12-18-23-WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION - DECEMBER 18, 2023 13 Councilmember Monson thought the Council needs to set an expectation of what this City wants and what they want out of the jobs. She agreed that they don't want to fully hand over control to a developer, they need to protect the City. But instead of diving deep into the zoning today she thought they needed to have a conversation with Mr. Lux, and make sure the Council agrees to the goals that were written before. If there wasn't a dramatic departure from what was already written they can try to decide and see what they want to do for zoning around warehousing and retail. She was generally open to the warehousing adjustment, barring any market issues. She didn't love huge parking lots but she knew lots of people would love to have a Costco. Councilmember Holden said she believed that in the Joint Powers Agreement it says that the City of Arden Hills is responsible for the zoning. They are not tying the hands of the JDA, they've been given permission to do the zoning. She had history with Mr. Lux that he had made promises that didn't come true. He has great visions and great ideas but when they become expensive he can't live up to the dreams that he had. Mayor Grant added that it was stated there is a term sheet that recognizes that jobs are important, yet for some reason they've gutted 32 acres worth of commercial area which would have created jobs. If they were going to bring someone in to talk about commercial it should not be the developer, it should be someone from Opus, Ryan or similar. They are not tying the hands of the JDA, they're stating what the preferences are to the City. As the leaders of the City they should decide in consultation with residents what is important. Mayor Grant stated that when the Mayors get together and talk about businesses they feel jobs in the area are important to the surrounding cities too. Looking at retail and jobs is what makes a development important, unique and special. When you think of places that you want to frequent it's because they have the retail and the jobs. Councilmember Rousseau asked if they have an estimate of how many flex office jobs are anticipated for the area. Community Development Director Jagoe said there was no projection for jobs, but the area was projected to have 400,000 square feet of flex office. Removing the 32 acres would take about 300,000 square feet off. Councilmember Rousseau thought the 2016 goals were good in general. The big challenge is getting shovels in the ground and recognizing that markets are always changing. It sounds like in a month they will know what it happening with Outlot A. She felt they need to revitalize some of the economic development opportunities. She would be interested in meeting with the developer. She would like to see if there are any resources at the County to see if they are seeing any trends, and utilizing the EDA or EDC to try to support getting good jobs and businesses people want in the community. She talked with people that have said it would be nice to have a bar that you could walk to, not just something like an Applebee's, she wondered how do they get those businesses to come to our community. Councilmember Fabel stated that all of those considerations are certainly valid. He told Mayor Grant that he keeps coming back to the fact that the southwest parcel has been changed; he fought that battle and lost that battle so he should get over it. The decision was made that the project was going to have more housing than the Mayor supported, even at the price of removing some commercial property. There is a lot of commercial space remaining. The JDA is a partnership