for our 3-day mtoa conference uh all of us are looking forward to be educational um competitive and very challenging so that's what we got going on so far in our in our area all right SCC any questions for him thank you no thank you all right thanks appreciate it thank you all right number six we got Planning Commission recommendations we got Rita coming up yes all right uh good evening mayor members of the council members of the public I'm Rita trap the city's planning consultant um you can go to the next slide IA won't go through this there thanks um the request before you this evening is Major subdivision and a conditional use permit for the properties located at 2400 and 2420 Commerce Boulevard to develop the lake minetonka Flats uh as you recall you did see an introduction to this project and so this is the uh applicant formal application to try and create uh the four uh Town Homes per building so 12 Town Homes total or town homes Flats total uh they're in the design of a town home as you can see from the illustration um their units are spread across three buildings uh each are two stories with an under um ground parking option um because of the way that the slope uh is for the site back to the lake uh and there is a proposed shared HOA dock arrangement with the near nearby property um and that is separate it's part of our conversation but the approvals will actually be coming from other agencies uh and so we do have a condition that acknowledges that I'll talk a little bit about that but that is off our purview uh and so it's something that were aware of and there are some changes that have occurred since the Planning Commission meeting as a result of what's Happening off in the lake or uh Lost Lake Area Wetland Lake Area um that we'll all acknowledge um but generally the project on Shore is mostly the same as what the Planning Commission saw um the location the properties are located on the Eastern side of Commerce Boulevard uh they it is next to Lost Lake um and the property itself does touch the Lost Lake channel uh which is why this property in contrast to some other properties in the L Lake Area would have the ability to have some docks and some slips and that's why is considered because it does have Shoreline and it does touch uh all the way up to the channel um the applicant is proposing to develop the site in total at 7.9 Acres however the Wetland consumes a lot of that area uh if we look at the existing conditions uh there is just an accessory garage on the 2400 parcel and the rest of it is vacant um this was a home in the past um but that has is no longer there uh the garage is what remains as I said the request is for a major subdivision and preliminary plat as well as a conditional use permit uh this is in the Shoreland plant uh Shoreland overlay District uh it is also in the mixed use Commerce District uh because of that it does require a conditional use permit for any new development to occur so the fact that we have a plan unit development conditional use permit is our tool to do that that is a requirement it is not because they're specifically asking uh or something that's causing it is a requirement of the city so that we can establish setbacks and other elements as part of the project just briefly on our guidance for the city uh it is guided mixed use the goals of the mixed use district is to support a combination of different types of uses commercial residential public and Civic uh the density goal for this area are all of our mixed use areas is 8 to 15 units an acre uh the proposed development is at 9.2 units per acre um if you remember I talked about the site being 7.9 acres in size once you take out the land below the ordinary high water level the wetlands the site really is only 1.3 acres in size so that's how you get to that density um for that uh subject site again just a brief oh the zoning sorry the next slide it is mixed use Corridor um and as such does require a plan unit development for any new development again just another picture it is four units per building each are two to three bedrooms they are flat so it's designed to look like town homes from the street um but really each individual unit is one floor one uh one floor single level living um and you can see the lake perspective I'll talk a little bit on the next slide about parking um parking is private below grade in garages and there is a drive aisle uh oh go back just cuz it's a little confusing um on this side elevation you can see this is an opening into the the garage area this is open um and you can drive between that and then these are each individual private garages there is also an opening in each of the buildings kind of in the center area so there aren't garage doors there my understanding from the Planning Commission conversation is that those are open um but they will have doors in front of each of their individual U and then there is an elevator and staircase um and so the north building you have to drive through the middle building to get to the North building um it is a very tight site yes oh sorry so just the question was like there's the common entrance and then it's because each unit is on one floor so they have a shared entry right yes they have a shared entry can we go back one slide just to clear it they have a shared entry cool and then in that entry there's an area for mail and then there's the elevator and then the staircase uh and then they can also up and down um and then they'll be able to access the garage level and but this works nope that's fine since I have the same picture on both um each unit has their own outside area um as well that that they can use a kind of a deck area and those are shown in the architectural so to clarify I mean it's like each Unit H has its own like lake or Lost Lake facing deck and then Street Front Edge too they both go all the way yes and it's just that these are looking kind and there's a doorway for the lower units yeah that they can access so that's where it looks like a townhouse but that's really a an extra entrance and exit for those lower units because this is the the primary entrance into the building so is a very unique design and it was something that the applicants really worked on with the Architects because of the fact of it's a very narrow site as I'll talk about in a second of the setbacks and how the setbacks all work um this was a way because if you have the individual townhouse with the need for multile living and then the access and and really the marketplace would prefer the single level living this was their approach to try and address both of those needs that we have at the same time all right so the preliminary plat is is actually fairly straightforward um they are combining uh the two existing Lots into one parcel um they are proposing that after the development or after the preliminary plat uh and the building is constructed they will actually use a common interest or a cic common interest Community plat um that allows you to create the individual for sale units because those are are are going to be for sale units so similarly that's what we have in my Marketplace it's just a business application um where each individual unit is sold um and there will be HOA for the remainder of the site so at this point because um of it being the way that the nature of the project we're just looking at a simple preliminary plat that just creates a lot um but then those things will come subsequent and and because we're involved in this process um when the cic would come through staff would be able to sign off that the cic plat is acceptable because it matches what we're proposing uh site plan changes I do want to note a few I'm going to walk kind of walk through the site and then also talk about some of the changes uh the building themselves are generally in the same location from the Planning Commission meeting that has not changed this is the entrance off of Commerce what has changes the arrangement of the docks and how the docks enter into the site it used to be that they came in on the North End um and then there was another piece down here and there was an accessory structure those have been removed and that's part of the discussion that's happened separately from the city with the minihaha Creek Watershed district and the Lake minona Conservation District so those those are the changes otherwise um saff feels like this is still substantially in conformance with what the Planning Commission saw because what we're really talking about most of the changes are related to uh on the lake or on the Wetland type of elements instead of on the land um there are some other changes that I'll talk about that address the Planning Commission comments about parking and Landscaping um but this is the one change that's caused by outside conversations to us so I just wanted to note that as we move through the process uh one thing that is confusing using a little bit different about this site is a very narrow site I think you can all see that uh this there's a there's a yellow line which I can pick up that's probably pretty hard that is the 50ft ordinary high water level setback you can see um that if they were required to meet that setback it'd be very difficult to do any development of the site because it really doesn't leave room um the green area um is the shore Impact Zone there is a requirement through the use of the Pud that they preserve a majority of that short imp Zone um as you can see even this red area which will be impacted that's really about the construction limits they're actually not talking about constructing any buildings it's just they will have to impact that area they are going to restore it back to Native um but this is one of the diagrams and part of our importance when we talk about the Shoreland overlay District uh so I wanted to just highlight that because that's hard to see on the diagrams uh especially if you're working off of black and white uh so we can move forward other site plan elements uh again I talked about the North building middle building south building uh this is the entrance so this is where you'll drive through to reach the north building uh setbacks in our PUD District we do have a requirement that buildings should be uh for the front should be between 15 and 25 ft um that's generally to try and make sure that we don't have U garages necessarily facing the front when we're talking about Commerce and our mixed use District it's trying to create some kind of presence and and place um they tried to do that but as you can see it really varies um between each of the buildings about how far they are set back part of that is part of the curve of the road and how this property line um addresses the road and so the north building ends up um being farther back the south building because of topography you can see there's a lot of uh topography these are staircases and access ramps and those all have to be outside of the county right of waste so they needed to kind of fit all of that elements in um so the buildings are not quite meeting that but we are through the Pud process able to establish the setbacks at the points that we feel are appropriate uh relative to sidey yards uh generally they are at 10 ft which is similar to Mo many of our districts in the community and then the Shoreland setback you can see again varies um our goal as staff U recognizing when we have these tight situations is to have them at least 25 fet back which is kind of that short impact area that we want to make sure that we're protecting so they're they're similar to some of the other cases that we've seen uh in order to address uh a unique site and a tight property that's not of their making moving on just you can see a little bit about how the layout of the sites uh of the individual units are so this is just the main level you can see that entrance area that we talked about in Blue uh elevator staircase kind of a mail package drop off area the red is one of the units and the green is the second unit and then it's mirrored on the second floor so I think that's helpful to to just kind of illustrate what it looks like and how it'll be divided up uh this is that area that you can see that's an open um deck area that's facing off to L Lake City code requires that you have to have at least 760 Square ft uh