##VIDEO ID:pOVSfJ_zomk## e so one last call for coloring contest people nope okay um the clock on the wall is not accurate so we're going to go by real time and I'm a call to order this meeting of the Richfield city council meeting it is October 22nd at 7 p.m. if you're able please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States andice for thank you the next item on our agenda is the open Forum if you're watching from home you can call into the open Forum by dialing 1415 655 00001 use webinar access code 2864 077 5917 and password 1234 and it doesn't look like anybody has called in is that correct is there anyone here that wishes to speak for the open Forum all right so seeing that we have no one here we'll move on to the approval of the minutes of the city council meeting of October 8th 2024 so move second it's been moved and seconded to approve the council minutes for October 8th 2024 are there any comments or questions all in favor please say I I all opposed and we at this point will consider them adopted the next item on our agenda was the 19th annual Great Pumpkin giveaway coloring contest winner presentation we had a great deal of participation and a stack probably about an inch high of entries I'm not sure if any of the winners are able to be with us tonight but we wanted to thank all of the sponsors that were part of the contest so um Steve schneberger and his um Real Estate Group the hinter meisters with Luminate mortgage um Kyle Herman with um I believe it's State Farm Insurance the um Recreation part department here at the city um the Richfield leadership Network and also Mike Carnes donated the um trophies for us so thank you to everyone that was involved if they um end up showing up later we will give them to them otherwise we can do it at our next meeting as well and we'll just hold on to that so we're going to move on to the Arts commission presentation and so I'm going to call forward the co-chairs um Eric banic and Stephanie Jacobson so please come forward and we're looking forward to your presentation and city council uh my name is Eric ban co-chair of the Arts commission I'm Stephanie Jacobson co-chair of the Arts commission excellent and we're just going to go through a summary of our 2024 activities on the Arts commission so this year uh rack focused on two main themes to uh sort of cover the spread of our activities um we had such a great experience at the Dual languages school last year participating in one of their movie night events that we decided that it would be an initiative this year of the Arts commission to do more things with more schools um having done that and also the senior Arts uh show at the community center um so that was one of our main focal points and we've always sort of been uh working with art in the community and so art in our community was also one of our main themes so starting off with art in our schools um as I mentioned one of our first events of the year was the high school seniors art show where we had senior uh seniors from the high school come to the community center display their art um and we hosted a uh an event uh for them to uh invite their friends and family to the art show uh was a little less attended this year there were a few less artists but it was another successful event again and we look forward to working with the art teachers again next year um and then we had uh been approached by the Dual language school again um to do uh participate with their Carnival event and since it was Outdoors we wanted to do something a little more Hands-On and messy this time around so we had the idea um as a as a group to do a marble painting activity with the students um and they had a blast with it I mean as you could see in that wall picture at the very top we we taped up the paintings to dry on the wall and I I just think that wall has never looked that vibrant it was so wonderful the fames had a great time even even with looming thunderstorms on the horizon um we we had a lot of great fun uh bringing that Arts experience to those kids uh so much fun that Centennial heard about it and so we ended up visiting their Carnival in the same month um they had heard that we were working uh on the Carnival dual language school and we brought more marble painting to the Centennial cougar carnival on May 23rd one of the kids at these events uh gave us a great quote to include in tonight's meeting it's like a fun little Marble Race So that we we collected a lot of quotes and just saw a lot of Smiles in all the school activities that we ran um and then also uh this all comes from uh how we're working with schools on movie nights and things like that as well with their parent organizations and so we're going to be visiting stem on October 25th this Friday uh for another movie night experience which should be uh a lot of fun bringing Arts experiences to that environment we've got some more art in our schools that are currently in the works we're looking to work with um Sheridan Elementary School either with their fun club or with their PTO um the Richfield dual language school we'll work with them again this year um and then also we're looking for ways to connect with the Middle School currently yeah go ahead uh yeah and we with the the Dual Language School Dance event uh they're interested in doing friendship bracelets and potentially some kind of glow art activity so because uh the theme is glow so that'll be fun um art in our community so uh we kicked off the year with our Earth Day event um and uh Wood Lake asked us their staff asked us if we might be interested in finding out how to make seed bombs or seed balls uh for with the families this year at the Earth Day event because uh that would be very uh you know Earth conscious of us and it would be a cool way to combine woodlakes activities with the Arts commission activities so we researched it and we found a way to combine um some Minnesota natural um organic um seeds from a local company along with some mud essentially and clay that we purchased from another company and we were able to make seed bombs that kids could then throw in certain areas in the park because they're uh local uh wild flowers or bring home to their Gardens to throw in there um we also visited the farmers markets um we did seed bombs once again uh because Bonnie over with uh Parks and Rec was interested in that and thought that might be a good connect at the farmers