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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 10, 2024 3 Ms. Rogers commented the school currently operates from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. She noted after care was offered through 6:00 p.m. She indicated the school does offer some after school activities for its middle school students. Councilmember Rousseau discussed how she lived in the neighborhood across from Karth Lake and she understood the neighbors have been working to improve the water quality for the lake. She indicated she had concerns with how the lake would be impacted. She commented on how the neighbors can hear the kids playing at the park on the weekends. She stated she would be concerned about the noise being generated by the proposed school if it were to locate on this property. She explained she was also concerned about traffic flowing to and from this site. Mayor Grant indicated he was concerned about how this property was supposed to be used to generate jobs. He anticipated there were other locations in Arden Hills that could be used for a house of worship. He stated the City would be losing a sizeable chunk of its Industrial property if this property were rezoned. He noted he had concerns with this. Councilmember Monson commented she liked the idea of having a school and church. She indicated she was not overly concerned about noise, but feared the site would be limited with parking and outdoor activities. She reported she would be very hard pressed to support the school using public facilities. She felt like there were a lot of hurdles with this request. Councilmember Fabel stated these hurdles would have to be overcome by the applicant. Councilmember Monson reported this was the case and noted the City had 15 properties where a house of worship would be allowed in the community. Further discussion ensued regarding how this use would impact the surrounding properties. Ms. Rogers commented the school was not proposing to use the public facilities but noted her client did appreciate how this property felt like it was part of the community. Councilmember Holden indicated she did not have a problem with a house of worship at this location, but she did have a problem with a school. She feared the site did not have proper capacity for traffic, parking and future expansion. Councilmember Monson questioned what other alternatives the school had considered. Ms. Rogers stated building a campus from scratch would be difficult because a large vacant property would be needed. For this reason, many schools were transitioning to industrials sites with large amounts of parking. Another option would be to purchase old charter schools that were already zoned for the use. She commented further on how it was necessary to rezone this site in order to accommodate the proposed use. Mayor Grant questioned how far students would be bussed. Ms. Rogers indicated students would be coming from Minneapolis and noted she has looked for property in Columbus, Blaine and Fridley. She indicated one of her boardmembers became aware of this property.