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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-03-12 MINUTESSPECIAL MEETING COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL MARCH 12, 2008 CALL TO ORDER The City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota held a Special meeting on Wednesday, March 12, 2008, at the Cottage Grove City Hall, 7516 80 Street South. Mayor Shiely called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Sandy Shiely Council Member Myron Bailey Council Member Mark Grossklaus Council Member Fred Luden Council Member Pat Rice Also Present: Ryan Schroeder, City Administrator Mayor Shiely presided over the meeting. WORKSHOP SESSION — OPEN A. Citv Council Goals Council Member Rice said staff should prospect for commercial and industrial users. He is interested in attracting Chipotle, Majors, and Champs to the community. He expressed concern that we have too much open retail bay space and land at such as Norris Marketplace, and we need to identify what we want to see specifically at the Cottage View Theater site and cause the developer to provide that as opposed to accepting whatever the developer brings to the table. Mayor Shiely said staff must list proactive measures taken during the period to demonstrate that efforts have been made toward goal accomplishment. She also suggested a meeting with departments in six months to review goal achievement. She specifically wants staff to contact Bakers Square and Keys, among others, as potential restaurants in the community. She also wants resolution on public access to the Mississippi River, with specific actions taken not only with the County but perhaps private land owners and the DNR. Council Member Grossklaus agreed. Mayor Shiely wanted reporting on specific measures taken toward positive employee morale and wants specific examples of how the new Comprehensive Plan will retain the small town atmosphere which is our identity. Also, that density or other requirements of the Met Council should not be a consideration of our planning and instead that planning should reflect a community vision. She also supports a list of specific measures taken to attract Commercial/Industrial users. She also asserted that Council goals should be shared with all levels of staff and that Council should have more involvement with staff similar to the All Employee luncheon which was held in January. Council Member Bailey said he is interested in a breakfast-serving restaurant including IHOP and Denny's. He wants to ensure that specific city contact is made by City staff to Herbergers, Best Buy, a theater, Costco, and businesses listed on the recent DRL survey. He wants to have a discussion Regular Meeting — Date Cottage Grove City Council Page 2 with fitness facilities such as the YMCA or LifeTime Fitness to receive timelines for potential developments from those entities and wants a timeline for City Hall construction. He mentioned that the results of the DRL survey should be provided to the Comprehensive Plan Committee and that we need to continue to ensure that we have staged rather than unencumbered growth. Council Member Luden: He suggested that we use a call sheet for Commercial/Industrial contacts so the task of initial contacts can be spread among staff. He is also interested in approaching budgeting and decision-making with a sustainability focus looking at renewable, energy savings, quality of life factors and the environment. He also suggested that we should re-visit the commission structure to ascertain whether the current commissions are aligned with organization needs, asking if mission and measures handled by the commissions should be reviewed (Mayor Shiely noted that she is open to new commission alignment and member Grossklaus also agreed and noted that Commissions shouldn't have meetings just to have meetings if there are no action items). He also suggested that we have employee recognition funding. He suggested that for the industrial park we need to look for end users that can bring 200 to 600 jobs with a relocation or expansion. Council Member Grossklaus: He wants a rental housing inventory. He suggested that the County should be able to provide a list of non-homesteaded property. In response to 2007 Council goals, Council Member Rice noted that he likes the bullets provided by staff and that we need to stay at satisfaction levels at or above the 2008 DRL survey levels. Council was comfortable with the Fiscal Stability goal as written. On the Commercial/Industrial goal, Council Member Grossklaus suggested adding a message regarding redevelopment of the Rodeo and Majestic sites. On transportation he noted that we should gain our share of County highway funding and Council Member Luden noted that we needed to look at high-density housing as part of our transit planning. On housing, Council Member Rice noted that we need one-level empty nester housing and Council Member Grossklaus added that Auburn Woods is a good example of the $190- $200,000 housing that we should develop. Council Member Rice suggested that for the McHattie Farms subdivision the townhomes should be one level and perhaps we need more density there to make it work. Member Bailey noted that perhaps we needed to look at apartments for locations such as Langdon in the future. On Public Facilities, Council Member Rice noted that we needed to again consider construction of the Pine Tree Valley park building; Council Member Grossklaus disagreed and Council Member Luden noted that his only concern for the project was cost. Council Member Bailey mentioned that perhaps we could expand the projected building to allow for leased space to the Cottage Grove Athletic Association. Regarding budget goals Mayor Shiely suggested the same general direction as in 2008. Council was comfortable with the fund balance policy "as-is". Council Member Bailey suggested that we pull back on levies for future buildings ahead of staff layoffs. Council Member Grossklaus suggested caution as the levies are necessary to provide for future construction of necessary buildings and that levies should continue to at least some extent, that we don't know what our future staffing needs are, that the debt on the Ice Arena will be too great and that we should use money that we have on that project instead of new projects. Council Member Rice agreed that a token levy for future buildings and/or debt/pavement management might be ok. Council Member Luden noted that we should not pursue plans for any building replacement until we know specifically what we are doing with the current buildings. Mayor Shiely added that she is disappointed that the Public Safety/City Hall project is being pushed off to the 2014 - 2016 timeframe, but thfit we cannot afford to do that or a community center ahead of that, and ahead of when we experience significant new development. Further, she added that any Community Center project must only be done after a referendum. Council Member Rice noted that we can't afford a community center and haven't identified what might be in such a project, and that in any case a City Hall project should come first. Council Regular Meeting — Date Cottage Grove City Council Page 3 Member Bailey commented that he has always been in favor of a joint public/private community center project such as the Burnsville/Savage Lifetime Fitness and that he agrees we need to be on the upswing in development ahead of such a project. Council consensus was that community and communication events and programs should continue and that they are in favor of the EMS system continuing. Council Member Luden expressed the concern that recruitment ability may impact operating ability. Council determined that a workshop on April 16 at 6:00 PM would be set aside to visit the results of this workshop with Department and Division directors and that an October 1, 2008 workshop will be scheduled to visit with these same staff to review specific efforts toward goal accomplishment. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY BAILEY, SECONDED BY RICE, TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 8:40 P.M. MOTION CARRIED. 5-0. Respectfully submitted, Ryan R. Schroeder City Administrator