City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone. We will call this meeting to order of the July 9th, I guess it is, Apple Valley City Council meeting. Welcome, everyone. For any members in the audience who have signed up to speak, as your name is called, please approach the podium to address the council. The first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance, and I would ask all to stand and join us if you're able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

Thank you, everyone. Next item on our agenda is to approve the agenda. And Tom, do we have any changes this evening?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we have no changes to tonight's agenda.

We have no changes. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Motion from Council Member Bergman, second from Council Member Millander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? The agenda passes. Next up, we have the audience participation portion of the meeting. We've got a total of 10 minutes for this item, and we have James Johnson, Jr., who is signed to speak. Come on forward.

Thank you. Mayor who Paul council members chief Francis chief Nelson administrator. Thanks for letting me. Come and talk to you today. I'm James Johnson, Jr. My colleague call me JJ. I'm the Dakota county public health opioid overdose prevention coordinator. I appreciate your work of local local city leaders here in apple valley joining me here tonight. I think no. He hasn't showed up yet. Jake Phillips. He's an AmeriCorps member. He's also a Recovery Corps project coordinator for Dakota County Public Health. I wanted to briefly share with you some important tasks that we're taking on that directly impact the Apple Valley. We had a very successful event earlier this year. We partnered with School District 196 Community Health to offer workshops called Starting the Conversation, Dangers of Non-Prescription Drugs, what parents and students need to know. So it was very successful, 30 families showed up, and the district asked if we could get it into different cities. So we're planning another event in February. We'll forward you that information as soon as we can make it available. And speaking of our youth, I wanna bring to your attention the Youth Wellbeing Network. that addresses risk factors contributing to adverse childhood experiences, substance misuse and overdoses, and suicidality in Dakota County's youth and young adults ages 10 to 24. We invite you to become a part of that or refer people to us and to get an invitation and a link to the meeting, please email Eric Gibson and I'll provide the email to you, Administrator. We continue to offer naloxone kits, also known as Narcan, free of charge at the Galaxy Library and at the Western Service Center. Additionally, even though it's a ways out, we're hosting a community-wide naloxone event here at Galaxy on November 17th. We have several of those naloxone events happening around Apple Valley, but this one's going to be in Apple Valley. We're also working with METR, a women-owned, Twin Cities-based public relations firm in Apple Valley and secured three residents that have lived experience in an 18-month multimedia campaign that combats stigma and promotes education about the realities and hopes surrounding prevention of substance misuse. We are in the initial stages of planning our second annual international overdose awareness activities during the month of August and are asking that your community join us in heightening the awareness for this continuing issue. We'll be submitting a formal request for a proclamation and join other communities throughout Dakota County who will be having vigils honoring those who lost. we're planning on having a vigil over next door at the northern service center they're going to light the building up in purple on august 31st and so we just hope that you'll join us in that honoring those people that we've lost we welcome opportunities to provide technical assistance regarding the opiate settlement funds in collaboration with the city and law enforcement partners. And finally, we want to invite you to the HOPE Summit, Health, Opioids, Prevention, and Education, on November 19th, being held at the Dakota County Technical College. This is an opportunity for the city to talk about what they've done with opioid settlement monies and how we can move these issues forward. we appreciate our connections with cities with law enforcement and especially with the galaxy library and again thank you for allowing me this time and thank you very much

Thanks for being here. I'm assuming if you haven't, you will get those dates to our city administrator. You threw a lot of them out there, and I know we didn't get them all. So if you want to get them over to Tom, he'll make sure we get them all. Will do. Great.

Thank you very much. Could I get a phone number as well or a contact info if you have a card with you?

Yeah, I have a card with me.

