City Council - Regular Meeting

This meeting of the Eau Claire City Council will come to order. Please stand 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.

All right. Thank you, City Clerk. And welcome, everyone, to the Tuesday, September 8th meeting of the Eau Claire City Council. We kind of have a combined meeting today where we have three public hearings first, and then we'll have three public discussions. We'll go into our public comment period, and then we'll go into our legislative session where the council will discuss and vote on items, followed then by a closed session. So we're kind of packing a lot in here. So I appreciate everybody being in this space tonight. So we'll start with the public hearings on the agenda here. But just so you

So and just kind of a note, I know a lot of folks are here for the welcoming week proclamation. So that's actually going to be a little bit later on our agenda after the public comment period for the agenda items that we're going to discuss. But great to have you here. So we'll go into our public hearings. Agenda item number one is public hearing on an ordinance to amend the comprehensive plan for properties Oh, Council Member Miller.

On point of order, Council President. I'm just curious, because these public comments and session probably going for a while. People are here for, it's a proclamation that's. OK. I was wondering if it's permissible, Deputy City Attorney, to move the consent agenda. That way we can do a proclamation in order to facilitate that portion of the meeting tonight.

OK, I think that we can plan on doing that. So we'll just go through the first three public hearings. Thank you, Council Member Miller. Council Member Werthmann? That was what I was going to ask. OK, thank you. So agenda item number one is public hearing on an ordinance to amend the comprehensive plan for properties from industrial land use to low density housing, medium and high density housing located at 2209 County Line Road. And we have our community development director, Aaron White, to present on this item. Welcome.

Thank you, Director Wood. We have a question from Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, Council President Gragert, and thank you, Director White, for this presentation. I have a question. This is one of the first large developments coming forward since some of our more substantial changes in our zoning code rewrite. I'm wondering overall if staff have any feedback about the process going back and forth with the developer on this plan, and in particular, I'm interested to know about the tree preservation ordinance. Just looking for any insights you might have.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Director White, for the presentation. So the item before us right now is just the comprehensive plan and the adjustment and then also the rezoning. Also provided was this master plan, which is a very nice-looking layout. It's got a little bit of everything, mixed-use development, single-family homes, communities, facilities. So... is what's moving first will only be the phase one, which is the portion there on the west, which is a little less diverse than the rest of it. I'm just kind of curious when they put the master plan in this portion of the packe

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Director White. My question is so I won't be looking at you. I'll look at my screen here. Before approving this rezoning, could you explain to me and anybody in the arena here and the listening, The total number of houses and the price range of the homes, the projected traffic impact on the county line road, where the existing utility public service have enough capacity, and what improvement the developer know the existing taxpayers will be responsible for funding.

Thank you, Council President. So who has jurisdiction over County Line Road? Is it a mix of Eau Claire and Township?

OK, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Orth.

Thank you, Council President. Director White, if we could go back to the master plan. I just have a question with the development summary box. It was too small for me to be able to tell at all what any of that says. Could you just kind of review the key down at the bottom? Sure. Billy, could you try to blow that up a little bit?

And we will have time before we vote on this for more questions during our business agenda, too, so we can probably move along to the public hearing, I think, here. So thank you, Director White. Thank you. So yeah, we'll move now to open this both. We'll just open agenda item number one for public hearing for now. So... Did anyone sign up in the back? OK. And then for agenda item number two, I can read that one as well, just so folks are aware. Agenda item number two is public. Or maybe I'll just ask, is there anyone in the gallery that would like to speak to agenda item number one? Because we

Thank you, Mr. Bohan. Any questions from the council? Thank you, Mr. Mboga, please.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, President. Is there affordable housing in this project?

So my question is for transparency. How much one unit would go for? Or like you said, one house, how much would that cost?

All right, well thank you for joining us tonight. Yeah, thank you. Anyone else from the gallery would like to speak to agenda item number two for the public hearing? Okay, so we'll move on to agenda item number three, public hearing on an ordinance to rezone property from LIP to CC on Music Road. And Director White is here to present, thank you.

All right, looks like we have a question from Council Member Werthmann.

Thank you, Council President Gragert. Director White, one of the things that makes these kinds of rezones tricky is what will go in this space in coming months and years. And I say that with an eye toward things like lighting and what sort of lighting might be present, the height of a potential use, things like that can affect property values for nearby. So how do we put those kinds of things into context without knowing fully what this is going to be? Or maybe we do know what this is going to be at this stage.

And I raise that because we already do get, you know, some calls from neighbors about current impacts of this site. And I want to be mindful of what may happen here so that we don't cause further impact on residences nearby.

All right, thank you. And we'll be able to go into more questions during the business agenda for this as well. So I think we can move to the hearing. I appreciate the presentation. So did anyone sign up in the back to speak? They did not. OK, thank you so much. All right, anyone from the gallery like to speak to agenda item number three about the rezoning? All right, welcome.

Okay, thank you. It sounds like there's a question from Council Member Brewster.

Thank you, Council President. So one of the things that's interesting about the broader site there is there's a lot of parking that doesn't get used super steadily, like when there's events there and things like that. And I'm wondering if there's a way to utilize some of that for what might be here instead of, I mean, I guess maybe this is more a question for planning. at the city, but is that something that we could cross-pollinate the parking with that?

All right, thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Bohan?

All right, thanks for coming up. Thank you.