market too and once again we had plenty of marble painting activities uh left in our Arsenal so we brought those and then in August we did another vegetable stamping activity because that was super popular last year um that uh picture that someone drew of a a human in the middle uh amongst all the vegetable stampings was one of our favorites so we put that up in the presentation and then uh unity in the community we teamed up since kids were getting backpacks we decided as a commission that we would help them make backpack keychains with pipe cleaners and uh letter beads and color beads which of course many of the kids said oh let's make Swifty bracelets so people were also making uh their names on bracelets and things like that so it was a lot of fun um we also did a lot of fun art in our community events this year we were at pennfest in September doing coloring sheets and some temporary tattoos we did the Great Pumpkin giveaway uh coloring contest we assisted with that um we've got an author's event coming up in November and then we will assist with winter Planters again for the Winter Market um around November and December all right ongoing activities uh we still have our pride roundabout that we maintain and uh we were able to put fresh uh rounds of orange and yellow paint finally uh this late summer and fall on the roundabout all of our days earlier in the year were R rained out because of all the rain we were getting and so we'd have to wait till another month to like uh schedule some time so we just had some bad luck with that but we finally did get those um fresh paint uh for yellow and orange on there um we've also got our little free library and we had a book drive this year where we were trying to get um a lot of uh uh books that weren't just in English to put in the uh in the little Free Library um doing a book drive at Wood Lake Nature Center and uh the community center which was great and then uh we started we I think we're one of the first commissions to use a SharePoint drive now where we're housing pictures of all the art around town and we're starting to revamp our brochure so that we can make an updated artwalk brochure of all the sculptures in town um online uh instead of a p paper version and we hope to have that in uh English and Spanish um and then the public art displays in addition to the um sculptures around town uh doing public art displays uh in City Hall kind of helping Parks and Rec maintain that as well as the community center and last but not least an adorable picture that a child Drew at pennfest um we had some coloring sheets and ask kids and their grown-ups to uh draw a picture of what they like most about pennfest or what they're excited about at pennfest what pen Fest means them and that's one of the pictures that was drawn and then uh just a shout out to our other commission members uh listed on the screen as well as our Liaisons uh from city council Community Services liaison and our staff uh Jill Murphy from Parks and R thank you so much it's always fun to watch or see your presentation because your are so busy and we run into you in the community all the time did anybody want to add anything I know commission or Council m Christensen has been the leison yeah I've been in the leaon for the last couple years for this Great Commission and it's really fun because you get out and you just not only see the the community as a whole you know just as a community but you see the the beauty that that this commission provides kids and how they're learning as they're growing and their parents and it's a it's a really a awesome fun group to be involved in so yep all right council member Troutman thank you mayor I just want to want to Echo those thank yous and and just say for everybody listening how much better art makes our city um and it's and it's great to just I almost honestly feel a little overwhelmed all the things that you're doing and um and so it it adds a lot I our transport or our Public Works director here is also been a partner with art that now lives on our on our sidewalks and I'm so glad to hear that you're cataloging the art somebody grew up here we have more art now than we did a generation ago and it's I love walking down Lindale and seeing donkey hot and Sancho Panza there it's just like it it matters and so thank you the other thing I noticed is that you're keeping everything current you talked about refreshing the roundabout but also I noticed at Richfield Lake that we had different homes than were there originally so yes that's true all right well thank you so much appreciate yeah thank you and just a shout out to uh community members like if there is anyone in the community who wants to come bring ideas to the Arts commission please do so we we love Community ideas and they help feed what we do thank you um following that there is there are commission applications open right now during the month of October so if you want to join the Arts commission or any of the other commissions we're about to hear from the Planning Commission that's another one that's going to have some openings so I'm going to call it this time the secretary of the Planning Commission Brett sters up to give to the the report thank you mayor seel and Council um Eddie humig Johnson is celebrating his dad 75th h birthday tonight so I am his standin for the evening um the Planning Commission was busy this year even though development applications have not yet picked up in 2024 we held a public hearing to consider a request for two es from side code requirements at 63666 Street for Veterans Memorial Park we held a public hearing to consider a request for an amended planned unit development for a Time extension of an amendment to the construction agreement for multistory parking ramp at 1401 77th Street East which was the Audi dealership we considered a resolution finding the acquisition and disposition of 6525 Penn Avenue South by the housing re and Redevelopment Authority for multif family housing as consistent with the richfield's comprehensive plan we considered a resolution finding the acquisition of 1620 78th Street East by the HRA as consistent with the Richfield comprehensive plan we held a public hearing to consider a request by partnership Academy for an amended plan unit development and final plan development conditional use permit for a Time extension to an amendment of the parking agreement at 6500 nicholet Avenue South