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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 2, 2023 9 Councilmember Fabel said he was contacted by a school board member who told him they affirmatively support the greater density as they want more students. A lot of districts are losing students which means they lose money for the district. Mounds View would like to have more assurance that down the road they won't be in that situation. Councilmember Monson had a conversation with the school district superintendent and she thinks they are waiting until there is a solidified number but in the last referendum they built up capacity assuming TCAAP at 1,460. Their conversation was around the types of housing, if they add single family homes they will get more children but multi -family homes wasn't a concern. Arden Hills is just one piece of the puzzle for what the district has to do to provide for the students. She felt comfortable knowing the past referendum had adjusted for 1,460. They also talked about affordable housing and children that don't have stable housing. Councilmember Holden said the school board has been surprised at the number of market rate apartments going in in Shoreview. She felt good jobs were important so parents didn't have to work multiple jobs and could be involved with their kids. She thought that was as important as having a place to live. Mayor Grant felt there needed to be a bus line to serve the population in the 30% AMI units. Ideally he'd like the Met Council to step up to the plate. Sixty percent AMI gives you a lot more flexibility of what you can afford in terms of transportation. Councilmember Fabel said someone from Met Council may come to talk to the City Council, and he agreed mass transit would be the right thing to have. Mayor Grant added they have requested it from Met Council over and over again. Councilmember Rousseau said she'd love to add Metro Transit as a sub -item to the TCAAP discussion at a future work session and getting a representative to talk with them. Councilmember Monson wondered how they could plan and overlap some of the ordinance work for the City and the sustainability efforts for TRC, such as EV's and homes being EV ready. Mayor Grant said the City has been close to having some EV charging stations but the vendor pulled out, but they need to tackle that issue. Councilmember Holden said that making homes EV ready adds cost to them. One of the concerns she had was the I&I and people's sewers running into their yards and going into the lakes. Mounds View makes people get their lines televised before they can sell. She wasn't sure if she wanted to do that, but she thought they should do something. Councilmember Monson thought they could put sustainability topics and climate action plan back on the list for a work session. Councilmember Fabel noted that the more people available to ride, the more likely mass transit come in, so the 1,960 is much more likely to provide ridership.