[clears throat] call to order. The city of Canon Falls City Council meeting Tuesday, July 21st, 2026. If I could get a roll call, please. >> Diane Johnson, >> here. >> Zimmerman, >> here. >> Jeff Johnson, >> here. Jeepson >> here. >> Noach >> here. >> Croninburgger absent. Montgomery
>> here. Please rise for the pledge of 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.
>> If I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> Motion. Motion from Lisa, >> second. >> Second from Jeep. All those in favor? >> I opposed. That carries. Uh, nobody signed up for public input, so we will skip that and go straight into our presentation. The Coal Coalition of
Greater Minnesota Cities. Darren Lee, the floor is yours. >> Thought there'd be a consent agenda before me, but that's all right. Uh, thanks for getting me on the schedule. Uh, my name is Darren Lee. I with the firm Flity and Hood and we represent the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities
down at the Capitol. Um we love to come to our member cities during the interim between legislative sessions just to kind of let you know what we've been working on on your behalf. I think Canon Falls is a recent addition to the coalition. So welcome. We appreciate having you join us.
>> Um so I'll just get into it here. So a little background about who we are. So, we're more than 100 cities outside of the metropolitan area, uh, which distinguishes us from the League of Minnesota Cities, uh, which is, you know, a lot of metro members. So, they
have a kind of a wide diversity of cities in their group. And so, uh, the coalition being that we're greater Minnesota allows us to focus on issues that are, you know, mainly important to greater Minnesota. So, those are some of
the issues we work on. Uh, we added a couple here. In recent years, we've been working a lot on housing and EMS and so we added those. I work on transportation issues. Um,
and so starting off with a recap here. Um, but before I do that, I should I'll just describe what I passed out in those folders. Um, you've got our session report, which we'll go into a little bit more detail on what I can't get into here and the amount of time I've got.
And then, uh, frequently asked questions, CGMC basics, uh, what sets us apart, our labor and employee relations program information on there, uh, our event schedule. So, our summer conference actually starts tomorrow. I was talking to John. He's going to be
joining us tomorrow in New Alm. But I think any last minute additions, we can make accommodations for you if you'd like to join us. Uh it's going to be a great event. We've got some governor candidates coming, some legislators that are going to be speaking on a panel. Um some great breakout sessions, that sort
of thing. Uh and then we have our fall conference coming up uh in Weight Park in November. And our legislative action day next year is already on the calendar, so you can come advocate with us at the capital next year. Uh, we've got our housing report. This one was
kind of a lengthy report, so I just included a sheet that has a link and you can you can read the full report on there. Um, our environmental program was also telling me we got some PAS issues in town right now. And so, this is one that you'll probably want to take a look
at. And our staff contacts, I'm on there. We've got our all of our other staff that work on these various topic areas. So if you have questions on any of those issues, uh please don't hesitate to reach out and contact us. Um
so 26 recap. So divided government brings low expectations and I should say I'm actually surprised at the end of session how much they did get done at the end. Uh they passed like 24 chapters of law on the final weekend. Um so they
exceeded my expectations at least. Um but you know very narrowly divided legislature. House is 6767 tie between the Republicans and Democrats and the DFL has a one seat majority in the Senate. So um it makes everything a
four-way negotiation. Uh some of the topics that were at the forefront during the session, fraud of course, guns, school safety, bonding was a big one which we'll get to. Um and then Henipin County Medical Center kind of was floating out there as an issue. That
hospital has had some financial issues and so uh they put together a rescue package or sort of a financial stabilization fund if you will for uh HCMC and that was one one thing that uh
did pass at the end. Nothing really on guns uh at all. They did do some things on fraud. Um, so our our agenda for the session, uh, from a CGMC perspective, protect LGA,
uh, no LGA cuts, pass a bonding bill, which contains all those infrastructure projects that are so important for our cities. Um, lead line funding, um, I think you've got some lead service lines in town as well. So, we'll talk a little bit about that. And then something that
just keeps coming up year after year, uh, housing reszoning, uh, issue where the state is trying to preempt your local authority over how you do your land use policies, um, here in town. And
so that was something that we uh, had to lobby against this year. So, starting off with the forecast. Uh so the thing about this slide is there's a lot kind of a lot going on on this slide but I think the main thing to
highlight is February of 2025 we had a $6 billion deficit and so uh in that second bianium fiscal year 2829 you can see there's just a little bit of money on the bottom line going into the session. Uh and then we have the