for a two-bedroom and 880 squ ft these are well above that um so I just noted it U it's more about explaining kind of how the flats are going to look um that I wanted to show you moving on to architectural elements we do have code standards in the mixed use Commerce District I didn't identify all of them generally they are achieving the goals that we have for the architectural uh we did note in our staff packet that they do we do want to make sure that there's pedestrian entry it's very hard to see it but at the Planning Commission we did clarify um that particularly this the main entrance of the building will have something that protects you if you're waiting to open the door um so that's something that has been addressed all buildings will meet the 35 ft requirement I do not that this is a sloping site it will be measured and the average gray between the front the Commerce facing side and the lakes facing side so an individual side will be taller than 35 ft but on average between the two uh they will meet uh just under the 35t threshold that we have and that's our typical approach for Building height and then the last element of the is the regulatory flood protection elevation uh 933 is required uh 937 is what is proposed the flood elevation does factor into some of our challenges on maneuverability on the site I know there was an interest at the Planning Commission for visitor parking and the applicant had looked at that um putting it behind the building but the problem is then we end up with uh having it be underneath what we need to require for flood plane um so those are some of the challenges of the site is that we have all of these overlapping requirements uh and it's hard to find the places to put certain elements site suitability I don't think we've seen a project in a while that was required uh to go through shorelands hearing so I'll do my best but please ask me again if you want more explanation I'm going to do the very high level uh in order to have a Shoreland plan unit development uh it is required by state rules and our own Shoreland regulations that an applicant go through and identify how many units are allowed for density purposes uh within each one of the tiers tiers are set based on the type of lake that you are on it is a specific distance so 200 feet generally for a general development Lake and you use the total Acres of your site divided by 10,000 square feet which is our minimum lot size for our R1 single family District if you do that uh that means that you would have that what would be the allowed density would be five units um which doesn't really make sense and doesn't would not achieve the density goals that we have in the comprehensive plan for this District so the 12 unit is appropriate this is very common almost all of our projects in downtown or any of our mixed use districts go through the shorel Heering analysis we recognize that that doesn't work um because that's basically saying that you can only do single family residential along this Corridor which has not been the guidance we've uh determined for the comprehensive plan uh and so we are using the plan unit development to vary from that standard and then the open space uh the open space because it is a Shoreland plan unit velopment um that is uh a requirement that they need to meet a certain threshold they currently the last numbers we have are at 68.2% that number has increased since what we saw with the Planning Commission because of the changes relative to the dock where it's placed the removal of the the small accessory structure um so that's changed slightly but that is uh in keeping with what the requirements are I did want to make I knew there was one other comment I thought about Shoreland hearing I wanted to make if you recall I said 200 ft for the first tier um this depth of this lot is nowhere near 200 ft deep um so again this property is also affected by the fact that it's not very deep it's not very big um and so that affects what's really reasonable um in terms of the Shoreland taring calculations parking I've talked a little bit about parking uh along the way but just uh again just in case the orientation purposes the driveway to Commerce there was currently one access they are proposing to retain just one access you will come in the driveway um and either go inside the south building into the middle building through to the north building there is a a small temporary parking area located here there is topography so there are steps located uh along the side of the south building to kind of maneuver your way down um the visitor parking was an issue that was uh brought up and discussed extensively at the Planning Commission I think that was the the element that the Planning Commission was the most concerned about uh and so the applicant since the Planning Commission meeting has met with the Gillespie Center and we did include a letter that we had received from the applicant indicating that the GES Center is willing to enter into an arrangement with them uh to provide visitor parking the number is not necessarily established by code our code requires just two two parking spaces per unit so they have met the code requirements um but I think it's really felt strongly that visitor parking needs to be accounted for because winter parking restrictions mean you can't park on the street overnight so people could park on the street most of the time um but if we are looking at overnight parking during those winter months you wouldn't have any opportunities on site um and so staff had suggested six being a reasonable number um that's our suggestion of where visitor parking would be that's kind of like two spaces per building uh and that would be something that we have added a condition for uh the condition generally talks about them providing some type of visitor parking uh either through an arrangement such as this or if they were ever able to I acquire an adjacent parcel to construct parking then that would be sufficient but they need to have something recordable um that can be in perpetuity um for parking and by perpetuity I mean something that exists so it might be that the shared arrangement with the gpie is what they need for now and if they ever were able to acquire anything surrounding then that could Sunset and we would have another mechanism to provide visitor parking so that's what the applicant has tried to do in response to the Planning Commission conversation the Landscaping plan uh we did have our landscape architect review this we did make some comments in blue I've kind of noted where they made changes uh the city code does have a diversity requirement that requires a certain amount number of trees to be either deciduous or coniferous they've made that adjustment in the updated plan so um generally it seems reasonable the only uh concern that we had and we may have further conversations with the applicant is about how do we maintain these with the slopes and the the different retaining walls how do we actually maintain so we might make some slight changes generally they've achieved the intent of the code it's just a matter of making sure it's reasonable and that the HOA will be able to maintain it into the future uh the wetlands there was a notice of decision that was released recently uh and so that um is what solidifies where the Wetland is so this is the Wetland delineation line uh the Wetland is 6.85 acres in si in size though it does extend off of the property um it is a public Waters Wetland uh and the project really falls under the minihaha Creek Watershed District uh the one note is that the Watershed district has their own buffer requirements so the applicant needed to deal with our shore Impact Zone our open space requirements and mini haa Creeks buffer and so they've tried to kind of work all of the city and minihaha Creek regulations together in designing the site storm water they're proposing 45% um that is something that would meet uh our code requirements and they are working with mcwd is is typical um there are they are actively working I know they had resubmitted plans updated plans similar to what you have seen and they are actively on their meeting schedule uh to be reviewed as well saf consultant agency review we didn't include in your packet the detailed information uh that had been included for the planning commission partly that's because the applicant had work to address staff comments hen anden County comments uh and so those a lot of those comments have been addressed there's going to still be technical elements that all agencies work on but generally they are making strides to address any of our comments um so we have uh all the responses uh all the detailed responses and we'll continue to work with the applicant so there's not really anything particularly notable about all the agency and staff comments um there the comment about the DNR uh from the DNR related to the docking system but that is part of the work that they have been doing with minihaha Creek Watershed district and Lake minetonka Conservation District uh to hopefully address the comments from the DNR about movement in the Wetland and again that's somewhat separate it affects our approval process but it is a separate approval that they would need to be granted I should also note that we executed a 60-day extension just for the conditional use permit um subdivisions are 120 days land use applications are 60 to kind of match everything together um just to give us a little time to get all potential actions that you have um we just executed that uh in the last week public hearing notice was distributed following our standard practice um no comments have been received either in preparation of the packet or before this evening um but you are holding a public hearing this evening so there may be public comments that we have yet to hear and receive uh as I've mentioned a couple of times the Planning Commission did review this at their September 3rd meeting uh areas of discussion the overnight guest parking which we've discussed uh snow removal was kind of part of the parking discussion uh and then mail and package delivery otherwise the Planning Commission was fairly favorable to the application uh and so was they ultimately recommended approval but asked the applicant to make more strides relative to visitor parking so with that uh we do ask that you hold the public hearings this evening it's both major subdivision preliminary plat and conditional use permit uh we did prepare resolutions for your consideration because there was staff and Planning Commission recommendation of approval um however you are always able this evening uh to not move forward with those resolutions and take other action which might be tabling it if you feel like more information is needed um or denying it with uh identifying the findings of fact with that I can answer any other questions that you may have does council have any questions for Rita no I read um like the Planning Commission you know like they were favorable of it and the visitor parking thing I mean it's important to note that without it the parking still meets code that is correct yeah okay no I don't have any questions all right thank you all right thank you I mean is this one we're supposed to talk this is if you have questions for me I don't have any questions and then the mayor will direct who next gets to present and talk all right thanks all right so I'm going to open the public meeting if anybody wants to come up and talk about it all right not hearing anybody so I'm going to close the public hearing and do you guys uh want to talk about anything he hear from applicant at all or um I mean if the applicant has anything that they would really like to add but I mean I think the project looks great okay yeah I agree I'm happy they chose that that site in Mound so I mean it I think it looks awesome okay yeah I but if they want a chance to talk I mean by all means I agree I like love the project they glad that you guys are spending time and energy and resources in our town to to do this so uh Mech well I mean I'm going to stay consistent I love the project I think you've worked really really hard with both Sarah and Rita to maximize this you know it's a tough area to try to get everything everybody wants but I mean I feel like you