City Council - Regular Meeting

It's Tuesday, June 16th, 2026. Don't forget about Juneteenth on Friday. We got a big celebration down at Centennial Lakes if you want to make it down there during the day. So it is Tuesday, June 16th, 2026. It is 7.01 p.m. This is the Dina City Council. And as Director Benarod indicated, we've been doing these meetings on a hybrid sort of basis. So folks can watch from home. We've been doing it since the time of the pandemic and post-pandemic. People can call in if they want to call in at certain points in the meeting. We've got a couple opportunities tonight. We've got public hearings and then we've got public comment as well. One thing I wanted to cover in advance here is that I think Director Benarat might have indicated that if it's a matter scheduled for a future public hearing or something that's otherwise on the agenda tonight, it's off limits for public comment. And I'm suspecting that many of you, because we saw some signs, I saw some signs along Wooddale Avenue about Wooddale and the staff recommendation that's coming up, I think, the end of July on Wooddale, that many of you are here on that issue. Is that true? If you want to raise your hand and... Tell me, okay, so that's fine. I think what's coming on the agenda tonight is something written to us from the Edina Transportation Commission in the form of their recommendations. But I don't wanna get caught up on that technicality. So I'm gonna let folks, we're gonna let folks talk. We've had a little conversation up here. Happy to have you here with us and express your concerns one way or the other about that proposed bike lane on Wooddale. And the only thing I would suggest is that as you listen to other people talk, we've had some great input on this already, I can tell you from a written standpoint, people on Wooddale, people from the bicycling community, a lot of different views, but very, very well expressed. So we're very well aware of the issues involved. So if you think that you might be saying the same thing as somebody else is saying, that your testimony might be redundant or your concerns that you're expressing might be redundant to somebody else's if you You don't have to get up and tell us what your opinion is if you don't want to, but you're sure welcome to, because I remember years ago, there was a guy in our living area named Peter Brosius who ran the children's theater, and he told me once, Jim, and he said, you know, democracy and theater both began in Greece, and the point of democracy was all voices matter, and all voices should be given the opportunity to be heard. And so that's what we're gonna be doing here tonight. We're gonna give you a chance to express your opinion. You've got three minutes and you're gonna get a yellow light warning you when you got about 30 seconds left. So make sure that you stay on the clock. We treat everybody the same that way. Everybody's opinion is valued, but everybody gets the same amount of time to express that opinion. And so providing that information, let's call the meeting to order. And I'm gonna ask our Clerk Sharon Allison to call the roll.

Council Member Agnew. Here. Council Member Jackson. Here. Council Member Pierce.

Here.

Council Member Risser. Here. Mayor Hublin.

Here. We did have, back up a second, we did have a phone number up, I think up on the screen for people that might be watching remote. If you want to put that up one more time before we do the Pledge of Allegiance. Here we go. So folks at home, you might want to get this information down and then we'll catch up with you here in a few minutes. All right, let's do the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The other thing is that before we start tonight, I was out of town for, it was my wife for a college graduation out of state, and we got some really terrible news yesterday that one of our neighbor boys had fallen in Madison. He was a student at the University of Wisconsin, a Dyna boy, and hit his head and died. His name was Raja Chinakotla, wonderful young guy. was I think a sophomore at Madison and was just getting ready now to spend the next year at the London School of Economics. The last time I saw him at a meeting here in town, he's been really actively involved in the Edina Asian American Alliance marches and the parade from the time he was in high school with their banner. And he seemed so happy and so content about what he had coming up in life. So I just wanted to have a quick moment of silence for Raja Chenikola here before we start the meeting, thank you. Thank you folks for that. We've got a form of meeting agenda that's been published both for our benefit at the council level and the staff and the general public. Is there anyone on the council or from a staff standpoint that wishes to modify the meeting agenda in any form or fashion? Hearing nothing, is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda as published?

So moved.

Second. Member Jackson moves. Member Pierce seconds. The adoption of the meeting agenda is published. Any further discussion? Those in favor of adoption of the meeting agenda say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. The meeting agenda is adopted. We have something to work from. And now we are at that community comment point. And our practice is that we visit with folks in the audience first that were able to come to City Hall and speak to us in person. And so let's start out, let's keep that three minutes in mind. And when you come up, you don't have to give your address, remember that, you just give us your name. And if you don't have any kind of a display article or something you wanna show the council, I think one of the side podiums is best. for making your presentation. So feel free to start. Come on up. Someone want to start it out? Here we go.

It's good. I have documents.

Yeah, we'll set that up for you. Other people then can see how to do that if they have a Something that they want to use from an illustration standpoint.

Yes, ma'am.

He's my neighbor, and he incorporated. One is gratefully submitting.

to use her three minutes. My name is Ryan Seamers. I've been a resident on Wooddale Avenue for the last seven years. My family moved here when there was already one lane actually removed from Wooddale Avenue in order to allow a great public amenity, the sidewalk. And we do support the idea of bike infrastructure citywide, but we do oppose this specific implementation. in the manner that's being presented, we're asking the council to select option three. OF THE EXISTING CONFIGURATION. IF OPTION 3 IS REJECTED, OPTION 2 IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AS A COMPROMISE FOR US. IT REMOVES ALL PARKING FOR THE HOMEOWNERS WHO RESIDE IN AREAS THAT ACTUALLY NEED IT THE MOST. SEGMENTS OF THE STREET WITH ONLY ONE LANE FOR A SINGLE CAR PARKING LOT DRIVEWAY. And when we have visitors to our house, this is the only place they can come. And I apologize, that's my own device interrupting myself. Basically, there are several issues with the report that's been submitted. The crash data does not actually support the proposal. In the 19 crashes that have taken place over the last 10 years, only one involved a cyclist and only one involved a pedestrian. 89% of the crashes involved motor vehicles only, and a bike lane does not address this. In the years that we actually had zero crashes, those were the safest on record. And the reason that that actually took place was because of your very insightful move to actually reduce the speeds on our city streets to 25 miles an hour. And I think what you'll see is essentially we have a reduction all the way to zero crashes for two years. And I think the reason that the speeds started to pick up again is because we had a lack of enforcement. This had nothing to do with bicycling. The... 85% of the speeds that were observed were up to 34.8 miles per hour by the city's own data. Drivers already ignore the speed limit, and a painted bike lane does not slow down cars. Better enforcement of the existing speeds would result in safer behavior, but most of the accidents also took place mid-block, and I think one of the reasons that actually took place a lot of times had to do more with delivery vehicles or cars pulling out of driveways. The Minnesota Constitution also creates some exposure for the city when it comes to damages for the standards to the damage standard. Minnesota Constitution Article 1, Section 13 protects property from being damaged by public action without compensation, not just taken. Wooddale's already lost one parking lane to a sidewalk conversion. This would be the second sequential removal from our homeowners. versus Metropolitan Airports Commission also establishes that consequential property value damages from the public infrastructure is compensable. The city's cumulative legal exposure does deserve more formal review before the city takes an actual vote. Measurable property value damage, that's what you're seeing here in this diagram, or these spreadsheets. Basically, there's an estimated corridor total of about $83 million to $97 million across all three segments at a moderate 8% impact, which is at the low end of 5% to 15%, according to some studies, when you remove any parking There would be a $6.6 to $7.8 million aggregate value lost throughout the corridor. And per household in segment two, the estimated cost for us would be $34,000 to $80,000 per house per individual property damage. And I think that there's a few lawyers on the street who might have something to say about that. Smaller driveway homes would bear also the disproportionately higher burden, a non-uniform impact from a uniform policy. Whereas further down Wooddale Avenue, there's a proposal that would not impact the parking for the most high value homes. Option 2A is inequitable because it's not a compromise. Segment two loses all of our parking, The bike lanes create new danger for cyclists, even if it's meant to protect them. Delivery drivers who currently park illegally on no parking on the west side is observable and documentable at this moment. I had a delivery driver who was there for a minute and a half, parked on the wrong side of the road, just looking for a package, not even delivering something up through the door. And at the peak times of the day, this does create a big opportunity for issues. Another problem spot for our particular street at 58th and one street down to the south of us, that has been where we've observed the worst accidents take place. And a lot of that has had more to do with the fact that people are ignoring stop signs.

Sir, we're going to have to ask you to wrap up.

No problem. I just ask that you consider an alternative route. Thank you.

Yes, thanks, Ryan. Okay, we're back on the three minute clock. Awesome.

Hi, my name is Will Madry. I've spoken with you all before. I also bring something to the table that I think a lot of people in this room don't hear from. I rode Wooddale Avenue every day for about a year and a half until I didn't want to do it anymore. I want you guys to support this project and specifically support a protected lane that's 2B or 2C. Those are the best plans to support an all-age and ability design. There are really only three through routes north-south in Edina past 100 above 62. It's France, Wooddale, or the frontage road along 100. Frontage road along 100 is fast and out of the way for bikers to get to. France has the E line going down it and existing France traffic. So Wooddale is the only option to put this by claim. There is not another place you can put it. Wooddale is a regional connector. It points right at the Roseland Bridge Park Bridge, which this city is already investing in and making better and making accessible to cyclists because it currently is not. Most Wooddale homes have driveways. I live in Minneapolis. I don't actually have a, like, driveway, like where I can go in to my own yard, like with my car. And most homes are at least two to four minutes away from close on street parking on off streets. This is a high injury network roadway. The city's own report showed that people were speeding 34 miles per hour on this road, making the lanes... skinnier, which 2C does, would make that better. It would slow people down because people are driving at 34 miles an hour because they feel like they can. But all of that doesn't matter if you don't also include a way for cyclists to use this road. The way it is currently set up, I took it on my way here. I work in Cahill near 100 and 494. The way it's currently set up, when you're going north, you have no facilities. And I was getting close past. Part of Wooddale is closed right now. But in the parts that are not closed, it was exactly how I remembered it. Unpleasant. So I really, really urge you to go with option two. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Madry.

Folks, we're respecting everybody's opinion in here and there's not gonna be any clapping or jeering or cheering of any nature. This is a protected environment for people. It's a safe place for people. We want everybody's opinion protected and respected.

So, all right, thank you for that. Daryl Krieger, two weeks ago I spoke about bike lanes and parking on Wooddale Avenue and expressed the opinion that it did not have to be an either-or decision, but it could and should be both. I'm here tonight to tell you how that can be done, prefacing this by saying that a solution satisfactory to everyone requires compromise and creativity. The first gentleman spoke about option number three, which is the existing configuration. It's had one non-serious bicycle accident in 10 years. But it doesn't address the perception that riding on Wooddale is unsafe, which leads cyclists to use the sidewalk, which creates a safety issue for pedestrians. Option 2A that the Edina Transportation Commission has come up with includes a dedicated two-way bike lane that preserves parking between Wooddale Lane and West 56th Street, but it is adjacent to the traffic lane with no buffer. South of West 56th Street, parking is eliminated. Options 1, 2B, and 2C do away with parking for all of Wooddale Avenue south of West 50th Street. What I would like to propose is a modification of option 2A, one that will truly meet the needs of everyone. If you were to visit New York City, where cyclists coexist with cars both moving and parked, all in orders of magnitude light years greater than Wooddale Avenue, you would find that the bike lane, is adjacent to the curb, with a parking lane separating it from the traffic lane. If you were to visit Copenhagen, regarded as the most bicycle-friendly city in the world, you would find the same thing. To be able to have both on-street parking on Wooddale Avenue from West 50th Street to West 56th Street and a protected bike lane that people would actually use, the two-way bike lane should be next to the curb with a striped parking lane between the traffic lanes and cyclists. A diagonal crossing should be installed on West 50th Street, like what you would find on the southwest corner of Lake Damocasca. to allow bicyclists coming out of the Country Club neighborhood in Wooddale Park to cross safely to the bike lane on the east side of Wooddale Avenue. Until the bridge over Minnehaha Creek gets rebuilt, cyclists will need to walk their bike on the sidewalk on the bridge. Southwest 56th Street, Wooddale Avenue should be narrowed to 27 feet with two 10 foot traffic lanes and a seven foot parking lane. The four feet gain plus using four feet of city right of way would allow for the creation of a multiple use sidewalk with a painted two way bike lane and sidewalk for pedestrians. This has been done in Minneapolis and in Richfield to great effect. makes the intersection at Valley View much safer as well. So in summary, this proposal provides protected bike lanes and preserves parking for the entire length of Wooddale Avenue, plus makes our sidewalks safe for pedestrians again. Narrow traffic lanes have been proven to reduce accidents, and based on the experience of South Bryan Avenue and Minneapolis, have increased property values, which is good for the city. So this is a win-win for everyone, and I would encourage you to give this your consideration. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Gerald. If you want to leave any of those as exhibits, we could take them to, or Kirk can take them, or Mr. Benarach can take them, depending on whether you want to part with them or not. Good evening.

I've lived on Wooddale for 20 years. Ryan is my neighbor. He's shuffled me out several times. I appreciate that. Pat Merrigan. I love the idea that Daryl came up with. I love the idea that Ryan came up with. To lose parking on Wooddale Avenue is a detriment to the people that live along the street. It is difficult enough to find places to park. I'm sorry, I'm ad-libbing all of this, but The problem for me that I've seen on Goodale Avenue is the speeding. I mean, that is what makes it a dangerous road to drive along. I've suggested alternatives. I wrote you all an email today. Speed bumps would be the way to go. Because I have worked in St. Paul for 20 years, and I have biked from Edina to St. Paul probably 70% of that time. And I've really never felt unsafe or... It's no different than any other city street, okay? There's a designated bike lane. It works well. And to take the parking completely away from the people that live along the street makes it difficult for the people that live there. It's... In my opinion, it's not fair. The people that live along the street are the ones that should have the most say in what goes on. I understand that biking is a safety issue, but the safety issue is people speeding. people not respecting stop signs. That has nothing to do with the bike lane. You're still going to have those problems, even if you designate a bike lane. And so alternatives like what Darrell came up with, what Ryan has come up with, is better than basically punishing the people that live along the street, because that's what you're going to do. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Pat. Good evening. Better pull that down a little bit more. You can there you go.

Hi, my name is Ellery Buckley. I'm asking you to vote against eliminating parking on Wooddale Avenue. I live on at 5309 Wooddale and this affects me and my family. If friends come over for a play date or sleepover at my house, everyone has to park in our driveway, and that means I could only have three or four friends over. When you were a kid, you probably cared a lot about being able to have friends over. If you were me, what would you want to have happen? Please vote no, thank you.

Thanks, Valerie, thanks for coming tonight.

Hi, I'm Amy Buckley, I'm Ellery's mom. I also live at 5309. I just want to say thank you to all of you for your first service to our community and for the opportunity to speak. I want to encourage you to vote against eliminating parking on Wooddale Avenue. we live right on that street we see the high speeds of driving including seeing cars go past the stopped arm of school buses picking up children so we see the safety risk associated with speed far more than we see the actual Circumstances that affect bikers though. We acknowledge that they exist I wanted to point out others have spoken well to this issue, but I wanted to point out to Two risks that I see to eliminating parking one being if people have to park cars in their driveways the difficulty of backing out of a driveway onto a busy road is a much more challenging maneuver than pulling out of a standard street parking space and that increases risk of to the drivers, to pedestrians, and cyclists. I also wanted to encourage you to consider moving, if we move cars to side streets, that actually creates more compressed transit space on those roads, which are more likely to have child cyclists, more likely to have pedestrians, and it actually creates more risk on those less traveled roads as well. So I urge you to consider a less restrictive solution than eliminating parking, thank you.

Yes, thanks, Amy. Good evening.

Hi, my name is Mel Bernstein.

Just wanna get this in the right spot.

First off, I am a Edina grad of 2017, and I currently live in Uptown Minneapolis, though my parents, including my mom in the back, still live near Edina High School. I went to university in Vancouver, Canada, and when I returned from some travels after school, I moved back in with my parents, and it was not the best. Well, I do love my mom in Dao. What actually made it really hard was the isolation that I felt. couldn't use the second car because it didn't exist anymore. My parents downsized when I went to university. Being near the high school, there is no transit access. So if I wanted to go anywhere, including, let's say, the YMCA, that was the only thing. I was like, OK, I'll go to the gym. But I didn't even want to bike down 70th to get to the YMCA near Southdale. Underneath highway 100, there's a kind of a gap. There's no bike lane there. 70th is great next to Cornelia where I went to elementary school. Then you cross the six lane highway that is France Ave. Then you get towards the like target area and it's okay. But we have a lot of misconnections in Edina. I just want to say thank you to Andrew and Nick, who I know have been doing a lot of work in the city to think about not just cars, to think about other ways of getting around. And I want to speak, as I mentioned, about independence and trying to give voice to people that maybe aren't here tonight. I think that anyone should be able to bike anywhere. And I think that the worst part about biking in the city, in any city, is cars. Biking is fun. It can be fun, but it's speed of cars. It's the risk that you feel when you're biking next to cars that might open that door. There was actually a cyclist in Chicago that recently got killed, and that was very sad. I think that everyone should have the chance to bike or get around however they want. It might be an electric scooter. It might be an electric trike for those who are impaired mobility-wise, as well as like 10-year-olds biking to school or, I don't know, maybe a middle schooler who wants to go to their friend's house. They want to go to a sleepover. and I remember going to a sleepover but I also would love to bike to my friend's house I think that would be awesome and we need to build stuff that allows people to have a choice of how they get around I'm not following these notes at all. I will be honest to say that Wooddale is really tricky. I think that if it was Vernon or if it was Valley View with a much wider right of way, which means the distance between each side of the road, it would be a much easier decision. We can keep... parking, we can have a bikeway. Wooddale is really narrow. It's really hard to get parking and a bikeway right now. There's a bikeway going south, but not north if there's parking.

