Innesota and don't forget about the Adana Art Fair coming up this weekend. Uh make sure that you have a chance to try to get down there with friends and family. Um before we call the meeting to order, I just want to re-emphasize what director Benerro said is that we're handling these meetings in a hybrid sort of fashion. We have been all during COVID and since CO uh and post pandemic uh we we handle these meetings in a way where uh as she said we'll take testimony in the uh chambers first from folks that wish to appear before us and either express a comment in the community comment portion of the agenda on a matter that's of concern to them. Just a reminder that it can't be something that's on the agenda this evening or scheduled for a future public hearing. Otherwise, you're welcome to uh share your thoughts with the council on a matter of concern to you. And then we've got a couple of public hearings tonight where people can testify either uh in person or remotely. And here's the call-in information on the screen now. So, people should be aware of that because the uh community comment comes up fairly quickly in the agenda. Having provided that information, I'm going to call the meeting to order and ask our clerk, Sharon Ellison, to call the role. >> Council here. >> Council member Jackson >> here. Council member Pierce >> here. Council member racer >> here. >> Mayor Hublin >> here. Next is the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thanks everyone. Um, we have a form of meeting agenda in front of us that's uh been published in advance of the meeting. So, people had an opportunity to see if there was anything of interest to them. And we've got folks here tonight, I think, to testify in the public hearing portion of the agenda. Uh, Manager Neil, I'm going to turn to you because I think there's an item that you wanted to pull off of the agenda. >> Yes. Thank you, your honor. Uh, staff would propose to take item 6.6, six, the bag fee policy report off tonight's agenda and table that to July 21st where we'll have our subject matter expert available and be able to answer any questions you might have. >> All right. Um, is there a motion to that effect from a council member? >> So move. >> Second. >> Member Pierce moves. Member Jackson seconds the uh moving of the bag fee policy report to the July 21, 2026 meeting of the Adena City Council. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion as stated, say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. Motion's adopted. The bag fee policy report will be moved to July 21, 2026 meeting of the city council. Uh and then back to um the agenda with the absence of uh that particular matter 6.6. Is there a uh anyone in the council wishes to modify the agenda any form or fashion or staff? All right. All right. Is there a motion to adopt the meeting agenda uh as proposed with the item 6.6 removed? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Jackson moves the adoption of the agenda uh as published with the exception of six item 6.6 which we just dealt with. And member Pierce seconds. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the meeting agenda say I. I. >> I. All those opposed. Uh the agenda is approved uh with the uh elimination of item 6.6. six. And now we are at community comment and we'll take folks's comments in the audience first. And um just a reminder, you've got three minutes and you'll get the yellow warning light and you've got 30 seconds left. And as director Benerrod indicated, it would be good if you start thinking about wrapping up your remarks so that we treat everybody here uh in the same manner and give them the same opportunity to uh provide their testimony. Mayor, council members, my name is Ralph Sickard. Manager Neil, thank you because your reply for posting a reply to the question I repeated for the third time on May 5th. Thank you because your reply confirms what I've been saying. spending cuts were not the primary reason the 2026 general levy was reduced from 17% to 8%. And what's more, your reply is exactly what I shared on May 5th during the community comment. The 2026 general levy did little to reduce the tax burden on residents as it did not cut spending, but rather shifted the tax to other taxing authorities or kick the can down the road to be paid at a later debt. Member Pierce, your May 5th comment that I've been, and I quote, throwing rocks, chooses to ignore a in March of last year, long before I made any comments in chambers, I handed you and the mayor an almost exact mirror image of what Mr. Neil just posted to the city website. And B, throughout last summer, I continued to share my thoughts with the entire council. Yet you chose not to engage and continue to portray the levy reduction as having been achieved via cuts in spending. Something that manager Neil's response has now confirmed to be false. Mayor Hlin, your chastisement of my choice to exit chambers following my three minutes flies in the face of your much earlier personal admonishment i.e. the community comment is not a colloquy. So pray tell. Why would I not choose to leave? Especially when in December I offered to meet in person with member Pierce together with any other member of the council at your convenience to see if we could find some common ground. An invitation to which neither you member Pierce or member Jackson chose to reply. Finally, if this council is so if this council so firmly believes in the process that resulted in the 2026 budget, then residents can look forward to another $1 million added to their utility bills via higher franchise fees and another $1.8 million added to Adina's $70 million backlog of deferred maintenance. while the council again pushes the bogus message of Adina's low levy. For my part, if that isn't an unsound and unsustainable budget process, I don't know what is. And as for this council comparing my comments to throwing rocks, all I can say is sometimes the truth hurts and eventually you can't duck the truth. Thank you. >> Good evening. >> Hi, [snorts] Taylor Brushwin. Uh I'm on the Edina Transportation Commission, but I'm here as an individual. I'm here to talk about um the Wooddale AB bike lanes. I'm in support of those and especially in support of protected lanes. So, I wanted to talk more about what that actually means and why it's important. So, what a protected bike lane actually is is really simple. An unprotected bike lane is just paint, nothing else. Whereas a protected bike lane has two things. It has horizontal space and it has a vertical element. It's a can be a curb, a concrete barrier, a plastic flex post in its most simple, just something. And it's really important. And the the reason it's important is if I asked you if you ran over any paint on the way here, if you drove over any shoulders or bike lanes, there's no way you would know for sure. I probably did. But if I asked you if you hit a curb or a barrier, you'd be able to tell me or you probably shouldn't be driving. So that's why it's important. And it also comes with a bunch of benefits. And I want to stress that I'm not speaking anecdotally. These are data proven benefits. And I also want to stress that it's it's not a different level of treatment that I'm talking about. All the data that I'll show you is moving from the left side of this page to the right side. Only the plastic flex post, nothing more. So the first is speed reduction. Um the only way that we're going to reduce speed on our streets is through the design. You saw earlier this year when we reduced the speed limit in our city, speeds went up. It has to come at the design level. Speed limits are just a suggestion. So if you want to reduce the speeds in our streets, here's a data proven example, a data proven opportunity to do so. They've been shown to reduce bike and car crashes up to 50%. You've heard that vulnerable street users, people outside of cars, have been more and more disproportionately affected by traffic violence. If you want to reduce those crashes, here's a data proven opportunity to do so. Our climate action plan talks about reducing vehicle miles traveled, getting people out of cars to take trips other ways. Um, we also talk about ridership. A lot of people are going to say, "No one is biking on Wooddale." I agree. They're right. It's because biking on Wooddale sucks right now. If we want to see increased ridership, if we want to see that reduced VMT, here's a data proven opportunity to do it. None of this happens if the lanes are unprotected. So, I understand you're going to be voting on this next meeting. I'm asking you to please don't take a half step. Let's get these benefits. Let's make it all worth it if we go through with it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bushwin. >> Thanks. >> Are you wanting this, too? >> Thank you. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Uh I'm Jake Vanderel, also on the transportation commission, also here in my individual capacity, also speaking on the Wooddale bike lanes. Um and I want to put this uh project into the context of Edina's lack of progress in implementing the bike and pedestrian master plan. Uh but first, I'll share a little bit about me and why I care about the Wooddale project. So this is my two girls on our bike. Um this is called a cargo bike. If you're not familiar, uh we put 1,000 miles on this last year. Uh mostly riding around Edina. Uh we try to avoid Wooddale at all costs because of the vast traffic and the limited bike infrastructure, but sometimes we have to do it. We have uh soccer at Pamela Park and there's no other way around it. Um but Wooddale is just a larger or a small piece of the larger puzzle. So Edina has made almost no progress implementing the 2018 bike and pedestrian master plan. During the United Transportation Commission uh meeting last week, uh Andrew Scapion presented this um evidence of how slow we have been to adopt the bike and pedestrian master plan. So, as you can see, since 2018, we've built a total of 2 and a half miles of bikeways and shared use lanes. So, that's since the implementation of the master plan in 2018. So at this pace we would implement all of the bikeways uh in a mere 100 years and the shared use paths in 31 years. Um so we need to take a lot quicker action and the Wooddale uh bike lanes is one way in which we could do that. And we're not only behind on our own goals, but we're also well behind the our peer cities. So if you look at the cities that surround us, we're dead [snorts] last in every category from these two major sources that rank how cities are doing with their bike lanes. So the the [clears throat] lab is the League of American Bicyclists and the BF or the PFB is people for bikes. Uh so you can see PFB ranks us 36 in Minnesota for bike friendly score and we're half of what St. Louis Park is and well below Richfield. And this is a little hard to see with my at home printer. Um, but the blue lines um are bike lanes around us and the gray is no bike lanes and the the yellow line is the city of Adina. Uh you can see that there's a lot of blue. [snorts] Um and then there's a der of blue where within our city limits and that's just illustrating everything that I've previously told you. So the Wooddale project is just one project. I think city council needs to think very seriously about how to implement the bike and pedestrian master plan going forward and quickly so we can catch up to our peer cities and make biking safer for people like me and my children biking around the city. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Fandalis. >> Hi, my name is Greta Camps. You guys hear me? >> Yeah. Um, I'm also here to talk about the Wooddale Avenue bike lane. Um, here to express my support of a protected bike lane. Um, I live there near the street. Um, and I use my bike to run errands, go to restaurants, um, and visit parks and do activities with my two young kids. Um, as my kids get older, I would love to give them the independence to bike to school on their own or bike to friends houses on their own. Um, but kids will not have that right to independence if streets like Woodtail remain unsafe. Um, I think it's really important to do this the right way to limit parking and provide a completely protected bike lane. Anyone who has biked on a paint only lane knows that paint does not provide any amount of safety, especially as cars have only gotten taller, wider, and heavier. Um, if we try to please everyone with a painted bike lane and keeping all the parking, um, no one will be happy. Cars will be mad that bikes are hogging the road. Bikes will be mad that cars are making them feel unsafe, so they'll go to the sidewalk and then pedestrians will be mad. Um, so while I can sympathize with residents not wanting to lose parking on their street, I think we need to see a bigger picture and I believe safety is more important than personal vehicle storage. Um, Wooddale is a main thoroughfare in this project. If done right with a fully protected lane would benefit many people, especially our kids. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Caps. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. Sorry, I think I messed that up. Good evening, mayor and esteemed council. My name is Jay Felds. Unlike my colleagues, I am technically invading from the city of Minneapolis. However, I am also a part of the West Metro Transit Discord group where we are also concerned about Wooddale Avenue. We are concerned about well many of the roads, but I'm going to try to approach from a more economical perspective. We have seen over the past year gas prices have gone up, car parts have gone up, computer parts have gone up, everything is becoming more expensive. So trying to own a car, whether it ends up being gas powered or electrical powered, it's going to become prohibitively expensive. Whereas bicycles right now, whether your normal acoustic bikes, your ebikes, your mountain bikes, those will be relatively cheap. And we have the ability to have back seats, caros, front and back. Honestly, we need to seriously consider using the bicycle as a potential alternative, not a permanent replacement for everyone because I know people still need cars for deliveries and handicap accessibility, but we need more accessible transportation. Bike lanes such as all along the Wooddale Avenue corridor from 50th Street all the way down to Ardan Park and everywhere beyond. It would not only provide more ex access to our houses of worship, our daycarees, our friends places, but it could also connect us to our neighbors, not just our immediate ones, but further along. What if we want to attend events in St. Louis Park or Minneapolis? What if we want to take a long road trip or bike trip over to Mall of America? Or maybe we need some new furniture from IKEA. We don't necessarily need a car for that. Not for every single thing. But as prices are starting to go up, we are going to have to consider saving money through other means. And if we can invest in bike infrastructure, then it'll make things easier for us to connect to everywhere. And also, if you need another incentive, this is more on a personal note. I rode my bike wearing this skirt full length. If I'm able to pull this off, I'm sure everyone else here can as well. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Phel. >> Yeah. Good evening. >> Evening. My name is Will Madri. Um, I've worked full-time in Edina for about two and a half years now in the Cahill neighborhood next to the Double Tree, but I live in Minneapolis by Painter Park in the Lindell neighborhood. While I don't currently fully ebike to my office as I opt to take the Eline or the Orange Line down and bike from there, for about a year and a half, I did. and Wooddale Avenue was the most direct and safest way for me to get to Valley View in my approximation at the time, coming off the Chain of Lakes Trail and cutting through the neighborhoods to Wooddale. Um, this was all to get to Valley View, which was the least terrible way to cross 62 via bike. That will change when the Roslin Bridge project um is complete, but it will not work as a safe crossing unless there is a safe way to get to that bridge, too. Wooddale Avenue is that project, and it's critical for its success. Wooddale Avenue going north was my nightmare. I'd always ride it around rush hour and I dodged close passes, delivery trucks, congestions, and all without any bike lanes other than a useless sher. It's partially why I don't bike all the way to work without the bus anymore. I found it's too unpredictable of a route because Wooddale Avenue did not have adequate facilities to be safe. When I do bike all the way to work, I go through Richfield. Um Wooddale deserves a protected bike lane. I prefer the two-way bike way that puts both directions next to each other, replacing car parking um and hopefully using some sort of protected um ballards to stop cars from coming into the lane. This project is a no-brainer. A feeder route pointed directly at a brand new bridge you guys are already investing in. It's easily accessible via transit from the chain of lank trails and it will make a dinina accessible to more people around the metro. Please make this investment. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Medri. >> Good evening. My name is Miriam Trap. First, I'd like to express my gratitude for your dedicated civic service and the commitment you have consistently demonstrated to our city. Adana's vision is strategic pillars are established upon the principles of infrastructure protection, addressing community needs, fostering an inclusive and engaged community, and promoting sustainable growth. These core values are precisely why many residents chose to establish the themselves and their families in this city. They are certainly high among the reasons my own family chose to reside here. However, I am concerned that the foundation of Adina's reputation as a premier city within our state is increasingly compromised. This concern is reflected in the recent voting records of council members. Investing in the long-term future of our community is always a wise endeavor. As noted in a recent local editorial authored by one of you, we don't just shape the communities we live in, we shape the ones we leave behind. As elected officials, you possess the democratic authority to define Adina's future. [clears throat] Consequently, it is disconcerting when public statements regarding these values are contradicted by subsequent legislative actions on your part. I respectfully request that you remain steadfast in your positions and adhere to the platforms upon which you were elected regardless of opposition from vocal minority groups spreading misinformation to impede progress and influence the legacy of this administration. [clears throat] My fellow residents and I are occupied with the responsibilities of raising families, caring for grandchildren, enjoying retirement, financially supporting our families, and engaging in community volunteerism. While you may not hear from us as frequently, we remain committed to the established vision of this city for the collective benefit of all citizens. This entails supporting projects that provide broad community value even if they do not offer immediate personal benefit. We do not have the time nor desire to occupy the council and city's time with non-conru non-constructive grievances or engage with local media to incite public uproar. to the city staff. While the efforts made to communicate with the public are noted, it is evident that communication standards must be elevated as current practices are insufficient. I urge you to utilize modern communication mediums to reach our community in a clear and concise manner. It is essential to counteract misinformation by providing transparent factual information early and often, ensuring such data is easily accessible to the general population. At present, current outreach efforts have only and perhaps inadvertently provided a platform for those seeking to obstruct impactful projects and community progress. Lastly, I don't use Wooddale Avenue. Vote yes on the protected bite lane, please. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> Uh good evening, Mayor Havland, city council manager Neil. Uh my name is Matt Dalene. I am a lifelong Edina resident, former vice president of the parks and recck commission, and a current member of the EBA board of directors. I'm here tonight on behalf of our volunteer organization and the families we serve here in AC here in Across Dina. I submitted a detailed email to the mayor, city manager, and council two weeks ago, and tonight I just wanted to take the time to highlight some key points and give some additional context. Courtney Fields is not a standalone facility. It is explicitly named in the Braar Master Plan that was approved by the council in 2018 and backed by an $ 8.1 million voter referendum in 2022. Braar Arena, the golf course and golf dome, plus the baseball fields are all part of that same unified plan. Sponsored advertising is permitted in use at every one of those facilities. Currently, the baseball fields are the only ones that isn't treated the same way. We are simply asking for consistency within a plan the community has already voted to invest in. of the legal questions. The planning department has cited section 361675, which restricts banners, but section 361677 of the same ordinance explicitly names Braar Park as a location where sponsor advertising is permitted on scoreboards. And section 361711 codifies that further. A local business can sponsor a scoreboard at Braar today under existing code, but cannot put its name on a fence banner at the same field. This is just an internal inconsistency and we are asking for a narrow amendment to close it. The EBA is currently a volunteer organization. We are not running a commercial advertising program. We want to help keep Rayar's fields and [clears throat] those people that use them and give them all the benefits that our sponsors can make possible. These are community investments funded by community partners who view this as a donation, not trying to make their marketing opportunity. We proceeded with these banners currently having been advertised. Sorry. We proceeded with these banners and currently have been advised that as long as they are temporarily installed, this would be permissible. We sold partnerships and sponsorships to local businesses on that basis. We have tournaments approaching and need resolution. Beyond that, the EBA is actively bidding to host the Minnesota State American Legion baseball tournament at Braar in 2027 or 2028, an event that would bring real visibility and economic activity to Edina. Every other host community offers sponsor recognition at their fields. An unresolved ordinance conflict puts us puts that bit at risk. We are willing to work exclusively with local businesses and maintain a strict policy. Nothing political, religious, adult, or controversial. If this there are questions about revenue, we are open to a revenue share discussion with the city. Though our intent is always to invest any of these uh funds back into the fields for the whole community to use. We are requesting a narrow amendment to section 361675 and we are ready to work with the city staff on the language. I got less than 30 seconds and I just want to congratulate and wish manager Neil the best of luck in his retirement. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Jolene. [cough and clears throat] >> Good evening. >> Good evening Mayor. Good evening uh council members. My name is Matthew Perry and I am speaking tonight on behalf of all four residential households that live on Pinewood Trail, which has historically been a quiet four residents deadend street. Over the last several months, this quiet has been disrupted by an ongoing parking issue involving employees from the Adina Family Physicians Clinic. Our street has become their full-time clinic parking lot. We are here tonight asking the council to pursue both a near-term remedy and a long-term solution. Collectively, we are disappointed that this has arisen after years of being neighbors to the clinic without this issue occurring. And we're frustrated that the process has not yet produced a workable solution. The concern is not about one vehicle or one isolated incident. The concern is that small residential streets in this city were not designed to absorb commercial parking on an ongoing basis. While our city does have ordinances to prevent this, they are not sufficient in this specific case. To date, we have worked through the normal channels. We contacted city staff, engaged with the traffic and safety process. We've used non-emergency police enforcement when appropriate. Warnings have been given, citations have been issued, and it has not been resolved. So, while the traffic and safety uh department have made some changes to Pinewood Trail, those changes have not improved the situation. Instead, employees have found a way to comply with the letter of the ordinance while continuing the same parking pattern. As a result, and on the recommendation of Nick Baller, we are bringing this issue before the council because we were informed that the recommendation would be for no additional parking restrictions on Pinewood Trail. Respectfully, we are asking the council to not accept this. That recommendation leaves residents dependent on repeated calls to non-emergency police for tire chalking and enforcement. And this is not a sustainable solution for residents, city staff, or law enforcement. So, we believe there's a two-part solution. First, add targeted parking restrictions on Pinewood during business hours. This would directly address the weekday parking issue while preserving it for outside business hours. Employees would still have nearby parking options in their own lot and on Sherwood Road. Second, we asked to direct city staff to work with the clinic to address the underlying parking issue. This would include reviewing existing restrictions on the non-residential portion of Sherwood Road. If the clinic needs more practical employee parking, the solution should be found within the commercial corridor rather than shifting the burden onto Pinewood Trail residents. Again, we are not asking for an extreme response. We are asking for a durable, balanced solution. The current recommendation of no changes does not solve the issue residents are experiencing today. Thank you for listening to our perspective. >> Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Prairie. David Frankle, continuing with with the biking theme. Uh, one thing transportation planners do in Minnesota is they love to plan in the summer and I think it snows here. Uh, I'm an avid all year biker and if you think biking down Wooddale in the summer is not a lot of fun, try it in the winter. The city already does a pretty poor job of snow removal on on sidewalks, overloading it with bike lanes. There should be a conscious decision if these new bike lanes will have snow removal in the winter because right now, for example, the bike lane on Wooddale is not cleared in the winter of snow. So, I end up biking in the traffic lane, which surprises a lot of people and is dangerous. The [clears throat] main reason I came tonight on that biking theme, uh, yesterday I biked through Fred Richards Park, and it shouldn't have been to my surprise, but the heavy equipment working in that park doing the the remodel, per se, are driving over the Nine Mile Creek Trail. In three places, you can see the track marks and in one case there's damage to the trail. That trail, I can't speak for Three Rivers Parks, but that trail was not designed for five to 10 ton trucks. and there'll be permanent damage to that trail, even if it doesn't look like it, from the compression from those heavy vehicles. My impression was the construction of that park would not cross over the trail. The damage is bad enough, but there's a safety issue. You can't have bikers, walkers going through a park with multi-tonon trucks crossing a pedestrian walkway. There's no markings to say be careful. If you go by the Southwest light rail uh line right now, there's signs all over the place to be careful of trains being tested. There's nothing in that park saying there's heavy equipment working in the park and it may cross the trail, which again, I don't believe that was supposed to happen. They should go around with trailers if they need to use heavy equipment on either side of that road. Also, I was actually asked by some other residents because uh I've been an avid YouTube user. If you look at Edina issues on YouTube, there are a lot of dead trees in Edina Parks. I mean, a lot. A lot of saplings that have been planted in the last few years are dead. There's a lot of trees, for example, in Weber Park, mature trees that are dead. You may remember probably five years ago, a large tree fell on a woman in Eden Prairie and killed her on a trail. This can happen anywhere. It can happen in Ardan Park. Can happen in Weber Park. These trees need to be cleared out. And from my understanding, the city's foresters asked for more personnel, but it was turned down by the city manager. It isn't a priority. Look at the YouTube channel Edina Issues. See all the trees that are dead, including across the street in Edina Country Club, right on Eden Avenue. There's at least a half dozen fruit trees that are dead. And the vast majority of trees that are dead in eina like everywhere else are ash trees. Ash trees are notorious for the whole tree falling over. Not a branch, the whole tree. These trees have to be removed for safety and because they also spread the Dutch elm diseases. Well, not Dutch elm, the emerald ashbor. Thank you. >> Yeah, thanks Mr. Wrinkle. Appreciate the thought. Anyone else? Errol Kger. Um, talking [clears throat] about the bikes um on Wooddale. Three months ago, residents living on Wooddale Avenue received a letter from the city of Adina notifying us that the road surface was going to be replaced between West 50th Street in Valley View Road in 2026. And the city was considering removing the parking lane to create dedicated bike lanes. Feedback was requested through the better together Adina web page and 247 people participated. The overwhelming prepoundonderance, 180 of the 247 respondents, 73% were opposed to eliminating parking on Modell Avenue with 54 people, 22% in favor of it. What is telling is that only one person in favor of doing away with parking actually lives on Wooddale Avenue. The premises behind the plan are faulty. Having lived on Wooddale Avenue for 34 years, my wife and I have had a literal front row seat to be able to observe the behavior of both drivers and cyclists. Despite there being a six-foot marked bike lane on the west side of Wooddale Avenue and a 7- foot shared parking lane that functions as the deacto bike lane on the east side, almost all children and teenagers ride on the sidewalk going both north and south. And the city council appears to be aware of this as well because just last month it modified the Adina city ordinance to allow electric bicycles on sidewalks and one of you was quoted in the Adina current. I prefer you ride on the street but if you don't feel safe for whatever reason you can use the sidewalk. Having a dedicated bike lane even with a two-foot buffer is not going to make people feel safer about riding on a car on a street with cars. They will continue to use the sidewalk. As for parked cars creating a safety issue, I can speak from the perspective of being a bicycle commuter myself. I've ridden a bicycle on Wooddale Avenue probably as much as any resident in Adina. And I consider myself a bike advocate who is certainly in favor of making the city more bicycle friendly. Not once have I ever considered cars parked in the street to make me feel unsafe. Cars driving too fast are what make riding on Wooddale Avenue feel unsafe, not stationary vehicles. The final faulty premise, the most important one, is that the f the plan fails to take into account the multitude of negative impacts that will unquestionably ensue with removing the parking lane. And these are very well articulated in the many responses on the better together Adina survey. And each of you should take the time as I have to read through all 247 of these. The concerns that are raised are significant and real, not hypothetical. and they reflect the sentiment of the vast majority of the community. To finish, several years ago, Wooddale Avenue was reconfigured in a way that was confusing and so unpopular that a short time later it was changed back to how it was before. And the good news is that the city now has the opportunity to get it right. There's a plan that's been submitted by one of our neighbors, Bill Egan, that takes into account the concerns of all the different stakeholders, those interested in bike safety, as well as those who feel the need to pursue barking. This does not have to be an eitheror decision. It can and it should be both. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kger. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. My name is Anne Cassid and I've been a lifelong member of Edina for 30 years. My husband 50 plus years in the same home on Woodell Avenue. Mayor Hovindland and members of the city council pertaining to the upcoming vote on Woodell Avenue bike lanes project which removes parking from Woodell Avenue and reconfigures the roadway. I highly recommend a no vote for the following four reasons which there are many many more though. One in two in 2015 when 54th Street was reconfigured through numerous meetings with the council members and the mayor, the compromise was to remove all parking from 54th Street with the understanding that parking on Wooddale would remain. Number two, if parking is removed in front of our homes, we would have no parking at all for the many events that occur in the neighborhood and the prior compromise that was agreed upon as null and void. Three, bike riding is not a prevail. Bike riding is not as prevalent on Wooddale as everybody thinks. There are many, many, many, many routes to take around the community to get from the north and south side of the city. Four, narrowing the lanes of a busy vehicle roadway can cause more congestion, sidewipes, and reu reduce reduced maneuverability for all vehicles on the roadway. I will remind the city planners and the city council that bike lanes and reconfiguration of Woodell Avenue occurred in 2015. However, not the same as the current proposal, but as a reconfiguration with bike lanes, and it was a complete disaster. This entire project offers little benefits for the residents, churches, and the Adina Country Club on Wedell Avenue, and most likely will negatively impact our property values. Please vote no. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Miss Cassid. [clears throat] >> Mr. Mayor, city council. [clears throat] >> Thank you for hearing from me. My name is Brian Mismash. I've lived on Wooddale since 2015. Uh I I oppose eliminating parking on Wooddale Avenue. As I read the notification from the city, the proposal to eliminate parking on Wooddale rests on three justifications: safety, equity, and climate. Due to time constraints, I'm just going to cover safety and equity. Wooddale recorded 19 crashes in 10 years. That is fewer than two crashes per year on a heavily used residential street. By any reasonable rent benchmark, this corridor is already safe. Only one of the crashes involved a bicycle. One in a decade. The existing shared parking bike lane configuration has produced a zero near zero bike vehicle conflict rate. That is not a problem in search of a solution. It is a street that is working. 13 of the 19 crashes occurred at intersections, not in a parking lane. The dominant collision type is an angle. Those nine of the 19 crashes, it's the classic intersection conflict. A striping change between intersections does between intersections does nothing to about the actual crash pattern. No crash in 10 years was fatal. No crash produced a serious injury. Where the data points, if safety is genuinely the goal, start with the intersections. 68% of the crashes happen there. Now, I'd like to cover equity. In one of the supporting documents the city provided with the Wooddale notification, we're told the city runs every action through something called an equity impact review. This review asks three questions. What are the positive impacts and benefits created? Who benefits? What are the negative impacts and burdens created? Who is affected by these? And are there other equity factors to consider? Please hold that framework in mind for a moment and let me tell you how my family ended up on Wooddale Avenue. We moved to Edina in 2015. We wanted a house on a quiet street, but houses on quiet streets are significantly more expensive than houses on busier streets. Sure, this is intuitive to everyone, but for this meeting, I compiled the data. Wooddale runs par parallel to Kellogg. Kellogg is the closest comparison to demonstrate the cost difference between a busy and a quiet street. For those unfamiliar with Kellogg, just know that Kellogg and Wooddale run parallel. They are one block apart. The difference is that Kellogg is quieter and more expensive. In fact, when I recently compiled the data on home values, I found that Kellogg on average a home is $500,000 more expensive than on Wooddale. Now, run the city's equity impact review through this lens. Who benefits? Cyclists passing through primarily. But keep in mind, the existing shared lanes already serves them with a near zero crash rate in 10 years. Who bears the burden? Only Wooddale residents. Wooddale is already less affluent and busier. Our homes are already worth over half a million dollars less than one block away. And the city's plan is to take even more away from this community and these homeowners. In doing this, Edina is pushing a new burden onto a less affluent community with fewer financial options. This is the opposite of equity. I believe I'm out of time, so I'll conclude. Wooddale works for all of us today. Please don't try to fix something that isn't broken. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mash. >> Good evening. >> Good evening, Mayor Olin. Council members, my name is Randy How. My wife and I have lived on 52nd in Wooddale since 1994. I support Adina's efforts to improve cyclist safety and expand bike infrastructure. I don't believe there's this is a choice between residents and cyclists. We all want safer streets and a more accessible community. My concern is that the current proposal asks a relatively small group of residents and community institutions to absorb significant burden without clear evidence that eliminating parking is necessary to achieve the city's safety goals. Wooddale serves many different uses and purposes. The on street parking is used by residents, guests, contractors, service providers, delivery drivers, St. Stevens Church, and visitors to the Dina Country Club. If that parking is removed, those vehicles won't disappear. They'll simply be pushed on the neighboring streets, shifting congestion and creating new challenges elsewhere. What gives me hope is that a reasonable compromise appears to be available. Based on the width of Lower Liv Wooddale between 56th Street and 50th Street, it seems possible to accommodate bike lanes while preserving parking on at least one side of the street. To me, this is the best outcome. Not maximizing a single use, but finding a balanced solution that improves safety while recognizing how the street and neighborhood functions every day. Before making a final decision, I simply ask that you carefully consider the comments submitted by the residents and explore whether a compromise can meet the city's goals without eliminating all on street parking. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Yep. Thank you, Mr. How? >> Anyone else address council on a matter of concern to them? Okay, just turn to online. >> Nobody online. They all came here tonight. Okay, good. That's good. We like the we like the live interaction better anyway. Um All right. Thanks folks for your thoughts on all these issues this evening. Appreciate it. Um so as our our practice is that uh what we'll do is take all this information and it will be distilled by staff and there'll be some answers posted to some of the concerns that were raised by this Friday on the website and then the city manager uh also responds to the uh concerns that were raised a couple weeks before at the prior city council meeting and u manager Neil from the prior city council meeting which was actually a month ago I think now. >> Well, we we cancelled our May 19th meeting, so I don't have anything to respond to tonight. >> All right, but and the other ones >> we were caught up at that point. >> Okay. You were caught up. Okay. I thought because we missed the 19th that there was things that you should have reported on the 19th. >> I don't think so. >> All right. Yes. >> Um so, thank you, Mr. Mayor. um with um the Edana Baseball Association. That sounds like it needs some action on the city council part to fix that. Um based on I remember the email, I'm glad Mr. Dian came in. I read his email and it was a lot of information. I'd like to see a solution to that proposed. Um so if you want input from us immediately, um I think it's it just makes sense to have the same rules apply to the hockey as as to the baseball association. So, um I don't know what the process is, but I would like to see that resolved equitably. >> We'll meet with the city attorney and and go over the process with him. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah, I think you said it was section 36-6-175 that we needed to take a look at. So, yeah, take a look at that. Anybody else have anything? Okay, good. All right, let's um let's move on then. Um yeah, folks, if folks don't want to stick around, they don't have to. They're certainly uh entitled to leave. Uh so we've got a little recognition. We've got a portion of the agenda that's called special recognitions and presentations. And we usually have several things on there. Tonight we have one thing on there. >> You want to do the consent agenda? >> Oh, didn't we do that already? >> Oh, okay. All right. Um All right. I guess I got thrown off by 6.6. Uh so we've got the consent agenda and we've eliminated 6.6. Is there anyone else who wishes to remove any item on the consent agenda other than 6.6 which we dealt with previously? All right. Is there a motion to adopt the items on the consent agenda with the exception of item 6.6? >> So moved. I second. >> Council member Jackson moves. Council member Agnu seconds the adoption of the items on the consent agenda in a single motion with the exception of item 6.6 which we dealt with earlier. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adopting the items on the consent agenda and a single motion with the exception of item 6.6 say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. All those items on the consent agenda are adopted. >> And uh thanks for that. And then we'll go to special recognitions and presentations. And we've got one matter tonight to deal with. our our city manager has been serving on the uh uh board over at the League of Minnesota Cities. And uh where's Luke? There he is in the back. Luke Fischer is the executive director of the Minnesota League of Minnesota Cities. And u I think he has his board president with him as well who is uh used to the city council business. He's on the city council in West St. Paul. Yeah. is a busy night here at the United and uh and those folks are here to recognize our city manager Scott Neil for your service on the on the board. So, >> of course, >> Luke, welcome. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. My name is Luke Fischer. I'm executive director at the League of Minnesota Cities. As the mayor mentioned, I'm joined by our board president, my colleague and friend Wendy Barry, uh who's a city council member in West St. Paul. Um, we're here tonight as as the mayor mentioned to recognize Scott for his contributions to our board, but I always think it's helpful to know who the recognition is coming from, right? Certainly, you all know us well. You're close partners and friends of ours, but everybody in the room and watching at home doesn't maybe know who the league is, and that's important context, I think, from my perspective. So, the League of Minnesota Cities is an association that represents 842 of the state's 856 cities. Our largest member is the city of Minneapolis with a population of 425,000 people. And our smallest member is the city of Barry. Do you have any guesses on Barry's population? >> 102 >> 10 >> 10. Any other guesses? >> 212. All right. If we're playing prices right rules, the mayor wins. Barry has a population of just 19 people. And as an organization, we've got this obligation and opportunity to provide services to cities like Minneapolis, Edina, and Barry, and all points in between. And that's something that we take really seriously. To do that, we're guided by 19 a 19 uh member board of directors that is comprised of local uh elected and appointed officials from across the state that care deeply about things that are happening in our state that impact cities. You don't have to be from Edina to have some empathy for what's going on in Barry or you don't have to be from West St. Paul to understand a Minneapolis issue, right? These things are all common uh uh to us all and those are all we we share a lot of uh challenges um together as city leaders. Um when we think about what we do as an organization, we represent you uh at the state capital. Um, we've got 175 legislative policies that are developed by 250 city officials that come together every year to make sure we're aligned to our member needs. We see about 3,000 people every year at a training conference or event. And we handle about 9,000 insurance claims every year on behalf of our members. So that means in the very best of times and in the very worst of times, we get to see what good local leadership looks like. And Scott Neil certainly is one of the very best of the best. Now, I've known Scott for a long time. Um, I was an intern for Scott uh when I was in my undergrad and he was the city manager in Eden Prairie. Um, and so I know uh what a tremendous uh person of character he is, but I asked around the office um just so it didn't sound like just a former intern saying nice things about you, Scott. Um but what folks thought about you and these are some comments from our board and some comments from our staff. They said Scott is thoughtful and he's always a big picture thinker. He's known for his ethics and commitment to neutrality. that came from city manager types. He's respected for always developing the next generation of leaders and certainly the Adana Fellows program um is something that I know is like a a keystone feature of what it means to be uh an Adina city employee. He's sought after as a resource for good and proper council manager relations. When people in the state are working on developing good relationships uh with their city councils, they call Scott Neil for advice. And this one's mine and it's true. It's he's just simply the best. So, Scott, on behalf of all of our staff at the League of Minnesota Cities, 115 people uh that that work on your behalf, thank you so much for everything that you've done for us during your service. I'm