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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-08-26-SWS City of Arden Hills ▪1245 West Highway 96 ▪ Arden Hills Minnesota 55112 Phone 651.792.7800 ▪ Fax 651.634.5137 ▪ www.cityofardenhills.org Request for Special City Council Work Session A special meeting may be called by the Mayor or by any two Councilmembers. Reason for meeting: 1 PUBLIC INQUIRIES/INFORMATIONAL 2 RESPONSE TO PUBLIC INQUIRIES 3 AGENDA ITEMS A. Primer Tracer Site Environmental Review Process Update B. Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance Updates C. 75th Anniversary Discussion D. Code of Conduct E1. Use of City Property E2. Immigration Enforcement Discussion F. Rice Creek Commons/TCAAP Discussion G. Agenda Planning 4. COUNCIL/STAFF COMMENTS ADJOURN Requested Date: 06/08/2026 Requested time: 5:00 PM Open meeting X Closed meeting Signature of person(s) making request: 06/04/2026 Mayor or Council Member Date _____________________ _________ Council Member Date -This section to be completed by City staff- Date received: 06/04/2026 Date meeting to be held: 06/08/2026 Time of meeting: 5:00 PM Location: City Hall All necessary posting and notices have been completed. 06/04/2026 Signature of City Clerk Date Approved: June 22, 2026 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION JUNE 8, 2026 5:00 P.M. - ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Grant called to order the City Council Work Session at 5:30 p.m. Present: Mayor David Grant; Councilmembers Tena Monson, Emily Rousseau, Kurt Weber and Brenda Holden Absent: None Also present: City Administrator Jessica Jagoe, Public Works Director/City Engineer David Swearingen, Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Julie Hanson and Community Development Director Jake Reilly Councilmember Monson asked if the agenda can be reorganized to either strike item 3A from the agenda or move it down behind other items. It is an informational update and she wants to make sure there is time to discuss the other items on the agenda. Council agreed to reorder the agenda to move the presentation on Item 3A - Primer Tracer Site Update to Item 3C. 1. PUBLIC INQUIRIES/INFORMATIONAL None. 2. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC INQUIRIES None. ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 2 3. AGENDA ITEMS A. Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance Updates (Item 3B on published agenda) Community Development Director Reilly said there are draft materials, related to the proposed land use table and proposed parking requirements table, provided in the agenda packet. He noted the red font indicates the changes that HKGi are proposing for describing the uses. One of the primary changes to the proposed parking requirements is changing place of worship to place of assembly so it references all places where many people assemble for short, scheduled periods of time. There is an incremental reduction in required spaces that aligns better with industry standards and the communities surrounding us. Discussion ensued regarding definitions of secondary school and if regulations for Mounds View High School should be looked at. It was noted that the school charges for students to park, so the overflow issue is not a matter of having enough parking. It is students parking on the street to avoid purchasing a parking pass. Further discussion ensued regarding there being no provisions required for the colleges in reference to employees who work at the colleges, except in their Conditional Use Permit (CUP). Staff will evaluate further whether that is the right approach for those uses. Mayor Grant asked about businesses where the number of required parking stalls is increasing and this change would make them non -conforming. Will they be grandfathered in? Community Development Director Reilly confirmed. Discussion ensued regarding proposed parking requirements for automotive services. The table outlines the minimum requirement. We will look at how to address a maximum. Further discussion ensued regarding a successful automotive business operating in Arden Hills who never has enough parking and if they would be required to have more parking spots. Staff said it will depend on the nature of the change. Staff will ensure there is a sensible approach to that when we combine the table with the text. Councilmember Holden said hotels have overflow when there are tournaments happening or when they are hosting big meetings/conferences. Although it isn't a regular occurrence, she wanted to make sure there is enough room. Councilmember Weber asked if that scenario would be a multi -use situation. If a hotel has assembly areas, are the calculations for required parking spaces considered? Community Development Director Reilly confirmed. If a hotel has conference space and a restaurant, each of those three things would have their own calculations and the total amount of required spaces would be the sum of all three. City Administrator Jagoe said the language that speaks to instances of businesses entering a shared parking agreement will remain in the ordinance. Councilmember Holden said that commercial recreational outdoor requires 50 spaces per field or court. The City doesn't offer that. She wondered if that should be reworded. She wouldn't want that to be a liability for the City. ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 3 Community Development Director Reilly has questions about this metric. He suspects that because we are a public entity and this is for profit entities, we would be treated differently. Mayor Grant asked about recreational indoor and recreational outdoor requirements. There is at least one business who has both. How will those be calculated? Community Development Director Reilly said each use will have its own calculations and they will be added together to reach the total requirement. The definition of a field or sports court may need to be better defined. City Administrator Jagoe said there are still questions to be answered. Staff wanted to get some of the draft language before Council so they can absorb it incrementally. This helps us course correct, if we need to, before the full text is seen by the Planning Commission. She wants Council to consider if we are staying true to the goals and guiding purposes of the districts. Community Development Director Reilly said a small scale multi -unit dwelling vs. a large scale multi -unit dwellings are defined the way HUD defines small (five units or fewer) vs. large. Discussion ensued regarding the different districts, how they're defined and where they are located in the City. Councilmember Holden thought if we have land that can be developed in residential areas, we should allow certain uses like townhomes or cottage courts to be permitted with standards rather than not allowing them. Mayor Grant pointed out that this discussion is around districts in Arden Hills, as it exists today and does not include TCAAP. Councilmember Weber said he remembers discussion that we didn't want to see the town homes and cottage courts to be permitted in our RI districts because it could change the character of those neighborhoods. It may work as a conditional use. He noted previous discussions about thrift stores and car washes that are missing from this table. There are blatant errors in the table and he isn't comfortable with this moving forward. He isn't sure that some of the proposals that came from work sessions are included. Councilmember Holden said when discussing certain residential uses, she isn't sure how something would change the character of a neighborhood for R1 but not for R2. Mayor Grant said Council has been through this once and provided assessment of what was wanted. This document may not reflect that. He asked if the consultants modified the document. Community Development Director Reilly said some of the changes, like to thrift stores, happened simultaneously while these conversations were being had. Staff has noted that the items that were discussed concurrently, but separate from each other, will be solved in the final text. Councilmember Weber said we are proposing changes here and now we're muddying multiple copies of zoning code tables. He doesn't think this should come before Council with incorrect information on today's current zoning. ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 4 Mayor Grant asked Council if they would like Staff to go back and review discussions and bring forward another draft to a work session. Councilmember Monson said Council should flag the items they know aren't current so Staff can spend time looking at those specific items. Councilmember Rousseau said we are talking about implementing a one-year moratorium on data centers while we study this. Is it better to leave the use on the table with an empty line or would it be better to omit it from the table? Community Development Director Reilly said the two approaches are to leave it in the table and say it is not permitted or remove it, don't define it and state, as a note to the table, anything not listed is not permitted. If it is listed or defined, someone can apply to change it. Someone could still come in and request that we consider adding a definition. If it is listed but not defined, a developer may think we just haven't made a decision on that topic yet. It is less likely that a project proposer would make that request if it's not included on the use table. Discussion ensued regarding previous discussion on data centers. Previously Council decided to leave it on the list, with no zoning districts identified. We would define it but not assign the use to any district, thereby it would not be allowed. Staff is recommending that if Council wants to say the use is prohibited, it's better to not list or define that use and the code language will state that anything not listed in the table it is prohibited. Discussion ensued regarding outdoor display and sales. It is not permitted anywhere. A PUD can be used to regulate where a business may place outdoor displays. Councilmember Holden asked if we define how large a solar energy system can be in a residential district. Is it permitted with standards? City Administrator Jagoe said the ground mounted solar is regulated by what you can have for impervious and structure coverage. The ratio would be determined based on the other structures on the property and lot size. City Administrator Jagoe wanted to address earlier comments. As Director Reilly said earlier, the