H tight okay we all set now wonderful and with us tonight is Mike Roth Michael Gary myself William lves Craig schy and Patrick knight uh is Kim with us and Chris Hood
Davida okay oh hi David anyone else online of from the city side or is that it that's it that's it all right very good all right um first up is open forum
and that is for anyone who's not already on our agenda for this evening so um is anyone here for open agend open Forum does that mean making a that is for anyone who is not already on the
agenda in any way shape or form this is your opportunity to speak could be us all right so there are a few people and I'll just you know raise your hand when when Gwen is done we'll have Gwen come
up first and if you just each of you plan to come and sit up by the microphone move it over there if you want there you go and then um please always state your name and then we uh
have a limit on open form to no more than five minutes per topic and no more to per person and then no more than which is in our package and no more than 10 minutes per subject and we have got a little leeway on that um so with that
said hi Gwen if you'd please introduce yourself my name is Gwen lens I live at 3038 Avenue um I am here to speak about the Nora
sken project as far as building on Third Street I live on 8th Avenue it already every time there's construction on the highway construction here construction of in Creek creechville
um the campground going up uh with campers and all kind and boats and everything which is wonderful but I feel that there's too much traffic on 8th Avenue and to have Third
Street added and it's a very narrow Street I see people very cuz I'm right on the corner they turn on from 8th Avenue onto thir street with that narrow area and
they're so very slow and cautious because people walk their dogs there because of it's undeveloped it doesn't have a curb you heard a lot about curbs last week last meeting uh anyway I
think that you have to scale back that many people that are planning on being there and yes we need housing but I just think that it's just too heavy at that
area that's it thank you Gwen next hi hi there hi my name is Linda Bower I live at 216 8th Avenue West and I'm going to I I'm going to read this fast do I have five minutes or no that's okay go ahead Linda okay I'll I'll do it as
fast as I can you don't I am here to express my concern about the borberg did I say that rightor yes um planned unit development AKA borberg common interest community development project AKA Bor
bird Grand marray minum yes condominium I believe I had to get to page 72 in the plan submitted for this meeting to access that full name I attended the last Planning and Zoning commission meeting addressing this project we were instructed that public com comments
would be heard first followed by presentation of the plan I believe that any reasonable person would find that protocol to be at best unfair at worst divisive and not at all transparent it was alluded to at the beginning of the meeting that there was
on the table a modified version of the plan but the commission would only address the plan as written I may be wrong about some of these things so I'm hoping you're going to talk about it I came to realize that most of the people who were attending the meeting were already engaged with a plan some for a
year or more since then an informal canvasing of my neighbors I learned that their experience was exactly like mine we SL they received the letter only two days before the meeting maybe a few more with no no attached plan for review the only access to the plan was via the city
website which assumed that people could a access the internet Andor the site and B navigate it well enough to be able to find the document clearly very little effort was made to engage the entire neighborhood only a relative hand handful of IM immediate neighbors were
included in the discussion or in its planning I was able to more carefully review The Plan before this meeting and as I began the reading I found some things I had not considered and that I could really get behind number one to build separate single family houses is allowable on the lot
would be far more intrusive and damaging than to build townhouse unit units that housed more than one family I appreciated mention that the plan would follow our city W our Citywide Dark Skies initiative yeah um I also
recognized concern for the Aesthetics of the de development I don't agree with how that issue is being defined or addressed but I appreciate the effort however as I read on especially as regards confirmation of the project to the comprehensive plan of the city I
found several significant and alarming discrepancies number two of grand marray city code section 152.4 that's where I found it states the use is compatible with the existing neighborhood there are no condominiums in our neighborhood yes
I am permitted to rent my home for long-term usage which I understand is defined to be any period of a month or longer I am not in a high density Housing Development wherein 21 units could in
theory and in practice be changing occupancy every month 21 units how many actual people we are essentially looking at an East Bay suits or Cobblestone Cove in our here to for cozy quiet relatively
consistent and predictable neighborhood more concerning items are listed in the draft of the de velopment declarations document that the owners would sign there's several of those that concern me but I'm only going to address one right now reading through the Section on allowable pets I tried to imagine and
this is theoretically possible a minimum of 21 owners walking what could be 42 dogs less than a block from my home people I would not recognize or know as neighbors how is that compatible with existing neighborhood standards how can
claims be made that this will have minimal impact on our quality of life only people who currently I'm not going to say that since I recognize that according to the planning and Zone zoning vote this project is allowable as
written I have many more concerns with not enough time to address them at this one meeting I beg the council to number one table your vote until more thoughtful conversation and increased engagement of the entire neighborhood can occur Planning and Zoning meeting
occurred one day before the 4th of July and this is happening a day before Fisherman's picnic um I am trying very hard not to see this as an effort to slide this thing through without Community input what would be gained by more time would be more could be more
neighborhood understanding and maybe even support of this plan be aware that you are setting precedent here this will mean that the next out of the next person to come along claiming I'm not in
it for the money or I'm helping the housing shortage can buy a green space next to you and turn it into Condos for wealthy people to experience their share of God's beautiful paradise for two months of the year while paying for it out of what is essentially tourist
dollars what kind of community involvement is that about 10 years ago the council met over high density project next to my son's property at the edge of town on Highway 61 Mike I think you were the only one who was there at the time I'm not sure after learning
that a considerable amount of the land to be developed was essentially Wetland although not officially identified as such but the trees were wetland trees and the developer would have had to gain easement Road easement over his neighbor's property and perhaps other
issues the council voted that down invited the developer to get to know his neighbors and then submit an amended plan you may not want to or be able to turn down this project but but you can invite Mr borberg to get to know his
neighbors and then submit a more modest plan for housing that more honestly addresses our need to house workers as well as retirees and does not cater so decidedly to investors and then I identified myself as a former isd1 166
par professional I was a waitress at Harbor Inn and I was the executive director at the Grand marray art colony so I have deep roots in this community even though I'm not a local I'm now retired and hoping to be able to enjoy my retirement in the town I love
and call home thank you you listening and typically we don't respond during open form it is your opportunity to talk and be listened to and I can see already we will have a couple clarifications but if you intend to stay
with us and can wait for that we will give you a couple clarifications all right anyone else for open forum yes you get off easy um my name is tala markson um I've lived in this community since uh 99 I
live on 6th Avenue about three houses down from the proposed development um some of my uh statement here is also questions um from what we saw in say Still Water Minnesota
in some areas in other parts of Minnesota where developments went in there were consequences to the neighboring homes with some of the blasting and development that had to happen um so if we have to have an assessment of our homes I currently have
a dry fully finished basement um are we responsible for being able to set uh that starting point of the condition of our homes it may or may not but the rock that is happening is in my backyard and my basement is part of that so it's
not without reason to anticipate potential trimmer effects from that um the other thing is I counted it there are 19 homes on 6th Avenue in total so this is doubling the occupancy of that
road at the top of the road cuz of course of Sixth Avenue they trickle up so you are essentially exponentially doubling the traffic on that road which will reduce our home values it is a real estate assessment the busier the road
the noisier it is so I do realize that this is probably moving forward this is nothing that's happening but I want people to realize that the constituents the residents that are here um some of our fears are not just not wanting
growth it is about a real impact that can diminish the value and the use of our current homes and going forward is that something we're looking at towards our growth what will stop now what precedence do you have like she said to stop a development taking a single
family home away turning them into multif family homes um I did share with John there is a lot at the top of eighth kitty corner on 7th County Road 7 that's 2 and a/4 Acres level already on a Road
that's assessed for traffic feeding all of our County Roads and everybody so essentially all the benefits the multifamily unit the additional housing all could have happened in a location with much less impact on the residents
because that's what we want I mean I employ I used to employ nothing but locals and now I have h2b I understand the housing I have adult children that had to move out of the area CU they could not find affordable housing I appreciate it I just encourage you to look at this
three-dimensionally not problem solution but able to really understand where the Dynamics of this is going where the runoff of this particular lot going from a filtered Green Space into a hard space
and we're sitting below that so thank you thank you Tom anyone else yes my name is Dave Walter I live at 215 6th Avenue West and unfortunately I'm in strong
resistance to this project and I hope some of you know me enough to know that I'm not against development in general I'm not against change I'm not against development and change in my backyard I'm really not I actually believe in that
but this project is not the right project for this neighborhood or for Grand marray there are a lot of different factors that come to bear on that for me to say that I think they come down to three general areas of of uh topic first of
all it's going to really be detrimental to our neighborhood 6th Avenue West and third are I would say significant dog walker Walker biker traffic ways very quiet streets people use those a lot it's also a quiet
neighborhood very dark which is part of the benefit of that we like about Grand marray the specialness of it that's likely going to be changed by adding 40 to 70 people in
this concentrated area so the effect in the neighborhood second of all I don't see how how this housing is helping the grandm Marie housing situation I recognize there's a problem
here many com many threads that bear on this problem it's a complex issue but I honestly don't think we need to supply housing for people that are not in the area to live we've got that happening already
it's going to exacerbate the housing problem here and the third general area is this project is directly counter to at least six policies in the comprehensive plan directly
opposed I just don't see how and and those policies are really thoughtful and well they they describe our situation that we need this development goes against those so that's what I've got to say thank you
thank you thanks anyone else for open Forum yes and we'll save all the detail stuff for later okay I won't get too deep in the weeds then I promise um Jason Hill executive director of the cook I I hope you will join in
but I'd like to for sure yeah so I want I'll if there are questions that I can be helpful with I'm happy to do that um I just wanted to start by acknowledging that um housing period is tough I don't think anybody's surprised to hear that um housing anywhere is tough uh I'd say
particularly here a lot of my colleagues across the state say if you can build it in gr Mar Cook County you could probably build it anywhere um because of the conditions that some of the residents here have talked about storm water issues Bedrock issues uh wetlands are everywhere ubiquitous um so I just want to
acknowledge that it's really difficult to see this big of a change in in a especially if you're an immediate neighbor or you're around the area I I can't can't ignore that that's absolutely the case and I think it's important to understand that people are going to be experiencing things differently if this project moves forward um the neighborhood will will
