City Council - Regular Meeting

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. First thing on our agenda is to approve the agenda as presented. Does anyone have any questions or additions or changes to the agenda as presented. If not, I'll take a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Okay. I got a motion by Sean Ryan. Rick, you're going to second? Second by Rick Seiler. If there's no questions, comments, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. Next item is our consent agenda. These are items that are pretty routine in nature. Does anyone have any questions or Issues on the items that are in the consent agenda.

I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second. A second. A motion by Maggie Bass. Second by Bruce Wolf. The only question, I just want to confirm that we will be doing the elections at the new city hall. Correct. All right. Okay. So I got a motion and a second. If there's no other questions, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposition? Okay, passes 5-0. Next on the agenda is government agency updates. Dennis, if you'd like to come forward and tell us what the county is up to.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Thanks for having me again. Always a pleasure. Sorry I wasn't here last month. I was enjoying Canada fishing, which was... Should be successful, and it was, so thank you. What's going on in the county? We're on our third week of doing our budgeting. Again, I'm no veteran. I'm only a year and a half into my position as a commissioner. However, talking with the county administrator and the other commissioners, usually at this time we're Looking at a levy of double digits, and then we have to try to work that down into the single digits, but right now we're sitting really good. We're really pleased at meeting with the department heads and figuring out next year's plan. Also, after the workshops, we're going through our ordinances throughout the county. This is probably going on four or five weeks of doing that, so we've had long Tuesdays. We've had our regular Tuesday meetings, and now the workshops with the department heads and now ordinances, so we're usually Tuesday. We're there until probably 3, 4 o'clock in the afternoon trying to get this out, but it's good because we're taking four or five department heads at a time rather than, I guess, in the past, they've tried to cram this all into... one or two days, and it just gets really long, and then you're looking at 12-hour days. Some of the roads, you know, obviously we had rain. There was rain anywhere from three to seven inches over in Lee Sewer, so some of our roads took a hit, but I talked to our county engineer along with Assistant Department Head Robbie Kopet, which he figured by today, I talked to him on, Friday afternoon, late afternoon, and he figured by Monday, which is today and possibly tomorrow, they should be back on par with having the roads all back in order. Just a couple highlights, a fraud investigator that Sheriff Mason, I think I told you this already, Sheriff Mason designates a deputy solely to work on fraud in Leesewar County. And it's saving our taxpayers in Leesewar County and the state a lot of money. So I just wanted a little fact for you guys to know that the money that we get is a grant money from the state, which doesn't cover his salary, but we still think it's more important to, you know, in the long run, we're getting that money back. The money that we recoup from that goes to the state. The least sewer county residents don't get that. It goes to the state and then branches off from there. As you know, Mayor Nikolai, the state baseball tournament is coming to New Prague, so I encourage any of you that maybe have a weekend off or a weekday off, sign up, help out the city, and it's going to be a lot of good baseball coming to town. Elections, I think I overheard you saying your elections are elections. So our meetings to my yes last Tuesday and tomorrow and the following I believe. I know just. Tomorrow yet our meetings are held at the courthouse because early voting is where we usually have our Chamber meetings. That's getting. Allocated by early voting. Again, I'm getting phone calls or just in-person people talking to me. As you turn on the news, data centers, I'm getting a lot of people not wanting data centers. My constituents, it's, you know, 90%, please don't bring data centers. We have no intentions. Right now we have moratorium on data centers in the county, so nothing can be done anyways for a year. But just to kind of put that at ease for right now, there's no one's at... APPROACH THE COUNTY WANTING ONE. AGAIN, LISTENING TO MY CONSTITUENTS, I HAVE NO INTEREST IN HAVING ONE.

ANY QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU ALL FOR WHAT YOU DO. APPRECIATE IT.

THANK YOU, DENNIS. NEXT ON THE AGENDA IS OUR PUBLIC FORUM. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY WHERE PEOPLE CAN SPEAK TO THE COUNCIL. There's not going to be really inner reaction, but it will be noted. So first on the list, I have Brian Paulson. Brian, you know, state your name and address, please.

Brian Paulson, 206 4th Street Southwest. Mayor, members of the council, I just wanted to thank all you on the chief of police and the city administrator for turning on the transparency portal audit logs for the flock cameras. So I noticed that was turned on. So I just want to thank you. I know we've been talking about that for a long time. So I just want to say thank you. All right.

Thank you. Next on the list, is it Heather or?

Yep, so that was a sheet for if you would like to discuss. No, you do.

Oh, you don't want to speak? You just, okay. Well, that's fine. I mean.

I can't speak like Dennis, though.

Well, who can? All right. So, Heather and John, you do not want to speak. Anyone else want to address the council? All right. If not, we'll go on the next item. We do not have any public hearings, and number seven, we're going to go into the 2026 electric utility revenue bond update. That sale took place on July 15th, and it was presented to the Utilities Commission at their last meeting last week, and now we're just presenting it to the council. It has been a Council gave the Utilities Commission the authority to approve that bond. So it looks like we have Brian Riley from Ehlers to kind of give us a quick summarization. Right, Brian?

