HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-09-07 Minutes (Regular Meeting)
MINUTES
COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL September 7, 2022
COUNCIL CHAMBER
12800 RAVINE PARKWAY SOUTH
REGULAR MEETING - 7:00 P.M
COUNCIL CHAMBER
1. CALL TO ORDER
The City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota, held a
regular meeting on September 7, 2022, at Cottage Grove City Hall, 12800 Ravine
Parkway. Mayor Bailey called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The audience, staff, and City Council Members stood and recited the Pledge of
Allegiance.
3. ROLL CALL
City Clerk Tammy Anderson called the roll: Mayor Bailey - Here; Council Member
Dennis - Here; Council Member Khambata - Here; Council Member Olsen - Here;
Council Member Thiede - Here.
Also present: Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator; Korine Land, City Attorney-LeVander,
Gillen & Miller, PA; Tammy Anderson, City Clerk; Ryan Burfeind, City Engineer/Public
Works Director; Zac Dockter, Parks and Recreation Director; Christine Costello, Director
of Community Development; Pete Koerner, Public Safety Director; Brenda Malinowski,
Finance Director; Amanda Meyer, Assistant City Engineer; Mike Mrosla, Senior Planner;
Conner Jakes, Associate Planner; Julie Prior-Miller, Marketing and Communications
Specialist.
4. OPEN FORUM
Mayor Bailey opened the Open Forum. As no one wished to address the Council,
Mayor Bailey closed the Open Forum.
5. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Council Member Dennis made a motion to adopt the agenda; second by Council
Member Thiede. Motion carried: 5-0.
CITY OF COTTAGE GROVE 12800 Ravine Parkway Cottage Grove, Minnesota 55016
www.cottagegrovemn.gov 651-458-2800 Fax 651-458-2897 Equal Opportunity Employer
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 2
6. PRESENTATIONS
A. Xcel Energy update
Staff Recommendation: Receive Xcel Energy Update.
Kirstin Sersland, Xcel Energy’s Community Relations Manager for the Southeast Metro,
stated she began working for Xcel in March 2022; she introduced Trisha Duncan,
Director of Community Relations for the State of Minnesota, who is here tonight to make
sure you’re receiving accurate technical information.
Manager Sersland stated she’s the liaison between Xcel Energy and the 40 cities
and townships in the southeast metro and Dakota County. In short, she’s the face of
Xcel Energy to local government, local community organizations, and residents. She’s
your first call for help with company projects, economic development opportunities,
franchises, neighborhood-level outages, and permitting. Xcel has appreciated the
relationship that we have with Cottage Grove, and she looks forward to working
together in the future. She’ll give an update on Xcel and what we do, and also give you
some answers.
Manager Sersland noted Xcel Energy’s priorities: Lead the clean energy transition,
enhance the customer experience, keep bills low. She spoke further on each of those.
She stated they have 1.3 million electric customers, with 99.9% electric reliability.
She also spoke of the impact of the Xcel Foundation, their charitable arm, which
oversees their giving and volunteer programs in Minnesota. They give back to Cottage
Grove, as our employees are committed to communities we serve. We give our time
and dollars to support causes and hope to build a brighter future, specifically: Member
of the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce, so a sponsor of the Scholarship Golf
Tournament; Dodge Nature Center received a $10,000 Foundation grant; Participation
in the Strawberry Festival; and Cottage Grove businesses receive about $24,000
annually from Xcel employees who shop, dine, and conduct everyday business here.
Manager Sersland stated Mayor Bailey had asked her to answer some questions this
evening related to power outages; the questions were: What were the cause of these
outages? What are we doing to fix this in the future?
She gave a quick tutorial on how electricity gets to houses and small businesses:
Power Plant-Transmission Lines-Substation-Feeders-Taps-Transformers-Service Line.
She stated she’d be addressing the Substation and Feeders tonight. The greater
Cottage Grove area is supplied by 13,000-volt Feeders from the Cottage Grove and
Chemolite Substations, which she displayed on a map. This area primarily serves
residential and small commercial and some major customers. The cause of the outages
earlier this summer were due to a couple of things: 1) Feeder and Feeder splice failures
(the splice, the cable on the Feeders, comes in 1,000-foot rolls, and we splice those
together to make it work); 2) Overloading on extremely hot days in late June, early July;
the overloading was on the Transformers.
We’re addressing this in three ways: 1) We’ll be replacing 2,600 feet of underground
feeder on 80th Street, between Hadley Avenue and Harkness Avenue. That span of
cable is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. 2) We’re replacing all
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September 7, 2022
Page 3
three phases in the splice pits of the affected Feeders. We’re going to ensure that the
most recent technology and the most updated workmanship is used. That’s scheduled
to be completed in October 2022. 3) We’re installing a new Feeder that will come out of
the Chemolite Substation to the south; that will be completed in the fourth quarter of
2022.
Manager Sersland stated if that new Feeder had been in place this summer, the
duration of some of those outages likely would have been shorter; the outages still
would have happened, but it would have been shorter because we would have been
able to reroute the load through that new Feeder. So, the more cable and more power
lines that we have, the better we are to provide redundancy when those things go out.
She hoped that answered the questions. She noted they’d spoken with Mayor Bailey
and Council Member Dennis earlier and shared this information with them before
tonight’s meeting and got some direction on what you really wanted to hear. She
thanked them for the opportunity to speak tonight and answer the questions.
Mayor Bailey thanked Manager Sersland for representing Xcel here tonight, as well as
all of the data she provided. Council Members asked the following questions:
Council Member Thiede stated with all of the growth we’re having they’re adding a
Feeder; he asked if those Substations had a certain capacity level where they’d be
adding another Substation or if there’s plenty of space to just put Feeders? He also
asked if everything on both sides of Highway 61 were connected.
Manager Sersland stated she does community relations work, not technical, so she
will get a more technical answer to that from her staff. It’s her understanding that their
Substations have the capacity to power up the entire city, and the Feeders are what
take that capacity into the places that are needed. If there is a larger industrial project,
we may put in a Substation directly related to that large industrial project. She thought
there might be one in the works in Cottage Grove related to a specific project, but we
usually only do that for extremely large customers with an extremely large need. The
Feeders handle most of the residential and small business growth.
Council Member Thiede asked if the two Substations would take care of the rest of
the city, to the city limits, for the next 20 years, to which Manager Sersland replied yes.
Council Member Olsen thanked Manager Sersland for being here to share all of that
information. He stated he struggles with the ongoing challenge of rate increases that
our customers are seeing without feeling like there’s been a return on that investment to
our community. We have many new developments, but also have some aging
infrastructure where we’ve had lots of problems with Xcel outages. On some of our
hottest days people have been without air conditioning because of power outages. The
most recent rate increase proposal to the Public Utilities Commission was over 20% for
a three-year timeframe, starting in 2022. Broken down, that’s 12% in 2022, and about
5% for the next two years. He asked how much of that money would be reinvested into
actual infrastructure, into ensuring that our residents don’t suffer the same challenges
that they’re suffering now with power outages. It seems like the infrastructure that we’re
currently dealing with isn’t keeping up with the demand, but the price keeps increasing.
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September 7, 2022
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He asked at what point can we start to feel confident, as a Council and as a community,
that Xcel will address the infrastructure issue.
Manager Sersland thanked him for that great question. This presentation addresses
the new Feeder that we’re building, the new lines that we’re putting in, the 2,600 feet of
replacement. We are making consistent investments. We run reports on Feeders that
have four or more failures in a year; those are red flagged, and those are constantly
reviewed and evaluated for need and priority, so we have that information. Energy is
getting more expensive; that’s just a fact. It’s getting more expensive for us to produce
it, and it’s getting more expensive for us to move it, especially the gas. She can’t
answer when you will feel like you’re getting the return on your investment, as that’s a
little subjective. Just know that we take our commitment to Cottage Grove and the cities
very seriously.
Council Member Olsen stated with the electrical rate increases, our homeowners’
challenge is we really don’t have any options; if we’re unhappy with Xcel Energy, we
can’t just choose another energy provider. We’re being held hostage to those rate
increases, so he felt the expectation of service had to be equal to that. The residents
who are experiencing these failures are experiencing them several times throughout the
course of a year. We understand storms happen, weather happens, and traffic
accidents can cause power outages, but these are intermittent outages not caused by
anything specific.
Council Member Khambata stated it was Xcel’s goal to transition to more renewable
energy sources in the coming 20, 30 years. He asked Manager Sersland if she saw
that as a strategic advantage in terms of controlling those rising costs by having more of
a control factor on supply, in terms of where that energy is coming from.
Manager Sersland replied yes; adding more wind and solar energy to the grid
generates electricity at a less-expensive rate, so we see that as strategic.
Council Member Khambata asked if they anticipate more stabilization in the rates as
they transition to more sustainable energy sources or inhouse energy sources so
they’re not buying from a third party. Moving forward, will there still be rate increases
because that will fuel more growth in sustainable energy? Will this be a feedback loop,
where the more you lean into the renewable sources, the more we’re going to see
similar types of rate increases? Do you see more predictable rate increases as we
have a larger percentage of renewable sources?
Manager Sersland replied for someone who’s only been with Xcel for about six-to-
seven months, she’s going to punt on those questions, but will get back to them with
more substantial information.
Council Member Dennis stated he attended the meeting with them last week; he
appreciated everyone who was there being very transparent in terms of sharing with
them what the causes were of the various outages. Some of those were explained,
when you have wires spliced together, and they’re trying to do this in a very small,
contained space underground, it can be rather difficult to get those to fully fuse.
Sometimes when there’s so much of a draw, extra heat is produced, and you end up
having those splices come apart. He thought that was really beneficial information for
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September 7, 2022
Page 5
him, and to be able to share that with the community is a good thing. He feels the
addition of the Feeder line will be very positive. We had talked a little bit about
redundancy and what could be done to help build processes into the system so that we
don’t see these types of things going on quite as often in the future. He noted Public
Works Director/City Engineer Ryan Burfeind also attended that meeting, and he
believed that his questions were also satisfactorily answered. Council Member Dennis
appreciated the time they all spent on this, and thanked Mayor Bailey for reaching out to
Xcel and putting this together. We’ve never had something like this happen before, so
it’s good to let people know; we appreciate Xcel’s commitment, and of course we want
to see good value and good service to our community.
Mayor Bailey asked Manager Sersland in the future to make sure that she reaches out
to both Director Burfeind and to him. Last week, she’d mentioned some communication
options to him in an email; there are a couple ways for citizens to report outages or
understand how long it’s going to take to get power restored. He asked her to speak
about that.