you did go to efforts to find parking for but a lot of it was on-site parking you know for deliveries for the guests for emergency and I I don't know I just feel like the glasby center is two and a half blocks away they could just as easily Park in the free parking R not that gby won't be free you know your concept's been really popular except for the onsite parking and I think I'd be a little bit more sympathetic maybe is the right word to the great problem had you not in your initial presentation had two parking spots which at that point wasn't enough and then you came to the Planning Commission and there were no more parking spots so I I just don't bu that one parking spot at the end of that shared driveway is enough you know for me this kind of falls under the category of if you fail to plan you plan to fail and I'm I'm just still really uncomfortable with one spot um at the end of the at the end of the driveway and I I understand that you've worked hard I'm trying to understand what all where all of a sudden all these steps and everything came from so all go ahead Carl Bron 4 for1 Second Street before you go on I want I want you to clearly understand how much I I love the project I just feel that I just want to avoid unintended consequences going forward with parking sure um again Carl run um co-developer of the project 441 Second Street exceler Street Mayor members of the council um this is a very unique and challenging site as Rita said and um with us from the project team uh The Architects and one of the engineers here who could perhaps speak to the challenges of the project sloping uh the original design intent we came to in June with had a it turns out a very steep driveway to steep to the point of being dangerous we feel like for people to want to go down a I forgot what it was 20% slope um and we wanted to adjust that slope to something that feels less dangerous to someone as a resident driving down and there was there's um things that had to change because of that changing the slope and this was one of the consequences of that of a unique challenge site um so we tried to make the best of the the Courtyard area that's really created kind of an auto court that as you drive down at a at a lower slope to feel safe as a resident driving down there and have enough space for deliveries and for temporary guest parking there is street parking available most hours just not you know overnights and winter times uh we have an arrangement of the Gillespie Center we're satisfying city code for parking um we are intending to try to acquire more properties up if we could up and down Commerce perhaps where could be some visitor parking but with this site the fness site we think we've maximized what we can do with the constraints we have it's just a really tricky site and it's not just with the city it's as you heard with the Watershed district and their buffer requirements and the DNR and the lmcd there's just a lot of jurisdictions on this site which has been tricky to work you know on a design that satisfies all the requirements that way so I appreciate the concern in that way how how common is overnight parking for say condos or flats or well there's certainly you know Las Lake Villas is really the model for this project some ways it's been a well-received project and I don't have the exact counts we could find out you know how many people stay overnight there in an average uh night or during the year but yeah there are there will be visitors but uh will it be six stalls I don't think so at any given time that there are people overnight there six stalls are being used um and I think it depends on the time of the year um summer parking again is available out here on the Street or even uh Closer by than the GES Center but the glesby center is there as a as an option for people with what we're working towards with them right now with an arrangement okay are you able to pull up the parking the the map where it shows the parking under the this one here yeah so that that does show two vehicles right right yeah two two vehicles per private gar yeah okay so hypothetically if there's only one person their their visitor could park in their second St yeah yeah correct that these are this originally started as I think Rita said as a town home design based on the city's vision for more town homes and we had initially had a traditional Town Home Design with garage back and driveway all back because of the slopes right and because of the buff requirements we push the driveway underneath the building like this to accommodate the buffer requirements and have this common which would be owned by the HOA common driveway which is wide it's wide enough for large vehicles to turn in and out of there U but it is true that if someone not every unit's going to have two vehicles there at all times so it is a possibility that if there's a second vehicle could be parked as a visitor in the garage right so this is a completely different comment I guess but so my parents live in a uh condo in Bloomington and I have to go same similar I go down you know into their area um they only have one um garage that they or sorry uh parking spot that they own the rest of it you know is visitor I don't know if you can stay overnight though um but I've never in 18 years I think i' I mean I've never stayed overnight um but I do know I can park on the street you know in front of their their condo so I I totally I I I kind of echo council member m i I did see that in the original plan I was kind of bummed not to see it but I do think that you know each unit has two two stalls plus you can park on the street plus there's I mean right around the corner there's more parking jalas you got agreement with them that's more parking you know if they do overnight or not plus a lot of these people aren going to know each other if there is an open stall hey my friend's coming over for a couple days can they Park in your stall so I guess I'm kind of comfortable with it well M do you have any other questions or okay anything else you want to say or anything before we talk no it's been this has been almost a year process working closely with the city and other jurisdictions we're really pleased with the outcome of where we're at right now and uh getting sness it's an exciting you know way to revitalize Commerce at you know Boulevard on this project okay thank you thank you appreciate okay does council want to talk about this anymore any other questions or thoughts or I don't think so I feel like I'll probably just repeat myself I mean council member mean's point that like gasp is a little farther away but it is like a formal agreement we both know that there's closer parking nearby mhm so I'm not too worried about it and aside from that that it does meet code without additional parking I think it'll be I think it'll be good okay that's for meing well again I'm uncomfortable without any onsite parking except for that one stall um I know that if you could purchase you know the property next door that would be fantastic for all of us you more so than the rest of us and that would solve all sorts of problems but that's a lot of what if what if for me okay so on page 2272 is is that the right page yeah we have two is this that is that what you're showing okay does someone want to make a resolution for that sure um I would like to make a resolution approving major subdivision preliminary plat of Lake vatanka plats for property located at 2400 to 2420 Commerce Boulevard okay got a motion can I get a second I'll second it all right any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose n okay so that passes and then number 2276 we got that one do you want to make that one sure I'll make a resolution approving um conditional use permit for Shoreland planed unit development for Lake Min Tonka Flats project for same property 2400 and 2420 Commerce Boulevard all right got a motion can I get a second I'll second it and any of the discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose nay all right so that passes is that it for that then okay all right congrats guys thank you thank you all right number seven we got a ward quote for 2024 sewer televising to pipe services thank you mayor and members of the council Matt Balman city engineer with Bolton bank um so annually the city staff goes through and cleans sewer um City sewers they do about a fifth of the town every year and then found that it's more cost effective to get quotes to do the televising the inventory the sewer lines and then we can find defects and work on fixes so this year the two areas are kind of um the Shirley Hill Shirley Hills area part of that and then part of the Highland Boulevard that's what they were able to to get into um and so on September 10th we requested quotes back from five contractors we got four back um and pipe Services was the low quote at [Music] 26841 180 um and they are out of Shaka and they they actually did the work last year they're reputable contractors so we recommend awarding the quote for the SE sewer televising to pipe Services okay Council have any questions for no all right we have a resolution on page 2309 okay are we ready to make a resolution yeah as I have any more questions any other questions okay good um I would like to make a resolution awarding contract for 2024 sewer televising project all right got a motion can I get a second second all right any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I I those oppose all right that passes thank you number eight invoice Cloud iCloud for utility billing online bill pay all right mayor and Council uh in front of you this evening is um I'll be presenting some information regarding uh an online platform called invoice Cloud that would allow the city to offer utility customers additional Services more than what we currently offer um some of the added Services would include online access to personalize accounts so customers can sign up for their accounts um personal accounts um and then they would be able to get access uh to up to two years worth of their personal utility account information um it would also be an online payment option expanded payment options would also be included Ed uh and that includes debit credit and other digital wallet methods um we currently do not offer those um it would also be an added communications platform so they can sign up for um not only automated messages for their Utility Billing um like their bills and payments um but this they can opt into other City Communications as well so we can push um you know I I would say we would keep it more towards Utility Billing but you know again that there's a water main leak if there's um for doing work in the area that's an option for us to push more messaging um and then the customers can also sign up for auto pay Flex Pay options so if right now we're billing quarterly if somebody wants to do like a payment on a monthly basis they can set that up to have automat automatic um payments scheduled and then again they have access to their account information and so they can log in and they can understand real time what they owe remaining or if they have a balance I mean if they have a credit um so a little bit of History the city amound we provide Utility Services to Property Owners throughout the city we've been working with a company called Opus 21 since 2013 they do a lot of our um a lot of our billing calculations mailing customer service calls offsite we do do have some uh we do some of it still at City Hall but they're our main um provider for utility billing um again right now there's currently two options to receive a utility bill and that's uh the default is by paper there's an optin for paper list and that's sent by email uh the city and Opus have continued to encourage residents to do e billing because it's cheaper um the city gets if it's a paper Bill we get charged um I'll talk about that later we get charged a higher amount because of paper and the cost of printing and uh postage um currently there are 15% of our accounts that are on paper list um payment options for customers right now they can do a sign up um out of their savings or checking uh and that through the city's uh sign up autopay function so we have 25% of our accounts currently on this right now the process to sign up though is