going to turn it over to Wendy Barry now. [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. And uh President Barry, welcome. Nice to have you here. >> Thank you. Thanks for being here. I'm Wendy Barry, council member from West St. Paul and the president of the league's board of directors. I'm honored to be here tonight and it was great to be on this side know the public comments but in West St. Paul we've heard uh parking safe bike lanes baseball relationships with the city all those things I was like yeah yeah us uh so it's it's the same just like like Luke said no matter what the city um and thank you to the city council and mayor for sharing Scott with the league for the past uh few years and city staff too. I know we take him away a lot and it's for a good reason. Um so appreciate you filling in the gaps when he hasn't been here. Um throughout his time on the board, Scott has brought a thoughtful and steady perspective discussions, is known for asking the right questions at the right time. His insight and experience have strengthened the board's work in meaningful ways. I think the council city manager perspective is another one. You know, there's council members and there's appointed folks uh on the uh on the board and I think Scott is is is one of those examples of like letting us council people get our stuff out and then say, "Okay, but really uh" but in a very respectful way. And I've learned a lot from Scott over the past few years. and I'm just grateful that he's been on the board um in my time here too. Um but addition to his service on the board, Scott has served on the league's municipal amicus program committee which helps the league determine when to participate in applet court cases, appellet court cases, and issues important to Minnesota cities. We are grateful for the steady perspective he has brought to the work. Scott's exemplary leadership and willingness to thoughtfully engage in complex issues have made him a valued member of the board and we are grateful for his contributions and service. Thank you so much, Scott. It's been it's been a pleasure serving with you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Would [applause] [applause] you >> [cheering] >> um would you stick around for just a moment? I think I'd like to have come down with the council and have a photo taken with Scott. >> Yeah. Thanks. He's like Thank you. >> Thanks, L. Mayor, if I may, just major. I I just wanted to tell you it it's it really and I know they can hear me out there, too. So, it's a it's really an honor to be to have this opportunity to be on the board um and work directly with people from all over the state, all over the state on common issues. You you noted that council member Barry indicated some of some of the issues we're talking about tonight, they're talking about in West St. Paul. And when you get together with your colleagues, board colleagues from around the state, they're all talking about similar issues. So, it's been fun to work with them and to represent Adina and the West Metro on the board. Thanks. >> Yeah. Thanks. And and thanks for your service on the uh league board. You know, it's it's an important responsibility as you think about cities throughout the state of Minnesota of all sizes and shapes and issues. So, thanks for serving. >> Excellent. >> Um, okay. I I think I mentioned earlier we got a couple of public hearings this evening and the first one uh uh involves 4200 76th Street West uh and the so-called Salvation Army project and Carrie Teague community development director is going to introduce the topic and then we've got the uh developers here Ted Carlson and Joe Ber from Carlson Partners and also the Salvation Army is here as well and welcome back. >> Go ahead, Director Tegan. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Members of the city council, uh, a project that you're familiar with as they did go through sketch plan a few months back. Property is located at 4276th Street West. It is just west of France Avenue on 76th. The graphic on the screen here is a zoning map. And I would highlight that this block of 76, you can see we've got five different zoning districts. We've got uh higher density residential in blue property zoned office, a couple of planned industrial districts. The purple here is the AON affordable housing project. It's a PUD. Another PID district and a planned office district. The site is guided in our comprehensive plan for office residential in pink. Part of the comprehensive plan description of this district talks about having a variety of zoning districts within uh within the office residential uh land use category in the comprehensive plan. So here's a description. Primary uses include office uh multif family residential and limited retail. Here's a look at the existing building on the site. The proposal here is for the Salvation Army to reuse the existing building. So, no additions to it. Uh they would just and existing parking lot would remain the same. Um they would beef up the landscaping. Here's a look at the site plan. You can see they would use 18,000 square feet of the building for retail. Uh the warehouse would be about a little over 9,000 square feet. You can see the circulation pattern here on the site. So all of the drop off um and storage of the um of the the retail goods for sale would take place inside the building. So there's no outside storage uh as part of this request. Here's a look at the proposed landscape plan. So they would add landscaping that doesn't exist today in the back, add trees along the east lot line and along 76th Street. This parking is shared with the property to the west. So this request requires a zoning ordinance amendment that would allow secondhand stores to exceed 2500 square feet in the planned commercial district. So the way the ordinance reads today, you can have a secondhand store, but it can't exceed 2500 square feet in size. A reszoning from PI, the current uh zoning industrial to planned commercial district 2 and a site plan review. This is the pyramid of discretion that we look at um on our uh land use applications. The area down in green at the bottom indicates a a project that the city has complete discretion or discretion to approve or deny. In this case, it's a resoning and an ordinance amendment. So, you do have discretion to approve or deny this project. Uh that said, staff has also outlined options for the council to consider in the staff report for approval and denial. Here's a look at the uh zoning [clears throat] ordinance compliance table with the PCD2 district. This project would be uh code compliant with setbacks, parking stalls, uh floor area ratio requirement. One thing I would highlight here is the building coverage is currently 32%. In existing condition, so that does exceed our ordinance. So primary issues is the zoning ordinance amendment reasonable and is the proposed uh reszoning to PCD2 reasonable? Uh in this case staff and the planning commission are recommending approval of both the with the zoning ordinance amendment. Um the planning commission um and staff supports this completely recommended that within the PCD1 district that the maximum 2500 uh square foot limitation remain in place and that the ordinance be amended for the PCD2 and PCD3 district would um there would be no size limitation in those two uh zoning districts. the PCD1 district that's our smaller commercial nodes 44th in France 54th um in France Valley View Wooddale those smaller nodes the PCD2 and PCD3 that's the Southdale area 50th in France and the Grand View area in terms of oh I also want to mention that staff did do some research compared other cities we contacted Eden Prairie St. Louis Park, Richfield, and Bloomington. All of those cities allow secondhand stores just like any other retail store. Um they don't differentiate between secondhand goods. So Edina is unique in that today. Pawn shops would continue to be prohibited. In terms of the reasonzoning, again, staff and the planning commission both support that. Uh we believe that the findings for resoning are met as outlined in the staff uh report. This resoning wouldn't be detrimental to adjacent properties. Uh the site and building would not change on the site. Landscaping would be added to enhance the site. There's several uses along 76. There's a variety of uses. We've got a bank, the multif family residential, there's a health club to the south. So, there is a variety of of uses already within this district or within this area. And it would not result in an overly intensive land use. A parking and traffic study was done by Stantech. Ed Terar is is with us this evening on the call. Uh the conclusion of the study is that there would be no impacts to the adjacent roadways. So um no improvements needed needed there. So with that again staff and the planning commission are recommending Well, I thought I had a recommendation here. The recommendation is to um hold the public hearing. leave it open until June 7th and then continue action to the um the June 16th uh city council meeting. So with that, I can stand for questions. >> Questions for Director Teague. Yes, Council Members Jackson. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, um as we are trying to upgrade our zoning to match the comprehensive plan, the way I read this is that brings this brings us more in line with what our comprehensive plan says for this site. Is that correct? Uh there's no comprehensive plan amendment needed with this. The uses that are described in the O um that land use category today includes office, multif family, residential and limited retail. So we didn't believe that a comprehensive plan amendment would be needed. So yes, this would be in alignment with comprehensive plan. >> Currently, it's [clears throat] industrial which is out of alignment with what it's guided in the comprehensive plan. Correct. Well, >> yeah. So, it's kind of in the office district and industrial district. There's a lot of common uses. Anything that's allowed in the office district is also allowed in the industrial district. And so, there's there's a lot of similarities in those two those two zoning districts. >> So, I think I'm not making my point. and that is this is this is moving us in the direction in a in a overarching policy way that we're going generally with our with our zoning code. This isn't um putting us out of alignment with a comprehensive plan, but it's it's it and it won't uh as we go through the new comprehensive plan and trying to to align all this up, it's not going to create any problems. It's actually more uh parallel to what we're we're headed towards. >> Yes. Yes. I I would agree with that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Council members have questions for Director Teague at this point in time. >> Okay. And we have the applicant here and have you discussed with them a presentation? >> Yes. They don't have a formal presentation, but I believe they want to introduce uh the group and the Salvation Army represent. >> Yeah. Well, you remember the group of course from Sketch Plan Review. So, >> I'll keep it brief. You guys have seen me before. Um good evening. Uh Joe Becker with Carlson Partners. Um thank you for having us back again. Um, we're here once again tonight alongside the Salvation Army um to kind of officially present this uh proposal um and then ultimately answer any questions that you guys may have of us and the public may have of us. Um, you know, again, since I've been here before, just going to keep it brief and highlight three real key points um to to this proposal. Um first uh the proposal represents an adaptive reuse of a currently vacant and underutilized industrial property that has been on the market since 2023. Um vacant since 2025, early 2025. Um second, this is a is a donationbased operation that diverts usable goods from landfills with 100% of proceeds supporting the Salvation Army's mission. Finally, this use provides an affordable neighborhood serving resource within a corridor that is otherwise largely comprised of higher cost commercial uses. And then just to summarize those three points, uh this proposal is activating a vacant uh building, supporting a sustainable mission, and providing a valuable community resource. Um so we're here if you have any questions for us. >> Questions for Mr. Becker. Uh tell walk us back through again what uh you know you talked about the adaptive reuse of it. Um obviously got to be some changes made to the to the facility itself keeping the shell but what talk a little bit about how the building would be improved over over it present stature. >> Yeah. The interior of the building will be completely redone to fit the uh need. There will be a drive-thru lane for interior enclosed uh donations to be dropped off. Uh there will be a warehouse sorting area that will be kind of like a back room and then the store floor will be polished concrete floors, bright uh very inviting for the community to come in and purchase goods. >> As I remember it was like 18,000 square ft of retail I think space. >> Correct. >> And then uh that would be configured with that polished concrete floor and then what else what else would you do in there? polished concrete floors, uh, bright white walls, open ceiling concept, painted black ceiling, uh, with LED lights to to bring in the natural light and keeping a lot of the windows, um, to bring in that natural light as well. >> Okay. Other questions for Mr. Becker at this point in time? >> Um, you want to want to get the gentleman? He has a m is it m was a major? >> Uh, no. My name is envoy. I'm an envoy in the Salvation Army and my name is Tom Canfield. Thank you for having us here. >> Canfield. Yeah. Welcome back. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Would you talk a little bit about the retail operation again because there I mean you could you can re-educate the council but it's also a chance to let people know in the audience and uh that might be viewing this on television. >> Absolutely. >> Uh about what you intend to do there, what you'd like to do. >> Sure. uh what we intend to do and what we like to do is what we do in every other community that we go to, which is serve that community. And we serve the community through having a place where people can bring their unused items, the items they no longer wish to have in their closets or their garage into our location. and we sort through them, value them, merchandise them, and put them on the sales floor to offer up as sales to the public for people who are looking for really unique items, for people who are looking for one-ofa-kind items, for people who are looking for a great deal. Um, and that's what Thrift is all about. We want to employ up to 30 people uh in the Adina community. And uh we want to uh have this location keep 1 million pounds of textile out of our landfills. Uh so we create a sustainability model where we take things that were purchased brand new and we put them back into use in our own communities and we want to keep all the product in the Adina community. Currently what we're doing is when people want to donate, we'll drive a diesel truck into our Edina community and collect whatever items they have. And we would much prefer that they come in an inviting place and drop off at our location. All of the funds that we generate in these thrift stores go to fund our uh drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center. We're the oldest rehabilitation center in Minnesota. We've been uh in serving the Minnesota community for over 75 years. And we've seen tens of thousands of men come to our program, be rehabilitated back into their communities to be fathers, uh productive members of society, and other people who um serve that community of people who need help. >> Yeah. Good. Thanks for that summary, Mr. Canfield. Did that cause any questions from council members at this point in time? >> Yes, Council Member Pierce, go ahead. >> Uh, thanks, Mr. Mayor. Can you also talk through the um donation process or workflow, um, we do know that at at some centers that are using bins outside that it becomes unsightly. People do drop offs and run or drive away. Can you describe how this operation would flow? >> Yeah. Do we have [clears throat] the picture of the building? And what what will happen is you'll drive in the entrance. Uh you'll make that kind of first lefthand turn and then right. And as you can see the green arrow, you uh approach the back of the building and you would drive inside the warehouse building. And at that point, donation attendants would take your donations and put them in two storage devices indoors. We would not have dropboxes. We wouldn't have any bins outside. Everything would be taking place inside of that warehouse. If for some reason that someone does drop something in the middle of the night, okay, we uh are there at 7 o'clock every single morning. And so that would immediately uh come indoors. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Good. Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Canfield. This is a Yes. Council member Verser, go ahead. >> Um because that question has come up and I used to be in the museum world and we were also afraid of people just leaving stuff on our doorstep, too. So, it's it's not just your facility, but how frequently does that tend to happen at other stores that you >> It it really depends on the location. Okay. Um, you know, we have a store in Bloomington. It doesn't happen a lot. >> Okay. >> We have a store in suburban St. Paul and it happens once a week, once a month. Uh, we have stores in Elk River and and Rogers and you Northtown. Rarely ever happens. Um, >> when it happens, is it like a bag of stuff? It's not like >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Good. All right. Any other questions from council members at this point in time? This is a public hearing matter. I'm going to open it up for public testimony. Um, so, uh, keeping in mind that you've got three minutes and you'll get a yellow warning light or amber light when you've got about 30 seconds left and you're then you should be thinking about wrapping up your comments. And I welcome anybody in the audience who wishes to testify regarding this matter to please come forward. Hello. Good evening. It's a beautiful evening out there. Can't wait to get back outside. Um Janie Weston, um I saw their sketch plan a few months ago. I was here at a meeting and I thought, "Yes, this is what we really need in Eina, an operation where vehicles can drive through to drop it off." I have done that myself at um Goodwill stores in St. Louis Park in uh Bloomington. Um, I've for years I've dropped off things at Arc and I also shop regularly at these same locations. It's a great spot to go get my cookie tins for ginger stamps I give to people for Christmas. Um, decorations. You'll never need to buy any more holiday decorating items. Um, thrifting, that's the the current trendy word, um, is extremely popular with young people, middle-aged, older, it does not matter. And as the economy gets tighter and tighter, um, this is going to be a very much desired and necessary, highly um in very high demand type of retail store. people that are more environmentally conscious. This is where they want to go to find things that are still in good shape and not have to buy something, not have to pay for or environmentally not having to have something go in a truck, a plane, a train, whatever to go from point A to B. This makes sense in in every aspect and I will be shopping there and I will be dropping off the things I don't need anymore, too. I'm all in favor of this. I think it's a yes, yes, yes in every single way. >> Thank you, Miss Wson. Anyone else? >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Nadine Riser and I am opposed to the reszoning for the Salvation Army site. My main concern is traffic and personal safety. I live in the neighborhood in the little niche of 76th in Park Lawn. daily. I see heavy traffic on 76th. It's a very busy street. It's a bus line. There's school buses. There's an active LA Fitness Center which causes a lot of congesting traffic as people are trying to turn into LA Fitness. It is all traffic is backed up and that it would be across where the Salvation Army site is. And when traffic is um bad, cars decide that they want to go down Park Lawn. So they turn on the corner of 76th and Park Lawn and speed through there because they want to get over to France Avenue. We have the Fred Richard Park uh playground there. We have children and families walking the streets. We are connected to the Three Rivers bike path. I'm really concerned about the traffic. That is my biggest concern of traffic and um people's safety. I am a thrifter too. I do save all my stuff and I drop it off. So, I'm not against thrifting and I do use the Goodwill. I understand how the Goodwill works. Uh but they have backup too when uh there are so many cars, people trying to drop off and it's really um I'm really concerned about if there's going to be a lot of traffic dropping things off, people trying to get on to 76 with all the traffic that is on there. So I would suggest thinking more. I know you said there was a um a study that was done that made it okay, but you have to live there. That is my neighborhood and I want it to continue to be a safe place. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Rzik. Razer, excuse me, Razer. >> Yeah. Thank you. Good evening. >> Good evening, mayor, council, city manager. My name is Diane Kelly. I turned in my card. I too uh um live on Park Lawn Avenue there. And I have um concerns very serious concerns about the traffic and what it's going to do because on you know a study can be done but the people doing the study I don't know how they do it you know GIS you know software or whatever they do but they're not in that neighborhood. They don't see it. They don't watch, you know, a child try to run across the street. And as Nadine said, people speed through because 76 is backed up. It's backed up for people getting in and out of LA Fitness, Caldwell Banker. Um, and yeah, so anyhow, it's a backup mess. And then you have a bus turning and the cars can't turning on to Park Lawn. And that is maybe what 200 ft from the driveway, 300 ft maybe from the driveway where the thrift store would be. Um and there's a a statement that uh 50 cars um an average of 50 cars per day. I I think that is um very low. I've seen Ark Village, how many cars, you know, drive through the aliens and such and for a large re that's pretty that's a lot of square footage for retail. And then for drop off, I I do not I do not believe 50 is a an adequate number to estimate. The other thing I want to uh talk about is about living wage. Are the persons that that are going to be hired, the gentleman said 30 people will be hired, will they be paid a living wage? Um, so that's a real concern to me. Um, because um, I lost my train of thought. Sorry, not as prepared as everybody else was. Um but I I guess there was a statement in I'm just going to read um let's see it was uh oh about the landscaping I want to read this was interesting to me um that director Carrie Teague said they're proposing some landscaping some year-round evergreen plantings along the north plot line. We've got high density residential potential to the north. At high density potential, those are apartment buildings where that are filled with families and children. So, I just don't see where the exterior either is going to be. It doesn't sound like much improvement with landscaping. So, I guess my time is done. So, I'm against it. >> Thanks, Miss Kelly. Anyone else? Okay, thank you. Do we have anybody online? Nobody online. Okay. All right. Very good. Um, council members, that cause anybody to have any questions before we uh look at the action recommended by staff. >> Yes, council member, go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, I just wanted to ask a quick question. I don't know um if Mr. Miller, you know, um the pathway I'm thinking on Parklon really from Fred Richards to France. Um I think but I don't recall for sure. That's a a shared use kind of elevated path. Is that correct? Or do we expect bikes? Is there a on street bike path? I'm curious on that street. Putting you on the spot. I know. >> No, that's fine. Um to answer your question, there's a shared use path which is the regional trail from France on Park Lawn that goes into Fred Richard's Park south of that spot where it enters the park. Those are sidewalks on both sides with no bike lanes. So there is some parking lane on the one side, but it's it's sidewalks down to 76 Street, which would be near this parcel. