Good afternoon. I'd like to convene the uh September meeting of the housing and redevelopment authority. U Chris O'Brien. I'm vice chair. Um I'd note that we have a quorum of commissioners with four commissioners present. Our chairman uh Bill Gabler is not able to
be with us today. We wish him a speedy recovery. Um with that, I'd like to move to the agenda. Uh first item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion for that? >> I move to approve. Okay. Uh second
>> second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> I uh second approving the minutes from the August 2025 minutes. Any comments or um uh otherwise I'll accept a motion to approve those minutes. >> I'll move approval of minutes. August
minutes >> and and I'm going to add excuse me amend that and also include the uh approval of the August 28th special meeting minutes. I amend my motion to include both meetings. >> That's Can I second? >> A second. >> Okay. And all in favor?
>> I I >> Okay. Um any uh I don't see anyone here for public comment. We do have that space open on the agenda uh every month. So if anyone is concerned or curious about some of the work that the HA is
doing, folks are welcome to come on the uh third Wednesday of each month at 3:00. Um, with that, let's uh move into new business. Uh, any new business? Oh, and
uh, okay, then other business. Uh, Jeff, I'll turn it over to you and, uh, for the director report. Thank you very much for such a expedient meeting so far. Um, I just wanted to touch base about a couple of things. I want to do two different reports. One about um, general things are going on, but first I want to
talk a little bit about our priorities and where we sit. The first one I wanted to talk about was um just I continue to meet with stakeholders in our region and in our lo local area to talk about the uh possibility of some assisted living and elder care. Want to get a
temperature feel amongst our partners to begin with. And so uh eventually in the next month or two at the either the October or November meeting, I'm going to give you a report that goes kind of into the details of those meetings. And so that way you don't all have to individually have those same meetings,
but also you can get kind of on the same page that I'm on when it comes to where we're at right now. Um, the next thing I wanted to talk to you about was local housing trust fund. I met with the Minnesota Housing Partnership and we're starting the process uh the initial steps of the process to create the local housing trust fund. There will
eventually be more steps in the process that will require input from the board, but also action, approval as we get closer to the local housing trust fund becoming a reality. And so, just wanted to give you a heads up that that is coming soon, too. Um, the next thing I
wanted to talk to you about was uh I I've applied I've talked to the Minnesota Housing Partnership about the um the countywide housing plan and I specifically wanted to talk to them about what we could possibly do to partner with them. uh they've provided
me with a couple of different resources and different grant opportunities both with Minnesota Housing Partnership and with a more Midwest regional type of organization that uh would like to hear what we have to say about this idea and there's potential for us to receive a
grant in that process to help us get to that point where we are able to stitch all the information that we've already previously collected about housing in general and gather new information and collect of course the the input from the community as well in the county countywide. And so there's more
information. Stay tuned on that. I will note that initially when we had talked about this that I was hoping that the city of Grammar would have GIS information about their utilities. They do not. And so that only is is something that we have to address in the future.
Maybe there's some opportunity to partner with them to get that. Um so put that on the burner as well. What what kind of cost do you >> ballpark is that going to be? >> Um my guess is it would be less than $20,000.