Ms. Bernstein, I need to have you wrap up.

Okay. Vote for two and think about safety for all users. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Eileen O'Shaughnessy. I'm a 1977 graduate of Edina High School. I've been a child, a mother, and a grandmother in Edina. I've biked everywhere and only recently donated my bike last year. I am strongly opposed to removing parking on Wooddale Avenue. If there's a better way to do bike lanes, that would be great. I think this project is easy to support in someone else's neighborhood. Wanting bike lanes to travel through the area is desirable as long as your living situation and property value is not affected. There was a survey of the neighborhood done by the city. 72% of respondents strongly opposed removing parking from Wooddale. 99% of people living on Wooddale do not want the parking removed. 20 responses included an additional comment stating they were avid bikers, but also lived in the area and were strongly opposed to changing the configuration. So the people in the area that also bike frequently prioritize parking over the change in bike lanes. The focus and conclusion of the city report are to quote, improve the comfort and safety of cyclists. There's little mention of pedestrians or homeowners. I am now more of a pedestrian. My daughter lives in the neighborhood. I'm an almost daily visitor. And for me to visit now, I would have to park down the street and around the corner. In the winter, that will be difficult. There are no statistics about the number of cyclists on Wooddale in the city report. I do walk frequently, and in a recent two-hour period, there were four cyclists on a beautiful spring day. This morning, watching out the window, was a rainy, cool day. There were no cyclists for a number of hours. The city proposal says south of Wooddale Glen, the city will take away all parking at all times on all days for the 120 or so residences that share Wooddale Avenue. Their needs and circumstances are disregarded, so there is a dedicated bike lane in January. This seems disproportionate and frankly unfair. The city report references the comprehensive plan, living streets plan, pedestrian bicycle master plan, and climate action plan. they are not binding and should not be used to justify one-sided imbalance decisions. Mayor Hovland was recently quoted in the Sun Current as saying, the way I go about looking at things is if a project is good for the whole city. I then balance that against whether or not there could be adverse impact on the neighborhood that would outweigh the benefits to the city overall. This project has very negative effects on the neighborhood. They have told you this. 99% of people living on Wooddale do not want changes to the bike lanes. A small neighborhood does not have the voice, money, or organization of the bike lobby, but please listen to them and do not remove the parking for Wooddale Avenue.

Thanks, Ms. O'Shaughnessy. Folks, folks.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening. Mr. Mayor, City Council members, it's Bill Egan. I spoke with you about a month ago. I've got a couple things to address tonight. The first of which is I want to challenge something that's in the city staff's report that was posted about a week ago. And this is with regard to option 2A. And as you may recall, I addressed an option that would have a bike lane and preserved parking on the stretch of Wooddale from 50th to 56th Street. that's what the option to to a does a little bit different than what I had because at the time the measurements were designated as 38 feet wide now it's 35 feet so what the city proposed with the Transportation Commission or the Transportation Department proposed was the two-lane separated bike lane that Dr. Krieger referenced earlier. City staff says option 2a is not recommended for consideration as it does not comply with the MSA design standards Well, the MSA design standards are printed in the report if I can just step can I have a microphone? Oh, it's over here. Sorry Design standards are there are There is no design standard for two-way bike lane. So I would challenge the staff as to that statement that it doesn't comply, because there is no design standard. What the design standard says is it provides for a minimum driving lane width of 10 feet, a minimum parking lane width of seven feet, and bike lane widths of five to six feet. Now, I think the design standards, and the staff will probably agree that the idea is that's a one-way bike lane, but for off-road use, the design standards do provide for an eight-foot-wide two-way bike lane. And there's no reason why you couldn't put a two-way bike lane on the street if it requires a variance. Those variances can be petitioned to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and they're relatively easy to obtain. So I'd strongly encourage the city council to consider option 2A, put the staff on it to see what needs to be done to make sure that that gets approved. And one of the reasons why 2A is a good option is because Option three is the best for all Wooddale residents, and I would encourage, again, the council to adopt that. Option 2A is the next best solution because it provides the lowest impact to the residents of the street. It preserves the residents right to use and enjoy their property. It preserves their property values. And it also gives the bike lane advocates what they want. It gives them a protected bike lane. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Egan.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Jason Morrell, and I'm a homeowner on Wooddale Avenue, and I'm here tonight to voice my opposition to the proposed parking ban of Wooddale Avenue. Mr. Mayor, some of my speech is going to be a little redundant, as you've already said, but this is worth repeating. every resident who has spoken both tonight and on june second of wooddale is against the proposed parking ban and the only speakers who are for it are either residents of minneapolis or members of the transportation committee who do not live on wooddale. In the survey results that the city posted last week ninety percent of residents of wooddale oppose upgrading the bike lane and ninety nine percent oppose removing street parking. Let me repeat that ninety nine percent of the homeowners on wooddale avenue are against taking away the bike lane. This should be enough. This should be a done deal. Everyone who you represent on Wooddale Avenue is against this. The proposal states that this would improve safety. This is flawed on many levels. I have never seen a biker in my time on Wooddale not be respected and in fact most of the time they are either riding in the middle of the road and ignoring traffic laws or riding on the sidewalk even though bike lane already exists just in fact this morning i saw an adult male riding his bike on the sidewalk The data that the city provide backs this up, with only one crash in 10 years involving a bike that did not result in injury. On top of that, there were only 19 crashes in 10 years, and most of them involved property damage only, and none of them involved serious injuries. Are we really doing all this work for one crash every six months? I have a two and a half year old son. If you truly care about his safety and the safety of others on Wooddale, I encourage you to do the following four things. Number one, enforce the speed limit. Number two, enforce the stop signs. Number three, Install speed indicators along Wooddale Avenue like you have throughout the city. And number four, like someone mentioned earlier, install speed bumps if safety is truly your goal. The city has acknowledged that speeding is a problem and has put it on the residents to enforce it by passing out these ridiculous drive 25 signs across town. It's not our job to enforce the law, it's yours, and I would encourage you to use the increase in the public safety budget to do so. Taking away parking at Wooddale would encourage drivers to drive faster and not improve my family's safety. Please don't create a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Please listen to the residents of Edina, not Minneapolis, especially residents who live on Wooddale Avenue who are clearly against this proposal. The property taxpayers of Wooddale have spoken. We do not want this. Please do not take away parking in Wooddale. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Morrill. Good evening. Hi.

Hi, my name is Brendan Galloway. I live right down the street on 50th. Our driveway comes out to 50th, so I get... living on a busy road. I get backing out of a busy road. I get, you know, limited parking options. I also have four kids ranging from eight down to two years old. Three of those have gone to the Edina Community Center, Early Learning Center, and we bike there basically every day. So we bike down Wooddale every day to and from school for them, and they're, you know, Ranging from three to five years old when they're going there, so we don't feel it safe to ride on the street We ride on the sidewalk which for the most part works out pretty well. We do get in people's way on the sidewalk We do you know? make our way down and they love it. And the reason, one of the reasons that I'm here is, you know, having a protected bike lane would be immensely helpful for us and the other families that, you know, we know who live around here and trying to get to and from the ELC. But just yesterday, if anybody's driven down Wooddale on a Monday, they would know that it's garbage day. And so on Mondays, we've always known that it's tough to get on the sidewalk because there's garbage cans in front of every single house, you know, either partially to mostly obstructing the sidewalk there. And so just yesterday, we were headed down to Pamela Park for our I guess, five-year-olds soccer. And we were a little, we weren't quite running late, but we were having fun trying to make it there on time. And we were going pretty fast. She was riding, you know, right along the sidewalk there. And she misjudged one of the trash cans that was partially blocking the sidewalk. And she fell very hard on the sidewalk. And she, you know, I kind of wish that I could bring her emotions into this room because she was mad and she was surprised. But she knows that a garbage can shouldn't be in the sidewalk. She's old enough to know that. And so she's fine. She's got scrapes. But she'll get back up on her bike. She'll be all right. and so you know my only request for you know this this room and you know you know the the residence is like um give kids somewhere safe to ride right like it's it's not safe to take a four-year-old on to wooddale right now like it's simply not um we've made it work on the sidewalk But you know all of our kids have run into various things, whether it's a dumpster garbage dumpster, you know that's there more permanently or a you know every Monday the dumpsters there that are that are blocking the sidewalk. Just you know, give them a safe space to be. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Max Weinberger, and I'm a homeowner on Wooddale. I'm asking Council to choose option three and keep the current configuration on Wooddale. I understand the desire to improve bike safety. I bike. My daughter just learned to ride a bike without training wheels two weeks ago. I want safe routes for families, but this proposal has to work on the actual street, not just in a diagram. And on the actual street, removing parking does not remove the need for curbside access. Amazon trucks will still come. UPS and FedEx trucks will still come. USPS will still come. Grocery deliveries will still come. They will not disappear because the street is repainted. Today, those vehicles often use the existing parking lane. It's not perfect, but the street has a place for them to stop. If that parking lane is removed, where exactly are they supposed to go? In real life, delivery drivers generally stop near the address. They generally do not park around the corner and walk from side streets, and they generally do not pull into residential driveways. As a Wooddale resident, I already see delivery vehicles stop in the southbound travel lane under the current configuration. So the likely result is predictable. They will stop in the bike lane, the buffer, or if a physical bike lane barrier is used, they will block the now narrowed travel lane. That is not a minor issue. National parcel data shows US households average just over three parcels per week. And parcel volume is still increasing, applied to roughly 144 adjacent properties in the parking relevant residential segments of Wooddale. That is more than 24,000 parcels per year. Those are not theoretical trips. Those are frequent daily stops. Now compare that with the geometry that's been proposed. A common delivery truck is roughly eight feet wide before even thinking about mirrors and clearance. An eight foot delivery truck does not fit in a five and a half or six foot bike lane. So if the parking lane is removed, the obstruction does not go away. It moves into the bike lane or the travel lane. That is the practical issue I do not see addressed in the report. No mention of delivery trucks at all. The same is true with the crash data. 19 crashes, one involved a bicyclist, one a pedestrian. If speed is what we're trying to solve for, then let's address speed directly. But the record does not show that removing 129 parking spaces is necessary or proportionate. It does not appear to show whether any of the crashes were due to the current parking configuration. It does not show where daily delivery vehicles will go. And it does not show that the new configuration will function better in real life. So the question is what problem are we trying to solve? And are we creating a new one?

Thanks, Mr. Member.

Thank you.

Need to have you wrap up. Yeah, thanks for that. Thanks for those, appreciate those thoughts. Good evening.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Good. My name is Mary Lou Hopperstead. And I want to thank all of you for wanting this job that you have and all of the work that it entails doing. I love Edina. I love Centennial Lakes Park. And I do walk my dog down there. And I am very concerned because I feel something very precious. dear to me, has been taken from me by allowing bicycles and e-bikes motorized on the sidewalks in residential areas. And then I hear another side here, which is very interesting. I have no problem getting off of the sidewalk to the side when I encounter a bike coming at me. The problem is when they are behind me, and they may be yelling, on your left, on your left. I cannot hear. There's a lot of noise. There's traffic noise, construction noise. They need a bell, they need a whistle or a horn, or they could get off their bike and walk around. that I think I would love that. But their voice is not loud enough to hear until they're right there by me. You have not denied or ignored their need for bike paths. There's a beautiful one at Centennial Lakes Park. And I... I hesitate to ask, but are you sure that in the residential areas that they need to be on the sidewalks too? I would just like more safety. I want to thank you for this opportunity just to speak. And I do believe that these bicycles in residential areas are an accident waiting to happen. And if they could just, when they're going around pedestrians, walk. They can get off and walk, of course, unless they're in a hurry. But I'm sure it does not even enter their minds. So it'd be nice to put a little seed in there. that yes, when you meet a pedestrian, you can get off your bike. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Hoppershet.

Good evening. Mayor Hovland to Dynasty Council members. My name is John Regini and my wife and I live on Wooddale Avenue. As many of the other residents of Wooddale Avenue, we're here to express our staunch opposition to the removal of on street parking on Wooddale Avenue as part of the. proposed Wooddale Avenue bike project. I won't rehash the safety stats and the issues that will hit direct residents of Wooddale Avenue, but I do want to pick up on a comment that was made by another resident about the knock-on effects that will impact our neighbors and our kids in the neighborhoods adjacent to Wooddale Avenue, which I don't think this plan has addressed in any way, shape, or form or any of the options. But the project will create significant safety issues in adjoining neighborhoods. Congestion will increase in the streets in these neighborhoods. And it's important to know if you've walked those neighborhoods, these streets frequently are not well lit. They don't have sidewalks. They don't have curbs. They don't even sometimes have stop signs at four-way intersections. And they frequently don't have any parking restrictions on them, which causes on some of the narrower two-way streets, you'll get congestion as a function of people parking on one side or the other. These are neighborhoods where our young children play, where they walk, and where they ride their bikes. These are streets where we take walks, where we walk our dog, and that we use to visit one another. With more personal visitors and service and delivery vehicles parking in these neighborhoods, our safety and the safety of our neighbors will become increasingly compromised as traffic increases and visibility is lessened. So please vote for option three, to maintain the current existing roadway configuration and against any option of the project that imposes unnecessary hardship on the residents on or around Wooddale for no real safety gain, perceived safety gain perhaps, but no real one based on the data. Thank you.

Yes. Thanks, Mr. Raghini. Good evening.

Hi. Taylor Brushwine, I'm on the Transportation Commission, but I'm here as a resident. I'm here in favor of Wooddale for 2B and 2C specifically, and I just wanted to address some of the talking points that you're hearing in opposition. But first, there was this idea that we could have both parking and bike lanes. I met with three of you to advocate for that. I thought it was a great idea, what Bill had originally proposed and what Daryl's talking about tonight. Unfortunately, we found that the road's narrower than it originally thought, so we can't fit all that with state aid standards. I want to touch quickly on the convenience. I understand that there's convenience that's lost for those residents. Is the convenience too large to overcome? I don't believe so. Most of the houses are between zero and 400 feet away from a side street. The parking lot outside is 100 to 400 feet away, and we all made it here. So a couple of the points that you've heard. You've heard that there's plenty of other routes just to avoid Wooddale. Like Will had mentioned, there's three through streets here. There's the Frontage Road, there's France, and Wooddale. Those other two aren't on our CIP. They're not on Hennepin County CIP. This is really likely the only chance that we have in the next 10 years to do anything with those three streets. You've heard that this is a safe road as is, that I feel comfortable riding on it, that my kid feels comfortable riding on it, that they've never seen anyone have a close pass. Those are all opinions. And any anecdotal response from me would also be an opinion. But luckily, we had professional consultants look at our safety on city streets for over a year when they developed CMAP. So what did they find? They identified it as a medium to high priority on the local safety priority network. That's independent evidence that there are safety concerns on the street and that change is needed. So while you've been given the data and provided the research that protected bike lanes are gonna make things safer, and not just for bicyclists, it's gonna lower the speeds from cars, and you've seen the data and research for that. You've seen the data and research for how it's gonna advance all of our city plans, how protected bike lanes will. But what you've heard in opposition to it are anecdotes and opinions. Be skeptical of things that don't come with evidence. At this point, all the arguments are familiar. You're not going to get a bunch of new data. You understand what the issues are. It's not going to come down to that. It's going to come down to what your values are and what your guiding principles are and what you think is most important for our city. I'm asking you to prioritize safety for all over convenience for some. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bertschwein.

Hi there. Good evening. Hi, my name is Nicole Regini. My husband spoke a few seconds ago. We live at the corner of 53rd and Wooddale Avenue. Wasn't planning on speaking here tonight, so please excuse the informality of my presentation. And I'm not gonna bother with rehashing what others have said about the lack of safety concerns or the fact that the report really doesn't address how putting the bike lane is going to address the speeding and the running through the stop signs. But I wanted to take a more emotional take and a more personal take on what it's like to live on 53rd and Wooddale. Wooddale Avenue, we all live in 1930s and 1940s homes with small garages and even smaller driveways. Many of our cars don't even fit in our garages. So we rely on street parking for guests, deliveries, extra family cars. I have four kids, now teens and in their 20s. We have a lot of cars now when they come home. We rely on Wooddale Avenue for parking for those children. We also already have a parking problem on 53rd. So the suggestion of why don't we just walk 400 feet and park on one of the side streets, there isn't parking on the side streets all the time. So what we're asking people to do now is to park a solid block behind their home. And that might be fine tonight on a nice sunny day. I'm able-bodied. I'm relatively young. I can make that trip around the block. But what if my 87-year-old father comes to visit me in the middle of January? Is it super safe for him to walk that extra block or two? How about my pregnant neighbor? Should she be asked to walk a couple of blocks to get to her own home? When my 16-year-old daughter finishes her shift at Caribou at 11 p.m. at night, where should she park? A block away or two? There's no sidewalk. There are no streetlights. She's walking in the middle of the road. What if I have groceries? What if I have multiple car seats to get in and out of my car? Where are the cars going to park for the Edina Homecoming Parade, the art fair, the 4th of July? Right now, as we're sitting here, the Edina Country Club is hosting an event. I counted. There are 29 cars parked on Wooddale Avenue, and that is from like 52nd and 53rd and on north. Where will those cars go? The answer is those cars are going to go on Kellogg and Oaklawn Avenue. There's no permitted parking there, there are no sidewalks, very limited streetlights, and there are no curbs. And as my husband mentioned, this is where my kids learned how to ride their bikes, on those back streets. This is where they rode their bikes to school every day. They didn't take Wooddale Avenue when they were little, they just went up a side street. It's not really a big deal to cut over one and come up Kellogg Avenue.

