Common Council - Regular Meeting

You good? Yeah, I'm just trying to get my brothers here.

I see we actually have the green light on it. Our uh timer is earlier than my clock. So, uh oh. Okay. It looks like we have the green light. So, I'm going to call this meeting of the Lake Mill City Council to order for Tuesday, March 3rd. Misty, would you please call the role? Miss Kurler here. Miss Schmeer, here. Miss Quednau here. Mr. Coots here. And Mr. Waters previously informed staff that he'd be unavailable to attend in person this evening. Thank you. Please rise for 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. Thank you. Our next item is correction and acceptance of the city council meeting minutes from our February 17th meeting. Are there any corrections or comments? Okay, seeing none, we'll accept those into our record. Uh, next we have our board and committee reports. We have the January plan commission and two January library board minutes. Any comments or questions or corrections on those minutes? I had a question about um the library um building construction, but maybe I'll wait till Drake's report because he's got some reference on the library there as well. Okay. So, we'll accept those into our public record. Next is our correspondence and constituent context. Greg, would you start us out tonight? [clears throat]

I'm sorry. Can you say Yeah, please start. Yeah. Um, I had sorry I had a uh contact uh in favor of the sentry site plan. A couple of contacts about the golf course again both for and against potential resonings. Um, got the uh uh the rock the the Rock Lake uh sorry, what is that? The Rock Lake J RLC. Oh, the the joint Rock Lake Committee.

Joint Rock joint. That's sorry. Joint Rock Lake Committee meeting minutes. Uh, and a bunch of city emails, but that's about it. Okay. Thank you, Mary. I had identical um correspondents and then I attended via Zoom the Jefferson County Economic Development and Thrive Ed Consortium just as a learning opportunity. Great. Thanks. U Michelle, I don't really have anything else to add.

Okay. Um I had all the same um correspondents that Greg mentioned and then I attended the Legendary Lake Mills board meeting, the joint rock lake committee, the plan commission last week um and uh opportunity Drake and I uh both attended um uh recognition of contributions to the library project from a couple of big donors. So that was really exciting to be a part of that. Okay. So next we will go into our public comment. Individuals who are have registered to speak are invited to address the council at this time. State your name and address when you're called to make your comments. No action will be taken for items that are not listed on the agenda and each speaker is limited to three minutes. So we have two people registered tonight. Uh first is uh Jacob Art and I think we've got our timer back working again. So

she Oh, it has to be with that. Okay. All right. Go ahead. Oh, Jacob. Um, can you make sure the green light is on the microphone there? Or if it's not, press the button. Is that good? Thank you. That sounds better. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Name is Jacob Arn, 527 Malbury Street. Um Um, and my comment, thank you for taking my comment, is about the uh HD development. Um and uh I have another property across the street here. Um so I have um uh an interest in it. Um we sure need the uh we sure need the development. Uh I mean it's been sitting there for about 10 years and we I'm I'm really happy to see things um moving along. Um, but looking at the project and looking at the elevation, I mean, I don't have any problem with the massing and everything of the building and the, you know, the footprint and all of that. And I'm sure um um the uh infrastructure and everything can be taken care of. Whether or not we have HUD help out with that, I I think uh uh that that's worked out by by the staff here. But uh um anyway, a little design goes a long way and we're going to have to live with this building for like uh two or three gener or four generations. I mean, it's going to be there a long time and it really has a presence and an impact, four stories high. Um and uh the building we're in now is a piece of architecture. It's architectural. And the building that we have planned is basically um um modified warehouse and with some design elements in it. basically tying it together with some of the with the design elements that we have on our our 19th century buildings here. um would do would go a long way toward um massaging things into into a look

into a comfort level with the existing environment that um I think the architects could really just with a little bit of work and not a not a lot of extra money with some pull outs, some soldier cores, some roll locks, some definition around windows and doors and things and some relief panels and and the rest of it to make it a little bit less um quite a bit less somber and boring um would make a hell of a lot of difference. I mean, if you think of sitting in this building and having meetings or sitting in a cinder block building and having meetings, the difference is psychologically very important. And I think, you know, the presence of it right across from the park um uh the whole downtown area is a hell of an impact. And um um that is the point I want to make is a little bit design. A little bit of design goes a long way. And it's not going to be expensive to do some masonry design um to um give it some texture.

Thank you. Looks like I think I figured it out what I did. Sorry, we didn't get a beep, but we did get to your three minutes, so I was watching it, so. Okay. Thank you, Jacob. Okay. Our other uh speaker tonight is Ken France. Do you want to try the button and see if it works? Sure. When he starts a try. Nope. Okay. Hello.

My name is Ken France and I live at 331 Pinnacle Drive. I'm here to suggest that both the city council and planning commission should maintain the current comprehensive plan's future land use map as is. I ask that you please vote against any future amendments for the land use map that would eliminate the golf course. Since the February 17th city council meeting, I contacted both Lake Mills High Schools and and Lake Lutheran High School to discuss their relationship with the golf course. Their high schools golf and cross country teams greatly benefit from having the golf course within walking distance of their campuses. They are both 100% behind the Lake Mills Golf Course Association's goal of finding a buyer who we can help to maintain the golf course thrive and reach its full potential. Uh just a few of the other reasons previously mentioned for keeping the Lake Mills golf course is are can include protecting property value of homes on or near the golf course and actually property value of all homes in the city of Lake Mills because a successful golf course helps everyone provides valuable green space. um promotes a healthy activity within our city for young and old alike and attracts people to our city which generates income for our local businesses. And hot off the presses, we have yet a third investor who has just contacted us who is very interested in making a bid along with two others but are waiting until the March 19th decision is made. So, uh, buyers are awaiting for the result. I invite all residents in packet. Um,

a decent amount of material tonight. If there's any questions, I'm I'm happy to answer them.

So, I had, um, some questions about the library. There was references in the um, library board meeting minutes about um, you know, looking at final plans and getting ready to put plans out to bid. And I know we have this kind of unusual situation where the city owns the building, the library board is, you know, sort of a um independent body, I guess you would say, you know, independent decision-making body. Um, but so I'm curious, what is the um council's role in um dealing with the the construction bids and and authorizing bids and so forth? How does that all work? And and you know, do we need will we have some involvement coming up in the next few months on that? Uh my understanding to date has been that it's a it's a library board um building um and it's operations and building um and it's operations and um repairs maintenance uh you know things of that nature. So um the the library can execute a contract similarly to how they have with the architect on the project. Um so they they can execute a contract with the um uh bid awardee. Um [clears throat] we do act as a financial agent for the library as far as uh payment out you know pay requests things of that nature. So we are we are involved in the process but the decision making lies in the library board.

Okay. Thank you. And just for clarity I'm I don't have an objection or anything. I just wanted to make sure I understood what you know the c if the council needed to be doing anything um as this project moves forward. And I guess one more followup on that then. Um um does that mean that the library board would have the responsibility to oversee then their contract and oversee the construction? Correct. Okay. Um and there I'm assuming there would be some coordination with our utilities and other they have to submit they they have to submit an application to the city. So it's sort of like a building permit, right? Okay.