Manager Sersland stated Xcel Energy has an app that is connected to your account;
that app is your first call for help when you need to report an outage. It has an outage
map on it, and it will show you where the outage is, expected duration, and oftentimes it
will show you the cause. Sometimes, if the outage is new, it won’t show you right away,
but if you keep looking at, maybe every 20, 30 minutes, it should show you how long the
duration will be and what the cause is. So, the first call for help should be our Xcel
Energy app, which is very handy.
Mayor Bailey stated she’d also provided a contact for claims, business or residential.
There’s a process to follow, so if somebody wants to know what they can or cannot
claim, he asked her to explain that.
Manager Sersland stated there’s a claims process if the outage was sustained and
you’d suffered a loss because of that sustained outage. Their website has a claims area
where you can file a claim; it’s similar to an insurance claim. Our team will take a look
at it; they’ll look at what caused the outage and whether or not that loss qualifies.
Again, there are no promises, but it’s certainly an avenue if there has been a substantial
loss due to a power outage.
Mayor Bailey stated the other day a gentleman who lives in the 8400 block of
Homestead, south of 80th Street, was affected by the outage. He’d noted whenever
these outages happened, even the big ones we had, typically he’d witnessed an Xcel
Energy person use a long pole, flip the breaker on the big pole, put it back in, and all the
power returned. The gentleman stated they seemed to be the last to get the power on,
but they think it’s as simple as flipping this breaker or whatever that is up on the top. He
asked: 1) If there’s a process that takes place from when the outage happens to where
maybe they’re at the end of a run and the breakers have to be flipped to reset things; 2)
If somebody has questions like that, who do they contact?
Manager Sersland replied she didn’t know about the process; she’s sure they have
one, she doesn’t know what it is, but she’ll find that out. Residents are more than
welcome to reach out to her, as she’s the Community Relations Manager, so if Mayor
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September 7, 2022
Page 6
Bailey wanted to pass along her email address, that would be very appropriate. She
can direct them to the right person or get them the answers.
Council Member Dennis asked if the app was available through Google or Apple;
Manager Sersland replied yes. Council Member Dennis stated they could order that
right on their phone and have it. He felt perhaps the staff could put something on our
Facebook Page or on the City website just to make sure we’ve got that information for
the public, too.
Mayor Bailey stated that as Manager Sersland is very keenly aware, there was a lot of
angst in the community regarding what was causing these outages, why some of them
were so sustained, and what’s being done to stop them in the future. He believed from
what we heard last week and what she shared tonight that these issues, weather issues
aside, should be resolved. They’ve worked very quickly to resolve those issues, and he
again thanked Manager Sersland for being here tonight.
B. Recognition to Community Service Leaders in Cottage Grove
Mayor Bailey stated Julie Prior-Miller, Communications and Marketing Specialist, will be
speaking about this, and asked that the Council join her in front of the dais.
Specialist Prior-Miller stated it was her pleasure to introduce tonight two leaders in our
Cottage Grove community, Sue McKeown and Cheryl Jogger. Cheryl is the founder of
SoWashCo CARES, and Sue McKeown works as a Youth Programs Manager for South
Washington County Schools Community Education. We’re recognizing them both
tonight because of their dedication and commitment to our students and families in
Cottage Grove. Not only have students, families, and residents benefited from their
tireless effort, dedication, and passion they have for reaching the communities within
the South Washington County School District, but we as a City have also benefited.
One of our four Strategic Objectives is Engaging with the Community. Every week
this summer, from June to August, we benefited by engaging community in different
ways, simply through their efforts with schooling. There’s a South Washington County
school bus that goes out into Cottage Grove, Woodbury, Newport, and St. Paul Park
every week throughout the summer; every week staff members did our best to be there,
either from Police, Fire, Parks and Recreation, or other divisions of our City. We were
able to engage with people, provide games, talk, and get their feedback on really
important issues that we have going on here in the City. All of us in the community
have benefited, students and families the most, through their dedication/commitment.
Specialist Prior-Miller stated she’s had the pleasure of volunteering with both of
these women, so she knows that they are truly committed to serving the youth and
families in the School District. That might be by providing a little free library, fresh
produce, free food, engaging everyone. They deserve to be recognized because
they’ve done this work for years. She and Mayor Bailey asked Sue and Cheryl to stand
and come forward; Mayor Bailey asked everyone to give them a round of applause.
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September 7, 2022
Page 7
Mayor Bailey congratulated each of them and noted each of them would receive a
plaque, which he read aloud. He stated every year Cottage Grove gives a Volunteer of
the Year Award, group volunteer awards, etc. Sometimes we learn that there are
people who weren’t nominated; we really think it’s important to make sure they know
how much we appreciate all of the work that they do to make this community an
amazing place. Our School District Superintendent is here taking photos because
obviously the City and the School District both have a great partnership with these two
women.
Mayor Bailey stated on behalf of himself, the Council, and all of the citizens of
Cottage Grove, thank you for all of the work that you do to make this such an amazing
community and a great School District. Everyone applauded Sue and Cheryl.
Specialist Prior-Miller stated before concluding tonight, she’d display for the audience
here and at home some photos of the really great work Sue and Cheryl do, including:
Packing food boxes for students over holiday breaks, so they are not left without
food because we know that a child who is fed is the best learner. The Cottage Grove
Police helped deliver the food boxes.
Routinely attending events to which they’re invited: A new resident event, a high
school event, or a specific school event; helping with Community Ed and SoWashCo
CARES.
Attended the Strawberry Fest this year, helped out our SWAT Team with some
demonstrations.
Helped with the fresh produce distributions.
Fairytale Fashion for Food where they distributed donated prom dresses at a
discounted price; that money, in turn, goes to help buy those winter food items for the
holiday break food boxes.
Many, many more things are done by them, these are just a sampling. Specialist
Prior-Miller felt it important to note that SoWashCo CARES was an idea Cheryl had
years ago, it was just a seedling, but now it’s blossomed into the South Washington
County Education Foundation. Her idea has grown into so much and helped so many
people, and it’s now the education foundation for the School District. She stated she’s
very pleased and excited to have both Cheryl and Sue here tonight for this recognition.
Everyone applauded, they were both congratulated by all of the City Council Members,
and photographs were taken.
C. Girl Scout Gold Award - Greta Engelstad, Troop 53772
Mayor Bailey invited Greta Engelstad, Troop 53772, recipient of the Girl Scout Gold
Award, to step forward in front of the dais with the Council Members. He stated one of
the things he enjoys as Mayor of Cottage Grove is giving out these awards. The City of
Cottage Grove has a recognition area in City Hall where all Boy Scout Eagle Scout
Award winners and Girl Scout Gold Award winners have their names displayed. These
awards really show true leadership in the community, as it takes a lot to get to these
levels. He told Greta that once he read her plaque aloud, he'd ask her to tell us about
what she did to get the Girl Scout Gold Award.
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September 7, 2022
Page 8
Mayor Bailey read aloud the plaque presented to Greta Engelstad, Troop 53772. On
behalf of himself and all the citizens of Cottage Grove, Mayor Bailey thanked her for her
service and congratulated her on receiving the Gold Award. Everyone applauded, and
Mayor Bailey handed Greta the microphone.
Greta stated her Gold Award project focused on pollinators in a couple of different
settings. She did quite a bit of education in kids’ clubs, at the end of the summer with
the summer daycare program; they did some skits and songs. She got to teach not only
about bees as pollinators, but also talked about all other pollinators, our native bees and
why they’re important. While some of them live in beehives, it’s also important to leave
your gardens untouched in the spring so the pollinators have places to live there and
underground; those include insects, butterflies, bats, etc. Beyond education, she also
worked with Basic Needs and their new community garden in Newport. We made some
raised garden beds, accessible to those in wheelchairs and/or walkers so they could
also partake in the community garden. We made a memory game to help people
remember the different pollinators we talked about. We did lots of education, some
cross-generational things when working with the garden, getting lots of people to help
build the raised garden beds. We also did some outreach, including Facebook and
YouTube videos, to be able to spread that knowledge even further, beyond the
community.
Mayor Bailey stated that was fantastic, stated some award winners work on only one
thing, unlike Greta, who did several things. We appreciate that, as not too long ago, we
met about a new fairly sustainable building in Cottage Grove, in Glacial Valley Park;
pollinators were things that were talked about at that time.
Photographs were taken and Greta was once again applauded for her work and
congratulated by all of the City Council Members.
7. CONSENT AGENDA
A. Approve July 27, 2022, City Council Special Meeting minutes.
B. Approve August 3, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting minutes.
C. Approve August 10, 2022 City Council Special Meeting minutes.
D. Approve August 17, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting minutes.
E. Accept and place on file the minutes from the July 25, 2022 Planning
Commission meeting.
F. Adopt Resolution 2022-120 awarding the Central Fire Station Garage
Floor Sealing Project to GFC Industrial Coatings in the amount of
$67,260.15.
G. Adopt Resolution 2022-121 amending the Personnel Policy.
H. Adopt Resolution 2022-118 awarding the 2022 Stormwater Pond
Maintenance Project to Dynamic Earth & Civil, LLC, in the amount of
$54,294.60.
I. 1) Authorize executing an agreement with LifeQuest to provide EMS billing
services. 2) Authorize executing an amendment to the agreement with
Expert T Billing for cancellation of billing services.
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September 7, 2022
Page 9
J. Approve Change Order #1 in the amount of $46,144.14 for the Goodview
Avenue Water Main Extension project.
K. Adopt Resolution 2022-117 approving the site plan for the Glacial Valley
Park Building located at 9900 Ravine Parkway South.
L. Approve Resolution 2022-19 requesting the conveyance of tax-forfeited
property for public purpose.
M. Authorize Public Works to advertise and sell surplus property on Cranky
Ape.
N. Approve the issuance of rental licenses to the properties listed in the
attached table.
O. Approve the amended easement agreements with Joseph Zywiec and
Nora Scribner and Zywiec Family Trust, subject to minor modifications by
the City Attorney.
P. Authorize the use of the City’s 5 SAC credits to be provided to the Pizza
Ranch project located at 7855 Harkness Avenue South.
None of the Council Members wished to pull any items for further comment and/or
discussion.
Motion by Council Member Olsen to approve the Consent Agenda; second by Council
Member Thiede. Motion carried: 5-0.
8. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS
A. Approve payments for the period of 8/12/2022-9/01/2022 in the amount of
$4,693,793.78.
Motion by Council Member Dennis to approve disbursements; second by Council
Member Khambata. Motion carried: 5-0.
9. PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. Special Event Permit – Zywiecs Landscape & Garden Center
Staff Recommendation: Authorize issuance of a Special Event Permit to
Zywiecs Landscape & Garden Center, contingent upon conditions outlined
in the memo from Public Safety Director Koerner dated September 2,
2022, and all applicable State and Local Statutes.