He can get it to Tom, too, and Tom can push it on if that's easier. Yep, I'll do that. Yeah, perfect. all right i don't see anyone else signed up for the uh audience participation portion of the meeting well before we move on we will offer for anyone in the room who did not sign up anyone who would like to speak for items not on the agenda All right, seeing none, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. These items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion, unless, of course, a council member or a citizen has to pull an item. Council members, are there any items you would like to pull from consent this evening? All right, seeing none, citizens, any items to pull from consent? All right, with that, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

second motion from council member hebert and a second from council member bergman all those in favor indicate by saying aye aye opposed consent items all passed unanimously and we're going to move on to 5a and talk about and proclaim july 2026 as park and recreation month and our park and rec director eric carlson is going to come talk about this

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, the month of July, because it's Parks and Recreation, takes a whole month to celebrate Parks and Recreation. You can't do it in a week. You can't do it in a day. You need a whole month. So the month of July nationally is recognized as Parks and Recreation Month. And so we want to certainly want to celebrate Parks and Recreation in Napa Valley. All of the programs, all of the facilities, all of the fun things and great things people get to participate in, especially given that residents supported the parks referendum back in November of 23 we were able to make quite a few improvements to our parking recreation system and In a few years, we'll be done with all of those projects and people have full access to all of that fun So there is a proclamation and I'd be happy to read it.

We'd be honored to have you read it. I

All right, so City of Apple Valley, Minnesota proclamation, whereas parks and recreation programs are an integral part of communities throughout this country, including Apple Valley, and whereas our parks and recreation are vitally important to establishing and maintaining the quality of life in Apple Valley, ensuring the health of all citizens, and contributing to the economic and environmental well-being of the community and the region. And whereas parks and recreation programs build healthy, active communities that aid in the prevention of chronic disease, provide therapeutic recreation services to those who are mentally and physically disabled, and also improve the mental and emotional health of all citizens. And whereas parks and recreation programs increase the community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, Increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction, and whereas parks and recreation areas are fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, And whereas parks and natural recreation areas improve water quality, protect groundwater, prevent flooding, improve the quality of the air we breathe, provide vegetative buffers to development and produce habitat for wildlife. And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure that ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the city of Apple Valley recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources, Now, therefore, it be resolved by the Apple Valley City Council that July is recognized as Parks and Recreation Month in the city. Be it further proclaimed that during Parks and Recreation Month, all citizens should enjoy what Apple Valley has to offer by taking part in their favorite sport or activity, visiting the outdoors, spending time with family and friends, or just relaxing in nature. Proclaim this 9th day of July, 2026. Thank you, Eric. Do we have a motion for that proclamation?

So moved. Second.

Motion from Council Member Hebert, second from Council Member Malander. All those in favor, indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? That carries. Eric, to what you read, I will just add just a couple quick things that crossed my mind as I think of our Park and Rec staff, and we were talking about out in the audience, and one is that is the the number of seasonal and particularly young seasonal staff that you hire every year and kind of teach them how to be good employees and good citizens and in many cases build kind of cool careers in Parks and Rec. And so I don't know that we captured that in the proclamation, but certainly is another value. And we talk a lot about the people that we see every day, but I don't want to forget about those who are up every morning on a mower or some piece of equipment maintaining all of that stuff that we all use. And I think they often get overlooked, and they're probably just fine with that, right, getting overlooked. But we have some really well-maintained and great facilities thanks to those folks who are doing the hard work behind the scenes. So thank you to everybody. Thank you.

