here tonight. Before we uh before we call this to order, I just wanted to because we've got a lot of folks and I want to make sure we can get as many people in into the a loted time here as we do. Uh thank you all for being here. We have uh we have a a a register ahead kind of process to make sure that
everybody gets a chance and I just want to make sure that we've got the correct folks here. Uh Samia Muhammad, there you are. Richard Degrude. There's Richard. Jeffrey Smid. She's checking to see if Jeffrey
finding it. She's trying to find it. Okay. And Jod Tas and Robert Norman. Okay. So, what we'll do, everybody is going to get five minutes and we're going to have to cut you off at 5 minutes. Not because I'm being a jerk, just because we've got
to get everybody in and every I want to make sure everybody has the exact same amount of time. Uh you'll have time to to present. Don't be surprised if maybe the council asks some questions, maybe asks, you know, uh says, "Excuse me," and ask you a specific question about what you're the point that you're making. And what I'll have you do if you
could uh if you just as you come up the microphones are kind of they're not as uh they don't pick up as well as they could. So you got to get nice and close to the microphones to be heard especially on the recording. And then when you finish you can take the little clipboard here and kind of scoot off to the side and sign in and just make sure
we have everybody if that's okay. Everybody cool with all that? All right. Are we ready? We are ready. With that, I will call our city council listening session to order. Tonight is Monday, September 15th. Thank you everybody for being here. We will
get started with Yeah, please. Good evening everyone. My name is Samia Muhammad and I am a 12th grader at Kennedy High School. As our city council, you were elected to serve nearly the 90,000 people inside of
our city. That includes more than 10,700 students in your school systems in your school systems learning the 10,700 plus students in your city. The fact of the matter is we as the students no longer
have a reason to feel safe in schools. These kids have no reason not to fear that an act of violence will follow them into the classroom. Two Fridays ago, Kennedy and Jefferson High School students marched to the city hall where
we were demanding change, demanding that it starts in our city. I'm speaking for many when I say we do not feel safe in our classrooms with no protected entrance, no push for new legislation or policies that would protect us, no hope
in our city, just fear. All council members here today hold power. Power over the students, power over the people, and most importantly, the power to create change in our city.
I stand before you to ask for you to do something on behalf of our city's youth because you have the power to create change. The ball is in your court, but don't take too long because if you choose to wait, you choose to neglect and endanger us and you'll be complicit
because of your silence. Thank you. Thank you. And first Samia, I apologize for mispronouncing your name when you started. I apologize for that. And I did want to say also uh that yes, I mean I I participated in a a press event with other mayors basically saying that if
the state or the federal government wasn't going to move on this that we were asking that the cities cities be allowed to take control of this issue in some way, shape or form. And so yes, I'm right there with you. If we can't if we can't come to consensus, if we can't uh
if our state our federal leaders won't listen to this enormous outpouring that we've heard from our residents in the state of Minnesota, if if they're not able to act, give cities the opportunity to act and see what we can do for it. So, appreciate you stepping up. Appreciate you speaking this evening. Uh
council, any questions or anything else? Council member Mua. Thank you. This isn't gonna work. Okay, there we go. Thank you, Samia, for being here. Um, I was there two weeks ago when you and the other organizers brought students from Jefferson and the and our
middle schoolers over to Civic Plaza. Um, and so I I know our city staff is working very hard and will continue to do so. And I invite you to continue to work with us as students in the school. Um, we value how you feel as residents
in Bloomington. And so, thank you for being a voice for those who uh might not be brave enough to be here tonight, but also sharing your concerns with us. And we take that very seriously here at the city. So, we'll continue to do everything we can to make sure that our residents, our students, our future
residents um can continue to be here in Bloomington. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I wanted to be I wanted to make sure that you knew that uh right over your left shoulder is your state representative. And uh there he is. and and I know he agrees with what you just
said as well. So, very good. Anything else, council? If not, thanks for being here with us tonight. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now, this is typically where I caution people. We've got to be careful about applauding because if I allow applause, then I've got to allow booze. And I'm
not going to do that. When I say booze, you know what I mean when I say that? It's uh so we've just got to be careful. So please uh next up is Richard Degrude. Good evening. Welcome. Good evening, council. Um thanks for having us uh have an opportunity to
express some of our questions. Um, I'm one of the homeowners of probably seven different other new homes that were built on Washurn Circle a number of years ago. There was one older home that was tore down um about a year