we held a public hearing to consider an ordinance Amendment adjusting parking requirements we held a public hearing to consider a request for a conditional use permit and variances for stall One auto um at 7524 Lindale Avenue South we consider the 2026 29 Capital Improvement plan or program Capital Improvement program and a finding of consistency with the comprehensive plan of the capital Improvement program and the 2025 Capital Improvement budget we held a public hearing to consider a request by brickmore for a conditional use permit and an amended plan unit development final plan development for a retail use over 50,000 square fet of gross floor area at 140 West 66 Street in order to ret tenant the former Rainbow Foods building to a new grocer lomma Bonita and we held a public hearing to consider an ordinance Amendment uh regulating cannabis businesses we also participated in five work sessions uh for topics including uh parking pen Central micc cannabis and Market Plaza so that's what the commission has been up to and I'm happy to answer or try to answer any questions that the council might have thank you so much um I've had the pleasure of being the leison to the Planning Commission and it's always great to sit in the audience and hear the thoughtful conversations because you're often the first public body that gets to have the public hearings and all these things and then it gets passed on to the HRA or to the city council and so it's it's always I just I'm really impressed by the thoughtful deliberation so thank you for all that you're doing thank you are there any other questions comments council member Heyford lir yeah I just want to say I've really enjoyed uh our work sessions with the Planning Commission there have been more of those in the last year um and it's been nice and um I think you've pushed Us in good ways particularly on parking on cannabis um yeah the the fruits of that is is coming for tonight as we consider our final reading for the Cannabis ordinance but I just really appreciated you you know not just nodding and agreeing but actively challenging and pushing us it's very helpful great all right any other comments or questions thank you so much and thank you to the entire commission thank you next we'll move on to approval of the agenda I'll move approval of the agenda second it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda and any discussion all right all in favor of approving the agenda please say I I I all opposed we have approved the agenda we'll move on next to the consent calendar and I'll turn it over to city manager Rodriguez thank you mayor the consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the city council in one motion once the consent calendar has been approved the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved no further Council action on these items is necessary on tonight's consent calendar item a consider awarding American Rescue plan act funding to nonprofit organizations to provide services and activities that Aid in the recovery of Richfield community members negatively impacted by the covid-19 P pandemic Item B consider adoption of a resolution designating the city's contribution towards Health dental term life disability insurance premiums for 202 5 and just a note on Item B we did catch some mistakes in both the staff report and the resolution and so those were replaced online today item C consider a request to authorize the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry to assume the responsibilities for electrical inspections in the city of Richfield item D consider approval of a construction and maintenance agreement with Rya Apartments LLC Cedar Point Investments LLC and the rf64 homeowners association that defines ownership and maintenance responsibilities for certain features constructed within the 6300 and 6,400 blocks between 16th Avenue South and Richfield Parkway and I submit these items for your consideration on tonight's consent calendar thank you do we have a motion I would move to approve the consent calendar second it's been moved and seconded to approve the consent calend calendar is there any discussion council member hey for lry um I do have a a question on one of the items but just to clarify what's going on to anybody watching the network issues loading our our PDF of the agenda which is why there's some troubleshooting by staff so we're grateful for that um my question was about the electrical inspections um I'm just wondering is that like a permanent change is it possible in five or 10 years we would reverse that and go back um and then see our community development director who I I assume will know um what how is the process different for home owners in actually getting their inspections ordered yes thank you for those questions uh council member heord o members of the council um it is not a decision that we could not go back from um we would we could work with the state to have the delegation returned to the city um there'd be a resolution similar to this I don't anticipate that happening anytime soon um it there's a real difficulty in hiring um electrical inspectors particularly because Richfield doesn't quite have the volume of electrical inspections to hire a full-time um electrical inspector we would not uh be able to break even on that so I don't anticipate that but it is certainly possible um and then how will it differ for um for our customers uh they will call and schedule inspections for uh electrical work directly with the state um so if this item is approved tonight starting tomorrow we will have um an indication on our website that says as of the date um November 1st you should instead call um the state number to schedule your inspections we'll be working with people that have open permits to close those out through the end of the year after that um you would need to apply for a new permit and go through the state directly so we're working to communicate that the the message is really already out I think the electrical ectors in the area are aware um so we don't anticipate too many problems with that okay thank you thank you is there any other discussion um I just wanted to while our community development director is still here wanted to say thank you for the work on the um rf64 and Rya um agreement I know that uh initially um maybe about a year ago uh I'd been hearing from a lot of residents some and some of the management