Okay, so we're going to reorder. Oh, Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Well, I was going to move that we now take up the consent agenda, that being items 7 through 18 and the proclamation ahead of item number 4 in the agenda.

Thank you, Council Member Miller. Miller, any?

Second from Vice President Schoen. I'm not sure if we, I guess city clerk, please call the roll on the reordering of the agenda.

All right. And that passes unanimously. So we will move to the consent agenda as part of our legislative items. And then we'll go back. later to our public discussion. So just so folks have a little background on this, that's agenda items number seven through eight. So if your agenda item is one of those and it passes as part of the overall, it'll basically just be on one vote, then you're welcome to leave the meeting, but you're also welcome to stay. Do council members have any questions about the consent agenda or wish to remove any item for separate consideration? All right. Then on a motio

Aye. All right, and that passes unanimously. So now we will go to our proclamation for this afternoon. So I will ask Ginny Close and Yua Vang to come up and accept the proclamation for welcoming week. And I know we have a lot of other folks here in support of that. I think if Ginny and Yua could come up, that would be great.

So whereas at the heart of a successful community are its people who have a sense of belonging and feel welcome to freely be themselves. And whereas new residents are a vital part of our growth, bring fresh perspectives and new ideas, starting businesses and contributing to the vibrant diversity that we all value. And whereas By working together, we can achieve greater prosperity, making our community a place where people from around the world feel valued and welcome to put down roots. And whereas regardless of where we are born or what we look like, we are neighbors, united in our efforts to

I know there's a lot of people in this community who do extraordinary things to

to minority groups, the new people who have arrived in town. I want to tell you a story about Gene. And I know you don't want to be in this portrait, Gene. So me and Gene, we were talking and then we were somewhere. This is what I knew about Gene. He has a heart of the servant. She gave this new rifle to America, her own car, so they can go shopping, which most Americans ask, we cannot do that. She trusts them. So there's all kinds of people I can see later, I can see Joyce and Dave, what do you guys do to the community? On behalf of the city council, you guys, we cannot thank you enough. Keep

Thank you. And I just want to, you know, recognize that there's a lot of events this week, obviously for welcoming week coming up and like the kind of the marquee event I know is on, on Saturday or Sunday, September 13th. And that's the Chippewa Valley Multicultural Festival. And I think it's from 1130 to 430 at Phoenix park. So, so certainly welcome everybody to come down there. And I did want to acknowledge on this day too, that, you know, we have, a new sign that some of you maybe haven't seen in the council chamber. And that's kind of a legacy of our former council president, Emily Berge.

Thank you. Any questions from the council? We have one from Council Member Orth.

Thank you, President Greger. Chief Deputy Thomas. Yes. Hello. Perhaps, I mean, I did not read through all of the certifications and assurances that were in the packet and perhaps it said there, but I was wondering if this is a grant that we get routinely or just how often and what our experience is with it.

Any other questions? All right. Well, thanks for your presentation and your work on the grant. Thank you. OK. So we want to open it up for our public discussion. And I don't have anyone who's signed up for agenda item number four, but would anyone in the gallery like to speak to this agenda item? OK. Thank you. We'll move on to agenda item number five, public discussion on resolutions granting excess land of parcels 221-04-0367 on Park Ridge Drive, 211-60477 on Lawrence Street, and 221-60368 at East Riverview Drive. And we have our community development project coordinator, Billy Hufford, to p

All right, thank you, Coordinator Hufford. Council Member Werthmann has a question.

Thanks, yeah. If I could just follow up on this map so I'm understanding this. So help me understand what the F6453F2, what are those future wells?

Are those future well sites, or what do those represent?

Could I ask a question back to the other map, which is, those future well sites, those might just be like, possible sites, but they look awfully close to where a potential residential could go under this excess land if we go down that road. How far away are those potential locations from where a residential could go?

No, 50 feet from the excess land proposed, excess land site?

Thank you, Council President Gragert. I have a question for Project Manager Hufford on a different, the Park Ridge property. So we do have in our packet, and I think we had it last time, but I just didn't know if there was any follow-up an email from Cheryl Leonard talking about that particular property and saying that there was a person whose family donated that land to the city and that this proposed part is part of what their family had donated and he mentioned that it was, well, he said possibly swamp and I know you addressed that, but that perhaps wouldn't be acceptable, but he said he wo

Thank you. I was just wondering if there was any update to that. Thank you.

Thank you, President Greger. And I'll try and, I have a lot of questions actually, but I know we have the public discussion to get to and we'll have an opportunity later to ask more questions, but... On the Lawrence Drive and Riverview Drive properties, excuse me, Lawrence Street and Riverview Drive properties, could you share like total number of possible units and then also I've heard a lot of questions about whether utilities are currently already subbed in for potential future development or not and just give us an understanding generally of what potential future development would look lik

Thank you. Any other questions from the council before we move to the public discussion? OK. Thank you. All right. So I do have two people that have signed up on the sign up sheet. And then we can move to people that maybe didn't get a chance to sign up that would still like to speak. And the first person I have on our list is Mary McManus. Welcome.