ago and it sat for quite a while and we were excited that finally something was going to take the place of this home. The question and we were kind of left in the dark as far as what was going to happen. We assumed it'd be a single family home, but it obviously the the
the desire of the the the developer is is intending to do rental uh affordable housing in that space. One of the questions are the the group that uh I'm kind of speaking for that are here. Um we had a uh several
different uh concerns about the setback. The setback uh from what I can understand is only about 38 feet from 90th Street. Um when we developed or when we were developing that area um a builder by the name of Marland Grant
built a house on the corner just opposite of this. They had a requirement of a 75 foot setback from 90th Street. And we were under the impression as uh Mark and Joanne Williamson who lived in that house and built the house are still there today. We were under the
impression because of the accessibility on to 90 and the visibility that is no longer uh being complied with with what this new home is looking to do. They're looking to be 38 ft from from that. I actually went over to um
Mark and Joanne's home and they uh they weren't home, but they've got 83 feet from their house to the curb cut. So, I don't know where that 75 ft comes in, but somewhere in there. So, that's one of our biggest concerns because it pushes everything so close to the road
for visibility, for traffic, for moving in and out of that area. It's really getting close and it doesn't conform to the other homes in the area. I went looked at the other homes that are down 90th and they're all set back much
further than the than the 40t or 38 ft that this particular builder is looking to do. So, that's a concern of ours that this is sitting way out for we think it it poses a danger in accessibility and looking 90th Street's changed a lot over
the years because it used to be two lanes each way. Now it's only one lane each way and it's a it's a real bear sometimes to even get onto that road or even get off the road. That was one of our concerns. The other concern is that was a very heavily wooded lot and some
of the trees have already been cut down and the and the home has been taken off. There's a big barrier of trees that are on the 90th Street that really acts as a noise barrier for us and there's a lot of other big mature trees and the city's real protective their trees which we
appreciate. We've lost a lot of ash trees so we should be protected. So we're concerned about what are the trees that are going to get taken down. Um and that noise barrier some of the people are impacted pretty sizably because of the noise that comes off at 90th has
gotten to be pretty noisy and busy. Another thing um that we have uh questions on is the storm water. You his proposal is for a twin home and then it's dividing another lot off for a
single family home. So, what is that going to do with impervious surfaces and draining all that water and it's an elevated lot into the street? Is there is is there provisions for that? I don't know whether that's even been talked about. So, none of us really know what's
really going on. We did meet with our our our council member for our district, Lana. She was very very um cooperative and forthright to try to give us information and what she could. And so
we're asking to requesting to hold the the consent agenda our request for or for him subdividing the lot until we get more information. I I appreciate that. And yes, uh, council, you're aware and I want to make
sure everybody's aware this was this is an item on our consent agenda tonight as well. Uh, to answer at least a couple of your questions and I'm not sure on the storm water uh, we do have storm water considerations also. Uh, the the trees the understanding that we the answer that we got from the developers was they
the applicant is not proposing to remove any of the trees along 90th Street. They agree that yes, it's a good noise barrier and a sound barrier as well. So wouldn't be removing trees along 90th. And in terms of the setback, uh, and this is a bit more detailed even
than I realized it was. Um, there was previously a standard in the R1 zoning district called prevailing setback in which houses had to meet the average of the two adjoining adjoining properties if they were constructed, but that was prior to 1975. The standard was intended
to maintain continuity of neighborhood character. Prevailing setback was removed from the R1 zoning district as part of the reforms that were approved in May of 2023. So the front setback requirement in the R1 district is now uniformally 30 ft. Uh
discrepancy and outcomes in addition to reducing imperous surface due to longer than necessary driveways was made one of the main reasons it was supported the removal of the prevailing weight prevailing setback. So the question though this isn't the front elevation setback. This is a side on
90th Street. He's pushed it so far forward to 90th Street that when you come on Washburn Circle, that house is is way in front of any other house that's on 90th. Understood. Uh so Richard, the we're out of time right now. I know we've got
another speaker and we'll probably have this discussion, I'm sure, when we get to the uh to the consent agenda tonight as well. Okay. So Okay, great. I appreciate you listening. Yep. Thank you. Jeffrey, did Jeffrey make it? Um he is not available. So if Dick has
more to say, we seed the time to him. Unfortunately, we don't do it like that. We we it's just one bite of an apple for everybody. So it's uh Yeah. Glorious. Yeah. Uh I mean, if there's somebody else in the in the group who would like to just speak, we we could make that work.