change in in my opinion hopefully for the better um so the H obviously is supporting this project um and in part it's because the you know and John can correct me later if I have the numbers slightly wrong but the infrastructure costs are about a million dollars uh and
part of the reason that the density is on the site is because you have to amortize those costs over as many units as you can one reasonably and two realistically put in a piece of property um so with site acquisition in predevelopment and uh in infrastructure cost we're talking about about $90,000
per lot before you put a a piece of 2x4 or lumber on the site so that's that's the reason that the H has been evolved and we were fortunate to secure some ITR funds uh to help with the infrastructure cost at the site as well as um some money from the county to match for that
for that program so I just want to two two high Lev things was one to acknowledge that this is difficult and two from a Housing Development perspective infill development is the most sustainable responsible uh and economical way to do development in a city in a City Corp and there are not a
lot of sites within Garay that are one available and two that are big enough to do density like this so again acknowledging the concerns and I just want to say the H of course is working with borberg on this project to try to make it a good project project thank you thank you
thanks all right anyone else for open Forum all right thank you all very much now we'll move on to our weekly update for the city hall in liquor store John heg Miller
on good evening everyone uh again my name is John he Miller I work for moff construction I'm the site superintendent for the city hall and Municipal liquor store project for the city just here to give you a quick update on what is progressing in our future schedule here
in the next few weeks before our next meeting uh as of now we have eight out of the nine Wells drilled for the geothermal so tomorrow by I'm thinking probably 4:00 we the noise should be gone I know it's been a uh trying time
for everyone especially uh the neighbors uh we've been trying to drill as less as possible early in the morning and trying to quit early afternoon um and we still may have to uh grout one of the wells probably Friday
but that's minimal noise for that uh as of now uh we have the site graded for our concrete the underground plumbing is complete our underground electric will start Monday our sanitary sewer will be
installed on Monday we also have uh completed our water uh main uh installation into the building and our storm sewer um into the building uh next week we'll be receiving
a delivery of our bar Joes and metal decking for the roof and we'll starting our prep for the slab onr and we'll do our first p probably Thursday of next week depending on weather of course um and we'll be interconnecting
all the wells and bringing the uh Mains into the building and uh the week of the 12th we'll be completing uh the second and third and final por of the slab on grade and the week of the 8 uh 8819 we're
going to start our structural steel so you'll see a crane in the air at that time um if anyone has any questions again please feel free to ask or if you'd like to stop down on the site please feel free Mike has my contact information if you want to set up a
small tour that is fine with me oh you know what when what's our time frame if we want to put our little um box of future items and stash that away don't we have a timeline before that we can no longer do that it's tomorrow what no no
actually we'll we'll probably have probably around till I'm guessing thanks giving is oh we're going to put it in a wall rather than in the concrete okay it'll be a SIM card anyway probably we'll put a floppy disc in there
also what we're not going to have like what should we well think about this to think we got time we got to have our plaque too right yeah right and the clown face and the clown face we'll update that clown face all right very good I got the old one I'm going to
frame it for you so really I hope that's the first thing we hang in the new building yeah where's your office again again uh feel free to stop down please do and uh since it is Fisherman's weekend we're trying to get out of there early hopefully by 11: you know what you
just go right ahead and keep keep working right through that Bingo 10 will be waiting for you it's all good I have to get back to the cities my wife you going to miss this weekend really John I was up here last weekend but this weekend all right thank you sir I don't drive
the ship at home everyone have a good evening all right all right thanks J thank you all right next up is our consent agenda there are several items on the consent agendas anyone have any questions about those are comments at all we've got
the animal shelter SL pound trailer donation um some res a resolution on the construction project um new library hire anything there at all yeah all good stuff I'd make a motion to approve the
consent agenda as presented all right second you're still think a second okay all in favor for the consent agenda I I hi I all right and moving
right along that brings us to the borberg Pud and prelimin AR plat with three resolutions um around that um and before we start this conversation since everyone
is I know attentively listening to our audience I know one particular clarifi clarification that needs to be made in reference to condo if there's anything else um this would be a wonderful time to do that for our listening audience we
don't typically engage any further with the audience from open form but but I think in this instance one common in particular needs clarification I'm going to leave that up to you gentlemen to do that yeah which one the condo reference okay all right I think you should
explain very clearly how this Housing Works and from that standpoint all right so um I understand uh the inference of oh and I'm sorry John John pets with
pburg Okay um so I think a lot of times with Condominiums the association is in vacationville it's a place where people come for a couple weeks and leave um and I understand that I mean in this
situation it's a technical legal term it's a con can it is a um cic common interest Community meaning meaning that there are areas in the there that are owned in common and those
areas certain things happen in this case over 50% of that common area is what will be left open and unbuildable it'll be part of the plat and the Pud so these um are actually they're groups of uh
four to five homes uh they're tall skinny um they have a footprint of about 550 Square ft um they are grouped together so they have a common wall so that's why uh it's a common interest
Community which a lot of times consists of condominium sometimes condominium is a unit of space it could be an apartment in a building it could be a townhouse or whatever these are town houses that have a common wall and so that's the the
inference I think to the technical term condominium the confusion lies in that possibly these are short-term rental but that's that's okay now my understanding first of all if you buy a place downtown in
where there are some Condominiums and some town homes that you cannot live there those are designed my understanding to be short-term rentals in fact one of the people that is looking at this wanted to live downtown
in her place but she can't um so these differ from that in the that one you cannot do a short-term rental we're restricted first of all by our own documents that we wanted to have our homeowners association documents uh the
zoning of the city does not allow it zoning could change but we also have our homeowners association and then we have grants that we're applying for so um with the IB with the H um we are not allowed to do short-term
rentals nor do we want to um also we have um and that's the I don't I'm getting carried away beyond the definition of a condominium so well you hit the nail on the head now because that was the confusion okay so thank you
yeah all right thank so hopefully that clarified it for people that this will not be 30 and under 30-day and under um these will be home ownership so there we go I just want to add one more thing to that
um part of this whole thing and is um we don't we're not a solution to everything I I can't help the building costs are what they are and I can't I me there's a lot that's out of my control um but one of the things in order
to get assistance is to help with what the HRA and other people Define as a really more important need maybe than elderly housing whatever is for people that live and work here our requirement
for what right now with our plans would be five units are four people that are income restricted in addition to that they have to work here and I and Jason I believe that is uh what we have in our
our agreement with the HRA if we don't build those then we have to give that land back to the HRA which is probably you know over $500,000 worth of property and it's over $90,000 a household just you know to get
the land and improved so that's I guess the other part about fitting you know part of that need it's impossible for us to control everyone that lives there our goal is to have a place for people to live I mean that's the goal um and I
think we do you know some one of the things is they're also designed so that if somebody uh had a hard time with steps there's a there's couple Alternatives there's a first floor uh bedroom space there's also an option for an an
elevator in the home so that you could you know live there for a longer period of time and having housing for people that already are here and selling it moving in there which there are people that are interested in doing frees up more other housing that might be more
traditional so and and the other thing is some people especially older people don't want to shovel their driveway they don't want to have to take care of a whole yard not some people love doing it but that is also another advantage of this type of a
housing project okay um Michael was there anything else in the comments that you thought might need the help of John and his group to clarify from earlier is there anything else we might
have um got the blasting SMS um some of that I think a couple of the general comments about communication and and access to information I just I do want to take an
opportunity to make a comment too if you are not already a weekly subscriber to our e newsletter with the city um please check in with Patrick or Alyssa um I've a lot of this came and was coming through those e newsletters and
awareness and that helps it is a goal of our Council this year to improve Communications with our residents as well as internally between our staff and the council so it is a big priority but one of them I commonly find is that our
e newsletter that's been created for quite a few years and I think you said due to covid right Mike um is really a great way to find out what's going on um not just projects like this but every Department of the city and what they're doing so I encourage you all to sub
subscribe to that and then also and Michael knows a lot more than I about this but the Planning Commission is also working on some improve process improvements that includes um Communications not the council has expressed a need for better
Communications about projects like this and we certainly know the community is at large so they are busy on a working on that and I I just wanted to bring that out yeah um cuz and to make sure people realize we've heard this and and
we feel that way too sometimes yeah um I did want to address um so Linda what you were saying before about um how the planning zoning meeting went you know the we did try and keep it as open as we
could in terms of time for people to speak and and as you might remember we had a second round of people asking questions so we did try to provide as much time as we can now I can't help what information you had or didn't have ahead of time that wasn't something I could do but just wanted to put that out
there okay um probably answer T's question too about blasting the when a contractor is doing blasting in town and we've had quite a few recently doing blasting both sides of my house as a matter of fact last year uh they uh the contractor has
an obligation their insurance company is going to uh require them to do a survey of properties that they think might be affected by it and so if and your you may or may not be a property that they think might be affected by it but if
they do they'll offer to do that survey for you of your of pre-existing conditions and if they don't offer then uh then it would be up to you um what's that last part it would if you're if it's not offered to you then the contractor's insurance company doesn't
perceive any risk in your property that would be up to you then if you wanted to to do that when will we know like if we if that we F we were contacted or not or that we fall within that umse I don't think we've got a
schedule on that but we can keep in touch on it okay yeah um one other piece that that John just touched on and I don't know if this is more of a Jason thing to quickly or maybe the two of you together but the
last time at least for me that I heard about the potential of some units being um for income with income restriction it was still a maybe so if you would if you have any updates on that or just kind of
kind of what you know in the moment that I think that would be helpful for all of us sure I'll let John tackle the second question uh with the cost per unit um uh mayor and Council there so that velopment agreement between the HRA and the developer was approved last two
weeks ago at the July H board meeting in that and John alluded to this it stipulates there are basically three scenarios um one of these has to happen either uh in the first one the predominant thing and and actually John can speak to this too he's already
submitted a an a Grant application to the state of Minnesota to get funds to buy down costs of housing for income restricted households so you can imagine the the the house cost what it cost to build uh so if we're trying to provide that housing for income qualified