Mrs. Regini, I need to have you wrap up your comments.

Sure, sure. So I don't think the report or really anyone else has addressed what is going to happen with these extra cars and what will happen to us. It doesn't seem like a very family-friendly option for those that live in the neighborhood.

Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello?

Good evening.

Hi, Mayor. Hello, City Council. My name is Randy Howe. I live on Wooddale Avenue, and I came here to speak on trying to keep our parking. The city has identified a path forward that improves bicycle safety while retaining parking along portions of lower Wooddale. That matters because Wooddale is more than a transportation corridor. It's a neighborhood street that serves residents, caregivers, contractors, delivery drivers, churchgoers, and families hosting guests. Parking is part of how that street functions every day. And a couple of photos. Okay, these photos were taken last Friday evening near Wooddale and 52nd Street, looking north and south. They show existing demand for parking along Wooddale. It's important to recognize that eliminating parking doesn't eliminate the need for parking. Folks will still need a place to park. That demand does not disappear. It simply shifts to the neighboring residential streets, many of which are narrower than Waddell and less able to handle extra vehicles. Here's a picture of 52nd Street facing east. It was taken the same evening, shows vehicles parked on both sides of the street with pedestrians walking in the roadway where sidewalks are not present. In trying to solve one issue on Wooddale, we should be careful not to create new issues elsewhere. Fortunately, the city now appears to have an opportunity to avoid the trade-off. When a public project can improve safety without sacrificing a public amenity that residents rely on every day, that is a better outcome. The best public policy is often found not at the extremes, it's found in the middle, where competing interests are balanced and the greatest number of people benefit. As you move forward with the repaving and restriping of Wooddale Avenue, I respectfully encourage you to adopt a solution for lower Wooddale that improves bicycle safety while keeping legal on-street parking wherever the roadway width allows. Doing so would enhance safety, preserve neighborhood functionality, minimize unintended impacts on adjacent streets, and make the best use of our shared space. Most importantly, it would demonstrate that Edina can improve safety without sacrificing a valued neighborhood amenity when a reasonable compromise exists. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rahal.

hi my name is david doll I live on sunny side road in indiana and I strongly oppose any reduction in wooddale on street parking the engineering department has presented options regarding bike lanes and parking the supporting documents do not dictate any specific outcome instead they call for context and equity. with those of residential street in this context equity means maintain the current parking configuration to support the people who actually live there the city's own survey reveals that ninety nine percent would do a resident supposedly moving on street parking even among all respondent citywide seventy two percent majority oppose the removal limiting the parking despite this overwhelming opposition will damage public trust in the city's community engagement process moving parking will create significant safety and operational hazards gas including the mobility impaired. Me myself will be forced to park on the side streets and walk further often on snow and ice or an inclement weather and often in the street as the west side of what deal lacks a sidewalk that's more than an inconvenience. Delivery drivers and home contractors will have nowhere to park, likely forcing them to block traffic lanes, creating safety risks. That's more than an inconvenience. Eliminating on-street parking can reduce home values by 5% to 10%. That's more than an inconvenience. the current configuration complies with minnesota state a design standards mean there is no economic mandate for a change there's no bicycle safety data justifying reduction in parking. Conversely as you've heard speeding is a documented safety issue on wooddale. When I speak to wooddale residents speeding is the issue they most frequently cite the 85th percentile speed on this portion of wooddale is 27 to 35 miles per hour. The living streets plan indicates on street parking reduces traffic speed. This council must prioritize the voices of local homeowners over organized interest groups. The two letters on the city's site advocating for aggressive bike lanes are from the bicycle alliance of Minnesota and its very own chapter the west metro active transportation alliance. These nearly identical letters are dated March 2nd and March 3rd before Wooddale residents even knew of the parking proposals. Residents you may recall the residents were informed by a letter from the city dated March 6th After these advocacy groups are already weighed in Obviously the bicycle lobby is organized very well funded and well plugged in the proposed changes offer no benefits to pedestrians or the mobility impaired and Instead, they place an unfair, unshared burden on Wooddale homeowners to benefit a single group. Please protect our neighborhoods. Do not reduce on-street parking.

Thank you, Mr. Dahl. Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Sarah Dawson. I'm a resident of Wooddale, but I don't live... on the side where to see or I think it's to be allows for parking I live down by 59th and what deal so no matter what the proposal is besides 3. We will not have on street parking on my street. I've only lived on the street for 8 months in that time I've seen one of the accidents and it was related to speeding someone speeding South hit someone backing out of the driveway on the West side and turn their car over. That's a speeding problem. That's not a bike lane problem. It's a safety problem with the speed. and where i don't where i live every single day my neighbors park on the street on both sides of my house i only have one car i can park in my driveway my very narrow one car driveway but a lot of my neighbors have more than one car and they have kids with cars so every single night there's cars on the street so while the data might tell you from the consultants that bike lanes would be better Anecdotally, for the people who live on the street, it's an inconvenience every single day. It's not just an inconvenience when they're riding their bike past. And the only other question I have, and no one's brought it up, and I just learned about this meeting, is is there a way to measure the bike traffic currently? Because I was home six months, And I don't see a lot of bikes. Most of the bikes I see are kids coming to and from school. And if they're on Wooddale, it's because they live on Wooddale. They're not using Wooddale to get to school. My son rides his bike to school. And he goes down one block and gets off Wooddale. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Sheriff.

I am Anne Cassett, and I live on 54th and Wooddale, and I've been a member of the community for over 35 years. And I'd just like to thank everyone on Wooddale Avenue for coming to this meeting tonight. It truly does take a village. And I'd also like to talk about the elimination of parking and many of the points have been brought up tonight, so I'm not gonna reiterate them. But I just wanna say one important thing is that it's very important to listen to all of us and not the influential bike lobby. And also, again, 99% of the people that live on Wooddale oppose the removal of parking. These are your constituents. And the last thing I'd like to do is invite every single one of you over to my front yard and we could chitchat and heck, I'd even have a happy hour. And you can watch the traffic and you can watch the bikes and see what really happens, thank you.

Would your husband play the guitar out there too?

Of course, for free.

Yeah, okay. Anyone else?

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, staff. My name is Luke Van Santen. As you can see from my shirt, I'm one of the dread members of the West Metro Active Transportation Alliance, here to speak tonight in support of options 2B or 2C. To do so, I would like to touch on four points that I hope can be included in your considerations on this topic. First, the regional perspective. While the focus of infrastructure projects like this is so often strictly local, I hope you will consider, in addition to the positive aspects to Edina residents in being able to more easily use active transportation to access amenities like Arden Park, Pamela Park, and Rossland Park, to schools in the neighborhood, or for it to just be easier for children to get around by bike in general, maybe even to friends' houses, like we all remember doing when we were kids. Please also consider the benefits to people in neighboring cities in having an all ages and abilities bikeway to travel north and south along Wooddale. Having this as part of a well-connected active transportation network will serve Edina well and make it an even more desirable place to live. Second, traffic calming. Kudos to staff for designing roads with 10-foot lane widths. The thought of having a calm neighborhood street where traffic is encouraged by design to move at a much more human speed rather than what has been stated to be a lawless transportation corridor makes me wonder if sales prices for homes on Wooddale will actually increase with a bikeway amenity. Third, parking. When my wife and I were recently planning to buy a car, one of the criteria that came up was whether we would be able to carry more than four people. As we discussed it, we realized that the frequency of times we would need to do this was so rare as to be completely outweighed by the benefits of increased mileage. How does this relate to parking? Without having reviewed any parking studies, I can't help but wonder if there's a parallel here in that the difficulty that may arise in isolated instances from parking removal will be significantly outweighed by the benefits of the proposed bikeways. Fourth, the success of similar projects in other cities. Bryant Avenue in Minneapolis, Cedar Lake Road in St. Louis Park, and even the Panaway Project in Wayzata have all proved that removing parking while adding bikeways can be a successful approach. The first step in making a better world is always hard. I hope you can take this first step and approve either option 2B or 2C.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Van Santen. Good evening.

Hi. My name is Hong. I am Hong Dang, and I am grateful to be here to be able to share a little bit of my side of the story. I don't live in Edina, although it is a very lovely place. I don't get over here often because I predominantly bike and bus. I do so because I'm a young person hoping to own a house one day, and the cost of living is... prohibitive. And so that's why I choose to bus and bike in order to save money. And the finance have actually been going in my favor. I save $10,000 a year to not own a car. And I actually live on Bryant in Minneapolis which has come up multiple times now and something that I wanted to share is I don't think those property owners when the project was in design and in construction I don't think that those property owners wanted it anyways at the time. But I think now that we've seen the popularity that even, you know, I'm in Indyna and we're still talking about Bryant in Minneapolis, there is a certain... time, a temporary time of growing pains of like just readjusting. But I can assure you, I bike on Bryant all the time. Delivery drivers do come there, but it's a much calmer street because the road is narrower and it's just a fantastic place to be. And I highly encourage you to support option 2B and 2C. We've heard today about all of the speeding and I also wanted to share that although law enforcement should happen, we are all aware that that takes a lot of money, of finding the right people to staff our police department and at a fraction of the cost, you can have infrastructure do that for you for a longer period of time. I moved here from Denver and there are neighborhoods there that are very similar to Edina where residents talk about the speeding all the time and there have actually been issues where drivers will just continue to crash into houses. Like that is a really big deal and like property insurance actually like was really expensive for those folks and they can't sell their houses because no one wants to take that risk. So I really appreciate the staff and for everyone here for considering other more cost-effective ways to ensure that Wooddale is safe for all modes of users and for the homeowners living there. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Kang. Good evening.

Hi, I'm Adriana Jennings, and I live on Wooddale. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'd like to make three points. This is not anecdotal. Removing the parking is actually affecting over 100 hardworking, taxpaying, voting families in Edina. It's a fact. Point number two, bicycles are not on rails. So there are not only three ways to get across from one side of the city to the other. There are many, many ways. And when my children and I were going around riding from our place over to Lake Harriet, we found many ways to get there. So Wooddale is not the only path. And finally, yes, there is speeding and there's disrespect and disregard for the stop signs on Wooddale. That should be addressed. But if we're asking our police department to do that, let's give them the resources. That's all.

Thank you. Yes, thanks, Ms. Jennings.

Hi, my name is Jeremy Winter. I would like to talk about children. Children cannot drive. A vote against a bike lane will prevent children from being able to navigate north-south through the city safely. Children, especially teens, need autonomy. They need to be able to get around on their own with their friends without being forced to rely on their parents for travel. Would anyone in this room let their child bike on Wooddale Avenue in the Shero? The reason you don't see bicyclists having issues on Wooddale is because any sane person would be terrified to bike on Wooddale in its current state. Only a separated bike lane will change that. If we want less traffic congestion on our streets as well, we need to give people viable alternatives to driving. I've heard people tonight talk about where their teenage children will park. What if your teenage child didn't have to park? You know, we could have really awesome options in the future.

Thank you.

I know it's easy to be fearful, but this could be such a positive change for the city of Edina. We've talked about sidewalk safety concerns. If you want cyclists to get up the sidewalk, a great way would be to give them a viable alternative to the sidewalk, like a bike lane. I think that would be great. If we want to slow down cars, studies have shown the best way to slow down car traffic is to narrow the width of the street, and these plans do that excellently by reducing the lane width to 10 feet. a great way to slow down car traffic like people here are concerned about. And Bryan Avenue in South Minneapolis is a great example of how a good piece of bike infrastructure can actually increase property values. Sure, in a vacuum removing parking might lower your property values, but you have to think about what we gain in exchange. It's not as simple as just a loss equation. But it's easy to be loss averse when you live in a certain way and you use something all the time and you know tangibly what that means in your life. It's so hard to imagine the nebulous future of something you don't currently know and think about having to change your own habits. But I assure a lot of the people here that With the bike lane, you might really love it. I live in Hennepin Avenue in South Minneapolis in Uptown, and they recently added a two-way bikeway there, and it has changed my life. It is so incredible. It has opened up an enormous world of possibilities for me, and I think it would do the same for your children, people who are too young to advocate for themselves tonight here in this room. For all the people who have said that cyclists can just take an alternative street, I've noticed there hasn't been any presentation of what an alternative street would be. There is no other street that goes north-south for the stretch that Wooddale does that would work the same way. And... Lastly, I'd like to just say that if there are small safety issues once or twice a year when the snow is really bad, Wooddale Avenue, as is, is a safety risk for cyclists every single day. And think about how much safety gains per day we could get by fixing that. Please vote for options 2B or 2C. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Winker.

Hello, I'm Alexander Conan. I'm here to talk about the bicycle lane on Wooddale Avenue, advocating for options 2B or 2C. Roads are for people. As a bicycle commuter, I would try to avoid a road like Wooddale Avenue. do not feel safe there where paint is the only thing between me and traffic. Paint is not infrastructure. I would try to find a different route, something that is protected or a separate bicycle lane from the road completely. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. Not everyone drives a car. There is a large group of people who are under 15 that it would be illegal for them to do so. So I just ask you as you're looking at making a decision to consider what this road is for. Is it for cars or is it for people? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Corner.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Molly Smith and I live on Wooddale. We've been in our house for 28 years and raised three boys on that street and my husband and I bike all the time in the neighborhood and through Minneapolis and I've never felt unsafe. I don't think my kids have ever felt unsafe. I think we're very smart about how we move and I think both things can be true that is good to have a bike lane and it's good to be able to park. I think the way it's set up now is serving both purposes. Again we ride on Wooddale on our bikes all the time almost every weekend and during the week if we have time and I don't see it as a problem personally. And because I live there and also bike and also drive a car, I think I'm good the way it is. So anyway, that's all I have to say.

Thanks, Ms. Smith. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, you're done.

I just have two other pieces of evidence.

You're done. We gave you a good six, eight minutes. All right. Yeah. You can certainly submit something in writing if you want. We're not taking this matter up for consideration. I understand. I just have a photo of an accident that... Yeah, so to the extent you want to submit anything, whether it's a photograph or a supplemental written testimony... Feel free to do that because we're not acting on this until I think the end of July 27th, is that what it is? 21st. 23rd, July 23rd, so. 21st. 21st, for everybody in the audience, you have until July 21st and through the end of business on July 21st to get something into us, so.

Okay, anybody, excuse me, anybody online on committee comment?

Yeah, we've got somebody else who may have another issue or this issue. Another one of our residents.

There for a call a couple issues that brought up in the past about what they all which want to be ignored the fact is we have winter. And since I've lived here 15 years, I like all year long, including the winter city has terrible job doing curb to curb snow plowing on wooddale and I realize that streets can be rebuilt next year. But it's really impassable right now for a bicycle special on between 52nd and 53rd where there's a major potholes and resurfacing a street is no excuse just to let it go. And I've spent the last 2 or 3 weeks emailing coming to the comments and going to the diners 3, 1, 1, to get the buckthorn removed from overhanging the bike lane on the West side of wooddale Avenue. I do this every year have been doing this for at least 10 years, the city won't do it without a complaint. Plus it's buckthorn And I had to do an Edina 311 after the Edina Country Club cut back their hedge to remove the trees along the Wooddale Bridge. Why do I have to make so much work to make that street safe for everyone? And now we have major potholes still remaining on that street. The one thing I will say is I'll thank the city in the last couple days. They have cut back the trees along the Wooddale Avenue Bridge so I don't have to curve around, go into the car traffic to go around a tree. It's overhanging the street. You talk about safety. There are some very basic things the city can do to make the city safer. One of those, if you go on the walk with the mayor through Pamela Park, you'll see trees overhanging the pedestrian path which is also used for biking. There's a lot of dead trees in Edina. That problem is not going away. The longer you wait to get rid of these trees, the more expensive problem you're gonna have. Every park, every public land has dead trees and some of those overhang these pathways I've been talking about. For the life of me, I don't understand why the city doesn't do more removal of these trees and cutting them down and leaving them where they fall is not a good idea because many of them are diseased, diseased trees just to continue to spread the disease. The other thing is, right out here across the street on Vernon Avenue with the new bridge landscaping, two maples were planted. I was at a presentation by the Hennepin County Forester a couple weeks ago, and he said, Hennepin County has too many maple trees. They do not plant maples anymore. So why is the city planting maples? Why don't they believe in best practices? Hennepin County, City of Minneapolis do not plant maples. Edina does. Why is that? We have staff, city council going to national meetings around the country, but nobody talks to Hennepin County. Why is that? It's just hard to follow some of the things that go on in this building. The other thing is there's signs in Iron Park recently, evidently they're using Roundup.

You need to wrap up, Mr.

The city should ban the use of all chemicals like the city of Minneapolis. Bryan Avenue was mentioned earlier. See what Minneapolis is doing when it comes to infrastructure issues and ban Roundup. I don't understand why you're using chemicals.

Thank you, Mr. Schrenkel.