Mr. Dunn, you're out of time. If you could wrap it up, please.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Mr. Dunn, for presenting that. So I have some questions. I don't know your expertise. You presented some maps here. If you want to pull up that very red map, if you could put that back on the screen. So The proposal here is to have lots that are contiguous with existing lots. Like you have, you know, on the inside of the wells, you have some houses, then there's blank area where there's more houses to go, and then around the edge. So, you know, the proposal isn't for the middle. It's for around the edge where existing homes are. But in your map here, th

Thank you, Council President Greger, and thank you, Mr. Dunn, for the information you've presented. I'm very familiar with the Web Soil Survey tool, and I appreciate that you brought these maps forward. I'm curious, I actually, as you were talking, I pulled up the Web Soil Survey to take a look at the property, and I'm wondering if you could share with us what the suitabilities and limitations filter feature you used to assess this. I wanted to take a look at the key and make sure I was understanding what this reflects.

I'm just wondering what, so on the web soil survey, for example, I pulled up building site development and I looked up suitability for dwellings with basements. And I'm seeing a very different result than what this is showing. So I was just curious what suitability feature you were assessing the site for that we're looking at on your map.

Okay, thank you. That helps answer my question. I appreciate the map.

Thank you. I don't believe there are any other questions. Thanks so much for speaking tonight.

No, I appreciate it, John. OK. So we don't have anyone else on the list, but would anyone else from the gallery like to speak to this agenda item? This is agenda item number five on the excess land topic. OK. Well, we'll move on to agenda item number six, public discussion on an ordinance amending chapter 10.09 entitled Motor Scooters of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Eau Claire to update electric scooter regulations. And we have our deputy city attorney, Janessa Stromberger, to present on this item. Thank you.

Thank you. We have a question from Council Member Brewster.

Thank you, Council President. So by removing motor, that doesn't like accidentally, or like turning motor to electric, that doesn't like accidentally let motor scooters be there.

Follow up? So, like, would it not be suitable to just have motorized recreational vehicles of any kind? Like, just because, I mean, an electric scooter still has a motor. It's just an electric one. So wouldn't that be covered already?

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brewster. Council Member Amboga?

Thank you, Council Chair. I think my question was related to Council Brewster. My question, I have to, one is why are e-scooters permitted on trails? Thank you. Where electrical scooters are permitted on the trails while offload cycle are prohibited? How would the officers distinguish between them?

Thank you, thank you. So the last one is, which trail or location will be prohibited? Will it prohibit scooters, and will the city publish a clear map or a list?

Thank you council member Boga any other questions from the council. Yes I actually have a question just about like where this the language update has gone so far in terms of boards and committees and commissions and then also like if there's been any outreach to like neighborhood groups or business improvement districts or anything.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. So this is our last public discussion item. So I want to open it up for the public. And we have one person that has signed up to speak, and that is Deb Marshall. Thanks for joining us.

I actually do have a quick question for you. Could you email this to us as well? I can. I can. I would be happy to. So I'll send it to all of you. Any questions from the council? All right. Thanks for coming up. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, so I don't have anyone else on the sign-up list, so would anyone from the gallery like to speak to agenda item number six on the updates to the electric scooter regulations? Welcome anyone to come up from the gallery to speak on this as well if you'd like.

I'm going to close the public discussion on agenda item number six, and then we will move into our public comment period. So this will, I'll just kind of explain.

So I'll explain what the public comment period is so that folks can decide whether they want to speak. And we do have one person that has signed up already. So this is for items that have not already been covered by the agenda so far today. You could technically speak on an item that hasn't been discussed yet but is on our business agenda today or really other topics that come to mind to you. Um, so this is a, a time for those living, going to school or own property or a place of business in the city of Eau Claire to speak on issues, ideas or concerns of citywide application. You will have up

But yeah, if you could, um, yeah, just keep your comments to, to less than three minutes.

Thank you so much. And yeah, this is not a time for us to be able to ask any questions or comments, but I'm happy to follow up with you. Thanks for coming down. Thank you guys.

All right. Anyone else from the gallery like to speak during the public comment period. OK, so we'll close the public comment period. And we'll move into the rest of our business agenda, because we already covered. Oh, yeah, we'll go right into our business agenda, which starts with agenda item number 19. And some of these items we've just covered with questions and presentations. But certainly, if council members have further questions, we can provide that opportunity. But we may not need staff presentations for all of these for obvious reasons. But I'll read them in full just so people know

Aye. That passes unanimously. All right. So we'll go into agenda item number 20. resolution approving appointments and reappointments to various boards committees and commissions And we have our chair of the advisory committee on appointments councilmember Brewster to present on the site of Thank You chair.

We had a meeting and filled some spots I'm just gonna go through and read them off want to apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name and For bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee, we appointed Ben Smazzle and Derek White. For equity, diversity, and inclusion, or EDI commission, we have a reappointment of Efren Martinez and two new appointments of Haley Brown and Kelly Murray. For housing advisory board, we have one reappointment of Cicada Rogers. For the RDA, Redevelopment Authority, one new appointment of Brian Christensen. And for Waterways, Parks, and Urban Forestry, one new

Thank you, Council Member Brewster. Any questions on this agenda item? OK, so on a motion by Councilmember Miller and seconded by Councilmember Johnson, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. And that passes unanimously. OK, so the next agenda item is number 21, resolution granting excess land of parcel 221040367 on Park Ridge Drive. And we just had a presentation on this. Any questions from council about this proposed excess land? Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, Council President Gragert. I did want to ask staff about the proposed parcels along Lawrence and East Riverview about just public access to the wells and if development of those parcels would restrict, or to what extent would they restrict public access to the wells property?