there some confusion um and I I believe much of that has been um resolved and I I haven't heard from residents any at all recently um but just wanted to say thank you for staff for working on that and then to any uh residents there listening um please do reach out if there's any confusion but I now that it's all complete um I think it looks great and is um good to see folks moving in and part of the community so thanks for your work on that and and Council member Wayan just to clarify um absolutely uh Community Development staff has helped work out some of those um individual issues with homeowners and we're happy to continue to do so although I agree I think things have settled down the maintenance agreement related to um utilities and things like that I can't take the credit for that that was Joe Powers um and he has really worked tirelessly um to get this agreement in place it has been um a lot of work so that thanks goes to Joe I would like to add thanks for the stewardship for the um American Recovery plan funds I know um Julie Urban and some of the others work together to get those extra Social Services dollars out there and that's truly appreciated and also I wanted to say thank you to our human um resources department that for negotiating all this insurance and figuring out how that all works so thank you any other comments or questions all right all in favor of of approving the consent Calendar please say I I I all opposed consent calendar has been passed next we're moving on to consideration of a second reading of an ordinance Amendment establishing zoning regulations for cannabis businesses I'm going to turn that over to council member Hayford liri thank you uh last year the state legislature legalized adult use cannabis established the office of cannabis man management and laid the groundwork for what will be a highly regulated new industry local authorities have until the end of this year to establish local regulations governing cannabis businesses city of ridgefield's regulations will be adopted into two separate ordinances zoning regulations and registration regulations the proposed zoning ordinance generally divides the new type of cannabis businesses into two main categories retail businesses and non- Retail businesses retail businesses which now include medical marijuana sales would be allowed in certain commercial districts as permitted uses subject to distance separations from schools Parks treatment facilities and each other the non- retail businesses would be allowed as a conditional use in the industrial district the remaining cannabis businesses that do not neatly fit into either of those categories are addressed as follows cannabis delivery businesses are allowed as an accessory to a cannabis retail business cannabis event organizer is allowed as an office use and cannabis transporter is not included due to the city not allowing any other trans Transportation or distribution businesses in the city cannabis regulations further address home occupations and signage the proposed ordinance also includes a few minor modifications regarding micro production facilities issues such as registration fees the maximum number of retail locations hours of operation and low potency hemp Edibles will be addressed by the registration ordinance the Planning Commission held a public hearing on September 23rd no one commented on the item and the Planning Commission recommended approval of the ordinance has presented um any questions or comments before I make a motion I'll make a couple comments but I'll move it first uh I move that we approve a second reading of an ordinance Amendment establishing zoning regulations for Canabis businesses and approval resolution authorizing summary complication of set ordinance second okay it's been moved in seconded is there any discussion council member hey for lry yeah I would just say I'm really happy with where we landed on this um I think you know hindsight being 2020 we maybe were overly restrictive with medical cannabis I think this represents a really balanced approach I'm really happy with what we come up with together um this shouldn't be a shameful use I'm I'm glad that this is legal and I'm glad that we are judiciously and cautiously uh embracing it in in our city so I think this is a a reasonable thing that fits our context well and I'm glad that we're providing a decent number of options to businesses that want to start selling in Richfield I also was pleased that we had input from community members from the Planning Commission and also from the Richville richeville Public Schools as we're going through the process to consider all of this so that feedback is important any other comments or questions all right we have the motion before us all in favor please say I I I all opposed all right we have passed this zoning ordinance now as a um FYI this is part one of two ordinances when can we expect the second ordinance about regulations to come forward sorry can you repeat the question so I said this was part one of two ordinances and we have one that's going to be coming forward on regulations when could people in the audience that are interested in this subject be expecting that to come up on the agenda mayor and Council I can I can address that I'm currently working with staff on the registration ordinance which is requiring M for businesses who want to set up shop in the city um they are will be required to register with the city and and go through some procedures so we plan to have a first reading of that ordinance for the first meeting in November and if people have questions about that which department should they be contacting in the city those can go through um Support Services Jennifer Anderson all right thank you that's helpful all right we'll move on then to item number eight and I'll turn that over to council M whan thank you mayor um this item is to consider the second reading of an ordinance amending city code section 427 Wetland protection to add new buffer requirements compliant with the minihaha Creek Watershed District Wetland protection Rule and clarify the decision-making and appeals process for Wetland Conservation act decisions and approval of a resolution authorizing summary publication in April of 202 4 the minihaha Creek Watershed District adopted new rules applicable to Wetland protection uh these revisions align city ordinances with the new District Wetland buffer requirements