Good evening City Council and Mr. Mayor. I want to provide three counterpoints to something I've been hearing tonight actually from residents that don't live here. Chris Hill, I live on Wooddale. Thank you. Sorry about that. Thanks, Chris. We've heard that there's no teen biking. We've heard that there's no alternative streets. And we've heard that Bryant Lake has been a super success. And one, There's a ton of teen bikers. I have teens myself that bike to school. I've been with the mayor at Concord on bike to school day. There's hundreds of bikes. There's hundreds of bikes. The kids are so lucky to have these great bikes. Number two, Bryant. Bryant's a success for the biking lobby. Go talk to the people that live on Bryant to see if they actually think that Bryant was a success. they lost their parking, they're not happy. Who loves us? It's the biking lobby, right? And good for them. And then the last one would be there's no other alternative, and there is an alternative, and it's the frontage road. There are no houses that face the frontage road. There's no parking to eliminate from the frontage road. The speed limit is actually 25 miles an hour, which is the same as Wooddale. So the speeding is the same issue there as it is on Wooddale. It's also adjacent to the community center, the three public schools, and OLG. It also, which achieves a point that we're trying to accomplish here, it links Southdale to Grandview. And also would connect in some way Country Club back to the schools, and I think that's a big issue as well. With that, I thank you for your time.

Thanks, Mr. Hale. Folks, anyone else? Okay. Dr. Bedarat, do we have anybody online that wishes to address the council? Okay, they all came here, that's good. All right, well, thanks for being here this evening. And you certainly don't have to stick around for the rest of the meeting unless you're interested in some of the other topics. Like parking at 50th and France or you know, pick your favorite topic. So thanks for coming in today. Yeah, we'll let the room clear for a moment.

I had 708 to start and 826.

Thank you.

Hello.

Any idea what that project cost on Bryant Avenue? All right, let's go back to work. Next thing on the agenda after community comment is the city manager responding to comments from the last meeting, and he has done that online. We did it by Friday following our last meeting, but he's going to follow up now and provide a supplemental report for us.

manager Neal very good thank you thank you your honor we have three questions that we responded to at our last council meeting first question is can more advertising or sponsorships be sold at Courtney Fields you might remember that conversation was about using those as a using signage as a fundraising tool. In our current sign ordinance, we would say no. Courtney Fields are in Braemar Park, but they're more similar to dedicated athletic fields like Countryside Park, Lewis Park, Pamela Park, Van Valkenburgh Park, and Yancey Park. those are athletic and park locations are all bound by the city's outdoor signage requirements like all property classifications within the city the sign ordinance currently allows only sponsorship panels permanently attached to scoreboards advertisements like those at braemar arena are coordinated by edina city staff since those ads are located in a facility they're not subject to our signed ordinance so if the council is interested in giving some direction on this to to the in alternative to the status quo we can begin to take a look at that we'd also appreciate some direction from council if we are going to do that about how how we split the money up and who does solicitation and what that that process is like uh... second question is uh... was reiterated a little bit uh... a little bit few minutes ago how is the city handling dead trees on parks and other municipal property uh... due to the spread of tree diseases like emerald ash borer dutch elm and oak wilt the city is removing affected trees in public areas and replanting at a rate that matches the removals supported by various state funded grants To slow the spread of EAB and other infectious tree diseases, the City is currently treating more than 500 ash, elm, and oak trees. While some trees may still decline despite these efforts, removals of City of Edina owned property are prioritized in high traffic areas such as parks, paths, trails, and open spaces. Wooded and natural areas are not heavily maintained, but they are inspected by public safety concerns. In many natural areas, dead trees are intentionally left in place because they provide a valuable wildlife habitat. Finally, question number three is, is construction equipment allowed to cross the Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail at the Fred Richards Park during construction? The answer to that is yes, as long as it's done safely and as long as we minimize the vulnerability of the trail. So pre-construction and construction work at Fred Richards Park will include controlled crossings of Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail in partnership with Three Rivers Park District. So they know what we're doing and why we do it. city's intent is to minimize closures and to keep the trail open for users as long as possible the city will continue to work with the rivers park district as needed for these closures and post detours and communicate their duration and location that's all we had good that prompt anything from council in terms of a comment or follow-up question for the city manager

All right, very good. Next is the consent agenda. We've got several items on the consent agenda. My understanding is as follows. Member Risser would like to remove all the minutes or just June 2nd? Just June 2nd. June 2nd, 2026 minutes for discussion purposes. Council Member Jackson would like to remove items 6.4 and 6.7 for further conversation. I think it's worth... And then I think in just a sequence here, I'll remove 6.8 and then Council Member Jackson, 6.17 as well. And so with the exception of 6.1, 6.4, 6.7, 6.8, 6.11, and 6.17, is there a motion to adopt the balance of the items on the consent agenda in a single motion? So moved. Second. Motion by member Agnew, second by member Jackson to adopt the items on the consent agenda with the exception of items 6.1, 6.4, 6.7, 6.8, 6.11, and 6.17, which would take up separately. Any further discussion on the motion is made. All those in favor of adoption of the items on the consent agenda as stated, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. The items on the consent agenda are adopted with the exception of items 6.1, 6.4, 6.7, 6.8, 6.11, and 6.17. And then we'll move to the first one in sequence, which is member Risser and some concerns about the June 2nd, 2026 city council minutes.

Specifically I caught this this afternoon and it didn't afford enough time for me to work with clerk Allison on making the changes to the minutes and I know we've talked about minutes in the past and not raising them during council meetings. My concern is the way that section 24-30 was reported on and this is the code that has to do with through lots on Collector and arterial roads and instead of talking about driveway intersections It was summarized as being about curb cuts, which that was not the point of the discussion So I'll work with what I would respectfully request is that we table the minutes so that I? Can have time to work with clerk Allison on making those changes Okay, so table it to July 21 I would, yes, I would appreciate that.

Yeah, the motion would be to table the June 2nd, 2026 meeting minutes, so the regular meeting minutes of the city council to July 21, 2026 meeting. Any member risks or moves? Is there a second? Yeah, member Pierce seconds. Is the motion second? Yes, comment.

Yeah, did we approve the council retreat minutes when we did the consent agenda?

or do we have we did we'd only pull the june second okay good thank you yeah good question the other the other minutes we want that we approved all right um any further discussion all those in favor of um tabling the june 2nd 2026 meeting minutes to the july 21st 2026 meeting of the City Council say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Those minutes will be revisited for June 2nd, 2026 on July 21st, 2026. And then we will turn now to item 6.4. Council Member Jackson has some points or some questions or both on the compensation and classification study consulting services contract that's been proposed. Council Member Jackson.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to lift this up for emphasis. We haven't had a compensation study of the whole city since 2013. All right, so I just wanted a little highlight on what we are expecting from this and how that feeds into our budget discussion.

he have as you mentioned we have not done a classic comp study since twenty thirteen i was here when we last did that study uh... and it's an important component of our uh... structure here in the employees and how they're classified and how their are compensated and so it is an important project that we are looking forward to uh... picking back up again and modernizing and making sure that it's an equitable uh... pay plan and is in continues to remain in legal compliance okay and it

It also will get us an outside view on sort of the data of what compensation is market compensation so that it's not just our opinion on how people are paid, but it's a more...

Objective yes, correct. We're asking to hire an outside firm that will help us classify the jobs Which is pointing them and then assigning them in their different structures, and then we look externally They will look externally to look at the market data of how those positions line up with other positions in similar organizations across the metro area to ensure that we are equitable and able to attract and retain our talented employees and that we're paying according to market and that we're adjusting any internal equity issues as well.

Great.

Thank you very much. Yeah.

All right. That prompt any other questions from council members?

Council Member Jackson, do you care to move the matter, approve the compensation classification study consulting services contract?

Yes, I will make that motion.

Is there a second? Second. Member Pierce seconds Member Jackson's motion to approve the request of staff to enter into a consulting services contract for the purposes of compensation and classification study of our employment base. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving a services contract, entering into that services contract, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Carried. That's authorized to be going forward. And then 6.7 is the clover ride service contract, back to Council Member Jackson.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So this is a service that we have. Ah, and we've got Mr. Scipione here who probably has the data. I just wanted some data on ridership. I know we're trying to get people out and about, maybe not using their cars. And this is especially serves a vulnerable population in our city. And so I wanted to know what our ridership was like.

Of course, thank you for the question. Clover Ride over the last five years has averaged about 22.5 riders per week. So over the about 50 weeks that the service operates, we see about 1,100 users. That was slightly down in 2025, but we're working on some additional promotions and marketing in 2026 to get those ridership numbers back up.

Terrific, thank you very much.

All right, Councilmember Jackson. Anybody else have any questions on the basis of that inquiry? Councilmember Jackson, do you want to move to approve the purchase request for the clover ride services contract with Darts for $35,000? So moved. Second. All right, Councilmember Jackson moves. The motion is stated. Councilmember Pierce seconds. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the purchase request for the Clover Ride Services contract with darts for $35,000, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. That contract is approved. It will be entered into. And then I pulled 6.8 just to, we had a lot of discussion at the council level and folks coming in To see us with regard to the intersection at 55th and Brookview and I was pleased to see that that was part of the recommendation. Of the traffic safety report and I just wanted to give that a. Heads up here so that the folks in that neighborhood knew that the. That was being recommended. for adoption that the city receive a petition for a two-way stop control and we're recommending staffs recommending actually an all-way stop control due to impacted sight lines and that would be approved this evening is that correct that's correct okay anybody else have any questions on the traffic safety report uh i'll move the matter remove the adoption of the traffic safety report of april 28 2026 and the petition responses is there a second second Member Pierce seconds the motion as stated. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. The traffic safety report of April 28th, 2026 and the petition responses thereto are adopted. And next we are on to 6.17.

We actually pulled off 6.11. I don't really know why. Can you pull that?

Yeah, I pulled that one. Actually, I didn't mean to pull it. I was going to make a notation about it, but I think it's worth discussing that the pedestrian bridge that we approved, we've now amended the MnDOT agreement with MnDOT with regard to the funding and our role in the bridge construction to include the request to include the noise wall installation on the north side of Of the crosstown there in that neighborhood and just want to confirm that with director Miller and maybe get a little bit more. Little bit more broader assessment of what what's what we're requesting.

Yeah, thanks mayor members of council We asked men dot to come to the table and we told me be way easier to build this noise Well now then in 28 or 29 after we build our bridge they came to the table with some funding and said yes It's a great idea. Let's see if we can make it happen in this agreement You're approving tonight allows us to add the funding that they're coming to the table to build a noise wall basically from 6302 Rose Court. So that last property there up to the Wooddale Trail. So we should be able to install that 20 foot noise wall this summer and next spring and then MnDOT will come back and connect on the ends of that in 2028 or 2029 with their other project.

All right, very good. That prompt any questions from other council members? Yes, Council Member Agnew.

Thank you, and just one, because I think that this is coming up. We're going to be taking down the Roslyn Bridge soonish, right? We are. Two weekends?

We're trying to confirm dates. Right now, the tentative weekend dates are off. They're going to try to do it over two night closures, so Monday, June 29th. and Tuesday, June 30th are the two tentative dates. We need confirmation from MnDOT hopefully tomorrow, and then we'll publish a whole bunch of stuff on all those dates.

And put signs up over there and all that. Exactly. Love it. Thank you.

Good question. I know it was tentatively planned for the 25th, but it's apparently been an influx date here, so we're going to get a new date. Does someone care to move Resolution 2026-33 amending the MnDOT Agreement 106-130?

So moved. I second.

All right. We've got a motion by Member Jackson, a second by Member Agnew to adopt Resolution 2026-33, which would amend MnDOT Agreement No. 1062130 to include the noise wall installation. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the resolution say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Carried. The resolution is adopted. And then we're on to 6.17, back to Councilmember Jackson, which is, this is a matter involving a purchase request to do a study over at Edinburgh Park and that facility. Councilmember Jackson.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I was reading that at the same time I was working on my committee for replacing the city manager and I thought this is going to be a big deal coming up in the future and I wanted to know sort of the time frame of when this study we could expect it to be completed so that when we're having these discussions we know what to raise up with the potential candidates. So I think Mr. Manager you said at the end of the year is that correct?

The expectation with this contract is that it be completed by the end of Q4 of this year.

Terrific. Thank you. So it'll be a 2028 decision kind of stuff that we'll look at.

Yeah. Thanks for that inquiry. Anybody else have any inquiries regarding that matter? All right. Council Member Jackson, do you move to approve the purchase request for professional services for Edinburgh Park Facility Study with I&S Group? So moved. Second. Second. Member Pierce seconds that motion. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the purchase request for professional services for Edinburgh Park Facility Study with INS Group for $103,000 say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. That purchase request is approved. All right, that completes that portion of our agenda involving the consent items. And we will turn now to something that we've been working on for I think a couple of years and really of great interest to quite a few neighborhoods that the rail passes through the old Dan Patch line and the Canadian Pacific and the Twin City and Western Railway, I guess is the main operator. but we've been doing a railroad, we had commissioned a railroad crossing safety and quiet zone study, and I'm gonna turn now to Director Milner to tee it up, and then we're gonna hear from our consultant.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor. Members of the Council, recall a few years ago, the railroad changed their operations and had night trains, and we got a lot of calls and a lot of emails for them meeting the law to sound the horns at every one of these crossings. So we listened to those emails for a while, and then we had an opportunity here to conduct a study. So we went out for proposals last late summer, early fall and hired SRF and Justin Scott and his team have been working on this study. It was delayed a little bit with the federal government shutdown, but we're here today to give you the results of that and then give you what would need to happen if we wanted to move forward with the quiet zone. So I'll hand it over to Justin and we'll go through the slide deck.

Yes, thank you, Chad. Mayor Hovland and council members, pleasure to be here with you this evening to present this rail crossing safety study and quiet zone effort. My name, as Chad mentioned, is Justin Scott. I'm a project manager with SRF Consulting Group, Ottawa, Minneapolis office. A few things I'll be going over today. A quick overview of what quiet zones are. A review of which crossings in town. Mayor Hovland mentioned a few different crossings, whether that be on the TC&W line or the CPKC line that runs north-south. We'll walk through the crossings that were included in our study. We will review a diagnostic meeting, which is one of the main requirements that the FRA has, the Federal Railroad Administration, as they implement this quiet zone planning process. We'll dive into some of our recommendations in the sub zones and how the city could potentially move forward with the quiet zone implementation and move into next steps. The first thing here on this slide is a description of what is a quiet zone. The first bullet here is describing from the FRA's perspective what a quiet zone is and what I want to call your attention to here is the word routine. What a quiet zone is is where a section or a segment of rail traffic and rail track can be quiet where the city the agency who owns the segment of track and the municipality where the track goes through through the FRA's quiet zone process can restrict those train horns which is that sort of engineers number one safety device and The routine word here is if there's a vehicle on the tracks, if there's a pedestrian that's crossing the tracks, even with a quiet zone, there will always be that noise that exists if there's a vehicle approaching the tracks. There's a few things that are required of quiet zones. There's some minimum safety and risk thresholds that come into play and some different quiet zone crossing treatments, whether that be gates or medians or other treatments that can be done to reduce the risk and bring the risk down below a couple of thresholds to achieve a quiet zone. Every crossing that's in a quiet zone needs to have these four things that are listed on the bottom here, flashing lights, gates, The constant warning time, which is really the technology that's in the rail telling the gate when to come down as that train is approaching. And then power out indicators really telling the engineer if the gate has power to it. This map is illustrating all of the crossings that we looked at as a part of this quiet zone study. There's five public at-grade crossings and two private at-grade crossings on this north-south CPKC railway. That private versus public determination comes into play. Private crossings are not required to have those four items that I just went through on the last slide. So those four items are only required for all public at-grade crossings. You can see beyond those five public at-grade crossings and two private crossings, there are also seven crossings in St. Louis Park that would need to be included if the City of Edina were to proceed with a quiet zone implementation. The FRA's rule has a quarter mile rule, so any crossing within a quarter mile of the previous crossing has to be included. So that's sort of why we collaborated very closely with our partners in St. Louis Park while we had our diagnostic meeting and while we considered different implementation options. There's really not a lot of train traffic in this corridor. As Chad mentioned, there's been a little bit of change in sort of the overnight versus daytime operations, and they've done that a couple of times during the six months of our study effort. These trains are traveling very slowly, which also sort of leads to a little bit of a lower risk in this corridor for all the crossings. As I mentioned the diagnostic meeting really the main requirement of this quiet zone process we had our diagnostic meeting back in October and in December we as I mentioned we're collaborating with our partners in St. Louis Park and SRF also just recently completed a quiet zone study for that community. So we were very collaborative between the two cities and really determined what needed to be done at these crossings. So we went out as a part of the diagnostic meeting, the FRA, MnDOT, our partners at the city, and then the railroads all go out and visit these crossings, evaluating risk and safety, both vehicular and from a pedestrian perspective. We then determined safety improvements that could be made to each of those crossings. None of the crossings, none of the public at-grade rail crossings that are in Edina meet those four minimum requirements of having lights, gates, and constant warning time. So that's a minimum investment that the city would need to make just to qualify for a quiet zone implementation. As I mentioned, the crossing spacing here can really... determine an establishment and sort of an implementation plan. There's options for the city to implement separate zones or sort of a combined approach, which is illustrated here on this graphic. I realize this is very small, so I want to try to talk through this as best as I can for you all. Of course, you will be receiving, if you haven't already, a copy of our study, which this illustrates. There's really four different subzones that are illustrated on this graphic. The first is subzone A, which will require a collaborative approach with our partners in the City of St. Louis Park. And then these three subzones to the south could be implemented independently of each other and of coordination with the City of St. Louis Park. I wanted to also present to you some planning level construction cost estimates for these improvements that I just laid out in that last graphic of subzone A, B, C, and D. This table illustrates the crossing improvements that would be needed to be made and the estimated cost of those and when those improvements are currently programmed in the CHIP or the CIP, excuse me.