thrift store issue was a timing thing with when the code amendment came through. She wanted to specifically talk about car washes. Current code regulates car washes under the motor vehicle auto use. Last fall Council requested that car washes be defined and make it a separate use. That would allow a standalone car wash that didn't have to be connected to a service station. That language hasn't been amended since that discussion. Councilmember Rousseau asked why solar is only defined in residential districts. Councilmember Holden recalls it is because most of the commercials are on roofs. This specifically speaks to free-standing systems. Councilmember Monson recalls an application came in to install solar on his residential property. Council narrowed the discussion to the residential. ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 5 Discussion ensued regarding if solar should defined that it's allowed because it is mounted to a roof. If the definition is to be expanded to allow it for commercial, there should be flexibility to do what is best for the business, in terms of adding solar. Council could consider allowing ground - mounted solar systems in other districts. Allowing ground -mounted solar systems in commercial and industrial districts don't produce revenue in the same way structures do. It's like a parking lot. A solar parking cover has not been considered in commercial or industrial districts. Further discussion ensued that a church has covered a large portion of their parking lot with solar panels. Councilmember Rousseau thought there was discussion about allowing commercial recreation indoor in Gateway. She envisions indoor slide playgrounds or something similar. Councilmember Holden was thinking about alpine ski who could fit just about anywhere. She thought we should look at possibly expanding that. Discussion ensued regarding utility substation. It is listed as conditional in I1. It's unlikely that we will get a utility substation due to the maturity of our City. Utility distribution is included in the use table and maybe needs more definition. This came up due to new, privately held, public utilities seeking franchise agreements with municipalities. Specifically fiber optics. There isn't a way to consider those structures. The language defaults to electric utilities. We could consider it for a conditional use or permitted with standards in other parts of the code. A conversation we may have later is to define utility and where public or private utilities can be placed. Councilmember Weber said we've been through this table already. He believes Staff is asking us to look it over to make sure those previous preferences are applied. We don't want to rehash topics that we have already spent hours discussing. Councilmember Holden said sometimes we receive new or additional information and she thinks it's appropriate to ask questions, even if we've already discussed it. She requested that the definitions be provided along with the table for future discussions. Discussion ensued regarding nurseries. It was already permitted in residential and there was discussion of permitting it in I -Flex. Councilmember Holden said permitting it feels like wasting land when we could get an industrial use that pays property taxes. City Administrator Jagoe said this is a topic that HKGi brought to the October work session. They were recommending commercial and the four residential districts, with it being permitted in I -Flex. She said this is affirming the language from that discussion. We still have to define standards with hours of operations, parking and traffic. Councilmember Holden asked if it is an enclosed nursery or is it open air? Community Development Director Reilly said definition proposed in the code is outdoor cultivation. Discussion ensued about allowing a nursery as a principal use in a residential district. A nursery is not a good use of property in a residential district. There was consensus to strike nurseries out of ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 6 R1, R2 and R3, as a principal business. Nursery could have its own accessory use, outside of home occupation or standard retail use. It can be permitted with standards in I -Flex. City Administrator Jagoe said Council touched on home occupation. That is a use that Staff is waiting for language from HKGi. They are still drafting that language based on Council's previous discussion on Class 1 vs. Class 2. Discussion ensued regarding the studio use. The definition is a place where a person creates something like art or music and sells it on the premises. It is permitted in the business districts. It doesn't contemplate a sole proprietor artist working from their home studio, which would be a Class 1 home occupation. There must be a retail component to the studio. Further discussion ensued that some studios may create loud noises like a blacksmith shop or musician. It could be permitted with standards. Councilmember Rousseau asked for clarification on parking at a place of assembly. She asked about institutional districts with colleges. How are they designated? They have event centers. How is that defined? Community Development Director Reilly said higher education campus is a conditional use in the institutional