No, there's. I just wanted to make sure we focused on the Park Ridge Drive. OK. OK. Thank you. Sorry. So yeah, this is just focused on the Park Ridge Drive item. So if there's any questions on that, otherwise we'll move it. So on a motion by Vice President Schoen and seconded by Council Member Mboga, this item is moved. Is there any discussion on the Park Ridge Drive excess land?

Seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. And that passes unanimously. Okay, agenda item number 22, resolution granting excess land of parcel 21160477 on Lawrence Street. And then the next one is on Riverview. So, you know, if there are any questions, we can probably talk about both, but. Sounds like Vice President Schoen has a question.

Thank you, Council President Greger. I do have a question about both this agenda item and the next. I'm wondering, staff, Coordinator Hufford, if you could speak to public access impacts with these proposals.

Can I have a follow up question? Yep. Would that look like an easement on a proposed division of parcels? Or could you explain what that might look like more formally?

Any other questions? Council Member Mboga.

Thank you, Council. Dr. Peel, can you talk about the waterways and the parks and up in the forest? No. Can you speak on that?

And my understanding is that on the plan commission, there were three no votes. Yes.

Thank you, council president. According to Hufford. So. Right now it's just declaring excess land, so this is very early in consideration for anything in the future. But maybe being on staff in the city, knowing what plan might be forthcoming. If this were to be declared excess land, what would the city anticipate housing behavior be like? Would it be single family homes to match what is there? Would it be like duplexes? Or is that a bridge not yet crossed and there's not even comments on that?

Council Member Werthmann. Thank you, Council President.

Coordinator Hufford, is it your understanding that once or if the council approves an excess land designation for this, that it can then be purchased by, like if someone were to want to purchase this, not for development of residential, they could potentially? How does that go? Do we lock in what kind of purchase happens? Or is it just open?

Can I ask a follow-up? Sure. So what is your understanding about, this is a very unique parcel of land in the sense that when you look on our comprehensive plan, or yeah, at our comp plan, most sizable green spaces within our community are either designated as park, land, or green space, greenway. this isn't kind of in either bucket but it is our wellfield area and so it does hold a certain significance in terms of thinking about we want clean water so we want to be careful how we use this space but then also there's been over however many decades a growing use of this area as recreation and i

I actually have a question about some of the discussion over the last couple of weeks that I've heard at least informally has been about conservation easements and just like the possibility of using that tool for some or all of the wells land. Could you maybe describe if that has been a conversation within the city or what kind of work has been done to explore that?

Thank you. So would we need to take this step of declaring this excess land to go to that next step that you just addressed?

Just to follow up, I didn't mean to develop it for housing. I meant for the conservation easement that we were just talking about right before.

Thank you. My question is related to the NEPO. Has there been people who are against it, and the people are for it? I'm saying that the people live around here, the neighborhoods. Are there people who are against the access of this for us to prove it, or are there people against it?

So when you are trying to, as a city staff, try to do stuff like this, do you guys consult the people who live around there?

I don't think there are any further questions. So we can move this item so we can discuss it. So on a motion by Councilmember Otto and seconded by Councilmember Reed, this item is moved. Looks like if there's any discussion, looks like we have Councilmember Otto.

Well, thank you, Council President. So, thinking that housing markets fluctuate, housing stock fluctuates, maybe it's five-year cycles, maybe ten-year cycles. The thing is, what we have here is a really large, contiguous piece of city land that is more or less natural space, green space, more or less. And once we sell off parts of it, it would be difficult to buy these parts back. So we're talking about a really long-term decision. And I understand the short-term need for additional housing stock right now, but we would be looking at long-term consequences. And for this reason, I intend to vot

Council Member Otto, Council Member Brewster?

Thank you, Chair. I've been working on this one for a while. I'm not actually opposed to the idea of putting housing on the spaces in the long run. I think we have a sensitive area that has a lot of neighbors that are very... The term I've used is ferocious. And I think moving forward in a way that has... like great care in our orders of operations, I guess makes the most sense to me. For example, if we were to come up with some sort of easement policy or whatever, or develop our own municipal natural area like the state has for Putnam Park, for example, that we could use on this space and als

Thank you, Council Member Brewster. Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, Council President Greger. I feel really conflicted about this agenda item. I would be in favor of tabling the item for additional conversation to take place. I feel, on one hand, pretty strongly about increasing public access to our green spaces and have concerns around privatization of some of the exterior portions of this really large hidden gem that I wish wasn't quite so hidden to the whole community and also I at the same time recognize that we spent a lot of time in our century code zoning update talking about infill development understanding how infill promotes denser residen

Thank you, Vice President Schoen. We'll go to Councilmember Miller next.

Thank you, Council President. Looking at the maps here and what we're talking about, and then reading the emails and some of the comments here, some people are saying large tracts of land, but the area proposed here, it's already buffeted. It's like you have a strip of Legos, and there's a piece where there's Legos, Legos, and this would be filling another Lego. Some of the emails we got were concerned about large tracts of land. Speaking of the entire wells, which is definitely not the case, it's just... A street already exists there. There's housing on both sides. We have the opportunity to,

Thank you. Council Member... I think it's me. Council Member Werthmann.