That is the plan. Thank you, Mayor. I will try to be concise and brief. As was stated, these bonds have been sold and priced, and the next step is closing, which is scheduled to occur just a few days from now. So just for your benefit, you should have the sale day report in your packet, and I'll just briefly walk you through that. And I'll preface by speaking a little bit about the rating. Obviously the city is rated, but a utility has its own rating with a different set of metrics and standards. municipal electric providers. And so those standards are a bit different from what you would think about from a general obligation pledge. The rating came out as an A and stable, which means there's no point of view on whether or not the rating will change up or down in the next few years. And by and large, if you go through that quickly, You'll note a number of references towards relatively strong financial operations, maybe a few things here and there regarding some improvements that could be made to some long-term management, but by and large, the utility itself is viewed to be in positive condition, and the A rating is very reasonable for a utility of that size and within your geography. I think what also speaks to that is, as I get into the bids here, we went to competitive sale, just like you've traditionally done with your own general obligation that bids were solicited and received on July 15th, as was stated. There were five bids offered, which I would view as relatively strong. for a small community's electric revenue with generation. And so also you can see the benefit of the competitive sale where we've got the winning bid coming in at about 4.16%, the worst coming in at just under 4.35 with a few scattered around 4.25. And so on the day of sale, there were two buyers who were very interested. both the winning and the cover. And we would view 4.16% on a 20 plus year structure as being relatively attractive. I will say, as you look back, knowing that it's early August, these bonds sold July 15th. And while we're not in the business of recommending timing the market, you did hit it at a favorable time. Rates have been pretty much up since then, not dramatically, but certainly to the tune of about 15 to 20 basis points, 0.15 to 0.2%. That certainly does add up on a transaction over $16 million. On the day of sale, the pricing that was received allowed the city to reduce the size of the issue. We make certain assumptions when we're putting kind of the presale package together and working with you on all of that. And we make some assumptions based on any number of things, including the fees and expenses associated with the issue. There's also a debt service reserve fund, which is very common for a utility revenue obligation. That is borrowed money that is set aside as additional security for the debt in the case that revenues are insufficient to support the annual payment requirements and then would be required, if it's ever a draw on it, you'd be required to replenish it. So that additional credit enhancement proves to be a benefit and it's kind of demanded for an issue like this. And as a result, we were also able to redo that because the annual debt service requirements were less than originally estimated. So all in, able to reduce the issue size roughly 600 and some odd thousand dollars. So again, a positive attribute of this coming in less than expected. Maybe I'll pause there and see if there are any immediate questions. The bid tabulation shows you the final pricing, the coupons and the yields for this issue and some other salient details. Adjustments are made on the day of sale. And so if you look to the bottom of the first page of the bid tabulation, there's a few notes there that reference the adjustments, and then what the final results are in that case. The sale day report also has summary level detail on the cover. What questions can I answer for any of you?

Anyone have any questions?

I have a general question, maybe not of you, Brian, but just for our audience, is the repayment of these bonds is actually coming from money coming from SIMPA, if that's my understanding?

Correct, yes.

Thank you.

We have an agreement with SIMPA that they would pay for the energy that that generation plan could produce, and so this is going to Pay more than what the bond payments will be by a couple hundred dollars thousand dollars each year. Isn't it something?

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that that was said so Our taxpayers understand right?

This is no effect on our tax levy or tax burden at all Correct Any other question or comments No, I don't think we have any Brian if you anything else you need to share I

I do not. All action has been taken to your earlier point. The sale has been awarded and we're proceeding towards closing. So informational only and I do appreciate your time.

I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Okay.

mention we mentioned this before but this does give us added capacity within the city and added redundancy so there's a value to the city residents also by this agreement not just that it's provides additional capacity for simple but it gives us a better service that we can provide thank you okay there's no our city engineering updates

Matt, do you just kind of want to breeze us how the 10th Street project is going?

Yeah, 10th Avenue is going really well. We're about a week ahead of schedule. We actually had our first rain day on Friday, which is not normal to have your first rain day in the end of July, so that's great news. 10th Ave and 3rd St is still closed. We still ask people to stay out of that area. The roundabout is, I'm going to say it's 80% complete. If you walked up there or up to the signs, you could see that the roundabouts in place, but there's still black dirt, some sidewalks. The trail will be removed most likely next week on the West side of the road and repaved the following week. So yeah, it's coming along really well. Mainly concrete work this week, curb replacement and sidewalk replacement.

Are any plans to open that Third Street roundabout?

As of now, no, because it's going to have to be closed back down next week. So opening it up for one week, and they're still actually working on the roundabout, doing some dirt work. So having it open for five days is just going to be more confusing than... Oh, yeah. No, no, I was thinking, like, I mean, if it's all done and they're still paving... Yeah, so the contract reads they have to have that roundabout open within 30 days unless approved by... I guess, myself or council. As of right now, it is up to 30 days at the end of this week, but as of right now, we're going to leave it closed just because the second lift is only a week, week and a half out.

Okay. Okay, thank you. Anyone, any other questions on any city engineering projects update that maybe Matt can answer? All right, thank you, Matt. Next, ordinances for introduction. Is this, are we looking at a first reading here?

Yes, we are and I can give a little brief synopsis here if you'd like me to yes, please Mitch could you throw me the screen please?

That's what I wanted

So Nicholas Borowski, the owner of 300 East East or 300 Fifth Street Southwest, has a property down the southwest corner of town that's broken up by 140 foot and two 12 foot easements and rights of way. And he has submitted an application to the city to consider vacating these. As staff look through these, they are certainly supportive of these vacations as there are no planned uses for the alleys, utilities. Planned use for these alleys are right-of-ways and there are no utilities within these easements. One thing to note is we do have a electric line within the property that we are unable to find an easement for, but we are currently working through that at this point. This is just kind of an aerial of what the property Looks like Mr. Borowski owns the entire parcel here and these are the right-of-ways and easements that are currently cutting across the property. So he's asking if the city would just vacate these back to him as the adjacent property owner.