households we've got to find the money somewhere to buy down the costs um so that's a program he can speak to I believe it was submitted about a month ago three weeks ago there are three options one either as a function of that program he builds the project builds uh
25% of the finished Lots so right now there's platted 19 I believe is the 25% of those are five um we round up are going to be income restricted and the state we followed the uh Minnesota housings guidelines uh for home ownership they have a program that's
basically it's 15% Ami for home ownership it's different for rentals but for home ownership because the costs are so high that's the sort of Benchmark they use so they either have to build those and sell them to income qualified households and then the H is involved with the income verification and making
sure that we're abiding by those rules or like John said they have to give us the at at no cost those five finished Lots so that the H can then go work with somebody to build those houses or they have to refund all of the public assistance that was received for the
infrastructure for that project those are the three options if they don't do one of those and there's timelines of course the the predominant the priori is to build the houses if that for whatever reason doesn't materialize by and I don't I have the agreement in my bag if it doesn't materialize by X date then one of the other two things has to
happen um so we're trying to understand that the market can be tricky and if things change interest rates go up again like that can affect things or the state does imply ET so we're trying to build in some of those uh margin calls but yeah any other questions about that that would be helpful mayor any anybody else
has some questions on that you have a question I think it's like if you're doing income restricted I think it's easier to probably calculate like if you're renting yeah right but you're not renting you're selling correct so how do you factor
in Five Town Homes that are going to be cheaper than the 14 other ones and what is that price going to be and how does that get determined or does that or do you just sell them or does that just buy down the whole price of
the project because you're getting that that uh grant money or I RB money or whatever it is yeah you know what I'm you know how do you take five if you're building them for 300 square foot plus a million dollar land setup or whatever
you know if you got 470 some thousand in each unit how do you break out five well I know you can but then what's the price going to be how do you determine that price sure so in other words how do you write down the cost of the income qualified households right two ways one
income based means like what what level of income are you talking about affordability is I you know I guess I don't know I'm trying to figure out reduced price what is that yes so the income so like I said the
115% is the income threshold so obviously you have to qualify like if you make more than that you're not a qualified buyer for these particular households okay so that's naturally going to separate obviously the price points so then the question is how do you decrease the cost of those units to
make it eligible for those buyers in two ways one that's part of the reason we got the ITR Grant to reduce the infrastructure costs so in other words you're using the you're leveraging the 14 other market rate homes to help subsidize the and then two is that Grant application that he submitted to Minnesota housing to help further buy down some of those
costs okay does that make sense so you're buying down the cost of the project essentially yeah of the yeah and we're just concentrating the the the buy down on those five units that's the H ra interest that doesn't control the retail price of the unit nope they have to again that's why with single family home
ownership we're trying to do you have to be an income qualified household and you have to work you have to prove there's two things that's to be homesteaded um three things income qualified Homestead and then you also have to show that you're employed uh in Cook County in Cook County okay y because the spirit of this just one more quick note the spirit
of this is like we want to and and H is working with multiple other parties on other varying levels of income for households right y the spirit of this is we understand that there just isn't enough housing period uh across all income spectrums and our desire and our ambition is to try to bring as many of
housing housing units that are needed for residents we're not our goal is not to make second homes there's only so much we can do legally to prevent that so we're trying to Fig like trying to do that where we can um and we're also just trying to buy uh reduce the pressure on
the existing inventory by introducing housing stock so if we can for what we can control which is the part that they is contributing to they have to work here they have to Pro you know Homestead it's got to be the primary residence and they have to income qualify what the final price tag of that house is going to be I don't have those numbers yet I
don't think John totally has those numbers for those either it depends on what the state comes back with with Grant Awards anybody else with questions correct Yep they're included y I'll add one little bit the whole Grant thing is very confusing for me I'm
finally beginning to understand it so because I have never done this before and Jason has helped with a lot of it but so in this process um the the couple grants that we were getting IB and the housing uh HRA and the matching one that
brings brings down the overall cost of the project but then the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency impact fund that we just applied for um that is specifically to bring down costs for 25% or as we plan five of the homes so in
when we when we did that we gave them an estimate from a builder on infrastructure an estimate from a builder on cost they take all of that that's all part of our application and I had to hire someone to do this cuz it
was it was a pretty complex process so it's when they if they award these grants it'll come out something like if somebody buys and we have set aside five of these lots that we're really not touching other than infrastructure because if we build on them we have to
there are also conditions you know the uh going rate what uh what's it theate no no no it's the prevailing prevailing wage prevailing wage they has specifically have to be on those so if I am uh Lucy and I come in and I I go to
the HRA and I'm qualified and I want to buy these I go to get my regular financing but then I also if I've been qualified for this grant as a developer Builder I will get a a check when it's
sold to bring down that cost to Lucy so if my house was say $470,000 and then maybe they bring it down to $400,000 but Luc can only afford 275,000 then they would look at giving her a
2% 0% mortgage okay and if she leaves a minor I may be wrong in some of the details but if she gets 50,000 I believe I believe 100,000 maybe the max I'm not sure if she gets 50,000 after 10 years that's forgiven okay but if she goes and
sells it you know the next year she has to pay that second mortgage but not not make any payments all theough she has it and if it's 100,000 I think it's ex more years that it's forgiven eventually so the nice thing about it is a person gets
in they own the house they get to participate in future appreciation all those things that make you feel dignified you know about about having a home and so that's you want to add something to that Benjamin's my the
architect could just move the microphone around to if you want how about why oh hi everyone uh my name is Benjamin olon I am the designer for borberg gramar but I'm also an affordable housing Advocate and I teach and study this stuff at the University of Minnesota and I wanted to offer just
a little further clarification about M mhfa the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency that is providing some hopefully some subsidization for the project I think we should start with a definition of affordability affordability is a term that comes to us
from HUD the Department of Housing and Urban Development and it is based on area median income and so Cook County has a certain area median income or Ami and that's just the average of everyone's income divided by how many people live in Cook County when we talk
about affordability we're talking about a percentage of area median income and in this case 115% of area median income is our Target so you could make up to 115% of what your average County Income
is and still qualify to to buy into this Housing Development affordability HUD tells us that a family can make payments equaling 30% of their annual household income before they're uh cost burdened or or
house poor so once we've established what 115% of Ami is then we say what is is 30% of that and that's what you can afford in a monthly payment interest mortgage and
insurance over 12 months so that number 30% of 115% Ami is going to set our our our monthly mortgage payment and that's going to tell you what you could pay over a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and that'll set the price of that house so
that it is Affordable to a family making 115% Ami it's very technical I I'm I'm sorry to have to go through it with with you um I wouldn't wish it on anyone and and it is it is very confusing so hopefully that
clarifies thanks all right I think we went I believe we've gone through front okay all right Michael did you have some other things about this as well you know I guess this is my I've been sitting with this for a while so I
was kind of letting you guys go at it any questions you have I mean I certainly have had uh my opportunity and have had other people help me understand even more with their questions and of course they had the other Commissioners to help me with that as well um one thing that that did come up and I think
you probably saw that in the notes was my own I mean it's not my own but looking at our city ordinances and and looking at um you know having the adus um I don't know if that struck you guys saw that or noticed it at all but um but
certainly to to my mind and and no I don't mean anything bad by it but I really don't see that adus could be or should be permitted in this project and so at least in so far as that goes you know I would not be I mean you you can read the ordinances and I feel like it
makes it really clear but but Mike thought maybe not and so I think that even if we were to approve it I would want to stipulate that that is not an approved use in this case and and maybe we'll make a further clarification in our rules so that that
won't come up again but no I I think it is very clear what you we read in the ordinance that the adus are designed for single family homes the the difference here is that because this is a planed unit development we Grant ourselves some flexibility from the strict
interpretation of our rules okay so it's a policy question that you I think is okay for you to make and you you've said how you want it to be and there's a place now in the resolution that approves the planned unit development where we can add conditions yeah and
we've actually left that in here as uh a highlighted item assuming that there might be others that need to be added before this is approved okay all right um Craig just some questions or
thoughts about the general project yeah I've got a question about um the status of Third Street and what does the city what are the city's intentions of
improving or not improving the main artery that's going to be accessing these 19 or 20 homes um currently that street is about um
five of my Paces wide which is you want to throw 15 fet out there it's 15 feet which is obviously probably little less than half of a normal street based on the curb
coming off of eth and the curb coming off the G the gumin trail um it's to me to me personally I think it's a substandard street yes as it is and then
adding this project to it even makes it more of a substandard street and I don't know if what the city's conversations has been with him as far as improving that street not improving that Street where that sits um they're going
to utilize extending a 7th Avenue and Sixth Avenue that aren't there right now um in place and I don't know the the uh condition of how those are going to
be built if we have any control over how those streets are going to be constructed or built or maintained or that's going to be part of your HOA fees to maintain those driveways I would
assume and someday down the road they may not want to maintain them they may come to the city and say you guys maintain them how are we doing that are we leasing that land to them are we selling that land to them no
uh it's public right away so we don't own it that we can sell it it's dedicated to the public okay so it's a we allow the use of it through a license agreement okay so we'll allow the use of it through a license agreement but do we have any control of how it gets built we
we have control of how it gets built how it gets maintained and whether or not it can stay okay so um the license agreement will stipulate that the owners are responsible for the maintenance of it also that they're responsible for removing it if we need it for another
public purpose and that it remains public although they are responsible for building it and maintaining it it's open to the public okay if it's in a public right away yeah cuz looking at sixth I don't know if sixth some point in time might want to get extended to
access other land that is um available to 6th right now but yes was which was discussed at the Planning Commission meeting yeah I I wasn't at that meeting but I did read through it I did look at the map so I guess I was
concerned about the um condition of third and how that's going to be left alone or improved um I'm also kind of concerned about the grading and removing