Thank you, Council President. I was also torn about this decision. I serve on Waterways Parks and Urban Forestry. One of the reasons I was torn about this is because of the fact that East Riverview Drive essentially, it seems, was stubbed in for residential use. Development in the 1980s. I think that's the right date sometime in the 80s there. This was imagined to have Residences it has since then grown a forest and as part of an overall recreational area that If you check your emails the neighborhood clearly loves and utilizes and wants to see continue I actually, I think that the council mem

Thank you, President Greger. Yeah. I've been very conflicted on this as well for quite a while now. I did walk the property yesterday and I had not been there since I was a junior, senior in high school, something like that. And of course the land has changed quite a bit. It was kind of just an open area. I don't remember being so many trees and such but I did enjoy my time there yesterday. And on the other hand, I think this kind of development opportunity could be advantageous because it has the potential to bring down the cost of home ownership for a few people. So I applaud that the city b

Thank You chair, I would like to move to postpone this item until the second meeting in March I

Okay, we have a motion to postpone until second meeting in March of 2027. Yes. Okay.

Okay, I have a second to that from Vice President Schoen. Okay, so discussion on... The postponement. Do you want to speak to that?

Yeah, I think that gives us enough time to continue to work with the neighborhood and staff and see if we can get to a point where maybe people are kind of like, mostly okay with the moving forward of the excess land declaration.

Thank you, Council Member Brewster. Vice President Schoen, do you want to speak to that as well?

I would, thank you, Council President. I would say often I find myself questioning the value of postponements, especially when there's timelines that we should be sensitive to. Access land declarations, in my personal opinion, are not one of those things. It's one of the areas where there's no, and in staff I would welcome a correction if I'm misstating something here, but it's property that the city owns and we can really set guidelines the timeline on our own terms, which is very rare for us, and so I think there's a lot of value that could be gained between now and March, and I appreciate t

Thank you, Council President. I always welcome ongoing discussion about conservation and any topic related to the city development in particular. I don't see too much difference between a postponement and a no vote because we're not, if we vote no on the main motion, we're not saying no forever. We're saying no until circumstances change, until planning changes until say a TIF district. One year. One year? Okay, one year. So no vote means a one year postponement. Thank you. I don't see much harm in this, but also not much utility either. So I'm not sure how I'll vote.

Thank you, Council President. Yeah, so definitely echoing Council Member Schoen's comments that I also don't like postponing, but this is nothing with the timetable on it. I would suggest related to this that if city staff... go forward with this, that we perhaps, if and when this is brought forward again, that we look at giving some sort of designations to protect the rest of the well fields. Like I said earlier, I'm not against developing this one because these are contiguous lots that touch existing homes, but everything else, I think it would be better served if we had some sort of protect

Thank you. I just want to I guess share some thoughts myself as well. I appreciate the motion to postpone because I think it is taking some time for me to get my mind around it and I do think that there's a lot more community engagement that could occur as well and I appreciate the fact that we've had neighbors and folks throughout the city really that have reached out and that our staff have been as responsive as they can as well just like trying to work through this. And, and, um, I do think it is a special area and it's a special place to live as well. And I think that's, that's, you know,

I mean, I can combine them. And I hope my second would be supportive of that, if it'll save a little time. But I was planning on doing them independently, hoping for the same thing. But yeah, we can do it together.

Yeah, we haven't moved 23. So I think we'll just do them individually. So this is just to postpone until the second meeting in March, the Lawrence Street excess land. And city clerk, please call the roll.

And that passes 10 to 2. Oh, sorry. 9 to 2. Sorry. 9 to 2. And then we'll move on to agenda number 23. Resolution granting excess land of parcel 22160368 at East Riverview Drive. And we will just move this item so we can discuss it. So on a motion by Council Member Serrano and seconded by Council Member Brewster, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Council Member Brewster.

Thank you, Chair. I would like to move to postpone this item until the second meeting in March 2027.

OK. Thank you. So we have a motion by Council Member Brewster, seconded by Vice President Schoen to postpone agenda item number 23 to the second meeting in March. Any discussion? I see none. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. And that passes nine to two. So both items 22 and 23 will have another six months or so to work on. So thank you. Our next section of the business agenda are ordinances for action. Agenda number 24, ordinance to amend the comprehensive plan for properties from industrial land use to low density housing, medium and high density housing, located at 2209 County Line Road, Z1765-26. And we have a presentation on this as well as the next agenda item from Director White earlier. Are there any further questions before we move into agenda item number 24? All right, so I will move this item. So on

The same thing I would say for the next one as well, as somebody who's kind of a urban design and architecture nerd, it's nice to see plans like this coming forward that really look like they will result in a very livable space and a nice space to call part of Eau Claire. I will be wholeheartedly supporting this.

Thank you, Council Member Brewster, Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Gregert. I'm also quite enthusiastic about this particular plan and really excited about the row house configuration that now our new century code is really kind of making available for us. And I think also couldn't be a very interesting model for us as we continue to think about infill, you know, just kind of thinking about how that particular configuration of housing can be useful for us as we get creative with squeezing housing into, you know, maybe other kinds of shaped possibilities. So I can't wait to see what the sunset's looking like.

All right, thank you, Council Member Serrano. Any other discussion? Oh, Council Member Serrano.

Sorry. Thank you, Council President. I forgot to say two more things. I know we're not voting on the plan itself. We're just voting on the zoning today. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. But the other thing that I am excited about is that these row houses are for sale and not rental. And, again, I think that's an important offering that we don't have – that much of here in the city of Eau Claire. So I'm, again, very excited about it.

