Remarks by Shawn Nelson
26 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
Yeah, thank you, Commissioner. It's always nice to be able to see you twice in a week. So I first just want to, on a personal note, thank you for personally supporting VEEP last Friday. It was great to see you and have you there. And you talked a little bit about the budget impacts and what's going on at HCMC. Do you have any information in terms of the insurance program through Hennepin Health? I understand that they run Medicaid or medical assistance through there. And there have been some challenges there as well. And if people are on that program, there, to my understanding, are new…
Well, thank you. I appreciate that because I know, like you mentioned, a lot of times being low income goes hand in hand with a lot of medical needs. There's maybe a reason why you're not able to work as much as you would like and prefer because of those medical conditions. So I know it's a big thing that the county does appreciate the service to our community, and so thank you for looking out for them. Thank you, Councilmember.
Yeah, thank you, Mary. I appreciate that. And just as an example of that, I think Champions Club, I think it is, if it's still open, over in Eden Prairie, had volleyball. It had some recreation like, I don't know, jump on things, baseball. There's soccer in there, turf, and a bar. So it had all those things in one facility. So I think just... To your point I think that makes sense and there are examples of how that's worked. The other question I had and this is kind of probably minor but you put saunas and world pools as accessory uses and I The only reason I bring that up as a question is…
In general, I'm open to this. The conflict I'm having is we had a proposal a few years back for someone that wanted to put in a, I believe it was a charter school in an industrial zone area, and we said that's just not an appropriate place for kids. I mean, because it could be next to, you know, some heavy industrial use that created a safety standard, and this would open it up that, going to put kids next to a potentially industrial use that could have safety so I I just I don't know if we can deal with that through standards in some way to protect those but that's that's my concern on on…
Thank you, Mayor. I guess my question is, would the concerns be addressed by our traffic regulations and parking regulations? You know, because, you know, if we add a certain number of vehicles, it kicks in the traffic. And so I presume the size of the building is going to drive how much traffic it has. So I think these may get addressed already with our existing ordinances. And we may not need that threshold. It'll just automatically happen that you have to put that on a collector or arterial just simply due to the amount of traffic you're going to generate.
No, I was not, Mayor. Oh, okay. You were much more in front of me on that one. The one that I was going to bring up is related to the parking and if the use involves tournaments because they drive a ton of parking, much more than – a training use in and of itself. And you know, I've been to M one many times. My wife is a volleyball referee. My kids have played volleyball. And I mean, I'd frankly at this point be better off just parking at the brewery, you know, and walking over there. So and you know, it, when they do tournaments, I mean for the regular stuff and all that, it's great, but…
Thank you. Along those lines, we should talk to those folks that want to build a pickleball golf bar thing on top of a dump in Burnsville. That's literally where they're going to build it. My question is, I know that this didn't go into that, but it also mentioned the recreation and entertainment part, and I get confused between that and places of assembly and things like that, and the reason I bring it up is I have had a request from someone that wanted to use some excess capacity within their company building that is off of I believe it's in the Hampshire industrial area and for something…
Yeah, and my understanding of this was non-religious, and it was more for an entertainment purpose, which is why I brought it up. If there was a way to fit it into there, we can talk offline about it. Don't need to take up everyone's time. Thanks, Nick.
Thank you, Mayor. Good anticipation there. I had a question. Bry Park was noted for a playground on there. I thought we replaced the playground a few years ago. No, not Brian, Bri.
So, and I guess the second part of that question specifically was we have a parks master plan and that was one of the decommissioned ice rinks and were there other improvements that are actually in there not the playground that I believe has already been replaced but again you can get back to me on that because it's coming back to us right so yeah just get back we'll come back that's fine I appreciated seeing the tennis and basketball court reconstruction because one of the questions I had when I originally looked at it is, you know, we deferred a lot of maintenance and I know maintenance…
So this is just normal infrastructure improvement that cities do all the time to support businesses so they have a place to park and things like that.
Absolutely. Thank you. The last thing and this is more of just a comment and I'll probably follow up with the city manager on this. There were a number of items in there for the BCA. And I am just I got more questions about those that I don't think we need to answer considering the amount that we spend there and we're going to invest more and I'm curious what the long-term business plan is for that and how we kind of wrestle that budget under control a little bit better. Those are my comments.
Thank you mayor. I have one question with regards to public health. Obviously we share the costs of that program with edina and Richfield. Will there be any changes to that based on changes to state and federal funding for grants? I know this is a heavily grant driven environment.
Can we do comments, too? Please. I'll just be super quick. I appreciate the presentations, appreciate the work. Was very excited to hear the ideas on increased revenues that aren't tax sources. Park and Rec talked about that most specifically, but even hearing about the police taking a look at it and things like that. So I'm really happy to hear about what the police department is doing to support our officers. It's a tough job. They see things that – I assume fire as well. They all see things that – have to haunt you for a while. So I'm glad we're there for them. They're human beings too. So…
Yeah, this one's super quick. There was a note from staff. It was a comment in the staff report with regards to, I think, 12 trees that were being added. It's not as a condition, but it was something that was just going to be worked out. But based on the comment, it sounded like you wanted our opinions on it. Trees are good. Just saying. Do you want us to actually opine on that and give you direction? Where are you at? It was a little vague in what I read in the materials.
Does the applicant object to the 12 trees? A head nod or shake is fine. That was a shake of the head? Not a nod.
Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I'm actually really excited about this project. I think it may become hopefully a decent model for our community and for all our communities in terms of providing what are essentially, I mean, they're detached townhomes, but they're essentially single-family homes when you look at them. They're the same as single-family homes on small lots. And I think that's a direction that we've looked at going. And I think that is a positive opportunity. This is going to be essentially more single-family homes in a single-family neighborhood. And I think that's positive. And to…
items that I had a question about was the measurements that you're going to classify the entire building based on its primary use and I believe we had a recent applicant and we went through parking for them. It was over in the south Loop and they have a retail space that was a small portion and then they had a more of a warehousing secure area that was not part of it, but if the entire thing had been classified as retail, I'm just worried that that parking would have been much more onerous for them to meet. I'll be honest, my own office that I own in Burnsville for my business has a retail…
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. If I could just... If I understood what you just said there is if it was of a significant amount that you may not consider that, you know, customary or whatever, and you might recalculate that differently, that's what you're looking at here? Because I totally agree with you. Like, don't... A closet and, you know, stuff like that. Come on. Let's get real, I mean, about that. But if it was like, hey, this is 25% retail, 75% warehouse, you would look at that as...
That takes care of my concern. Thank you for the clarification. Any other questions?
Yeah, thank you, Acting Mayor. Just a quick question, given that we have an election coming up, are there any implications for folks that live in these few houses in terms of that?
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Acting Mayor? Yes. Can we just ask staff to let the impacted residents know that effective date so they don't Move forward with getting a new license or something before it's.
YEAH. Thank you, acting mayor. So there's three sites left, obviously. I think all of us hope Bloomington is chosen. Are there things as a council and a city we can do to help make that a reality? Are there things that you're looking at in terms of our policies, our initiatives, our participation, things of that nature that we can do to make sure everyone understands just how excited we would be to have this in Bloomington?
Thank you. Acting Mayor, I apologize. I just had to do a couple more questions. I wouldn't be myself if I didn't. Is there any role that Xcel Energy is playing in this project as well, given that this can also help, obviously, with the electrical load, specifically air conditioning and things of that nature? Is there a role? Are they helping out with this as well, given they are regulated as well?