You going to step up for the group? The whole neighborhood's here. The whole neighborhood is here. Very good. Step up. Sure. I'll step up. Thank you. I'm glorious. Right. Good evening and welcome. Priyanka, you responded. Thank you.
Please go ahead. Okay. So, I'd like to continue to talk about the setback. Um, I understand they sent us a lot of Lona was extremely helpful and she came over and she sent us all the information about the change,
the zoning change that was made in 23 that none of us on this group we how we missed that. Um, however, in that just in the time we had to go over it, it looked like the zoning change was just to change the size from the current size
to half the size for a lot for a single family lot. So, we did not have enough time to go into detail into that document, but I would like to request uh that the team table um the consent item to give us a little bit more time to
look at that because I'm very concerned that there was a person that died on 98 uh on 90th and uh France. We all remember that and how dangerous these corners can get. in that corner has a
traffic light. We would like more time to look at this because not only it takes us five to 10 minutes to get out of that circle with how busy it is now because of the extra space, the divider that was put in. And
um now that they're trying to limit the visibility on that corner even more, we even have more concerns about the safety of that corner. And we would like a chance to look at it and get a chance to
see if there's anything we can do to push it back for specific areas because we're not talking about a normal setback in a street of houses. We're talking about a setback in a already very busy,
somewhat dangerous corner. And uh we have the bus stops there for both the children and the city buses. And I've already seen where I stop and kids run trying to scurry across and
sometimes people darting around. we have an opportunity to prevent something dangerous and all we're asking for is a chance to take a pause. So, we should see if there's anything we could do to keep our community safe. Um,
that's the major major concerns. There are other concerns, but that corner is already difficult. If you ever go over there, there's no stop lights. I posted on the Bloomington, Minnesota community for all group and the number of responses I got about this the danger of
of of that corner was amazing already without us even talking about developing it and putting houses even closer on 90. So, I respectfully plead and request that we take a pause
so we could try to continue to make our neighborhoods safe. And also just to consider that a person already died on 90th in France, a similar corner that has a stop. We don't
have that and we're about to make it more dangerous. So, that's my request. Thank you. Thank you. And I have more neighbors here if you'd like to hear from. Now, I think we're going to run into uh
our get back to our speakers here. Jody. Oh, I have to sign in. Yeah. Yep. If you could please sign in. If you haven't signed in yet, if you could Jody, if you could step on up, please. Steve has been working with me on this. Does one thing he sit with me or just No,
of course he can. Of course he can. Come on up. He's very familiar with this topic. So, thank you for hearing me. Uh, my name is Jody Tasto. T A S T O. Um, I live in District 3. am on Sandro Road and we're here today to talk about quiet
zones or the request to move forward with the quiet zones. Have a hand out if I can. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you. So, I know this is a topic that some of you may have heard of
already and just it's a very important topic for our neighborhood. But I wish I had more time, but we do have a lot of neighbors here to representing showing the importance of what we're requesting. Um, and I do know as well that Steve, I believe, has forwarded you some information. So, you have pictures of
the intersections we're talking about as well as a similar report that was uh done through Eden Prairie City. So, very high level, what we're here tonight to ask for is that we can move forward or that the city agrees to move forward um establishing quiet zones in
two uh I'll say intersections or areas of crossings for trains. You'll see that on your maps which I handed out. These are and it's in the picture uh that Steve also sent. So, one is the intersection that I call um 84th Street
and Bush Lake Road. And the other you might be familiar with. It's right in front of Highland Ski Hill. And the photo that Steve sent actually you can see, excuse me, the proximity of a house right next to or right in front of that. Um, a quiet zone, very high level.