All right. Thank you. Any other discussion on agenda item number 24 before we move to a vote? All right. Seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. All right, that passes unanimously. The next item is number 25, to rezone properties from NRP and NR. to NR, MR, and P public located at 2209 County Line Road, C-1766-26. And we had a presentation and questions about this earlier. But are there any other questions from council before we move the item? All right, then on a motion by Councilmember Miller and seconded by Councilmember Johnson, item number 25 is moved. Is there any discussion? All right, seeing no discussion, city clerk, please call the roll on item number 25.

That passes unanimously. On to agenda item number 26, ordinance to rezone property from LIP to CC located on music Road Z dash one seven six eight two six and We had a presentation earlier from director white on this item Are there any further questions councilmember I

Yeah, thank you so much, Council President. I kind of want to get, I want to figure out if I can get more clarity on what is planned for this space. And I want to share my, I want to put my cards on the table, is that this is obviously golf-related, which is great. But the difference between what golf, what that could be, is part of my concern. So if this is more oriented toward, like, putting range or something along those lines with family friendly, I would see that as one kind of thing. If it's a driving range with the sort of huge monstrosity of nets that go up, more lighting, potentially

Could I ask a follow-up? Yeah. What would be the process and how would the public or other community or elected leaders have a say going forward on this if this is approved? Will there be other check-ins on like a site plan or things like that or a chance for the public to be involved or the council? Or is this just purely administrative after this point?

So I'll just share one of my concerns, and this may not be a concern for other council members or even the public. Well, there's a few, but the driving ranges that you see when you go into other communities, and I think about the one near Madison, DeForest area. There's one in western Twin Cities. They're huge, and the whole skyline is filled with a net. And that's something that I would want there to be some discussion around. If I'm a person living nearby, I want to be a part of that discussion about whether a five story, you say it wouldn't be, but that's one of my concerns. The other part

Thank you, Council Member Werthmann. Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, President Gragert. I have similar concerns to Council Member Werthmann, but perhaps on the other end of the spectrum with traditional golf courses and application of nutrients and fertilizers to those areas. I happen to know that this part of the county is sensitive to groundwater contamination for nitrates. Actually, I was thinking like the driving ranges are a better alternative to traditional golf courses from that lens. But I'm wondering if I know that in our packet it says the current land use right now is vacant, but an aerial photos wondering one if it's farmed and then two I

We'll go to Council Member Mboga. Today I have an opportunity to go to this place called Pin Club. Do you know Pin Club?

Do you know Pin Club? It's open in the Memorial High School. There's a joint. is a small like reveal bank there is a small joint there they have the same thing like what you're saying so they have like a simulation golf people do i think is this almost the same thing this this is not intended to be simulations uh my understanding is going to be a combination of driving range and interior space Thank you. That's fine.

Thank you, Chair. If they do request any exemptions from any component of the LDO, that will go to plan commission, though, will it not?

So what are the, I guess in the commercial, in the zoning that is being proposed, is there like a height limit for fencing or buildings?

OK. All right. Well, thank you. I think those.

All the questions for now. Thank you, Director White. So on a motion by Vice President Schoen and seconded by Council Member Mboga, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Looks like we have Council Member Otto first, and then, yeah.

Yeah, thank you, Council President Reagert. So this really, as I understand, is just the first decision point out of many. And a yes vote, please correct me if I'm wrong, but a yes vote doesn't commit us to any particular development and in a way we're kind of trusting the century code which was really well developed uh thoroughly developed so i'm inclined to vote yes to this but maybe maybe this is a commitment okay i'm just trying to keep track of who's the order of speakers here uh vice president shown

Thank you, Council President. I will say, although I have the concerns I shared and asked a couple of questions related to future use of this property if this rezone was approved, I also recognize the only decision that is being asked of this council tonight is a rezone and whether that's appropriate and consistent with our expectation of development in this part of the community, and I have to say it is. I don't think this area is best suited as light industrial, so the decision before us is whether this is better suited as commercial. I am supportive of that, but I do have concerns about, in

Thank you, yes. I'll second what Council Member Schoen said. It is a rezoning matter in front of us, and I think it meets perfectly the zoning matters. And as has been said, we put so much effort into the zoning code that there's a reason why it wouldn't be coming back to us after this portion right here. And I do just have to call it out because it seems to be like one of the big concerns. But I can think of three driving ranges in this city right now that don't even have any nets at all. So just because there's going to be a driving range doesn't mean that there's going to be a five-story ne

I don't know if it's a two-story netting, a four-story. I mean, we have Director White sharing that it won't be five stories, and that gives me some hope. But we're supposed to be voting on the intended use of this land, and it's not clear to me the intended use that's about to happen. And this is our last check-in on this item. From here, it goes forward for staff approval. And my concern is, again, impact to the nearby neighbors, because I don't know exactly what we're voting on, the wildlife concern that I have, the lighting, and now I forgot about golf courses and how much water and how mu

Thank you, Council President. The century plan, the LDO, we did spend a year and a half on that one, but since it was passed, we've had numerous times where, you know, correction was made to it because every law ordinance is imperfect and there can always be gaps and holes and places that weren't thought of, weren't covered. And we are the final legislative body to make decisions. So I'm not saying one way or another. I'm just saying that the LDO is not perfect and things can get through that maybe you didn't intend. And if you don't think something should happen, then vote no. And if you thin

