That'll be great. Call to order. City of Canon Falls City Council meeting for Tuesday, July 1st, 2025. If I could get a roll call, please. Yes. Diane Johnson, here. Zimmerman, here. Chad Johnson, here. Jeepson, here. Noach, absent.
Croninburgger, here. Montgomery, here. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Like All right. If I can get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Motion. Motion from Lisa. Second. Uh we're going to give the second to Chad. All those in favor say I. Opposed. That carries. Uh
public input. Nobody has signed up tonight, so we will skip that. Gets us to consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. Item A, adjust and correct claims for the accounting period that ended June 26th. And item B, meeting
minutes June 17, 25 city council meeting. Is there anything the council would like to pull down? Hearing none. I would take a motion to approve. So second. Uh second from Diane, motion from Jeep. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Carries. Gets us to council business. The text amendment for data
centers as conditional use. John. Thank you, mayor. Uh so before you have the memo, it kind of explains what the the situation is in reviewing the uh development application that we received from track through Kimley Horn. Uh in
order to fairly process that, we do need to bring data centers into existence within our code. Uh so the the way that they're requesting through a PUB uh the reszoning all the platting that essentially has to come through a conditional use
that's allowed within our whatever zoning district that they will ultimately be in. And that needs to first start by us amending our uh ordinances to bring data centers into existence. So in the next few weeks we can work if authorized we can work
through a draft um on that text. So defining uh data centers as well as establishing the conditions in which the we would allow them within various juris jurisdictions. Basically to sum this up it's so that our city ordinance allows data centers because the last time it
was written data centers probably didn't even really exist. Yes. The and and certainly not to the extent as as what they are today. So, in order for us to even fairly evaluate the proposals from Tracked and any other future data centers that potentially could come to the city, um having this established
will will give us the opportunity to to do that. All right. Thank you, John. Uh comments, questions, concerns from the council, Diane. Um, and I think I mentioned to both John and to to Matt ahead of time, uh, I have no problem with us doing
this, uh, because it is a very specialized thing and it is much newer. I'm wondering if it might be wise for us for the sake of the future of the city to look at hiring somebody uh, who specializes in data use, land
management, land, ordinance, uh, be that attorney or somebody else to work with us through that step. and possibly the PDU in the future. John and Shelley, do you think that's something that is needed for the text amendment? Uh tonight is we're just
giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to do that. But with Dian's concern, is that something at this phase or is that something that would be addressed later on? I I don't think starting right now with the text amendment, but certainly using uh all the consult we've you know right now we're using all the consultants that we have available to us
and that we're we're contracted with to do the evaluations of everything that's coming forward whether that's the land use decisions, the um the infrastructure pieces. So we we very much are doing that. Um I am not too familiar of
specific attorneys that focus on the municipal side uh for data centers that have that as a specialty. Um I do know that uh other firms have worked on ones recently in the in the state. we and the local partners are very good to be
sharing information with us in terms of what those agreements are when they're finalized and um you know and even potentially discussing as amongst colleagues of how you know that work came to fruition. So we can absolutely explore um you know additional services
if if they're needed. Um but right now know that we're thanks to the escore agreements that we have we're we're fully utilizing our consultants every step that we can. All right. Any other questions, comments from the council? I would accept a motion to approve the text amendment for data centers as
conditional use. No, no, no, no. Authorizing staff to initiate text amendment. I just read the what? Authorizing the staff to create the text amendment. Yes. All right. So moved. Motion from Jeff. Second. Second from
Laura. All those in favor? I I opposed. That carries. Uh, nobody here from chamber. We'll just go around the horn. Jed, anything from public works? Um, it is fair week. Um, public works are, you know, trying to spruce up the, you know,
catch up on uh mowing and uh, weed whacking and make everything look nice for the the parade and everything. Just, uh, bear with us as we we go run around town and make things look nice. Um next our next projects coming up will be
the the mill and overlay of uh we're hoping the end of July uh for uh industrial park and uh John Birch Park uh alley. Um so we will be start working on that as soon as we get through the fourth and the and fair. So thank you
Jed Chief. I'm sure you got something with the fair as well. Yeah, as uh Jed said fairs week is coming up. Uh just reminder for residents that live uh along the routes that would be entrances into and out of the fair uh they will see increased traffic. If they're seeing uh driving conduct or something that's