of the current folage on that lot looks like it's going to be a lot of it's going to be removed according to your plan and then you can of course come back and replant and redo you know
redo that kind of thing with Landscaping but those are the things two things that I was concerned about but if we're going to increase the traffic in that neighborhood I think that
a lot of people who walk and drive and use that neighborhood would feel better if we had a safer Street and lighting that's another question on that street at night it's dark back in there so I'm just kind of concerned about that kind of stuff yeah and every single one of
those issues uh has mixed opinions about them as as you can imagine uh the Third Street in particular was discussed quite a bit at the Planning Commission meeting and I think the conflict was wanting to
have it be adequate to handle the traffic that's planned for it and not wanting to impact the existing neighbors with either changes to what their perceived yards are or potential assessments that they might have to pick up so to me I think the the Planning
Commission decided that they didn't need to see any changes to that road uh but they didn't really make that clear and I think it's still an open question whether we would require it when I look at the plans that they've submitted so far for the driveways in Sixth and 7th
avenues that might give us a clue as to what they think the minimum size of a road should be to handle the traffic for for their development um and it's probably not that wide on Third Street
yet so what do you have 16 your proposed road is 16 ft I'm I can't these numbers are pretty small but I'm just kind of yeah and it's it's uh definitely shorter than 16 or less wide than 16 ft in a few spots on
Third Street yeah and our is a proposed way sort of access what's that um yes the proposed roads in York BG are 16 ft wide okay can you take just grab that and bring it down to you I want to make sure we we commonly hear that people
have not been able to hear us later yes please the proposed uh private streets in borberg are 16 ft wide okay which exceeds the current third substandard Third Street in the city
right away um and maybe more importantly the proposed Road in bukberg is a one-way access the other question I had you're going to have one way in one way out it would it would be um it would be accessed from 7th and then Outlet it to 6th and then Sandy
Lane would be a Spur with sufficient area at the end to turn around and there's parking on the Sandy Lane side where you could pull in k- turn and complete your Loop out of the bukberg development and I'll just say although
they have provided a lot of details engineering wise I mean you've seen the packet it's got quite a few sheets of uh of engineering plans they're not done yet I don't think uh there's quite a bit more thought to put into storm water
management for instance our Engineers haven't had a chance to to finish any review that they plan on doing of the plans and it's just early in the process right now for them to invest all the money in design uh you you typically get
past this part of approval before they would complete all the details of it so I think it's an open conversation about what improvements that we're going to need to see in order to make this okay and tonight's an opportunity for you to to take a
position on that if you have one okay well I certainly agree with Third Street I also know as we've had conversations with other projects um and this isn't so much your project per se but Third Street it's more of a
city issue and suring and where the properties already there sit close to the road um is an issue well to widen Third Street yeah and if most of the widening W most of the widening would
take care of would would be on the north side of the street according to all the curbs line up from the gunin to eth yeah the land will be taken on the North side to widen it now I don't know what that what lhb is going to come with up on with that if I mean if we have to do that are we looking at assessing
properties along there then or is that is that what we're well based on our initial talks about that uh there isn't really a good standard for us to use for how wide that road should be even though we're going to significantly increase percentage wise the number of people
that are using it the number of people that are using it is still going to be so low that most engineering standards don't really even register it it's not low it is high so it's still I know there were still issues around property
lines for people people on Third Street um as there are for other things so I think to me that's part of the survey clarification and then I do find it hard to think that we wouldn't need some improvements on that street it's sort of
like I have to think about this is that four street that used to be gravel forever and eventually was paved I mean sort of like an alley but not um and our most of our streets are rather wide um for a very good reason reasons and that
one I can't even see being able to widen all that well but I do I personally feel whether it's always nice to have a nice quiet wooded little area to walk at night and I don't mind the darkness but that's a personal thing in the meantime
sitting here with my city council hat on um I can't believe we wouldn't have to do something with Third Street if we saw this go through MH so well at least on the entrance and exit of this place I mean you know on on 7 6th I guess would
be year you mean just those intersections you mean where third and six and third and seventh there might be a street light I think on the county property where the county parking lot is maybe perhaps I think I know the telephone pole across the street has a light on it
but that telephone pole I think was installed in 1929 it's just about ready to it's still fine Craig well it's yeah it it can hold uh a light but I think that's about all it can hold it holds the wire goes to
the my house is on that pole so oh okay yeah no I it's the only wire going to it is lighting the light but yeah that'll have to be anyway I just went up and eyeballed everything today and I walked up a couple driveways and I was just kind of getting a feel for the land back in there cuz I know Birch mountain is something that I've slid on when I was a
little kid but I never really examined the property as a whole so it's kind of interesting to walk walk back and kind of look at everything is a lot smaller than it was when you're a little kid but it's uh it's it's an interesting piece of land to to develop I I get that but I'm concerned about Third Street and I
don't think I want to do a 5cent fix up on Third Street I don't I'm not going to be for that I think especially driving through there in the winter time I mean it gets pretty narrow in the winter where you have to stop and get out of
the way of somebody who's walking a dog you know not let alone another car I mean you know if you're lucky enough to meet another car when you're on the eth Avenue exit then that's great because it's it's wide then you have to wait for them to come through then you can go through so I I think that's something
that needs to be studied um for traffic movement you know that's that's just my opinion of it and you know and this is being done in two stages right your project this is not a
build all at once yeah okay yeah just uh on the on the Third Street issue um one of the things that we try not to do and when I've done other developments is to um cause financial hardship for other
people that live in the area um and and as you look at the like the curb on going to the West um um there's a couple yards that would be greatly diminished if you widened it
that that wide that's city right away that's the problem with that I know yeah so I I mean I would say you know one thing on Third Street is if you do a plan on that and at some point decide well we need to improve Third Street um
we would not be opposed to being assessed for an improvement there you know um I wouldn't want want to see the project being uh in the the financial uh every every um um the the
um the costs are uh extremely high to to get housing and this is all part of it um and we're not I'm not opposed to you know that happening at some point and I'm just going to toss out that you know that we we wouldn't be opposed to it uh and and if it's you know assessed by the
foot what you know you normally do your assessments well I wouldn't say we normally do them okay and and uh in this case I think we'd want to make sure we're careful to assess it to the benefiting properties and I think that's pretty complicated yeah I would imagine clearly all of the properties you're
Planning and Building are benefited in my mind then the question is what of the not undeveloped properties that are also adjas to that road and and then we're right back to the question of have we created a financial hardship on somebody that didn't have anything to do with
this project right no I I it's I don't I don't have an I don't have a simple simple answer to it the other thing I was going to say about 6th Avenue if you go north on that um we would you know we'd love to have a road going up it's
it's really steep um going up there I don't I don't see that as as um you know something that City probably wants to develop you know cuz this whole plat was probably done in New Jersey in 1928 by somebody at a desk that just you know
without any regard to the topography yeah like I don't know about the six maybe some of that property is accessible off the gumin trail I don't know who owns the backland of those houses we received comments from some of those Folks at the planet that live on the gumin trail that that live on fifth
or that own that property on Fifth and also the Lots on the other side that back up to sixth on Sixth okay I think uh Anton was also making comments about that issue as well at the meeting where uh by moving the utilities to the center of this development rather than putting
them in the Avenues it it creates both benefits and problems uh it's a real disincentive I think for anybody to now put Utilities in sixth or seventh Avenue because you're only going to be benefiting one side of that street uh but on the other hand you're avoiding
what's a really complicated situation which would be putting public water who are in to access those Lots now when those folks have no intention of using it so I think this is the solution that made more sense to folks is let's just build what people are planning on using
now and not create any extra costs for those folks that aren't necessarily planning on using it having said that nothing prevents somebody from coming in the future and using the same driveway access to get to their property if they
want develop it yeah I understand that but I also understand if you ran sewer and water up sixth you may bring in other users you don't know that yeah but the goal here
is to [Music] um hook up hook up these lots that are within the city that are hard to access and have been difficult
to manipulate the process of getting water Su to them um so I guess that's kind of uh how I look at it and you know
obviously how much does a city want to spend out of their pocket to bring City water sewer to some of these other sites that I can think of right right now down if you keep going down third to the West there's lots in
there that could use water sewer but then you're into an assessment type situation if you if you want to bring that in to help develop those lots so I guess I don't know I'm kind of in a mixed uh mode right now with my mind thinking about how this is working and
how it's going to you know like I understand what Anton said and I understand how how you guys are doing this but where is the isn't the water sewer currently right now more over to the east east of that property is that where
it comes across yeah it it's because of all the rock that's in third it's got to be on to the East and then it crosses over to the county uh there's a fire hydrant there so we' got water there somewhere came from there's there's Utilities in Sixth and third thir in that intersection there's also stubs
that are heading but it doesn't home how far down third does it currently go doesn't go really on third at all it just goes to's house to the I see a water shut off in the front yard sticking up to the dirt that must have been that must have been repaired this winter or something okay all right so
and I'm sure the plan would be to to uh upgrade those existing lines that that are there okay all right cuz I don't think that what's there is probably adequate for what they're planning well no not if you're going to put a fire hydrant up in your property correct you're having a a
fire hydrant somewhere I I don't know I thought I asked that question already if there there's going to be a fire hydrant that's probably the last development we were talking about yeah very similar answer was yes then I would expect it to be yes well I think that it would be something that we as a city
would require I mean cuz that's for uh our fire department to get water we have a quite a stretch we have two city blocks or well City Block to have to pull water from I I would expect
there to be multiple hydrants on this okay and that that would be something we would see in the final plat is that when we would see that or when we're going to have uh a development agreement that's going to have to sort out some of the questions about the infrastructure okay
and we'll have our Engineers taking a look at what they're proposing to make sure that it meets our needs and I think that's definitely one of the questions that we would look at is how are we doing Fire Protection well it's in the city of you know so it it they should be ex they the people who
own these should have access to the fire protection that the guy has two blocks over I mean that's what I would think yeah I would think insurance companies would kind of want to see that yeah
