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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — AUGUST 11, 2025 5 City Administrator Jagoe doesn't believe that is part of the zoning ordinance review updates but she would have to double check. Councilmember Monson said she would be open to the right project here. It's hard to lose commercial space. We've had two or three other applications that have tried to come into this spot in the last few years. We are trying to find a use for this land. This is the first concept that has been proposed to include housing. Mayor Grant agrees it is hard to give up that commercial space right in the middle of a commercial district. It doesn't have any parks and there are no amenities other than a sidewalk on Lexington Avenue. He doesn't support residential there. This is a commercial district and he thinks it needs to remain commercial. Councilmember Weber said the affordability aspect is important for him. It's a necessity. He believes this would be the densest building in Arden Hills by double. He would need to see at least 10-units of affordable units on any 100 unit multi -family development. He agrees with others that this is a commercial area and he doesn't support residential on this site. There is nowhere to play. Councilmember Rousseau disagrees with that. She thinks this would be a great spot for residential. New residents are going to visit and spend money and possibly work at those nearby businesses. She thinks the best case scenario would be retail at the bottom. She understands that may mean a fourth level on the building and she would expect affordable housing to be included. Vishal Dutt summarized that he is hearing three no's, one yes and one maybe. It doesn't make sense to move any further on this concept. Mayor Grant thinks that is a fair characterization of the discussion. Vishal Dutt thanked the Council for their time. B. Zoning Code Update Discussion Jason Zimmerman and Rita Trapp, consultants from HKGi were present. Jason Zimmerman said this is a logical check point on the Zoning Code project. There have been three discussions with the Planning Commission and they have received feedback from them. That feedback has been passed on to Council. This is useful spot to answer any questions and clarify any of the proposed changes before presenting draft text. There are three areas for discussion. The first topic is the comments and course corrections discussed with the Planning Commission. The second topic will be answering questions regarding specific uses and definitions. They tried to include a lot of that in the memo, but they are happy to discuss specifics on any of those uses and definitions. The third topic is they are at a point where we could do additional community engagement. They could work with Staff to create webpage asking residents to weigh in and see what residents and businesses are concerned about. That is the least pressing topic, compared to the other two.