Thank you. Any other discussion or... Oh, Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Greger. Yeah, kind of piggybacking off of what Council Member Miller just said and what others have said, and I do see that this is just a zoning matter changing from like industrial, makes sense. If our concern really has to do with what is allowed to be built, because suddenly we're now thinking about, oh my gosh, what are all the possible Gulf-related things that we didn't think about, maybe, Regarding the LDO, it seems that there's an opportunity to propose changes also to the LDO. I think as best I understand it, that was intended to be something that could ge

Any further discussion by the council before we move to a vote on agenda item number 26 on the rezoning property from LIP to CC located on Music Road? Seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

All right, and that passes 9-2. Sorry. OK. Sorry. Thank you. So yeah, nine to two. So I'll go to the next agenda item, number 27, ordinance amending chapter 10.09 entitled Motor Scooters of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Eau Claire to update electric scooter regulations. And we discussed this earlier, but if there are any Council members that have further questions, I would certainly be welcomed. Might as well move into, oh, Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Yeah, I have a question for Deputy City Attorney Stromberger. So last year at some point we passed a speed ordinance for bicycles, and the speed limit defines, I pulled the ordinance here to be able to find it, I'll just read it and then to make sure that this is compatible with what's already existing. So on speed limits, it says the speed of any bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter, electric scooter, skateboard, electric skateboard, or any other personal transportation device. It seemed like that umbrella would cover items defined in this ordinance, so then they w

Thank you. Any other questions before we move this item? OK, so then on a motion by Councilmember Otto and seconded by Councilmember Reed, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Councilmember Brewster. Yeah, actually I don't. OK. So I, yeah, I just, I think this is a big topic actually, but I, I recognize that this is a relatively narrow, you know, focus for this ordinance change to bring it up to date with this, the state statutes, which I believe were updated like somewhat recently with the emergence of electric scooters, um, as well as rental scooters that are electric. So, so I think

I'm not sure exactly I don't think it was for the transport that you're describing from the staff Because they're just like stacking them like three or four high sometimes. So I don't know. Let's see random aside But yeah, I'm supportive of these changes. Any other discussion? All right. Seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. And that passes unanimously. Okay, so now we're into a section called ordinances for introduction. So I will read item number 28, ordinance amending title 9 and chapter 9.59 of the code of ordinances of the city of Eau Claire with respect to paid parking for special events. Do any council members wish to suspend the rules to take up this item tonight? We have council member Brewster.

I would like to move to take up this item tonight. OK.

I'll second it. So motion by Council Member Brewster, seconded by Council Member Johnson to take up this ordinance for introduction number 28. It requires a two-thirds vote. And I do not believe that it allows for debate. So I think we just move into a vote. Um, so city clerk, please call the roll on, on, um, on taking up item number 28 tonight.

Aye. Okay. And that motion passes unanimously to take this up tonight. Um, or that proposal to take it up tonight. So that also means we need to move the item in order to discuss it, but maybe we should have a presentation and questions first. So do we have a presentation from Council Member Brewster? It appears we do.

I can give you a little bit of background. I wasn't able to remember exactly when it happened, but there was a question that I asked about whether or not the city manager or the parking manager would have the ability to allow for you know parking holidays for special events or anything like that and i was told that that would be possible um several other people i talked to remember that particular line of questioning and as it turns out that didn't make it into the ordinance um and so this allows um uh the fall fest fall festival that's that's coming up as well as any other events that are hap

Thank you, Council Member Brewster. Any questions from the council about this proposal? Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, Council President Greger. I'm wondering if we have information about the potential budgetary impact of supporting this ordinance amendment.

I don't, but I could defer to City Manager Solberg who might have a thought.

Thank you, Council President. Question for the movers. So I guess this is written this way for legal reasons, but my understanding of this is that Section 1 is that parking during specified hours, there will be no parking should be waived on Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. But then Section 2 says the change should not be effective upon publication and through September 16, 2026. So basically... We have one Saturday in which this is active and then it dies thereafter. Legally it had been written that way. You couldn't just say no parking September 12th. You had to say no parking forever except

Okay. Great. I guess I had a question actually about why it ends at 7pm as opposed to like at 11pm for the exemption of paid parking. Did I read that correctly?

Most of the events that would be taking advantage of that are done by then and Barstow Street will be back open by that time but I'm totally fine with altering that to 11 p.m. if the rest of the council desires so.

Okay I guess I'm just is there a plan for like how to communicate that other than just saying it's from this time. Would there be anything, any additional information, I guess? Not from me. OK. All right. So would there seem to be a reference actually about organizers of events not being aware of paid parking in the rationale perhaps in the whereas clause? Could you maybe describe that a bit more?

I don't know. I think it's definitely not so much an awareness of paid parking, but rather the inability of the city manager and or parking administrator to declare parking holidays, as was something that was originally discussed.

Oh, OK. Thank you. Council Member Miller.

Actually, I think I should wait until we move to. OK.

So I think we're probably ready to. So I'm assuming the movers are those that proposed. OK. So on a motion by Councilmember Brewster and seconded by Councilmember Johnson, this item Is moved. Is there any discussion? Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. I think my question is probably best directed for the city manager as the parking administrator is not here. If somebody tries to pay for parking during this time frame, do we have an ability in the system to turn it off and say there's no parking in the app or at the kiosks?