Go back to that picture, would you please? Do other properties east of that also have the same issue?

Entirely possible. I do not have that information on... on top of it with me right now I would guess usually especially as you with all cities as you get into the older parts if somebody buys property like across the line that was originally put on there and a platform 100 years ago yes like these exist actually all over the city if we were to dig into them generally at times some cities are very proactive with it it does take a lot of research time to really jump into these, but a lot of times, at least with New Prague, we've always been a little more reactive-driven. If the property owner knows they're there, they may request them, and we'll consider them on a piece-by-piece basis, depending on if the city has plans for them or is currently using them.

So this particular plat in our packet is from 1896.

Correct. So that was when the roads were put down, thinking they may be needed, and they have not been needed. Or if they...

Okay, so that property butts up That butts up to Salt Side Park there, okay So that's why there probably wouldn't be an issue with that. All right.

Thank you Sir any was there a thought that second Evo would eventually go through?

There might have been, if that was a thought way back at one point. As Maggie pointed out, it's a plot from 130 years ago. And I think a lot of times when they do this, now they kind of take a property and they try to map it out and put houses on it. A lot of these old maps, they would take a four square mile area and just drop all the roads on them and you could start buying lots. So there may have been the thought at one point that that would be part of the street grid.

I know that sometime that further south of that is thought to be developed and I don't know if it's conceivable for that road to ever go through or not, but I mean, if that's Southside Park, I guess the question of the council would be is would it be like, like would it be worth it?

You are running into a train track right there. And so even if the road did go through, you'd either have to come up with a way to cross, um, or that property owner and have to be willing to sell lots off, I guess. So, As noted as staff kind of look at this, it is one of those that just kind of made sense that it's been around for a long time and. This is one of those the city could let go of.

Yes, part of this process before the hearing. I'd be interested in no staffs. Understanding or thought or would 2nd St ever possibly go through or not? Yep. And if we have a right away, do we need it?

Yeah, I will say these are certainly good questions because as part of this process with an ordinance, a public hearing is required. So part of what I'd be asking you guys tonight is to approve the attached resolution that calls for a public hearing on our first meeting in September, which is the 1st of September. Well, wait. No, the 8th of September. The 7th is Labor Day, and so it would be Tuesday, second Tuesday in this case. So the 8th of September would be our meeting, and that is when we would have a public hearing, that anyone can come comment on this, as well as Ken, who normally handles these, would be back, and so he'd be able to answer some of those questions.

But are you still looking for us to... So we'd be looking to approve on the first reading and then do the public hearing?

As well as the public hearing resolution.

And then if there's issues, we want to do the second reading, is that? Correct. Okay. Okay. Anyone have any questions? If not, I guess I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 366, the first reading of vacating certain rights away on these plat.

I'll second.

We got a second by Maggie Bass. Any other comments? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Okay, pass is 5-0. Next, the resolution calling for the public hearing on September 8th. I guess I'll make a motion to approve that resolution at the public hearing at our council meeting on September 8th. I'll second.

Go ahead.

I got a second by Rick Seiler. There's no other questions, comments? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. So we'll get this thing all cleared up and answered and everything on September 8th. Number 10, we have no ordinances for adoption, no resolutions. 12, general business pay grade update. I know this is a recommendation from the Utilities Commission due to the fact that it is hard to find linemen at this time, so we're looking to add a classification under grade two. And I think, Robin, I think you talked to the company that did our comp study.

Yes. So just briefly, in Bruce Reimer's absence tonight, I told him I'd speak to any questions. So exactly what you said, Mayor, just not having a big candidate pool for qualified linemen that meet all of the criteria. We're looking to create a position and add to our pay grid an electric utility apprentice position. So I did contact AutoSolve to work with them for placement on our grid, and it would be at our existing pay grid step two. So I included the pay grid in the council packet as well.

So this, the only thing is you just added this position at that grade?

Correct.

On the existing thing.

No change in pay or anything, just putting placement on grade two.

So moved. Anyone have any questions for Robin? Okay. I get a motion by Rick Seiler to approve the pay grid update adding the electric utility apprentice position on grade two of our current scale.

I'll second.

I got a second by Maggie Bass. There's no other questions, comments. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. Next, we have a concept review of the harvest fields. Are you taking this, Josh?