Again, you might you probably already know this. A quiet zone is a designated section of railroad where trains do not sound their horns at night. Now, the reason this is important for us, uh, about a year and a half ago, the railroad made a change and started
sending trains through at night. Um, I think the neighborhood is pretty flexible with like the horns that come across at 10:00 at night, but we see weekly throughout the week horns that are blaring between 1 and 3:00 a.m. Um,
this is newer for us and it's extremely disruptive. So much so, like when I started the process of trying to find out where to start to request this from the city, um, I spoke to people in St. Louis Park and Edina who on the same
line the cities have started the same discussion. So this is considered the Dan patch line. It runs north to south um going up to Edina and then St. Louis Park. So in my search I also was able to get a hold of the city engineer in Eden
Prairie and they were extremely helpful because they just finished um a project of establishing quiet zones throughout their whole city. And the good news I was happy to find out is they established funding from the state. So
the project was paid for by bonding which led me to our state representative Steve Elkins who is here and probably has uh more information as well that he could share on this because it has come up in the past. So I was happy when
talking to the other cities that when they actually dug in the amount of money needed for the project was much lower than originally originally thought. And since we have Eden Prairie who when I spoke to them I have it in your notes
here. They use a consultant from the SRF group which my understanding is Bloomington is familiar with that group. They have a very detailed report which I think we could benchmark and reuse hopefully some of that um knowledge. But the first step in this very big process
is trying to get an assessment done. And so that's why I have that listed out here is what our request is tonight is to move forward with that and hopefully get a yes from our city to move forward. And we know that the process from start to finish can be quite long. Um, but
we're hopeful that we can move forward and I do have residents here who have been long-term residents of Bloomington and in this district 3 and could speak to this as well, but the best way I can explain it, it's so hard to explain to you the impact it has, but it's really
um I would say vicious. It's like you are in your home and everything is quiet and the next thing you know like this alarm goes off. It just happened to me on Sunday morning and I thought it was the tornado sirens. I really did and I jumped out of bed. It was gonna wake up
my children because it was so loud and I thought it was an emergency. So, we have people on our block who will tell you that they are they are like uh awoken like scared you know like in shock by the noise. You have children I mean it goes all the way up all age groups. who
even have grandparents who have told me that they wake up, they have to go to the bathroom, can't go back to sleep and they're altering their life to try to go to bed like at dinner time to accommodate for these trains which are very very loud. So, I know there's many
more stories and I know because of time um we don't have time for that, but our hope today is that you'll agree to move forward with the assessment. Thank you. Thank you, Jody. Uh the way it works, we don't make any decisions here in the listening session. We won't do that here. that would come at the end of our regular council meeting where we get
through council issues and updates where we could direct staff to maybe okay take this on or look at this. So, but we've got the information. Uh appreciate your you're coming forward with this and appreciation appreciate you bringing the the detailed information that you do have and we will we will take it from there. Okay. And who is there anything else
that we need to submit like uh statements or anything? No, I don't think so. And who would I hear back from? Is it from Lana our or LONA our council member or something tells me you would hear back from La probably. Yes, you would. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Great.