Public Safety Director Pete Koerner stated the Special Event Permit tonight is “The
Haunting Experience” at Zywiecs. Their web page explains the event; many of us have
previously attended their haunted house. They also have a haunted hayride, food
events, some music, etc. Many things have not changed, but we’ll review the specifics.
Notices of this Public Hearing were sent out, and City Clerk Anderson received one
email, which was shared with Council.
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September 7, 2022
Page 10
There are multiple days for this event, as listed in the memo provided to Council: It
begins on Saturday, September 24, and will end on Monday, October 31. The event is
open on weekends until 11:00 p.m., other nights they’re open until 10:00 p.m.
Director Koerner further reviewed: Calls for Service: This event is safe and well
attended; last year we didn’t have many calls: A couple medical emergencies, a minor
incident in the parking lot where someone had hit another person, a 911 hang-up, and a
parking complaint. Emergency Preparedness Plan: With all of these special events, we
work with the applicant on an Emergency Preparedness Plan. We make sure that they
do a safety briefing every shift, and we’ve actually added some codes to those, which
has been well received by their staff to ensure it’s a safe event. Food Sales: They’re
looking at Mobile Food Units, which they’ve had for years, but with the change in City
Ordinance, they’ll have two units there this year. They’ll get those approved at the next
Council Meeting. Alcohol Sales: The applicant has not made an application, but he’s
looking at Spiral Brewing; obviously, there are some things they would need with a
catering license if they’re going to do that. Years ago, they’d used our local Lions Club,
but that’s no longer the case. Noise: Was one of the comments received; we allow
amplified music and sounds, and we asked that that end at 10:00 p.m. to follow the City
Ordinance. Director Koerner will also follow up with the person who’d reached out and
make sure the applicant is aware. Bonfire: Our Fire Marshal goes out and makes sure
they have a water supply, it’s not located by buildings, etc. Security: Years ago,
security was provided, but it was kind of a moot point as it’s a family event, without
many issues; if the applicant wants us there, we’ll certainly help with that. Parking: We
don’t want any parking backups on Highway 61, across the street on Kingsborough, or
even at the golf course; we don’t want anyone to cross the highway on foot. Years ago
there was a significant accident near there, with changes to the road design since, but if
things start to back up, we’ll get them on the property. We haven’t had many issues
with that, but we’re prepared for that.
Director Koerner stated we need to hold a public hearing tonight. He asked Mayor
Bailey if he wanted to address the comments that were received.
Mayor Bailey stated we’d received an email from Morgan Jenkins, 10920 Kingsborough
Court. His concerns were that any music be subject to volume control after a
reasonable time of night; Director Koerner mentioned that was 10:00 p.m. He had the
same concerns with cannons or loud effects, as they’d previously experienced loud
cannon noises late at night. Mayor Bailey stated he wasn’t sure what that was. Mr.
Jenkins had noted that parking can be full at times and can create some dangerous
traffic concerns on Highway 61. Mayor Bailey stated it sounds like Director Koerner is
addressing that issue. Mr. Jenkins had emailed us that information and asked that it be
put into the record.
Mayor Bailey opened the public hearing. As no one wished to address the Council on
this matter, Mayor Bailey closed the public hearing.
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September 7, 2022
Page 11
Motion by Council Member Thiede to authorize issuance of a Special Event Permit to
Zywiecs Landscape & Garden Center, contingent upon conditions outlined in the memo
from Public Safety Director Koerner and Community Development Director Costello
dated September 2, 2022, and all applicable State and Local Statutes; second by
Council Member Olsen. Motion carried: 5-0.
10. BID AWARDS - None.
11. REGULAR AGENDA
A. Thai Garden - Planned Unit Development and Site Plan Review
Staff Recommendation: Adopt Resolution 2022-116 approving a
Planned Unit Development and Site Plan Review for the proposed
Thai Garden restaurant to be located at 7470 East Point Douglas
Road South.
Mike Mrosla, Senior Planner, stated the application in front of us tonight is the Thai
Garden Planned Unit Development (PUD), Site Plan Review. The proposed restaurant
is located at 7470 East Point Douglas Road South. The original use of the site was a
gas station that operated until approximately 1989, then it was converted into the Village
Transmission Shop, which operated until about Fall 2018. In 2019, the EDA purchased
the land and prepared it for redevelopment. The site is currently vacant. The subject
property is guided Commercial in the Land Use Plan and is zoned Retail Business
District, B-2; restaurants are a permitted use in this district.
The Applicant has requested a PUD for flexibility due to the zoning regulations and
the size of the parcel. The proposed restaurant is 2,855 square-feet with 92 seats total:
64 interior seats and 28 exterior seats on the patio. The Site Plan submitted has access
located off East Point Douglas Road South.
Setbacks: The Applicant requested flexibility for setbacks. Specifically, the rear yard,
adjacent residential in the B-2 District requires a 75-foot setback; the proposed setback
is 54.7 feet. The patio setback for the B-2 District is 30 feet, and this is 24 feet from the
front-yard property line. He indicated on a sketch where the front yard patio was
located. Privacy Fence: In response to the flexibility on the PUD, the Applicant will be
constructing and replacing the existing privacy fence located on the northeast section of
the property. The proposed privacy fence will be six-feet tall and will be low
maintenance; this will help reduce any kind of impacts on the adjacent neighbors from
vehicle headlights entering the lot. Odor Suppression: The Applicant will also be
installing odor suppression to reduce any potential odor impacts from the proposed
restaurant use. Lighting: We’re also requiring a lighting shield on the lights adjacent to
the residential properties to avoid spillover onto those properties. Proposed Parking:
Actually exceeds Code requirements with 27 stalls, only 22 are required. Four stalls are
compact, 16-feet long by 9-feet wide, just two feet short of ordinance requirements;
those stalls are utilized for staff parking, located at the rear of the building, adjacent to
the trash enclosure. Landscaping Plan: Meets Code requirements; the Applicant is
proposing additional plantings along the rear property line, adjacent to the residential
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 12
properties. There are also some plantings along the proposed dry retention pond, along
the building, and along East Point Douglas Road. Architecture: City Code requires
65% Class I materials; this proposed building is 90% Class I materials, utilizing brick,
glass, and stucco.
Planner Mrosla stated no one spoke at the Planning Commission’s public hearing. He
and Conner Jakes, Associate Planner, had visited the neighbors adjacent to the
property, and none of the residents expressed any concerns and were actually
supportive of the project; they were happy to know the fence would be replaced and the
additional steps requested through the PUD process. He noted the Applicant is present
tonight for any questions.
Melvin Galloway, the owner and operator of Integrity Building, LLC, stated he’ll be the
contractor building the Thai Garden. His plan proposes to bring healthy eating and
living to the Cottage Grove neighborhood. As Planner Mrosla stated, we’ll put a building
on that vacant lot and bring some revenue into Cottage Grove.
Mayor Bailey stated they appreciated that, and asked Mr. Galloway if they’d begin
construction this year or next spring. Mr. Galloway stated once this is approved, they
hope to begin underground work before the ground freezes, then get the building up,
and work on the interior structure during the winter. They hope to finish the project in
about eight months, so will probably start in November and finish sometime in June.
Mayor Bailey stated he was excited to see this family bring their business to Cottage
Grove for our residents.
Motion by Council Member Khambata to Adopt Resolution 2022-116 approving a
Planned Unit Development and Site Plan Review for the proposed Thai Garden
restaurant to be located at 7470 East Point Douglas Road South; second by Council
Member Dennis. Motion carried: 5-0.
B. Certifying Preliminary Property Tax Levy
Staff Recommendation: Adopt Resolution 2022-122 certifying the
preliminary 2022 Property Tax Levy collectible in 2023.
Brenda Malinowski, Finance Director, stated tonight she’d do a presentation on the
2023 preliminary levy proposal. She reviewed the process to date: In April, Council
worked on both a staffing plan and the Strategic Plan, and both of those plans have
been incorporated during this budget process. Work began on the levy and budget in
May, with Council guidance. Throughout the summer we held budget workshops;
department heads worked on their budgets and presented those to the Council.
Tonight, we’re asking for adoption of the preliminary levy; that levy will be sent to
Washington County, and they’ll use it to send out Truth in Taxation Notices to our
taxpayers. In December, we’ll be here again to adopt the final budget and the final levy.
It’s important to note that the final levy cannot be more than the preliminary levy that is
adopted tonight, but it can be less.
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 13
The Property Tax Levy in front of Council is $20,649,710; that is an increase of 12.6%.
Last year, we had a 4.3% increase in the levy. About 85% of the $20,649,710 is for our
General Fund operating expense, and about 15% is for our Debt Service payments:
That will pay for such things as our Pavement Management Project Debts, Ice Arena
Debt, Central Fire Station Debt, and some of the other debt levies. Less than 1% is for
the EDA for our economic development activities.
The Property Tax Levy is divided by our Total Tax Capacity to determine the City Tax
Rate. The City has seen a significant increase in our Tax Capacity: We’re at $58.3
million, a 25% increase compared to 2022; last year, we had a 6% increase in the Tax
Capacity. Of that 25% increase, about 4% of it is for new construction, so that’s had a
positive impact for the City, and the remaining percentage is on existing properties.
Our Tax Levy divided by our Tax Capacity is having a positive impact on our City
Tax Rate. In 2022, our Tax Rate was 37.15, and that is dropping by 3.5%, down to
33.65.
What does that mean? Over the last couple of years, we’ve looked at four selected
residential homesteaded properties in the City. She spoke specifically about Property 1:
In 2021, they paid $1,011 in City taxes; with this proposed levy, they would pay $1,084,
so about a $36 increase per year. That property has had an increase in market value of
approximately 5.3% over nine years, but their City tax change has only been 2.9%, or
$27 per year. Sometimes the dollar change increases, sometimes it decreases,
depending on where we’re holding the levy. Director Malinowski stated that rings true
for all four properties: Their market value increase is between 5% to 6.5%, but their
change in City property taxes is between 2.5% and 4%, so it’s consistently less than the
market value change.
Regarding the levy, the General Fund is 85% of our levy. She delved in a bit deeper
on the General Fund: It’s a balanced budget with tonight’s proposed levy, it’s
$23,083,960; revenues equal our expenditures. The General Fund is our operating levy
in the City, so it provides such things as police and fire services, snowplowing streets,
and parks maintenance. We don’t charge for performing those services.