um so at this point I guess I I would like to see something talked about or actually implemented to better Third Street from its current condition I don't know
what we're going to take with the developer or the city but that's something I want um if we're going to make any motions to approve things that's something I want before any fin final plat it's got to be in the final plat that's how I
want to see it yeah and I would agree you know I feel like that's I mean it's something that should be done anyway U but but but it doesn't mean it's going to get done no I know that's true there's through this enough to know that you know yeah but but especially if this
goes we're going to want to do something there okay if I can uh just to make a clarification the proposed civil engineering includes two fire hydrants okay one for the lower units and one for
the upper SS oh I have concerns also I mean there three there yeah I think the with of third is well established if you look to the west and the East there's no mystery
there and I think that some places aren't appropriate for intensive development and I think it's concerning that I haven't heard of a single person other than the proponents of this say it's a good idea and it's
loaded with citizens who are concerned like Julie joins Carlson had a letter a while back voicing the same things access intensive
development all that stuff and I think we should you know we're supposed to represent the people that live in the town work in the town these people elected to invest going further I spend all week at the hospital
listening to the drive for affordable housing and this doesn't apply to those people and those are supposed to be the good jobs I I would say I would say you know uh we have spent a lot of money on this and
we're okay to walk and let you do something with it um this is a hard project to do there are limitations uh we we can't control the cost of housing we can try to design to accommodate what people have uh what we can do within a
space but there we we're we're ready to walk away from this um if if if we can't have a a reasonable way to do this be just because nobody can afford it if you know depending upon things that you put in I think you have a wonderful
ordinance um that we have worked with from the very beginning I thought it was very Progressive that it it it looked at creative ways of uh making utilizing existing infrastructure in a city with
infill housing um by having you know you got water and sewer in certain areas if you have more people use that it costs less I mean water and SE is expensive infrastructure is unbelievably expensive um but we I
mean um the current the current zoning I mean that if left as as it is it's already platted into 25t lots and 20ft lots that you take two those and you know I mean um we've really worked hard
on this and it's not perfect um and I I'd say you know we're we're we're pretty much pretty much there we're open to reasonable things like like Third Street if you really think that is a safety thing and it's
important we're willing to work that we don't have a million dollars to go and widen Third Street and and to go into somebody else's yard and say hey we're going to widen it because we're coming here you know um well you wouldn't you wouldn't have
to bear the burden of the bad news technically because it's it's it's city right away and whoever has a house there or is parking there right now like I have a street like that right below me mhm
um and that's was condemned halfway on the on the East end and they didn't condemn the West end but the same thing happens there because there's just two houses there and there's nowhere to go once you get in there so I mean that's kind of it's not like this street where it's paved and you can drive through it
um but um Third Street right now in my opinion it's it's it's low use therefore it functions the way it functions right now even though it's probably not the safest road to drive on because it's low
use um other than when we were doing the highway Improvement job for two three years 8th Avenue was crazy well nobody living on our neighborhood went down to the highway we went North and cut across on seven or we cut across on third so
yes I mean if you increase traffic there I think we got to make it safer that's all I think that's that's how I feel about it um there's other questions I have about this too but that's one question that right away when I saw this I thought man we got to do something
with Third Street um that's kind of how I was approaching it and uh I know it's Rocky and there's a lot of stuff in there um there's no utilities in there and the reason why is because it's all rock um but it can be
made a little wider I think without spending a whole lot of money depending on what an engineer wants to do to it yeah right but uh that's just my concern uh one of my concerns the other concern was um this map that you have
for um grub and and necessary for construction activity limits to approved by owners engineer this this map with all the red Xing on it that's pretty much all the land that's going to be grubbed so I'm concerned about what are you going to do with green space when
you're done with that and you build you know you going to put in Grass plant more mature trees rather than little trees these kinds of things because you know I was sitting here when we started a climate action plan and the reason why that got started was because a bunch of
people came to a meeting and said we don't have enough Green Space in Gray we're losing it fast and I look at a lot of green space and grar and I've seen a lot of it disappear um but also I think most of us living here appreciate having
green space and some quite space in our neighborhoods um as a residential as a single family residential home that's my opinion so I think those things are kind of touchy
topics for everybody to argue or agree on or disagree on but that was the other concern I had is how that's going to be handled with this development so is that a question any is is that a question how will it be handled what's
that uh is is that a question like it how will it be handled yeah um yeah construction is destructive and well I know it's I know I I know it's con I know it's destructive but but I also know all this other stuff comes in at the end of a development certainly when
most people are usually out of money certainly and I'm concerned about getting the job done not you know what I'm saying that is a I know you you got to sell stuff and you got to get your units moving and you got to get some Capital going you got to get some income coming and I get that so I would
hate to see somebody run out of money and then we're looking at a big pile of dirt you know and I don't think an owner would want that either so I'm sure there's there's contracts that you have to sign with people and what you're going to guarantee for them and do for them and the owner's um contracts
so anyway um the construction phase is kind of an interesting thing too there's going to be a lot of traffic for that and egress and exiting and going in neighborhood so that's just my concern
when I listen to the concerns um that you're discussing tonight I think they're common to all construction projects and the fact is that if you wish to increase the stock of housing period you're going to have to undertake construction projects and so these
concerns are going to be applicable for any sort of development and growth I think the question we we want to answer is do we want 20 units of owner occupied housing in Grand marray 15 at market rate
whatever that is given extraordinary construction difficulties and costs and five that are Income qualified and reserved for people who live and work here which is not to say the other 15 are not for people who live and work here we just can't guarantee that so
that's really the question for me tonight and that's what got me excited about being part of this project as a architecture design service provider I have opportunities to work on all sorts of projects and my um my profession has largely bent to the will of the highest
bidder if you look at the number of building permits that have been pulled in Grand marray and probably Cook County over the last 20 years they're all highend single family residential homes and many of them designed by Architects and it's the fact is that we're just not
building single family sort of starter homes we're not building single family units in the community when you do it one one by one or 2 by two it just it doesn't work and it it hasn't worked for 20 years and I think it's wishful
thinking to say that it's going to magically happen if we have the perfect site or we have the perfect uh Street access and so I'm encouraging us to think about 20 units on the table here
15 market rate Five income qualified that are ready to teed up ready to break around this wall and that that could be a real a real dent in a in a community and a county that is thousands of units short I want to go back to my question
about this is being done I believe in two phases so what's the timeline for phase two and maybe you have this spelled out and I missed it okay and cuz obvious what what I'm really getting at is would
that adversely if time goes too long that would adversely affect the cost of phase two or not you can maybe explain how it wouldn't so our plan is I own the Western half I have a purchase agreement
on the eastern half um and by putting the in the first phase by having the utilities the major utilities going up the middle but on the western half we as a developer have a pretty
substantial uh cost and incentive to to finish the other half um so the the plan is that we would start this fall um and hopefully build nine units that would be depends upon how fast work would go that
would be done sometime next year and then next year we would start start on the income qualified homes and the final five would happen at some point when Wall-E and Sandy um AR aren't living
there that's the time frame so the five is that relating to the in did you just say that relates income B income based ones would be in the second phase yes yeah okay yeah and
and part of that is uh uh Minnesota Housing Finance doesn't even announce if we are going to get the grant for those until later this year sometime okay so so that's why we we put them in into the the second half regardless if we don't
get Minnesota Housing Finance Agency we still have obligations to do it one way or the other or sell it back okay but then okay we make sure I'm really tracking on this because the part I'm well aware of is the life has State
sitting there for the erson we don't have a life estate well they have a time right well how's it def okay you tell me how it's defined then cuz maybe I have that wrong I thought it was at their choice um it it is we're going to let them live there as long as they want okay so in all tents of purses you're
right it's not legally a life estate but it gets kind of in that realm yeah so I don't I don't know the answer to that so that affects costs and then if I heard this I'm double-checking want to make sure I get this wrong but that's that five that's affordable or no it's not
okay I didn't hear that right thank you yeah yeah it's not so there's that kind of angle that goes up on the plat that's in the second half and the five that are up there that's the income qualified yeah thank you but that the remaining
part though and that gets back and and I know you said you know a lot of the costs well that was a motivator is the utility part but either way when that remaining piece gets built the price of that could be much higher right uh actually we're going to most of the
infrastructure will be in for the five that go there because the the the biggest cost will be probably be the pond because the utilities will be stuffed in um with from that street going into it so most of that cost will already have
occurred so if it's you're going to build the how many ponds in the first phase I I believe it's one one on the cuz that's totally on your property the other one is kind of split between right two and then there's a there's a plan how it expands from the first phase and
second phase which we haven't seen yet so I had the same question but I'm it's just an engineering question right it's [Applause] Sol so the final property
that would be built at some unknown time in the future let's just say it could be 10 years from now that works for you and your budget but it also means we don't know where those properties sit as far as cost to
build I mean other than like you said a lot of the infrastructure is built but I I would say those would be the most attractive lots to build on as a developer um because most of our costs are already going to be in it and you
know unless there's a complete you know flip in the economy which you know none of us know those would be the the the major costs for those will have already occurred for those so they would be they wouldn't be kind of leftover Lots which is what happens a lot of times in
development they'd be like these these are ones that we really are excited to build on at some point sure so what you're saying is you've already absorbed that cost and indirectly what you're saying you've already absorbed that cost so then the ultimate build and you're
not going to try to recoup that portion of the cost when those people come and potentially yeah we would try to recoup it I mean you know we just would have spent it already so um yeah yeah so if you if if infrastructure is
50 $50,000 a lot we will have pretty much probably spent 40,000 of it already so yeah does that make sense it does it just tells me that those units who knows what they will be someday in the future and where they will sit and they won't be part of
anything related to affordability five of them will be right but I'm talking about the ones they have to be built within how much time which ones the five income based are there's is there a time is there a timeline on those yeah I think it has to be complet
