02-09-2026-WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — FEBRUARY 9, 2026 8 Councilmember Monson asked if the amendment was to allow up to 20 units per acre. City Administrator Jagoe said multi -family residential was added to the B2 District. Councilmember Monson said we are in a totally different world today than we were in 2018 and 2019. She gets the thought process that identifies that 27 is way higher than 20. It's hard for her to reconcile that when we know the market is really 25. She wants to set the baseline at market, but we also have to follow the ordinance. If we want to do density and give affordability, our code is out of date. Community Development Director Reilly wanted to clarify his comment about rents. It is what the market will bear and in this scenario we're talking about a price point that is what HUD also says is our fair market rent. When they look at how they're going to subsidize something down to an affordable price for somebody who qualifies. The base line is that 40% of the units go for less and 60% go for more and that's the price point that Roers has identified here. This is the price point that they would be looking at if they built market rate anywhere in the metro. Councilmember Rousseau said she was wondering about the 51,400 per month. She looked at some older apartments for her college age daughter and thinks this sounds pretty great. The average age of a first-time home buyer is 40 years old now. She would like to have places where 20 and 30 year olds can have homes, even if they aren't able to build equity. Community Development Director Reilly said their initial proposal was almost 10 units an acre higher but they increased the number of larger units and decreased the overall number of units. They reconfigured their units to accommodate what Councilmember Rousseau is talking about. Councilmember Rousseau asked if the school district gets a heads up. Community Development Director Reilly said that would be a wise thing to do. Councilmember Rousseau said she knows Island Lake Elementary School is meeting its classroom size goals or exceeding them. Mayor Grant said Directory Reilly talked about what the market will bear. The market has to bear the cost of the land and the demo. Maybe in order to get a development like this to pencil out to 80-100% AMI is not a bad spot to be in. It may not be as deep as some others want but you are still getting a relatively affordable, quality development. That's what's important. From a city perspective, we want a good product that will stand the test of time. Councilmember Weber would argue that the land value is impacted by the cost of demolition. The land value is going to go down and that doesn't impact the construction costs. He thinks the rent prices are good. They're phenomenal, actually. He isn't sure what they're based on. He is wondering how they arrived at those numbers and if there is any assurance that can be built in. Mr. Asta said there are no assurances. This project won't open for three or four years. That's the concept behind market rents. It is determined by the market. It's hard to say exactly, but when working with financing partners they need to project where they think it will land. They use other properties in the area to determine that.