all right with that we will move on to item 5b which is an interim ordinance authorizing a study and imposing a moratorium on data centers and our community development director tim bonetti is going to take this one thank you mr mayor members council uh before you tonight is consideration of a a resolution and also an ordinance that will uh authorize a study and an interim ordinance for more term on data centers uh I KNOW WE JUST WENT BRIEFLY THROUGH THIS, BUT I'LL JUST DO IT FOR THE COURTESY OF OUR AUDIENCE AT HOME AND HERE TONIGHT. STATE STATUTORY 462.355 SUB 4, YOU AS A COUNCIL HAVE THE POWER TO ADOPT AN INTERIM ORDINANCE, ALSO KNOWN AS A MORATORIUM. THE MORATORIUM IS BASICALLY AN ALLOWANCE FOR US TO TEMPORARILY PAUSE CERTAIN LAND USE DECISIONS. In this case specifically related to data centers in order to give more study Specific issues or land use items that require special attention and reconsideration The city may decide to implement changes or new regs or alternatively you can maintain the existing rules and regulations if deemed appropriate so basically no changes if you feel As noted, several cities have enacted similar moratoriums, including Minneapolis, Eagan, Invergrove Heights, Rosemount, Carver, and Vadnais Heights. Data centers, what are they? They're simply big storage facilities for the management and processing of digital information for your laptop, your phones, everything else. Generally, they consist of large facilities that accommodate network servers, mechanical equipment, cooling systems, and backup generators. has been noted in some articles. They're well suited for our state due to the cooler climate, affordable and accessible land, groundwater availability, a reliable electrical power grid, and tax incentives that are offered by the state. Some of the environmental issues that we studied before, they can generate significant property tax revenue. However, their jobs are somewhat limited. Most of the newer or proposed data centers that we're starting to see, either nationwide or locally, I mean, they're massive in scale. And their size and operational demands can have some negative substantial effects on local systems, including water supply, groundwater resources, sanitary infrastructure, stormwater management, and electrical demand. In addition, they can alter the visual landscapes. uh contribute to a constant or excessive noise vibrations heat bubbles increased traffic or other impacts As noted, we do allow for data centers in our current code under this PD 1053, which we refer to as the Menard Remnant Parcels. These are smaller 3.38 acre parcels. This was discovered in our research on the previous Apple Valley Tech Park application that came through and was denied earlier this year. also we do allow it as a conditional use under the mixed-use business campus which was a new district that was created to cover this area guided for the mbc which is basically where the avr gravel pit area exists today and some of those commercial developments are starting to happen over there Under our mixed-use business campus ordinance summary 1142, we provided for a brand new data center definition, which is noted there. It's pretty comprehensive and covers all. We also allow it as a conditional use for a data center, but regulated with certain setbacks, building materials, height, fencing, screening measures, et cetera. So that would have come under as a conditional use had it gone forward, the previous Apple Valley Tech part. For tonight, we've added some added language. This is a recommendation by our city attorneys. Highlighted here is just including but not limited to cryptocurrency mining AIGen in support of the internet. So this is just, we're adding a little bit more language to our ordinance for tonight. Again, the moratorium can remain in place up to one year with an ending date in the ordinance. You have the right to shorten or rescind that moratorium. It applies to all properties within the city. Input from both the Planning Commission and Council will be crucial to identify issues, refine the scope of the study, and ensure future planning and regulations align with the city's goals. Following the study, staff will make recommendations to the Council on any reasonable restrictions or new regulations. For tonight, you're going to hold a public hearing, and should you close that public hearing, we're going to ask that you adopt the resolution authorizing an interim use study regarding the planning, development, and regulation of data centers. You're also asked to subsequently pass an ordinance instituting the moratorium that restricts the establishment of the new data centers. Finally, we also are recommending the waiving of a second rating. With that, I will stand for any questions, or you're more than welcome to open the public hearing.

With that, we'll go ahead and open the public hearing for this item, which is 5B on the agenda. A notice of public hearing has been published in the city's official newspaper, and the affidavit of publication is available for inspection in the city clerk's office. We've seen the staff presentation and will now receive comments from the public. Before providing your comments, please state your name and your address for the record. At this point, I would invite anyone forward who would like to speak to this public hearing. Anyone who would like to speak to the public hearing, please come forward. And again, if you don't mind stating your name and address for the record, that would be great.

My name is Mary Rue. I live at 8163-137th. Perfect.

Can I get you to step just a little bit for the microphone so those at home can pick us up as well? Thank you.

I do have a question about why would we even be looking at something in our city when Rosemont has a humongous one that has been built out there? Is there a need for everyone in every city?

So. I will give you the short answer to that question. Tim, you can jump in the right. These are land use actions on what's permitted, and so we don't get to decide who goes where we make decisions in our ordinances about what types of uses can go on what land. And so with this action, what we're saying is we're going to pause these data center uses for a year so we can study their impact.