Yes, I will take this one again. So this particular review is for a concept, kind of a concept review of... The southern portion of what we have discussed in the past as the kind of basic land up on the north east corner of town, um, generally the concept review, they kind of come in very, very high level and they are looking for just, um. Feedback based off of are there things we like, are there things we don't like, Is this something that we could foresee them going forward with? Is it something that we want to completely throw the brakes on? I do also want to note that hopefully I don't butcher your last name, Lucinda Spanier from JPB is here as well to kind of introduce herself and the company, as well as hopefully being able to answer any questions that may be about this. But I will run through some quick background. that staff have been doing to this point as well as what both the park board and planning commission have done. So as I mentioned, JPB land did apply for a concept review. Uh, this particular development includes 185 single family lots on about 63 acres of land. Of note, this land is guided single family on the west side and medium density residential on the east side. Across the entire development, lots do vary from 42 feet wide to 72 feet wide. Also of note that this particular land would require a planned unit development or PUD zoning, which allow you some flexibility in your zoning requirements. That being due to the fact that lots under 50 feet wide and with side setbacks um lots current zoning code does not allow for lots under 50 feet wide and that setbacks are set at seven feet instead of six feet and so to be able to meet their particular concepts um the cleanest way to do it would be to do a pud unless you're willing to do variances for every single lot so pud just makes it much cleaner this particular plan also does expand out Heritage Park with an additional 1.4 acres, as well as continues the Greenway Trail through the development. On July 14th, the Park Board did review this and provided general support for the concept plans in terms of how the park Heritage Park was expanded, as well as the Greenway Trail extension. And then on July 22nd, the Planning Commission also reviewed the plans. There was not a formal public hearing for this, as it was a concept review, but we did send out 250 notices to the area and kind of residents around that area. Overall, we had about 30 people in attendance, and the Planning Commission did choose to take public comment. Generally, and township people are here as well, but the township has expressed support for annexation, and just general comments were kind of about traffic and weeds on kind of this development area. The developer did note that their build out is expected to take about five years, but that obviously depends on market conditions and what kind of demand they would see. So here is a large overall map with that southern portion being their concept proposal being dropped onto it. Of note, those blue roads are, and you can see that small roundabout, are taken preliminarily from the feasibility study for the realignment of Alton Avenue there. And so it actually lays very well onto what our potential projected roads would be for the north half of that property. And then here is just more of a zoomed in area. You can see the larger lots are in the pink for this. And then you get into the I guess we'll call them turquoise, which are your a little bit smaller and they kind of size up to the middle. So of the adjacent neighborhoods, the lots lot sizes line up pretty well in terms of size. And so nobody is necessarily getting a house built next to them that is significantly different than what they have built, and these smaller lots are tucked into the middle, also next to lots of similar size. Some notes on this, the city engineer did review and comment and just kind of noted some changes as we've gone forward that they'd like to see for future submissions. Both public works and utilities did not have any comments beyond what the city engineer provided. The police department did note that the siren nearby here has been plugged since 2009, but it does still provide coverage. I'll be honest, Tim, I'm not sure what that comment means. I'm assuming... Yeah, go ahead.

I found a... Well, I found it when I was going through looking at some emergency management things and wondering why that zone for that siren was smaller than the other five that we had. So I went and I did some digging and I found that in 2009 there was a resident that had some type of medical condition that the noise from that siren was bothering his something to do with his health. So at that time, um, Dennis Sawyer and Chief Osepka decided to put some, I guess, mufflers into some of the ports in that siren. Um, and I did have Bob with the city staff go up there and check and just ensure that that was still the case and it is to this date and there's a memo on that dating back to 2009. So, the ability there is to unplug that and I don't know what that conversation looks like with that resident after it was decided years ago to do that. So, there could be some additional coverage there if city chose to take those baffles out of that siren.

And that residence still resides there?

Yes.

That was my question.

Yep. That is my understanding right now, yes.

The fire department did not have any comments at this time, and the community development department just noted that this concept did fit very well with not only the area, but also kind of the comprehensive plan goals such as life cycle housing, park and greenway expansion, and protection and enhancement of natural features. The school district also provided a letter noting that they have significant capacity within the schools to be able to absorb kids or families who may move into this neighborhood. Talking about development fees, and these are the fees that are generally paid, most of them right up front, but also some kind of as you go through. There would be, with this particular development as it's shown, a park dedication fee of either $383,327 9.2 acres of parkland or a combination there of both an emergency siren fee of a little over $10,000 a sidewalk fee of a little over $10,000 a water area access charge of $177,000 a sewer area access charge of $378,000 and then an electric area uh, access charge, uh, ranging somewhere between 475 to $500,000. Um, kind of based off of, uh, electric usage. And then, uh, last one I've got here is a saw and seal fee for $22,000. Uh, this was a new one to me. I did have to ask Matt about it and he can correct me if I'm wrong. Um, once we kind of stop seal coding because we were spending money and not getting what we were looking for, what we do now is we go and we cut the preliminary cut the asphalt very similar to how concrete is cut to create that pre crack. Um, that way as it expands and contracts, it stays on the crack better. And then, uh, so we'll make that saw cut and then we'll seal that up. It's much smaller than the toilet papering you'll see around town. In fact, many times you won't even know it's there if you're not walking along looking for those cuts. And these are just kind of some pictures kind of from around the neighborhood as of right now. So these pictures are from the intersection next to Heritage Park. And then kind of looking out from there, these are to the south there. This is That area if you remember about a year ago that a bunch of those trees were cut down is that correct met Kind of looking to the north and then these ones are surrounding I believe from the east side of the area So ultimately staff recommendation the city does not take any formal action on concept plans this is more of a provide the ability for the developer to get feedback short of having to submit formal plats and stormwater and all those other various much more expensive plans to get some high-level feedback. So we are just looking for feedback from staff to the developer as well as City Council. A public hearing is not held on concept reports, but the City Council, similar to what the Planning Commission did, may certainly open up and take public comment from anyone who is present. And then the next step in the process would be to annex the property and then review the zoning that would go along with annex since all land must be formally zoned part of the zoning process does include a traffic impact study so it's at that point that we get a lot more information on how these roads would be affected and then platting would follow that both preliminary and final so we'll certainly stand for any questions at this point and as i said Lucinda Spanier is certainly here, and I know she had a small presentation, if the council wishes to hear it, just kind of introducing the company and herself, as well as any other thoughts that she may want to share about the concept review.

Okay.

Does anyone have any questions? Just to clarify, on the southwest corner, that open space, is that actually going to be a water retention area, just left as a wetland area?

You know, I am not 100% sure. I think it marks it on the map if I could zoom in on it right now. I think it says wetland, but I just not seen that. It says open space with wetland. And it may just be, and maybe Lucinda could speak to that. She's shaking her head that she can. Okay. And they had a great presentation.