Well, I'll offer, I added them to the capital improvement plan for discussion. These are unfunded projects, but if we wanted to take those next steps, we started in 27, kind of laid out those three single crossings, right? The BCD options, Hanson Road, Valley Lane, and Dewey Hill, where we could do this separately. And then, of course, we have the bigger project that would take coordination with St. Louis Park. So I threw that at 2030. So these are numbers for those years based on Justin's team's estimates, but they're not funded. So it's a discussion we'll have this year with the CIP and the budget.

This is a similar slide to what I had up before, kind of describing some of the narrative that goes behind these subzones and the combinations of them. There's different alternatives here that, you know, as I mentioned, these could be implemented individually or as a group, and we do need to collaborate with our partners in St. Louis Park if we intend to implement a zone in subzone A.

What's the view of the world in St. Louis Park in terms of where do they want to expend those monies to improve those seven crossings?

The city of St. Louis Park is moving forward with the quiet zone implementation for a series of crossings to the north of subzone A right now. So they're moving forward with implementing a quiet zone in town, and I think I don't want to speak for them, but we've been working very closely with Jack Sullivan, and he's excited about the opportunity to continue to collaborate and coordinate.

And maybe you can speak to the process. So let's say we get funding, we still have a long time to work with the railroad to actually get a zone approved.

Yeah, so the study that we just completed is a feasibility study. The next thing that we could work through with the city is a quiet zone implementation effort. We finished this feasibility study in about six months. The implementation effort at a minimum can take two to three years. depending on the regulatory process and review. FRA is dealing with some staffing issues that Chad alluded to, and their review time has really, really gone downhill over the last two years. There's a process that Chad alluded to. There's a couple of notices. They're not extremely difficult to put together. There's a notice of intent, which really does what it says. We lay out the proposed improvements for each zone. You know, do we want to do gates here? Do we want to do lights here? Do we want to do medians there? So there's a variety of opportunities. We lay that out in our notice of intent that triggers a 60 day review period from the railroads. Then we go out and construct that can take a year, year and a half. Then we submit the second notice, which is the notice of establishment that triggers a 21 day period before the quiet zone is active. Once the quiet zone is active, you have a quiet zone. That whole process I've just very quickly described, again, can take a lot longer than you might expect.

We just want to make sure we're clear on the timing, right? This is the first baby step. Now it's funding, design, implementation, and still getting those approvals through the federal FRA. So we'd stand for any questions. That was our presentation for the season.

Council Member Rejection.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So how does it work with the private crossings? Can they make it a quiet zone right away, or is it never a quiet zone?

Private crossings are very easy to include in a quiet zone. There's no regulatory. There's nothing that you have to do as far as a treatment perspective at a private crossing. It can be left untreated and included in a quiet zone.

And our private ones are in that zone A. There are a few driveways just right north of here.

Okay, so we would change the ones that were public and the private ones just get swept in without any changes? They're driveways, correct. Okay, great. Thank you.

Council Member Agnew.

Thank you so much, and thank you for doing this study. I really appreciate the analysis and consideration that you've given this. So I know that we started this because of noise complaints, and I don't want to minimize this. I've seen some of the home videos that residents have sent in, and it's substantially impactful. And outside of that, this would improve the safety of these crossings. Do we have any other data points or information on the safety concerns that exist within this area that could help substantiate the reason for us to either potentially pursue outside funding or other things like that to just really build a case for why this is something that we should invest in as a community?

Well, each crossing you did an analysis of any issues or crashes or any of that sort, right? That was part of the risk analysis.

We did do a risk analysis that's based on a variety of factors that go into that risk. Train volume, train speed, vehicle volume, vehicle speed, and a five-year crash history. So all of those really determine at each crossing that risk level. So once we treat a crossing with gates or lights, that risk level will come down below a threshold to meet the FRA's expectations. One thing that we haven't mentioned is stakeholder engagement, which I could allude to. Sometimes we use that tool to get the feedback that you're describing and there is options for us to help you in that space if that's desired by the council.

And I would also offer there's been two notice of funding opportunities related to rail. We had Justin look at it and it doesn't apply for the situation. So. Thus far, we have not found a grant that applies.

Okay. Thank you. One of the other questions that I did have was regarding the public process that we can now take regarding considering moving forward with this investment. Can we, I mean, this is just a request to staff to start thinking about how do we want to engage these residents I understand that you gave that prioritization just generally based off of the slotted in capital improvement years. That's relative prioritization. I also want to hear from residents to make sure that we're prioritizing in the areas where residents are feeling that impact the most. I would love if the next time we discuss this, you can come back with a proposal on how we'll do that entire community engagement process. just because I do want to continue getting feedback. And then the third question I had, you kind of already spoke to, but it was around funding from outside sources. I think I had sent over a couple of sources that were, you know, a billion plus dollars that were available from a federal perspective. As I understand, that was specifically for um like grade separated crossings um can you maybe just give like one quick blurb to that and then maybe even just reflect on like how over the next couple of years we'll continue to seek potential grant opportunities and prioritize that yeah justin maybe touch on that first one

We're going to want to be very strategic, and I would love to help coach you through the process moving forward. I think I buzzed back to our title slide. I hope you can see that. But the title of our study was a rail crossing safety study. We did do a lot of discussion around quiet zones, but we were very careful about the terminology we used to describe this study. And the reason we did that was to hopefully not close any funding doors, which I want to get to your question now about the rail crossing elimination. program which I think is what you're referencing the FRA has two programs the rail crossing elimination program which was due a week ago and then the Chrissy program which is dedicated to short line and regional railroads which is not CPKC. CPKC is one of the six class one railroads so the Chrissy program does not apply to us. Both of these programs are federal programs. And unfortunately, the feds don't see value in providing funding for quiet zones. And the way I sort of have determined and deciphered that over my career is the feds don't really see investing in quiet zones as a federal benefit. They see that as a local benefit. So a lot of times we'll encourage the local agency and the local community to make that investment.

Can you mention grade separation? This picture is good for that too. How do we possibly get grade separation with slopes and drainage and all that stuff? We just don't have space. We're fully built out. We'd be taking homes, so we don't even consider a grade separated thing at that point. If we were going to get rid of some of these, actually remove them, that might be a different story. But we can't remove them either because they're important to our transportation network.

So if I'm understanding correctly, are you thinking that there isn't going to be, over the next handful of years, additional federal grant opportunities because the federal government generally doesn't support the quiet zone creation? Or are you saying that because this is really a safety improvement plan that there might be some opportunity, there just isn't currently?

That's a great qualifying question and I want to make sure I'm being clear. My answer is the latter. I think we wanted to be very careful with our terminology so that we could potentially leverage any future federal dollars that do come up. I think another thing too is to leverage state Section 130 funds. There's a state program that's dedicated specifically to improving railroad crossing safety warning devices. And that's a really great story for the City of Edina to tell because the crossings that we want to make improvements at are the crossings that don't have any devices right now at all. So we want to be telling that safety story and be using the right terminology to our partners at MnDOT so we can encourage their funds to improve safety in this community as opposed to going to quiet zone implementation.

Thank you.

Councilmember Pierce. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. So just one additional question or comment. First, thanks for taking the effort to do this very thorough. We have had several emails, conversations with residents. Urging us to do something about train noise and so having this Type of information definitely lets us speak to the community that we're doing something And so my question though is you alluded to this a little bit, but if you could clarify from a starting point which I would say the starting point is tonight. So we have this assessment. We now know which crossings we need to apply quiet zones for. We have some sense of how much that will cost. We know which partners we need. So from tonight through to getting it approved on the CIP and actually implementing the quiet zone, what's the realistic time horizon there?

Well, I'll make one caveat. I'd say once funding is identified, then Justin, go to work and let's get this approved. And I think that's a two-year process, two to three years at that point. When are we going to come up with $7 million? That's the number on the slide. So when you have that date, then it's still two or three years to get through the federal approvals.

Okay, so to have the funding... You're saying if we have funding, it will take us two years to start the project of actually implementing the quiet zone?

At least, yes.

Okay. Okay, and then once we start, how long are these projects? Is it six months, a year? For construction? Yeah.

Oh, these are pretty easy, relatively short. Eight weeks, probably. I mean, you're doing electrical, so there might be some timing issues, but it's not a full closure, right? You're doing some stuff one week, then you probably are coming back and doing some things. So it's not a huge project.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Risher.

There is no, I think about the NOC, the Noise Oversight Committee for Airplane Noise. There is no equivalent. That's correct. Okay. The other point, just want to throw this out, I did look, we're talking about safety, but we can also talk about health issues, interrupted sleep, vibrations. There are a lot of studies that have to do with how this does impact people physically, but there's also the financial impact Impact as well of the air or I want to say the railroad noise on home values So I I don't really know what to do with it But it seems like in order to make an informed decision about how to go forward It would be good to weigh some of the economic benefits of moving forward with this as well That's a cultural rejection

I'm only going to talk about this as safety because I just see those crossings and they scare me. They're raw. They're open. We will have people come forward and talk about safety. And I know the complaints have been about the noise, but the safety problem, we don't know what CPC is going to be doing in the future. They might change back to the daytime and make it really dangerous. So I'm just going to talk safety.

So I'll get a little process question for you that popped up into my mind and that is the way you were describing something. I was concerned that we'd have to make the commitment and the investment and then they would decide if they wanted to approve us for a quiet zone or not. So how does that work? I mean, we have to advance and spend all the money first and then hope they approve us or they approve us in advance and then we go do the work.

they approve that notice of intent gets approved and the railroad oftentimes will write a formal response to that notice of intent stating they want the world. They want all the extra devices and safety is a big concern. There's an opportunity for the city to respond to that common response from the railroad that the city is fiscally constrained and we have met the FRA's regulatory requirements of the quiet zone process and that's that.

typically don't see the intent filed unless there's actually money to do the construction.

Correct, yeah. Is it the Federal Rail Authority that we're working with?

Yes, yep, the Federal Rail Administration.

And then I thought Councilmember Jackson had an interesting angle. You stated that you were careful how you worded the study. I take it for the purpose that you expressed, and that was that nobody gets any money for quiet zone improvements, but you might get money for safety improvements. Is that right? Yes, sir. There is potential there from the Federal Rail Administration for safety improvements.

Yep, and MnDOT has a program, the Section 130 program that they leverage for those types of investments. That might be helpful.

Okay, good. Anybody else that caused any other questions at the present time? Thanks for being here, thanks for that good work.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. Thanks, Director Miller, for leading this one step closer to figure out what we want to do here. All right, then we've got an annual traffic safety summary report that Mr. Baller has been giving annually, and it doesn't seem like it was a year ago that you were here. It seems that year went by fast.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor Hovland, and the rest of the city council. So it's been a little over a year. I kind of got pushed back compared to our normal annual report, but I'll try to make sure that I can be a little extra timely here for everyone tonight. Okay, where...

Slides...

All right, so as with the introduction, this is the 2025 Traffic Safety Summary Report. And here tonight, I'll be going through requests that we've received, reviewed, some of those statistics and some trends that we've noticed throughout 2025. Just the super quick breakdown of how their process works. Once I receive a request from a resident, a commuter, Depending on what that request is, I conduct a traffic study. Following that study, I bring my findings with whether it's local or state policies to our Traffic Safety Committee. And within that committee, we have members from our Public Works Department, Planning, and Police. And we provide our recommendations based on those policies in place. And we provide those recommendations to our Transportation Commission. They provide a review as well, and then ultimately it comes here for city council's review. Throughout this whole process, I'm making sure that those residents who, or those requesters, are aware of this in the process so they can be able to contact their elected officials so they're up to date. THROUGHOUT GATHERING OUR REQUESTS, WE BREAK THEM DOWN INTO ONE OF THESE FIVE CATEGORIES, WHICH IS PARKING AND SIGNAGE, INTERSECTION CONTROL, TRAFFIC HOMING, PEDESTRIAN SAFETY, AND JUST WHATEVER DOESN'T FOLLOW IN THOSE FIRST FOUR IS CONSIDERED OTHER. THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE YEAR OF 2025, THERE WERE 208 REQUESTS THAT WERE SUBMITTED, AND I RECEIVED THOSE, WHETHER THAT'S BY PHONE CALL, SNAIL MAIL, EMAIL, THE CITY'S WEBSITE, OR THE EDINA 311 APP. There were 238 requests that were reviewed, which actually was an increase from 2024 by 91 requests. The highest amount reviewed were traffic calming at 63, followed by intersection control at 48, along with pedestrian safety at 48, parking signage at 42, and all others were 22. So again, those were items that were reviewed last year. And 94 of those 238 requests were submitted in prior years, but reviewed last year. So that example could be someone looking for a crosswalk where I needed to conduct a study following that winter. When we review every item, we put them into an A, B, C, D, or E category, so items given in A are where we recommend action. So here we recommended action on 11 parking signage requests. One example is a bunch of requests and complaints of street parking near the Edina High School. You can see that on that top left image. We had six approved pedestrian safety requests, which one example was a crosswalk that has now been put in at Hanson Road right next to the CPKC rail tracks. And then we had five other requests where those kind of didn't really fall into any specific type of category, but then we had four approved traffic calming requests with one example being restriping or adding striping on West 72nd Street west of France to help provide drivers adequate travel lanes. There were no approved intersection control requests, and those were such things as added stop signs or yield signs. There were 24 items in which their committee recommended no action And then there are 110 items that were classified as D items that are solely handled by me So an example that would just be something where someone requested a crosswalk and it didn't come anywhere near what our policy recommends so with that I was able to Not need full discussion with the committee because of our policy that we have in place and A new item this year is e-items, which is where we recommend police enforcement. So that's kind of a thing where we solely think adding police enforcement, whether it's at stop controls or speed limits, that's what we recommend for those items. And one thing to notice, a lot of these, or when you add all these numbers up, they will not equal the total number of reviewed requests because a lot of items are repeat requests, whether it's from neighbors or something that was requested earlier in the year as well. I like to look between Highway 100 and Highway 62 as a breakdown, just to kind of see what types of trends we have. And in Northwest Edina here, there were 58 requests, which was just a slight increase from 2024. The highest number of requests here was traffic calming. A lot of this had to deal with the Highway 100 and Vernon bridge closures, so a lot of people trying to find their detours around, so a lot of those kind of speed traffic calming issues. Southwest Edina, we had 35 requests, which was another slight increase from 2024. Here, parking and signage was an issue, and you can see a lot of those little green dots are just outside of Edina High School. In South East Edina, we had 40 requests that were submitted, which was another slight increase from 2024 with intersection control receiving the most. And a lot of these are on Hennepin County streets or areas that are controlled by the state and MnDOT signals. So a lot of those are things like a signal is down or some timing needs to be updated and we're able to get MnDOT staff to help with those. In North DC Dino, this is where we receive most of our requests every year. Here we had 74, which was just a little bit less from 2024. Traffic calming here was the biggest issue with a lot of people here as well finding their own detours because we didn't have any large posted direct detours from that Highway 100 bridge closure. So a lot of those issues were in that Morningside neighborhood and along Valley View to the south. We also like to look at seasonality of traffic safety requests, too. Every year we see an increase starting in that March, especially in April time. And here in May, you can really see this increase, and that's when that Highway 100 bridge project began. People didn't know what to do. There were delays everywhere. So that's how people were starting to reach out, whether to me or somewhere else, and it kind of fell down to me. We were able to provide some assistance there. Overall, traffic calming and pedestrian safety peaked kind of simultaneously, so both in that May and kind of September months, people are going back outside more, or they're getting out of school, or school is beginning, so traffic patterns are shifting quite a bit at those times of the year. Now, we like to track and look at five-year data at a time. Just by looking at each category, you can see traffic calming has been slightly increasing the last handful of years. adversely Parking the signage has been kind of the main Only category that's been decreasing because it's also you can see intersection control pedestrian safety and other have also been slightly going on an uptick and With that I stand for any questions, but thank you for your time.

Yeah. Thanks. Mr. Baller questions for Nick It's a really helpful annual data to receive culture member Jackson and

Yes, well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Baller. Very information. First of all, what is this orange thing that we're looking at on the slide?

Is this the image on the bottom left here? Yeah. That is one of my traffic cameras actually looking at Interlaken and Vandervoort here, but this is a bird's tail. So there are some times where I kind of get a little distraction or I might not be able to gather data for a minute or two at a time. So it looks like birds were kind of the theme that I found this year.

That's great. So thank you for this, and I do appreciate the year-over-year data. It's always good to see where the trends are going. We've been getting a lot of calls and emails from people concerned about e-bikes. Is there any way we can add that to our statistics? I don't know. Is there any way to gather data? People are so frustrated by this. We see the little kids way younger than 15 on them, and it's dangerous, especially for elderly people who are out walking. How can we add that to our traffic safety report?

Well, we can definitely add that as another category, and that might be something we'd have to advertise properly for to say e-bike complaints would then fall into this traffic safety part onto our website or how to reach me, for example, compared to, let's say, asking police to receive those complaints. So that's something that we can definitely look at and have a separate type of category.