counselor by7 I have a so that's three years see so this but this is but now I'm tacking about until Wally and Sandy are done the the ones that are ready to be built there because they're unrelated correct to the
income even though you've spent the money you probably will try to recoup some of that infrastructure and where will pricing be then of course none of us know that well in you can guess it'll be more right but these five up here have to be built
within 3 years of the start of this project right and well 2027 that part fine and I just killed my oh no the one time I forgot my cord um so yeah I just kind of want to make sure I understood because I I think that's important for the public to know these aren't all
going in at one time and the pricing you know will even be more so over time that's just always a given with real estate so um any other Mike did you have any comments you
wanted to make as well I you know this is an evening of good discussion for the council I think we've covered all the issues that the Planning Commission got to spend some time on um I just note that they're all citizens of the community too and they
did vote unanimously to recommend approval of this uh and then the rest of my comments will be about the approval process when you're ready to talk talk about that okay so I'm looking at lots of yellow marks which means there's still um time
for comment and discussion on on some of the details such as the adus and third straight and other pieces anyone in particular someone would like to alert me to besides these two that
are of potential those are the two I noted of your conversation tonight I think we also included a few other things that we tried to mine out of the planning commission's conversation but if we're going to talk about approval process we have to start with a different step
because the preliminary plat is sitting on top of an existing platted block that includes a public RightWay for an alley that we will be vacating if we approve this preliminary plat we actually have
to do a separate action to vacate that alley and um also uh take comments from the public about that question so that's the first resolution that's in your packet is dealing with the vacation of the alley uh before we take that up I'll
just continue to explain the rest of the approval process the next resolution that's in your packet is the conditional use permit which is the approval of planed unit development so that's the
res solution that I think uh you can put conditions in such as we want to see plans for the Improvement of Third Street or um whichever else you want to come up with and we've got a number in here already as well um and then there's
a third resolution which is approving the preliminary plat itself so in order to get to the end of this uh conversation all three of those things need to be uh dealt with tonight or need
or pushed on to whenever you want to deal with them and so the vacation of the alley doesn't make any sense to do if you're not going to do the rest of it where's that alley is that where the water lines are going to be going no so the alley
runs uh the plat for Third Street is the original it's further over towards if you remember that Third Street was original the main road into town the lots that are pled on Third Street as it runs through town run north south and have their narrow face on
Third Street itself and then there's an alley that goes above that first row of lots running east to west between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue on this block of course we're calling it an alley but it's not it doesn't exist on the North End of Sixth and S it's it's in between
6th Avenue and 7th Avenue okay above Third Street and Below Fourth Street above Third Street yeah okay yeah is there any utilities in there do we have any power lines there's nothing at all in there we're not using it okay um so
the resolution that would approve the vacation of that alley includes findings that you need to make in order to vacate any public right away that that's the most important question is are we using it and if so what you know we probably
wouldn't vacate it in this case it's completely Ely uh un it's undeveloped entirely so if you're thinking about existing trails in the area which I believe Gwen you're thinking about there's a nice uh Trail and even a
driveway running north and south on 7th Avenue right and that's not at all what we're talking about here right the alley is just on a map it doesn't exist in the real world well I'm going to make a motion um that we stay this with the thought in mind
that we need to talk about these conditions unless I'm cuz that's not eff we Todo later that needs to be here by the time this resolution is approved yes and I think it deserves um it came up with enough conversation in the planning
meeting I think it's a concern in this meeting and I would like to have Ben at the table which unfortunately is not this evening and normally that's not a reason for such things but um and not without like I would like to
have that on our next meeting I don't mean to let that sit right for any you know unex expected time but that would be my motion um because I've heard this um a lot if any so um to clarify so you want
to have more conversation about the Third Street about all the conditions of the conditional use and I do not want this to drag on but I do want that attention it's obviously you know you guys had lots of healthy conversation
and Planning Commission and now it's time to get our ducks in a row and decide how this you know what needs to be done or not done that's how I view it I would you make a motion is that your motion that is my motion
get our ducks in a row for a second I will second that motion all right any other further comments questions I would support all right um all in favor of a motion to stay this until our next
meeting um and to fill in or consider whatever other conditions yellow marks highlighted items fill in the blanks for these resolutions to have them as they need to be um all in favor I I
I thank you so I don't know that there are additional ones it seems like the biggest one is the Third Street question so that's why I'm going to focus my efforts on in the next couple of weeks before the meeting is trying to come up with a way to deal with the Third Street
condition how you would write it and so I'll be in touch to talk to you about that and see if we can figure something out um the other one I think is simple enough if we want to put an Adu thing in there and then if there are other conditions people have uh please say them uh secondarily we're likely going
to go past our 60 days that we are allowed to think about some of these questions we can extend that for another 60 days and so I'd ask that you do that right now okay right um in case we need them well you're going to use them a
couple of them anyway yeah yeah I would make that motion what he said to extend to extend for 60 days 60 days yeah this and is it which piece of this are we extending is it the the whole
condition per all three pieces yeah all three pieces okay all resolutions before us 2024 36 2024 37 and 2024 38 excellent all right anyone like to second that I'll second that all in
favor I I I thank you all thank you all very much for this thank you it's been fun I'd like to say and I've said this to the radio you know what you're doing isn't in concept anything really new in the housing world but I think it is for our
community yeah I get that and I think there's a lot to think of and I felt that same way with the noris scogan pro project it's certainly not a new way to do housing developments but for as little housing developments we've had in our community I if any really of large
scale and just if you read through the details of agreements like yours which are very com you know it's it'll be new for our community and for perspect some of perspective buyers so um thank you and thank you Jason hail as well for
being back there and making sure everything's went along too this this is a lot of learning for us all right and could it get even better next up is the Cook County cannabis ordinance draft and that's a
whole bunch of other un unknowns yeah a lot of unknowns in that one and now I won't be showing anybody anything on my computer like I hope to but that's okay yeah we have thought you got plugged in we got
more you probably saw that we got more information from the Cannabis folks today you saw that from the is this a cof that way this an actual she started talking about okay thank you she started talking about Tony's mom and dad mhm what did I write
stick around from Cannabis conversation Gwen why not why not you know I'm too old to care he's already um so I have a question a lot of it is because of this threeyear deal they
don't want to talk a little louder they can't build these closer to they can't build these the same microphone microphone okay sure I got my but I still can't hear WR 10 million sorry about that Gwen I know
I I know I thought I just I appreciate 47 some th000 PR thank you so much guys take care um glad you here just to get the Cannabis conversation started this whole thing is changing
daily as it needs to which kind ofothers this department the state is building itself quickly and right now they're immersed with the social Equity applicants and if we look at a retail license of the only
150 licenses available 75 um is targeted for them and 75 for remaining if you caught the wtip interview or read about it I think it feels a little confusing social Equity
applicants will not be licensed before anybody else and they will simply go into the lottery like everybody else they're just being vetted more thoroughly because they're viewed as people who will have more difficulty um getting financing and capital Anders
that gives them a chance to have sort of a stamp of approval and and better opportunity but they will go into the pool like everybody else now there's been a there's still a lot that needs to be clarified and work done and before Li
lensing for anything can be again and one of those is the rule making and so the state legislature does its bit but then it has to be interpreted and turned into rules and that's what they're working on and if you haven't subscribed to their newsletters or their email
chain list please do today at about 4 or 5:00 this afternoon I got handed the first draft of the ru making and I barely had time to read it and it still wasn't really all that detailed it already contradicted some of the things
that are sitting on their website and in the um local local government handy dandy guide for things like ordinances so you know we're all along for the ride on this I think they're doing a great job but there's still lots
of details initially there were couple things you know we've been talking about this for over a year and the first thing we really focused on was just an an ordinance to make sure all whatever didn't break loose during Fisherman's
picnic last year right and then there was that whole cannabis event thing which I tried to kind of summarize and then it's come up again and I think after reading and studying and realizing they are a thing and they're more common
than I realized I looked at a calendar of them and I can see their great marketing tool I do think and Mike and I have talked about this multiple times I do think the city needs to package up depending how we view it and make that something someone can go to our website
because right now it's really local ordinances until the rulle making is done by the state and they are done with all their licensing so it's really sits with us locally if there's any cannabis events to provide them the structure and and what's required and where they can
and can't be and and the whole kit and Kaboodle and typically those involve a committed space where if people want to get together and smoke they can and so in that sense um and of course they're governed by the Clean Air Act but outside space um I think it's up to us
to spend this is my personal thought and encourage all of us that we need to get that packaged and ready and um the second part is we talked about a potential Municipal maybe City County Store I was going to say join again but
I'm done with that joke and Dave Mills wanted to leave that we didn't hear anything now and you may have noticed just within the last day or two he put on social media post asking for comments and thoughts about potentially doing that but has never really organized a meeting with the city to sit down and
think about it so I'm a about that because I would have preferred a conversation as we had planned and then third we have the draft ordinance which the department gave us and which we've had some conversation with in our County attorney is is
putting in front of us but because I still really don't know how the county views this I'm a little now more apprehensive about a joint till we know how the county views which we will know shortly they're going to have their meetings but I really don't know Dave
Mills has been their only real representative and I haven't heard anything other than we should take it slow um which isn't really let me know I noticed in there Molly said 14 if repair it by liquor license there's 14 but here's the other catch so
when I went to the league of Minnesota City's conference it was that it was the O ocm that spoke in one of the sessions I went to and the nice woman offered her personal email address so I took advantage of it a couple days ago and I said hey how does this Lottery really
work there's only 150 and there's 87 counties that means when you look and based on population not everyone's going to be able to get their population quota or maybe even get the quota period of one and so she clarified what's kind of
there in bits or pieces but I thought maybe it was coming out in real making um there is no residency requirement for an owner or potential retailer so you don't have to be a
county or city resident to apply for and open up a retail operation or a meso or a micro whatever um so that's part of it there is no geographical part to the lottery either so there's nothing in there that says