Yeah. I'm going to give the floor to you, and you can kind of give us a, who J.B.P. Land, LLC, is, and...

Thank you, Mayor.

I do think she has a presentation, if you would shoot over the podium.

Do I need to do anything on my end besides plugging?

Mitch, does she need to do anything on her end?

Oh, yeah, sure.

Typical IT guy. Troll, delete.

Just unplug it. Yeah, it'll come back.

It's not turned on.

Yeah, maybe you can, are you off it now?

No, it doesn't matter. I'm just actually pulling it up because I think it was the flag.

Yeah, you can find it there.

I'm grabbing it real fast.

Okay, thank you. But Council Member Wolf, to answer your question, the property has gone through a wetland delineation process and it has a total of four wetlands, all quite small. Um, and the, the area that you are inquiring about is indeed a wetland. It's not planned for any, um, manmade, uh, water storage, anything like that.

Thank you.

Yeah, there are a number of different types of wetlands, and sometimes it's, for the untrained eye, it may not appear to be a wetland. You know, it doesn't have the canary reed grass growing and visible water, but if it has hydric soils and vegetation that grows in hydric soils, then it is classified as a wetland. Here we go. Yes. OK. Wonderful. Thank you. All right. Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. Thank you for your time this evening. We are very excited to present our project to you and hopefully get some valuable feedback that we can take back to our engineering team and my colleagues back at JPB land. and get started on our engineering drawings and proceed as Josh mentioned with the next round of applications which are a petition for annexation of the parcel into the city limits as well as the PUD rezone that we are requesting. My name is Lucinda Spanier. As introduced, I'm here tonight with JP Brooks Builders and JPB Land. LLC. We are a local builder and land development company based in Maple Grove. Um, all of the decisions that we make are made locally. Um, and they all, um, ensure that there's a consistent and unified community that's constructed because we are starting it from land development all the way through the construction of all of the homes on all of the lots. J.P. Brooks has been in business since 2013 and has constructed over 1,000 homes in over 45 communities. We are currently building 19 neighborhoods in 16 jurisdictions within the Twin Cities metro and western Wisconsin. We have averaged 188 closings between the years of 2024 and 2025, and we are consistently ranked for the last seven years as a top 15 builder in the Twin Cities market. And last but not least, we are certified by the Green Path. Actually, I'm not sure who does the certification, but we are a certified Green Path builder, which speaks to our dedication to energy efficiency and efficiency in building materials. Oh, it's you, not me. OK. All right.

You got to deal with the monkey, OK? You're the organ grinder.

So here's a look at our site plan. Josh did a nice job of summarizing what we have presented here. I'll just add a little bit more detail, but not spend a whole lot of time. So, the four different lot sizes for us work really nicely as a lifecycle community. You have an entry-level lot, which is the 42-foot wide lot. I'll get into the product that we're proposing to build on those lots here in a minute, but that is for an entry-level buyer, and then the lot scale all the way up to 72 feet wide, which is going to be a more executive home site. We can do four stall garages on those homes. And so we really have a nice mix of different households that we like to integrate into a single neighborhood, different income brackets and so forth. And we've really thoughtfully designed the layout of integrating these four different lots. in this 63-acre parcel with the smaller lots adjacent to other lots that are of similar size to theirs and not having those up against the existing neighborhood that does have a little bit larger size lots. We are asking for your consideration of a planned unit development. This slightly deviates from your unified development code standards. These setbacks are the same in the R3 district and in the PUD district, with the exception of the side yard setback. Your R3 zoning is a 7-foot minimum, and we're proposing a 6-foot minimum, but otherwise meeting those setbacks as you have in your R3 zoning standards. And then for the area, like, we have quite a range here, so our smallest lot would be 5,880 square feet. whereas your smallest lot in the R3 zoning is 6,200 square feet. However, it is important to note that the other three lots exceed the minimum standard. And the majority of the lots that we're proposing are exceeding the standards. And lastly, just noting that those 42s make up 28 total of the 185 lots, and then 52, we have 34 of those. The 62-foot wide lots are our most popular lot, so we are proposing 100 in that size, and then 23 of the 72s. This slide is simply acknowledging that we have reviewed your comprehensive plan, familiarized ourselves with your goals and what you are seeking to achieve with construction of new subdivisions, neighborhoods, integrating trails, natural amenities, parks, and so forth into them, and so we wanted to acknowledge that we feel that the proposal here incorporates the life cycle housing approach that you are explicitly seeking also, which was really exciting to see that our goals were aligned on that housing goal. And then we are proposing to preserve existing wetlands and in fact, incorporate one of the wetlands into an open space to be dedicated to the city that is adjacent to the trail the expansion of the Greenway Trail and then we are also expanding upon your multimodal transportation network through the expansion of the Greenway Trail and local roadways as well as minor collector roadways and lastly just highlighting that there has been a lot of thought put into the streetscape here with the curvilinear roads, the varying lot sizes with a variety of different views for each area of the plan, and then providing those important links to the existing neighborhoods and infrastructure. All right. And then this slide touches on the PUD benefits that are proposed. Usually there is, um, you know, a bit of a give and take with the city allowing for some flexibility in their lot standards and then a developer providing some, um, enhance enhancements in the neighborhood. And so we are proposing, you know, the dedication of, uh, an acre and a half of parkland to expand the existing heritage park. We are looking to extend the greenway trail from Bohemia, Street to 7th Street Northeast. We are also going to be contributing to your park dedication and improvement fund. As mentioned in the presentation, we are preserving existing wetlands and incorporating them into the Greenway Trail corridor. Our architectural standards that are just that comes standard there are they exceed the city's standards so we will have enhanced architecture and we'll get into that in the next slide each one of our floor plans does offer three distinct elevations and color schemes to allow for some nice variation of the streetscape and the same Let me word this properly. These same elevation or color scheme cannot be built across the street or next door to one another because we do observe an anti-monotony, self-imposed anti-monotony code to make sure that there's a lot of interest from the streetscape. And I'm not going to go through all of our architectural distinctions, but they are provided in your packet if you are interested. But we do a lot just as standard and basic that the majority of others aren't going to incorporate at a base level, but would do added charge-ups for. And then this is just a look at the anti-minotny code, as was discussed at the Planning Commission meeting last week. The same floor plan can be constructed. However, the elevation must be different. So each one of our homes comes in three different distinct elevations. And then it would have to also have a different color scheme. So we've found a lot of success in doing that. Here is a list of the floor plans that we are proposing to offer in the community. As you can see, they range from two-story slab on grades, regular two stories, villas, split level, multi-level, ramblers, and a variety of options for all three of those lot sizes there. And then for the smaller lot size, which is not pictured on this table, the 42-foot wide lots, they will accommodate a newly designed 30-foot wide two-car product with a two-story garage. And you can take a look at those on the next slide. ELEVATE RENDERING OF THOSE. SO THESE ARE CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF DESIGN, SO I DON'T HAVE ALL OF THE SPECIFICS PERTAINING TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND BATHROOMS, BUT IT'S ESTIMATED TO BE BETWEEN 1,800 AND 2,400 SQUARE FEET. IT IS A SLAB-ON-GRADE PRODUCT WITH TWO, POSSIBLY THREE BATHROOMS, AND THREE, POSSIBLY FOUR BEDROOMS.