Yeah, so if you could ask the Traffic Safety Committee to kind of think about how we can improve safety and, you know, it's always good to have data. So just think about that because it's an increasing problem. It's really double what it was last year as far as I can tell.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

Other questions, comments for Mr. Baller? Okay. Yeah, thanks for being here. Thanks for that update. Thank you all. Yeah, keep up the good work. We know you will. All right, we're gonna move on to the next portion of the agenda. We're finished with special recognitions and presentations. We've got two public hearing matters this evening, and the first one, our clerk, Sharon Allison, has, and it is a potential liquor license suspension involving Bojay's on France Avenue. And I'll turn now to our clerk, Sharon Allison, Tell us the factual background on this situation so we can decide what to do. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, Mayor, Council Members, as you recall or may recall, twice annually our police department conducts compliance checks on all of the liquor establishments that are in town. In May, the compliance checks were done on 52 establishments. And from that, there were six violations. Five of those violations were what we call within a 24-month period and so they were deemed to be a first offense and the option for those were to pay a $500 fine or consider coming to a public hearing. Generally, those violators will pay the fine and will forego the public hearing. The sixth violator was considered to be their second violation within a 24-month period, and for that, it is a required public hearing and a $1,000 fine plus a three-day suspension of their liquor license. Tonight, we have Lindsay, who is with Bojay's. And apologies for having to wait so long, Lindsay. But Lindsay's here tonight and can answer any questions that you may have for her. Staff's recommendation is that you motion to have the fine for one thousand dollars uh... plus the three-day suspension and the dates are recommended to be monday tuesday wednesday uh... those were just those days were just chosen by me for no particular reason so you are certainly free to decide which three days you would like to uh... have the suspension occur and i can stand for any questions that you may have thank you clerk allison questions for the clerk clerk allison at this point in time council member jackson

I just want to confirm that they're open on Mondays, because I know a lot of restaurants in town are not. You are not open on Mondays, so let's not do a suspension on a day that they're closed. Good point. Yes, thank you.

All right, and then the other thing I think it's important to cover is this. You've got a penalty grid put in place that's part of the ordinance, I think, and this is second offense involves You say what staff is recommending, but it's really what's shown on the penalty enforcement grid, if you want to call it that.

That is correct.

They called those approved in the past.

Correct, Mr. Mayor. The only option or optional would be the days that you choose to have their liquor license be suspended. All the rest are written in ordinance.

All right. Bojays, this is a public hearing matter, and you're certainly welcome to address the council and talk about what happened. Well, thank you. And how we can keep this from happening in the future. We don't like this any more than you do.

And that's why I'm actually here. I don't like it either. I'm a sole owner. My name is Lindsay Jacques. I am the sole owner of Beaujeu's Wine Bar and Bistro. I've owned it now just for five years. I'm totally self-funded. I never anticipated myself owning a restaurant. I did it. It was an emotional investment. I didn't want to see the place leave. But when this happened on this second one was actually 24 months almost to the day of when the suspension is, I mean, I'm a parent. I don't want my people, I don't want my kids served underage. I apologize, I'm devastated on that. I have 13 employees that we talk about what the importance is of carding and being responsible. They earn a living at this establishment. They know that it's our customers and that bring in the funding because I don't take any money from this at all. So they have gone through the proper training on that. We have discussed it. We've talked about it and actually the gal that failed the sting is just finishing up her doctorate degree in social work. So she's devastated and she has to go in front of the courts and she's got a, I think it's a major misdemeanor that she has to deal with. I just want to, as a member of the community, as a business owner, just tell you how horribly I feel about it, my people feel about it. We have discussed it. I did not fire the gal. Corporations in the community, if you fail an alcohol, from what I'm understanding, is typically they're walked out the door. My people make a living. on this. I chose not to fire her. She has to take responsibility for this. I take responsibility for this. I have no problem paying the $1,000. I don't know where I'm going to come up with the money. I don't have. I'm not a company. What I'm asking is a little bit of leniency on closing for three days, because it's not me that it hurts that I close for three days. It's my people that I pay. If there's no customers, there's no money, and they can't get that. And I'm wondering if there's something else that we can do for Bogeys, whether it's support some kind of a community program, if we can... FEED SOME HOMELESS. I DON'T KNOW. BUT TO CLOSE FOR THREE DAYS DOESN'T PUNISH ME. IT PUNISHES MY 13 PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP EVERY DAY TO MAKE A LIVING. you know, ask of you, is there something else to do versus a three-day suspension? But I take full accountability and I apologize to the community and to this council for that happening. I just, I felt like I needed to show up and put a face to a name that this was important to us and we care about this. And I'm sorry, Chief, you know, Our people that come into Bojay's, if you've ever been there, are not the bar hopper scene, so it's kind of when two adults come in with somebody that would probably be not necessarily underage, and they order with two adults sitting there. I think she just didn't see, but we take accountability. So that's my ask of the council, so thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Lizzie. For a city attorney, what... What's our flexibility here as a council? What are our options? We have a staff recommendation based upon the penalty matrix that we have. What kind of flexibility do we have so we can understand that as we have this conversation?

Well, Mayor, I don't think these are required by state statute, but I think they are required by city ordinance. So you have flexibility to vary from the ordinance. It wouldn't be a violation of state law, but it is, I think, technically required by the ordinance.

And for clarification, it is not closure of the restaurant. It is to not sell alcohol for three days.

Yeah, thanks for that clarification. Manager Neil.

Yeah, I I would just add your honor in Council that this the penalty matrix is we developed as a as a Council and staff. We have used that same penalty matrix. We don't have very many of these, but when we have this is what we use and we haven't really varied from it.

And I would say, too, to be fair, because there was another establishment owner who also wanted to come and address the council tonight. It was his first violation. And so, to be fair, I would suggest that you stick to the three days rather than deviating from that for one establishment owner. Sorry, Lindsay.

Council Member Jackson raised the point that they're closed on Monday, so... what's the effectiveness of that if we chose a day that they were closed coupled with the I guess the original recommendation was to have them closed the 22nd 23rd and 24th they can't sell liquor in the 22nd because they're not open anyway just wondering about the council's views on On that three-day period and what we think we should be doing there in terms of suspending their ability to sell liquor during a three-day period. Could it potentially include that day when they're not open anyway, or would we want to make sure that we followed the matrix to the letter of the law and had it be a situation where they couldn't sell liquor for three days during the period of time that they're open? Anybody have thoughts on that?

Mr. Mayor, can we clarify, did we open the public hearing or not? Are we going to just talk about it and then have the public hearing?

Yeah, it is a public hearing. But I just wanted to get people's thoughts preliminarily on that issue before we provide for more testimony.

Okay, yeah. I remember the last time we had one of these was when I was first elected. And it was a very difficult decision, but we did stick with the full penalty. And I think...

I remember being very uncomfortable with that, but I think that if I voted for it then I should vote for the full penalty now But some we had some preliminary thoughts there let's Remind people this is a public hearing and if there's anyone else in the audience who wishes to testify regarding this matter You may come forward now Okay, do anybody online

I don't have anyone online, but because there is a slight delay in the broadcast, I would recommend we wait about a minute before moving on. My clock shows that it's 9.32, so I will come back to you at 9.33 or when I have a call or whichever's first. It is now 9.33 and I still don't have a caller, so I think it's safe for you to move forward.

Okay. One more opportunity for anybody in the audience who wishes to testify in this matter. This is a public hearing. It's open for public testimony. You're welcome to come forward. I see no one coming forward. Is there a motion to close the public hearing in this matter?

Still moved. I second.

Councilmember Jackson moves. Councilmember Agnew seconds the motion to close the public hearing in this matter. Let's go back to a discussion on the penalty matrix and what our council members are thinking about in terms of the three-day recommendation. I take it, Clerk Allison, taking into account the fact that they're closed on Monday, you would probably move your recommendation days to the twenty-third twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth which would be a tuesday wednesday thursday plus the one thousand dollar mayor if i could just supplement my answer to your previous question as well that the the ordinance section question does say that the council does have

discretion to deviate, but if it chooses to deviate from those standards, the council shall provide written findings supporting the penalty selected. So you'd have to find extenuating circumstances and then produce written findings outlining what those were.

No, I think that's the conversation we had at the last one that we were involved in is that there may have been some extenuating circumstances that caused us to alter. I just don't remember whether we did or not. Okay. Okay, it didn't sound like there were any extenuating circumstances here. Okay, is there a motion to approve the three-day liquor license suspension of Bojay's Liquor License for the dates June 23rd, 24th, and 25th, and imposing a $1,000 fine for their second liquor license violation within the past 24 months?

So moved.

Second. Councilmember Jackson moves. Councilmember Pierce seconds. The motion is stated. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the three-day liquor license suspension for Bojays for the period June 23, 24, and 25 in the imposition of a $1,000 fine for their second liquor license offense within the past 24 months say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried? Yeah. Sorry this had to happen. It didn't feel good any which way. So thanks for being here. Thanks for sticking it out through a long evening of unexpected testimony about bicycles and parking, those kinds of things. You did get an education that you probably hadn't planned on. So yeah, I'd say stick with that training. People can make mistakes, but you gotta keep with that training all the time. I think that's where our folks have had the best success. All right, thanks for being here tonight and appreciate you coming to tell your side of the story.

I wanted you guys to see that I took this seriously.

Yeah, and I think we all recognize that. There's a lot of empathy up here for you.

So come days that we're open.

All right, the second public hearing matter we have in this matter this evening is potential amendment to the parking requirements for 50th and France and Addison Lewis, our community development coordinator has the matter.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Yep, we're here tonight to discuss the proposed ordinance amendment to the parking regulations at 50th and France. So section 3612 of the Dinah zoning ordinance allows commercial property owners at 50th and France to rely on the public parking ramps to satisfy their parking requirement up to a floor area ratio of one. Buildings that exceed a floor area ratio of one have to provide additional parking for the square footage that exceeds the floor area ratio of one. So this requirement was put in place back in 1978 as a way to share the public parking in a way that was fair amongst the property owners in the district. Last fall you probably remember there was a variance required from this provision that was requested for a property at 5036 France Avenue. to allow far up to 1.2 without providing additional parking and That variance was strongly supported by the community including the businesses at 50th in France and as a result council directed staff to take a look at this ordinance and see if it was something that we Could amend so that other property owners in the district would have the same opportunity the parking usage for the three ramps and the potential for redevelopment within the district. And based on that were recommending that the amount of fa are allowed before additional parking is The rationale for that is in the report. I won't go over it, but happy to answer any questions on it So this proposed change would have negated the need for that variance for America the Americana restaurant and hopefully this would allow other property owners to do similar modest expansions at 50th in France and As far as outreach for this change I did meet with the executive director of the 50th and France Business Association She was supportive and and also had communication with some of the property owners and businesses We also sent letters to all the property owners in the district. I did not get a lot of comments We had no comments on better together. We had no comments at the public hearing so Not the most exciting change the Planning Commission took up this item at their April 29th meeting and The vote was eight to zero to recommend approval of the ordinance as proposed. So With that I'd be happy to answer any questions. Yes.

Yeah, very good. Thank you for that Any questions for mr. Lewis? Yes, councilmember Risser go ahead

Actually, this isn't a question, it's a comment. And one of the things that I remember, you gave one of the best analyses of the situation, including information from the Minnesota League of Cities, and made the recommendation that we not grant the variants because this was in conflict with state statute. And I just want to acknowledge that. It did pass, but I was the lone no vote. But I do think... This makes sense to change the ordinance, but it still is nonsensical to me to grant a variance and then change the ordinance later. And so I hope this is not something that ends up being repeated. And again, I want to say thank you for the analysis that you did at that meeting.

Thank you for that comment. This is a public hearing matters. I'm going to open it up now for public testimony. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to testify regarding this matter? All right, director better. I has got the call in now information up on the screen.

I do have the call in information up on screen, but I do not have any callers. OK, so I must ask you to have another long minute. Sure, my clock shows that it's 940. I'll come back to you at 941 or when I have a caller, whichever is first.

Very good.

It is now 941, and I still don't have a caller, so I think it's safe for you to move forward with this item.

All right, very good. Is there a motion to close the public hearing in this matter?

So moved.

The rejection moves. Member Pierce seconds the closing of the public hearing in this matter. Any further discussion on that issue? All those in favor of closing the public hearing, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. The public hearing is closed. Staff is recommending that we approve the change in Ordinance 202609, amending it regarding the parking requirements for the 50th and France District, granting first reading and waiving second reading In the form described, where we would change the parking ramp floor ratio requirements from 1.0 to 1.25, we'd raise the ability there for commercial businesses to have more parking in the ramps. Any further discussion on, is there a motion to that effect?

So moved.

second okay we've got a motion remember jackson motion by member second by member pierce to amend uh ordinance 2026-09 as described by staff regarding the parking requirements for the 50th and france district grant first reading and wave second reading any further discussion yeah real briefly yes i just want to say thank you mr lewis for this this is a really good analysis i appreciate it and i think that it'll be good for 50th in france so I think we've seen a lot of your good work tonight. It is a work session in here, so yeah. Thank you, Member Jackson and Member Risser for pointing that out. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approval of the motion as stated, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Ordinance 202609 is amended as requested by staff.

All right.

Next is a resolution accepting donations. Is there a motion to adopt resolution 2026-36? So moved. Second. Member Jackson moves. Member Pierce seconds the adoption of resolution 2026-36, which accepts donations on behalf of the City of Edina. Any further discussion on that motion? All those in favor of adopting Resolution 2026-36, accepting donations, on behalf of the City of Vedanta, say aye.

Aye. Opposed?

Carried. That resolution is adopted. Some very generous donations this particular period, reporting period. Park and Rec, Donna Hipps, two bench donations, a total of $6,400, very generous. Denny Shulstead, Centennial Beach Park, $5,000 down there. Denny is just a relentless supporter of the City of Edina and the sculpture work and other things. Thank you, General Shulstead. Police Department, First Responders Fund. A lot of... It's almost... Yeah, significant amount of money. I don't want to add it up real quick here, but a lot of first responders fund money coming in from active canine, you know, for retired canine expenses, equipment expenses, a series of expenses that were being covered here. The total is about $55,000. So that's... That's a very generous donation from the first responders fund. Thank you for that and those names will be posted on the city website Right away. Yes

I do want to point out the TCO officer wellness expense. So the police department is partnering with TCO. Mike Goldstein, the former chief of police in Plymouth, began this program, and then TCO bought it out. Police officers face a very different set of health challenges. risks because they go into so many stressful situations on and off and on and off it's very hard on physically and so this is a system that's designed specifically for the specific stresses that police officers face and I'm really proud that we're offering this program to our officers so that they can live long happy healthy lives and and it's it's a special thing that we've started just this we started Yeah, this year. So it's a good deal.

Thanks for that observation and thanks for serving on that fund.

Oh, you're welcome.

The old crime fund that has a lot more appropriate name. No, I think the first responders fund.

Yeah.

All right. Next, we have the annual comprehensive financial report for the city of Edina with for the year ended December 31, 2025. We've got Nellie Chick Brewer, our Assistant Finance Director, here to introduce the topic. And we've got Andy Grace here from Began KDV, who is our auditor, auditing firm, to present the matter to us. And here come all the materials in handwritten form.

I think you already did the introduction for me.

Yeah.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and city council member. As part of our commitment to transparency and stewardship for our public funds, we engage an independent auditor to review our financials as of the end of the fiscal year 2025. Tonight, we have Andy from Bergen KDV who conducted this in accordance with the government auditing standards. He's going to go through the audit today, and if you have any questions at the end, we'll be here to answer those for you.

Thank you, Ms. Chick Brewer.