um does staff have anything to add no okay um then I would make a motion to approve the second reading of an ordinance amending city code section 427 Wetland protection to add new buffer requirements compliant with the Wetland protection Rule and clarify the decision-making and appeals process for Wetland Conservation act decisions as well as a resolution authorizing summary publication is there a second second all right it's been moved in seconded do we have any discussion I want to throw out a thank you there I know um that the water department and Public Works have been very busy with this and with Wellhead protection and a number of other things so thank you to our Water Resources engineer oddson and the entire department so we appreciate it any other questions comments all in favor please say I I I all opposed and we have approved that ordinance next we'll move on to item number nine council member Troutman thank you mayor uh item number nine is to consider a second reading of an ordinance amending city code sections 428 429 and 620 pertaining to erosion and sedimentation control Water Resource Management and Well Drilling and approval of a resolution authorizing summary publication staff has conducted a review of several Water Resource related ordinances to evaluate the need for updates the proposed changes include updating external references allowing the city engineer and Public Works director to delegate administration of sections 428 and 429 removing a redundant section in 4290 7 incorporating the provisions of the municip the municipal State storm sewer ms4 permit and replacing section 620 in its entirety with a reference to the appropriate state regulations um and so before we um we put it to a vote staff have anything to to add no council member thank you uh then I would move we approve the second reading of an ordinance amending the city code sections 428 429 and 620 pertaining to erosion and sedimentation control Water Resource Management and Well Drilling and approve a resolution authorizing summary publication second it's been moved in seconded is there any further comments right as I said this is very complex because it goes across several different jurisdictions and um water shed groups and all kinds of things so we appreciate this all in favor please say I I I all opposed and we have approved this thank you next we'll move on to the city manager's report thank you mayor my only announcement is I just wanted to introduce our new Administrative Assistant Mark McKinley you've been getting lots of emails from him uh he has hit the ground running um both with this agenda which we had a lot of changes and then also 600 voters 605 voters 601 voters for the last three days so he he helps in exec department and then also helps in the city clerk's department so welcome Mark and that's it tonight all right then we will move on to claims and payroll move approval of claims and payroll second it's been moved in seconded to approve claims and payroll is there any discuss all in favor please say I I all opposed we have approved claims and payroll moving on to hats off to Hometown hits we'll mix things up again tonight and go to council member Christensen thank you mayor uh the what I want to say coming up actually this weekend is the last outdoor farmers market and um from that point on it will be indoors but from this week for this Saturday at least it will be from 8: a.m. till noon with still a lot of vendors there with a lot of their products and a lot of fun stuff to do thank you council member whan thank you mayor um there's been several uh Halloween themed events this month to lift up um the uh pumpkin giveaway was already mentioned had the uh excitement of going to the local trunker treat event at um the the corner of 66th in Portland blanking on the name right now but uh that was lovely my uh 2-year-old who went dressed as a penguin uh and was very cute uh just had a blast um got more candy than he will ever uh be allowed to eat so uh thank you to the many many local organizations obviously the ones who hosted but many also who just came to uh have their little booth and give out candy and have some some fun with the community um and then of course uh you know me I will mention voting again um that this is the last time uh we have a council meeting before election day so uh there are two weeks left to vote um you can early vote uh here at City Hall if you're a Richfield resident um I early voted myself in the last week um it's very straightforward and easy um and secure you can trust the process um or of course you have the option for election day as well um but uh make sure to make your own plan to vote uh and my challenge to anyone listening would be to think of five other people in your life to talk to and make sure they have a plan to vote thank you council member hey for lri I would say I've had the pleasure of joining um seniors both last week and this week uh with our county commissioner goel at main street village and Lakeshore Drive condos and to council member wh Point uh the Comm asked those in the audience who had voted already and like 90% of the people in the room raised their hands so it is great um to see that people are are getting their votes in early and and thanks to the city for facilitating that because I imagine they were the customers here in City Hall thank you council member Troutman thank you um I'm going to do some Shameless promotion of our commission openings there are both Youth and adult commission openings and anytime during the month of October you can go to the city web page and look up under commissions and we'll take applications through October 31st it is a fun and great job and that's how a lot of us got involved with the city and so I would encourage you to apply as well also um as part of like the Civics requirement for both the boys and the Girl Scouts they have like democracy Badges and things and we've had two troops come through already and the third one is coming through on Thursday so I'm going to do a hats off to all the scouts out there that are involved in finding out about how local government works and how the election process works so hats off to them with that if there is no further business I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second it's been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting all in favor please say I I I all opposed we stand a journ