that you know 87 of them couldn't end up or I'm sorry 87 that's the counties you know 150 get drawn from people in the Metro I mean there's no way they're dispersing these to say oh Cook County you're going to at least get one out of
this lottery so think about it I could be mo okay so right now A lot of people are assuming we've got these few people who want to have a license they think they're going to get one they know there's a lottery and they probably live here and want to operate here but how
many other people could say I have a license and I'm going to strategically see where I could take it that might make sense and if we're all about promoting local businesses we've set up a lot of risk for them to me I'm if we
say oh we're going to have 14 or unlimited because someone could come in and get a foothold and that would be it and it won't be for two years before the state is going to review this whole practice and it may be potentially increased license numbers you know which
makes sense they're going to kind of let it see how it rides but in the meantime what if somebody just comes in brings their license and says here I'm going to setup shop here and no one from Cook County actually gets a drop out of the lottery so you're saying once somebody
gets a license they can pretty much go anywhere in the state of Minnesota any City yeah any County unless there's some other restriction and they don't have to pick their physical space before they're in the lot I mean you can do that afterwards you just get the license that
was the third thing to yeah you can take that so now I'm taking a whole another Viewpoint because if I really want to okay so here's the other piece so I'm up in Canada last week on a little camping trip and I one sign of all the Cannabis stores caught my eye and it said only
local cannabis business and I thought oh even up in these small communities up here because I was they're still subject to that kind of thing right I mean right now being all the federal restrictions you got to
be pretty sharp to know how you're going to navigate the finances because you can't use a credit card and a lot of banking restrictions it would be a lot easier for someone with experience and some dollars to come and go and see
where you could fill right oh I could say look they didn't even get a local no one locally got a you know you could assess who got what in the lottery game and some people are more mobile than others so that's my big concern and and
I can forward all this I sent it to Mike and Molly and I think James Yorkie we have a meeting of our cannabis group next Tuesday I believe I think that's right or is it the Tuesday after um you sent it to Pat
too yeah well and last week did I send last week's from that sop anyways so I'm kind of I just wanted to spit that all out I was going to try to give you guys something to show you to look at who can who can get a
license well llc's corporations I mean can they resell this thing to somebody else can they have different ownerships in it it's a single person that gets the there is you're right there is some multiple ownership options there's some
percentages in there when they start with their definitions of retail operation a retail license is for somebody that's operating one facility and then if you have multiple retail facilities that you're operating it starts to get into the other micro bus
Mezo business licenses I don't know that we know the clear answers to the questions you're asking yet Craig one to Tracy's points is they're still developing the rules about who gets the license and and what the qualifications are the statutes are
done that's clear but now they have to LIC people yeah yeah and so I want to say and I don't can't pull it up right now but in the guide for cities I believe they said or it's on their website that one license could have of
retail cuz remember there's all these licenses right so I'm just going to retail um I thought it was three locations with one license and now that's a micro business okay
and the the rule making that I glanced at before I left today said one Li one operation per license and that was like okay what is it you know like I I'm uncertain about that and either micro or
meso is not under the lottery I believe that's right you can probably pull up that definition page and we know we haven't really focused on micro and meso because that includes growing and Manufacturing too not just
retail and I don't know what locally if people have that as a plan or not but I am sort of like really thinking oh and that's another thing these events have S to switch gears that's also a license as well you apply
for and pay money to be an event organizer has to be done by a licensed organizer which is probably a good thing but whatever I'm curious how they've already had events if they haven't created the process to get event organizer licenses right well because
they can do that just like they haven't totally you know once the low poent once everything gets organized those low potency people have to do a lot more than they're doing right now all they had to do is voluntarily register but once this gets
into then they have to get a license and um go through more of a process as well so I think that's part of it and they say in there that right now if you want to hold an event you really need to go to your wherever you're locally going to hold that event
and go by their rules until such time as they get better prepared with the rules mhm and so I know Mike and I talked like oh I don't think there'll be that much but I went and looked at the calendar in Minneapolis and there are a few and of
course it fits for breweries because they're busy already bottling and creating gummies it's it's an easy thing for them to manufacture so like Bent Paddle this is year number two of H and they just had their event and so other breweries are doing that and then they set aside
cuz you're not selling it's just it's legal to get together and smoke pot right but they aren't you it's not like they're trying to sell it it's just part of the event time you know time spent together right and then of course paap
finale yep thank you I can't talk you have a license to sell a paraphernalia that goes with it well yeah and that would be like a temporary event license and probably a vendor's thing right that would get like a pedders maybe or is it
because it's with when a it depends I suppose if it's an event or if it's a private business yeah you know if a if a and I could see some group coming up here and wanting to host an event yes you know they won't be able to do it on
a public piece of property right without your final input on all the details and with the ordinance that you passed a year ago there really isn't an opportunity to do one downtown at all an an event so of smoking a smoking event
now right low potency hemp products are already you can already sell those at events if we approve it and if they have a license to do temporary liquor sales so we've got some tools to deal
with it we but we certainly haven't set up a situation where we can be clear with anybody who wants to do it these are the things you will have to do or these are the circumstances that we would allow it in and that's what I would like to see like you can go to the website and say the these are the things
you will need to fill out you'll need to do here's what you can't do the whole thing I'd be interested in hearing from folks if you thought of location where it would be appropriate or if we're going to put any restrictions on events cannabis
events where would we say yes I'm I'm struggling with that question frankly well I mean I guess to my mind it would depend on the smoking piece of it I mean in that case I would say well Clean Air Act you know makes it pretty clear like that's not going to happen I
I don't I don't not not inside in what if a local bar that has yard space outside MH wants to set it up at a music festival they're hosting I mean it would we say okay with that and then the question is okay or
how far away from other places would we want that to be where we think that we could manage the environmental issues well and you know that's that's exactly it and there are there are
things we I believe that's in there right if a p at at a private business private property yeah I don't even know if we can restrict it we c l don't and that was our decision last year when we
passed an ordinance was that we're not going to restrict it on anybody's private property yeah and they'll still have to comply with the existing state and federal laws about it about smoking not about cannabis that's
trickier well I and I also in a private business I think it's listed in in in this rules about what you can and can't restrict around an event sorry so the event idea that people are just bringing their own and they're going to use it I don't know that that even
requires any permission from us if they're going to be on private property right and the law allows it and our ordinance allows it that's not even an event That's Just An Occurrence the event where you can purchase cannabis is the part where you'll need to be an
event organizer and we'll need to have our rules set up where we where we would allow that and where we wouldn't well that's where I'm not clear that that's it cuz they're already doing them now and they're encouraging that to go by all local ordinances now and they're not it's not selling it's just sitting there
you know space along with whatever is legal to sell I don't know I would like some thought around that and i' mostly I'd also like the public to be really clear about it and what it means and not be coming here and go well what's this
all mean or what can I do or can't do I mean just the city should be able to communicate that should be on the website if there's applications or forms to fill out that should be ready like you pointed out I mean we're trying to do that but how can we do it if the rules keep shifting was that St Louis
County you said well we can do we can utilize our current things like zoning and whatever we it's up to us to do that and maybe we've accomplished some of it maybe some of it is just simply together putting in in words and you know and setting it out there and writing it up
yeah are you looking at a moratorium over there well we're looking at what St Louis County did um because they're waiting for information to it doesn't seem to be any purpose in my mind doing more no one can get a license right now anyway right so we're not really slowing
anything down right to there's actually time of the essence for us to pass some kind of ordinance if we think we ought to have a limit on the number of licenses because soon the state will be going through their licensing process right
and if we haven't set up a limit we there could potentially be more lies here than we thought we wanted we can always uh make the limit bigger in the future that's easier than to go back and say okay we 10 was what we ended up with
but we really wanted five right right yeah and I think I mean this was just the two that's listed here that was just a placeholder right it's arbitrary but it's reasoned arbitrary right the and so let's back up and just consider
what we have in the packet here this is a template that the state created the four local governments to use to uh make sure that we' kind of thought about all the issues that we might want to regulate and the county uh then took
that template and customized it for things that are applicable to us and we participated in that process with them with the idea that if it's possible it would be better for the public if the city and the county have the same set of
rules so just starting from the assumption that we'll be able to have the same set of rules of course it's possible we won't and we'll have to pass our own set of rules but for now we're going to act as if we can come to some agreement on this so this is just a first draft and in the context of all
the other things you've talked about tonight I don't see where even if we pass something like this even if the county I should say say cuz this isn't in front of you for consideration this is the County's ordinance okay even if they pass it uh the chances seem extremely high that they're going to
have to modify it in the near future multiple times but there are parts of it that would be useful to have in place sooner rather than later what's the county doing they have not passed this they have not they have they have not looked at it as a board yet okay they
will next week okay so they have multiple around the county sessions planned for the next couple weeks to get public input on this and I'm really curious to see how much they're going to get two of them will be in town here on Tuesday next week so they have scheduled
two public hearings in this room next Tuesday okay uh at 1: and 4 I believe are the times on Tuesday and so if you have comments the public who's watching this now please come to the meeting and share your comments with the county and
only during the Forum yes for the county well you can email or you you know you can communicate in other formats if you want and if we have comments as a city or things about this ordinance or things that we want to see in any ordinance we have an opportunity to ask the county to
include that in their considerations early on in the process um and I I think the two times had to do with miscommunication right that's why they have of those two and then there's cville and yeah and what
was was there one more there's got to be one more I think there's one there's got be one in the West End somewhere right yeah there was I just quickly added him to calendar but those are the only ones I saw yeah so we've got plenty of opportunity for Grand Mar residents to
weigh in on this yeah um see so I would if you guys are interested in this topic at all I'd like flag the OC's web page they constantly add to it they got a lot of FAQs and