And if we can get you to sign in as you're you're wrapping up. Yes, I will. Thank you. Thank you, Robert. Mr. Norman, please. Thanks. Just pick it up. However you're most comfortable. Good evening. Welcome. Okay. Thanks, uh, Mr. Mayor and council
members. Um, the reason I'm here today is a year ago we had fiber optic put through our neighborhood and they came through with the boring machines and dug holes and so on. And I understand the company that started the project did
something wrong and they didn't finish. And so all the um grass that was disrupted is still in a state of disrepair. And I've been working with a couple of guys um that are up at public works. They
seem to have their hands tied. Um I don't know if there's any progress on this. Uh first of all, you're not alone. We we've heard this uh from a number of different folks and including I think people around this table who have had
their yards or backyards uh messed up in in a variety of different ways. uh what our what our our first course of action is to try and make sure that the company that did this comes back and fixes it for you. And uh it's kind of hit and miss sometimes if if they um you know
some are no longer in business, some have moved on, but we that that is the first order of business and the first thing that the city tries to do is hold accountable the folks who were doing the work in the area that they come back and repair it appropriately. Um now you said you've been working with folks in in
public works. I don't think I might need some help here in terms of at what point do we actually go in and do the repairs and then charge it back to the company. Do do we do that? How does that work? I'm looking at um
I'm looking at our engineer now, too. Come on up here, Julie, please. This is Julie Long. She's the city engineer. Uh, Mr. Mayor, we have not done it to a level with any of the fiber optic companies where we do the restoration
and charge them back. We have done it with Centerpoint Energy, they have asked us to do that on occasion. Um, we have escalated this gentleman's problem. It had been at a certain level and based on his attendance tonight, we found others found out about it at the city. So we
have escalated it up higher to a different level at Lumen. So we're expecting some action. What the issue is is um Creek was hired by Lumen who then hired a subcontractor and now there's been a lot of fingerpointing and not a whole lot of action which is very
frustrating and I apologize for that. Um but it is still Lumen's responsibility. We still have their permit and it is theirs to figure out. Very good. I appreciate the the update and and the clarification on that. I knew we had done restoration in the past. Didn't realize it was for
Centerpoint, not for our tech companies. Council member Nelson, question. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I'm just wondering if Lumen has other permits cuz we passed a ordinance that if they were not keeping up with their restoration, they would not be able to get additional permits or continue with those other
permits. And is that something we're taking a look at as a obviously a carrot and incentive for them to fix this? Mr. Mayor, Council Member Nelson, that is a great carrot. The only problem is Lumen has completed their work within Bloomington, so that carrot is just
sitting there dead on the table. [Music] Uh, so I I I think you're uh, Robert, I think what the the the bottom line is we've we've escalated it and we're we'll keep pushing our friends at Lumen to to make this right because, as I said,
you're not the only one in the city. And I'm not saying just Lumen, there are other companies as well that we've had to push along and and to really encourage to finish the work that they have started. And we're going to continue to do that in this case uh with the work that Lumen has done in your neighborhood and across the city as
well. So Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for stepping in, Julie. Greatly appreciate it. That is it for the folks who are on our list for our listening session. Uh we have just a couple minutes left. I'd
invite people forward, but if we've already heard the arguments, for example, the Washurn Circle issues, uh perhaps if there's other folks who had different issues beyond the two that we've heard, um All right. All right, council. We are at the end of
our list and I think we've completed our business here. Look for a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. So moved. Motion by council member Muis, second by council member Rivas to adjourn tonight's listening session. All in favor, please signify by saying I. Opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. Thank you
all very much for being here tonight. Thank you for your input. We greatly appreciate it. And uh for the the issues that we did talk about, as I said, at the end of the council meeting, so you have to might have to stay up a little bit later um by the time we get around to them, but we do talk about them at the end of the meeting as part of our
council policy and issue update. And at that it's at that point that uh it's possible that we would direct staff to move forward for example on the study or uh even in within the uh consent agenda which is a fairly it's fairly uh early
in the agenda where we would talk about the possibility of pulling out the Washurn Avenue. All right. Great. Thank you all for being here. Thank you.