a paper process so it's a somebody has to physically submit um that information to City Hall on a paper form and so um again this option through iCloud would allow us to um people to sign up automatically by creating their own account uh and the other option is cash or check so we do not currently accept credit card debit card or digital wallet options yet so iCloud currently works with 72 other municipalities I reached out to City of chasa and they said they've been very happy with iCloud they've been working with them for a couple years now um iCloud and Opus have worked together in other communities and so they know how to integrate the system their systems in with one another um so that um we think the process would would go fairly quickly since they they're used to each other um again uh there are with the increased service again the that residents would have there would be we're estimating about an $188,000 increase in cost and I'll go over those nonetheless um we do predict that there will be some efficiencies created in areas again we would have uh customers that would have access to their account information currently a lot of the customers have to call in if they lose their bill we generally reprint or email um and then also again um there will be ex uh expanded payment options and we have you know we do receive several comments i' I was at a conference I received a from a m resident she said when are you guys going to get different payment options so um so that uh again is is something that we hear a lot um so in your packet is a more detailed in is more detailed information on the fees associated with the program um so again we would have fees associated with our uh access to their portal um Opus will continue to send paper bills uh and then um the change would be that iCloud would be sending our paper lless bills um there's more detailed information again the more people we can get up to do P sign up to do paper lists um the better uh it's it cost because it costs less so with that um there were some Financial points that were discussed with the finan committee so um we needed to make some decisions So currently our auto pay ePay a payments um our residents are not charged for signing up for that they would now be charge uh per transaction if they were still continuing to use that option the option is $1.95 per transaction until the aomy viw the finance committee is recommending that the city pay for this fee to encourage customers to stay on automatic payment um but it would only be for accounts that are set up on auto pay so reoccurring similar to what they are now but the reoccurring autopay option um the one time in the moment payments would be required to pay that fee uh another financial decision credit card debit card digital wallet payments iCloud would charge a credit card fee at a rate of 3.25% minimum of 295 per transaction and then there would be a charge of a dollar for phone payments so the finance committee is recommending that those fees be passed on to the customer um so with that uh staff is staff and the finance committee feel that while there are some costs there are added services and uh and it really gets us I think where we need to be as far as customer service um and so the city council is being asked to make a motion to approve moving ahead with a three-year contract with iCloud that's within the packet and that has been reviewed by staff and the City attorney all right does council have any questions for Maggie I have a couple I think this is so long overdue thanks for doing all the research it's just great is this going to be something that will move smoothly into our new website will there be any issues with that um no it shouldn't I think right now our current it redirects to the Opus website and so I think it'll be a similar process where um you know if if if customers need access to the utility billing it'll be kind of a link I think they said it would include like the mound website it would be kind of like an uh a page that would be like a secondary site for mound specifically and so it would just be linked to our website and and redirected but maybe just check with the um yeah website designers to make sure it can be incorporated without any issues being that they're kind of overlapping each other okay yes and then I I guess I have a little bit of a problem with Mound taking over the 195 per resident I mean I think most people that do auto pay are pretty used to paying that online setup fee and it's minimal for the resident but it's a lot of money for Mount I thought it was passed on to the customer wasn't it there's two two of them one I'm talking the 195 yeah okay so the one I'll let you well just you know we we struggle with that as well um and I'm probably good either way to be honest um the the thought was that they're not paying it now so how do you get people to adopt it moving over you don't have a choice they still got to pay their bill but they're not pay it now do we want to make it kind of a a similar event if we don't then it's was it two bucks a month times um or no two bucks it' be two bucks a quarter quarter yeah yeah so I mean it's not that much money either way well it's a lot of money for mound it's not a lot of money for an individual but we're are we already paying something like that now for them currently or just we don't pay we don't we don't we don't so everybody that would that's currently on AC who doesn't get charged a fee would start getting charged that fee oh okay and and the thought the the reason why I said I could go either way on it is because if it is was that eight bucks then a year MH that right um difference I we did a a mock setup on this and the guy texted me he's like hey pay your bill you know just how like every other place does it right and it actually looks really nice it's very very slick um they like you said with the website they tie it into the website so they it's like you go to city.com you know pay your water bill boom and it and it flows right through it's no I understand that I just wanted to make sure with our new website being designed currently that everything would merge together nicely their presentation was good it wasn't clunky or like right like it looked I don't know it looked like it was part of the website almost when did you have a presentation is that something we can all see it was at the finance committee meeting but yeah I mean I think it was recorded so we can I can ask for the recording yeah um I I think it's I love it I mean it's long overdue I'm just I am against taking on the 195 per customer that's is that the 17509 yep that we would end up paying for customers that's our estimate yeah based on your estimate what page is that on 20 234 is it this it's on page 2314 oh 17 the the middle the projected and if they 100 if it's 100% adopted then we would have to pay 31 yep yep oh about 32 yep well then I'm with you that's a lot of money yeah I can go that way okay I I I really just can't imagine residents having a big issue with a $1.95 especially considering how gigantic they already feel a major issue with a dollar 95 you do yeah I'll pay a check I will not cor no no 3.25 no5 well it's a one time it's a one time I don't care I don't care well so you didn't ask that yeah oh that's okay so the debate is like you said I think I agree that 17 to 31 Grand is that something that the whole city should be paying just because people do a and yeah I think you're probably right I mean check paying will be still available it'll still be available and the 195 is if you opt in to do to do it so you have to speaking to to the lady that oh I'm sorry you know would have an issue to 195 which I respect that but you will still have the option to write a check so what what you get for the eight bucks a year or whatever is a way better way to well a way to actually access your stuff um and if you think about the the time and energy I mean Noah can attest to this too I'm sure that you know the amount of calls I mean I don't know you could probably send them a link say hey go check your bill you know here I'll send you a text message um it's it's pretty intuitive but then the other thing that I liked about it too is that because it's going to integrate with our new site um all the emails and the text messages and stuff that we're going to collect right then we can kind of tie those into it because I remember I think I'm pretty sure I asked them is there a way to pull that data in our new website and you know we probably got to talk with you about you know the legality of it but um he like yeah it's I mean they're signing up to your system well that's that's part of the beauty of this is harvesting everybody's emails which we've talked about for two years right right so it's it's beautiful I love it I just think we really need to be conscientious about being as generous as we would be to put the 195 per resident especially considering how much money we owe yeah I would agree with that too I mean I maybe I'm I'm weird but like I I know that I can sign up for the 195 like it's an option but you don't have to and like I still usually have something that I want to go bug Kevin about like I bring my check in you know so maybe I won't pay that 195 or you know you can change your mind later you know so you can still write a check to Kevin you can still bring your you can still bring your bill in you or mail it or do whatever um but if you want to sign up later you can too or okay you know so yeah it's voluntary okay so I think we're on the same page I mean just the the service we're going to be offering going forward is so much more full nature than what we have been in the past for those that don't want to pay the onetime fee um until they're ready or maybe they never will be you'll still have the option to check so I agree we're all sounds like on the same page okay so do we have a resolution on this or no just instructions um it would just be a motion to approve um the agreement but it would have it it would the motion would have to include the change to yeah for that fee okay does someone want to make that I can do that um and thank you for um like council member McAn said for putting in the work and research to keeping us caught up technology wise um I would like to make a motion to move forward with the invo invoice Cloud iCloud utility billing on online bill pay agreement for a three-year contract with the residents with not paying the oh with um with with residents um having the option to opt in for the 195 does that work yeah okay all right got a motion can I get a second second okay second um any other discussion I just have one thing this will start Jan one or we're shooting for yeah our goal is to get it going the get it signed this week and then get everything starting as soon as possible be a roll out per quarter as in like everybody resident pays around like a yeah it is sred so yeah uh there the company is going to help us with marketing and getting the information out um but yeah we're our goal is to have it live by January 1 okay and just we we we should put that in the newsletter and of course online obviously okay for this next one before they well they're not going to get it by January are they um we still have a newsletter cuz it it goes out February it goes out this one will go out November okay good perfect okay okay so I got a motion a second all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right that passes thank you Maggie thanks Maggie and Noah whoever all has work on this it'll be very exciting okay then we got uh Deputy city manager Maggie requesting discussion on action on the pr prelimin Min Ary budget and Levy uh so age LSP funding request um and I'll maybe can I just go on that a little bit yeah okay so we got a is that in there the packet yep we got a kind of updated request from Ronda Nelson who's the director at gesp and um as you can see in here the The Proposal is to to request 12,000 a year um I guess if you guys had a chance to to look at that but that's kind of the recommendation um I did see in the newspaper the other day that she was in front of Orno or someone was in front of Orno and they pay nine and she was looking to have them pay 12 um I don't know what you know what they did with it but that's I think that's the only