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh Director T, did you say we had Ed Terar available? We we do. >> Yeah. The two ladies that were concerned about uh traffic just left, but it was >> It would probably be good to have >> I think we should have come. We should have Ed come on and and talk about how he went about doing his traffic study and and how he arrived at that sort of neutral opinion. We know we know the building's been >> for sale for since uh I think 2023 and vacant since 2025. So, how did he go about doing his study? >> Yeah, I'm here. Everybody, can you hear me? >> Yeah, we can hear you, Mr. Char, why don't you tell tell us how you went about uh concluding that there would be no >> what I understood would be no impact uh >> on traffic if this were approved. >> Sure. So we went uh started the study by collecting new traffic data at the intersections as requested by by city staff. uh we focused on France at 76, 76 in Parklon, 77th in Parklon and then the access point itself on 76 collected new data um and then we got information from the uh applicant um as well as compared that to it data for the number of trips that will occur at this site. um they came together pretty pretty well and we use that information to then develop traffic forecasts at those intersections and the access point and found that there is adequate capacity at those intersections external to the site. Um so that's where the conclusion comes that we don't need any improvements at those intersections regarding speeding um on the local streets. That's often times an issue. Um, you know, that's that's an enforcement issue at in some locations. Um, we didn't measure any speed, but um, just the observations out there, you know, it's a fairly typical, uh, location. 76th Street is a wide street. It's se it's four lanes, so there is opportunity there. Um, but as far as, you know, any safety issues that were obvious or, you know, uh, in place when we were there, there was nothing that was, you know, obvious that needed to be be corrected. >> Mr. Tahar, is uh, 76th Street where this property is located, is that a collector street? And what's the volume of traffic on that street daily? >> Uh, I don't have the daily volume. I it is a major east west street. Um we had a volume of in the PM a through volume of uh 600 vehicles eastbound and 400 vehicles westbound. So it's close to a thousand vehicles in the peak hour. So it's it's a significant volume on that street. And uh with respect to I I think the two ladies that were worried about and concerned over traffic and safety lived over a street over on Parklon. Did you did you do any uh studies that would have reflected uh traffic getting pushed to Parklon? >> We did look at the intersection of Parklon and 76. Once again, there was adequate capacity there. Um, you know, the majority of this traffic, especially people that aren't in the in the nearby area, will will be more focused on France and then potentially down on the 77th if you're coming from [clears throat] 100. >> So, I don't expect there to be a lot of development traffic using Park Lawn. There would be some local traffic of people that live in that area that would come down Park Lawn. So, I think the impact of this particular project would be minimal on Park Lawn. >> Okay. Thank you. Did that cause the council members to have other questions for Mr. Tahar? All right. Thanks for being with us, Mr. Tahar. >> Sure. >> Um, anything you wanted to add, Director Teague? All right. And the the motion you're recommending that we adopt is to close the public hearing at noon on Sunday, June 7, 2026. give people a chance to submit anything they want to do in writing or or call [clears throat] in actually leave a message and then continue the action to the June 16th, 2026 city council meeting. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Is there a motion to that effect? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Council member Jackson moves Council Member Pierce the adoption of the motion as stated, which is to close the public hearing at noon on Sunday, June 7th, 2026, and continue the action to the June 16, 2026 city council meeting. Any further discussion on the motion as stated? All right. All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. The um motion is adopted. And we will continue this matter to the June 16, 2026 city council meeting of the city of Dina for a decision. And then we have one other matter in the public hearing portion of the agenda this evening. And that is a matter that our community development director is going to handle as well. But I think he'd like us to think about dealing with this this evening because we have folks here that have traveled uh halfway across the country. And um so we'll we'll get to that I guess when you get to the tail end of your presentation, but this involves the proposal for an EV charging station at 616 Vernon Avenue. And I'll turn it now to Director Teague. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. A site you're all familiar with. This [clears throat] is the fifth proposal that we've had in the last four or five years. Starting with the the somewhat larger restaurant that was proposed there with the rooftop dining. We had the green drop um donation drop off center, the uh the pizza station proposal about a year ago. And we also had a sketch plan for an assisted living uh facility. They never pursued that any further than the sketch plan. So nothing has been approved yet. The proposal is to remodel that existing building itself. No expansion as some of those other projects had proposed for an EV charging station. Here's a look [snorts] at the zoning map of the site. And note that the property is zoned PCD4, planned commercial district. There's three uses that are allowed within that district. A gas station, a car wash, and an automobile service center. This was originally a gas station and a auto repair center for the last 50 60 years. It has been vacant the last uh 3 four years. We have uh medium density um PRD uh zoning to the west. We've got some duplexes to the south across Vernon and primarily single family homes to the north. The site is guided in our comprehensive plan for medium density residential. This designation goes back to the 1980s. We figure that the the thinking at that time was just simply to continue that medium density designation from from the west should the property ever uh redevelop. So, we've got a conflict between the the zoning ordinance and the comprehensive plan. So these next uh few slides are renderings of what the project will look like. This is a night picture. You may recall at sketch plan we looked at a variety of canopies they were proposing was the council's recommendation to go with these uh shorter kind of smaller canopies. You can see the remodeled building. Some of the proposed landscaping there would be uh seven charging stations on the site. This is the floor plan. They would have a a market, kind of a a self-s serve market with a lounge, a couple of restrooms, and some games. The uh the [clears throat] facility was proposed to be open 24 hours. It would be open during the day uh from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. where anyone could access the building. Outside of those hours, there would be a QR code for for customers uh getting a charge for their car. uh they um are proposing a partnership with the security system. So those would be continually monitored. Should there ever be a problem, they have indicated that um they would have a person on site if needed. The store would be cleaned uh daily. So this request requires a comprehensive plan amendment to reguide the site from medium density residential to neighborhood node. As I mentioned, the site is zone PCD4, which a gas station is a permitted use. Um, the definition of a gas station is a building and its accessory structures used for the sale of motor fuels and electricity is defined as an alternative fuel for transportation. So, we the use is permitted on the site. uh site plan review and also there are multiple variances and I'll show I'll have a map um later on in the presentation that shows where those variances are where they're varying uh from our city code requirements. So the proposed designation here is for neighborhood node. It's our smallest land use category in the comprehensive plan. As I mentioned earlier, it's 44th in France, 54th in France, Valley View Wooddale, 70th in Cahill, and the Lincoln Londere area. We do [snorts] have a couple of uh gas stations in Auto Repair in the 54th in France area. There used to be one at Valley View and Wooddale. Um and there also is one down in the 70th and Cahill [snorts] area. Neighborhood node is described in the comprehensive plan as uh in general small to moderate scale commercial, residential or mixeduse buildings that serve primarily the adjacent neighborhood. Again, looking at our pyramid of discretion, this is one where the council has complete discretion whether to approve or deny given the comprehensive plan amendment. This is a four vote item. Anytime you change the comprehensive plan, it does require four votes of the city council. [clears throat] Again, staff, excuse me, staff has outlined alternatives for the city council to consider for approval and denial. Here is a look at the site [clears throat] plan itself. You can see the uh the canopies and the charging stations. There would be five along that north lot line, two along Vernon Avenue. They are proposing a little patio to the north of the building. Mechanical equipment down in this area here. This is al this is a the dumpster area that would be screened. A daylight view of uh the slide that we showed earlier. This is a look at the mechanical equipment and that uh trash enclosure enclosed area. >> [snorts] >> They are proposing a fence along the west and north lot line. Here's a look along the north lot line. This would be as if the picture was taken from the single family homes to the north. Uh again, a rendering from Vernon. The signs that are depicted here likely don't meet our sign ordinance. They're not asking for a variance. They've indicated that they would comply with the size regulations um should the project get approved. Here's a look at the site plan. They are proposing uh landscaping just inside the fence and outside the fence along the north lot line and adding landscaping along the um along Vernon. A boulevard style sidewalk would be required as part of this. And one of the conditions should the the council approve the project is to connect the sidewalk to the existing sidewalk just to the north. They have done a phototric plan and demonstrated that it would be code compliant. It would be uh at the at at the little opening in the fence would be 0.2 and then zero all along the north lot line. Uh the code requires up to 0.5. So it's well within that. They have indicated during the night they would dim those lights a little bit. This is a look at the zoning ordinance compliance table. So note that the canopy, the pump islands, uh the parking lot uh setbacks, the required setback from residential use and parking lot setback from building um variances required for all of those. So this is that graphic that I talked about before. So the patio to the north of the building, they're proposing a two-foot setback. Variance is needed there. the canopy setback and the parking lot. There's existing uh pavement here, but they would be expanding that. That's a zero setback, so variance there as well. Um again, the canopy set back and the parking lot would have a 10-ft setback from Vernon's uh Vernon, so variance needed there. The mechanical equipment would be set back 13 feet, another variance. And the code requires a sidewalk in between a building to a parking area of 10 feet. The existing condition is six feet in this area, uh 2 feet in this area, and again six feet. So variances are needed for all of those things. Uh we've talked about this with other projects. The triangle, that's the buildable area on the site. So given the small size of the and shape of the site, there's really nothing that can be done on this site without the need for for variances. So two primary issues. Is the comprehensive plan reasonable? And are the proposed variances justified? Again, this is a project where the planning commission is also recommending uh approval along with staff. Uh we believe that the comprehensive plan is reasonable in that the site has been a commercial property for over 50 years. Um the amendment is reasonable given the consistency in the use from auto repair and gas um over the years to an electric vehicle charging station and reszoning or uh amending the comp plan would then bring the site into compliance with the zoning for the site. Um again the existing use is a permitted use um and a neighborhood node would accommodate this smallcale commercial use. Uh the proposal would be supported by existing roads. Traffic study again was done by Mr. Terar who's on the call again with us this evening and can answer any questions in that regard. We also believe that the variances are justified. Um again it's a reasonable use. the it's similar to the uses that have occurred on the property for over 50 years. Uh the closest residential structure would be enhanced with the landscaping by the fence and the the landscaping that's added. Practical difficulties include the small size of the lot, the irregular shape of the lot, and the two uh roadway frontages that require an increased setback on the north and south sides. Again, it would be difficult to do anything on this site without the need of a variance. Um, and the proposal would be an improvement over the existing conditions of the site. So, with that, again, staff and the planning commission are recommending approval subject to the findings and conditions that are outlined in the staff report and the resolution. uh there are there is an alternative for denial that uh those findings are also included in the staff report should the council uh go that direction. So with that I can stop there. Uh the applicants are here to make a presentation as well. I can answer any questions or they could come up and give their presentation and we could take all >> let's check on questions for you first. >> Sure. >> Yeah. We just we'll start here council member Jackson. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, how did the planning commission vote on this? >> Yeah, so the comprehensive plan amendment was unanimous and the reasonzoning with the site plan and variances, I believe the vote was 7 to2. >> Thank you, [snorts] >> member. >> I think it was was it 72? Okay. Yeah, that's right. Um, sorry about that. I asked a question during the sketch plan and um if I could have the slides. I've submitted some images that I'd like to have pulled up. [clears throat] Okay, thank you. And I don't know if we can get it. So, there we go. Perfect. Um when I look at our city code section 24-130 standards and guidelines curb cuts on collector streets u it appears pretty straightforward that um you know the goal is the number of driveways intersecting a street designated as a collector or arterial by the comprehensive plan shall be limited to those driveways essential for adequate access. And my understanding is this is an arterial and it's listed as an arterial in the comp plan. Is that true? >> I believe that's correct. Yes. >> Thank you. [snorts] And it says when properties adjoin more than one street, which this property does, driveways shall be restricted if possible to the street with the lower volume of traffic. The following addition additional restrictions apply to lots in the R1 district and R2 district. And when I brought this up at the sketch plan, I did note that, you know, in what does in mean? It doesn't say surrounded by, but you can see it is a lot of R1 and R2 around that parcel. So, is that in? And in the case where it is considered in, um, no driveway shall intersect with a street designated in the comprehensive plan as an arterial. And I haven't received any feedback from staff on this concern that I raised back during the sketch plan review. >> Yeah, I can answer that question, member Risser. Um, yes, that is what the city code says, but we have to keep in mind that Vernon Avenue is operated and managed by Henipin County. So any access or lane widths or operations is really governed by their driveway or access guidelines. So in this case, that code doesn't apply to Vernon Avenue. The code does not apply to any collector or arterial road in Edina. >> No, just this one that's controlled by Henipin County. >> Okay. >> You have to meet their access. >> Has county been informed about this proposed project? >> They have and they have no concerns with these driveways as they've been since 1972 or as part of this submitt. >> Okay. And my understanding of this um ordinance is that the whole idea is you can have a process for making a road safer. And as development happens, the logic and the fact that this has been in our comp plan as guided toward multif family makes it seem as if the logical thing to do would be to cut off the access from Vernon, eliminate those conflict points and then have access solely off of Eden Prairie Road. And I just you don't need to comment on that, but it it seems like that would be a logical course of action. Um could I have the next slide? Okay. And I did want to bring this in because uh this is from our recently adopted safe and equitable mobility action plan. And I have added the blue arrows. Those arrows point to um 616 Vernon, the site we're looking at tonight. It also points to 4404 Valley View Road, which was another gas station site. So it is um 0.27 [snorts] acres in size and also a triangularly shaped lot. Um can we go to the next slide? But you can see those are designated as um high injury areas. This is just one and actually um since the time I have served on council, this is the fifth project that has come before me because we had the green drop, we had the first pizza plan, we had the second pizza plan, we had the 20 unit memory care, and now we have this. So I have been serving three years, 5 months, and two days, and we've had this many projects. This by far was the one that um really demonstrates with these uh former gas station sites here in Edina, we're really taking an approach that is um thinking way outside the box. And I did actually track down a dissertation that this individual who specializes in urban planning did on what happens with leftover gas station sites. And I talked about that in one of these earlier reviews, but nobody is pushing it to this extent. And I can't help but think that in a way this is like the tunnel under France that was also it was a tunnel, but it was two separate bridges. There's a paradox here. And um there's a paradox when we say nothing can be built here, but let's do this. And it just it seems like there's a real powerful disconnect. So, thank you for showing that. I do believe I've got another slide. Um here you can see the buildable area um that was shown for the Keys site. And then here's the buildable area u and the development that happened at the 4404 site which is again in my neighborhood. And you can see uh you've got two double dwelling units. uh in terms of our code, it's a site that is not large enough for just one double dwelling unit. And so the legal buildable area for the westernmost unit is very small. It looks like it's about a tenth the size of the entire um building [clears throat] footprint. And I I feel like as we continue to push and to really encourage uh a lot of building on these very small, irregularly shaped lots, we're opening up a Pandora's box and a lot of issues that really are quite problematic. And particularly I'm very concerned about safety. Uh and what happened here at Valley View. Again, this was a corner lot and so I guess oh you don't have to close that off. You can keep it. um which they did, you know, and not going along Oaklan and limiting access off of that. And so now we have a situation where we have a very short driveway. And if we can go to my last slide, [sighs] this is what it looked like a few a couple weeks ago. And that dumpster remains, it was emptied, but it was kept in the same position. So it continues to block the sidewalk and you know so you've got a car coming out of the driveway or a truck and they can't even see if there's a kid whipping down the sidewalk um on a bike which there are a lot of kids in this area who are trying to get to Pamela Park or trying to get to a school or something like that. And you know I I feel like we're really pushing what is being done on these very small irregularly shaped lots across the street is Vue 44. it when it was being developed, it was described and it was described in the te staff report that it wasn't the fault of the developer that it was a small irregularly shaped lot and then it was granted an easement into the public rightway. And so now you've got this sidewalk where you can't step away from the road, you have to step toward the road and it's a very narrow sidewalk. So I I have a lot of concerns about this project. Thank you and thank you for showing those images. >> Other questions for Director T? Yes, Council Member Pierce. >> Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Um, [clears throat] so if you could bring up the um zoning ordinance compliance table. And so as I've been thinking about this, I I'm not sure I'm interpreting standard versus propose in with the right construct. So um I walk by that site quite a bit. We live in Highlands. Um, and so when I think about it, I don't I don't think about this being a vacant lot and then there's a plan to build a building with a waiting room. And so I don't think about it that way. If it were that scenario, then the setbacks would make sense to me because I in my mind I visualize we're building this building and that's where the setback would be. But when I'm when you walk by there, there's an existing building there today. Um, and so I try to rationalize that with what's proposed. And when I I'll just give one example, but then hopefully you'll be able to kind of talk me through it. When we say the pump island setback is 20 feet and the proposed is zero ft, I assume a pump island is where you would typically get gas from. And so that's I'm trying to understand the proposed why there's a variance um that's required for what's going in and and what's the intent behind it. Does that make sense? >> It that does. It does. So the the pump islands here highlighted in the orange. So that's new to the site and and they're required the same setback as a structure. So they're proposing those canopies to be at a setback of zero feet. >> So the canopy we are saying that that is the equivalent of an old gas pump island. >> Yes. >> Okay. So we're equating those two things. Okay. >> Yep. And there is existing parking up here, but they're expanding that. And again, that was the zero setback. So because they're expanding it, that's where the variance kicks in there. And how is it being expanded? >> Oh, I don't have an existing >> because in my mind when I walk by there, there's parking there today. And so I just I I think this is going in the same parking stall that's there today. And clearly you're saying it's not. >> It's generally in that same spot, but it is getting wider >> by Do you know by how much? I I don't >> wider or deeper. >> Uh wider, not closer to the lot line, I believe in this area here. I I can I can do some calculations. >> Okay. But you may have just answered my question. So So if I walk past there and there is a parking stall, you're saying these are getting wider, not closer to the >> correct >> lot line. Okay. Okay. And then the existing building. So when member Risser talks about the triangle and the buildable, we're really not building anything. >> Correct. >> It's existing today. >> Yep. So there's no variances for the existing building. That's staying the same. >> Okay. >> The mechanical equipment is new. So that's the reason for the variance there. And because they're they're they're redoing the entire parking lot, um we included that sidewalk around the building as >> and so the six two and six are for the the sidewalk variance. >> Correct. >> That's okay. All right. And then the last one is the two up front on along Vernon. >> Uh oh, >> the patio. Yeah. >> Yep. That's for the patio here. Yep. And then the last one, the two pump islands, I guess. >> Correct. >> Up front. And so that variance is it's supposed to be 20 ft from the road. That's what the standard would be. Am I No. Yeah. 20 ft from the road. >> Right. So the the canopy and the pump islands are new, >> but it's zero. No, it's it's 10 >> in this in this area. That's 10 feet here. >> So, it's the is that that's Vernon, isn't it? >> This is Vernon down here. Yeah, it's along the north lot line where it's zero. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, that one kind of that one throws me. I'm just That's why I'm just reading this wrong. I was reading the third go back to the compliance table. I was reading Pump Islands again because those are two Pump Islands. >> That's Vernon's turned around. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Good question. >> Okay. So, I think that's it. So, that those answer my um my questions. >> Thank you. >> Could I ask you a question? So, were you thinking about this site in relative relativity to the old Kevin Keys site? >> Yeah. >> So, was Kevin Keys site in compliance with the compliance table or They were in they roughly the same footprint as what's proposed here. >> Correct. Yeah. The the building's not >> back to the picture though. >> Yep. Yeah. >> So the the building doesn't meet uh the required setbacks. Again, the the parking aisles islands here need a 10 foot or a 20 foot setback and they're they're 10 today. And then all along that north lot line basically a zero setback >> and that's where they are today. >> That's where they are today. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And so that's why I'm trying to well is it a v do we need a variance for that if it's that's where it is today but I understand what you're describing. >> Thank you. >> Would you remind uh me again if somebody came along with another gas station or a car wash or wanted to have a motorcycle repair shop or what what what's allowed under the existing zoning code? >> Yep. So, an automobile repair shop is allowed, a car wash is allowed, and a gas station. So, if somebody wanted to come in and do automobile repair out of the existing building and do nothing to the site, that would be a permitted use today. But we still have this conflict in with the comprehensive plan that we should shore up at some time at some point. >> Yep. Okay. Yeah. Thanks for that reminder. Other questions for Director Teague at this point in time? Okay. Uh we've got uh some of the folks here from I want to call it Iona but it's Ayanna I think and you've got um a team of folks here from North Carolina and I think they've been with us before at least in part. I don't know if all of them have been here before and we had the sketch plan and it looks like Declan Wilkerson is going to do the >> Yes, sir. It's me. >> Presentation. Good to be back with you guys this evening. I'll let Andreas uh begin the presentation. But yes, sir, I'll be jumping in. >> Thank you so much. Good evening, uh Mr. Mayor, council members, fantastic to see you guys again, and thank you for the community for showing up. I'm a big uh lover of uh being involved in your community and your government, large and small. So, regardless of opposition or uh for us, I'm glad everybody showed up to voice their opinion. So, to jump right in into it, we're with Ayanna. I'm the site development manager for this project. with me today. I have our site designer or as Mary you say our crackpot architect and I have our engineer with Kimley Horn here today and we all know why we're here. So, we're going to just go a little bit quickly through our presentation and we're ready to answer any questions from the public here. Um, how do I click through? >> Errors on the keyboard, I think. >> Right. Andreas, would you give us your last name? Give us your last name again, please. >> My name is Andres Vier. >> Okay. So Ayana, we were founded by the eight major automakers you see on the screen. BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Stalantis, and Toyota. Currently, we boast 115 sites live across the country with around 80 in active construction now locally to Minnesota. We are we have Blaine, White Bear Lake, Leno Lakes, Oakdale, and Brooklyn Park live. So if you guys ever want to go check out one of our sites, please feel free to go there. This is our high level network map as we're expanding quickly across the country. The our OEMs, auto manufacturers are very um interested in building a high-speed charging network in order to get more EVs on the road for the future. And that's what we pride ourselves on building. We're building for the future here. Um this site in particular, Nadina, will feature uh seven dual port chargers. So that means 14 cards can charge at our site at a level three. Level three, meaning you can charge from zero to 80% in about half an hour and to full within an hour. Again, weather depending or bad or age of battery. Um, this particular site in a dinina will feature uh a customer lounge, uh 24/7 restrooms, and then we were we're partnering with Amazon to have a JWO just walk out store and this would offer convenience items as such as drinks, snacks, and whatnot. And we offer here we go and sorry and I did want to skip over here and then show our updated site plan that has changed since we've last met. So we did our biggest changes we made is we've deleted the sidewalk running all along behind the chargers and we only left the path for our ADA accessible stall to avoid any uh to avoid our uh ADA people from going behind cars. They can just wrap around and go and connect to that sidewalk that we're building in front of the store. And we're still keeping a sidewalk connection from the neighborhood on paper east to then connect down to Vernon. And like Carrie said, we will build a sidewalk connecting up to the point of the triangle as a service to the community. Next here, um, we really pride ourselves on the quality of our chargers. Um, they're made here in the state side in Wisconsin and they're 400KW outpatronic. Uh, offering our mini canopy solution and to address any signage concerns, our mini canopies will look like this. They will not have any additional signage besides what Carrie showed on the screen earlier. Going down here, this is our photometric. Again, to aliviate any uh concerns from the community and the neighborhood, we've made a a valiant effort here to ensure the canopies are angled up and point down. It's LED shielded lighting pointing down. And we'll and as long as there's nobody there at during nighttime hours, we will program program them to dim to 50%. Even at full brightness though, you can see along the perimeter, we're still meeting that 0 foot candle uh light bleed. And going through our landscaping plan and uh this is another change we've made uh that wasn't updated with the rendering. We've switched over to this fence completely closed off so to avoid any concerns with any lights from cars that might be around at night and with additional landscaping along the back with trees we will be planting. So takes care of any um light pollution hopefully uh any lighting concerns from the public as well as with sound. Um the chargers charge at about a 50 decel and if all seven are active at once it will only go up to around 68 dB. So probably around the the sound of this conversation right now and it bleeds out as you step her foot as you walk further away. I'll move along with the presentation maybe seems to be stuck. Apologies. >> Thank you. >> Those are the highle site details. Now going into the design of the site, I'll like to hand it over to my site designer, Declan, to walk over to talk over the the canopy specific and what the building amenity will provide for the community. >> All right. Thank you. Um >> uh good evening, mayor and council members. Uh nice to be with you again. Um, kind of like Andreas was just mentioning, this is a a you know, construction level drawing um that kind of highlights um in a bit more detail what we plan to do with our canopies. You can see especially from that side elevation view at the top um just kind of where the light would be um directed towards um and the light kind of light bar that wraps around um the the ovalshaped canopy is also kind of recessed up in there. Um, so yeah, just doing everything we can to minimize light bleed. Uh, moving forward a little bit more. Um, a lot of the stuff you guys have heard in past presentations. So, can I just that'll be helpful for all of us. Um, so yeah, the impact we're looking for, you know, quick construction. We pride ourselves on ion speed. Um, you know, and that's from the design phase to the permitting phase to the construction phase. Um, we like to do things quickly, efficiently, um, and, you know, minimize impact and disruption to surrounding communities as much as possible. Um, we've also talked before about connecting to the surrounding community as best as we can. Um, and that's seen in the form of a new sidewalk along Vernon Avenue uh, for pedestrians and cyclists alike. Um, and then a piece of new sidewalk along Eden Prairie Road um, for further neighborhood connection um, was something that we've been exploring. And then the visual impact. Uh we talked about landscaping. All landscaping will adhere to the city's city's code minimum um in accordance with section 36 zoning of the code code of ordinances. Um like Andrea showed, we have an updated landscape plan. Um but of course still willing to talk through options um and figure out, you know, what we can and you know can't do um for the surrounding residents. Um, again, we've seen these pictures before, but just to, you know, kind of refresh, this is, um, a slightly outdated rendering. Now, you can see, as Andre has called out before, this older rendering shows, um, the fence in the back with kind of slats with a little gap in between. Um, the last time I was here, that was called out. Um, and you know, we've we've actually specked a fence that would have um those slats with no gap in between. Again, just doing everything we can to minimize uh light bleed from the canopies that kind of face that way as well as um you know, headlights of parked cars at night. Um again, here this image you've seen before. Um some of the things that I'd like to point out, um kind of like I just mentioned, you know, the trees along Vernon A, the shrubs along Vernon A, all these things are kind of for visual representation at this stage. Um we'd be happy to talk about, you know, if the trees are too tall or too short, um too close together, too far apart. um you know, we're willing to work um with you guys at that that level. Um here's our nighttime rendering. Again, Andreas had already pointed out um that the canopies will, you know, dim to 50% um and then when a a car pulls up at night, you know, light back up only on that canopy. Um >> is that representation supposed to be at 50% or at the typical nighttime lighting before you go to 50? Um, I believe that this one was one of the first passes. This one might be more >> typical lighting to answer your question. >> I believe so. Um, but this one you can see kind of in the far back um where there's not a car. Um, that canopy light's just completely off. So, it's supposed to kind of just show um that we can work with it. Um, but again, yeah, this one was designed with uh full light capacity in mind. Um, and then again, yeah, just look at the floor plan. Um, like Andreas mentioned, we're proposing the Amazon Just Walkout Convenience Store. Um, a customer lounge that's 247, restrooms, um, some small arcade games that would be free, um, to, you know, ionic customers and the public alike. Um, and then a little, uh, coffee coffee bar area that would also be free. Um, and I think we've since, um, again, we've we've had an updated drawing since then, but um, we're proposing also a um, code compliant, uh, water fountain as well. Um, moving forward again just to look at some more technical details of the building elevations that we've talked about before. Um, and then yeah, just to touch again, you know, sea store powered by Amazon just walk out technology. It's completely autonomous and open 24/7. Uh, the lounge free access to the customer lounge from 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. Um, and then will require QR code access after hours. Um, and is equipped with free Wi-Fi as well. Um, and then like I just touched on, we're proposing the addition of a coffee niche, a water fountain, um, and then those few arcade games as well. Um, and then this is just a look, um, at one of our very first projects. Um, it's actually relevant to speak about because, you know, Council Member Risser, you just, uh, brought up, you know, what do people do with old gas stations? This was actually a 100-year-old gas station in Apex, North Carolina, um that we retrofitted in a very similar way um to what we be we would be proposing to do here. Um this is an inside look at the lounge. You can see the arcade game there on the wall. Um and then back through the window out to the Chargers. Um this is a site and Garner. Again, another um example of a reused gas station. Um and then here's the interior of that building. And you can see a little bit more. We have our water fountains there on the side. um customer lounge area and then the uh Amazon just walk out convenience store um behind the glass there. Um a few more operational details to touch on. U talked about it before, but the 24/7 surveillance uh will of course be um applied here with internal and external um cameras as needed. um the daily monitoring of site issues. Um and we will have the ability to engage thirdparty security and um if absolutely necessary, law enforcement as well. Um you know, free access to the customer lounge. Um and then for upkeep, uh we hire a local facilities maintenance contractor. Um, and we can do daily visits to clean the building, remove trash, and provide formal reports um, back to us that kind of tell us what is um, what's working, what's not working, what we need to um, address. Um, and then here's another site in Houston. Um, kind of just shows again what we what we're aiming to do here. Um, and then this is one of our standard sites um, that Andreas alluded to earlier. We have standard sites throughout the state of Minnesota um, and in the Minneapolis area. Um, and that's a look at one of our more standard sites just to get a feel for who we are, our branding, our image, um, and what we like to provide. Um, and again, this one in Fra, Colorado. Um, and yeah, that brings us to the end and we'd be happy to, you know, field any questions that you may have for us. >> Thank you. Uh, questions. Yeah, member. Go ahead. >> When I look at the, um, sites that you mentioned, Brooklyn Park, Oakdale, it looks like they're paired with >> Hi VS. Is there are there any [snorts] other sites that you have where they're surrounded entirely by residential? >> Uh, no ma'am, not at this time. No. Um, in other states perhaps um but in the state of Minnesota, no ma'am. This one is definitely an anomaly for us as I'm sure. Um, it has been for you guys. Um, but yeah, the Minnesota sites, we do have a partnership with HY um, which is the ones that you're talking about. >> Okay. And from my own experience, I drove with a friend to Chicago and back and she in her Tesla and we strategically stopped at at grocery stores was where we stopped and it timed out just absolutely beautifully. You get out, you walk around, you go shopping. Are you at all concerned that people you know what's the draw to go to a place that is basically in which which is in an entirely residential neighborhood? >> Yeah, it's a good question. Um were you going to speak to that? >> Sure. We're off a major highway and again uh the draw would be um we want to provide a different customer experience. Um yes uh partnering with HY. We love our standard sites. We love our plus sites like this. We love them all the same like as you love your children, right? And we just want to offer different types of experiences here in this location in Dina instead of Hy being the attractor and we being the bonus. Um, ion is a bonus and then you have the convenience store to stock up, refuel yourself with energy drinks, normal drinks, snacks, lounge to wait to wait for your car to charge and then that then you can drive away. So focusing from instead of being accessory use, we're the main driver of bringing people to our site. >> Other questions? Yes. >> Um, so two questions. one when you said you changed that sidewalk that goes from the um accessibility the handicap mark spot um and then to the building is that is there a fence that runs along that um to the north? >> Yes, we will have a fence covering the ADA path. So to I know the community and through better adina uh had some feedback. So that's why we ended up deleting that whole sidewalk and the only connection point will be fence and it also falls uh the landscaping will be in front of that sidewalk and our ADA uh path will lead that way into the sidewalk. >> Terrific. Thank you. And then with the QR code um after hours, >> how do you get the QR code? Do you charge to get it or or what is the I guess the concern is you know if you just buy a candy bar then people can go and spend the night there um what's the QR code represent? >> Good question. And the QR code is the reason we implemented that to avoid that type of situation. So to get into the building after hours um you need to scan a QR code. It'll send you a text to your phone. You do a quick sign up. So first name, last name, phone number, email so we can keep track. So if we have any um bad actors, we can essentially ban them from ever entering again if we ever run into that situation. So the QR code grants you access to the building, access to the restroom. So and again, this is human monitored. We have an ingrown system back home in Durham, North Carolina that monitors our sites with a with a very technologically advanced team. Actually really proud of what they've built here. So yeah, and we notice any abnormalities like somebody scanned into the QR code and use the restroom. they've been in there for hopefully it doesn't get to this point, but if they've been in there for 3 hours, like, okay, do we need to raise a flag, call in some help, go check on them. So, we monitor the people that go in to avoid any bad actors or people staying there overnight and just to avoid loitering cuz yes, we want you to come enjoy the amenities, but also leave room for others to come in and out, you know. >> Okay, great. Thank you, >> Council Member Agno. >> Thank you. Um, I think that this was discussed at the planning commission meeting. Um, but I wanted to get clarification on the number of users you expect per day. >> Um, is that something that you've been able to estimate? >> Of course. And, uh, we've, um, we've pulled some data from I'll pull up Houston, uh, Texas in large metro area. Our peak AM and PM average hours range around 13 drivers coming in at peak uh, hours. So, we anticipate uh pretty lower utilization, significantly lower than a gas station, but uh for Houston Metro being one of our highly used sites, that's still pretty good having 13 at the peak AM and PM hours. >> Okay. Um and I I asked cuz I I may have misheard on the planning commission, but it sounded like maybe the total per day was 10 users, and I felt like that was probably pretty low. Um, but then the traffic study on their estimate I I captured 86 trips. Um, does 86 then if I if I look at a full like 24-hour period feel more accurate? >> That would be on the high end and especially for a metro area and then if the council members would like further data after this meeting, we'll be more than happy to provide that. But on a very good day, highly traffic day, that's entirely possible. But uh we anticipate uh again am peak pm peak hours to be around 13 and then through scattered throughout the day. So it'll be that'll be on the high end but most likely a little lower. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Um Mr. Teague, uh we talked about Edar having done a traffic study, but you didn't comment on what the outcome of the study was, I don't think. >> Oh yes. the outcome similar to the last project that um he [clears throat] found that no improvements needed to be made to the adjacent roadways that the roadways would support the project. >> The volumes of traffic in and out of there would be what equivalent greater than less than what was happening with Kevin Keys. You >> know that? >> I don't know that. That could be a question. Mr. Terart might know that. Any other questions? >> Yes, I'm here again. Mr. >> Tur, are you there? >> Yeah, I am here. Can you hear me? >> Yeah, we can. >> Um, typically those numbers for this proposed project would be significantly lower than a gas station. Even a smaller gas station would have higher volumes. >> Say that again. I think you kind of cut in and out there. >> Sure. A typical gas station would be much higher than what we're anticipating for this site. And what about an auto repair facility? >> An auto repair facility would be Well, they still had gas pumps, I believe. So, it was >> they didn't have they didn't have gas pumps. >> They did not have gas pumps. >> It was just a straight auto repair. >> Auto repair facility would probably be similar to this. Um, you know, that you don't have a lot of vehicles coming in and out in the peak hour, but it will probably be similar. >> There's no way. >> Okay. Well, why don't you take a look at some data that you've got available there while we're having a public hearing on this matter? Um, all right. Any other questions for the applicant at this point in time? All right. Why don't you gentlemen sit down, please? And we're going to open this up for public testimony. We don't need anything further from you at this point in time. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. This is a public hearing matter and I'm going to open it up now for public testimony. Keep in mind uh the 3minut rule, so-called three-minut rule and you'll see a yellow light when you got about 30 seconds left and you can think about wrapping up your comments and we'll treat everybody the same that way if we are careful about observing the clock here. So feel free to come forward and you don't have to give us your address, just uh just your name. I do have one visual aid for you. uh Matthew Pepper 604 Eden Prairie Road. You've seen me up here before. Very involved with the local neighbors advocating uh on this site. We've always been here. I've been up here before to say I really we really want residential, but really what we want is something that fits in the neighborhood and this site achieves that. But it does more than that. I' I'd say that it does three important things for the neighborhood and for the community. The first is it makes EV ownership more reasonable. Um, I don't think we're just going to be pulling in folks from the highway. We're going to be pulling in on our street there are three large condo buildings or two condos and one apartment, 60 units, and this site will make EV ownership uh more uh attainable for those individuals. Uh, Mr. Teague talked about duplexes. A lot of those folks are renters. So renters and folks in condos and apartments that live in the western metro will have EV ownership much more available to them because of the site. Second, I wouldn't uh uh discount the convenience factor. I love the water fountain. Uh this is not the gathering space that we sort of really wanted, but folks biking by are going to stop for a Gatorade, fill up their water. Um and my seven-year-old wants to take his friends across the street and get a candy bar. So that convenience factor I would not discount. Um and third, this group has been very um engaged with the local neighbors. Uh the changes that you've seen here is is directly based on some feedback that we provided them. Um we did go to I don't know if anybody here has actually been is this can I show? There we go. Um to an to a site this is White Bear Lake. You see the Adina green. Um it was very wellkept. the there were still suds in the um in the window washer. You go to a gas station, sometimes there's not suds. If it was recently changed, there were suds there. Um and my wife said, "I love these colors. Uh it looks cool. This is one of those sites that's going to be winning awards because of this conversion. Uh we did charge. The stuff worked uh flawlessly. It was it was a great site. So, um I'm excited about having them as neighbors. I'd encourage you to support this. I also want to thank you. I know a lot of you have been um have have worked through this process in order to find a solution. I think this is the right solution for the neighborhood and would encourage you to support it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Tripper. >> Good evening. David Little, 5823 Vernon Lane. Mayor Hublin, council members, thank you for this opportunity to speak in opposition to the proposal to amend the comprehensive plan and grant many variances at 616 Vernon Avenue. Uh they wanted to have 14 stalls and there would be a lounge and they are insistent that the lounge be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. and we'll get to that in just a moment. My focus though is more on not not on whether electronic electric vehicles are good or bad, but on a couple of the legal problems that this proposal faces. The first major problem is it's not zoned for this. It's not zoned for this. PCD4 subdists you may have the following permissive uses. automobile service centers. This is not that. It's not going to be repairing vehicles. Two, car washes. There's no car wash here. And three, gas stations. What is gas station mean? Station where you get gas. And that's not just the plain language. When you look at the uh accessory uses in PCD4, you can have uh gasoline sales accessory to a car wash. gas, gasoline. Now, maybe there's some creative argument that if it were hydrogen or liquid propane or whatever, it would be a permissible use. It's not a permissible use. This this is not a gasoline station. The second problem here is the comprehensive plan. This comprehensive plan has been in place visav this property for a long time. And why is that? because it was guiding you, your predecessors, guiding their successors when redevelopment occurred to guided toward residential. And instead, we've got this one anomaly sitting on Vernon Avenue and there is no commercial development within one mile of it anyway, the entire radius. And is the commercial development in a residential neighborhood that was guided to be residential now going to be the modern equivalent of a of a gas station with a lounge that's open 247 a day? It's your comprehensive plan. Don't spot comprehensive plan. And then if you do that though, if you change the comprehensive plan, the proposal is change it to a neighborhood note. This is not a neighborhood node. It's one property. A node is a bunch of buildings that come together that provide a service for neighborhoods like 44th in France cited in the comprehensive plan. This is one building. It is not a node. So even if you decide to change it, you cannot I think fairly intellectually change it to a node. And then finally, if it was a node, it'd be for the neighborhood, wouldn't it? It'd be for pedestrians and shopping and things like that. Here we've got an unstaffed lounge. They're apparently going to monitor it by cameras. May I have one more minute, Mr. Mayor? >> No, you can't. You You've got to wrap up your comments, please. >> All right. >> Yeah, we got to treat everybody up. It would be an unstaffed lounge 24/7 and there are dangers in that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Greetings, Mr. Mayor and the council. >> She's going to ask you to just write >> Hold on. She's gonna ask you to fill out a card. Just put your name down. And >> does anyone else need a park? Okay. >> Here we are again. I know you've been here many times. >> Yeah. And give us your name again, please. We got this. >> Yeah. Give us your name again, please. >> Bob Knander. >> Thank you. >> Uh here we are again. Uh five times we've been going through this. Julie mentioned this. um is getting tiring and uh those of us who live in the neighborhood are really irritated at looking at this old building that's just sitting there. We're anxious to have something go come in. We know for a fact that it's not uh feasible or economic for anybody to build any homes which we would really love uh town homes or anything. It's just not practical for that. So we certainly feel that this is of all the op all the proposals that have come forth this is certainly the best one we have to go with. Uh I don't see any problems with any of the you know any of the variances and all those things you've been talking about. Looks to me like it's a perfect application and uh we'd all like to put this whole subject to bed. So I certainly hope that you uh vote yes on this. Thank you. >> Yes. Thanks for being here this evening. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Uh my name is CJ Cashman and I live at 5820 Vernon Lane about a block or so from the proposed charging station. I am here tonight to respectfully ask the council to not deny the variance tonight. I don't think it's about the electric vehicles. It's a question of whether this is the right use in this location and I think more importantly whether whether it benefits the surrounding neighborhood. I think that's the key point really to really consider. I did a little poking around and the information I found regarding EV charging indicates that more than 80% of single family homeowners charge their vehicles at home. The reality is that most residents in this neighborhood live in single family homes and already can charge their vehicles. For those who don't yet have a home charge setup, Excel Energy offers rebate programs to help offset the costs of installing these level two charging equipment. As a result, the people who live here in this primary residential neighborhood are simply not going to be the primary users of this facility. And finally, a little bit about what's mentioned earlier. You know, when I heard neighborhood node, you know, we all want to live next to 50 44th in France and at these nodes. I would rather be gas station. I would rather it be a car wash because it's something in my neighborhood I actually can use. Um the zero setback concerns me on the backside for people that live on the north side. If it's supposed to be set up 20 ft setback and now it's going to be zero to the lot line. I think that's a concern. I think public charging stations make the most sense in highly visible public locations. how we talked earlier next to like highs near shopping, dining, entertainment, major traveling corridors, places where people naturally spend time while their vehicles charge. In fact, when I looked online this afternoon, I counted 15 public charging stations with 10 minute within a 10-minute drive of this location. Availability is not a concern here. The question before you is whether the neighborhood should absorb the impacts of this project, including additional lighting, equipment, traffic, and noise when the benefit is not with my neighbors. We're not going to be the ones that benefit from this. But largely, the benefit's going to come directly elsewhere. So, I think the answer should be no. I respectfully ask you to vote no on the variance. Thank you for your time. >> Thanks, Maser. Excuse me. Mayor and council people, thank you very much for giving your concerted effort to try to find out what to do with this very peculiar piece of property. It's been, as you said, five iterations of this and I've heard people say that. Give us your name too, please. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Pam Allen. I always forget that. >> Yeah. >> Um, uh, five iterations and then they say, well, we shouldn't do this. But the question then becomes, if not this, what? I haven't heard a good proposal of what to do instead of this. For all the things that we've had to take a look at for the last how many years, uh, this is the least impactful as far as being intrusive on the neighborhood. It is of use in the neighborhood and there won't be a lot of traffic. Certainly won't be having a pizza place with a patio on top with liquor and lights and so forth. It's I think really the best opportunity for us to find a workable solution for this very odd piece of property. Certainly, we'd all like to have fountains and a little kid play area or something. That's not going to happen. So, of the alternatives available, I think this is an excellent choice and I hope you vote for it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Ellen. >> Good evening, mayor and council members. >> My name is Ron Weber and I live at 5821 Vernon Lane. A lot of the points that I would have made are have already been made. Just a couple more that I would like to uh focus on. If you were to exclude the key property from the area, um a 100% of that entire area is homeowner responsibility, homeowner, homeowner area. And uh as a result of that, I would suggest that the the city council and the city of uh Edina consider eminent domain that particular property. It does not. If you were to have a plan before you today to build a new commercial property there, you probably would not agree with it because the site does not permit much of a commercial property and it's already a residential property. So, I would encourage that uh that be be given consideration because a it's an outofdate commercial property in today's environment. 50 or 60 years ago, it was appropriate. 50 or 60 years ago, that gas station was probably a rural location to today's Edina vibrant community. I've lived here for 40 years. That particular site does not bring any vibrancy to that location whatsoever or is it needed by the populace in that immediate area. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Weber. Hello again, Janie Weston. Um, it's a lovely evening. >> Still, >> you guys are from North Carolina, aren't you? >> You ever been here in January? >> Had to shovel a lot of snow. >> It was beautiful. I'm from Salt Lake, so I love the snow. Okay. So, with the layout of what I was seeing tonight further set back to the north, where are you going to put snow that you have to by code has to stay on your property? That's a question I'm asking. um [clears throat] the ADA sidewalk that goes off of your property, who's going to clear the snow on that sidewalk? Is that going to be the city's responsibility because it's in the right of way for Eden Prairie Road? Don't know. I'm just throwing this out here. Um, if I lived on Bernie Circle, which is the culde-sac to the south on the south side of Vernon, I would not like having lights on, no matter how much you say they're going to be dimmed 24/7. I was just looking at street view on my phone and there are windows on two of those houses that will be affected. One of them probably a bedroom upstairs, another house window perhaps. That will be a problem. It would be for me. I know I would not sleep very well if I lived in either of those houses. There's a 6-ft height limit on fence height. So, if this gets an okay, enough votes to pass tonight. I think something that should also be required is tall skinny columnaras on the south side of Vernon so that those two homeowners on Bernie Circle are not kept up at night because 24/7 lights are light and they don't help you sleep. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Weston. Anyone else? >> Yes, sir. >> Just a quick note, everyone's been articulate already, but I just wanted to point out two things. I'm Roger Conlin. Thank you, uh, mayor. >> Thank you, Roger. >> Delegates. Um the gentlemen here they they did emphasize the customer experience but one of our speakers was emphasizing that we need to consider the residents experience of having this new facility. Um, so from a qualitative standpoint, this this site really has a problem. When you consider that going forward over the next 10, 15 years, we're going to be looking at more and more traffic, more and more density of people needing to get from outside from 62, which 62 is going to be expanded. So, you can imagine that this does become a very busy place. And we have the gentleman who does these traffic studies. We need to project the study as to what this is going to look like 5, 10, 15 years from now. Kevin Keys was at that facility. I walked by there, by the way, every morning. I walk my dog by Kevin. I used to watch and wave to Kevin Keys and he'd never he had hardly any traffic. He had maybe three, four, five at most a day and he would repair the cars. It was his hobby. It was more of a hobby than a job. And he was part of our community. He was a wonderful man. And uh that's the distin we disting we need to distinguish that with having a commercial entity come into our neighborhood serving people outside our neighborhood from all over the world, right? And then they do mention bad actors and that's true. That is a concern and they're not going to be our actors. So to me it's a quality of life issue. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you Mr. Conan. >> I'll have to fill it on right after. Good evening. Michael Cashman. I live at 5820 Vernon Lane. What we've heard tonight from the presenters and from Mr. fatigue is that this is the best of the worst alternatives and just because it's the best of the worst alternatives doesn't make it appropriate. Mr. Teague said that we have to amend the code to provide for a community node that serves the neighborhood. We've heard traffic studies, but there's been no evidence presented whatsoever that this benefits the community, benefits the neighborhood. Everything that you've heard, everything that you've been presented with shows that there is no benefit or minimal benefit to the neighborhood. This proposal is a bad idea. It should be rejected. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Cashman. Hi, my name's Krin Reid and this is probably about I don't know is it 10th time I had to come up here because for each time we do planning commission in the board. Um I've lived in Edina at our house on in Prairie Road for almost 30 years. It's been a quiet place and we really love it. It's home for our family of four. [clears throat] I ask you to support this as an option. Um, having been through all the other options and the reality of this property and what is affordable and what can be done. It checks a lot of boxes for our family and our neighborhood. I believe um it's going to be a quiet place. Um the cars are quiet. There's no rooftop deck and we were very worried in the past about alcohol being served or loud crowds after 9 10:00. People are going to come in here and they're very quiet cars and either when I've gone driven past charging stations, I've been watching them lately and they're either sitting quietly in their car or they're quietly out of their car um in the location in this case they'd be inside the building. Um it we are not as a family worried about the safety. we uh accept the 247 security. Um and with the change on the fence and the gates, I think that improves our security in the neighborhood. Also, the other safety thing that I like is that um there's not overflow parking on Eden Prairie Road, [snorts] which was a concern with past constructions. People will be just coming um through Vernon to this property. Um, we think it's a benefit to the property to have it in well repaired, well-kept um, business. Uh, and that's a positive for our neighborhood and um, and we're looking forward to having a nice, good, well-kept, quiet neighbor, which we feel this would be. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, Miss Reed. >> Good evening. Uh, Mary Meander, I've been up here about every time, every proposal that you've had for this project. This is the the best that I can think of. Um, besides what's the alternative? It's it's a funny piece of property and um you know I don't have an EV. I'm not sure I'll use it, but maybe I will in the future have one and it would be very convenient to use it. So I'm hoping that you will say yes to this and um have something finally done with this piece of property. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Belinder. Anyone else? >> Okay. How about online? Do we have anybody that wants to testify that's online? >> Um, we've been asked to uh think about making a decision on this case tonight. So what I'm thinking is that we should close the public hearing and then ask questions and I think that may be a good sequence for it. Is there a motion to close the public hearing in this matter? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Got a motion and second to close the public hearing in this matter. Motion by member Jackson, second by member Pierce. Any further discussion? All those in favor of closing the public hearing say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. The public hearing is closed. Let's go back through some of these issues that were raised by concerned residents. Um, [clears throat] kind of going in reverse order. Uh, somebody want to address snow removal? Maybe the engineer. Yeah. Not the guy from North Carolina. >> I'm an engineer here to uh I'll let him introduce himself. >> Can you guys all hear me? Hi, my name is Vince Barker. I'm with Kimy Horn. We work with Iona. Um, I am actually local. I live in southwest Minneapolis, so I'm very familiar with snow removal. Um, there are additional parking stalls on the southwest corner of the property, and those two uh stalls would be used for snow storage in the winter as well. The boulevards would be used for snow removal of the existing sidewalk along Vernon. So, that has been factored into our design. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Yeah. Um I turn to um our city attorney. This is a these are tough questions here when the former Supreme Court justice is standing in front of you telling you that uh you got you got the legal you got legal problems. I don't think we do, but I want to hear it from you. Um his first question he raised was u the propos was the proposed zoning appropriate. >> Well I think the council has is the proposed zoning appropriate. So I think the question that justice raised was is this a gas station or does does this fit the definition of gas station? I think director Teague has some information on that and I can jump in and clarify as necessary. >> Yes. So our code defines gas station as a principal building and its accessory structures used for the sale of motor fuels and oils. So it was staff's determination that motor fuels electricity is defined as an alternative motor fuel for transportation. So we believe it's a permitted use. >> You were you going to supplement that? Well, I I think that's a legitimate position to take. I think I mean it's not it's not gasoline. Obviously, we can all acknowledge that and agree with that, but you know, electricity has become a motor fuel for electric vehicles. So, I think it's similar to the modern version of a gas station or motor fuel station. >> And how about the neighborhood node question that was raised? Meet the definition of a true neighborhood node. Yeah, we don't have a true definition of neighborhood [clears throat] node. Um, it doesn't specifically say a group of of buildings. Um, it talks about, let's see, I can get out the language. Uh, the land use description of a neighborhood node is in general small to moderate scale commercial, residential or mixeduse buildings serving primarily the adjacent neighborhoods. It does say buildings. Um it's it's not ideal. It it's the smallest land use category um that we have in the comprehensive plan. You may recall some of the other projects that were proposed. I believe it was green drop. We proposed a a different land use a new land use category in the comprehensive plan, neighborhood commercial. um just a different name, but it was again just allowing smallcale uh neighborhood use. >> So, you're comfortable with the zoning designation or the neighborhood node designation. >> Um yeah, the def we don't define neighborhood node. Again, it was just the smallest commercial um land use category that we had available. So, um, we felt comfortable with that. >> Mayor, I don't know if it's a legal conclusion, but I think several people, including the first gentleman, pointed out that there's a number of apartment buildings and condo buildings right on this same to the north on Eden Prairie Road, which are not single family homes, which presumably do not have chargers in their single family homes, and sounded like there was a lot of potential interest from those folks to use this. So, I mean, no one's suggesting it will solely serve the neighborhood, but I think it will serve some people in the neighborhood for certain. >> Well, I think Mr. Pepper has lived there for quite some time and owns one of the condominium units and certainly knows has been instrumental in every one of these reviews of every single application that we've looked at. So, I I trust his uh his comments. Um, Mr. Conland was concerned about a commercial entity coming into a neighborhood. Well, we've already got a commercial designation and an entity and that neighborhood's been there for 50 years out of business right now. But I think as you pointed out earlier, if somebody wanted to come in and operate a gas station there right now, they could. They want to come in and build a car wash, they could. >> Yeah. I I it would just be auto repair if they utilize the existing building. If someone were to do a gas station, because we haven't had a gas station there, they would need variances again for the pump islands. Um, those types of of uses, >> but the under the existing zoning, those are possible. >> They are permitted uses, correct? >> The the variance issue aside, >> correct? Yes. >> Okay. Did I I'm sure I missed some other questions that came up and other council members may have some. Council member Pierce. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to follow up on the potential legal issues. I would prefer um that we be more confident in our answers for that. Um, [clears throat] and so the I I guess my one question is would you be more confident if you took more time to study these questions or are you fairly certain that we'd be okay moving forward? Because my second question is if we're wrong, what are the consequences? Uh well, so I think the way that you could address this would be, I guess, to clarify the code. Staff is kind of determining that this meets the definition of a gas station because that includes the sale of motor fuel. You know, if you wanted to amend the code to specifically call out, you know, EV charging stations as a form of gas station, that would be one option for that. um what would be you know the potential consequences so if you know if you approve this someone could challenge it and argue that it's doesn't comply with zoning >> and if that were the case um just thinking about the the pyramid we can actually go through and resolve that as a council Yeah, you you have the option to amend the zoning code >> to amend the code. Okay. Okay. Um so that was one and then I had um a couple of questions for the owners. Um I guess a statement. Um and so as I mentioned, I walk by there. I don't live there, but if I did, um I think I said this the the first time you guys were here. Um, I like the the design, but I don't want to see it and I don't want to hear it. And so if I lived there, I'd be the same. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to see it. And so the that to me means probably three things. one, you adjust it for the um the the adding the fencing so when cars drive in that the the um car lights don't go into the neighborhood um to the canopy, so the down lighting. I'm still not sure what 50% is and why we need 50%. Um, and so I I appreciate that if there are no vehicles there, I think there are no lights on the canopy or it's very dim. One of the I guess that's a question, but that's what I think I saw in the the picture you gave. >> Uh, yes, sir. Um, I mean 50% 25%. I mean, we're we're open to, you know, discussing and working out what the appropriate level would be. Um, I guess what comes to mind for me is like 0%. Like that, I guess, for our customers, you know, who might be passing through at night and need to charge like that suggests that we're closed. Um, so we don't really want to give off the, you know, the impression that we're closed. Um, but, you know, certainly if and like Andreas was saying before, this stuff is programmable. So, you know, we went at 50% and there was still too much and people complained about I mean, we can we can drop it from there for sure. >> Well, I guess I'm referring to though the in your presentation >> um you showed three stalls that had light and one that had no car in it and no light was on. >> And I thought you said the purpose of that was to show a stall, an empty stall with no light on. >> Yes. And so just just explain that then. >> Yeah, that was that was like um kind of an older preliminary rendering um when we we were still playing with the idea of at night you know when cars are there 100% lighting and when there was no cars there zero um that since has gone to like 50%. >> Got it. So that zero but [clears throat] some form of lighting so >> customers [snorts] know that you're open. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Okay. And then the third one uh for me I don't know what you do about this would be noise. Um and so the um [clears throat] I people coming in the charge with their radios on you know cranking the tunes or whatever. I don't I wouldn't want that either. So that's what I mean by I don't want to see it. I don't want to hear it. I understand the decibb for charging. Um, but as you mentioned, that noise dissipates the further you get from the center of the the source. Um, and so signage, things like that to just say respect the neighborhood, no radios or whatever, no loud music. How how are we addressing that? >> You got some ideas that >> Thank you, Mr. Council Member Pierce. Thank you for your feedback. And again, I'll I'll just go over the real quick to address the sound issue with the chargers themselves. One charger is uh 52 dB, which is your electric toothbrush sound. Two chargers going on at the same time, a coffee machine again, and that's 55 dB. And if all chargers were going off, it's 60.5 dB, which is background noise or normal conversation. So, the chargers would sound like there's just people chatting and talking. And of course, kind of like a gas station or you go to a fueling station, we can 100% prevent anything just full transparency, right? But to your point, we we we can add signage, respect our neighborhoods, respect that neighborhood, and there's any neighborhood uh sound ordinances. Uh we could do some research on that. And uh just we can post signage and communicate to our customers what um hey guys, be chill. You know, something else to to keep in mind is with that additional fencing we switched over to no no more silks in it, less sound escapes, the entire neighborhood uh on paper north is being add we're adding landscaping, right? So with that additional fencing, with additional landscaping and with the charger level, even if all seven went off being around 60 dB, we're hoping this will take care of any uh concerns about any noise that could be heard from the station itself. But yes, we will add additional branding and additional uh signage uh to the site of be respectful to your neighbors. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh council member, >> thank you. Um I don't have any specific questions, but I think I'm ready to share um some of my overall thoughts. And first, I just want to thank you all um for one, your desire to invest into our community and and two, for the investment that you've already made. Um it's clear that a lot of um thought and energy went into this and and just really want to thank you for that. Um, you know, I we've had a couple of different like similar um gas stations slashcharging stations um come across our um kind of docket uh recently and I would have loved to see something more like this at the Lincoln and Londereerry area which is where we're talking about a quick trip. Um, which personally I I I do want us to get away from a gas station, which is why I love the idea of like a purely electric type facility. Um, and what I really liked about combining that with a a Quick Trip is Quick Trip has like a really great um, I'll just say following of people that love the food and kind of that community aspect of it. Um, but this isn't on a highway. And I I think that's where one of my main concerns is is I don't know that this belongs here. I'm comfortable with this site remaining commercial use. Um, but it's something that I want to be directly beneficial for the neighborhoods. And I know that there might be some disagreement about what that means. It sounds like with the condos right there, there could be benefit. Um, but when I think of, you know, a neighborhood node or driving benefit to the neighborhood, I want it to be something that more people are excited about. Um, and I also think about, um, you know, when we've had previous proposals, we've said community gathering location where people are coming together and spending time or where are our high school students working over the summer? Like what what is that community draw? And and so I go back to I'm not opposed to charging. Um but I I think that this pairing of an unstaffed site doesn't quite resonate with that community gathering location that I want to see. Um even as we have folks, you know, I think it was Mr. Pepper referenced wanting his um might forget the age, seven-year-old son to to go across the street for a candy bar. Like I think that's the kind of story that resonates with what I'm looking for. Um, but my hesitation comes in. I'm like, well, will the will the kid have a smartphone? Like would my kid have a smartphone that they're able to buy a candy bar with? Or what does that actual experience look like? And would I feel comfortable sending my 6 and 1 half-year-old um without staff being there? And so that's where some of the the hesitations from me come from. Um, and I think again just reiterating if we're taking this step of a comprehensive plan amendment to make this a neighborhood node, I want it to feel more like the neighborhood node that's right across from my street. Um, I was leaving the other day. We were all going to town hall and the neighbors across the street were also leaving their house at the same time and I was like, "Oh, are you going to Snuffies or Town Hall?" And like it's the community you just see go towards gravitate towards these these places within our community. Um, and I don't feel that here. Um, so for those reasons, I'm I'm not supportive of this tonight. Thank you. >> Council member objection. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I think um what summarized it for me was that uh this is a workable solution for an odd piece of property. I thought that really said it perfectly. Um, I want to talk a little bit about my concept of what a neighbor what the neighborhood is. I don't think it's just the adjacent properties. If you come down uh Vernon and where it meets with Gleon and goes then to the west and then curves up as Lincoln Drive, there's lots of multif family housing there. Um, and that multif family housing is not is old. It's not outfitted for electric chargers. So, does it serve the neighborhood? Well, if you're just talking about adjacent properties that's small, although we do have the condominiums and apartments to the west, the whole area and then you come up and there's the loaden and if you are living in an apartment and you have to charge your vehicle, sure you can drive 15 minutes or something, but this is right there in the area and you can charge your car quickly in a clean area. Um, I think the opposition falls in two complete opposite camps. one is we want a restaurant there and that was the initial proposal and and we had 5050% no and 50% yes and it was a very long and contentious hearing public hearing so I know there are people who want something more um just like member Agnu and then there are the people who say I just want residential here well you'd have a little tiny house that you could build there so yeah if we wanted a tiny house you'd still have to pay the current owners a lot of money for that piece of property I don't think they would donate it to Habitat for a Tiny House, right? It's just that's not happening. So, we have to have something that is going to generate some revenue here. Um, we don't have to, but otherwise then I think, you know, eminent domain was mentioned. Well, it's going to be eminent domain by zoning. If we don't ever zone anything here, if we just wait and wait and wait for this tiny house to appear, um, that takes away uh value from the piece of property. So, I think this is a a very smart solution. I really appreciate Ayanna working with the neighborhood to to adjust to it. Um, and I'm in favor. >> Thank you. Uh, member Risser. >> Um, [clears throat] I would like to talk about the point in Justice Lillog's letter that he sent, the fourth point. Um, and we did receive a letter from him is that there are multiple setback variances to be granted. And this says under, and I'm not an attorney. I don't know. Anyway, any anyway, under Minnesota law, variances may be granted only when they are consistent with the comprehensive plan. And um, the node that was mentioned, neighborhood node, it was the reference was not to a single teenytiny parcel. It's now I can't remember what neighborhood was referenced, but it was where there are other commercial entities. And so I really I think I'd like to have our attorney weigh in on that point. >> So I if the council does not approve the comprehensive plan, I would agree the variances would not be consistent with the comprehensive plan. But if you were to amend it um to allow commercial uses then the use would be consistent with the comprehensive plan. >> So it's kind of c before and we've heard this before that we can grant a variance and rewrite our code so that it syncs up and that is something I wrestle with and find it hard to understand. Um can we go to the image that shows uh the zoning [clears throat] zoning map? >> The zoning map. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. I keep thinking about this and at an earlier uh review and actually you know some people asked so maybe I've been here 10 times because of the planning commission and this there's been six projects I've only been here for five of them but you see that little tiny.3 acre triangularly shaped lot and it stands out um it's a spot okay and we are thinking of amending our comprehensive plan so that we can continue to have this used in a way that is different than all of the surrounding property because it's possible that somewhere and and here's where it gets a little experimental because Iona may have a site somewhere in Georgia that is similar where there is this one, you know, fueling station in a sea of residential. We don't know if it actually exists. We're we are charting a new course here to see if it can succeed and not be the you know accessory use that it is with a high V store but become the primary use and somehow carry this enterprise. And so we're going to amend our comprehensive plan for this. And the whole reason residential is not feasible is because the parcel sold for $900,000 in October of 2021. And I feel like what we see happening here and it's so frustrating and I feel for the residents and I went through this in my neighborhood. I believe it was something like $800,000 was paid for that tiny burly site and we saw project after project. There was a proposed 13 unit apartment complex that was supposed to go on that site and the staff report said it wasn't a 27 acre site, it was a 1.27 acre site and the argument was that conceptually it was connected to a 1acre site across the street and down the block. And I think when we look at these sites and we look at the history and and that was going on back in 2021. And so I can understand why someone might think, hey, this is a good idea. If we can do it, if this is how it's being treated in the Wooddale Valley View neighborhood, hey, it could work here. I don't know. But I feel like if we move with this, we're presenting a situation, an opportunity that we really should not be presenting. And this is backwards. This is like the tail wagging the dog, you know. Um, and this is not the way we should be doing land use. So I um understand member Agnu's concerns. I share those as well. But for me, this is about process and this is not a sustainable way to approach land use. When I ran for office, I was so frustrated and I talked about bespoke zoning and what we have is bespoke land use and it's just it doesn't make sense to me. Thank you, >> Council Member Pierce. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. [laughter] Um, so I I'm going to start with, wow, there's a lot going on here. Um, but I think I'm going to start with we have to face reality for what it is, not for what we wish it to be. And so this is a challenging piece of property. Um, I asked a couple of very pointed questions because there are two hurdles for me that I have to get over. Uh, one the justice talked about. So, I don't want to do anything that's illegal at all. And so, I don't even want there to be any right assumption that this even looks like it could be illegal. And so that's why I asked the questions that I asked um because I think that that does matter. And so if there are once we get over that hurdle, the second thing for me is I'm we can't stick to process just for the sake of sticking the process. And I' I've said this before like we are the council. we have the discretion to make these decisions. And so I have to ask myself the question then why would we make a decision to do this versus something else? Um and so that's kind of that's where I'm I'm sitting now and sitting next to my mate uh my city council mate here. I agree with member Agnu. Um, of the five proposals, the only one that I like did not like was the first one. That one was tough for me to get over those hurdles. The pizza shop. I thought the pizza shop was a great option. Um, we live, like I mentioned, we live in Highlands. We would have walked to the pizza station from uh Merit Circle. Um, we do that every Friday. We eat pizza. And so we would have done that. That felt good to me. But to approve that caused the same two issues that we just talked about, right? We'd have the same land use question. There is a series of variances that we would have to have gone through for that as well. And so the reality is whatever we put there, unless, and I'm not even sure if this is true, so you can check me on this, unless someone wants to open a twostall repair shop and that's it. All they're going to do is paint a building blue versus yellow. [laughter] I think we could do that and not require variances or it even sounded like we still might have to do variances in that case too. Um but I think that's the only option where there would be no variances. [clears throat] >> Yes, that's correct. Just Yes. >> And we're not going to get that. And so to me that that um um leads me to think of this particular option. I would certainly have loved to have had the pizza place. I don't even know if the neighbors all like that option, right? We had um uh one of the biggest issues there was the the smell. If I and I suppose if I lived there, I wouldn't want to smell pizza 24/7 either. Um, but with that proposal, we were trying to think about, well, what are ways that we could mitigate those challenges as well. And so now we have an option that's using the exact same building that's there today. There's no food smells, right? The traffic is is calm. I'll just use that term. Um, it's not a gathering space the way that the pizza station would have been. Uh but if the lighting, uh the noise, if we can deal with those challenges and if it can fit in the neighborhood and I don't have to see it or hear it when I drive by it, uh relatively speaking, um then I think it could be a good fit for this location. And so I I would support it [cough and clears throat] um because I feel like I I can get over those first two hurdles that I talked about. Um and I think um I I don't there's two other things I I just mentioned. I I don't I I get the point when we say um the cost of the land was whatever it was a million dollars, 900,000 or whatever. I personally don't think about that. Um, I I think about, well, this is a project that's come before us, and I try to make the best decision for that particular project. I don't think about who's selling the land. Um, is this the best thing we could get for a million dollars? Like, I I'm I'm not thinking about it in those in that in that way. Um, I think this project, if I look at everything that we've had before, um, I don't know what else could come, but I do feel like I I would feel I can feel good about walking by this site. And so, I think it's a good I think it's a good use of the land. Um, as long as we are able to get over those first two hurdles. Thank you, member Pierce. [clears throat] >> Um before I make my comments, um let's go back to this uh comp plan amendment because I think in the um in the materials that you gave us for the meeting. It indicates that uh the action will be by simple majority, but there's two things that we have to do here. And the first thing is the comprehensive plan amendment. That's a fourfits >> correct >> vote required there. And so what the proposed comp plan change is, the comp plan amendment was to go from I think mid- density residential to neighborhood node. So talk to us again a little bit about what if if this if if somebody were to say, okay, I'm comfortable with the definition of neighborhood node better than mid density residential because we know that doesn't work. We've tried to get housing on that site. Uh but I don't like this project somebody because a future use might still be consistent with neighborhood node. So talk a little bit more again about neighborhood node. >> Yeah, you you could still um deny this this particular request as um based on the findings in the staff report. It's the the size of the variances. it's not consistent with the neighborhood. Um, so yeah, if the comprehensive plan amendment fails, doesn't get four votes, you wouldn't want to approve the OB obviously the site plan invariances. >> That's not what that didn't articulate my question very well. I'm thinking about the reverse. Somebody could potentially vote for the comp plan amendment but not vote for the project, not vote for the site plan. >> All right. because of yeah because a potential future use could be >> neighborhood node and neighborhood node meets their expectations of what they wanted to see for the property. So what? Talk about neighborhood node again. That's what I'm asking you to talk about. If the comprehensive plan were amended to neighborhood node, what would that mean? >> Yes, it would mean that it would be guided for again that it's the description of the land uses in general small to moderate scale commercial, residential or mixeduse buildings serving primarily the adjacent neighborhoods. Primary uses encouraged are neighborhood serving retail and services, offices, studios, institutional and residential. >> Okay. Okay. So, for me, um, as also having been one of the people on the council, not just member Risser, that's gone through five iterations of this, um, I've developed a real sensitivity. It's kind of a concentric sensitivity to the immediate neighborhood versus the broader neighborhood because as we've gone through these projects, especially ones involving food, the immediate neighborhood was most opposed to it. And the further you got away, the more people liked the idea of having a place they could come to to to gather and and get something to eat. And so that was kind of the tension that I saw early on. And I I came to the conclusion that I was most immediately concerned about the near neighborhood which would be Eden Prairie Road folks kind of to the north. Um because the way I go about looking at things is uh is is a project good for the whole city and then balance that against whether or not there could be an adverse impact on the neighborhood that would outweigh the benefits to the city overall. And so the conclusion I came to on those early projects was yeah it would be an adverse impact on the immediate neighborhood to have those two versions I think of food and then the that green thumb thing I just thought was a total whatever that recycling thing was. Um, so, um, as I said, that's created some great sensitivity for me for the immediate neighborhood. And the immediate neighborhood has been very articulate and vocal in what they like and what they don't like. And they've they're they're not worn out by this process. >> Yes, >> they're far from it. far. They're they're they're as uh as engaged as you could possibly be and they're very articulate and so are the people in the broader neighborhood which would include Vernon Lane. You know, you get a little bit further over there in Old Vernon and it's a beautiful neighborhood, but it's not right there. And so for me, I continue to be most sensitive to the immediate neighborhood that stands the most immediate benefit or impact. And in this situation, the voices in the immediate neighborhood for me have been the most compelling and thinking about this project meeting their expectations on a quiet neighborhood, no traffic on Eden Prairie Road. Uh they can work with the company to get the lights to the level that they want them to be at night. And so I'm I'm fully supportive of this project even though would I like something But I would I have preferred housing there. Yeah, I think we all would have, but it just didn't work. Um, and you can get into these conversations like member Risser and I don't agree at all on how to use these crazy looking parcels. You know, I I feel like what happened in her neighborhood was made her neighborhood better. She thinks it made it worse. So, four town houses on a small piece of property where where there was something that wasn't so good there before. Anyway, different views of the world. So, um I'm in favor of the project and I'm in favor of the comp plan amendment to change to a neighborhood node designation [clears throat] because depending on whether or not we agree on whether this project should the site plan should be approved. It seems to me that neighborhood note is still a pretty good designation for a change in the comp plan from medium density residential. So, a person could vote for a change in the comp plan and vote against the reasonzoning or the uh site plan and and maybe would project would fail, maybe it would pass. I don't know. I don't know where people's votes are, but I just point that out as a possibility. Uh and we're going to vote on the comp plan first. If we don't give four fifths vote on the comp plan change, then we don't even have to talk about the next step which is the um the site plan approval because we don't have the change that we need in the comp plan to guide the whole thing. So, um, let's let's >> mayor, just one point on that. You still there is there'll still be an application pending, so you'd still have to take action on it, but you would have to deny it because it would not if you if you don't approve the comp ignore it, right? No, >> you Yeah, you can't ignore it. So, you just have to deny it. >> No, it's it's destined for failure because it doesn't fit the zoning. So, it's got to but it's still got to be acted on. >> Correct. >> Yep. >> Here. >> Yeah. Council member, >> thank you. Is there then value in switching the two? Like if we voted first on the site plan, would we then therefore not need to vote on the comprehensive plan amendment if it didn't pass or we still need to vote on both? Okay, >> you need to vote on both. Yes. So, um, resolution 2026-28 is the comprehensive plan amendment. And that amendment would, uh, change the comprehensive plan from MDR, medium density residential, to neighborhood node. Let's see where we go on that and then that'll determine the fates of this fifth fifth iteration of a project at this site. Um >> Mr. Mayor, I have a question. Sure. >> If it's neighborhood node housing is a is an acceptable option. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I thought I heard him say that too. >> Yeah. But that's a good question. Reminder. >> Yeah. So, is there a motion to adopt resolution 2026-28, which would be the comprehensive plan amendment, which would change the comprehensive plan designation from MDR, medium density density residential to neighborhood node. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> All right, we got a motion and a second to change the uh comprehensive plan, amend it to change the density from medium density residential to neighborhood node for this particular site. Any further discussion on that? question. >> Yes. In fact, let me point out first was member Jackson made the motion. Member Pierce seconded it. Now I'm going to go for discussion to uh member. >> Thank you. I have a just a clarifying question. Um from like policy or practice wise. Um so if we approve this but were to deny the site plan, the comprehensive plan would still be updated. Is that correct? >> That That's correct. Just to be clear on the votes, the comprehensive plan vote requires four um approving. The site plan with variances requires three votes. >> Thank you. And next question then, if the comprehensive plan amendment is not approved tonight, what are potential like ramifications of that for other projects? If there's another project that was asking to update this to a neighborhood node, would that impact that or would we vote on that again at that point in time? >> Yeah, you would vote on that again at that time. >> Is there any uh one-year process or any kind of limit on when this particular question could be posed to our body again? >> Yes. So if this project were to fail this evening, they would have to wait one year to come back and ask for the same request, station pizza was denied a little over a year ago. Uh that year, I believe, is up. So they could come back and and make the same request. >> Okay. Thank you. So the the one-year limit is tied to the applicant. It is not tied to any of the decisions that we're making as a council. >> Correct. >> Thank you. It's it's tied to the particular application from that applicant. Yeah. >> Any other questions or comment? All right. Um all those in favor of approving the comprehensive plan amendment say I >> I >> I opposed. Nay. >> Comprehensive plan amendment fails. Um all right. Um resolution 2026-29 is the site plan and variances uh proposal for the for the Ayana rechargery and um is there a motion to adopt resolution 2026-29? >> Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to deny um resolution uh 2026 29. >> Okay, >> I would second that. >> All right, we've got a motion and a second to deny resolution 2026-29, which would be the site plan and varianc's approval for the uh old Kevin Keys site, the Iona rechargery matter. Mayor, just so I'm totally clear before you vote, if this is a motion to deny, then a vote in favor would be in favor of denial. Is that the way it's structured? >> Right. >> Okay. I wanted to make sure that was clear before the vote. >> That's the way I interpreted the motion from >> Thanks. Just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah, she's moving to have us deny the site plan invariances. >> All right. Any further discussion on that one? Um, all those in favor of denying the site plan and variances embodied in resolution 2026-29 say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? I um resolution denied. Project is denied. >> Thank you gentlemen for coming up. Thank you everybody for your time. We appreciate it. >> Well, maybe station pizza will come back with a drive-in or I mean with a p takeout. >> Yeah, >> that was a better way to handle it was with a denial. leave, please do so. Otherwise, uh >> yeah, here's the door is going to close. It's a little noisy out there. Next matter before us is resolution 2026-30 which accepts donations on behalf of the city. Is there a motion to adopt that resolution? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by member Jackson, second by member Pierce to adopt resolution 2026-30 accepting donations on behalf of the city. Um all those any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of resolution 2026-30 say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. The resolution's adopted. >> This reporting period, we've got uh all donations were to the park and recck department. Uh Matt and Jennifer Wilson, $350 for a tree donation. Thank you very much. And uh and then three bench donations. Bruce and Diane Kerking, Jonathan Gross, and Anne Craft. all $3,200 donations for bench benches, memorial benches. So, thanks to all of those folks in our community for those donations and those uh memories from loved ones. And um next we get a report from Sharon Allison, excuse me. [clears throat] And this is an item report regarding the recommendation to limit in-person primary election voting to the 18-day early voting period. That would I think correlate with what's happened at the legislature. >> Yes, Mr. Mayor, uh mayor, council members. Um this request tonight is um to for you to consider uh based on historical voter usage trends, projected cost savings, staffing considerations, and operational impacts. I recommend that you consider um approving limiting in-person primary election voting at city hall to the statutory 18-day early vote um early voting period. This request is based solely on a new legislation that was passed this session, HF um 4240. And this gives cities the um option of approving to have elections for the full 46 days of voting or to have um elections for the first uh 28 days or the last 18 days. My recommendation to you is uh to approve for the primary only to have um 18 days of um voting rather than going for the full 46 days. My recommendation is based solely on the data that we have um in the past four years. We have collected enough data to show that voting patterns have really changed. Um we are seeing a higher turnout of voters who do prefer to vote at city hall. However, for the primary, it is generally a much lower turnout. Um, even though in Adina, we do have a higher turnout in general. 75 to 85% of voters um generally turn out for the general election. But looking at the data for the primary, it's a much lower um turnout that we're seeing. So based in that data set that we have, my recommendation is that we uh consider being open only for those 18 days of um early voting. One thing that I want to specify to is that as part of the law, there were two categories of uh voting that was created. One is absentee voting. So day one through day 28 is considered to be absentee voting and then the 18 days after is considered to be early voting. And so those two distinct categories are now in place. And the idea behind that is to somewhat mimic what is happening on election day um during those 18 days of voting. Another thing I wanted to point out too is that even though we would only be open for 18 days, this is not taking away anybody's option or desire to vote, there still will be plenty of options for voters to vote outside of those um or if those first 28 days were were removed. Um, voters will still be vote be able to vote uh by requesting a ballot by mail. Um, a stamped envelope uh comes with them to their house. They can vote at home and they can mail that right back to the county. If they would like, they can request that ballot by mail. They can uh vote at home. They can drop off that voted ballot here at city hall and we would get that transported to Henipin County um in a safe um manner. Um, and the only thing is that for those who generally would vote between those first 28 days, they would need to make a new plan. And the new plan might be come to city hall during those 18 days. Or another plan might be go to your polling place. That is always an option to go to the polling place. And one thing I wanted to point out too is that when you vote on election day, your employer is required to give you a couple hours time off to vote. That is not an option that is available during the absentee voting period. So with that, I can stand for any questions. Member >> Thank you. Um, so my my question is really around um thinking about that first 28 days that we're considering removing. Um, and I know that there's been a lot of dialogue at the national level about iterations or changes to voting. So my concern is like right now I feel very confident in us moving forward with this change. I think that it makes sense. Absentee voting is still something that's widely available here in Minnesota. They can still come and do the 18 days of early voting. I think that there are enough other options um that still make voting just as accessible. My concern comes into if there are changes then at the federal level that make absentee voting less accessible. What levers we might have then like are we putting ourselves in a position where we then are subject to those harsher kind of constraints and therefore maybe shouldn't do this to keep our options open. But I I don't know if you've thought about that layer of it. I haven't thought about that um layer, but just so that you know, you would be making that decision only for the 2026 primary. It's you're not locked in um year-over-year. You can always um change to 428, for example. If we decided that we're seeing that um there will be an expected higher turnout for the primary, um then we can go back to being open for the 46 days. So, I I'm not sure how a federal decision would impact um us locally, but we're not locked in for the 28th election cycle, for example. >> Thank you very much. That helps. >> Other questions? >> Yes, Council Member Jackson. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have two questions. So, first of all, this was legislation that was passed this year in 2026, correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. So it was fully vetted at the legislature, lots of testimony and witnesses and it it passed a divided legislature. So sort of what we used to dream about was election reform that was bipartisan. >> Um so um thank you. My second question is is there a witness requirement for mailing in for a mail-in ballot? >> Yes. So, that would be the one uh potential disadvantage if somebody's living alone, but that has always existed, right? For anyone who's living alone and who wants to vote at home, um they would need to go find a neighbor, for example, who could be their witness. >> And if they were to come to city hall, could they ask a city employee to be a witness? >> As long as they're bringing in their ballot with them? >> Yes, they bring in their ballot just like they would go to their neighbor's house. Somebody here could help them. >> Yes. witness it because if I remember correctly, I did the vote by paper and it's it was just like doing it at home only you're doing it right here. It really wasn't any difference except that the city um the election judge could witness it. >> So if somebody really needs a witness, they can come here and we'll find a witness for them. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. >> Anybody else? No. Okay. So in summary form, this affects the primary only. Correct. >> This particular year. >> Correct. >> And as member Jackson points out, consistent with what was done on a bipartisan basis at the legislature. >> Yes. Correct. >> Nothing to do with the general election. And >> I'm not recommending uh this for the general because with the general, we do see a higher turnout um of voters. And if if I if this was done for the general, we would be shifting during those first 28 days of voting, we would be shifting approximately 3,000 voters over to the 18 days. And that would be on top of nearly 11,000 voters. So we would end up processing 15,000 voters approximately in city hall during those last 18 days. That would be crushing. So I'm not recommending that for the general. >> Okay. All right. Very good. Council member Pierce, did you have a question? Okay. Um All right. So, the the um motion would be to approve limiting the in-person primary election voting at city hall for 2026 for the statutory 18-day early voting period. I guess you say beginning with the 2026 primary election, but >> correct, Mr. Mayor. >> It'll cover this year. If we change our mind, we can do so next year. >> Yes. >> Okay. Is there a motion to that effect? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Member Agno moves member Pierce seconds uh approving the approving limiting in-person primary election voting at city hall in Edina for the statutory 18-day early voting period beginning with the 2026 primary election. Any further discussion? >> Yes, I I I'd like to amend that. um approving limiting in-person primary election voting at city hall for the statutory 18day early voting period for the 2026 primary election. I I don't want I don't like that beginning with >> beginning for the >> instead of beginning with say for the 2026 primary election. That means it's a just a one time only change and we don't have to come back and change it back for the general election. You know if >> clerk gets the secondary are comfortable with that. [laughter] >> We don't want to be stuck with that for the general election. >> Right. The maker and the secondary are comfortable with that. So the the motion will be to approve limiting inperson primary election voting at city hall for the statutory 18-day early voting period for the 2026 primary election. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor of the adoption of the motion as stated say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. >> That motion's adopted. And that'll be the process in place for the 2026 primary election only. And then um we've got a quarterly financial update. I don't know if you're you're going to handle that. >> Yeah, thank you, your honor. That's part of my report. Um generally, we include this uh report as uh in the council packet. Things are are looking good on both the revenue side and the expense side in the first quarter of 2026. Um two other items that were not in uh are part of my report tonight. One is to let you know we have a uh joint meeting with the school board scheduled for July 21st from 5 to 7:00 p.m. Uh the school board uh and the council will discuss the early childhood c kind of birth to kay uh education and care options and and uh really revolving around facilities and they have some wishes for a new facility in town. They want our support for it and they want us to help them and so we want to have a discussion about that and so we'll do that here in in city hall and it will substitute for your work session. So 5 to 7 so a half an hour early and uh we'll be upstairs. Uh the other item was we heard uh quite a bit about Wooddale Avenue bike lanes tonight and uh one of the things that we one of the uh uh calendar items we wanted to correct is that we had originally planned to have that in front of the council on on June 16th, but that has shifted. Um, we have some issues with I think e is it XL or Centerpoint, one of the major utilities is not going to be ready to move forward with the with the project preparation for that road for this year. So, this this decision is pushed back to July 21st. Uh, but something is going to hap something needs to happen to that road surface this year. There is a plan for a resurfacing and this is a part this is the time if you if people have a wish to to make this different, this is the time to express it. but we'll need a decision from you on that night. So, we can't uh toss it back to the transportation commission or appoint a citizen task force or something. We're going to have to have a decision that evening uh so that we can keep the project moving forward for this year. >> That's all I got. >> All right. Member Risser, anything for us tonight? >> I can't believe it's June and the Adina Art Fair is starting. So, got to mention that starts on Friday. Council [snorts] member Jackson. >> Yes, thank you. So, this morning the application for our new city manager went live and or yesterday I believe. Um and so the application period is open until June 29th. Um you can find it at ddahhumanresources.com and I encourage people to to take a look at it. Um I think we the profile is is really comprehensive. um in filling it out. Manager Neil, my goodness, you do a lot. [laughter] It's almost superhuman. So, I hopefully we can find a replacement for you. But, um but it was uh very comprehensive and I thought a really nicely done by DDA and with input from from member Pierce as well. Um so, that's that's the main announcement I have. I heard from a resident they really like the Facebook posts on the Braar reconstruction and I she said make sure and and say something. It's really nicely done. So to our communication staff um we were at EDIU member Pierce and I were uh it was and member Agne were here. No, it was just the two of us. Okay. And we got to uh work with the graduation of of that organization. If you haven't done EDIU and you are interested in city government next year, sign up. It's really the people just loved it. They had a great time and I want to thank the staff for putting that on and and it's a lovely community engagement um activity. Uh I did walk with the mayor and we walked around Rosland Park and boy, it's going to be a lot of really neat stuff when it's done. I'm I want it to be done, but it's it was fun. So, thanks for the folks who came out. >> Thanks for doing that. All right, member Pierce. >> Nothing from me tonight. >> Member, >> thank you. Um, so I I know we've talked a couple of times at various um proposals that we've had in front of us um that one of the things that I've heard from residents is kind of the the cost of child care and the availability of child care. Um, and I think right now there's really three three things that I hear about the most. Um, one cost and availability of child care for that birth to kindergarten. I also hear from a lot of parents who speak about the availability of the afterchool care during the school year. Um and then the third um something that's been I think more top of mind for parents over the last couple of months is kind of just like the mental toll of figuring out the summer care um for when school is not in session. Um, so it was because of kind of all of these conversations that I've been having that I reached out to manager Neil um and just asked to to understand and potentially collaborate with the school board. Um, so just wanted to thank you for driving that discussion. Um, and then I'm also going to be meeting um with a couple of representatives just to understand too what might be happening at the state level um that we can then take back to this community as well. So thank you for that and I'm excited for that conversation on July 21st. Good. Um, art fair. Good catch on that. And, uh, mention it again. Mentioning it again. Uh, all weekend long. I think it starts on Friday. Uh, and then also on Friday is a blood drive that's underway. Um, and it will be held out at uh, Memorial Memorial Blood Center will be out at Lifetime Fitness at Southtale on Friday. uh looking for qualified donors to uh donate blood. There's there's a shortage apparently in Minnesota and we need to be mindful of that. So folks uh in a general audience that might be watching the meeting uh keep that in mind. If you're willing to go over and donate blood on Friday, you can do it at Lifetime uh or near lifetime. The the mobile unit will be there. And then uh we talked about this I think earlier maybe remember Jackson talked about it and that is grooves and food. one of the big community builder events that started last year. It ran through every Tuesday night in June and they started again tonight. Of course, we couldn't be there because of city council. But I think both of us will be there next week. >> Yes. >> And uh then not be able to be there the following week and then the last week. But for those of you that haven't been out to Centennial Lakes on a Tuesday night for that grooves and food in June, you ought to get out there. people are loving it and it's a it's a it's just a great uh community builder as as I said earlier. So that's it for me. Um anybody else that prompt them for anything else? Okay. Is there a motion to adjourn? >> So move to second. >> Member Jackson moves. Member Agnu seconds a motion to adjourn the meeting of the Atlanta City Council this Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 at 10:46 p.m. Any further discussion? All those in in favor of adjournment say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Uh carried. Uh no nays. We stand adjourned.