Not a given. I'm so what's not a given for sure. What's not a what's not a data center in Apple Valley? That's what you're going to be studying, correct?

So what we're going to be studying is the impact of data centers. And if we want to change our ordinances related to data centers so that this or this doesn't allow data centers to the conjury, this pauses any kind of data center development for a year while we study it.

Got it.

Does that help? Yes. OK, thank you. Are there anyone else who like to speak to the public hearing? One final opportunity. We will close the public hearing. Council members, are there any questions you have for Mr. Bonetti? With that, we would look to adopt a resolution authorizing an interim use study regarding the planning, development, and regulation of data centers. Do we have a motion for that item? Second. Motion from Council Member Bergman, second from Council Member Malander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Item 2 carries. And item 5B3 is to pass an ordinance instituting a moratorium that restricts the establishment of new data centers, expansion of existing data centers, and or development of property for a proposed data center during the interim use study. And we also recommend waiving the second reading. Do we have a motion to that effect? Motion from Council Member Bergman, second from Council Member Millander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? I think that carries us for all of 5B. Thank you, Tim and staff, for putting the presentation together. With that, we'll move on to staff and council communications. And Tom, I know we've got a couple items this evening.

Mr. Mayor, yes, we do. We have two of our department heads we'd like to bring up. We'd like to bring Brandon up, our city engineer, to talk about some upcoming road closures. And then after that, our fire chief, Matt Nelson.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I am not as fortunate as Park and Rec to get a month dedicated to our services. We get months of activity.

So I get several months. You wish you only had a month, don't you?

I wish we only had a month. That is correct. I'm going to talk about a few critical closures upcoming and just some updates on some things that are occurring on one of our busier roadways, County Road 42. Dakota County in cooperation with the City of Apple Valley is improving County Road 42 through the entire 26 and looking forward into 27 and 28. In 2026, currently there's multiple separate projects going on on 42. One of them, I'll get into specifics, Pennock Avenue storm sewer will be replaced. There's been some deficiencies out there for many, many years that requires extensive work. You'll notice barricades and work has been occurring at Garrett Avenue intersection, 147th and Pilot Knob, which is just off 42, but I'm counting it as kind of a 42 project. And then the traffic signal is being replaced at Pilot Knob, as well as once all those intermediate projects are done, the entire corridor from 147 to Rosemount will be milled and overlaid in 2026. So first one, I just want to get into a few specifics. because it's impactful this weekend. Pennock Avenue, all of the storm sewer will be completely redone as some of you have been aware over history. There's been some flooding at that intersection for many, many years. We did find that We really didn't know what the storm sewer did when we dug into it. It kind of was bricked up, it was not there, it was doing different things, and there was some reasons why it never functioned. So we are there to make it function. In order to do this, the entire road needs to be closed, and it creates the shortest amount of disturbance for all the businesses. So the decision was to close that segment of road, reconstruct it one time, do the work as needed. The impacts to that will be starting the 13th. All of this section in red will be closed to local traffic. And that work will be completed at the end of the 24th of July when I get to that. There are a lot of businesses here that are impacted just for your purpose. We hand delivered, spoke with every businesses that would be impacted by it, gave them a detour map, gave them impacts, gave them contact information. They were all very grateful and understanding of what's going on. There is a posted detour. The posted detour is more for those that travel through Apple Valley because if you're probably shopping or using the local roads, you're going to use intermediate. But to carry that volume of traffic on 42 coming east or west because of the closure, there's not a lot of intermediate roads between here and Burnsville. Posted detour will be down Cedar to 46 back to 35 and around. So

I know while you have that up, and I'm sure, Nick, you're already all over this, but Garden View will likely become busier over that, so I'm sure you've got that on your radar as well.

Yeah, there are several intermediate roads that will likely see some increased pressure on this, but this is posted. The big dates that's out there starting Monday, July 13th, extending through Friday, July 24th is the closure date. In order to meet this schedule, they will be working nights and weekends. This is a non-residential area, so working nights is acceptable.