other city that is paying you ju last but um the finance committee looked at it um I guess I kind of go with my original thought on it that you know we're we're here to help with the news letter and website and and everything else but um wasn't really prepared to maybe you know fund I mean especially at the 60 is it 12,000 a year for 60 how long uh I don't know if there's a set date here yeah we had a 10-year agreement before and that was 60,000 a year and then it went up to the request was up to to do 75,000 which is a per resident number and then we've got a kind of a a request you know back down to 12,000 so uh as the attorney I think was that your thing that you put in here or or sorry Jesse I think put that in there that technically we're allowed to do this we're allowed to yeah there's a there's a Express statutory Authority that allows it right so I don't know I mean I guess I could go either way I just I'd rather maybe look at this again next year personally so I don't know what you feel yeah I mean I'll I'll say I think the same thing I did in the finance meeting um I think I'm saying the exact same thing but you know like I I get the value and everything like that too um it's not utilized by all of our residents and I just think with our current financial position I'm not sure that that's something we should be entering a contract for I didn't know about the previous um you know $60,000 a year for 10 years that's like more than 10% of our water deficit like you know it just is something else that could add up and I'm not sure that I can get on board with a contract but um what I had proposed uh at the finance committee meeting and just to bring up here is that I think we can offer them um you know that much value in our resources whether it's social media the website the newsletter um signage or advertising or you know direct mail I staff time in some things I mean that that gets to $122,000 pretty quickly in a roundabout way but I don't I don't think I'm in favor of entering a contract this year but we can always look at it every year too yeah I'm really torn on this you know it's such a wonderful commodity that we have in Mound and yes for 10 years we did foot the $60,000 and that was a very happy day when that was over and what if we had a year break from that two years couple years yeah um I iess I guess I'm maybe maybe negotiate and go back to $500 a month I I feel that it's they're they're working really hard at trying to Rebrand trying to get more events you know weddings and mount you know it isn't Mount and I think we've always been the main contributor to this unfortunately I I don't know how actively uh Ronda is working to get the other cities on board but she seems like a go-getter to me you know I I would propose maybe going back and saying for this first year we can do half we can do 500 a month that would be six six grand and that that way we're contributing to the community yeah I kind of I mean I can get on board with that and I think maybe mayor hle said this before but or no maybe you did too it's like we weren't sure what exactly was being done with the money and you know not that it's not being used correctly but you know if we can use it for direct resources like signage to help them promote the event space or well I think they're really you know I think they're ready to do promotions but their dowy if you've read all this and I wish Sherry was here because Sherry would be able to really give us highlights because she's our leaan over at the gie Center and so she knows a lot more than probably the rest of us I I just hate to say no to such a valiant effort that Rhonda is making um she did a lot to decide to stay on board to try to get them afloat and to try to get them rebranded and redo slowly you know the inside so people are actually proud to want to have an event in there and I hate to say you know we can't Do It um but but I'd be comfortable with $6,000 you know look at the money we spend just on the Harrison Bay it's not a lot but for the barrels and yeah I guess what I would say is like I'm totally comfortable with that but then also continuing you know like we can provide value in our resources still right you so we do 500 bucks a month but give them space in the newsletter you know put stuff on the website and Facebook and and we've been promoting everything they have on Facebook so I want to give I want to give Rhonda our backing because I think she really has gone out on a limb to try to resuscitate the you know the gpie center M and it is really a beautiful commodity for us and for the you know for the residents that use it a lot of the elderly use it I like the fact that they're trying to get out there and bring in a youthful group with weddings and you know graduation parties and yeah I'd like to know that we had a hand in that as a council yeah I see value in it I mean my wife has has a a table at the Holiday thing every year you know yeah so I could have get on board with what you said you know and then maybe going forward with you on the finance committee you know work towards trying to help Ronda meet that goal but you know this has been a tough year for us she came to us at a at a tough time yeah she did during budgeting um so maybe she'd be I'm sure she'd be happy with with anything we decided to offer to donate to their cause Okay so it sounds like we're good with 500 a month yeah I would say and then review next year I would say let's do a one-ear deal so October to to September so can we start this before January I mean do we have enough in the budget to do that I have we don't have to enter into a contract either I mean we can just commit a portion of our budget annually and I mean just depends on your comfortability I would say my comfortability is the expiration date and again like we said before we're kind of I mean 60 Grand was a lot of money but that but that was kind of a contract we we did sign deal so I'm saying let's do a oneyear not that we're just GNA jump out next year but let's I want to be able to bring this back and then talk about it and then maybe we do more maybe we do less maybe whatever I I will add too so some of the requests are some of the things that the three of you have been talking about how we can utilize our our um resources but I was talking to council member Pew on Thursday about this and she reminded me about some of these age-friendly grants that are coming uh in October and we'll commit some time to that too because this would be the perfect place to put that money so I mean there are there are more opportunities so I mean yeah that's great starting out with something small and then maybe we can find some money elsewhere and you know do some uh some sort of pass through Grant like we've done with other um nonprofits so we'll do January to December then yeah I mean quite frankly their request I think was to be intended for next year anyway so okay all right so we'll start at January for all year all of 25 and we'll reass assess next budget year what we're going to do the following year well it'll be helpful within the budget knowing that this is looming right okay yeah um mayor Mr Mayor may I I don't believe know the statute doesn't State you know what type of mechanism that you have with regards to um an agreement with the uh with who you're donating to um a letter agreement may be enough or just a letter from um the city manager maybe enough anchor is what we're doing um perhaps maybe a motion to you know approve uh um the city manager Ander into an agreement with um the gpie center would be enough and then he can work behind the scenes put that together or we can and I'm just thinking it'd be a letter agreement okay perfect or or just even a one-sided letter saying here's what we're doing this is what we're doing it's yeah this is a motion to authorize the manager to you know to work towards that with regards to was it $500 a month and plus you can have the other parts in it too that the non-monetary whatever legal stuff you got to put in there well but the Mind monetary it was like the website the you know that the newsletter those kind of things but some so I guess if you're okay with it I'll just say the motion go ahead okay um maybe uh motion to approve um let me get to the statute motion to approve um appropriation of money to support um the gpie center under Minnesota statute section 471934 um at a rate of $500 per month for a one year stting starting January 1st um in addition to um also to provide um non-monetary support through the website and other other means um and with an authorization for the city manager to um enter into an agreement okay so I'll make that my motion we got that I know it's wordy well we can replay it yeah all right so we got a motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right that passes thank you for making that yeah helping me make that motion okay so now we're on to B approve resolution approving the 2025 preliminary general fund budget all right right uh mayor and Council in front of you and your packet is a lot more detailed information that I'm going to present um so if you have any questions at the end of the presentation let me know so um I prepared a PowerPoint that I'll just kind of summarize what um of the process and recommendation so budget timeline uh we're at the meeting tonight to review the preliminary Levy and budget uh for 2020 and to adopt the preliminary Levy and budget uh it is due to the county uh by September 30th uh we will also be doing the HRA preliminary approval as well that is part of the agenda uh and then after tonight we will be uh doing a little bit more review on the budget um and then we will then do our truth and Taxation presentation on December 10th and then approve Al of the final levian budget um at the same meeting and then that final Levy is due to the count County by December 27th so as you know uh the last year we've been we did uh the city did a lot of work completing a long-term financial and capital plan uh that also included um a utility rate study for water and sewer so the preliminary budget is based on these plans um and then I just wanted to an explanation about why long-term financial planning is important um I won't go into too much detail but it relates to strategic planning and developing policies Capital planning and budgeting so it really allows us to project our revenues and expenditures and Fe key factors that um have a financial impact on the city little review of the general fund this covered operating division of the city's basic services so this is things like police fire Street Parks planning zoning and other City Administration this is funded primarily by taxes licenses and permits intergovernmental Aid charges for services fines and forfeitures and other and other in our case is franchise fees so one thing I want to point out from last year we did see some significant Revenue changes City amount is losing its local government Aid so if you look in that corner that you can see starting in 2020 we were getting 400 about 400,000 we have now uh over the past 6 years we do not get any of that anymore um and that is due to changes in how that is allocated so that's pretty significant for us to to decrease that amount each year actually you can go back back sorry why are we losing that um so that was I believe we discussed at the state legislature and per the guidelines that they red how they redrafted how the allocation um was uh provid the calculation yeah the calculation um for some reason that new calculation bumped us out and didn't we didn't qualify as per their algorithm anymore but it was nothing we did it was nothing we did it was just something that change in their math yep yep and so since we're talking about that real quick I've talked to our two you know state senator and uh representative and I don't know if that's going to change anytime soon like for next year the year after but we're advocating for us to try to get at least something back cuz it's funny you look at the list of who does get the LGA and then you go why do they get it it doesn't make sense in my brain but I know it's a calculation and anyway but yeah we don't get any um and then also last year we did receive a one-time Public Safety Grant uh and that was about 412,000 um and so you