They have to obtain building permits. They have to obtain administrative review approval, you know, comply with um our standards, things like that. Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Just e explanation of how that all works. Michelle, is there anything you wanted to add? No. Okay. Thanks. Thanks. Any other questions on Drake's um city manager report?

Yeah. A uh a quick question about the March 19th uh special planning commission meeting. Um is that only for will the planning commission be taking action during that meeting or is it only the public hearing and actions being reserved for the next week for their regular meeting? Uh the plan commission will have the ability to act. [snorts] Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for the city manager this evening? Mary.

Yeah, I failed to um mention in my correspondence that I had several people um shout with joy when they saw the new or the new bridge back at Bartles Beach. So, thank you to the the you know all that did the work on getting that bridge back in place and that new flooring on there. It looks great. But I forgot to mention that in my correspondence. I had a few people make really great comments about that.

Fantastic. Great. Okay. Um, if there's no other questions for Drake, then we'll move on to council business. Our first item is a consent agenda. So, we have three uh license applications under that consent agenda. So, our process is um if any council member wants to take any of those um items out separately and discuss separately, we can do that. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Okay, we have a motion by Mr. Coots and second by Michelle Quednau. And we're not allowed to have discussion. So, I guess we just have a vote. Misty, would you call the role, please? Miss Schmeer, I. Miss Quednau, I. Mr. Cuts, I.

Miss Kurler, I. Motion passes 40. Thank [clears throat] you. Um, if there's no objections, um, well, we've got several long ones here, I guess. So, um, I guess let's go to the our next agenda item, which is a discussion and possible action on the Sandy Beach Food Service options. And we have a, uh, staff memo, uh, giving some options. So, um, Sure.

Drake, you want to take it away? Um, so as you're going through the memo, I'll kind of walk you through um the the organization of it. So I had asked um Dustin with Meet and Hunt, the city's planner, to um provide examples of uh food service out of out of park shelters um but not something that would extend into a full service restaurant. Um, and so as you get to section, the comparison of structure options, as you get to section A, A represents what I understood to be the city council's goals. It best represents what came out of the work session. And so the Tanglefoot Park shelter is, in my mind, the one that most closely represented what the council was hoping to achieve. Um, obviously there's options and customization that the city could undertake. Um, that structure has a bathroom and a catering kitchen. Um, I think the city uh council was more leaning towards perhaps, you know, the bathrooms being located elsewhere in the park and then a a [laughter] commercial kitchen being installed for someone to actually be able to um uh cook food instead of having it offsite and bringing it into a catering kitchen for distribution. I've talked to a couple um food service providers and they've they've thought that unless there was a food truck or smoker or some kind of implement on site that a catering kitchen would be difficult um logistically to manage to bring everything off site and serve out of that kitchen for a full day. Um the uh the Sterling Park shelter is actually the same product just with um fewer amenities selected on it. So, it's just the open air park shelter. So, it kind of shows you the flexibility that the that we have in building out something that might work for us. Um,

those are pre-fabricated examples. The city council of course has the ability to build uh you know, timber built, stick built, whatever you may as well. Um, that process will take it is a little bit longer and probably more costly. Um, section B is simply your upgrade option. Um it's examples that include an indoor outdoor eating space, some climate controls. Um so that would be kind of an upgrade over what was discussed. Um section C is a different aesthetic but um lower cost option. So it's prefabricated modular buildings that get purchased and then laid out. And then uh section D is included only if the city council did not want to have a uh commercial kitchen built into it. And so there would need to be the uh infrastructure available to support something that could cook the food and and deliver the food to it. So um that's kind of the the structure of it. You know, tonight I'm envisioning that perhaps the city council will formalize the direction it would like it would like to go and direct staff to begin putting things together for inclusion in the capital improvement plan and taking the steps to prepare for a referendum if one is deemed to be necessary. Um, at that point, um, there is some, uh, site preparation estimates included at the end of the memo that the city's engineer coordinated with Dustin on to to bring together, as well as, um, at the beginning, kind of a a range of what a commercial kitchen costs can can range from depending on what obviously is included and what's necessary from a fire prevention and ventilation standpoint. So that all kind of bears out during a design process. But um that is kind of the different levels that we

have and again section A represents I think what is most um related to what came out of those work sessions. Everything else is either an upgrade of service of some kind or there's some sacrifices um from a service level perspective in favor of cost reduction.

Okay, thank you. And we have our uh planner Dustin Wolf here as well if there are any questions. And as you um mentioned Drake, this is scheduled as a discussion and possible action. So, if we had some direction that we wanted to give the staff um you know out of our discussion tonight, we would we would be able to do that. So, I guess let's kick off a discussion. Michelle, um I'm just looking at the final the D and at the very bottom it says total site work 170,000. Does is that what's included in the site development and utility estimates or is that the cost of the of the hybrid core building? That's the site development and utility estimates.

Okay. So, how much was the hybrid core building and mobile vendors because there wasn't anything given for um that one I think the range was wide

um on that one for like the Tangle foot park shelter that was estimated at a $ 1.5 million structure. Um, once you get into kind of the customizable options and something that's generally served from a food truck or something, it's going to depend on what type of shelter you wanted to build in order cuz it could be you could have a very basic park shelter that people walk back from. But if you wanted it more integrated so that just drive the range is so wide to be less than useful.

Okay. If if I can add um the Sterling example that you see there with their uh public marketplace that has been designed to be sort of a flexible space where you can back trucks, food trucks or vendor trucks up to it on a drivable surface and then they can plug in. Um the other that we're showing in section D is is a a modular block building. Right? So again, as Drake had mentioned, it really does depend on the type of structure that you want to provide the kind of sheltering. um the rest is site civil work around it to provide um the necessary uh foundations for however you're going to use the space.

I should note too that the the customization options for like a section 8 the project the product that you see in section A is ceiling fans different levels of electrical obviously bathrooms different levels of uh of kitchen space. So, um, those are all things that amenities that can be decided upon, but it's really that the idea is that it's an open air park shelter attached to a a count a building that is producing food out of that counter service. Um, you can see in, you know, they have the garage doors and things to to close it off as well. Um, so there are there are probably ways to reduce costs from what they saw as well, uh, depending on the level that the council wanted to to provide, but um, so there will there is still there still will be decisions in the future no matter what option is is decided, but um, this is kind of the opportunity to formalize what came out of the work sessions.

I I have a follow-up. Sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Um, so in [clears throat] in hearing what you have to say, the um the Tanglefoot Park Shelter, does that then you know what? Let me wait on that question. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay.