Revenue - We need to generate revenue, which is done through property taxes; so, it’s
76% of our budget in the General Fund. Our next biggest percentage of the revenue
pie is licenses and permits; since we’re a growing community, we have 11% license and
permit revenues, which is nice and healthy. If that building activity declines, then we’d
either need to find other revenue streams, increase property taxes, or decrease
expenditures.
Expenditures- We speak about the city being in the people business, so that’s a big
portion of our budget, 68%, supplies are at 6%, contractual services, 22%, and capital
at 2%. Looking back at 2022, it’s important to note personnel was 70% last year. We’re
experiencing in our budget here the same things we’re seeing at home: Increased fuel
costs, increased supply costs, increased capital costs. So, our supplies last year were
5% of the budget, they’ve increased to 6%. The same with capital, that was 1% last
year and because of our squad increases, that has increased to 2%.
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 14
Expenditures by Department: Public Safety: The largest portion of our budget at 48%; a
decrease of 1% when compared to 2022. Public Works: We have a new position there
to provide the same level of service that we’ve previously provided to our community.
What City Taxes Pay- A medium-value property, $329,800, value increased by 20.4%
over 2022. Based upon this preliminary levy, they will pay $1,084, which is a monthly
cost of $90.33 compared to $81.08 last year. If they would write a check to us per
month for $90.33, $37.92 would be for Police services, $15 would be for Public Works
services, $13.29 is for Debt Service, etc.
Next Steps - Director Malinowski stated tonight we’re asking Council to adopt a
resolution to certify the preliminary levy, collectible in 2023. We will send that to
Washington County by September 30. Washington County will use that information to
send Truth in Taxation Notices to our taxpayers, which they will receive by mid-
November.
It’s important to note that there will be a Budget Summary, which is a new State
requirement, with those Truth in Taxation Notices this year. It will be a one-page notice
that will include information about our levy and our budget, the School District levy and
budget, and then Washington County’s levy and budget. That will all be on one sheet of
paper. In anticipation that that might generate further questions when it’s received by
the taxpayers, Council and staff will be doing some further outreach in November. We’ll
have an open house on the levy and budget on November 29, and we’ll be back in front
of the Council on December 7 to adopt the final budget and levy.
Director Malinowski stated she’d take any questions.
Mayor Bailey thanked Director Malinowski for her presentation. He stated we’ve spent
a lot of time on this, and we’ve all been witnessing the inflationary factors on some of
the supplies that we’re purchasing, which is quite challenging. He appreciated our staff
really tightening up their bootstrings, making sure that we come in with a really good
budget. He also thanked the Council for hashing all of this out over many nights, going
through the budget line by line.
Mayor Bailey asked if anybody in the audience wanted to make a comment or ask
questions: Sue Wagner, who lives on 72nd Street, asked who they should contact if
they have any questions or concerns about their tax bills.
Mayor Bailey replied it would be Director Malinowski; Director Malinowski told Ms.
Wagner she would give her a City business card, containing her contact information.
Council Member Olsen thanked Director Malinowski and the entire City team for all of
the work that went into preparing the budget this year. It was a very robust and detailed
process, and he felt very good about where we landed. Everybody did their homework,
and it ended in what he believed was a very strong budget.
Our City Tax Rate continues to drop. Even with this year’s budget, when you take
the levy increase versus the increase in valuation of properties in this City, the gap is
such that the taxpayer wins again in the City of Cottage Grove. For less than $91 a
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 15
month, they receive all of the amazing services that our staff works very diligently to
provide. He asked Director Malinowski to speak about the Tax Rate and where that
comes from; the shocking number is that this is the lowest Tax Rate that our taxpayers
in Cottage Grove have been able to enjoy in about 12 years or so.
Director Malinowski stated because of our growth, our Tax Rate continues to fall.
Also because of valuation increases, especially on our residential properties, those
showed that decrease. What we have to look at is our tax per capita; when we look at
that, compared to surrounding communities, especially in Washington County, we are
either the second or third lowest in levy per capita. So, we really do provide a service to
our residents; that Tax Rate is decreasing, but it’s also important to look at our property
tax levy per capita.
Council Member Olsen stated regarding the tax per capita, after our auditors do their
financial report every year, it consistently bears out that the taxpayer in the City of
Cottage Grove receives tremendous value for what they pay in property taxes. When
we look at Washington County as a whole, the City of Cottage Grove is always in the
bottom two-or-three cities in the entire County, which includes cities of all sizes, with
what is paid for what you receive.
Council Member Olsen noted the City of Cottage Grove does not receive a dime in
Local Government Aid (LGA) from the State of Minnesota. It’s worth noting that when
looking at surrounding communities, one of the things that they can count on is LGA
that comes from the State to help them pay for the same things we have to pay for. He
noted specific cities and quoted amounts they will be receiving in LGA in 2023. We
don’t receive $1 in LGA, and yet we manage to maintain a Tax per Capita and a Tax
Rate that is lower than all of those communities. Again, he offered his deepest gratitude
to the City staff for the work that they do to make that happen; it’s absolutely
tremendous work and he’s grateful as a taxpayer and as a City Council Member. He’s
lived in this community a long time, and he’s also grateful for the level of service that we
receive for those dollars from Public Safety, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, etc.,
all of which is part of this budget.
Council Member Thiede stated most people know that his dad raised him to be pretty
darn squeaky when it comes to money; his fellow Council Members especially know
that. When he initially looked at the budget, he thought no way, I don’t want it to be that
high. But after attending all of the budget meetings, receiving all of the information, and
evaluating things, he realized Washington County had decided that the value of our
homes probably increased significantly, over 20%. So, in terms of the amount the levy
is increasing, it actually compares very favorably to other neighboring cities in
Washington County regarding taxes. He’d of course like to keep any increases at zero,
but with prices increasing and all of the facts received, we’re doing quite well. With all
the work that our staff does, we’re gaining necessary people, who do a fantastic job; he
offered kudos to the staff for looking at all of the different possibilities, to make sure that
the citizens of our City get great services and value for their money.
Council Member Dennis referenced an email sent to the Council earlier today by
Director Malinowski; it was regarding fiscal disparities. One of the statements provided
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September 7, 2022
Page 16
was for 2023, we have not been impacted as much as some communities due to our
faster-than-average population growth. Generally, a city with faster-than-average
population growth will benefit via the fiscal disparities formula, while cities with a slower-
than-average or declining population, will generally experience declines in distribution.
He stated Director Malinowski further noted in comparison to another community in
Washington County that would have a very similar tax levy increase, that because of
their population and growth factors they’re ending up paying a decent amount more per
property than what we pay here. He appreciated receiving that information.
He also mentioned, in agreement with his Council colleagues, that we go through
this very in-depth process, and look at it through the critical eye of an owner. A
business owner, for example, who understands that if you’re spending more out the
back door than you’re taking in the front door, you’ve got a problem. One of things he
thinks we’ve done really well is handling how we run the fiscal aspects of the business
here for everybody to the very best that we possibly can.
Council Member Dennis stated when you take a look at how we operate as a City,
we have a very robust and successful economic development initiative and push here.
This is one of the key factors that adds to the fact that we’re doing better than many
other communities in that regard. If there are a few people holding a very heavy object,
if we invite a couple more people to come and help hold that weight, all of a sudden the
back and the shoulders don’t feel quite as bad. He thinks we’ve been successful, not
just with the management process but also in terms of how we grow the business
through the top end; in his opinion, that’s making a good difference here.
Council Member Khambata stated as the newest member of the Council, this was his
first time experiencing the full depth of the budget process. He was especially
impressed with the amount of due diligence that every department head brought to the
discussion; they prioritized expenditures, monitored a plan, and highlighted future
expenditures so we could budget accordingly for them. He credits them with our current
financial position, and gave them all of the credit for why we’ve been able to maintain
our fiscal position.
Motion by Council Member Olsen to Adopt Resolution 2022-122 certifying the
preliminary 2022 Property Tax Levy collectible in 2023; second by Council Member
Khambata. Motion carried: 5-0.
12. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS
Council Member Khambata thanked staff again for all of their hard work.
Council Member Dennis stated he and Mayor Bailey did a Facebook Live program last
night on economic development. He certainly appreciated working with Mayor Bailey on
that, noted it’s the third one that they’ve done. He thought many viewers also enjoyed
it. Facebook currently shows that there were 4,400 views from people who wanted to
find out what was happening in Cottage Grove. It’s a very exciting time, there’s a lot of
good opportunity, and more things are going to be coming here this year.
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September 7, 2022
Page 17
Council Member Thiede reminded everybody that the kids are back in school. He
asked that we all make sure to keep watching for them and drive safely, and just be
good stewards on the road.
Council Member Olsen stated earlier tonight we had the opportunity to recognize some
community partners who have done some amazing things in our City and the
surrounding in South Washington County. SoWashCo CARES is a tremendous
organization with all sorts of different elements that help not just the kids, but also the
families of the kids in South Washington County. The Cottage Grove Lions partners
with SoWashCo CARES and South Washington County Schools by helping with things
like the Skoolie events, etc. He asked all people watching from home, or who are
familiar with SoWashCo CARES, to follow SoWashCo CARES on their social media,
particularly their Facebook page. If you can’t, you can certainly reach out and talk to
Cheryl herself about these things. They’re consistently putting needs on their Facebook
page for things that they encounter in real time; for example, if a student comes to
school without a heavy coat in the wintertime, or doesn’t have boots, a hat, or gloves,
they will put information on their Facebook page, stating we have a need. They won’t
be any more specific than they need to be, and they’ll ask if anybody in the community
can step up to help. Sometimes a student doesn’t have transportation to school, so
maybe they need a bike; if you’ve got a bike in your garage that is still in reasonably
good condition and you want to donate that, you can. SoWashCo CARES is also a
nonprofit, so there are tax benefits to that. They really do some amazing things, and it’s
important that we all recognize that as a community we serve each other. We are one
community, and Cheryl and her team have really brought that to light through what they
do with SoWashCo CARES. There are consistently things with respect to somebody
who’s not getting enough food, etc. If you’re looking for a place where you can help,
contact SoWashCo CARES on their Facebook page or contact Cheryl directly if you
want to get involved. They do great work, and our Lions Club is really proud to partner
with them on many of their projects.
Council Member Olsen noted Council Member Thiede’s comments about the kids being
back in school; he thanked all teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, lunchroom
workers, and anybody else who’s helping to educate our kids in South Washington
County, across the state, and across the nation. It’s not an easy job, and it’s important
they know how appreciated they are. As the kids return this year, all those awaiting
their return are dedicated to giving them the very best possible educational and social
experience they can give. We’re all grateful for the important work that they do.