can see for intergovernmental we'd go down about 94% um that's 6% right of the total if you go back one that's 6% of the 2024 base sign Levy those two numbers right yes yeah yep so we're losing 6.2% well we got a one time 411 so it's a little misleading but the 6.26 yeah that's what we're losing well or because we got the 411 that was a onetime deal last year right but you know we're losing 1% from last year of LGA if you go back a couple years I mean we're really losing four or 5% and I think we budgeted going forward like part of the long-term financial plan was that there isn't any LGA yeah we don't we're not so if there's any in the future that'll be a bonus right a positive or any other Public Safety grants or you know okay sorry M oh that's okay and then I just wanted to show you a picture of of you know losing that LGA how that kind of re structures our uh funding sources uh yeah intergovernmental yeah um so that previously was about 7% um well that was in 2024 made up 20 about 7% and so then that goes down to a little under 1% for this year uh expenditure changes so we will have a non-election year next year and then also Al um as we talked about earlier this year the assessor fees that were will now be covered by henpen County so that is a big savings in that category so we were in 2024 we were at 142,000 and then um now that the county has taken that on we do not uh pay we will not be paying that anymore and then uh we'll go I'll go through this during our truth and text we reviewed this last year so again property taxes are driven a lot by um or primarily by our operating expenditures Capital Investments and reserves and debt payments again money operations so money for annual operating costs Capital that's money put aside so we're planning ahead and being pre prevent uh doing preventative things like maintenance and then debt is our money borrowed and owed on on projects and then I just kind of show a diagram of how the general fund a portion of the general fund again is funded by the tax levy and how that's calculated um again you take your total expenditures take what you project your uh all non-property tax revenues will be and then you get your tax levy really great charts again very easy to read and understand understand so thank you for whoever is doing the visuals great job uh and then Capital Investments and planning so that again is our strategic planning and financial capacity so we uh did a really big review with our long-term financial and capital plan to set the next 10 years um these are funded by entirely by the tax levy and again long way if you look at those plans it'll be more in detail but that's for our Parks streets buildings and vehicles this is our schedule for Capital Investments and planning that we're outlined in our plans um so again the green and the red are are the fun the capital expenditure items that will be impacted by our tax levy uh and then uh water and sewer that'll be part of our rate our water and utility rate structure debt payments so Debt Pay PS within the schedule are paid entirely through tax levy um and so we do as you can see we do have uh from 20124 to 2025 we do have debt falling off but we have um we have some of that going back into our Capital uh for reserves again to so what we're trying to do is we're trying to save up for some of those Capital expenditures so that we're relying Less on debt in the future so this is our again our schedule kind of lines up with General operation how we fund our different categories and where those numbers come from and then just for uh informational purposes um so one thing to note is that we're for the home value exercise we're assuming that the tax capacity is um flat uh right now um our tax capacity rate is actually negative one this year so um that's very different from the last few years we saw record increases in the last few years and so um this year it is actually projecting to be negative one I think that was a big factor in the LGA change too wasn't it for the I think that property values were were a part of that calculation and then the last slide again this just shows notable information and consider cations um again significant tax capacity reduction compared to other years loss of local government Aid debt falling off and then again that uh our goal of building Capital reserves to rely Less on debt issuances in the future um so with that um I'm going to wait on questions so I just want to make sure to um in your packet I do have have a uh kind of a memo of what we're um a a memo before the budget packet um for so if you have any questions on that otherwise I think I did have one more slide Jesse sorry or maybe so again uh well last slide I can do it uh city council is being asked again to adopt a preliminary general fund uh budget and Levy by approving a resolution that reflects um the 2025 preliminary budget so this would be again the dollar amount for the general fund Capital reserves and special levies and so that's reflected here and again that those are the numbers that we talked about in in our um in the presentation um I felt like there was one other thing I was going to say again more detail in your packet um so with that staff the finance committee did recommend um approval at uh I guess I didn't go into that too I don't know if I mentioned it on one of the slides but we do have a uh recommendation at 6% so again that's reflecting our long-term plan the preliminary Levy tonight once you set it you cannot go above what you approve you can only lower it and so in the next few months we do um we'll probably have more information coming in because we do have some final contracts still coming in between the next couple months and so um um that'll be a discussion point I guess in the next few months when we get to our final meeting in December um so with that that's what the Le the levy preliminary Levy would uh reflect a 6% Levy increase and that is reflected in the resolution in front of you today okay and just to clarify the six is the top level that we set it's actually 501 I think it's 5.02 5 to so we we gave oursel a little wiggle room just in case some of the contracts and insurance and stuff come in the next quarter that you know we we can't go higher so really if this was December we'd say 502 and be done with it but we say at six remember last year we did like 15 so we if everything comes in as we're hoping we could still do 5.2 yeah okay yeah we'll we'll look at now if hypothetically if we all agree that you know six is the number I mean 502 pays the bills and stays on the plan that extra .98 would go into the general fund okay you know if we wanted to do that but um do I have to do open public meeting right now nope just the resolution okay um so this is uh where it says b on 2401 right yep okay well I guess does council have any more questions for Magie um I don't have any questions no okay great job putting it together yeah yeah and if again if all of you who have worked on so a comment on that I mean we did we had a handful of meetings um the last one you know we did go just like we did last year we went I mean line item by line item with well was all of us um Jesse Noah Maggie the two of us and uh you know we don't take it l of what we're doing you know taxes aren't fun um when you look at our you know our water bill and the whole are uh is it storm that's in the storm and sewer storm and I mean we got issues that we need to kind of get out of that's why we did the long-term financial plan last year we're trying to keep it reasonable like last year was kind of the get out of the get out of the mess run kind of year but then now it should be a little bit more even Keel hope along the way so um I feel pretty good about it I've heard other cities and around us that are higher um I don't I'm not prepared to quote exactly but is it hin County what are what are we in hennipen county is it six or eight as far as our ranking well I just saw it on the news other other day well I got an email from our commissioner too we do we do pretty good I mean compared to some of our neighbors but just got to remember that we're all different yeah we're all different yeah yep we're trying to solve we we've been we've had a lot to dig out of so this is this has not been pleas for any of us this year for our residents but you know at some point we're going to see light at the end of the tunnel so it's all good news in the end yeah okay so if there's no other questions 2401 if someone wants to make a resolution um I can and I guess I didn't have any questions but I did want to add the comment that we did I mean Maggie and Jesse were able to answer every question I think we had a two and a half hour meeting kind of going over everything and there was no wild swing in any departments you know it was a lot less discussion and surprises just because we kind of just opted to stick with the plan so I mean it was less eventful in a good way that was the last meeting yeah um like council member mechon and he said we're we're you know going to see the light of day and we're every year we get closer and it is making a big difference every year so and then also add Noah of course Noah sorry yeah for sure he's in the dark I can't see him sure yeah okay is it 2401 or 2405 2401 oh there's two of them okay so if someone wants to do that um I can do that but I'm going to add in the uh 6% just for clarification too because that's kind of a relatable um part of it in my opinion um I'd like to make a resolution of approving the 2025 preliminary general fund budget in the amount of 6 6,914 $382 and setting the preliminary Levy at 8,286 194 which would be a 6% increase over prior year okay got a motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right that passes um okay so now we're going to adjourn the city council meeting and we're going to open the mound Housing and Redevelopment Authority meeting so I'm going to close do by motion oh sorry you guys got to approve that uh can I get a motion to close the council meeting so moved okay can I get a second second all those in favor please say I I I all right those oppos all right so we're closed and now I'm going to open the 2024 uh Mound Housing and Redevelopment Authority meeting and are you gonna say anything on this Maggie yeah okay so um sorry so uh a little different than last year usually we do this before the council meeting but with the meeting change um we are actually doing this approach where we're doing it uh during the city council meeting um so uh Housing and Redevelopment Authority in the city of mountain just a reminder exists to support Redevelopment activity within the city uh so the state statute uh specifically allows the city to do a special tax that can be levied uh in an amount not to exceed .185 of the city's taxable market value uh and so this is a separate Levy uh and what this Levy does and has done hisor is it pays off a Debt Service on the transit center Bond so that's the 2015b tax AB batment Bond and then it also goes towards operating and capital expenses for the harbor district and the H uh so the city has historically kept the levy at 250,000 um the if you calculate the 0185 it's about I think 46,000 um so we are seeing underneath that so we're just getting enough to cover our what we need to cover um and so with that staff is recommending that the H board approve the attached resolution authorizing the levy of the uh special benefit Levy that is allowed to us under State Statute again for to cover that Debt Service payment and for operating and capital expenses within that fun fund say I think we jumped the gun here on uh we need to approve the agenda first and then approve the minutes on this from the previous one a year ago and then oh my gosh okay sorry we usually do this before our council meeting but we change our meeting time to six o'clock and you can't do it at 6 for some reason so anyway uh okay so we we already opened the meeting um can I get a motion to approve the agenda is there any amendments by the way no okay can I get a motion to approve the agenda so move okay and a second second all right um all those in favor please say I I I you say I I yeah okay uh number three so that's approved okay and then sorry now you moved out now we have minutes where you going okay now we