Well, I first of all, thank you for pulling something together pretty quickly on uh meeting our deadline for beginning of March. uh trying to make sure that we hopefully get to a point where we have uh funding in the budget for this year. I am a visual person. So, I'm going to pass out a little p three pictures. Two of them I I shared when we had our working session. Um they were from one of the citizens who had done a rendering of a small kitchen with a covered space, two different versions. And then the last one is actually Michelle. you had drawn something on paper. And so I did my best to try to find a picture that might kind of showcase what when I'm visualizing um what I would think would be something that is modest in price and highly functional and highly versatile would be something like the last page or all of them are similar. All three of them are very similar and so I I don't know that I am the expert on which A, B, C, or D mod format. Um,

give one to Dustin, too, since you're not the Are the first two the same? I'm not sure. We're sharing copies with other. Are the first two pictures the same? Well, one has one is like a full roof line and the other one as well as a pergola. They're they're just they're similarations variations. Yeah. And I I

So I I would like to see I don't I'm not the expert on whether ABC or D is the best approach, but I would like to approach it from a modest cost price point. So I liked the 150 to 750 in option A, something underneath our million dollars. my preference is to not that I'm using the need to go to referendum as the the rationale, but I I feel like we have a lot of um a lot to address in the park and so trying to balance the money appropriately for us and for our community. I think something that's functional, simple, that's underneath the 1 million would be my preference with a commercial kitchen that is small. We talked about having it be not not a restaurant. So maybe [clears throat] it has the electrical for some restaurant tour to bring in their own fancy piece of something or other if they desire to upgrade what we put in as some basics um as a as a thought. But I I I would like us to move forward with something that is casual. I mean the sandbar was really casual and you know it wasn't high frills. And so I'm I am I would like to support something that is more, you know, park ccentric. It look And then all of our shelters maybe would look maybe I well this last page is was when I was trying to draw Michelle that you were drawing kind of like a a um Cora Park on steroids with a little restaurant. So I that was my attempt to like Okay, I see what you're saying and that I think would fit the fit the area. It would be versatile. So, if a vendor

isn't able to provide service some year we run into trouble, you still have this beautiful shaded shelter you could turn into rental space. Uh, I don't know about renting a commercial kitchen, if you will, for family reunions and whatnot, but I I I am feeling like that something of this nature would work and that fits us in the price point under a million and it would I think meet our criteria that we talked about um when we met and did our work session. So, I just brought pictures because I know that's not what we're here to talk about exactly what it looks like, but I think if you if we think more of a modest scale, we could do something really cool. Um, can string some cool lights. You could put a garage door or two. You might be able to fit that in the budget, but how what AB or C or D, I'm not sure what the right approach would be to get there, but something that's modest in structure and style. I know I'm I'm repeating myself, but

I think it certain the direction certainly can be as simple as, you know, an open air park shelter with a commercial kitchen attached to it for uh counter food service. Um and then we start looking for the either a product that meets that or we start thinking about, you know, designing it for for what meets our needs. Yeah, I think that's the big issue is, you know, if you're thinking casual food offerings, uh, simple grill and maybe fryer, is that what we're looking because that was generally what, you know, the previous offerings were.

Um, you know, as we said, the the cost changes by the size of the commercial kitchen and the kind of offerings within it. So, um, anything beyond, uh, warming um, facilities really is going to require hoods and and all of that. So, um, you know, if we're thinking that we're not really concerned about the scale of rentable for weddings or climate controlled when you say doors that could close, but really we're not looking to heat the space really just cool it, make it comfortable for three seasons. Right. That's is that what I'm understanding? Yeah, I think that's right. That was

that was as I was going through the memo, some of the things that I was circling and I think we've probably all been to establishments that just have some kind of a sliding sliding panels just for inclement weather, but not not that the space is heated. The commercial kitchen will need some climate control. Kitchen will need some climate control, right? the dining area wouldn't really have you would we wouldn't be no air conditioning heating and air conditioning the correct the space

just for people who are um since we're passing around pictures but they're not available to people in the audience or or watching online the the the picture that we're looking at really does look a lot like the course park shelter with instead of a um you know a rentable kitchen space on the end it has a concession air space and doesn't have bathrooms I would say that session areas is where the bathrooms are at Cor Park if you understand that setup. Sure. And I mean they obviously that could be laid out different ways, things like that. But that's sort of the thing. One thing um or a couple things that really caught me. I appreciate you explaining Drake that

that um a was what you thought was most what we were looking for because I'm like why are we seeing all these [laughter] four? But it it's just good to, you know, make sure that we understand the different options and their their price points. I circled a lot of positive things under a in in the description in um Dustin's memo. You know, broad customization options, low maintenance, suitable for integrating storage and concessions. I think those are all things that, you know, as we talked in our work session, those would be things that we would want. Um we our our restaurant proposal was I looked it up uh 3875 square ft footprint for the building park is 3500 square ft for that shelter. You know we may or may not have a patio you know beyond the covered space but to me I feel like somewhere in that 3500 square feet is about is about the size that we were talking about for a restaurant. So that seems to me to be within the ballpark for, you know, what we might want here as well. Greg, do you have any thoughts on the memo or discussion?

No. Okay, [laughter] that's fine. Just wanted to make sure. Out of curiosity, [clears throat] Dustin, is the Tanglefoot Park Shelter four season or three? Um, I would say it's more three. Um, I I wouldn't say dead of winter. Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure they they happen to also have two very large donors to get their park shelter. So, if anyone's interested in being a participant on our efforts that, you know, we welcome [laughter]

put a plaque on there or name naming rights. Mary, a couple of the comments that you made I wanted to um react to in agreement. One is I I feel like under a million would be personally what I would like to shoot for. Um again, similar to what you said, not not because of any referendum requirements, but because we have lots of other recreational amenities that we're interested in in providing in the park and you know, we are a small city with limited resources. So I don't think we have the kind of resources to do something uh real elaborate but you know something under a million seems like uh reasonable. Um you also touched on rental and you know some of the examples here were rental. I think my my personal preference would be that we would not look at this as being a rental space initially because a concessionaire, you know, likely is going to be someone that has a contract with us for the whole summer. they're not going to be able to share that that kitchen. Um, so then you're just talking about the open space and I think we really want that to be available to everyone. We have other park shelters in the park that will be available for renting and that have grills and, you know, things like that. So, um, as you said, you know, if something happens, we lose a vendor, we want to, you know, change how we operate it. I think we could do that, but that I don't think that was one of my goals is having it be rentable for uh kitchen use.

I agree. So, uh any other comments or discussion? Drake, do you do you want us to make any kind of a motion or give some kind of a a more specific direction? you know what would be motion I think a motion is helpful. Um I think you know I the consensus seems to be you know a commercial kitchen with a a a modest open air park shelter with a commercial kitchen attached to it um with a goal of rem of a budget below $1 million. I think if you want to formalize that in a motion it makes it the path forward clear right that the the the direction is clear. Um, if you choose not to, we'll continue down that path. But, um, I we'll have to sit down and and see what options exist and what costs are looking at right now for it and then come back to you to make sure that to let you know if we can meet that goal and if what we'd have to size it as in order to hit that budget goal.

U maybe one quick question uh before anybody makes a motion. in the um utility estimates um there's a um concrete pavement um and that was including 10,000 square ft. Was that just kind of an assumption of you know like the floor space plus maybe some patio sidewalk? Yes. Yeah. The idea was just to have a kind of sight civil pad with [clears throat] all the services that are necessary um just to work from. So 10,000 ft² is a/4 acre. Um it sounds larger than it really is when you start putting buildings on it and and uh start programming the space.

Okay. And and it does seem like a reasonable estimate. Again, I I'm I'm thinking 3500 square ft plus or minus for the the footprint that's, you know, covered and and building wise, but like you said, you have to drive, you know, vehicles will need to drive to it for maintenance and there may be open patio beyond it that would also be concrete. So, that seems like a reasonable estimate. I'm not sure how uh you want me to start this motion, but I think I'm going to do the best I can. Um I move to approve the idea uh for the Sandy Beach Food Service um building to be a modest, which is less than 4,000 square ft, open air shelter with attached commercial kitchen for a contracted vendor and covered seating. Is there anything I'm forgetting?