AND THEN THESE ARE... AND THIS IS FOR THE SMALLEST LOTS, CORRECT?

THAT'S CORRECT, YES. Yep, so this home is 30 feet in width and it would sit on a 42-foot wide lot with six-foot side yard setbacks and have the attached garage. All right. And then I won't spend too much time going through our repertoire of homes that we have curated for the neighborhood. Um, but I am more than happy to ask, answer any questions, address any concerns. Um, but most importantly, just receive your feedback this evening.

You could, um, there was really only one big question that was presented and that was the deforestation that happened already and anything that will happen in the future. And you can go ahead and answer that. because the deforestation that did happen, that was by a previous owner. And I believe your plan is more environmentally friendly.

Yes, Council Member Seiler. So that, that was a focus of the discussion at the planning commission meeting. Um, there was a lot of concern that was voiced by residents of the community pertaining to, uh, the removal of some trees on the property. And um, that was done, prior to our involvement with the property and entering into a purchase agreement with the seller. So we understand that that was rather devastating to the neighborhood and our intention for landscaping would be to adhere to the city's standards for required trees and any landscaping requirements that the city has. Furthermore, we will be needing to potentially mitigate about 0.13 acres of wetland at a two to one ratio. So we would be creating 0.26 acres in another location to allow for some fill for a very, very small area of the wetland that just so happens to be in the middle of a planned road. So in terms of environmental consideration for this project, we will be mitigating those wetlands, but outside of that, it's a farm field.

Thank you. So if this goes forward, do you build a house once you have someone, a buyer, or are you going to be building some spec homes, or how does the process work? for you guys.

Sure. Um, mayor, we do both of those. So we like to obtain model home permits and have the ability to get constructing as quickly as possible. Um, ideally one model home on each lot so that folks can have an idea of the offerings that are available for each one of those price points. Um, excuse me. And then we certainly do build spec homes and also, uh, we do, have, um, lots that are for sale and an individual can come and select the lot of their choice and then come into our, um, design studio in Maple Grove and select all of their finishes and cabinetry and so forth unique to their home.

Okay. One question I have as I look at this, um, since I wasn't at the planning commission meeting, for the lots down in the southeast corner, it looks like they're double frontage lots. Um, are they, exiting onto the existing road or are they exiting onto the new road?

Thank you for bringing this up. I do think it's an important part of this design here that we have considered. And the proposal is for the new lots that have the double frontage to not front on the existing 7th Street, but to instead have frontage on the new road that we are proposing. We are showing an added depth to those lots so that we could have some vegetative screening along the rear yards and along 7th Street.

So I'm not sure if I caught you correctly on that, on the south portion of that road. Is that written on the concept plan there, but it's not going to be there? Is that it?

No, my question was those lots down in the southeast corner are double frontage lots, which means they're touching a road on two sides of the property. 44 and 45.

Can you point them out?

These right down here. So, yeah, they're touching the street, and they're touching the street. Yep. And so she just mentioned that they're going to be slightly deeper so they can put vegetation on one side to help kind of create that buffer.

And that they will not front the existing roadway. We did consider that. However, we didn't want to tear up that road.

So they're all going to be face north?

Correct.

OK. Could you, have you already conceptualized how you're going to phase this in?

We are currently having those discussions. We have some informal ideas that we're generating. It sounds like sewer and water will dictate the first phase in particular, where that starts. And it's looking to be about the northwest corner area. And if Public Works wants to comment on that.

That is correct. That doesn't have to, but that's how we envision it. And then Bruce said the same thing for power, I believe, and water would need to come out of that northwest corner.

So near the existing heritage park.

So would it follow up Ironwood then? Or down Ironwood?