structural imbalance is just the difference between money coming in, money coming out, which isn't quite the same as a deficit, but if the structural imbalance continues, you end up with a deficit. Uh if so, the legislature still has some work to do to correct some of
those issues, but uh they've gone quite a bit of the way uh and then the forecast, you know, because of the economy changing and revenues coming in uh to improve the budget situation. So um little very little spending
contemplated. Um they did end up making some cuts primarily in human services area to help uh address those fiscal challenges. Uh in 2025 the Senate Democrats proposed cuts to LGA. uh that
was defeated um in large part because local government groups like ours were were there and working with the house and saying no, we're not going to accept uh anything like that. Um and then focus on bonding bill. Uh and luckily this
year with the improved budget situation, there wasn't any discussion of LGA cuts, but we'll have to, you know, watch those future budget forecasts uh to make sure that that doesn't pop up again uh next year because if we do, you know, if the
budget outlook uh deteriorates, that's something that lawmakers could target to try to save money uh on that. So bonding. So of course this is one issue where uh you have to have
bipartisanship. It takes 60% to pass any bill that borrows money. So this is one area where the minority party has some leverage into getting the kind of projects that they want. Uh the governor's proposal is
on here. you know, public facilities authority 99 million, business development, public infrastructure, two and a half million. And being the transportation guy, you know, I thought this is I I think the second time in the last couple of years that he's proposed
nothing for local roads and bridges. Um, most of his proposal is on stateowned assets like the Minscq system, the U of M system, uh, state buildings, uh, state parks, that sort of thing. and then very little set aside for local projects. Um
so that was the governor's proposal. Um here's some of our some of our folks uh testifying uh lobbying in favor of passing a substantial bonding bill.
Um and so then here's what ended up happening with uh quite a strong uh strong support from both parties. It ended up being a total of 1.24 billion uh and then 400 plus million for
public facilities authority for those you know water wastewater projects that as you know are so expensive and so um you know more than four times what the governor had proposed and then there was a little bit in there for roads and bridges. So, I was happy to see that.
Uh, in addition to the 25 million for bridges and uh 47 million for roads, there was another 100 million in earmarked projects. Uh, you know, named projects. Uh, you know, unfortunately, a lot of those are in the metro area. So,
uh, I would like to see a little bit more, uh, in those two categories, that 25 and 47 rather than those earmarked projects. But legislators, you know, they like getting those projects in their districts and so um such as it is.
Um and then unlike the 2025 bill which had nothing for local projects, uh there was quite a bit on local projects this year. So lead service lines, you know, this is part of the bonding bill, but we thought I' we'd break this out and talk a little
bit more about it because it's something that we've been working a lot on. Um, so, you know, there's there's an issue with if you if you don't get enough funding to fill the construction season, you
know, that that's a that's a threat. Uh, you know, in two in 2023, they initially allocated 240 million. Uh, the EPA is mandating that by 2037 all lead service lines have to uh be replaced. And so,
you know, total of 1.5 billion. Um, we were asking 250. Uh, there's the inventory map um that you can check and, you know, you can you can identify it down to each household. So, you can see if you have lead service line at your
home, uh, or not. Not all of them have been identified, I should say. So, you know, some of those are question marks. I know you've done a lot of work to get those identified. Um, so that's helpful. But uh so this was one where there was a
little disappointment here. Um we only were able to obtain 15 million in this year's bill. Uh and so you know there's a lot of other competing priorities of course. So, we're going to need to work
on this again next year and try to find a dedicated ongoing source uh to find because, you know, the way I was talking about this the other day with somebody, we we've got a coalition built of labor folks, uh environmental folks that and
city government folks that are, you know, have been working on this. Uh and there are some of the people at that uh press conference u from those different groups testif uh speaking to the press there. Um so you know if if if there were to be more money for the lead line
uh you know replacement projects uh you know that would be less of that 400 million that went to those other wastewater and drinking water projects. So and we want that money too because those are important. So you know it's kind of like we don't want to cut into that too much. And so that's why we're going to be looking for some additional
sources, uh, which we're thinking about right now. So, [snorts] um, housing and zoning, uh, this is just one that just keeps coming back, uh, like a bad penny. Um, [clears throat] so in 2024,