have what is this we had to approve the minutes for the minutes from last year yep okay uh okay can I get a motion to approve the minutes from September 26 2023 sorry 2023 meeting I would like to make a motion to approve the minutes from previous year's HRA meeting okay got a motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I those oppos all right that passes Magie already did her part and then I think unless there's any any other questions we're ready to do our motion for this year I would like some quick clarification and I I think I asked this last year too but regarding um the haror district and lock L Lake slip expenses are we getting no other support anywhere else we're paying for all those slips just we pay it there there's no other support coming from rental I think we do get they're rented yeah they are rented yeah so the amount is no I might have you come up oh sorry sorry it's fund 285 and it's $85,000 so we get $85,000 in rent and then we foot the rest of the bill for maintenance and so that is actually we're actually building fund balance so so our total expense in that fund is about about $85,000 so we do with the property tax but that fund covers the slips but it also covers like the the maintenance of the pier the boardwalk the actual Transit District itself the parking lot okay so it's there's more things than just the L Lake slips and and there's have we ever raised the rental fees or anything so we ar we did a couple years ago I can get you the math on that well it would be nice to look at because this is a pretty huge expense so it would be nice to look at if there's anywhere we could find to cut the expenses okay can you get back to us on that yeah I mean we'll look through the agreement with the association itself yeah I mean I I guess I never remember it's not just the L and that's a part of that fund that cover so it has to cover the debt for the transit district itself which may be spoke apart and also the maintenance itself so the transit part with all the re um blocking that we're doing is that does that money all come out of this fund so to redo like the parking lot and stuff no that this will cover routine maintenance not necessarily Capital can't afford to do that and it wasn't its intention either okay well I think it would be interesting to look at it and just see if there's anything that could be shaved okay thank you we that to right the bonds we have to do as well yeah so that'll be we should approve the levy at the H level yep let's do that first then we'll do the bonds and then we can do it at the city for the h all right okay all right so we are we on two no we're on four uh so um so this would be action on resolution authorizing the levy of special benefit uh for the h yep okay in the amount of have 250,000 someone want to make that resolution um it's 24 right okay yeah I can do that I just want to make sure the right one it's the uh it's actually P four yeah it's a separate packet within the packet so I would if you should be right there but I would just use the screen so uh well if I'm reading the same thing I mean I'm on 2405 is that the same thing no it's no okay I can't up that you have oh well okay let me just uh get there and I think we have we should clarify too that it's not it's just kind of keeping the fun level status quo from last year's no changes um yeah I'm just going to struggle to read that up there I need to get new glasses here do you want do you want here I'll read it yeah goad but uh Mr Mayor members of the counc or members of the um that well of the uh of the HRA um because we have a resolution up there so I would suggest that it should be a motion to approve resolution number 24-1 H and then you can read the resolution right okay and I can help you along okay um asking for a motion to approve Housing and Redevelopment Authority in and for the city of Mound resolution number 24- 01h authorizing the levy a special benefit Levy pursuant to Minnesota statutes section 46933 subdivision 6 and approval of budget for fiscal year 2025 correct okay got a motion can I get a second second okay any other the discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right that passes okay so we going back to the city council or do you want to do the bonds we'll we'll have one more resolution here okay is that 245 oh that's still within it's page page six okay H package okay so this right here yes okay I don't you can't read it can you I got it right here can you I finally you can and it'll be the same because there's a number up there motion to approve resolution number BL okay okay um I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution to v-02 uh resolution authorizing the partial call of certain outstanding bonds okay got a motion can I get a second second any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right that passes okay now we're going back to the city council so a motion to close right okay can I get a motion to adjourn the HRA meeting we can to do the one oh you did okay sorry okay all right I'll take a motion to adjourn the HRA meeting I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the h meeting okay and can I get a second second okay any anybody you want to talk about no all and those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right we're adjourned on the HRA and reconvene to the city council meeting yep I'm going to reconvene the city council meeting now so we are reconvened on our city council meeting uh we just went through our HRA and now we are going to approve our resolution which is e in the packet uh it's on page 2405 yeah and this is the resolution at the city council level that was just approved by the a got it yep all right um I can make a resolution uh on page 2405 approving a levy not to exceed $250,000 for the purpose of defraying the cost of operation pursuant to the provisions of MSA 469 of the Housing and Redevelopment authority of and for the city of Mound for 2025 all right got a motion can I get a second second any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right that passes thank you all right so now we are going to well we're going to talk about 2396 Commerce Boulevard update and I need to get a motion to go into closed meeting this is and before you do I'll I'll read I'm going to read coming into the record um the city council will be convening to a close session pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13d 05 subdivision 3 under the attorney client privilege the matter involves AC of litigation entitled in the matter of the hatus buildings located at 2396 Commerce Boulevard um Mound Minnesota henpen county court file number 27- cv23 4795 the city council requires the item be closed to allow for a candid and open discussion about litigation issues including defense and possible areas of reconciliation nothing is present or nothing is presently pending before the city council regarding the decision discussing the matter in an open session would be detrimental because it would take place in front of potential litigants um and a closed session would benefit the public because because any Financial liability would be taxpayer funded and with that I'm uh staff and myself are looking for a motion from the city counil to uh uh uh go into close session okay so unless you have discussion on that I'm going to say can I get a motion to go into a closed session I would like to make a motion to go into a Clos session okay got a motion can I get a second second okay second all those in favor please say I I I those opposed all right we're going to close session all right so coming back coming out of the close session we're coming out of the close session now and do you want to say it or do you want me to say it sure I I can say it so um again we just came we're coming out of a Clos session with regards to the property located at 2396 Commerce Boulevard which is subject to a to a hazardous condition um the city council um in the Clos session discussed a settlement agreement um what I'm looking for is a motion to amend the agenda to add um the res the resolution that approves the settlement agreement okay and then and so let's do that first all right so can I get a motion to uh amend the agenda to include this resolution I would like to make a motion to amend the agenda to include um this resolution we say resolution approving the settlement agreement for 2396 Commerce I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to add a resolution approving uh settlement agreement in the matter of hazardous Building located at 2396 Commerce that's good all right got a motion can I get a second second second all all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right so that's onor agenda now we're going to talk about it and and I and I can just uh chime in a little bit here with regards to it let me uh pull it up here there it is um so a as provided as stated um previously this property was subject to is subject to a hazardous building action um as our building inspector has determined that the Hazardous conditions have been um addressed and so through discussions mediation discussions with the property owner um the settlement the settlement agreement that's attached is exhibit a to the resolution um is provided to the city council for consideration and the recommendation from myself and City staff would be that a motion is made to approve um the resolution that is presented got it all right so unless there's any discussion if someone wants to make that motion I make a motion for the city of mound to approve the resolution settlement agreement in the matter of the Hazardous Building located at 2396 Commerce Boulevard Mound uh Court Fel number 27- cv-23 d47 n and it's resolution number 24 all right to be determined oh to be determined all right I got a motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I those oppos all right that passes all right so now we are going to number 11 comments and reports from council members uh let's see council member m none council member costano um no not not much I just wonder so I like want to see what you guys think about this too but just a quick question and I know we have Rave we have Facebook we have the website but um I still see a lot of people complaining about that they didn't know that there was water stuff going on God that it was so awful could we entertain doing like a cuz you can do like a mail or like direct you can drill down you know to the street and everything like would it be wise or coste effective of us to send out like the cheapest little you know black and white postcard to say like uh next week you are going to have you know it's you know at some point we have to put the responsibility on the resident I agree we've given them social media we have what 670 this is ridiculous so can I say one it's an apathetic um group very often this one the alert did not go out as planned so I got the alert a lot of people I know got the alert some people didn't get the alert do we know what happened with the alert I mean there's always going to be someone that does also say reading next door and the the complaint Club most people don't even there's so many people that aren't even on rape I kept putting down the link you know for and they're like wow really didn't know that and this has been in every newsletter even before you were yeah and know a lot of people will comment on um on these two and say like well didn't you get the the the text or didn't you get the alert didn't you get X Y or Z and there's always someone who doesn't get it but I'm just wondering if that's something that's like not very expensive or if it is it's like there's still always going to be someone who like oh I didn't read my mail at some point I think we have to put the responsibility on the homeowner I agree we can't keep footing the bill for for their lack of interest in trying to find ways to communicate with the city we've given them it's in every newsletter it's on our website so I I I again with this one do we know how many people didn't get it this time there was an accident right yeah I think it what happened I think it went out later than it was intended um it was still prior to work being done that said for water related things I mean it might as well go to everybody at this point because even if you're on