Uh, that would be a tie in. Yes. So for the water wise, the water is the big look for a looping water. You don't like to have dead end services if you don't need to. So I know Bruce mentioned at one time that iron would have come up to north and it would tie into Bohemia sanitary that would work fine for sanitary. Um, once you get further to the east, uh, this lot, but this development would kind of get split where sanitary most likely would be going down to an existing lift station to the south. But we haven't really dug into those fine details of the first 20 lots where you guys' proposals yet or anything. But yeah, the northwest corner is where we envision the sanitary and water and electric coming from.

This isn't a question for you so much, but for you guys. I see that Alton is presumed to have this look to it. Is that? We haven't seen the study yet, so is this from the study? Correct. And does this feel like the county's approved this?

Yeah, so this is the study that's kind of been high-level presented, and I believe we may have even got a draft in our emails here today for us to review. And this is kind of the alignment that is being proposed, both basically from the feasibility study from the engineers. So the county has seen this as well, yes.

And then how does that work when you're looking at Alton veering to the right from the left? That property owner is now going to have land on the west side of Alton. And to get that road connector in there, We would need cooperation from that.

Correct. Yeah. So when we put part of this process now with the feasibility study, and we've been talking with the county of kind of revising the MOU, um, and part of that MOU kind of lays out how is property going to be acquired, who's going to be kind of the lead on that, who's going to be the support. So yes, for property with Alton, that is not currently there. And that's a good kind of, Veers off of it. There will be some sort of acquisitions that are probably going to be made Whether it is due to development of the land around there It's dedicated as part of the development similar to the dedication of these streets Or if we get to a point where the city and or the county says hey It isn't everybody's best Interest if we move this along faster than maybe where development is in this one spot Then we'd be talking about acquiring right-of-way To make that happen. But yes

Just so I'm clear then, for this plat, and I'm totally supportive and conceptually of what we've got going here, but there are only three exits on the plant or not only, but there will be three basically exits from it until Alton is constructed.

And so that means part of the part of it will be, uh, the traffic study will kind of help pair that out. If the traffic study says that they're going to need more, um, it could be something to where we start having to talk about, do we need to go north, um, and get one or two in there sooner, even if it's more of a temporary road, knowing that it might change a little bit depending on, how it pokes out. But yes, that's the traffic study will help bear out exactly what what is needed for this and whether three is sufficient in the short term.

Okay, thank you. Okay.

So we don't have to take any action at this time, do we?

That is correct. There's no action to be taken. It's really feedback. And for some of that, I would actually look to Ms. Spanier to say, have you gotten feedback you're looking for? Are there questions that are unanswered that you would like from the city council and or staff at this time? As this concept review is really for your benefit or JPB's benefit with this.

Yeah, I appreciate that prompt because I would love to have my engineers start work tomorrow, but I would like to know that you are in fact supportive of the project, at least conceptually, at this point before we go ahead and make that next step. And so that would be essentially what I'm looking for here tonight.

And this would be, I would especially like to remind, like it would be a high-level support, obviously, until we dig into the zoning and the specifics and all that, and things could change a little bit as we get into all that lays out, so.

Yeah, so from what I've seen and have read, I am in support of the concept. I would be very interested to understand the traffic study just because, Traffic in this area will be altered significantly I mean it's a neighborhood that sees a little bit of traffic like on heritage going out to 15 But this is definitely going to change those patterns a bit So that would be my only request is to to understand the traffic flow John yeah, I'm very supportive.

I think it looks nice. I like the style of houses and I Looking forward to seeing, when it's completed, what it ultimately looks like. Okay.

Rick? Yeah, it's a great project, actually, and they put in a great presentation, and I'm looking forward to the traffic study as well, and oversight on assembling the roads is what I really... We don't want no contractor roads. We don't want no temporary roads.

And when I'd mentioned temporary, talking about Alton Avenue there, for some reason, say right now Alton swings to the west and the proposal is to swing to the right in the future, we wouldn't make them build some sort of road out to where it'd be sticking out into the future farm field that Alton's not currently there. And so you may temporarily have it pause at the gravel road or something like that. That's what I mean by not, I don't mean throughout the whole neighborhood we're building gravel roads and that sort of thing. It was trying to do it in a way that I know government routinely gets, and maybe rightly so, we build roads that we tear up two years later. So trying to think smartly about how we design stuff if we know that it is temporary in nature.

Bruce? No, I support the concept. I appreciate all the work that you guys have put into it, and I think it seems to be a lot of thought put into it, so I really appreciate the work that you guys have done.

I also support the concept. I think it's something that is needed for the city of New Prague as we continue to figure ways to get more kids in the school district. I know that's a big issue that superintendent does say, hey, we need more housing and things like that too so that we can fill our schools up. So appreciate the project and good luck.

And also our businesses, you know, with the EDA going out and Talking to our various businesses, housing is needed to draw employees into the area.

Absolutely. Again, I really appreciate your time this evening and your support as well.

All right. Thank you for coming and presenting. Thank you. See you on the next one. Next on the agenda is miscellaneous. So we're at this point. Rick, do you have anything to add? No, I'd say no. Okay. Bruce?

I can't believe we had seven inches of rain, at least they're coming. And Henderson didn't flood? Yeah, Henderson didn't flood. Early on, you were talking about elections at the new city hall. Technically, it won't be the city hall yet at that time. I guess I've had questions, well, how that's all going to be laid out and things, but I don't know that really matters that we have any more information on that. You've figured out how that will work.