missing middle, they called it, 2025, yes to homes, uh, and then this year it was rebranded again as the Starter Home Act. So, it's a lot of the same things that we've seen. Um, preeemption, uh, materials, aesthetic standards, um,
require alternative dwelling units, parking, getting rid of parking requirements, um, you know, mandating certain densities, uh, commercial, uh, residential with commercial, that sort of thing. So I think they the intention
of the proponents of this was to allow a little bit more flexibility this year by saying well you got to you know do it on a third of this area you know but you get to pick what third but you know it's still it's still way too prescriptive you know it still is preempting you know
how you want to decide how to do it. um one thing. So, cities under 5,000 would have had to that first bullet there. All cities would have had to um do those things under the proposal. Then cities over 5,000 would have had to do those
additional things, that second set of bullets there. And then cities over 10,000 would have to do yet additional uh requirements like the parking minimums, additional upzoning, uh creation of a housing trust fund,
subsidy programs. So you could kind of choose your own adventure there as we say. Uh you'd have to pick some of those. I don't know how many of those you'd have to pick. You wouldn't have to do all of those, but you would had to do some of those. Um pick a couple of them. So, it was us
and then uh Metro Cities uh municipal legislative commission. We both we all testified. Um there's our executive director Bradley Peterson who will be at the conference this week uh testifying on housing issues. And you know, we know that uh zoning,
preeemption of zoning is not a silver bullet that's going to solve housing problems, you know, solve a housing crisis and economic development issues uh in our cities in greater Minnesota. So, um didn't get a hearing in the Senate. Uh it was defeated in the House
Committee. Luckily, nothing there passed with the exception of there was something done on homeowners associations that uh put some restrictions and added some protections. Uh I guess you would say like limits on
fines for folks who live in those. Um it it would say that you know cities can't require the creation of a homeowners association uh for development. So, but outside of that, none of those other uh proposals that um were worse than that
uh passed. So, looking ahead, um we've got, of course, Governor Walls is not running. So, we've got an open uh primary race for governor. There's a couple of there's two or three folks on
the Republican side. Um, and then we've got a US Senate seat. Of course, all legislative seats are on the ballot this year, both the House and the Senate. We've got congressional seats on the ballot. Um, so, uh, we have we actually
I just got an email today. Our candidate packet is available. So, uh, we've got that ready. And so, that's going to be going out to candidates, uh, particularly the ones that win their primary. And so then we've got session convening again in January. Oh, and I
should mention, you know, we had like over 40 legislative retirements. And so regardless of what happens with the election, you know, there's going to be a lot of new faces. It's going to be a totally new legislature. I think like the tax committee, the Senate tax committee, I don't think anybody that's
on that committee this year is coming back. So, we're going to have to educate all these new uh new legislators about our issues. And so, um and then again, there's my my list of events. Make a final plug for those. Um and then I
think I just have questions. Oh, and that's my boss's name on there. I didn't change I didn't swap it out, but yeah. No, you can direct questions to him. No, I'm happy to answer questions. and my contact information is on on this sheet. So, um, any questions
for me? Thanks again for having me. Really appreciate your time. >> Any topics the council wants to ask? Darren, >> thank you for coming tonight and thank you for your presentation. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Have a good night. >> Yeah, you too. >> That brings us along to our consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be
adopted under one motion as prepare as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. Item A, adjust and correct claims for the accounting period ending July 15, 2026. Item B, meeting minutes for July 7th, 2026. Item C, authorize
out ofstate travel for ICMA conference. Item D, approve the street closure. Item E, approve professional service agreement with WHKS for Hardwood Estates fourth edition phase 3. Item F, approve gambling premises permit application for
St. Pius Church. G. Resolution 2883 accepting a $1,500 donation from Inveny Cannon Falls to the police department. Item H, resolution 2884, accepting a $1,000 donation from Invenergy to the ambulance department.
Item I, Resolution 2885, accepting $1,000 donation from Inveny to the Fire Department. Item J, resolution 2886, accepting a $9,82189 donation from Good Hugh County to the fire department. And item K, approve
request for historic district ordinance amendment. Is there anything the council would like pulled down into council business? Hearing none, I would seek a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion from Diane, second from Chad. Any
further discussion? All those in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Carries. Moves us on to council business. And tonight we have resolution 2887 approving the concept plan for Cannonball 2, a 69 unit apartment complex. Izzy.