>> Yeah, there might be easier ways to get that money. >> Okay. >> Pretty sure Lloyd K. Johnson would support >> Ah yes, >> I had thought of them as well. Uh we should brainstorm and see what other things we have, but yeah, I might be able to have a good conversation with them about this as well. Maybe a little
quicker like you were saying. Good thought. Appreciate that. Um I also on the priority of energy efficiency and lower cop operation of u you know the housing I spoke with a couple of uh statewide organizations
the uh um um and then also MCE which is a Minnesota center for energy and environment. Um I've bumped into both of those organizations where I worked at the legislature. Both organizations have a real unique interest in things like
energy efficiencies. They're very knowledgeable. MCE actually does provide uh different um loans, low interest loans, the energy plus program I was talking to you about before. They offer that opportunity. I in a call I said how
how silly or uh you know how reasonable would it be to suggest that we can work from St. Paul all the way up here on some of those different loan opportunities with community members and they said absolutely we work across the state. We'd be happy to work up in this area as well. I'm still looking at
having conversations with our local banks but there's another opportunity there. The one thing that I think would be interesting compared to banks is they do a lot of it. There's a guy that does specifically this and also the center for energy and environment just has a wealth of information when it comes to
energy efficiencies and different opportunities at the state and federal level to tap into some additional resources too. So it's a good organization to meet with. I also have corresponded with both the Arrowhead Co-op Electric Co-op here in in Cook County and Simpa. And so I wait to hear
back some information about both new and rehab opportunities for people who have existing homes or that are being considered new homes. So more on that in the future. Uh as far as the uh residential open space overlay district, the Roso, uh we've had three of the five
meetings now. Uh great conversations with people who have attended so far. I'd say that at the end of the meetings, they've come away with a lot more information and a lot better idea for what this ROSO is. I think there are some people who have attended these meetings think, "Oh my gosh, they're going to get 65 new neighbors or
whatever the case is." And for a lot of those folks, if you don't live in um a public road, but if you live in like a uh US Forest Service road or if you live on a DNR road, it doesn't apply. And so it has to be a county road, state
highway, things like that in order to even have a chance at doing the residential open space overlay district. And we have two more opportunities coming up. On the 29th of September at 5 uh 5:00 we'll be down at the Schroeder town hall. At 7:00 they're having their
big discussion. They've worked on um some zoning stuff and they're going to have a big public community conversation about that at 7:00. So this will dubtail really nicely. And then on the 30th, that Tuesday, we will be having a meeting here at the courthouse at five
o'clock. And that will be our wrapup public comment and education uh type of tour that we're having across the county. And it'll be exciting to see. I know there's a lot of people Oops, sorry. There's a lot more people that are are going to be attending this meeting on the 30th. And so, um, I
expect a large crowd. >> Sorry, what time again? >> Be 5:00. Okay. >> 5 to 6:30. >> Yep. 5 to 6:30. And when is the Schroer again? >> Uh the 29th, Monday. >> Okay. 5:00. Yep. And so that's the kind of the strategic
priorities update. Now, a couple of other more general updates uh for you. I don't really have anything new. I know there was conversation in the past about temperature trails. I don't have anything concrete yet, but there's it's an evolving um conversation we're having about density and different
opportunities for new technology for septic and water and things of that nature. So, more to talk about there. I would imagine the next month here at the next meeting, we'll have some more concrete um movement on that uh situation. the Heights, excuse me, the
Heights. Wow. Vertical progression has occurred in this community in the last couple of days. And so last night they were driving modules from the airport up the hill to the site uh the Heights Bluffs uh till about 9:00 at night. I was actually have dinner at the Birch
Terrace and I saw them drive by pretty much dark until dark. And so u they really put in a hard day's work yesterday. Today they're doing the same. Tomorrow they should be finished. So, I'm I'm I'm really amazed. It's like mega Legos, right? So, they're stacking
them and moving them, and it's really exciting to see that. Um WTIP and Baxley did a video with a drone um over it on WTIP's community radio website. And last I looked, which is yesterday at about 7:00 p.m., 12,300 views just on that
that drone video. So, I'm impressed. And people really like to see big things moving in this community. I like that a lot. So, there's move, excuse me, movement there. Um, the next thing I want to talk to you about was, um, there's a group called the Northeast
Minnesota um, home consortium. Uh, Jason Hail previously was a member of that. Jenny Storyley is a county commissioner who's also on that organization as a member. And, um, they had inquired whether or not I would be interested in participating when Jason had previously.
the county board um decided to um allow me to indefinitely uh become a member of that organization. And in their process, there's also going to on Friday morning from 10:00 to noon in this room, they're going to be coming up with a bus of people from Virginia. They're going to
tour the Gunfield View um and also they're going to tour the um the Heights project. And so I'll be leading the tour gun view. We just um got the okay today and some uh we walked through a couple of different building rooms that we're going to be going to and showing them off. And then also we're going to go to
the heights and Gary's going to give about 10 minutes to be there. So nobody can walk into the site but around the site because it's still very very new construction project. And so that's going to be happening. I'm excited for that. I'm excited to learn who the people are in the organization. And the
next meeting will be in February. And I hear that they have some resources and some funding that they do spread out for home um housing type stuff. >> Sorry, they are they a I guess you don't know yet what the composition of the organization is, but is it mostly other public officials who are dealing with housing?