With a maximum expenditure of $1 million. Thank you. And with a maximum expenditure of 1 million to move forward for inclusion in the capital improvement plan. Yeah, I I I don't think you need to put the contracted vendor piece into it. Okay. So, a modest open air shelter with attached commercial kitchen covered seating and under $1 million to be approved for the capital improvement or is that right? Is [clears throat] that what you said? Capital for development for inclusion and the capital improvement plan. Okay, you guys all said that. That's what I mean.

Right. So, we'll understand that as a as a a motion to direct staff to move forward with planning for an open air shelter with an attached commercial kitchen um with a budget goal of under $1 million for an approximately 3500 to 4,000 foot facility and direct staff for to take the necessary steps for inclusion in the city's capital improvement plan. Yes, you're so much more eloquent. I will second the motion.

Okay, we have a motion by Michelle Qued now, seconded by Mary Schmaker. Um hopefully the record will be clear on that. It's been repeated a couple times. Um any further discussion? Um I just have a quick question, I guess. Um I one thing that was clear in in Dustin's memo regarding the prefab and the pre-cast is those could be um sizable pieces and you know might need cranes and and that kind of a thing. Is that going to be an issue where um you know staff will need to factor in sort of like the timing of when we might construct something like this because obviously we don't want to put in a new parking lot and then you know tear it up with a heavy crane a year later. So, I just I just from my own understanding, is that something we'd have to factor in?

Yeah, we'll want to coordinate with the city's engineer as far as what staging might need to look like and timing of other improvements that could be um desired at the park. So, I think we'll want to be strategic about when and how we accomplish these things based on what's necessary for the for the construction. So, as we learn more, we should have a better idea. But correct, we won't want to put a heavy piece of equipment on a brand new parking lot. Sorry. Okay.

If I can just [clears throat] add, when we've done these in the past, you're bidding out a package um for sight civil work and then typically the um construction of the of the shelter itself. Not to oversimplify it, but think Tinker Toy where or recctor set where you're bolting things together. They come in and do all of this simultaneously. So they're handling kind of that order of operations as a part of your bid package. And thank you for um mentioning that Dustin and I guess that does remind me of one other thing for clarification. So the utility the site development and utility estimates those are outside of the million dollars. Is that everybody on the council's understanding? Um I think

those be part of the building. I think for I guess we can think about the interpretation of the of the ordinance, but I think that it could be the what it takes to make a building buildable would likely include the civil work as well. And so that may factor into that budget. Okay. And again, I'm not thinking so much about whether we have to do a referendum or not. If we need to, we need to. Um, but is that match the council member's understanding of our maximum budget? Would that be to include that approximately $170,000 in site work? Yes. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Any other discussion? Uh, seeing none, uh, Misty, would you call the role on the motion regarding um asking the staff to plan for an open air shelter attached commercial kitchen maximum million dollar expenditure and approximately 3500 to 4,000 square ft. Miss Quednau I, Mr. Coots, I, Miss Curler, I, Miss Schmegger, I.

Motion passes 40. Thank you. And thank you, Dustin. Okay. So, our next agenda item is ordinance 1288. This is the first reading tonight. Misty, would you do that reading for us? Ordinance 1288, amending City of Lake Mills ordinance section 660-44 sub A official zoning map, City of Lake Mills, Wisconsin. Address 105 South Madison Street, 204 East Lake Street, 203 Water Street, 209 Water Street and 223 Water Street, Lake Mills, Wisconsin. Partial identification number 24607131322016. 24607131322 017 2 460713132 018 2 460713132202 037 2 46071313238 and 24607131322 039 owner Gunlock Properties LLC petitioner Hubdy Properties LLC Thank you. Uh this item comes to you uh with a recommendation to approve from the plan commission. The plan commission did hold a public hearing on the zoning change um as is required by the process. This is a a reszone uh maintains the B1 zoning designation but then places the plan development district uh um overlay on top of it um to accommodate um the uh the requested development. Um this is the consolidated general development plan and precise implementation plan uh process. Um and so the the application is complete and has been submitted with uh with both of those uh incorporated into the application. Um in general it is for a uh 100 unit multifamily development um with uh both surface and underground

parking incorporated into the development. Um it is a uh fourstory building. You can the attachments will kind of run you through what the ex what any exceptions to the code under the PDD overlay are. Um this is consistent with um city council planning documents, the comprehensive plan and and previous discussions on what would be kind of incorporated into the redevelopment of this site. It does not require an amendment to the future land use map. So it is consistent. Um and so the zoning change can be acted upon um by the city council. Um there is also an incorporation of I think approximately 10,000 square ft of commercial space on the first floor. Um so it is a mixeduse uh development um in the city's uh downtown. Uh the developer is here tonight. If there are questions of them, there are the attachments that were included in the plan commission. Um, including their presentation is included in your packet. Um, so it's up to the council how much detail you'd like them to go into on the first reading. Um, but they are available here tonight uh to speak to the project.

Thank you. So, I guess I would like to invite uh representatives from the developer to come up and um share whatever remarks you would like to and and if we have any questions and please uh there's several of you so please introduce yourselves to the council as well. Thank you for being here.

Well, thank you for having us tonight and we thought we'd give a little maybe a little bit of a comprehensive overview because I think some people have had a chance to see some of the high commission something happens. So if if we go a little long, just cut us off. But we should probably cover this comprehensively. It's an important project. Um we know it's a a sizable project for the community. So we want to make sure that we give you give you the information that we think everybody should have. Is the green light on? It is on. Okay. You're just you're just a quiet speaker. Okay. Got it. Okay. [laughter] And and please introduce yourself. Yes.

Absolutely. So I I'm Randy Ger. I'm the president with Properties. Uh, and with our team here, I've got Ethan Schwanker, who is our COO, and he'll talk a little bit, and then our architects, uh, Angus Young as well. So, that's our team here tonight. So, you know, we'll we'll kind of go through what we wanted to present to you. That works great. Thank you.

So, I just wanted to give you I'm going to speak a little less about the project myself. I just want to give you a little overview about Hub Properties and who we are because I think that's important. Um, you know, who's going to do this project? Who, you know, who are you? what's your reputation? That type of thing. So, again, we just want to give you a little overview of that. So, um I'll try to be short. Um [snorts] you know, Hoppy Properties is uh was founded in 1933. Um we're a family-owned company, third generation. Um we're the real estate arm of the Hobby family. The Hobby family has a interest in banking and some other some other industries, but our group is the real estate group uh that represents this project. You know, we have a staff staff size of about 50 employees, full in-house capabilities of planning, legal operations. We manage our own properties with our own people. Um, so we self-manage our properties. Uh, we own approximately 1500 market rate multif family units uh in Wisconsin, about 500,000 ft of office and retail, two small hospitality projects, uh, and about 400 acres of development land as well. So, um, I just want to talk a little bit about our approach and I think it's relevant here because our approach fits what we're, you know, planning to do here in Lake Mills. So, um, we really look for opportunities, uh, that we believe will stand the test of time, number one, and are located in growing communities that have a high degree of walkability and access to the daily daily, uh, bike needs. We think that's really important projects. Two, we focus on developments that we believe um that we'll be happy holding indefinitely. Uh we are long-term holders. So when we build a project, we look at, you know, is this is this a project we want to build and we will be happy to hold in family like I said indefinitely. Um so that's another key attribute for us. We're looking for those types of projects to to fit. Um we develop typically in communities that