Mr. Grace, welcome. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council for having me here tonight. In front of you, you do have the annual comprehensive financial report and included in that financial statement is our independent auditor's report that I wanted to highlight with you. That report highlights our role as your auditor as well as the role of management and that these financial statements are management's responsibility. It's our role as your auditor to provide an financial statements or assurance on those financial statements as to whether we believe the numbers and disclosures to be fairly stated in all material respects and happy to present that we are providing a clean or an unmodified opinion which is the best that we can give as your auditor. We do have some other reports as well, one being our report on government auditing standards. That report talks about our consideration of internal control over financial reporting, and that highlights there that we do not provide any assurance or opinion as to whether the internal controls are appropriately designed or effective, but rather that we do provide in writing any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses that come to our attention as part of that process. we had one material weakness to note this year related to a prior The last report I wanted to highlight here is our report on Minnesota legal compliance. That report highlights how we consider the state auditor's office legal compliance guys when performing our audit. Again, we don't provide any opinion or assurances to compliance with those statutes. Rather, anything that comes to our attention in terms of non-compliance, we are required to report, and we did note one finding there related to payments made outside the standard payment period. The next part of the reporting that I wanted to highlight is our communications letter that includes all required communication in accordance with audit standards, but also highlights some financial trends and analysis that we have for you here tonight. The first chart that we have is highlighting the general fund revenues, expenditures, as well as the unrestricted fund balance. As you can see here in the trends in the bar graphs here, that you do see increases in both revenues and expenditures in each of the years presented. And as a result, We do with revenues exceeding expenditures. We did see an increase in that unrestricted fund balance going from thirty point seven million to about thirty five point seven million dollars here for 2025 The next chart highlights the ratio of the assigned and unassigned fund balance compared to the subsequent year's annual expenditures. And here for 2025, we use the budgeted expenditures for 2026. And this is important just to highlight the financial health of the city. The state auditor's office recommends a minimum unrestricted fund balance in the general fund between 35 and 50% of expenditures and that helps to provide for cash flow in terms of timing of property tax receipts for emergencies you know any revenue shortfalls important in terms of stability when it comes to bond raters you know and looking at financial health in the city is consistently been within those parameters recommended by the state auditor's office and then the city also has a policy in place to maintain a minimum between 42 and 47% of of property tax revenue and the city is also in compliance with that policy. Same information here just in bar graph format, but then moving on to the next chart, it highlights general fund revenues here over the last five years. Here in 2025, we did see about a 6% increase in revenue in the general fund, or about $3.9 million. the majority of the increase that occurred here in 2025 occurred in the property tax category with an increase in levy and we also saw about an $859,000 increase in permits and licenses with an increase in building permit activity as well as rental licenses but those are the main drivers in the increase here for 2025. The next chart highlights expenditures again seeing increases each of the years presented there was about a 5% increase in expenditures here for 2025. We did see that public safety had the largest increase of about 3 million dollars about 10% increase there and that was related to filling some open positions there as well as increases in salaries. general government actually decreased about nine hundred and forty eight thousand dollars there was some grant activity occurring in that area back in 2024 as well as some specific consulting projects and then park and recreation increased about seven hundred and five thousand dollars with adding a couple new positions there and the other categories were fairly consistent with the prior year. The next chart highlights the budget to actual results here for 2025. The budget called for $64.5 million in revenue, about $65.3 million in expenditures, and after other financing uses, anticipated a decline in fund balance of about $1 million. and the other areas did see excess of budget amounts and really due to conservative budgeting and better investment income than anticipated as well as higher on the expenditure side expenditures came in at 62.1 million dollars that was about 5% less than anticipated all categories came in less than budget and most of that had to do with just vacancies and being conservative for increasing costs public works had the largest variance coming in under budget by about 11.8% just based on timing of projects and again conservative budgeting for those increasing costs as a result we did see an increase in overall fund balance of about 5 million dollars here for 2025. the next chart starts our look at the city's enterprise funds and these present a bit differently in that these are full accrual business type activities so it gives you a full picture in terms of whether the fees that are being charged for these services are sufficient to covering the operating expenses of providing those services the first one that we have here tonight is a look at the utility operations here over the last five years this includes the water utility sewer storm recycling this fund continues to see surpluses did provide a surplus this year of about 10.8 million dollars we also include the results in the surplus excluding depreciation since that's a non-cash operating expense just to give a better indication in terms of cash flow in this fund and that was a positive 17.2 million dollars And as a result of those continuous surpluses over the years We do continue to see an increase in cash and investment balances as well as unrestricted net position here in 2025 you will see that the cash and investment balance exceeds unrestricted net position, which is Not the case in the previous four years and that was due to a bond issuance for Capital activity and there are some unspent bond proceeds in that fund at the end of the year in 2025 the next fund that we have to highlight is the aquatic center operations this fund did experience an operating deficit and that occurred in each of the years presented it was the most significant back in 2024 that was a deficit of $317,000 but there are some additional repair and repainting needs back in that period and so we did see that improve here in 2025 excluding depreciation still had a negative there of about $37,000. With the current year operations, we did see a slight increase in unrestricted net position and a decrease in overall cash and investment balances in this fund. The next fund is the golf course fund. This fund did experience an increase in operating income. It's actually at the highest point in the years presented with a continued demand in this area. And as a result, again, continuing to see those surpluses and with the impact in terms of cash and investment balances as well as unrestricted net position, seeing that continue to increase here in 2025 to a high point and unrestricted net position at about $2.1 million. The next fund to highlight here is the arena operations this fund was fairly flat between 2024 and 2025 in terms of operating revenues there can be some variance from year to year again just kind of based on repair and maintenance needs and there were some additional needs here in 2025 which caused that to continue to see a loss here for the current year. And when taking a look at the cash and investment balances, as well as the unrestricted net position, continuing to see that decline or that trend continue to go down. One thing just to mention in terms of this fund is that unrestricted net position number is a full accrual number. So that includes the pension liability, the OPEB liability, which the city doesn't expect to ever write a check for. So just something to be aware of in terms of kind of how you look at financial health in these enterprise funds. The next fund to take a look at or the last enterprise fund to take a look at is the liquor operations. You can see this trend line as well in terms of the sales and operating revenue coming down each of the last four years here to a low point here in 2025. And as a result, we see a decrease in cost of sales, also a decrease in gross profit. And that goes along the overall market trends just in terms of a decrease in overall sales. alcohol consumption, but the gross profit percentage has remained basically the same at about 33%. So continuing to kind of have that same profitability. Just also kind of look at some comparative data just in terms of how the city compares to other similar metro liquor operations and continues to be a strong performer in comparison to those comparable markets there. Lastly, just wanted to highlight the overall financial position in the liquor fund that that continues to decline. And so even though we see surpluses in the liquor fund, this fund also helps to subsidize through transfers out to other funds. And so those draws have exceeded the inflows within to this fund. So just kind of to be aware of in terms of what those available resources are going forward. We also have some comparability on per capita trends. Intergovernmental revenues did increase significantly in this data just with an increase in street funding, but basically the overall increase in revenues and expenditures exceed the rate of the increase in terms of the overall population, so you're seeing increases in that data. then also highlighting the tax capacity certified tax levy and city tax rate there was an increase in the tax levy increasing from fifty four point two million to about fifty eight point eight million that increased at a greater rate than the tax capacity which is tied to market value so did see a slight increase in that tax capacity rate but has remained fairly flat over the last five years between twenty eight and thirty percent. The last chart that we have to highlight is just the overall debt service maturities presenting the next five years as well as five year increments subsequent to that fifth year. There was a couple new bond issuances this year, so you do see those coming online, but that does highlight what those debt obligations look like over those maturity terms. And again, we wanted to thank the city, the finance staff for having us again here this year, being so cooperative throughout the audit process. We very much appreciate it. And I'd just like to open it up for any questions.

Yeah, that was a very good report. Thank you, Mr. Grace. Any observations you want to make about some of the other letters or reports that you've made? You've made some at the beginning, but anything that was raising alarm bells or causing you concern?

No, no other things to note there.

Okay, all right. I know the past few years, in fact, quite a few years in a row, we've been getting an award for our fiscal responsibility and excellence, and I'm assuming that that's continuing, but Manager Neal, anything you wanted to add to this?

Now this was, I mean, this is an interesting period in Adina's history with receiving federal funds like we have for a few years and now having that kind of leave our finances is unusual for us, that we didn't have a lot of history of that in the beginning and probably aren't going to have much of a future like that going forward. But I appreciate the work of the firm and happy to answer any questions too.

Yeah, I think you do a very thorough job, I think, you know, in the... auditing world i think we're really pleased with the outcome i know you visit with us periodically as well as council members so we appreciate you taking our input as well uh anybody have any questions for mr grace or for manager neil yes

I have a few comments, and I appreciate all the work that went into this. Reading through it, throughout 2025, I did have some concerns about issues, and those were not in the report. And so for me, this is a little bit challenging, and I'm specifically concerned with TIF expenditures and SPARC money, which is unspent TIF. And so I've been sort of going to the state auditor site to see when the 2025 report will be, and it's not gonna be out there for a while. But we kicked off 2025 approving 4.86 million in SPARC for an existing TIF district. and it was for the second phase of the tiff district that was supposed to get one point five million of tiff and we've been told that it's in lieu of tiff but the amount is greater than what was supposed to go to it And the money was to support 15 affordable dwelling units in an apartment complex. I've asked repeatedly for the size of the units because I'm concerned that they could be naturally occurring affordable housing because they are primarily single units and some of them are alcove units. And $4.86 million is a lot of money. So for me that doesn't compute. I'm also concerned about, you know, I really did appreciate how in your report you talk about separate entities and I'm concerned about the HRA and the general fund. And I do understand the language that was in the report about how there needs to be, you know, there is some overlap because we handle the financing and all of that. But, and I did ask for some images to be made available. It's not just that we have staff who are responsible for the HRA financing. and need to be engaged, but we are having dialogue and we had three meetings where there were members of a lot of different departments who were there at the HRA meeting and because it is the exact same body that makes up city council and HRA, you can be in a meeting that's an hra meeting but it feels as if you're being uh... engaged as a city council person and so this is just the first of the third and it was a series of presentations this was the one that caught my eye and this appeared in every single one of the presentations and it's the budgets values and pillars the third line uh... guides for city budgeting decisions affordable housing is the primary item within Budget goal for a livable city yet. There are no general funds allocated to this effort And so this is sort of implying in an HRA meeting that we should be providing general funds for affordable housing which might at my level to me that seems Problematic and so all of this and I do have one final image I think there are numbers yeah these are all of the people so it's not it's not just financial analysts but all of the people who are participating who are funded by the general fund and part of this is me really feeling protective of the general fund and we keep raising the levy but that does have an impact on Edina residents who are not six-figure income earners. Which brings me to another use of TIF, which I think it'd be wonderful to have this as a private source of funding, but in a way, we've managed to decouple TIF financing from economic development because we've started this program, the HEROES program, which was $1 million of unspent TIF And that is given to people who are in certain professions in Edina and wish to move to Edina. They can have, an individual can earn up to $106,000 a year. And this can be used to purchase a home valued at $600,000 or less, but it's an existing home. So it's not, and I understand that down payment assistance is something TIF can be given to, but it's not, something that encourages economic development because it's existing housing. And so all of this is a long-winded way of me saying it's hard for me to uh... vote for accepting this and i i just i feel like i don't have enough information and you provided a lot of information but the questions that i had were not addressed in this document so i do want to appreciate your work why don't we go back to the more fundamental question of what your role is as an auditor

Sure, I was actually going to get to that. So in terms of our independent auditors report, that's the only, I guess, piece that we're responsible for is those three pages in that report. And it is limited to a snapshot at the end of the year. So at December 31st, in terms of all the you know cash balances all the receivable balances capital assets liabilities are those presented correctly at that specific point in time and for all the transactions that did occur in terms of receipts payroll disbursements did those get accounted for a prop properly in terms of the debits and credits throughout the year not necessarily were those disbursements In compliance with certain requirements or were they made consistent with management? Assertions those would be more questions that should be geared towards the management and I do Understand that sure.

I'm just saying for me. It's really hard so thank you so much

Can I add something else to you? So you mentioned the TIF districts. I just want to share up here that the OSA, the Office State of Auditors, they have a TIF reporting that we are currently working through now that the audit has been finalized and is with you for approval tonight. That one is due to the state on August 1st. And so once that is submitted, you'll see it on the website where you see all the other OSA reports as well. Thank you for that.

Council Member Jackson.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So is your function in doing this audit the same as the state auditor would have done if we hadn't hired you? Or does the state auditor do a different job than what your firm did for us this evening?

The state auditor can provide a similar service, but it's... It can vary depending on the type of engagement that it is. So in terms of its performance type, compliance type, evaluations are strictly a financial statement audit.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. Sure.

And I'm gonna add on just to what Andy said too. We do also, in addition to the TIF reporting that we do for the state auditors, we also submit all these financial numbers on behalf of the city of Edina to the state auditor where they evaluate through their lens of auditing as well.

These decisions that the council makes about how to spend TIF money or SPARC money, the state auditor is looking at all of that because you're filing those reports.

They look at the spend down of it and what we do with it with all the different TIF districts.

And just to highlight too, there's many TIF district funds and they all roll up into one fund in terms of what opinion unit we're looking at. So we look at it in the aggregate. We don't look at and give an opinion on the individual pieces.

All right. Anybody have anything else? Mr. Grace. The provision of the annual comprehensive financial report requires some action on our part, and that is to receive the annual comprehensive report called the ACFR. Is there a motion to receive the 2025 annual? You're not approving it. You're just receiving it. Motion to receive the 2025 annual comprehensive report, the ACFR.

So moved.

second rejection movement repair seconds the motion to receive the twenty twenty five annual comprehensive report the a c f r is a for the discussion of this matter all those in favor of accepting a receiving the twenty twenty five annual comprehensive report the a c f r say aye aye aye those opposed those abstaining abstain uh... motions approved uh... the uh... for one vote Four approving, one abstaining. Thanks for being here, Mr. Grace. And now we've got some general obligation bonds to talk about and Nick Anhut has joined us this evening to talk about how those sales went today in a couple of different categories. One was a general obligation bond sale and one was a sales tax revenue bond sale.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, members of the Council, Nick Anhut with Elders and Associates. So last month, at the beginning of the month, the Council set the wheels in motion by authorizing establishing a bond sale date for funding various projects that are ongoing within the city. These are two separate bond issues. The first one is one you're pretty familiar with on an annual basis, funding various street reconstruction projects as well as utility improvements that are part of your capital improvement plan. on-going. 3.2 million of that amount is for various street reconstruction expenses that are going to be repaid exclusively from special assessment revenue that the city receives from its PIR fund. through the construction fund. And then six million of that amount is to go towards water, sewer, and stormwater capital needs that are part of your CIP for this year. Those also will be repaid exclusively from fund revenues from those three different activities. So no levy component associated with that. The B series of bonds is going to be repaid from the sales tax that was authorized from special legislation as well as the voters a few years ago for ongoing expenses related to the Fred Richards and Braymar Park projects that are ongoing here in the city. That was a separate issuance. It is a general obligation bond, but it is separate because it's a taxable financing, because there are some private use that's happening within the Braemar arena, some certain users that have access to the facility and can use them and have for a number of years. And then there's also been some discussion about maybe exploring naming rights and some other revenue sources to support that fund in the future. And so having a taxable bond will basically allow for those discussions to continue. If we had a tax exempt bond, the city might have been precluded from some of those activities. So that's the main difference between the two. They're both general obligation supported, one from the assessments and utility funds and the other to be paid by the sales tax that is being collected. Since the time of that authorization, we have gone through a couple processes to verify the project funding amounts, make sure they're right sized appropriately. We also had discussions with Dorsey about the taxability on the sales tax bonds and prepared some offering documents that got circulated on behalf of the city out to the marketplace for the bids. that are going to be presented tonight. With staff's leadership, we also had discussions with credit rating agencies. So these are, like the auditor, they're independent, kind of third party, providing an opinion of the creditworthiness of the city, how likely the city is going to make good on repaying its debts. And so I'm glad to say, perhaps no surprise, but they have affirmed the AAA ratings that the city has maintained for a number of years, AAA being the highest credit rating that is conferred on municipalities, on corporations and their debt issuance, as well as even sovereign like the United States. So this is the highest possible rating that could be achieved and is something that is going to help translate into some of the results that we'll discuss here tonight. The A series of bonds for the street and utility, we had five different bids on those bonds with the low bid coming from TD Financial Products. They're formerly TD Securities. So their underwriting desk won this transaction with a 3.23 indicated interest rate. The other four bids, you can see, are very tightly grouped. Only 0.06 percentage points difference in the interest rate assigned amongst all five of those bids, a very tight, cohesive group. The B series of bonds, the sales tax bonds, now I just recall these are taxable, right? So we expect to have a higher interest expense associated with that because they don't have the benefit of the tax exemption. But these were actually great results as well. More bidders, actually seven responded and provided proposals with Piper Sandler coming in with the low bid at 4.53% as their indicated rate. The high coming from A 4.87%, a little bit wider spread on that one, but still a great grouping. And both of these results are below our planning rates that we were budgeting and anticipating pre-sale. So great results. With those results, the final sizing of the bonds is going to be adjusted, a slight reduction to both of the bond amounts from what was authorized pre-sale. The 6A series of bonds, principal amount of $8.4 million. This is due to the winning bid and the premium and lower financial transaction costs that they bid with, so we're able to reduce that amount. And the final calculated true interest cost is 3.25% on that. And you can see the pre-sale estimates on this slide slightly above that at 3.42. So interest cost savings, savings that will be realized within the utility funds ongoing. B series will be reduced to $11.95 million. Again, both of these will still provide the same amount of funding that we anticipated. We're just able to reduce them based on some of the estimated financing costs. that weren't necessary. True interest costs calculated at 4.53%, and we were about a tenth of a percentage point higher in our estimates before the sale. So both of those indicated rates are in line with kind of the marketplace. The bond market does move. The taxable market moves in a different kind of direction sometimes as the tax exempt, but generally speaking, it tends to be you know, a little bit higher, and this differential is kind of in line with what our expectations were. Both of these bonds are repaid over different terms as well, so that does also play a factor in the interest cost calculation. So with all that said, we're very pleased with these results. They came in favorably based on our pre-sale estimates. We certainly recommend that the council move forward and accept the low bid from both of these entities. And so there are resolutions that have been prepared. They have been updated and are provided in revised form from your bond attorneys at Dorsey and Whitney. they were revised to populate those resolutions with the actual terms and identify the winning bidder from the sales. So that would be TD Financial Products on the A series of bonds and then Piper Sandler on the B series. You'll take these one at a time as far as any vote is concerned, but we're recommending that the council consider awarding both of these sales to the winning bidders tonight. So with that, I'm happy to address any questions that council has, but very good results, very favorable, better than expectations, and certainly nothing that would lend itself to denying them.