Council Member Thiede stated that even though our Strawberry Fest is done, in a few
months we’ll actually be starting to plan for 2023. We also have the Monster Bash, our
Halloween parade, to plan at the end of October. A couple of our longtime committee
volunteers have decided to retire, one of whom deals with all of the food vendors. So,
we really can use some additional help on the committee. Now’s a perfect time to get
involved, see what it’s all about, and help out. It’s a fantastic festival every year. Our
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 18
next meeting is on September 19 at 6:00 p.m., so contact Council Member Thiede if
you’d like to help. He will take your name and put it on the distribution list for the
planning. Tell all your friends and shout it to the world.
Council Member Olsen stated Mayor Bailey and he have both been part of that, and
it’s really fun; he also encouraged people to help out and get involved.
Mayor Bailey stated at our August 31 City Council Meeting, we had a closed session
where we reviewed some information from a group, Ethical Leaders in Action, who
presented a report to us. It was something that we’d requested for our City
Administrator’s performance review, to talk with our staff about their goals and
objectives within the City. We received that information, which is why that was a closed
session. He thanked City Administrator Levitt for getting that done in August.
Mayor Bailey noted as Council Member Dennis had mentioned, we held a Facebook
Live event. One of the passions of the Council is providing great opportunities for our
residents in Cottage Grove via new business opportunities, jobs, restaurants, parks,
open space, etc. Some things are challenging to other cities right now, such as new
businesses, housing starts, or restaurants, but we’re not seeing a slowdown, specifically
in our Business Park. Things might take a bit longer due to supply shortages, but
otherwise things are good. There are a few things that we can’t share with the public
yet, but there are some great things we’re looking forward to sharing with the public
within the next month to six months or so. We’ll have to have another Facebook Live
event to share and make that happen.
Mayor Bailey mentioned he will not be here for the next City Council Meeting, on
September 21. Mayor Pro Tem/Council Member Dennis will be covering that meeting
for him. He will be joining Director Burfeind on a trip to Washington, D.C. to talk to our
legislative contingents, as well as others there, about some funding opportunities for
some road projects in Cottage Grove. One is 80th Street, which is already in a Bill for
some financial assistance from the Federal government. We’ll be there discussing that
and hopefully getting that through to the end so that we can move forward on that. The
other one is what would be a future extension of 100th Street, from Jamaica to Highway
61, with all the new development that’s happening with NorthPoint and Renewal by
Andersen, etc. He will be gone for part of that week; he hopes to be able to provide
feedback to the public and the Council once he returns.
Mayor Bailey stated the next item is a workshop, open to the public, on the East Point
Douglas Road & Jamaica Avenue Improvements Project. Our citizens have been telling
us that they want that area fixed from a traffic congestion standpoint. We’ll be holding
that workshop in the Training Room.
Once we’re done with that, we’ll have another workshop session that is closed to the
public, pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.05, Subd. 3(b), attorney-client privilege, to
discuss acquisition risks and anticipated eminent domain litigation for the East Point
Douglas Road & Jamaica Avenue Improvements Project. We will adjourn tonight’s
meeting from there.
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 19
13. WORKSHOPS - OPEN TO PUBLIC - Training Room
A. East Point Douglas Road & Jamaica Avenue Improvement Project
Staff Recommendation: Review the East Point Douglas Road & Jamaica
Avenue Improvements Project, including the following items: Project layout,
design status, construction staging options, construction schedule, and
project financing.
Director Burfeind stated this is a very important project, so he’d update the Council on
this and take direction from the Council moving forward; key points to discuss tonight
are the schedule, the cost, and concerns we have about that. Potential legal costs
associated with anticipated eminent domain litigation will be discussed in tonight’s
closed workshop.
He introduced the project team:
City Staff: He and Assistant City Engineer Amanda Meyer
Bolton & Menk staff, our engineering consultants
Sonya Henning, Right-of-Way Specialist, as with a project of this scope, we need
easements from 14 businesses. This is what she does, she’s very good at
working with businesses and property owners on easement acquisition.
Peter Mikhail, from our City Attorney’s Office, as he specializes in construction
projects and working through easement acquisitions, etc.
Jason Messner, Appraiser, who will be doing appraisals for the city.
Director Burfeind stated there’s been a lot of work going on to get to this point. We
have a layout that we know is something that will work, it will achieve our goals,
addressing traffic issues now and into the future. We know what it will take to build it,
we know what easements it will take to build it, and we’ll meet State and City standards
with this layout. We now have a full picture of the costs, construction, and easement
acquisition. Business engagement has been a big part of this process.
At budget discussions, we knew what our construction costs would be, but there’s a
big range of costs for easement acquisition. We talked about a range of $3-to-$5 million
for easement acquisition. We’re working with our businesses hand in hand, we talked
about the project layout to see how it could be adjusted to have better outcomes for
them. In April, we began detailed discussions from the engineering side on what that
would look like. We have some concerns on what those costs might be based on more
recent discussions on how things are going, which will be discussed during the closed
session. That will also play into staging of this project and how that can impact this
project.
Proposed Improvements
A picture is worth 1,000 words, but animation is priceless: it’s common practice for
projects at this level. Animation looks at before and after conditions and looks at
different angles; we can use this to show the public as we continue with the
engagement portion of how it will look once completed. Jamaica Avenue and East
Point Douglas Road traffic backups are very common, especially during peak times.
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 20
We’ll be expanding everything and will have dual lefts in every direction. We’ll be going
to a right in, right out in place of that intersection, and really making the main
intersection the roundabout that’s closer to Cub Foods and the strip mall. This
roundabout is really one of the key features. The current signal at the intersection is
simply too close to Jamaica Avenue, only 200 feet apart, and there’s no way to
practically time that or design that to actually work. Going to a right in, right out at this
intersection and having the roundabout over there is really a key component of the
project. With the dual lanes in every direction, there are still two through lanes, which is
plenty of capacity, it’s more than the turn lanes that we need. With that, we need
easements. Right now there are very narrow Right-of-Ways, between 70 and 100 feet;
typical for roadways like this is 120-to-180 feet. We are very constrained on this
corridor. Adding a left-turn lane, we need Right-of-Way to do that, and we don’t have
the Right-of-Way to build what we need to make this area function now and into the
future. We’re looking ahead to 2040 as we continue to build out Cottage Grove.
A key feature of the roundabout location near Cub Foods and the strip mall is while
this is a right in, right out, functionally it will be a left out. Traffic can come down and do
a U-turn; that can be done quite a bit quicker than today.
Challenges
1) It’s a very narrow Right-of-Way, so that’s what we’re up against, the biggest
challenge of this project. It’s too narrow and we really can’t even do the bare minimum
that we have to do to build this project without acquiring easements; it requires
easements from the 14 property owners. We call them easements, but they are a
Right-of-Way easement; it’s essentially a full acquisition of that property. 2) East Point
Douglas is too close to Jamaica, with only 200 feet between them. Also, the direct
business access to Holiday causes exiting drivers to cut at an angle across two-or-three
lanes of traffic, so everything breaks down: that’s very common. 3) Easement Access:
This will be discussed further in the closed session, but this high-level layout looks at all
of the easements that we need: Permanent Easement; Temporary Easements to allow
us to go in, change something, build something, but the City will not own it long term;
Drainage and Utility Easements. It’s very complicated because we lack the Right-of-
Way needed.
Staging
Staging really plays into some of our potential costs, but there are things that we really
look at; one goal has been to build this in one year, but it’s a lot of work.
Option A: As we’ve gotten into the real nuts and bolts of it, Option A is to reduce it to
the bare minimum; even with that, it can’t be done in one construction season. We’re
looking at more road closures and potential higher acquisition costs; there are more
construction costs with road closures, but in an area like this, they’re a major impact to
the traveling public. Without road closures, without having to switch traffic back and
forth, there’s better quality and a better end product; there won’t be seams in the paving
and potential joints that you’ll feel driving down the road. We did 80th Street from
Jamaica to Keats under a full closure, with an easy detour onto 70th Street, which gave
us a good end product; however, that area only has 7,000 cars a day, so less people
were impacted than this area, which has 22,000 cars a day. Road closures have fewer
stages as we’re not moving traffic around all the time to accommodate construction.
City Council Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2022
Page 21
There’s also some pretty nice median landscaping on Jamaica Avenue from the signal
down to the roundabout, and we wouldn’t have to impact that if we had road closures.
Option B: There are a lot of negatives with this, including longer construction and higher
construction costs, by switching traffic around to allow traffic control. A positive is lower
acquisition costs, as there will be less impact to the businesses; that will be discussed
further in the closed session. There are more quality concerns and more driver
confusion with the different stages. There wouldn’t be any full road closures; there
would be lane closures, maybe one lane in each direction, but you could still travel
through the area to get to the businesses or get home.
Staging
Plan A: Stage 1: This was our first plan for how quickly we can build this project; at a
bare minimum, it would be a full construction season into another construction season.
We’d need to dig up the medians, and this is the one with road closures to get this done
as fast as possible. First phase would be closing Jamaica Avenue, north of the
roundabout, up to the signal. This is Stage 1A, plus or minus 2 weeks under the full
closure in all these directions. Stage 1B is very similar, but we would open up the
Target access, with people traversing East Point Douglas Road; while you can’t get to
the highway with this option, you can go north and then East Point Douglas Road is
open one lane in each direction, so people can travel from either side to Jamaica
Avenue. This would require a detour. Coming off the roundabout, we need to have
signage for detours on Highway 61, but it would give you a more-efficient process on
Jamaica Avenue and better quality. Stage 2: We’ll be doing the northern section, which
is a little less of an impact because traffic can go around on Inwood Avenue and 90th
Street to get around this closure. It’s a more efficient detour than going down to East
Point Douglas Road, but it’s a full closure to Jamaica, which has a lot of traffic. While
drivers would detour, during peak times we’ll see congestion on these roadways as
people try to traverse them. As we open up north of Jamaica Avenue, there’s still some
additional work down on this end; even under this method, we’d still try to get things
open when we could by opening up access points and getting things reopened for the
businesses. Stage 3: Moving to East Point Douglas Road, so Jamaica Avenue is now
open, but now there’s a closure on both sides of Jamaica Avenue for about 15 weeks.
90th Street and Inwood Avenue is an option, but with that closure where the roundabout
is being built, there will again be a detour down to Keats Avenue, over to those
businesses that are behind there (Wells Fargo, Menards) that you can reach from either
direction. Stage 4 & 5: Just completing East Point Douglas Road in sections behind
Target. A challenge with East Point Douglas Road behind Target is it’s not wide
enough to have two lanes of traffic in each direction and build over half the roadway.