have housing needs strong community support and leadership that approaches this as a partnership with us. Um we definitely look at it as a partnership when we come into communities and we build things. So that's very important to us. Um we believe in having our own employees on site. Um and part of the reason we look for the right size when we do projects too is we want to be able to have on-site management, on-site maintenance. We think that's really important uh for the quality of the project and also because we we're part of the community. So our staff becomes very much integrated with the community. Usually our staff uh lives in um that's very typical for us. Um we tend to build higher quality projects um uh again because we're long-term holders. So we tend to build our projects to a little bit higher standard than you might see in B developers who only plan to hold it and sell it in three years. That's just not our approach. Um, we want the building to be built right. Um, and we know that if you cut costs on the front end, it comes back to haunt you, you know, 10 years later when you're trying to fix the things you should have done right off the front. So, that's important to us. Um, we don't develop trends. Um, and so we really believe in a mix of unit types when we approach our buildings. Uh, we want to meet people at all stages of life. um we've seen that very successful in our other projects where you know it can be people who are retired all the way down to people starting out. We just think that's that's the right mix to do in projects. Um and we have that mix in most of our projects and we see a much better community mix. Um we have different different people at different ages. Um and so that's an important principle to us. We only do market rate housing as a company because it plays to our strengths. Um other people do affordable very well. we that's just not not where our strengths lie. So we focus on market rate. Um and in general we don't do capital raises from investors. Uh we do the projects uh and invest our own money

in these. So you know it's very much direct you know for us. So just real quick our projects um that we've done are consistently celebrated quite frankly for their contribution to meeting the housing needs in the communities when we come into them uh while also benefiting the local businesses. Um and some just a few examples. We've done this in Wanke uh where we we've won best community multif family. We've won the chamber awards for redevelopment. Um accolades for that project which is right in downtown Wanke um Versine uh was top project of the year CPR awards for redevelopment of downtown property and that's in the downtown area of Versine. So that was a a major redevelopment in that in that uh city um and has done very well and very well received in the community. Uh Jainsville best community multif family awards, new development of the year awards, again really meeting uh Jainsville's uh housing needs. So those are just a few examples of some of the projects we've done that have similar from our perspective similar characteristics uh to what we see here for this project. So just wanted to highlight a few of those. um you know why do we do all this uh why do we take these approaches ultimately because we we believe that uh by following those we end up with with a project that fits well with the community um it would be and that turns into a longterm asset for us and for the community um that we operate in. We think project here like Mills uh is one that can follow this model that we've seen successfully done you know and some of the other communities that we've worked with. So, I just wanted to give you a little bit of that overview uh about who we are and how we approach things. Uh and this project very much fits that model for us. So, I'll turn it over to Ethan and let him get get more specific in the process.

Thank you.

Thanks, Randy. And thanks Council members for um allowing us an opportunity to present uh tonight. Um as Randy mentioned, my name is Ethan Schwiker. the chief operating officer with HUD properties. Um so with this project, I just want to kind of give you a little bit of background because it's actually been several years that we have been uh working on this project. Um we first approached it actually back in 2021 2022 uh when uh we actually have some members of our team that have lived in Lake Mills. uh one that lived for a while now Jefferson. Um but uh so don't hold that against him, but um so we've we've known about the site for a long time. As as Randy mentioned, it kind of fits the box of the types of sites where we look to um it's located in in downtown, but it's underutilized. It's it's, you know, near blighted. Um and it gives us an opportunity to say okay um we've got this strong downtown character. How can we how can we complement or enhance that um with our project? Um it's also uh based on the sizing something that fits within our box to have that on-site manager. Um so one of the things that we we looked into when we were first doing this was okay what are the unit faces? What are the types? Um how many units can we get there and still have parking? So it's not a traffic issue. Um how how do we approach that? And once we figure out some of those pieces, we we got this under contract and then we started the due diligence process. Again, this is all back in 2022. We got a phase one report and a phase 2 report on the environmental uh which included boring, soil borings, groundwater testing. We went even further and got a geotechnical analysis which gives us a full understanding of what the soils are underneath and uh any challenges we

might have. So we went through all of that. Um and then we worked on trying to get the pricing correct uh getting the financing correct and in 2022 we we sort of ran into a block which was a bit of an overhang from COVID that construction pricing was very volatile at that time. Right? We saw 20% increases year-over-year in construction pricing which kind of threw things off uh what we could make work and we didn't want to go through the the process of trying to entitle it when we ultimately didn't know that we could build the building of the character and quality that you know we didn't want to present that to you and then have to uh remove all those features because we couldn't make it work from a pricing standpoint. So, so we backed away from that. We fell out of contracts for two more years. I think that there were a variety of suitors on the site. Um, you know, our furniture stores or car dealers, you know, there's been a variety of people who've kind of been interested and I think, you know, collectively, um, enough folks are that doesn't really fit where we wanted to go, nor does it address the housing need. Um, so we sharpened our pencils. Uh, construction pricing sort of settled down. we got a little bit more um into the weeds of finding alternative sources. So, we've looked at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to fill some gaps. We've talked through uh the potential for taxing incremental financing, number of these items to say, "All right, ultimately we want to do a project of a certain quality and size. We know what what the environmental issues are there. We've got to work through the DNR process. We we will do that." And we're seeing we've we've done that in pretty much a lot of our sites. uh just the nature of doing infill development. So we know what we're getting into [clears throat] with that. Now we have a plan um to build sort of the quality and character that we feel like is in line and we can come back to the table. So

that's when we re-engaged uh with city staff about a year ago, maybe a little bit more at this point. Um and started again sharpen our pencils and come up with a plan that we feel like actually achieves all those goals and is feasible. um given that you know other projects you do by the highway just build more units if the numbers don't work here you know there's a size and a mass that makes sense um for the downtown and so we try to follow up that so within that then we really turn our attention to the design to make sure that it it can make sense and that's where our architectural team really came in with their knowledge about working in historic downtowns um to present something we feel like is the right mix of materialities and a facade and again achieve the character from our resident standpoint um from the community standpoint that fits in well. So that's that's really it's it's been a long process to get here but we wouldn't be here if we didn't have strong faith um in that we can deliver this project and it's and it's something we feel like our track record really supports. So with that I'm going to turn it over to our our colleagues at Amy Young who will go through the design background. All right. Maybe before I start, is is this the presentation from last week? I want to go to the next slide. I haven't done it right.

I believe it is. Yes. Great. Um, so I'm going to walk through you can Could you introduce yourself? [laughter] Yep. Sorry. If you go to the site plan, I'm going to start there. Um, and just sort of walk you through the site. So this project overall is 100 units. Yeah. Is it not working? We just need to know who you are. [laughter] Thanks.