Okay, so we can basically turn it off from 1 to 7 that day and no one will have to pay. No one will inadvertently pay for something because it will be turned off. Correct. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you for the . I'll be open. Is that a motion? No. Like an amendment? It's just a comment.

Thank you, Council Member Moga. Vice President Schomer.

Thank you, Council President. I feel conflicted about this. I think I'm supportive, but I will say I have some concern about how this is communicated out to the organizers of this event, about if this is something we intend to do every single Fall Fest and we will repeat for other events, or if this is a one-time event. Decision by this council considering how recently paid parking went into effect And I will also just share I have a different recollection actually of that question about whether the city manager their designee would have the authority to make like parking holidays and I seem t

Thank you, Vice President. Council Member Otto.

Well, thank you, Council President Gregert. I would like to make an amendment to replace instances of 7 p.m. with 11 p.m. That's when paid parking ends.

Would the seconder consider that? Okay. So it's a friendly amendment that's been agreed to to create paid parking on Saturday, September 12th from 1 PM to 11 PM, then it'd be the whole day. So that's the new, that's basically amends the agenda item number 28 automatically. So that's what we're discussing. Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. I'll be supporting this particular ordinance here, but I do share Council Member Schoen's concerns about this being applied in many other circumstances. Mainly I have to be supporting this one because we implemented paid parking about five weeks ago, and Fall Fest will probably attract many people who have perhaps not even parked downtown yet. So this will... I'm given an opportunity to be downtown, yet see the kiosks, see the signs, become aware, but given the fact that this is going to be our first large event downtown since paid parking, I am sympathetic to tho

Council Member Otto. Thank you, Council President. I'm in support of this in part because when the city hosts big events like this, the city does invest resources into making sure these events are successful, be it extra police presence, taking effort to close roads. The staff do get involved with many changes. They do a lot, actually. So I consider waiving parking fees a part of this overall investment in making these Public events successful one concern. I do have is that You know if this passes then we'd be giving just a couple of days to say hey guess what now there's Parking free parking

No Councilmember Brewster Oh, Council Member Johns.

Yeah, obviously I'm in support of it as I seconded it. But I just want to respectfully disagree with some of the other concerns. I'm not worried about this setting a precedent. And I think that we all have our opinions on paid parking and I don't think that it was meant to capitalize on large events like this that are naturally going to draw a lot of folks to our downtown and experience our downtown. I think it's in our best interest to waive parking on a day like this to encourage folks to come down and gain more reason why they should be motivated to come back when paid parking is in effect.

am in support of this one and if it were to come forward again i'd be in support of others thank you um council member umboga thank you guys a quick note so if for those my city council members if you guys you have concern about the implication of the view like I think it would be nice for us to encourage anybody who wants to have a big event like this one. Sunday is no packing. So they will come, they will have the event on Sunday, and enjoy the time, no packing. Sunday packings, you don't pay. So we encourage people to pack, to do this event on Sunday, then on Saturday. That's what I want to

Thank you. Thoughts? I mean, I'm still trying to adjust myself to, you know, I wasn't involved in the decisions around paid parking so much because I wasn't on council yet, but I know that some of it was about the revenue, you know, because we want to be able to support our parking infrastructure and our staffing for that. My understanding is that the revenue is coming in pretty steadily already, so it's probably not going to be a make or break thing for our budget if we were to not charge for parking on one day. But I do think another major reason, which I hope is really the main reason for p

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. So now we are into our announcements and updates from the city manager and the city council. And yeah, does any council member Mboga, you want to go first?

Yeah. This Saturday, me and the council, Yeah, so they're at Fall Fest.

There's the dunk tank I'll be in there at noon and that and I'm raising money for the Northside Hill neighborhood associations efforts to to fund a bathroom at the at the north part of Mount Simon Park by the new

Playground Thank You councilmember Mboga councilmember Brewster I know everybody's already

Probably very well aware that Fall Festival is coming up this Saturday from 10 to 5, although there will be, I believe, music in the beer garden going a little bit later than that. But Barstow will be back open around 5. There's also the Party for the Parks that's going on at Lower Mount Simon. I believe that goes from noon until 7, as I recall. And that, as Jeremy... President Gregert mentioned is an effort by the Northside Hill Neighborhood Association to raise money to have a pavilion and bathrooms in Upper Mount Simon. As far as if anybody is interested in volunteering for either of those

Thank you, Council Member Brewster. A couple things I want to mention that on Saturday night at Phoenix Park, starting at 5, I believe there's going to be a night market hosted by Power Up Eau Claire, so yet another thing downtown. And I wanted to just... Make sure that folks spread the word about the community health assessment that the local hospitals and the health departments are working to get the word out about so that people can share their experience with access to health care or other issues that they face in terms of their health in our community. This is done every three years, and

Thank you, City Manager Solberg. Any other announcements, updates? Okay. Well, we have a closed session that's next and I'll read the statement about that and we will take a vote on that, and then we'll take a little bit of a break, like five minutes, so folks can get out of their room as well as just get ready for that session. So upon a motion duly made and carried, the city council may go into closed session to conduct the three-month performance check-in and establish performance objectives of the city manager, an employee over whom the city council exercises responsibility which is permit

Aye. All right, and that passes, so we will take a five-minute break. Wait!

I still haven't technically adjourned yet.