the other side of the city from where work is being done just you're you're not really going to know so maybe a broader approach could just be you know it's water related just tell everybody I mean part of it is too you don't want to alarm people and then have everybody so I mean I will say not to defend this particular one but I will say Ryan said he talked to probably six or seven people today and I don't think any of them were on Rave so he was getting them signed up in real time um I talked to someone who found out because their neighbor had it and then texted the group chat and um when we were talking I was saying because what Ryan was hearing and what I didn't I what I think people don't realize is that this isn't an app that's going to be blowing up your phone all the time like when you download one because of you know McDonald's makes you do it to order cheeseburger and so this particular person was like oh that makes me feel way better because they she was worried that our phone was never going to stop telling her things about Mound so so you know more people may have heard about it otherwise maybe you know if we just keep getting a message out there but then obviously too we can always do better just as as far as well I don't I mean I I agree with council member mechan too it's like at some point you know people complain that their water looks like that but also haven't mentioned the fact that the plumbing is over 100 years old and you know it's like so you got to put it on that's never going to go away until we have a filtration you know we do have all the old pipes we've been working on this on the so we do post about it on on social media it's everywhere that it needs to be well so one so it should have been on Facebook and Instagram but we didn't get it on I didn't see it on there no I you know and and it was I I know we were sent and we just need to sit down too as staff and just figure out too like I think the message that went out in Rave was site specific and so then I was like you know I think we need to talk about more like when do we put it to everybody or when do we just do a sight site like an area and um so hopefully we can get that figured out and then also to I think this is has been a big year with Communications and then also with our new website hopefully you know hopefully that being done by end of December iCloud being active we'll have you know more communication there um I thought about that too in your present there going to be e notify you know on this so every resident can go through and choose everything they want to understand I thought about that when the iCloud thing could tie in updates like that so yeah so there are other things coming about but so hopefully that'll add some more communication options um but again I agree no matter what message you get out and and on what platform there will always be somebody that misses it but again educating people that we are trying and we're getting there and we're adding more and um I think it's you know we're just trying to work out the Kinks a little bit here and and with that being said mag you've done an amazing job job going from literally nothing to getting the word out so I know we thankk you in the past but thank you for doing it because you have a lot of you know balls in the air yeah no I I I think it's um going really well um and I like to do it and I know but I always I know too that there's always areas to improve so well I feel like we're doing you know more than we have to and we're definitely doing more than we used to but I was just wondering if there's any other you know areas or ways to do it but that was my train short story our residents that we are here for them with all the news they need to see and put the ownership on them it's a pretty apathetic group of res well I know and a lot of them don't even you know they're not even living here and it's just yeah so we we sent it out to this money people but this this many people got affected that's kind of what happened you Zone texted people I and I don't know the zone that was Tex it but it was I believe more specific to the area near the water tower so what it was was a was routine maintenance of the water tower it was draining and then they do a bacteria test and send it in and they'll refill it the plan is to refill it Thursday and what happens when you have to drain a tower is you have to reverse how the uh water is moving through the pipes so what's in the tower can come out what's in the pipes you know get settles going one way it comes back the other we've got iron pipes so it's see I think that information right there is so interesting and so many people enjoy all of the um posts that has to do with the um the city the public works and you know we should put that out on a on a day following this or two days after and say you know here you know it's kind of like how how does a chicken lay an egg people need to understand the process and I think would be really helpful to include that information somewhere whether you direct people to go to the website or you post something on social media but it's it's really interesting and I think the more people understand they have a they're a little more understanding of oh this mound isn't just trying to torture us with we're not the only ones doing this yeah yeah yeah everybody has to do that same process with their water towers and then you know it's interesting Stu to know about as we begin to filter the water and a future plant and things you know you start to eliminate some of the reasons why water does you know things and but it'll always happen that's why we all every city flushes their uh fire hydrants regularly cuz water settles so um so can we who wrote this alert uh I don't know if Andy wrote it it would have come out from City Hall but it could have been written by public works I so I think it needs to be changed this this is the alert that I got in M it says Mount alert water tower maintenance is occurring this week you may experience intermittent water discoloration this week we apologize for the inconvenience that's good but is there a way that we can go a little bit more into depth on where where exactly and hey don't wash your clothes you know they say use whatever that chemical is on your clothes so you don't wash youro people are like washing their clothes and now they're now the run now again if we sent that out that's fine but did we send it out to enough people we we have a we're only 2.2 square miles so if something happens over here might 2.8 fact okay um you know this went out it was supposed to go out Friday I think you said so if people would have had a heads up they would have gone oh okay don't do laundry on on Monday or what day is it today Tuesday so I agree better information and make sure that we're getting it out you know in advance other than the morning up I was thinking too I mean that's a lot to maybe put in a text but maybe we could add a link or link to the say you know because you can reuse it you know yeah something just to because that information isn't going to change necessarily if we have routine things that we do but you know I didn't know at Water Tower and I didn't know it just went out to a handful of people so that's a problem so like people in our area got it right but people maybe over here didn't was it Sorbo water tower that they were working on or yeah that would have been the one it's over here yeah yeah the yeah storeall yep okay well to I mean it could have been this one around chatau too it might still have affected I think it was ours cuz that's the people that I heard got it but again I know like down where council member Larson lives right that's where the where the two slush together come together so if any bit got through there and then you know you know our system it's big but it's not that big so maybe more people know hey there's water tower maintenance we only have two people love to I mean again it's true I I I if our water was clean and bright and delicious to drink what would the complaint Club do they would have nothing to complain about they find something but anyway that's all I have yeah I would just say if you could if we can try to alert a few days ahead of time and maybe even do another one or you know whatever just as long as I got it at 9:24 a.m. yesterday I did too and I think for me I think it was fine I didn't have a problem but my wife I was at work and she text me and she's like brushing her teeth and she's yeah but again remember this is the flushing this is normal this isn't that we have bad water all of a sudden this is the normal flushing thing that we do but but people don't understand but you know I got a phone call text and you know whatever you sign up for and I got them all so y it worked but you know when I texted Maggie the other day on something completely unrelated when you said it was supposed to go out Friday that made a lot of sense because then people would have had a better understanding of you know we might be doomed if you've thrown a white load on Monday yeah and again I think it's um you know working out some of those things when somebody is out at the office who's the backup and you know again we there's there's always improvements to be made so um sometimes unfortunately this has to happen for us to have better awareness I guess so okay and that's all you had that's it okay um I just have a couple quick things um so on the I already talked kind of talked about this a little bit I it's not going to open did you guys get the henpen County press release the 2050 thing yeah or the 2025 oh um come on did you get the information about the 2050 uh that's M Council thing uh-huh yeah I didn't I kind of fored to him to see it's atrocious okay so we up till October 5th to you know as a resident or whatever make comments okay which I've already done it was about a five page long okay uh so henpen County Board passes 5.5% maximum property tax for 2025 so again you know we just talked about our Levy um so anyway you can go out there and look at it it's hennipen County but I just wanted to say that since we're in hennipen County um let's see and then the library there's not a lot of verbage on why but they're delaying it a little bit Jesse do you know any of the details or know as much as I do yeah pretty much yeah they're delaying the start and everything or just yeah it's like into next year now we expected it to be at least in this into the spring um as we've kind of talked about a possibility for temp library and stuff we were always targeting like February so that's that's if they had tore everything down already then so so it just says the timeline for this project has been adjusted slightly and the building will now remain open until into early 2025 whatever that means but that's it that there's not really a lot of updates beond that so hopefully we'll get more to come on exactly how early into 2025 and then you're working on the the other stuff uh when they're when they're down yeah okay um yeah I think that's oh I just saw that the that they working on the sidewalks tonight or you know on the way here uh so that's good that's the last well the one section right by uh anytime they doing that section right now so that's cool looking for that and the tar looks amazing awesome that was a good decision not to do brick y so thank you um and then we s see the new park uh man they got a big hole there I don't know what they're doing but where the new uh Green Space the new Green Space the there yeah that pavement is awesome so okay well if there's anything else no I will just mention there's a open house at the fire department next Wednesday 6 8 p.m. oh bring your family 6 to 8 I didn't read There are they having hot dogs or anything I just closed it I I think there's activities and things um I'll just pull it back up I knew they do like cookies and coffee and stuff yeah it's on the Facebook page but I be fire prevention that's yeah uh let's see Sparky the Fire Dog is going to be there Beverages and snacks yeah so okay good stuff's always fun all right than thanks is that it yes all right I'll take a motion to adjourn like to make a motion to adjourn all right can I get a second second all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right we're adjourned thanks