Yeah, I mean, that's part of it, too. And I'd kind of mentioned in my weekly update to you all on Friday that we began conversations with the architect. I think part of that conversation would be how do you recommend we temporarily lay this out, like on certain areas or certainly locked doors in certain areas. So it kind of just shuts the building down into two areas that we work out of. I believe the name that we submitted to The state was New City Hall slash Election Center or something like that because they wanted us to name it. But we tried to make it obvious and as obvious as possible to people when they read the name that they knew what we were talking about.

And if we're not going to have them come through the front door, then we should make sure we communicate that somehow in the future too. Yep. That's all I got.

Okay. Maggie? No, sir.

Sean?

Nope.

Josh, you have anything else? I did have one thing that I wanted to mention. It sounds like we're going to be two down. But if the three who will be at the city council meeting on the 17th, we did actually receive an application for a planning commissioner. I know that we've been short one. And Rick has graciously stepped up to fill that role. But we did actually get an application here at the end of last week. And so if possible, for the three that will be here, to have maybe an interview 15 minutes, 10 minutes before the meeting on the 17th.

And then we're going to move the budget meeting to a different date.

Correct. Yeah. If we're down to three, it doesn't make sense to have a budget meeting when half the team's gone.

Right. Yeah, that would work for you guys.

I should just hear you. Yep. Oh, that's fair. I didn't even think about that. As we were trying to get to the end, knowing that we usually on that second meeting in September, we have approved our preliminary in the past. We do have an extra meeting. And with Labor Day being late, it kind of pushes everything back. And so I guess the other option would be to say on the Monday before Labor Day, we don't have a meeting. The 31st, we could also do a special budget meeting too if we don't want to push all the way back. I guess that would be up to you guys if you're available for the 31st. Then we can come in and just kind of tackle it out and see if we could get the preliminary kind of set from there. Yeah, it works for me.

I'm available.

Sounds good to me. I'll say all this. I should make sure I'm available. Yeah, the only thing I have is that utility commission meeting at 3.30, so. But that's the 24th. Are you talking about the 31st?

We're talking about the 31st. Yeah, could we do it on the 24th instead?

Do the budget meeting on the 24th, you mean?

Yeah, you mentioned utility meetings. That's the 24th, isn't it?

Well, I got it. No, it's the 31st. It's the 31st at 3.30.

That's utility.

OK.

It is the Utility Commission.

Right.

Yeah, the 31st at 3.30. Glad you said that then, because I had it on the wrong date.

Yeah.

So like so we did the 31st like five I guess I don't know how long the utility Yeah, I don't think we had any major on there usually we're done within an hour and I guess I mean I guess I know Before people are retired, I guess, John, would you be available at 5 o'clock on the 31st? Yeah.

Don't assume things because someone's retired. Fair enough. That's fair.

That's right.

That's fair. Bruce, are you available at 5 o'clock on the 31st?

Our days are busier than you think.

Isn't that amazing how that happened? I become my staff. Yeah, yeah. I got people. I'll take a look at it. So right now, it's tentatively on Monday the 31st at 5 o'clock, our second budget meeting. Rescheduling from the one that was going to be handled on the 17th?

Correct.

Okay. So let's put it on the calendar. Got that, Patrick?

5 o'clock, 31st of August. Show up in October, you might be late.

That's all I had then. Robin, you have anything? Tim, how's the new police station?

Where'd my turn go?

I didn't, I said Robin. He said Robin.

I know, I was finishing updating when the budget meeting was coming up.

Okay, Tim?

Or are we on to Mitch already? No, we're on to Robin. I think we're on to Patrick already.

No, I'll put you in before Patrick, okay? But Robin, do you have something? I just

like an hour of your time.

That's all.

Okay, since elections has been a hot topic, I just wanted to clarify that we do have early voting here at the building we're in right now, 118 Central Avenue, for Scott County residents. Leesore County residents can go to the Leesore County Government Center.

That is by county design, not ours.

County design, correct, not our own choice.

Sure, Dennis snuck out of here.

This Saturday from 9 until 3, this building will also be open for early voting for Scott County residents. Primaries. As well, for primaries.

Yes, and primaries on the 11th.

Yes.

And that will be handled.

at the new city hall.

Yes.

Building. Correct.

So that would be a good test. That would be a good test for our general election to make sure. Correct. All right.

And of course, we'll be spreading the word during that primary election as well that the general election will be occurring there as well.

Are you done now, Robin?

Thank you. Okay.

Tim.

Matt?

How's the new police station? It's really good. I'm really thankful and we're getting settled in there. So figuring out how everything works and boiler inspection tomorrow morning that shouldn't be any issues with that. So coming in, we've got a lot of positive feedback from folks that we've already served out of that building. And so very good positive feedback. So it's great.

Okay, good. Matt, do you have anything? Mitch? Patrick? Hello, are you there? Brian, anything else? All right. The only thing I'd like to say is I know Dennis mentioned it, that in a couple weeks we're going to start the state amateur tournament. We are looking for volunteers. I think there's a sign-up genius out there that if you can get a hold of, Nick Schoenecker, I think the Facebook page is Memorial Park Rebuild or something like that. I think that's the Facebook page that you can link up for volunteering on the different committees that they have going there. I don't have anything else, so I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. Second by Rick Seiler. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Okay, we're out of here. Thank you, everyone. A couple minutes and we'll go into our closed session. You're just fully humored today, huh, Chuck?

I heard you on the radio this morning.

It was like... Well, I come here and there was cars all over. They had the Lonsdale people there. Holy mackerel. Junior royalty and the royalty? Oh, yeah, that's right.