then sign up for their email things because they also have webinars and like I got this communication today and just it's super helpful I think even though there's lots of unknowns okay so cville is Monday from 5: to 6 next week on the
5th oh our regular cannabis meeting is Tuesday and then are the rest the next weekend I think so or next week not weekend yeah then the next time Hall is Monday the 12th tenative for tentatively
I don't know where it is and then maybe that was it yeah maybe that's it so far okay I thought there was one more too one thing I I I don't I haven't seen it recently but I know I was
reading it I thought at some point there was some way that we could have more control over who is license can't I thought we could make a require other requirements or additional I don't believe so and and no I don't think it
ever existed I think that a lot of local entities talked about that as something that they want okay I'm not sure this the state statutes ever included any language that made that clear and I don't believe the rules that they're writing do either so even this draft that we're looking at where we're
talking about two per geographic region that we're creating that we're making up right in our local ordinance will the state you know respect that when they're granting licenses do we have the control
to do that I'm not 100% sure that we know the answer to that yet cuz we're only supposed to be able to control zoning so we can say how many but you're right I don't think we can say all well and then they have to
follow our zoning rules but but our zoning rules don't say things like we can only have three gas stations in the in the commercial zone right that's not how we do zoning we could have buffer zones between them we can have things
like that but we don't have a limit on the number I don't know that would even be legal for us to do that we don't can't do that with anything I don't think well we can well with this maybe with liquor licenses we we did have a limit right we don't know but we did uh and so I think people are still thinking
about these cannabis licenses Just Like Liquor licenses and it may be that more of the rules model the way liquor licenses are handled but it maybe that they do something different yet and we just don't know yeah I I other than zoning they've
made it pretty clear there's really you know provided they're in good standing there isn't anything that way um and it'll be by software and all they're doing is asking us to to send in um a certification that they're zoning and then it's up to
us to do compliance checks annually like we do for cigarettes and whatever for sales and that's really it I mean there's and some ways they trying to help us by not burden us with a lot of administrative costs but it also means
there's ve very little we control some things that we can control in this ordinance that we don't control in zoning our minimum buffer requirements so right now this draft has a 500t buffer from a licensed establishment
from a couple of different youth type uses uh that that would not include any uses that currently exist in downtown garray so there would not be a buffer in that area um it also lists the zones
where they allow it um in in the county and we could also list ours as well the the county has a lot more zones where they allow commercial activ as conditional uses we really don't do that so for us it's going to be very clear where we allow it and don't uh the hours
of operation are established in this ordinance so that's not a state rule yet um and even if it was the local Authority exists to regulate to a certain extent the hours of operation that's in there they've got that clearly
stated in their La in their Ru what we can and can't do for that yes and so in this draft ordinance they have taken a position to MIT hours of operation from 10: a.m. to 10: p.m. uh there are some uh the other part that is
important to add here that we don't have in state rules yet are penalties for some of these violations so the state has created rules where it's clear what's a violation and what's not and really they removed more violations with
the new laws than anything but because now there are uh you it's allowed for people to have cannabis possession if you're if you're above and beyond a certain amount the state hasn't set a a clear penalty for that and so the recommendation is to
do the penalties locally so that those are the pieces that I think are a smart idea for us to pass an ordinance even before the state's done with all their processes um and this is a good start I think so I'm really interested to see
what's going to happen when the public gets a chance to weigh in and I really want to hear what the rest of the County Commissioners think or what they MH I guess like Mike said there's not a whole lot we control but I still want to get a feel for what they're thinking and all of a sudden I'm just
I've totally changed my mind about I I think the only way right now I see protecting a potential local business is to restrict the amount of licenses we offer just you know I guess it's you know it's a lottery you can decide how much risk you want to take
but not feeling really good with that few of a license number saying where they're going to [Music] be I just don't even get the logic on that I don't know how what our like our limit would how would that change the math on the chances of a local to get a
license or not doesn't seem to affect it at all yeah that's what I'm frustrated by is if if you're right and I'm not saying you're not but you know if there's no way that we can control who comes in and gets the license I mean then yeah she poured you her email and
it's already in the rest of the material but when she kind of puts it together you kind of like oh okay you clarified what it kind of says um which makes which sounds contradictory because I thought one of their objectives was to promote local
businesses out of this that was one of the the state's objectives they are just they just don't care where they are I mean you know what I'm saying I mean yeah but I mean they not well I'm reading this somewhere the county aitor shall limit the number of cannabis
retail businesses to 14 well the 14's not even the important part of what if all these licenses are run through the lottery and there's one person that says I want to come to Grand marray yeah yeah that's that thing there might be five there might be one there
might be none cuz it might be just looking at populace areas to say I can make some money up there but I can make more if I go here you know what I'm saying be driven population anybody doing this is going to not anybody but most people are looking at where can we make money
where you know you know at Community Lake guards with all the tourism we have I could make some money well yeah but in the winter time most people don't get that till they get here yeah you know what I'm saying get a license here that could be seasonal in Florida in the winter time
then you could take it and go to Florida come back up here and you know Craig always an angle C's working it y ordinance is designed so that we don't have our own separate processes right
that yeah that the county will handle the registrations the county will will uh um do the compliance checks um the the number that is allowed in the city based on this draft is two but of course that's entirely up to you
to decide what you want to be you can just tell them we have to say at least one though right well I'm not sure because if we turn it all over to the county then perhaps one in the county actually covers all of our yeah requirement oh that's right M but why
would that one be anywhere but Grand Mar if there could only be one it's going to be all about location you never know I mean you never know cuz it's so limited in how many the states going to process right away yeah yeah yeah and you know that was my whole thing the whole time I really want to
come up if there's a limit I really want to work together with the county to do this and I'm not so sure I'm seeing that and then that makes me nervous about having Here We Go Again a joint agreement with them to have them administer this but we won't have we'll
know next week we won't need an agreement no two weeks from now right no it's next Tuesday it is next okay at the 13th in my mind okay that they're going to meet so we'll go and uh I plan on attending okay all right anything else
now that I yapped on that one 840 tree board tree board tree board did we we have two people right and we we already have
um one on there right uh we don't have anyone on there so what we're recommending is you appoint these two citizens and you appoint a city counselor what you do another I um why is this name
Aaron yeah Aaron who works for the city oh yeah well so he can't no he will be one of the staff people that will be involved in the project okay so so he can't be one of these people I would strongly recommend against ever putting
a city employee on a board okay no that's f um no what but we want to include him because he has both an interest and an expertise so Shane will be the administ ative staff person for the tree board just organizing things
and working right know their first project right out of the gate is this grant supported creation of um a tree management policy and to do a tree inventory so right away we've got two big projects for to work on and we'll
have Aaron also be a staff person for the board to make sure that we have somebody who actually is going to be doing the work and has some expertise on how to do the work and involved in the conversation as well got it got it well I would make a motion to approve both of
these people's Scott and Sarah Oh Sarah that's great and and we need a current city council member and we think Bill would be great since he hasn't have any assignments I'm I'm going to propose that bill would be a perfect match for the tree service or
the tree board what do you say Bill points growing on me terrible very wow I like that didn't change my mind though you're all right all right
do we need a lovely motion for this uh you made one I did okay would anyone like to second that motion I will second that all right all in favor of appointing Sarah W waddle and Scott melhoff along with current city council
member William Lis to our tree board I I I I very good thank you everyone thanks Bill Council and staff reports Craig
no only an observation that they have been working on the building for the animals and it looks like they got it moved they moved it uh yesterday the day before yeah yeah yesterday yesterday I saw it live
coverage yeah well they they were after it the day before but I think they were a day late of what they had hoped for the initial thought was they were going to move it in one piece and then they would have had to close the gunfun trail to do yeah they had to take so they changed their mind they took it in
half yeah okay thanks Rick Crawford for and Doug seford making that happen awesome good for them good for us what you got what you got I I played Eda oh yeah that's right it's
great um what did they do they had a couple of things they got the report from North vanan for their strategic plan came in they got that from those guys and then there were two grants I think there was one more but there were
definitely at these two grants that were approved one was for step boss for her Chiropractic um bed whatever yep and then another one to dappled Fern and fibers and then um also the the big
thing it seemed big to me is that the Eda uh gave over to the HRA uh a piece of property over by the uh Northstar development the end of Second Street the north side of the
radue and they handed that or sold it for a dollar over to the HRA so that the Hamilton habitat could build two single family homes down that way is it access that they wouldn't have otherwise in Yeah by getting that little plot of property yeah so it was just like a back
corner bit they needed to to get so and that was that was that from those guys and then I was at the ardc Arrowhead Regional development committee and there we were just uh we got to meet the new executive director
and we passed the preliminary budget for 2025 and then there were a number of resolutions to accept funds from the state um one for housing one for the elderly and one more for energy
development and that was that cool um first off I would like to thank Alysa and I I believe still Patrick for our e newsletter every week because it's super helpful it's really neat to see
what's going on with all our different departments it's been really great to see once again like um Amanda's at the library really great commentary about the various programming and the other things
that they're busy at work on there so just a shout out and thank you and I sold it one more time today to somebody and I think we should continue to always find ways to sell it to people and constantly hear people I have no idea about this and I'd love to get it so um
please continue to share that to people I really think it's a great step with their communication Focus um well you're saying that anyone who wants to can sign up on the website just so right off the front page yep okay I'll tell them that you know that
it's right on the front page um I think all of us got the letter from Paul spor around the parking on Highway 61 in front of this building not to mention landscape I'm not going there right now but um parking I didn't see the park was
that in that same letter yep yep same letter okay and you know I watch it really closely and I totally agree that it's been basically a a use for business um more so than just come and go so I'd like to see that
as a topic in the near future for us uh I don't think our issue is totally solved I was going to ask if the city had had any conversations with recently not recently okay
um yeah and I'm just all about pot right now and then we've got a few other things but it's almost time for bed it's almost midnight so I'm about done here unless someone has anything
else all righty no thanks everybody thank you everybody thank you turn thank you good night thanks