All right. So um this project is um overall is 100 units. It is a four-story building with underground parking. Um, and as we look at the site, one of the most important things that we looked at when we kind of framed how we're going to um, set this building on the site was really to make majority of the focus of the building out onto Lake Street. That continues that um, downtown feel that fronts the park. It's great for the residents, the community, but also keeps that sound rhythm that the uh, historic downtowns have. Um, a couple more words to that tool again. Um, so the former century site, which we all know it currently has vehicle access from both sides on lake and water. Part of our site planning efforts, again, we're going to push the building out to Lake Street um and provide the vehicle access on the water street side of the building. Couple more, please. Couple more. Go all the way to the site plan. One more. Perfect. So again, north north is up. So building fronts on Lake Street. Um we've added 23 stalls along Lake Street into the angle parking which you see kind of throughout that downtown area on Lake Street. On the far northwest corner of the site, we have commercial space. So roughly room for two tenants. It's a little over 5,000 ft. Uh closer to 6,000. Um, as you move to the east of the building, we have our fitness center and our main uh resident lobby. And as you progress down away from downtown, we turn into walk up residential units where they have, you know, actually a front door to their units. They have a a front porch at Greenville. And as we walk around, that continues around the back of the building. On the south side of the building, again, we wanted to hide all that service parking to the south side so that it's not out on Lake Street. So

again, bring the vehicles to the south side of the site, hide the parking from view from the downtown area. Um, and that's where we have our our entrance to our underground parking also on the uh southwest entrance and then down the lower level. Um, so parking provided as a whole is um consistent with other developments that that we've done, but also that HUD's provided um to meet the total demand for the for the development. So that's a mixture of underground on surface and then we have the additional street parking that we created. Um and then there's also a secondary um entrance into the resident the resident lobby from the backside building too. So you can enter that lobby from both sides. So guests come and park in the parking lot and they can enter that. All right. If you want to go to the images, I kind of want to walk through the design. There's a few things that I want to talk about. Um, and this image is perfect to start with. Um, so when we do these buildings and do a historic downtown, um, our number one goal is always to respect the downtown character. Um, but also we don't want to pretend to be historic because we're not a historic building. We weren't built in the early 1900s. So downtown buildings, they're authentic to their time, and new buildings should really be authentic to to our time or today's time. Um, and as we looked at the downtown fabric, you know, two and three story buildings primarily around the park. Um, there's a lot of like great craftsmanship and historic value um that you see in the masonry and the windows. Um, so we looked at window proportions and facade rhythms uh and the scale of the surrounding buildings and that really is what we used to inform this this new build. Um, one thing to mention is there's a lot of times this perception in architecture that of a building next to a historic building, we want to make it look like an historic building. So, I

wanted to talk about that just a little bit because if we replicate a historic building, it can tend to feel artificial or like we're trying to recreate something that wasn't built in that era. So, it can kind of feel like um like a stage setting, you know, versus like a real part of the of the downtown. So each you know in general in architecture each era should contribute and represent its own era in architecture. You see that you know the old buildings were uh designed and built in an era and 20 years later a building that was designed and built didn't look like the building from 1910 looked like built in 1938. And that's it's something that even the historical study um acknowledges and um actually doesn't allow you to do that. They really want everything to be its own era and its own time. So that was really important to us as we started this. And so what what you see in our design approach is a lot of um responding to the downtown fabric. Um so the brick color detail, we've got some traditional uh brick detailing in the the rollock, the size of the brick, some of the brick banding, um window sizes and scale. We got divided by windows. Um, the proportions of old downtowns typically have a first floor pedestrian scale portion that has canopies or some sort of separation that makes the really kind of feel nice when you're walking by it. Um, and then as sort of a general composition, you'll see we have kind of this rhythm of smaller sort of sections of masonry or material changes. And that's really intended to reflect the rhythms that you see in downtown where you get the building right next door looks very different than the 25 foot wide building next to it. But it still carries some of the similar sizes and scales and proportions that's um and then I do want to address the height. So this is a four-story building. It is the only four-story

building um in that sort of L-shaped of downtown. And we recognize that. And one of the approaches with this, and we we do this quite often when we're in these uh these types of scenarios, is we take the fourth floor and we set it back um a relatively significant distance. Um and what happens is like from this view, you can see the fourth floor material. We try to keep it more neutral and sort of make it go away, if you will, or blend blend in with the background. But when you're walking on the street, you will not be able to see the fourth floor, right? You're looking at a three-story building. So it starts to feel from a pedestrian scale like the rest of the downtown. Um and again kind of keeps that street edge more human scale even though you have a larger building. So that that's kind of the overview. Um again the idea was to respect the past but also be honest about what we're doing. Um, and so you'll see a mixture of uh cementitious panel, uh, metal, aluminum storefronts, and a pretty significant amount of of masonry as well. Um, so if you want to flip through these images, what we're going to do is just kind of walk around the building. So, right now, we're looking at the northwest corner. So, this will be facing to the west. So, again, kind of seeing that facade rhythm as it goes down the building. As you get past the uh commercial and the resident entry, then you get to the uh the resident units. So those uh sidewalks up or the entrances off the sidewalks are to residents homes and those continue as you rotate around the to the east side of the building. Oh, sorry. This is back to the park. You can keep going. I got a walk to go. So this would be the east facade again. So you're seeing the resident balconies on second, third, and fourth. And then

you're you're having the on the fourth or on the first floor you have the walk up resident units. And then the next images kind of just continue to um clockwise rotation around the building. So this is the southeast corner. You can see the grade starting to drop. That also helped inform kind of how we get underneath the building. And then the next image is looking at the um sort of the back side of the building. Again, we have a secondary entrance and then you're seeing kind of our ramp down into the lowle parking and our service parking lot. And then if you want to go one more, I can kind of just quickly walk through the floor plans. Um so this is looking at from the city parking lot facing to the east. So you can you see the drop going underneath and then the commercial space on the left side of English. So I'll real quick go through this. This is our lower level parking. So there's 84 total parking stalls in the in the underground. Um other uses you just have essential utility bike bike bike storage things like that. Um then going up to the first floor you'll see on the uh next slide please. West side you're seeing the commercial spaces. Again as you move to the east you got our fitness center. The next space has resident lobby lounge leasing office parcel mail things like that. And then as you continue to the east and then down to the south is all the resident units. Um, and then as you build up, you'll see just the rest of the building. That is is the rest of the res. Yeah. So, we go to the top floor one more. Perfect. So, on the northwest corner, you'll see that's our community room. So, that does have an outdoor patio that will have a great interaction with the street and views of the park.

um that's meant to be a rental room, kids birthday parties, um general sort of hangout lounge for residents. Great place for residents kind of meet and interact and um there'll be a series of games and different things in that room. Then the rest of the floor again is is resin units. You can see the along the Lake Street facade, the uh units actually change on the upper floors because the buildings step back and then they all have private terraces that overlook late street in the park. So, that pretty much wraps it up. Um, uh, we're here for questions. Brandon, our project architect, is also here to answer questions specific. Happy to answer you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Davis. Are there questions from council members at this time? I did have 11. I do have a question about um I was interested in the let's see my question the size of the square footage of some of the the unit sizes being on a smaller end 525 square feet and I'm just curious what market that is that is attracting for the very small the studio units because that isn't something that we've had a lot of here

actually I mean that size of studio units is a very very common size in most new residential buildings today. Um it it tends to play towards um either a single person or a couple. Um and it really helps enter a price point. Um the unit's a little smaller, but it gives you a price point entry um that you you know that you can go into. We have that size in most of our buildings we build. Um, they tend to be some of the first units that get rented. Um, especially in a nicer building

because it's smaller unit, but it's more affordable and they can get into, you know, nice new building. And and the spaces are when you think of it, they're not as small as you might have in your head. Actually, they're they're actually pretty good size. Um, especially if you're a single person. Um, they feel they feel very comfortable. Um, and it's time tested with multiple markets in multiple different places. So that's really changed over the years. That's a very common Thank you. But I'm only familiar with them on college campuses actually. So I was just curious how they fit in a city business a city environment. Yeah. Sorry. No.