>> That's right. It's mostly other public officials who deal with housing. Yep. So, it would fit in really nicely that I'm a part of it. Yep. Um, and then also I just wanted to just point out to you I had a very brief conversation with a developer who came all the way up from Minneapolis. Spoke with Mike Roth,
myself and Charlie Troval from Northshore Surveying about a potential site in the community of Grammaray for up to nine uh single family housing units in the city of Grammaray. Uh we had a great discussion. We had some conversations about the transportation
needs of our community and our infrastructure challenges that we we have seen and will continue to see in our community going forward as we start building more units of housing. And so it was a good conversation. Um the engineers will be involved next based off of the feedback that we had in the
conversation and I expect something will be happening soon at least I hope so to provide those units of housing. So more to that in the future as well. And with that, I'm concluding my report and it's off to financials.
>> Yeah. And we don't u I the finance committee did not have a chance to meet this month. So don't have a financial report to uh but need to postpone that till next month. >> Okay. Um any comments on the uh director
report? Any discussion? >> Oh, commissioner items are next. >> Okay. Uh we don't have a a committee reports as uh commissioner items. >> Yes. Um I um Commissioner
>> just FYI, I applied to the Takite Harbor Advisory Committee, right? I think that's the name of it. So I applied partly with my maybe with my H hat on, I guess, without without your approval. I did that, but mostly because I'm just really interested. I grew up kind of grew up in there, you know, knew everybody there. Went to the doctor
there. A lot of my friends came from there. >> Very good. >> My dad, they they they dismantled the town >> in the first year that my dad was a county commissioner. >> Wow. >> He he went to >> went to and fought with Erie Mining at the time to try to stop him from doing
that and failed. >> They took the town away. >> So, so I have a lot of lot of interest in it. >> Fantastic. >> Hopefully they'll select me. But I was chatting with Commissioner Olsen and u you know saying really anybody on this board that wants to be involved in that
should apply. I think it's not like we have to designate somebody but it would be great. I assume you'll be participating. >> Yeah. >> Um yesterday there was 24 25 people at the EDA meeting they were talking about that were participating. They have room for more. Okay. >> And so I was going to encourage you all
to apply today or after the meeting at least. But I'm glad to hear at least you're interested. So we'll have some representation. I'm also interested. I >> wonder I'm not exactly sure if I will apply, but I intend to. >> Okay, great. Great. Part of the
conversation will inevitably be housing, yes or no, on that conversation, but um we should have somebody there that knows >> uh what's going on. I was uh just I was studying the plat map um just to see where Elite owns the property there
>> and they have the roads in and lots designated that they've divided out for the are kind of I can't remember the name of it. It's like Schroeder Land Company or something care of elite. >> So they've already done some preliminary
work on >> making stuff available for housing. It looks like to me at least as far as as far as dividing the property up and getting it to the county to be included on the plat map. Y'all can take a look at it and see. >> Yeah. >> I don't know that it I don't know if anything's been built there or sold. It
all shows they still own it all. >> Mhm. >> And also uh just elite, you know, is just about to be uh purchased by >> Black Rockck. >> Uh which may affect this whole process. >> Commissioner G. Yeah, I just going to
interject which the board might be aware but the uh the money through the grant monies that were designated which was 200 some thousand to take a look at options. The one the one thing that I think is a bit of a a confusing element is that because it's
owned by Minnesota Power is you think you would have some parameters so that that $200,000 could be invested in a director within the parameters as opposed the investment then coming back say we're not interested in that. >> Yeah. >> So that that's a bit puzzling.
>> I assume they'll be participating in the process. If not then yeah it's kind of spinning your spending. >> Yeah. if they're all along then they can hold the >> the dreaming in in check that uh >> it it is an interesting element. It would be I think an argument to be
made for them that they would benefit from some pretty serious community input in terms of successfully marketing that >> I think on the front end though given the investment of monies that that would be the first question I would be asking any parameters anything that you want to
set before we venture off here so we don't head off in a rabbit trail >> ultimately at the end of the day they can still do whatever they want their land >> which is true but Yeah, I see that on the map. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I've never heard of that before. I
was surprised to see that. >> That's great. Any other commissioner items? >> Okay, moving on. Um, uh, we're now going to move into a closed session as permitted by section
13D.05, 05 sub subdivision 3C to discuss the subject related to the potential sale of the following parcels of land on 25-029-142 1425. All those in favor say I. >> I.
>> I. All those opposed say nay. Okay. With the eyes with it that being um Okay, welcome back everyone. Um, I will now we're back to the regular business meeting and I will now accept a motion
to adjurnn. >> I move to adjourn. Okay. >> Support. Okay. All in favor? I. >> Okay. The meeting is adjourned at uh 3:41 p.m. [Music]
I don't know if it's supposed to