>> All righty. So, at the last planning commission meeting, so July 13th, um we presented the concept plan for Cannonball 2, um which is 69 unit apartment complex. Um so with that presentation, the planning commission
did consider and recommend approval um for that concept plan. And I'll just do kind of a quick overview. So this is a planned unit development. So it's a three-stage process. Um so this is just the first stage which is the concept
plan. So a very highlevel overview of what the site and what the project um can and could look like. Um so with that um after a concept plan we'd move into development stage which is where we get into the fine-tuned details. So um
everything from grading plans to water and sewer to actual building plans for the apartment. Um and then after that the final plan um to fine-tune everything. So again, this is very highlevel overview of what the project
could look like and it's an opportunity for planning commission, city council to um ask any questions and let us know any major concerns that they have and what we can address um within the development stage. Um so just a overview of the
project. So like I said, a 69 unit apartment complex. So quick overview. So it would be tentatively um about eight three bedrooms, 26 two beds, 27 one beds and eight studios
um within the apartment. Um so pretty similar um to the first one um obviously more three beds um on this one. So there'll be both um above ground and underground parking. So if you remember
um from the last one the parking garages at grade uh this one will actually be underground parking and then of course surface level. Um with that there are within a planned unit development the purpose of it is to you know allow
flexibility and setbacks in zoning um and things like that. So requested waiverss for this project are very similar to cannonball one. Um, so I'll just run through those quick so that they're, um, in your mind. So, um, the
first one is just allowing a smaller studio unit. So, in our code, um, you have to be at 500 square ft, just pushing it down to 480 for the studios. The rest of the units would meet code.
Um, second is for height. Um, so the same as last time, we would just allow three stories or excuse me, allow four stories. The city code is a max of three. Um, next is parking. So, per city
code, we require 2.25 parking spaces per unit. Um, which is which is a lot of parking spaces. And, um, the current one is definitely has um plenty of parking. It's a little bit overparked. Um, so we
would be asking for 1.5 spaces per unit on this one. Um, and then next is about the studio apartments again. So the city code only allows a max of 10% of the apartment to be studio units. This would
be a max of 30% for those studios. Um, and then next is just lot size. So where this is sitting, um, it's just south of where the current Cannonball 2 is. So junction of four street south and then 318th there. So I just want to mention
so we kind of have I think Laura might be bringing it up now but for lot size the lot size has to be 2500 square ft per unit. Um what we have with the land right there it would be about 1,956
square feet per unit. And that's really similar to the waiver from last time. I think it was around um like six 16 or 1700 square feet. So very very similar. And then the last waiver is just about um parking. So just allowing the um
leased parking to be an allocart provision um of the tenants lease. So those are the waivers. They're very very very similar um to the waivers that were approved last time. Um just a few obviously difference in lot sizes and
things like that. and then the addition of the the parking waiver. So, very very similar to those um from Cannonball One. So, I just kind of want to go over um let's see. Yeah, Laura showing kind of
the site plan or concept plan currently. Um so, right below Cannonball One there. Um and by the McDonald's. So, this is very overview. There's still a lot of things we need to um figure out in regards to access and and things like
that, but this gives you a really great idea of what the current plan is. Um and I kind of just want to go through a little bit of the schedule and what we have to get done for this project. So, obviously, um we got the re recommendation of planning commission for the approval of the concept plan.
Today, we're um presenting the concept plan to you to city council. Um so after tonight's approval we would hopefully move on to presenting the development stage and then with this property we do need to um reszone. So we would be
reszoning from B2 to R4 which is high density residential. Um so along with the development stage we would be presenting you um with an ordinance to reszone the property. Um so from there obviously two readings of
that and then we would move forward with a final plan presentation um of course to both planning commission and city council. I do want to note um both the resoning and then the development stage both require public hearings. So next planning commission will have public
hearings for both of those. So everything was in your packet images here for the concept plan. So open for any questions on the project if you have any. Again, this is very high level um for the project. Um but open to any
questions. Any questions or discussion from the council? Hearing none, I would seek a motion to approve resolution 2887, the concept plan for Cannonball 2. >> So moved. >> Motion from Diane, second from Chris. Any further discussion? All those in
favor? >> Opposed? Carries. Gets us to our reports. Um, car's not here from chamber. Uh, planning commission. We basically just covered what was in the most recent meeting. So, no report