So, either we’re closing it in segments and building it, or under Plan B, basically we’ll
keep one lane open for people to access the businesses, as that’s the most important,
and it’s also easiest for detours. You’ll see that under Plan B; this is really the end of
Plan A. This plan will potentially build Stages 1 through 3 in the first construction season
in 2023; Stages 4 and 5 will need an additional 7-to-8 weeks in 2024. So, you’re still
into more than one construction season, as there’s just too much work to be done. If we
tried to press to have it completed in just one construction season, our costs would
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September 7, 2022
Page 22
increase dramatically, as contractors would have to plan for overtime and have multiple
crews dedicated, which reduces their ability to add another project.
Plan B: We’re looking at having this take two full construction seasons. Stage 1:
Removing medians to make some changes, taking out the median just north of the
roundabout, an area where we have some trees. We’re going to flip traffic from one
side to the other coming out of the roundabout. There will be traffic congestion during
peak times, as it’s already busy without all of this work going on, but it will be busier and
more congested during the project, but traffic will be allowed to go through. Perhaps
people who live to the north and use this strictly as a way to get to Highway 61 might
find it more convenient to go to Keats Avenue; we don’t really want them driving through
this at peak times, but it allows the traffic to get to Target conveniently from a distance
perspective. We also maintain traffic flow, one lane each direction, on East Point
Douglas Road. The phases will look somewhat similar; we’ll open up Target, and the
reason we’re trying to get so many of these accesses open quickly is that’s a
consideration of our easement acquisition and some damages that the businesses can
have. The quicker we can get immediate access open the lower our risk for some of
those costs. Staging Plan: We’re just looking to reopen things when we can with this
right in, right out that goes to Cub Foods and Holiday. It’s important for Holiday and
how they get their fuel deliveries, so we really have to get to those details when we talk
about the impacts to these businesses, is our construction going to impact how they get
their delivery trucks in some negative way. Stage 1: Now we have all of East Point
Douglas Road open; while we keep this Jamaica and East Point Douglas Road
intersection open, there will be a point where we’ll have to close it for just a few days to
get the pavement done. We’ll build the curb and gutter, install signals, install storm
sewer, but we have to physically finish paving, so we need the road closed for a handful
of days to do that. East Point Douglas Road would be fully disconnected from Target
and Cub Foods for a very short period of time, low impact but driver confusion. We’re
talking about two-to-four days where now they detour to Keats, so we really have to sign
that well and have information on the highway; the pro is it’s short duration, the con is
local people are going to be confused on how to get there, and then it will be open once
again. Communication is going to be key if we go with this route. Stage 2A: Is very
similar to Stage 1, but now we’re constructing the left side of the roadway. We’ll have
traffic flowing east and west on East Point Douglas Road, one lane in each direction.
While the surface improvements of paving seem very simple, we have to do a whole
new storm sewer system to meet State Aid requirements; that’s one of the real
challenges with State Aid is you have to actually dig up and install the storm sewer
structures, so that’s a lot of underground work. Stage 3: All of Jamaica Avenue is done.
Following similar staging ideas as the first plan, it’s just taking longer. Whichever way
we do it, we have a full construction season to get Jamaica done and both sides of the
intersection. Then we move to East Point Douglas Road. With this option, we will do
the roundabout one half at a time so we can maintain traffic going through here, but
there’s only traffic coming in; we can’t maintain traffic flow in each direction on East
Point Douglas Road. No matter how we do it, people can still get to this access point,
but traffic is only coming in, so you will have to detour when you leave if you’re trying to
go down to Hastings. It’s 13 weeks for the north half, 13 weeks for the south half, so 26
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September 7, 2022
Page 23
weeks total to build this roundabout. Under the first option, we’re at 15 weeks with a full
closure. We’re almost doubling the time to build it because building a concrete
roundabout is very challenging, and he thinks that’s where we’re going to have most of
the quality concerns. Even if we go with Plan B and reduce impacts with Jamaica, do
we still build our roundabout just really in one shot; do we close it in 2024 and take
potentially 9 weeks off our construction period? Instead of 2024 pushing into October or
November, right down to the bitter end of construction, we could get done earlier in the
fall so we could get this project done and wrapped up. Doubling that length of time has
a lot of benefits because he knows we want to keep Jamaica open but closing East
Point Douglas Road is less traffic and will have less of an impact. Last Stages: Simply
building out East Point Douglas Road, keeping one lane of traffic open coming in.
Director Burfeind stated that’s the end of the Staging Plan. He asked if Council had
any feedback on Plan A vs. Plan B; do we keep more traffic open on Jamaica? Either
way, we know we’re in two construction seasons; do we do that to reduce impacts? If
we do, do we look at that roundabout in one closure so we can really get it done quickly
and have it the best quality when we’re done?
Discussion: Council Member Olsen stated Director Burfeind had referred to two
construction seasons; he asked if he’s referring to two construction seasons with
contingencies because we don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of weather
impact, etc. A construction season can start weeks late and can end weeks early or can
have multiple rainout days, and we don’t know that. He asked if contingencies were
built into that timeframe. Director Burfeind replied we have a little bit of additional time
built in right now, but if we went with a full Plan B, it’s very tight for two construction
seasons and you’re depending on good weather. Council Member Olsen stated it didn’t
feel like Plan B would be done in just two seasons. Director Burfeind agreed and stated
that’s where we’ve been really dialing in some of these timeframes in the last few days.
A hybrid plan would still close the roundabout, and that really buys us some extra time.
Council Member Olsen stated the primary consideration is accessibility for the
businesses; obviously, residents want to be able to get where they want to go, but the
businesses also need that traffic to maintain a level of viability. Do you peel the Band-
Aid off all at once or little by little? It would be important for him to know if we did Plan A
what options exist for businesses to be able to get some traffic, delivery trucks, etc.
He’s sure businesses bring that up all the time; as a retail operator, he’s currently
dealing with road construction in front of his store, so you can’t get from A to B unless
you go all the way around through a neighborhood. So, we feel that impact. It’ll be
great when it's done, but it’s a whole summer of slow sales; he really needs to know
how we can mitigate that to some degree. Director Burfeind stated that’s one thing that
Peter will address in the closed session, when we talk about the acquisition, our
potential future liabilities, costs, and damages. It’s difficult because we can talk about
some things now, and others later, but think about this and store that in your mind; what
we talk about later will really play into what could be our potential costs of these two
options.
Council Member Thiede asked Director Burfeind which one he thought would cause
the least confusion for people. Director Burfeind replied to overall confusion during the
project is Plan A, because the fewer stages you have the fewer times you need to get
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September 7, 2022
Page 24
used to changes. With Plan B, things are always open; so, people might come off the
interchange and it might be backed up, but they can still get where they need to go.
However, it’s also changing frequently. Plan A is that immediate change where they’ll
need to learn the detour route, but once they learn it, they know it. Many of the driving
reasons for Plan B are the potential cost of what it does for the ease of acquisitions and
some impacts in the damages to businesses during construction. Thinking about Plan
C, he feels Jamaica is the biggest liability; that’s the main way in and out for everyone.
So, by closing Jamaica, all the businesses are feeling that impact; if we close this
roundabout, certainly there are businesses that will feel that, but coming off Keats
Avenue for a detour for a length of time is not unusual.
Administrator Levitt asked Director Burfeind what the cost difference was between
Plan A and Plan B. Director Burfeind stated with the additional stages and additional
mobilizations, we’re probably looking at $750,000 to $1 million in additional construction
costs for Plan B. That would be reduced if we did the roundabout in one shot, but
there’s potential for the easement costs that could far outweigh that. Some of those are
unknowns that won’t be known until later; it’s drawing on experience and potentials, and
some of those costs that we could feel from damages to businesses would be after the
fact. There’s some risk with that, a big factor we’ll discuss in the closed session.
Mayor Bailey stated if we stretch something from a single season to up to maybe
three, he’s looking at the businesses and people finding somewhere else to go. He’s a
little concerned about how we can make that better. No matter what we come up with,
maybe Plan C, he thinks if we’re going to do the roundabout, we do it at once. He
asked as we’re doing all these sections, looking at this scenario, how would we get out
of Target? He asked if that was just a right in, right out. Director Burfeind stated they
would keep this median out during construction, so it will still be full access. That’s one
thing he’ll mention with one year vs. two years; if we do Plan B and get all of Jamaica
done in year one, under the new condition this is the new expanding signal, this is all
working well. You have full access into Cub Foods, Holiday, all seven businesses here,
and this side; so, most of the traffic impacts are really done in year one because this is
the expanded signal, turn lanes in every direction, so things are going to work well
starting in spring of year two if we did Plan B. The real impact then is just closing this,
so everyone can get here to get to these businesses, it’s just getting to these you must
detour around. Other than those townhomes, there’s almost no residences in that
direction. Your major impacts of traffic are still in year one.
Administrator Levitt stated there’s a temporary signal going in the Target area.
Director Burfeind stated yes, over the winter, this will all be open, this will be done, this
will be working well, and there will be a signal here to operate over the wintertime.
Mayor Bailey stated that would be in effect in the second season; Director Burfeind
confirmed that at the end of year one, it will look like it does today as far as the signals.
This will be expanded and fully completed; we’re thinking this will actually work better
than it does today because we’ll have dual lefts, so we’ll reduce some of those backups.
Mayor Bailey stated he thinks about how horrible the traffic is down there, so people
always look for shortcuts. He found two shortcuts: If you’re coming from Menards to go
to Target, if you come around the back side, there’s a wall there. He slows down
because you just never know if there’s another vehicle coming because you can’t see it;
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September 7, 2022
Page 25
it’s just food for thought when we get to the final decision, whatever we end up doing,
that is going to be an area for people to get in and out of there. He could see accidents
happening there, and the same thing with backups, too. Cub Foods is the other one
where people try to cut through there to avoid the intersection. Director Burfeind stated
if we close this roundabout, Keats is open so people can still use this; but if we close the
roundabout, that’s something we must address very clearly is the potential cut-through
to get through there.
Project Costs/Funding
Director Burfeind stated we previously presented this information, but we’ll look at costs
first and then funding this project: Work: Includes watermain, storm sewer, street traffic,
and signals. Land acquisition: From $3 to $5 million; as discussed, this spring, we
initially had some real goodwill with the businesses and didn’t intend to assess them,
were hoping it would be $3 million for the acquisition costs. More recently, in the last
month, as businesses get legal counsel, we’re having a lot of concern that it could trend
toward the higher end. We’ll speak further about this in the closed session. Even with
all the work we’ve done, if things don’t go well with easement acquisition, we could be
on that high end. Total Project Costs: About $13.6 million, for which we have a funding
plan; part of that is bonding for $3.6 million. Funding: We have a lot of State Aid
Funds, we have money this year that we’re intending to use for design that we’ll maybe
use for some additional land acquisition. We got some Corona Virus MSA, and our
MSA was lower last year than normal, so the Feds did some work to make cities whole
with that. MSA Funds for next year we’d also do in advance at $4 million; this has been
part of our plan, and we did this for 80th Street, from Keats to Jamaica. We’d pay off $4
million over the next two years. We also received a grant for $1.25 million, the
maximum amount available from the State for the Local Road Improvement Program.