It's only 10 days, right? Yeah.

Yeah. um given you know weather patterns look good knock on wood it stays that way all the businesses will remain open and accessible so the the this actually does work out pretty well for the businesses even though it's a temporary uh inconvenience at the pennock intersection so this is a big one a lot of work going on there um some other work that you probably notice at the same time Garrett and 42 is being worked on. This is a picture from the other day. All the traffic signals have been removed. The new bases are set currently. Curb and gutter is expected to end paving next week with added turn lanes for efficiency and smoother operation at that intersection. For those that have used Garrett, it's been a bit of a backup due to the insufficient lanes. That completion is scheduled for August 4th with everything on that one. So we're inching our way towards having Garrett open when the rest of the work starts to take over 42. Another one. Pilot Knob and 147th has been an extreme accident rate intersection. That work is actually nearly complete. You can see from the drone footage we shot yesterday, all the new three-quarter access is completed. The lane crossovers are being removed right now. And into next week, they will actually pave the whole thing about the 20th. And then once it's open for traffic, we'll switch over on the July 21st date to start replacing the signals at Pilot Knob, which will have some future closures related to 42 and Pilot Knob. This is a really positive safety improvement with the county that's occurring, so good one here. For information on all of those projects and the future mill and overlay that I mentioned earlier, these are Dakota County-led projects. Jeanine Briel is the contact. Here is some information. If you would like updates, they do have updates, and you could sign up to make sure you're getting updated emails on these closures and notifications directly from Dakota County. This information is also on our website, the city's website, and we've been assisting them with additional social media blasts just to kind of help Overall and the community so that that's one and then not related to the county or city For those of you driving north this weekend Trunk Highway 77 will start to encounter some significant roadway closures. So Starting 9 p.m. Tomorrow going through Monday. There will be some closures up close to the Minnesota Bridge They're going to start doing paving work. There'll be some lane closures on southbound lanes and some switchover. So be aware that trunk highway 77, and this is a two-year project, but what I'm showing here is the weekend work or the upcoming weekend work that'll affect everybody. and MnDOT does if you use 511 you can get updates from them and go to their website and sign up for the similar updates on all the various lane closures now being that this is a much longer corridor there'll be lots of intermediate closures and detours as this thing progresses it'll never be just one sort of detour it's going to be pretty dynamic moving along so it's probably best to

subscribe to see all the lane changes as this moves along so with that i got any questions but that's quite a bit of construction in a short amount of time for the upcoming month of july any questions thanks for the update like you said this is all on the website uh as well for people who want to go find it later and i'm sure we'll get it out in other ways great thank you all right um and i think we have uh chief nelson with an update as well

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Apple Valley Fire Department is recruiting for paid on call firefighters. So I wanted to make the public aware that applications are open. They can apply on our website at applevalleymn.gov slash fire to get more information. We'll be taking applications through next Friday, which is July 17th. Great. Thanks.

Thank you, Chief. Tom, anything else on the staff side? Council members, any updates? Go ahead, Lisa. You're muted. There you go.

Sorry. I just, and maybe you're going to talk about it and we mentioned it in the informal, but just a real huge shout out and thank you to everybody, Pat Schreschel, all the volunteers, all of the city staff and the departments, the Rotary and all the other partners for the great Freedom Day. Freedom Days event they were really fabulous. There's a little bit of a hot weather So as nice and steamy for it And I know that those of you who did stay up a little bit later for the fireworks. It was still a really great show I was fortunate to be able to see it from my backyard so I didn't have to go very far But I just a huge shout out and thank you to everybody for just another wonderful community event. I

I couldn't say it any better. Thank you. Thank you all. Council members, anything else? All right, with that, we'll move on to our calendar of upcoming events. Our next City Council meeting is Thursday, July 23rd at 7 p.m. Do I have a motion to approve the calendar? Motion from Council Member Bergman. Second. Second from Council Member Malander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Calendar is approved. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Motion from Council Member Hebert. Second. Second from Council Member Malander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And we're adjourned. Thank you, everybody. Have a great night.