Um when you when you think of college campuses, those are more dormatory style. These are not like these are not like college dorm room whatsoever. Um they're fully functional, full kitchen. Um they they have a bedroom although it's interior so you don't really get called a onebedroom. Um that's why it's called studio. Um so you actually do have an enclosed bedroom typically. It's not just an always an open floor plan. So yeah very very very tested product and people really like it. Great. Thank you.

Um I had another question. Well, I know um the the reason that we're um considering this amendment is that you're requesting a plan development district. And so there's a couple of exceptions that you're asking for from our current um zoning code. One of them is the unit size. So you've you've kind of explained that. Another one is the um overall building height. And I wasn't clear and maybe one of the images will show this. Where is that high point in the building? And I think it was is it 45 is the maximum that you have. I just wanted to see if you could point out for us visually where that high point is and if that's you know a considerable part of the roof line or if it's just one feature. Yeah. You want to go

That's a great question. You want to go back to the renderings? We can take a quick peek at that or even the uh 2D 2D elevations might be a better view a little bit more towards the back. You go to the fourth floor. Is that where would be the best? Oh, no. There was a roof plan, wasn't there, in the Yeah. Yeah. We wanted to show you where that parapit is. For the most part, it's on that northwest corner, the commercial side. That's a little bit taller. So, one more slide. I think I think that's the roof. Slides. I think it's roof plan. Oh, here. [laughter]

Yeah. So you can see on the far right there, that's that uh northwest corner and then that matches on the uh northeast corner as well. And those two parapits kind of framing the corners there are a little bit higher. And do you remember the the maximum height there is? We were 49.

49. Okay. Thank you. Um one other question I had and and I I don't believe this requires an exception. And Dustin, correct me if I'm wrong, but um I'm wondering if you could explain how you landed on 100 units and you know, because we do have some residents. I think you you addressed very well why you're going with the four stories, but I have heard from some constituents, why does it need to be, you know, four stories? Why does it need to be 100 units? I wonder if you could just talk about that a little bit for us to understand.

Yeah, it's kind of a combination. So number one um to make it work economically a circumstance and you know there's no magic to exactly 100 but that's kind of where it landed. Um but you know we do look at there's a couple things we look at. We do market studies. We look at demand. How many units are needed? Um Lake Mills Jefferson. We did have third party market studies done that helps inform the size. Two um to make it a um to have the amenities and you know the things in the building. Um getting it to a certain size allows us to do um you know do more of the amenities in the building um which makes it we think a better project and the residents enjoy that and we we know that from you know our experience in our other buildings. Also um 100 100 plus or minus units is usually financially where you can justify having on-site management versus not.

Um and so that that kind of is a mark that you know works economically. Um, and we think it's from our perspective very important to have on-site management if for safety, security, customer service, and being part of the community. Um, you know, that's usually where that kind of lands. And so, doing a smaller project would take some of those things away. You wouldn't be able to have, you know, somebody on site every day. You wouldn't be able to have your maintenance person on site every day. It just doesn't, you know, wouldn't work. Um, so it's combination of market demand and then what we also know works well and what works well for the residents. Um, and so that's kind of how we kind of came into that number. And then of course the site has constraints and you can only be so big on the site. So we have to park it. Um, we have to make sure the parking will work. Um, and that kind of all coaleses around the plan that we came up with that that need.

Great. Thank you. Any other questions for the HUD representatives this evening or any questions for staff? Actually, I do have a question. Michelle, go ahead. Michelle, I'm looking at your portfolio on your on Huy Properties and I'm just curious about why Wedi went with that style versus something like what the lamp house apartments are.

Um, so I guess a couple things I would just note because I attended that project as well. [laughter] So that one is definitely in downtown although it is different in the sense that highway 19 is a very very very heavy and thorough 319. So we do have to look at those a little bit differently. Um there's actually an incredible amount of similarities in terms of like if you look step back from look at rhythms and brick detailing. Um, one of the approaches there that is different from here is we took uh sort of a reflection of Quanaki's industrial nature in the building design. So that's why you see some of those really large divided light windows and that's meant to reflect some of that kind of where some of that town grew up a little bit. Um, but otherwise there are a lot of similarities in both buildings. Um, is there some specific that you're seeing that maybe I can address directly? Yep.

The other thing in Wan Key that's hard to see when you just look at on the website is it's also framing on the other side of the road was a historic building with certain characteristics, certain look to it. This that building that you're looking at on the other side of the street and so it's kind of also mirroring, you know, some of that aspects from across the street. So the two buildings work well together. So that also informs materials really well. Um, and you know, that was also part of the thought process in the architecture. So, um, actually you can see the village crossing on our website. That's that's across the street. So, you kind of see some of that.

One of the things I like about the lamp house is the extra piece on top of because that is symbolic throughout downtown Lake Mills. that just like it it's a minor thing, but it's just enough of an accent that it's not necessarily making it look like it's trying to be old, but it's keeping to some of the similarities of those buildings. And I just wondered if that was something worth considering.

Um, we can always consider that. We did, um, you know, we did, uh, try to go through kind of the comment session. We took a lot of feedback from plan commission. We incorporated that into our device plans. Um, so we're always willing to make a suggestion. Yeah, we try to try to get a lot of that on the front end and make adjustments, but it's something. Sure.

I would note if you go back and look at the the attachment under the concept review of plan commission versus then what was included uh at the public hearing. There were changes based on feedback from the plan commission that they incorporated into their design. Um, one thing I would note like the lamp house apartments kind of has some of the entrances. there's that overhang that you can kind of see at the street level. And one of the things that the HUD team did is um the plan commission wanted more kind of open flat entrances with awnings, you know, similar to other downtown buildings. And so that's kind of where you saw where you see some of those deviations as well as coloring and and window um changes as well. So, some of the architectural um incorporations were a direct result of plan commission feedback during that concept review stage.

I'm not saying that it needs to look exactly like Lamp House, but one of the pieces that I appreciated was that just extra piece on top of the buildings that looks like it was like many of the other buildings that we have downtown. It's not just a flat square, you know, end to a to the top. Does that make does that make sense? Yeah. And I actually want I want to point something out there because one of the things we've helped a couple of smaller communities develop for downtown design standards. And one of the most important things with relating to historic architecture is that you can see this across every building has a base a middle that's usually two stories

and has some sort of treatment at the top or a cap. Right? So I'm going to walk up here. [laughter] Um, so like if you look at this corner very intentionally a base, a middle, and then we have brick treatment and a top. And if you look as this goes down, they all have that very similar thing. So sometimes they don't show up the best in the imagery, but there is, you know, this one's got roll lock bricks. This one has a flat panel with some sort of cornness detailing. Um, this one has a similar has a band and then the top cap. So, okay,

those are there although different than lamp house for sure because it's a different design style and a different intent but that idea of how we sort of um again kind of respect the traditional architectural proportions that we definitely are doing in this building. Okay, thank you for explaining that.