The State received over 400 applications, only about 70 received any funding, and we
got the maximum: that’s a huge part of this project funding.
Our major concern is if things don’t go well with our acquisition, there’s a lot of
liability and costs that we’d have to pay. Putting it over two construction seasons, could
we bond again? That’s something we could discuss.
Considering how to pay for these costs, Director Burfeind mentioned Chapter 429
assessments. One significant factor is we have some remnant overhead power lines,
which have conflicts with the project; so, at that time, we’ll work with Xcel to find out
what it’s going to cost to fully underground them because it’s very expensive to remove
them. All of that would be reduced. They’re past Menards, behind Target, and a little
bit up by 90th Street, which would be $481,000; that’s the additional cost to
underground it vs. having them just move it. Just moving it is not that simple because
this whole line would need to be moved; this utility easement is where they would move
it into, and they would cut down every tree behind Target, which is another cost to be
reimbursed. Every way we turn, we’re seeing these potential costs. So, if we
underground these lines, it’s $481,000, which would eliminate that; the lines would be
underground, it’s clean, and we don’t have to squeeze poles into these tight Right-of-
Way corridors. We looked at Council’s direction in 2012 by Walmart, potentially doing
the same thing here with the facilities surcharge. Instead of us writing a check for
$481,000, it goes on customers’ bills spread out over the city for a period of time; it was
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September 7, 2022
Page 26
about $2 per month per customer in 2012 when it was done by Walmart. We’re looking
at that to fund undergrounding these lines. It cleans up the area and it also really helps
with the project because Xcel can get in there and get that buried and get them out of
our way before the second construction season. He asked if there were any thoughts
on going that route; there’s a process to it, and 2012 was before his time with the city,
but there are public hearings, etc. required to approve that expenditure. Discussion:
Council Member Thiede asked how much it cost for the Walmart lines; Director Burfeind
replied it was $170,000 or so, 10 years ago, so now it would be 2.5 times as much. Our
tax base has grown so we could spread that cost over more properties.
Council Member Khambata asked if the power line burial was critical to the progress
of the project. Director Burfeind replied yes, for two reasons: 1) With Xcel, there might
be work we have to do to accommodate moving the poles if we haven’t started the work
yet. Xcel could come in and bury those lines ahead of our project, so that takes out of
the equation the length of time it’s going to take Xcel to move those poles. 2) Also, the
potential impact to Target if they cut down all of Target’s landscaping trees; those would
need to be replanted, so that’s another cost. It would be much more efficient for the
project to have Xcel bury the lines; it would eliminate any concerns about time they
would need to relocate them.
Council Member Olsen asked, from an engineer’s point of view, when we look at the
current alignment of the intersection is it an unsafe intersection? If we left it alone and
didn’t do anything to it, so it would continue to be aggravating and something that we all
complain about, is it truly an unsafe intersection to the point where we’re in a position
where we must do something about it. Director Burfeind stated regarding the safety,
there are more accidents there than at a similar intersection, but it’s also a low-speed
area. MnDOT looked at fatalities and serious injury accidents, and those most likely
aren’t there. It’s more of a level of service issue.
Administrator Levitt stated she felt it was a lost-opportunity cost loss with
development and redevelopment. If your level of service drops from a B to an F, you’re
not going to see businesses make an investment, so you’re going to have a lost-
opportunity cost on development and redevelopment of the area. Investors and brokers
are going to shy away from this area. So, the City’s loss cost is going to be greater
there than the safety perspective.
Council Member Olsen stated he appreciated that insight. We must ask ourselves is
the juice worth the squeeze; as we see continuing cost escalation, they’re hinting at the
fact that some of the businesses aren’t willing to play nice, we must ask ourselves is it
something that we absolutely, positively just have to do. He hates that intersection as
much as anybody and wants it fixed, but there’s always that cost-benefit analysis that
we must do. As the costs increase, we have to ask if the benefits increase on a parallel
line or do they not? Engineers look at things differently than laymen would, so is it
something where you just shake your head and go I don't know who designed this, but
wow, we really need to take care of it. Or is it one of those things that even though it’s
annoying we can live with it? Director Burfeind stated from an operations standpoint,
they fail today, so that’s one thing that’s different. We see a lot of projects come in from
the County, they’re looking at future growth, and we must get in here and expand this
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September 7, 2022
Page 27
before we’re failing; we’re failing now with the level of service. As Administrator Levitt
mentioned, businesses will feel that, and as traffic grows, it will get more challenging.
Council Member Olsen stated if it’s failing now and the businesses will feel an impact,
one would think they would want it to be better. Director Burfeind stated he agreed, and
the businesses acknowledge that. They acknowledge that it will be a better condition.
Council Member Olsen stated they just don’t want to participate in it, which is what we
deal with all the time. Director Burfeind stated it’s ‘no good deed goes unpunished’, as
we try to do all this goodwill and we’re fixing a known problem, but when it comes down
to where the rubber meets the road, then we need them to support us.
Mayor Bailey stated Director Burfeind already knows his opinion on the power lines,
but let’s say they move the poles and take out all the trees, they cannot put trees back
there because you can’t put trees underneath the power lines. Now you’re going to look
at the back of Target and all of the businesses there with power lines running across the
top with no screening; that does not appeal to him, especially if our goal is to have a
connected feel going down towards what eventually will be the Shoppes at Cottage
View, Walmart, Menards, etc.
Council Member Olsen stated if we’re going to do it, we need to do it right.
Administrator Levitt stated regarding Council Member Thiede’s question about the
surcharge, we don’t have $481,000 in our equation; you were proposing to have to bond
for $3.6 million, which is $348,000 of Debt Service. She asked if we had to add that
Debt Service, 2.3%, to the levy just to carry those underground costs. So, Council
needs to figure out if they want the levy to increase to cover the cost of Debt Service, or
do you want to do it through Xcel bills of residents and businesses? That’s the other
tradeoff Council has to decide. With Walmart, we didn’t want that Debt Service, which is
why we chose to go that route on the Xcel bill. Right now, this amount is not in our Debt
Service, and you’d have to increase your Debt Service by nearly half a million.
She explained the process: We’d initiate a letter to Xcel Energy to ask them to do a
design analysis to come up with the cost. That would be the cost to evaluate what our
residents and businesses would pay for that. Then you could balance the tradeoff
between what the levy impact is doing to Debt Service compared to what the residents
are experiencing. She’d encourage Council to request that design analysis, to get the
numbers to be able to evaluate it; you don’t have to move forward with it, but it gives
you the opportunity to evaluate that cost. If you close the door too quickly, just know
that’s automatically going on your Debt Service.
Council Member Thiede stated what if they took out the first stoplight where you turn
into Target, whether you had another stoplight in the end, and you made that a right in,
right out right now? He asked what they thought that would do. Director Burfeind
replied it would prevent the feel of backing up through intersections, but it will drive a lot
more traffic out to here, which we know will happen with our plan project; so, you could
be pushing an issue down, as we’re going to build a roundabout here, make it a very
safe intersection as it’s a challenging intersection today. Once you make this a right in,
right out, people must use this one. So, it’s important to have the roundabout there to
accommodate the traffic that’s now using it. Council Member Thiede asked what if we
had a stoplight there instead? Director Burfeind replied we could do that, but the one
thing we’d lose with that is the U-turn ability, so you’ll lose a lot of access to these
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September 7, 2022
Page 28
businesses; you can come right in, but now when you want to leave, it’s a precarious
route to get out. The roundabout is key for having driver convenience when the project
is all said and done. Council Member Thiede stated he agreed it would be a lot nicer to
have the roundabout.
Administrator Levitt stated she would argue that going back to Council Member
Olsen’s concerns about safety, if we were to propose that, your sight line on the visibility
would be worsened and that’s a liability.
Mayor Bailey stated that’s the other issue right now is when you exit by the bank
there, it’s hard to see, but cars come around that corner quickly; trying to get out is
always a challenge. He could see major accidents happening there because of the
sight line issue.
Director Burfeind stated the roundabout is really slowing people down in every
direction.
Council Member Olsen stated he thought we all knew it was the right thing to do, it’s
just a question of what it’s going to cost us to do it. It’s been the right thing to do for 10
years.
Assessments: Director Burfeind stated the last thing they wanted to speak about was
assessments. Very early on, there was a discussion about whether to assess this
project. The city has done other projects without assessments, including Jamaica and
95th, building the signals, redoing Jamaica Avenue. Our policy would have allowed for
it, but it was really dealing with some traffic issues; there were some pavement
enhancements, but those were not assessed. Also, no assessments for Hardwood,
East Point Douglas Road, and 80th Street with Hy-Vee in 2017. With that consideration
with the Council, and the fact that they’re still paying off the roundabout assessments
through this year, it was determined we would not propose to assess this project.
Now that we’re looking at these cost challenges, one way to provide additional
funding for the project is assessments. He wanted to discuss if that was something we
want to do; there are challenges to that, as we’re obviously late into the construction
and design process. He displayed on the map which properties would be assessable
per our policy; they either abut the project or have direct access through some legal
means to the improved surfaces. There are more properties from which we need
easements, about 25. When we think about assessing, one of the benefits of that is we
can get our General Obligation (G.O.) Bonds with that process, but we need to assess
at least 20% of the project costs. We’ve looked at other similar projects, and our policy
would say assess 100% of that $13 million, but we know for a fact from other projects
the Special Benefit Appraisals have not found that amount of value. There’s not 100%
confidence that we could meet that 20% threshold to make the G.O. Bonds a possibility.
Also, from a schedule standpoint now, it takes six months to order Special Benefit
Appraisals, and we can’t start land acquisition until you order a project. It starts the
project in 2024 because we wouldn’t have Special Benefit Appraisals until next spring,
so we wouldn’t have land acquisitions done until next summer; so, it pushes the whole
project back a year. He doesn’t think that’s something we really want to do, but he
wanted to bring it up as it would be a funding mechanism. Even if we cut to the bottom,
we could generate some assessments, and it would be allowed per our policy. He
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September 7, 2022
Page 29
asked if that’s something we want to look at, knowing it would push the whole project
back a year and not potentially even being able to bond for it through G.O. Bonds. Is
that really what we want to do?