there. We'll do a round the horn. Jed. >> Um, we uh broke ground for reshaping the uh ice rink. Uh, we're going to try a new plan this year. see if we can make and keep ice. So, uh, our, uh, 2026
construction project is moving along. We're making good progress there. Um, everything seems to be on schedule. >> Awesome. Thank you, Jedzy. Anything additional tonight? >> All right, Laura. >> Um, I just got a photo from the fire department. They got their new extractor
and dryer installed and everything. So, that was I told him to send me a photo so we can get a press release um out to Alec. So, you'll be getting that soon. Um but that's great because if you're not familiar with what that does, it takes the carcinogens that are that they
get on their gear um when they're out fighting fires and everything. So, it gets that off of them. It's like a big industrial kind of um washing machine. So, there's broke down. We got a grant for it. So, they just got that installed. So, that's a good a good thing for our firefighters. Um,
otherwise we've got two houses that are framed and in hardwood estate, so that's good. We closed on um closed on four a couple weeks ago. Uh, you've got the permits for the >> the new four. >> Um, so I think that's good. You've
approved our PSA to get the new concept going for the next phases. So, it's good. >> Thank you. >> Chief, a couple of things. Council, you uh approved a road closure for River Road. Uh that'll be on the 28th of this month
uh from about 9:30 till 1 for the residents. It may have some impact if you use River Road as a a transit way. Uh it will be open to city hall u so you'll be able to reach us if you need to. Uh but it'll be closed from there up to St. Cloud St. Clair, excuse me. Uh
the other thing is we have uh national night out night to unite that'll be occurring on August 4th uh which is our next council meeting. Uh right now we currently have four parties. Uh I would expect we'll probably uh get another two
or three um before the uh the final um run list is made for uh for the police, fire, and ambulance that go out to these parties. Uh so if you're interested in hosting a party, please contact our office and uh Karen will get your information and we'll get you on the
list. Um for uh the residents who will be at those parties, uh police, fire, and ambulance will be trying to make our rounds to all of them. Um some of them overlap, so um you know, the amount of time that they get to spend varies depending upon how many parties we get. So that's what I have.
>> Thank you, Chief Sarah. Uh just a reminder that um the elections or signing up for um candidacy is open until the 28th at 5:00 pm. Um so if anyone's interested in the positions of
mayor, a four-year council, city council term, or a two-year city council term, we have five positions total open. So come on in, bring your $2 to sign up, and we'll see you when you get here. >> Thank you, Sarah. John,
>> I just want to say thank you to uh council members Diane Johnson and Chad Johnson for attending the employee cookout we had last week. Uh good attendance from our our staff. I really appreciate it. We had a actually really nice day despite the the heat. We had a good breeze. So, it was it was a lot of
fun. I appreciate the the opportunities to to help and serve and give back to to our staff. They do they do a lot for our community. Um, just wanted to note we've had interviews for our maintenance operator 2 position. Um, and we're getting close to the the finals and
actually discussing offers to to a position. Very uh excited about the candidates that we had uh and interviewed. It was um you know for something that's kind of a hard position to fill generally across the state. Um I was really pleased with the with the quality of the candidates that we got
and as Darren said, I'll be at the coalition conference the rest of this week. >> Awesome. Thank you, John. Laura, >> I'm good. >> Chris, >> nothing here. Ryan, >> nothing. >> Diane, >> and on behalf of Chad and I, thanks to John and and Jed and everybody who
helped with the picnic. It was great fun. >> Awesome. Lisa, Chad, >> uh, I guess I this is the first time I think we've approved as many donations to the department all at once. And so I'd like to thank Invenergy for uh
really picking up there and going to the ambulance and those guys. So thank you. >> Uh I just want to say our uh the group that the comprehensive plan we had a meeting right before this. It was really nice to sit down and talk about these issues. And one of the things that we covered tonight was um our local what
would you call it? our local food like I I I forget the extra word that they use but the Minnesota Department of Egg is doing a study on Canon Falls because of like our umbrella of food production. And when we were having the discussion, it made me think that as a local I think so many of us might overlook how many
different products are produced right here locally because if you look at our neighbors down in, you know, Kenyon, Wanamingo, Dennison, Zambroda, you name it. uh Good Hugh uh other than the farming and egg community, which is obviously important to this region, but the city itself, the the businesses that
we have that produce food, Canon Falls is actually very strong in that area enough that we're on the state radar. So, it's kind of a feather in our cap that I think sometimes we forget about and I think we can utilize it to uh as something to grow into the future [clears throat] and continue in those industries. So, thank you to everybody
that was at uh that meeting. So, with nothing else, I would seek a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Motion from Chad. Second. >> Uh second goes to Lisa. All those in favor? >> Opposed. We're adjourned. Thank you everybody.