Any other questions? Um I just have a process question for Drake and and I think you explained this earlier and I just want to make sure that we all understand. So um the ordinance that we have is a zoning amendment. It describes an amendment from downtown business to downtown business with a plan development overlay. Um the the the zoning amendment document itself doesn't mention the general development plan precise implementation plan. And I think this came up in a a previous development 6 months ago. So were you saying earlier that if we approve the zoning amendment, we are um approving the general development plan and precise implementation plan at the same time.

Yeah, they overlap. So um you the bural code you you can't approve the PDD overlay if it doesn't have the components listed as necessary to the PDD overlay. So there will be an approval. um it's approved as a package. So the the ordinance change, the general development plan, the precise implementation plan, and then uh also a development agreement. And so we'll see those at the time of the will we see those at the time of the third reading. Then the other the other pieces, correct?

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Thank you. I appreciate the uh representatives uh giving us an overview in our community. Lots of people watch these so uh people are aware of what you're proposing and um so thank you. So we will uh this will get carried forward to a second reading at our next meeting then. All right. Thank you. Um so we'll move on then to ordinance 1289. Uh and that's the first reading of that ordinance as well. So Misty, would you read that one for us? Ordinance number 1289, repealing and replacing ordinance number 665B as amended by ordinance number 1054 and is chapter 594, trees, vegetation, and urban forestry.

Thank you. So, I note uh Greg Waters is the sponsor of this and he's not here tonight. Drake, are you able to give us just maybe kind of a summary of um what he's putting forward?

I will do my best. Um the the impetus for this um uh ordinance change uh the ripple and recreations comes from the ad hoc committee on urban forest uh management that the uh council created and then um after the and then sunset it after they completed their deliverables. Um the major change obviously there's a title change um it's no longer just trees but uh incorporates um shrubs and plantings. Um and then the the major change throughout the document, although there are there are several throughout it, is the uh creation of a heritage tree program. Um the um some of the changes made from the uh that Mr. Mr. Waters included in his um uh sponsored ordinance. Uh there is no more mention of any private trees uh to be incorporated into the program. So it does focus on public trees only. the process for um uh categorizing a tree as a heritage tree. Um the criteria by which trees are um evaluated against um the role of the forester and the role of the the the boards um within the city um kind of approval structure. Um there is um some uh the there's some changes to the um I guess creation of the master street tree plan um with a review by um I'm sorry I'm blanking on which on the which board um there there the

master tree the master street tree plan public works

uh is public works board so in coordination with the public works board for the master street tree plan um that does that was uh different than the originally it was the parks board. Uh Mr. Waters acknowledged that street trees are generally um part of street projects and then so he incorporated into a into a uh public works board um um authority rather than the the parks board. Um that's a very broad overview. I'm sure Mr. waters would do a better job of of explaining. Um but um as you read through it, it there are significant changes to the existing ordinance. Um the main one being the uh the heritage um tree program creation. There are different changes I think uh if I remember correctly as far as notice to property owners when a tree is up for removal um and and other kind of um operational changes I guess you might be able to to say um throughout it. So, um there were sign enough changes that a repeal and recreation rather than an amendment um was the cleanest route um to present to the city council. [snorts]

Well, thank you. So, this is our first reading tonight. Are there any questions from council members this evening? Um one question as it relates to the uh recent kind of restructure that we've gone through with the new hires. Do we still have a facilities and grounds director or is that title changed? Uh the resolution appointing the public works director did designate the public works director to have all the powers and duties of the grounds and facilities director. So we did foresee that as as being kind of a hiccup, but rather than going through our entire code and amending it that way, uh the public works director has those authorities um as listed in the code.

Cool. Thank you. Um, I don't know if you'll have this information tonight, but um, when the tree committee first um, gave the recommendation regarding the heritage tree program, I know there was a couple, that was more than a year ago, there a couple council members, including myself, that expressed concern about whether we have the capacity to um, manage that program within our existing staff. Do you have any information about that or is that something that we could get a little bit more information about um before the third reading? What you know sort of hours and and staff level requirements to implement that program?

Um I think we could collect some information for you. Obviously, it's Brian's second day here, so I haven't sat down with him too much on it, but

he doesn't have an answer for that yet. [laughter] I think that um there you know there are there was um there there are things that we could I could we could sit down and discuss and then include the arborist as well. Um obviously the the process for approving um a heritage tree, the maintenance of the heritage tree list. Um there is an option for the the placement of identifying signage or or something um near a tree. Uh it does say may so it's not compulsory. Um so that that was an acknowledgement by the by the ad hoc committee that there are um capacity restraints. Um so um but yes I can sit down with our new public works director as well as the arborist and um kind of evaluate what uh impact this would have on their um capacity within their job duties.

Thank you. And I guess kind of a related question I have since you know we have um I'm sure Brian hasn't had a chance to take a look at this but have um since Mr. Waters has made some changes. Have staff had a chance to review this and give any feedback or give any input to Mr. Waters? Uh, I did sit down with Mr. Waters uh what prior to him kind of uh um crafting his his changes to it. Um the city attorney did review it and made um recommendations um that are included in here um for it. So um there has been um a a review of the language as it's written.

Okay. Thank you. I'm particularly interested in our arborist's perspective on it. Um so that'll be something I'll probably ask about in a future meeting.

One other as as it's all coming back to me. Um there is kind of um 594-5 um perhaps of interest to the council. Um the genus um uh kind of sets the at 20% except for oak trees which it sets at a 30% goal. Um and then the species is at 10% of population or 15% um for oak trees within the urban forest. Um that did the the the committee did hear from various experts. uh they heard from um the uh forester in the village of Cambridge um and the the increase in the oak tree percentage was something that was was seen as as beneficial and um acceptable towards the urban forest. So that's why you see kind of that that change. Uh if you were to look at if you went online and looked at the code as it's written now, that would be a a difference in um kind of the the the uh population the forest population standards. Thank you. Any other questions or comments this evening? Okay. If not, we'll move ordinance 1289 to our next agenda for second reading. And that concludes our council business for this evening. So, we have announcements and recommendations for future agendas. We have our two um ordinances that will be moving forward. Uh any other announcements or recommendations from council members?

No. Drake, anything you want to add? Not at this time. Okay. Um then our last agenda item is that we will be convening into close session to discuss real estate acquisition and or site development opportunities within TID number eight um as described in our agenda. So I'll need a motion to convene into close session. I will move to convene it into close session. [clears throat] Second. So we have a motion by Mary Schmaker, seconded by Michelle Quen. Now, uh uh all in favor say I. I. I. I. Mr. Croos.

Okay, that's four four zero. Um so we'll now commute into close session. Um and that will be off broadcast. So uh we'll conclude the meeting um off of TV. And thank you everyone. Have a good evening.