Discussion: Council Member Thiede asked who owns the property if East Point Douglas
there went straight across; what if we put in an intersection there? Director Burfeind
stated he thought that was open at some time, but that was probably closed a long time
ago because of the traffic issues and the cut-through for the residential area. He stated
he didn’t know when that was closed. Council Member Thiede stated most of the traffic
would go in its current path, but you’d get that straight and you’d reduce that curve, so
you’d reduce the danger of somebody zipping around that curve. Director Burfeind
stated the real struggle is when you think about what’s driving this traffic; some people
would still go that way, but you’d still have your traffic issues here. Council Member
Thiede stated then he’d be removing that other light and doing a right in, right out like
he’d spoken about. You’d be moving an issue a little bit.
Council Member Khambata asked if that’s the natural curve in the road, if there was
no way to move the roundabout so you’d be splitting the easement access between the
back of Target and the corner of Cub Foods? Director Burfeind replied with the credit
union kind of jutting out here, it’s very tight as to where we can put it. Also, from a legal
standpoint, we don’t want to move this access because there are seven entities that
have rights to both of these access points. So, if we were to try to adjust one, you’re
now cutting off a legal access to six entities that used to be able to use that. So, we
really have to keep those two access points the same. We know that the traffic
generated by this center and Cub Foods really requires a controlled intersection at one
of these two; so, by making this a right in, right out, we’re reducing traffic here, but that’s
where it’s roundabout or signal. The roundabout is really the right answer. You would
have to have control of one of those two access points.
Council Member Olsen asked Administrator Levitt when we’d previously assessed
Cub Foods if they were assessed twice; she replied yes, we assessed them for the
roundabout, which will end in 2022, and they’re just coming off an assessment from 15
years ago. Director Burfeind stated they were also assessed in 2015 for 90th Street.
Council Member Olsen stated so they’ve been assessed three times; Administrator
Levitt confirmed that. Council Member Olsen asked if they challenged us; Administrator
Levitt replied we didn’t lose to Cub. Council Member Olsen asked who we lost to;
Administrator Levitt replied that it was a fair number of them. Council Member Olsen
stated that’s what he remembered; Administrator Levitt noted that that was on Special
Benefit. Council Member Olsen stated his concern was if we go to that well too often,
they’re going to challenge it. He told Director Burfeind to him it just didn’t make sense
to do that. He thought we didn’t need to deal with that.
Mayor Bailey stated he didn’t want to assess, but it’s really going to depend on what
the costs are going to be or the recovery for the easements. Council Member Olsen
stated it’s an option on the table, but it would push us back another year of construction,
too. Mayor Bailey stated he just mentioned that because if the acquisition costs go too
high, we’re going to have to find another source. Council Member Olsen stated that’s
one of the reasons why we did the outreach like we’ve done; we want them to work
together with us on this.
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September 7, 2022
Page 30
Council Member Thiede asked regarding the roundabout, what would happen if we
added that further down a bit. Director Burfeind replied we initially looked at that with
this project, but as we delved into the title work with our attorneys, all seven businesses
have an Operation and Easement Agreement (OEA) for access to both these points;
that crosses Target and crosses Grove Plaza shopping center. If we move that, that
OEA goes nowhere; it’s a defined, sketched out OEA with an end point of this access.
And that’s a private agreement the City is not a party to; so, then you’d open up a
potential damage claim because all six businesses would now lose legal access.
Drivers can still do it and there’s no stopping them, but they’d lose the legal right to this
access point if we move the roundabout. We initially looked at that because it would be
better if we moved it over here, but potential costs from the damage were just far too
high to move that access point. It doesn’t affect Cub Foods, but it’s the other six
businesses, including Target, that would lose that legal access.
Council Member Thiede asked if the roundabout is the size, it is because you’ve got
two lanes going all the way around it. Director Burfeind replied yes, there are two lanes
in the east-west direction, one lane north-south, but then it’s accommodating all the
truck delivery movements. Council Member Thiede stated there’d be no benefit making
it, instead of a perfect circle, a little bit more of an oblong.
Council Member Khambata told Director Burfeind he’s disappointed that he wasn’t
there to design this in the first place.
Mayor Bailey stated from day one when they put that loop in there, he knew it was
going to be a problem; anybody could tell that, and it wasn’t anybody in this room that
was a part of that. Administrator Levitt thanked him for clarifying that. Mayor Bailey
wanted to make sure that’s known because this project was one of those that this
Council had nothing to do with; now, we just have to do it right and fix the previous
mistake from the 1990s.
Bonding Options: Administrator Levitt stated there’s one more topic before we go into
the closed session; Director Malinowski will speak about the bonding options because
we have $3.6 million in bonding. Any additional liability is going to essentially be
bonding.
Council Member Olsen stated we can’t advance any more MSA as we’re already at
our maximum; Mayor Bailey stated we’ve already advanced $4 million.
Director Malinowski stated we can issue an MSA Bond for the project, so we can
investigate that. We talked to Ehlers today, so that’s one option; we just must use our
MSA in the future to pay off those bonds, or we can do Street Reconstruction Bonds.
Those are part of a Street Reconstruction Plan we’d have to look at. We would adopt
that plan, hold a public hearing, and then there’d be a 30-day reverse referendum for
the Street Reconstruction Bonds. Options are MSA Bonds or the Street Reconstruction
Bonds.
Discussion: Council Member Thiede asked Director Malinowski which one she thought
was better; she thought the MSA Bond, but she wants to look in the next couple weeks
at our Capital Improvement Plan, which is where our future projects are.
Mayor Bailey told Director Malinowski he was glad she was going to look at that,
because we’re also trying to get funding for 80th Street, which doesn’t cover all of 80th
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September 7, 2022
Page 31
Street, but 80th Street is also an MSA road. So, we’d be taking money out of that pot
that would go towards this, so all we’re doing is shifting to more things if we did that.
Administrator Levitt stated as a reminder, we’d be issuing debt and getting it in 2023;
so, you’re bonding for it, getting the debt, but then your levy impact and your first
payment is not until 2024. Remember, we push the impact of that debt to 2024, so
we’re not experiencing or collecting anything in the 2023 levy for it.
Council Member Khambata asked if it would be the 2024 Tax Capacity;
Administrator Levitt replied that’s correct.
Council Member Olsen stated with each of the different sorts of bonding options that
exist, there’s a little bit of variability relative to the interest rates paid on them because
there’s a question of demand, who wants to pay for it. Director Malinowski stated that’s
correct. He asked if she knew much about the MSA Bonds. Director Malinowski replied
when we spoke with Ehlers today, they thought the rates would be about the same with
either type of bond. He stated that’s good to know; his concern was if we’re using a
unique tool but we’re paying more to use it, it might not be worth it. He knew they’d
research that and find out.
Mayor Bailey stated we’d been given a workshop action item; he wants to make sure
staff received the orders that they need. The first question was: Does staff have
approval to continue moving forward with the project, bring a feasibility report for
approval, and authorize presenting offers in October?
Discussion: Administrator Levitt stated if they wanted to dive into some of the numbers
and liability, if you’d like to close the meeting and then reopen, you could then provide
the guidance once you better understand. Mayor Bailey stated that’s fine, and Council
Member Dennis stated then we could go through all five of the points. Administrator
Levitt stated once the meeting is reopened, then you could provide the direction based
on what you hear in the closed session.
14. WORKSHOPS – CLOSED TO PUBLIC
A. Closed pursuant to Minn. Stat. 13D.05, Subd. 3(b) attorney-client
privilege, to discuss acquisition risks for anticipated eminent domain
litigation for he East Point Douglas/Jamaica project.
Mayor Bailey reopened the meeting after the closed workshop, as staff had asked
Council for some clear direction on Item 13A, the East Point Douglas Road & Jamaica
Avenue Improvements Project. He read aloud the list of five items on which staff had
requested direction:
1. Does staff have approval to continue moving forward with the project and
preparing reports for approval for the project and authorize present offers in October?
Mayor Bailey asked if Council was good on that at this point; they answered yes.
2. Provide direction on staging plan. What business impact is Council comfortable
with during construction: Roundabout construction one or two phases, full roadway
closures and exit closure duration.
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September 7, 2022
Page 32
Mayor Bailey stated he’d answer what he thought he heard from Council: We’d want to
do Plan B, specifically doing the roundabout all at once, which would push us into that
second year. Plan B would give access on Jamaica Avenue where it crosses over to let
people get in and out of the businesses. He asked if Council agreed with that, and they
all did.
3. Review funding options and provide direction: Does the Council wish to use
Chapter 429 method for a funding source?
Council Member Olsen stated he does not but would prefer to learn about the MSA
Bonds. Council Member Khambata stated MSA is going to hurt our progress on 80th
Street. Council Member Olsen stated he wanted to learn about it before he makes that
decision. Mayor Bailey stated it’s either MSA Bonds or the Street Reconstruction
Bonds; there are two options. Mayor Bailey asked if staff needed to know the Chapter
429 answer right now. Administrator Levitt noted if Council goes with Chapter 429,
you’ll delay the project a year.
Mayor Bailey stated he didn’t think we should do Chapter 429; Council Member
Olsen agreed with Mayor Bailey, asked if Street Reconstruction Bonds were referendum
ordered. Director Malinowski stated they’re not referendum ordered, but there is 30
days after the public hearing that somebody could force that. Council Member
Khambata said no to Chapter 429. Council Member Olsen stated he does, too, and
stated we could always do G.O. Bonds if we had to. Administrator Levitt stated we
cannot do G.O. Bonds because we don’t have 20% assessed; that’s why we have to go
with another option. Council Member Olsen thanked Administrator Levitt for clarifying
that and asked if the MSA option is a good option. Administrator Levitt stated it’s as
close to the G.O. system that we can get. Council Member Khambata stated if we say
no to Chapter 429, our options are the MSA or Street Reconstruction Bonds. He
confirmed we can discuss that later. Director Malinowski stated she believed that they
are both G.O. Bonds; it’s just that G.O. Improvement Bonds have the 20% assessment
tied to them.
4. Based on staging and funding preferences, is the Council comfortable with the
schedule impact?
Mayor Bailey stated obviously this one is already answered because we’re saying no to
Chapter 429.
5. Does staff have approval to continue working with Xcel Energy to request moving
forward with the City’s requested facility surcharge to fund the overhead power burial?
All Council Members stated yes.
Mayor Bailey asked Administrator Levitt if that was all the direction staff needed; she
replied yes.
15. ADJOURNMENT – 10:18 PM
Motion by Council Member Olsen, second by Council Member Dennis, to adjourn the
meeting at 10:18 p.m. Motion carried: 5-0.
Minutes prepared by Judy Graf and reviewed by Tamara Anderson, City Clerk.