It takes a good presentation, thorough presentation. Questions from council members on these two matters? Take 202631 first. Sounds good. Okay, so is there a motion to approve Resolution 2026-31 awarding the sale of $8,440,000 in general obligation bonds Series 2026A to TD Financial Products? So moved. Jackson moves member Agnew seconds. The motion is stated. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving resolution 2026-31 awarding the sale of $8,440,000 in general obligation bonds series 2026-8 at TD Financial Products say aye. Aye. Opposed? Attention, no? She voted for it? Yeah, I did. All right, all those in favor, aye. We got a full vote here. The resolution is adopted, five, zero, thank you. All right, next resolution is the awarding of the sale of 11,950,000 in taxable general obligation sales tax revenue bonds series 2026B to Piper Sandler and Company. That correct? That's correct. All right. Council Member Jackson moves. Second. Council Member Pierce seconds the motion to approve resolution 2026-32, which would award the sale of $11,950,000 in taxable general obligation sales tax revenue bond series 2026B to Piper Sandler and Company. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the resolution as stated, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Resolution 2026-32 is adopted. Thanks for being here at this late hour. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. All right, the next matter in front of us is a potential zoning ordinance amendment involving the proposed project by the Salvation Army at 4276 Street West.

getting back out so you don't come back for sure yeah thank you uh... so salvation armies proposing to remodel and reuse the existing twenty eight thousand square foot building at forty two hundred seventy six three west uh... for salvation army retail store with warehouse and or drop off this request requires a zoning ordinance amendment to allow second-hand stores to exceed 2500 square feet in the planned commercial district a rezoning of the site from planned industrial district to a planned commercial district and site plan review so this item was introduced at the june second city council meeting we held the public hearing the public hearing was closed on June 8th, and we're back here tonight for asking you to take action on this item by waiving second reading and approving the ordinance amendment, and then also approval of the resolution granting approval of the rezoning and the site plan. So with that, I'd be happy to take any questions.

Questions for Mr. Lewis? Looks like you've got these two actions embodied in a single motion.

Is that something you're comfortable with?

Mr. Kendall?

I am, Mayor, unless there is likely to be disagreement. If there is going to be votes in favor of one item and against the other, and there's going to cause confusion on that basis, then I'd recommend you separate them. If you're comfortable with that not being a danger, then you could just go ahead.

All right. So the first motion would be to approve ordinance 2026-8, the amendment thereto and the, I suppose the waiver of second reading. Is there a motion to that effect?

So moved.

Second. The motion second to approve ordinance 2026-8, the amendment thereto and the waiver of second reading. Any further discussion on that ordinance? Potential amendment of that ordinance, all right. All those in favor of amending that ordinance as stated, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, carried. We have second reading on that and then resolution 2026-27. Let me get that up here. And that is granting approval of the rezoning and site plan for the Salvation Army site at 4276 Street West. Is there a motion to that effect?

So moved. Second.

I had a motion to approve resolution 2026-27, the rezoning and site plan for the Salvation Army at 4276 Street West, seconded by Member Risser. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the resolution as stated, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Resolution is adopted. That matter is concluded. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. And now we've got back to Mr. Kendall. Ordinance 2026-10, potential approval there.

thank you mayor so the purpose of this ordinance is to provide a little more clarity on the process for requesting reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Federal Fair Housing Act federal law is a little unclear it requires cities to have a process for Reviewing requests for reasonable combination of those federal laws, but it doesn't specify exactly what that process must be so You know when we have applicants come to the city It requires a lot of explanation from staff to tell applicants how this process is going to work and So I'm advising that the city adopt an ordinance kind of codifying how the process will work, just so that the public and staff and the council, everyone in the city, is aware of how this process works and knows what the requirements are, doesn't have to go back and forth. I mean, the process is always going to be a dialogue, but at least the basics and the steps required are going to be understood by the ordinance, and from there our staff can work with the applicants to process these requests. So this is not technically required. The federal statutes only say that the city must process these requests. It doesn't say exactly how. But this just provides a method for cities to fill in some of the blanks on how that will happen. So that's the reason for the recommendation, and I'm happy to stand for any questions.

Questions for Attorney Kendall? Council Member Jackson?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, Attorney Kendall, is this going to be a fairly uniform process across different cities? And maybe, Manager Neal, whether you've heard anything at the League of Minnesota Cities, is this going to be fairly standard from city to city?

so i can take them and you can jump in later if necessary i did look at the process in a number of different cities in the metro area and out state and uh... this was the process that i felt was best uh... a lot of cities used to process these just basically using a kind of a variance process you know they would accept all the same applications and use all the same forms and basically treated like a variance and that's uh... possible to do but not recommended as recent case law saying it's better to have a separate process for this just so no one gets confused and treats it like a variance or applies the standard for variance because it's technically not a variance it's something different under federal law so that's the reason for this recommendation i looked at the the process in minnetonka elk river a couple of other cities around the metro and tried to take the best of what they had incorporated into this ordinance

Yeah, the only thing I would add is that a lot of people are doing these kinds of things, but they're doing them informally and treating them like a variance. This is a more formalized process, which is good to have it in place because it's not something we do every day, right? It might not be something we do every decade, but if we have a formal process that's codified, we can always go back to it and use it just like we would for everything else.

Thank you both.

Other questions for... Mr. Kendall or for our city manager. What is recommended is that we approve ordinance 2026-10 amending chapter two and adding new article 11 and grant first reading. Any reason not to waive second reading?

Well, I think I talked with Clerk Allison, and I don't know if we published 10 days prior to this meeting. So I don't think that we can have it be fully passed at this meeting. So in that posture, there's no reason to waive second reading because we're going to have to bring it back either way.

Let's take the conservative route here and be cautious. So is there a motion to approve ordinance 2026-10, amending chapter two, adding new article 11 and grant first reading on that amended ordinance?

So moved.

Second. Member Jackson moves. Member Pierce seconds. The motion is stated. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion is stated. Say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. The motion is approved. Thank you, Mr. Kendall. Appreciate that input and that foresight on your part. We did have an advisory communication come in on the Wooddale Avenue bike lane proposed project from the Edenton Transportation Commission. Do we need to formally accept that at all, or is that just an observation that came in? Yeah, I think we all saw it. Manager comments?

Your Honor, just a couple of updates, actually. One is that starting on July 21st, we're going to need to implement a new practice at the council, and that is to have roll call votes on all actions of the council. This is to make our uh make us more fully compliant with the ada access that we've done in other kind of forms for the council but that's that's something new uh and we need to we need to start doing that on july 21st so it really will emulate the process that we use during the covid years if if you want to have that as a memory but we did do it there and we'll start doing it again Second, our next council meeting is Tuesday, July 21st, so we're on sort of our version of summer hiatus between now and then. Finally, another calendar item, our meetings in August are different, at least the first one is. Night to Unite is Tuesday, April 4th, as it always is. August 4th. i'm sorry august august 4th get the a part yeah and our council meeting then follows that on the next night which is august 5th and it's it is a wednesday just as a reminder so you'll see that start to show up on our calendars here and that's all i've got for you for tonight okay remember agnew you got anything for us oh i do not thank you okay

customer verse uh... thanks mister mayor just one thing uh... the special Olympics the opening session is opening ceremony is June twentieth uh... and so as June twentieth through the twenty-sixth I mention that uh... because MDI the organization I work for we're a gold sponsor uh... so we're pretty excited about volunteering and being there uh the entire week we have some of our employees are also athletes and will be competing as well and then the torch run actually goes through one of our facilities up north in himing minnesota so that's kind of why i'm wearing this red and blue and the fact that we're not going to be here on the 4th of july so pretty excited about that um it's at the u so if you are interested in participating you can find it online and i'd urge you to get some tickets and go um Enjoy some of the festivities. There's also at the Mall of America. There will be different exhibits as well from other sponsors. So that's it.

We do have a city employee who is participating in those Special Olympics. Lisa Santa Maria, who is an office aide here at City Hall, is participating in one of the games.

Awesome. Do you know which game by chance?

It's bocce ball or volleyball. Maybe, Scott, it's bocce ball.

It's bocce ball. Bocce ball. Excellent.

Thank you, Scott Denfeld.

Let's remember Jackson.

Yes, thank you. So I'm in the middle of interviewing for student commissioners and Energy and Environment Commissioner Hilda Martinez is helping me and Hilda is just a wonderful community volunteer but I have to tell the story because her daughter was actually a student commissioner who then recommended to her mom to come join the commissions and so Anna was one of my student commissioners when I was on the Energy and Environment Commission, and I'm very hopeful for our future. These are very bright and wonderful young people. So thanks to everybody who applied, and you will hear from us by July 2nd.

Council Member Risher.

I don't have anything tonight.

I mentioned Juneteenth right at the beginning of the meeting. I did a Mayor's Minute on that before we started our work session this evening. And I think those activities start at 1.45 on Friday at Centennial Lakes.

Noon. Noon to 4.

It opens at noon?

But the performances begin at 1.

Yeah, I think the formal program begins at 1.45 if people are interested in that start date. Okay, good. And then I needed to report out too on my visit to the U.S. Conference of Mayors and provide a little bit of information and I'll try to keep it somewhat succinct here. Meeting was held in Long Beach the 3rd of June through the, I think the 6th or 7th. And Rex Richardson is the mayor of Long Beach, was a great host. The city did a wonderful job hosting the mayors from around the country, several hundred strong. Got in on the part of, I got there Wednesday, got part of a data center meeting in, and that was interesting, and more about that later. We also heard the next morning from the head of the firefighters union on a national basis. And we're starting to think about budgetary things. And we knew from our experience last year, we had a lot of things affect budget, but he said the cost of equipment have doubled since pre COVID because of the making of fire apparatus is now controlled by three companies creating a monopoly. So the union, on a national basis, I think is going to try to do something about that. But another example of the challenges cities are facing across the country with respect to increased costs, Tom Cochran, the executive director on that Thursday morning session, said we're looking at the issue of mayor security. In the metro economy session put on by the Bank of America, The reporter for the Bank of America said that the economist said that we're in a fairly decent economy, but it's being driven by necessity spending and discretionary spending. And spending is being driven by the high cost per household in those two categories. There's a big gap in high income and middle income households. Lots of pressure on lower and middle income households, those things that I think we all know instinctually just from being out in the world and also doing the work that we do as council members in Edina. And tax refunds are helping people, but some folks are trying to hang on to their tax refunds. Only 20% of them had spent that money so far. She talked about cities on the move. And those were Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, and Raleigh. And those are cities that have developed strategies of attracting employers and are experiencing some pretty good growth. A lot of emphasis through the whole session on housing. Reports out by several of the different mayors. The conference tries to alternate between parties and independents in terms of leadership. And a guy who's in the queue is the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, Daniel Rickenman on the Republican side. And I didn't get a chance to visit with him on the side, but they had 2,100 empty properties owned by the city. And so they've decided to build affordable houses on these properties. And Council Member Pierce may learn more about this when he goes down next trip to South Carolina. Maybe, maybe not. But they are building houses in 70 days for $200,000 on these lots that the city owns. So I thought that was interesting. Everybody, every city has their individual challenges on how to get this done. And in Lima, Ohio, they talked a little bit about what they were doing. We had Gavin Newsom there as an afternoon speaker with our president, David Holt, who is the outgoing president and mayor of Oklahoma City. And the incoming president now is going to be Todd Gloria, the mayor of San Diego. And then I went to a session on community development and housing, and listened to that session as well, and San Diego talked a little bit about what they were doing on affordable housing. And of course, the homeless situation, we don't face that in Edina the way they do in Los Angeles, or even a modicum of it. They've got 60,000 homeless people now, and a city the size of Edina has that number of homeless that they're dealing with. Also, the small city session, they wanted us to report on what's working well, and I did that for our community in terms of I took an emphasis around land use and the efforts we're making on affordable housing. And then we had a closed session with mayors It was called Communicating to Your Community, and they gave some examples of some things that were pretty interesting. They said when they surveyed the question, the question was, do we spend enough money or not enough money on welfare? And people said we spend too much money on welfare. When they asked the question, do we do enough to assist the poor, people said we're not doing enough. And so it's this language of communication. Yeah, I guess when they asked the question whether it was cultural and welfare, we're doing too much. And when they couched it around assisting the poor, we're not doing enough. So this whole idea about the language of communication, I spent quite a bit of time talking about that. And then they talked about concerns around the country, and we see it here. Property tax relief remains at the top of the wish list for residents surveyed. Try to keep those property taxes in line. And 80% of Americans want tax money dedicated to affordable housing. And then safety continues to be the number one concern of most Americans. And then they had the mayor's business leaders plenary. We had a Nobel Prize winner there to talk about how we can work more effectively together. And then we had a session on, the chief asked me to attend a session on technology, on drone technology. And I think the name of the company is Skydio. And they got just, we're talking to them amongst others about some drone technology for Edina. And they had some rave reviews from Elyria, Ohio, talked about some of the activity that they were seeing. In Elyria, Ohio, they've seen a 30% drop in crime with the use of drones. And 52% of the time, the drone is the first responding officer, I'll call it, on the scene. And that was true in San Francisco as well. And in fact, in Elyria, Ohio, Director Milner, they're even using those drones to inspect their water towers to check them for leaks and also whether they needed to be painted. Using them on missing persons, a lot of things you could certainly think were appropriate, including crime. Cincinnati had a great experience. Tampa talked about their experiences. All real positive involving that particular company, and I think even the drone technology as a whole. International affairs session talked about this woman that was a former ambassador talked about the movement towards protecting democracy around the world. That was an interesting session. And then other sessions as well on AI. Salesforce.com has something new that they're calling the digital front door that they're using with cities. And that might be something that we want to take a look at. so people can it makes services super easy is what they were claiming so you you know person can come online and how do i pay my property tax or how do i find this how do i find out that i know we're continually looking for ways to improve access to the city website and the ease of its use so that digital front door idea seemed interesting A lot of cities forming AI subcommittees and I think you formed one as well a working group on that And then there was a session on preparation for mass violence because it could happen anywhere You know within the cities we look at is Highland Park, Illinois and they had an incident down there in 2022 on the 4th of July and she talked about what they what they learned out of that and And I can share that with you later as well. There were like 10 things that people learned. And that was also including the Pulse nightclub incident in Orlando. The mayor talked about that. So many, many good sessions. And at nighttime we had some interesting activity too. The mayor decided on Saturday night we should all go to the Snoop Dogg concert. So we all ended up at the Snoop Dogg concert. I was in the 13th row, and if you like your lyrics laced with expletives, that was the place for you. But it was quite a cultural experience, and then that was right next door, the outdoor amphitheater was right next door to the old Queen Mary that they've got docked there, and so they had a reception over there. So I went over there after about an hour. So that was kind of the, the social event of the week. Anyway, that's a brief summary of what went on there. I ran the standing committee on transportation and we talked about the federal reauthorization and some other things that we're working on and trying to develop in Congress this concept of localism. We're trying to get more money coming directly to cities like they do with CDBG money for transportation infrastructure purposes. And then I was on a panel, and Mayor of Cincinnati runs the South Asian Committee, and he asked me to be on a panel about immigration enforcement. And so I met with several of our residents before I went out there that are part of the South Asian community to get more grounded on the impacts of Operation Metro Surge on the South Asian community. And that was a good thing to participate in as well. So that's it. Anybody else have anything?

I do, Mr. Mayor.

Yes.

I have an unusual request. So Lindsay from Beaujays that was just here got home and realized that her restaurant is a part of the Edina Restaurant Week promotion and that is happening the very days that her liquor license is suspended. And so she's asking if you would reconsider those suspension dates to June 30th, July 1st, and July 2nd.

Is the 30th, what day of the week is that, the 30th? To Councilmember Jackson's earlier point.

It is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

I'm sure she would be conscious of that. Okay, with respect to that particular matter, let me go back to it on the agenda. We approved a motion to suspend Bojay's liquor license for three days on the, I think it was the 24th, 25th and 26th of June and impose a $1,000 fine for their second liquor license violation within 24 months. I'd like to entertain a motion to amend that

Mr. Mayor, procedurally, you need a motion to reconsider, and because you all voted in favor of it, it can be motioned and seconded by anyone on the council. Then you need to make the motion to make that change if that's what you want to do. Okay. All right. Thank you. Two-step process.

All right. Is there a motion to reconsider the matter of the bougies and the period of suspension?

So moved.

Second. We had a motion and a second. A motion by Member Agnew, a second by Member Pierce. to reconsider the matter of the imposition of the fine and the suspension of the BOJ's liquor license. Any further discussion on that motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Carried. We'll now reconsider the matter. As I mentioned earlier, we had an amendment, we had a motion that suspended their license for the period, let me find that.

23rd.

Twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth. Twenty-third was Monday, wasn't it?

No, twenty-third is Tuesday.

Okay, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, okay. We had a motion whereby we approved the Beaujais three-day liquor license suspension for June twenty-third through the twenty-fifth and a thousand dollar fine for a second liquor license violation within twenty-four months. Is there a motion to amend that particular uh matter to provide for the three-day liquor license suspension to occur on june 30th july 1st and july 2nd and to continue the imposition of the one thousand dollar fine for their second liquor license violation within 24 months so moved Second. Member Jackson moves to amend the earlier motion. Member Pierce seconds the motion to approve the Bojay's three-day liquor license suspension and the $1,000 fine and impose that three-day suspension for June 30th, July 1st, and July 2nd, 2026. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the amendment to the motion say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. The amendment to the motion is adopted. And the period of suspension will be the 30th of June, the 1st and 2nd of July. The $1,000 fine will remain imposed. That do it? Okay, thank you, Clerk Allison, for that. I'm glad she called in. How did she get ahold of you? She sent an email, which I happened to have checked. Yeah, fantastic, okay. All right, is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved. A second?

That a motion by member Jackson, second member Ragnew to adjourn the meeting of the Dino City Council this 16th day of June at 1046 p.m. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adjournment say aye. Aye. Opposed, carried. We stand adjourned.