concerning to them, please call us um so we can be aware of it and try to resolve that issue. Uh the parade uh will have some impact along the uh regular normal route uh with parking restrictions and uh you know traffic delays uh especially
at the end of it. Um but uh most of the residents are used to it. But just bear with us. Uh it usually comes off without too many hitches and we get a lot of people that come to to watch and then uh a lot of them will continue to hang around for the fair. So hopefully everything goes good. Weather cooperates
but uh we'll be ready in case the weather doesn't. All right. Thank you, Chief Sarah Shelley John. Uh quickly just to update attended the lead conference last week in Duth and uh Chad was there as well with uh it was again always a great conference they had over
700 participants which is probably one of the largest they've they've ever had. Deluth's a wonderful venue for that despite the weather. It was a little cold and rainy. Um, you know, they had some of the things that I enjoy. Um, the keynote speakers are very engaging, you know, trying to be uplifting and finding
a uh ways to help with their you kind of work life balance in in a working in this world. Um, I I do appreciate the exhibit hall. I've worked with a lot of vendors over the years and uh it was great to kind of catch up with a lot of those folks. They provide um excellent services for municipalities. So, to have
them all in one location is really cool to to kind of introduce and and make connections for folks. Um, one item I did, I attended the I was invited uh attended the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities breakfast. Uh, they're one of the lobbying partners that um kind of work through the state for
cities. Uh, the Association of Small Cities Coalition uh League of Minnesota Cities and then uh some there's a Metro Cities agency too. They're the big players uh for supporting cities at the at the legislative level at the state. I've worked with the coalition in the past with uh my work in Little Falls. Um
they're an excellent organization with some uh high quality um you know people that that know issues that really support communities. I think they you know certainly address and uh target areas that affect our city very much um as well as others. So I've I've worked
in the past to try to move forward. One of the updates that they had from the legislature and kind of priming for next year is the housing and local control issues are going to be back. Um they they just get you know reverbed and retitled as something else. the missing middle was was the title last year. Um
but they they'll be continually uh targeting that and um so what they did have was a panel of other cities that are doing creative things with local control around housing uh which includes uh the city of St. Peter that is also has has been for actually longer than we
have uh been doing a city-led housing development. So there the developers bought the land, paid for the infrastructure, selling the lots to then recoup the the cost of their investment. So really really cool. One other really uh uh interesting civic or uh
educational session was on civic engagement. They had a couple speakers who work with the West Central Initiative uh foundation and they've been talking about different strategies that are out there to uh re-engage your community members so that kind of get them to
think about and participate in in different forms of uh you know the civic involvement whether it's uh volunteering on commissions or boards or even running for elected office. um there's a um kind of a dwindling number of folks that are interested in participating in that. And
one stat that they that I took home was uh one in 37 people in rural Minnesota are likely to be rep you know in some capacity of an elected position whether that's school board, city council, township board, uh county commissioner, soil and water conservation districts.
Uh that's it's not a lot. and you go to the metro and that's that number goes to one in 700 or 1 in 900 some much larger number a higher ratio. So it just goes to show that we have to wear a lot of hats and we have to do a lot of things. So it's why I love rural uh Minnesota or
greater Minnesota because you get that opportunity to really connect and and participate. Um but it makes it challenging when when you don't have as many people or you got the same people there kind of constantly always doing everything. Uh last uh the council budget meeting uh is scheduled for July
15th. I'm just trying to finalize the time um between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Um looking for a 2hour block of time for for you all. The feedback that I've gotten has been pretty open. So if anybody has a very firm uh not available during that time, please let me know or
otherwise I'll probably just schedule it starting at 10 um for that day. So, if you're available, that'd be great to make it because we are my intention is having the department heads kind of giving their high level uh capital needs for the upcoming year and kind of getting to know um what it is that they
do. Did I not email you my You did. Okay. Yes. Y you're you're you had a couple conflicts either end. All right. Uh so, that is all that I have. All right. Thank you, John. Laura,
I'm good. Yep. Go ahead. Diane, just everybody have a safe independence, safe celebration. Yeah, Lisa. Good. Chad, don't drink and drive. Yeah, I agree. Have a great fourth. Enjoy the parade. Enjoy the fair. Go out there, have fun. I feel like there's something else, but
we're just going to let it go for now. Motion to adjurnn. So moved. Diane, do I have a second? Second. Lisa, did you get in? Yes. Second from Lisa. All those in favor say I. I. We'rejourned. Thank you, everybody.