district. Place of assembly is specifically a place where groups of persons gather together at regular scheduled intervals for a particular purpose. This can be movie theaters, concert halls, places of worship, auditoriums, banquet or meeting rooms and the like. For a college campus, the CUP would consider each of those uses within the campus and come up with a total of the required parking spaces. Councilmember Holden said the definition of place of assembly seems contradictory. The new event center has banquet rooms but they don't have regularly scheduled events. Community Development Director Reilly said the definition says "gathering at regularly scheduled intervals for a particular purpose". Event center has its own definition that doesn't include the regularly scheduled intervals component. Staff will consider language that clarifies the distinction between the two. Discussion ensued that in existing code tattoo shops fall under the adult use and aren't allowed in Arden Hills. The consultant said tattoo shops generally fall under personal services. They asked if we want to continue to prohibit them, or if we want to add them to the list as something that would count as personal services. Tattoo shops are licensed through the state. Councilmember Holden doesn't see an issue with allowing them. We're allowing cannabis. Councilmember Rousseau said we should allow tattoos and allow laser tattoo removal under personal services. Councilmember Weber agrees tattoos should be in personal services. He pointed out that cannabis is a conditional use across the board, whereas personal services, microbreweries and micro distilleries are all permitted and permitted with standards. That seems contradictory to him. Council agreed to scratch self -storage from the use list. ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 7 Discussion ensued regarding daycare centers. They are an accessory use. Council previously struck the daycare with 10 or less from B-2 but wanted to ensure there was a mechanism to allow a business to provide an internal daycare to employees of the business. Councilmember Holden stated she would like to see definitions and a zoning map included in the materials for future discussion. B. 751h Anniversary Discussion (Item 3C on published agenda) Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson said there has been discussion on how the City can offer beer at the 75U' Anniversary celebration event. Council requested Staff look into that for the event and look at the ordinance, as a whole. The opinion of the City Attorney is that we could do a simple amendment to code adding the language to state "no alcohol or intoxicating beverages in any open space site except as designated below." Then it would state "the transport, possession, sale and consumption of any alcoholic or intoxicating beverages is permitted from 3:OOpm to 10:00 pm within Cummings Park, on July 17, 2026." The amendment would just sunset after that date so no follow up action would be needed. The City Attorney said, if Council so chooses, we could take a deeper dive to explore this as a special use permit. What could that look like? What would we charge for that? Councilmember Rousseau said it would be nice to have some offerings in our community like Shoreview does with Wine and Hopps event that are put on by the Rotary or the Lions. She is interested in looking at a process to allow that. Council agreed to move forward with the code amendment for the date of the celebration and directed Staff to continue to look at special use permitting for other organizations. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson said the 75th Anniversary committee received a sponsorship inquiry from a church to have a table at the event. The committee members were polled to see if Council should look at the sponsorship policy, as it relates to religious organizations. She received two responses and they were opposing one another. Councilmember Holden said when we were looking for sponsorships, a church requested to have a booth. They wanted to promote their trunk or treat event. There was a section in the materials outlining the times for their worship services. The sponsorship program outlines that religious organizations are prohibited from sponsoring events. Councilmember Weber appreciates their interest and he could possibly support them being involved. However, other churches may have looked into the policy and saw they were prohibited. If we allow this, the other churches in Arden Hills should be contacted to let them know it will be allowed for the 75th Anniversary. Councilmember Monson doesn't have any opposition to a church being there. However, this is in our policy for a reason. We put it in there so we don't run into any unforeseen problems that may come with religious diversity. She would like to stick with the policy, as written. Councilmember Holden said there are only two other churches in Arden Hills. It wouldn't be hard to reach out to North Heights and the Ukrainian church. She would be in support of allowing it for this event only. ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 8 Councilmember Rousseau is against changing it. There are many other religions and many other churches beyond Arden Hills. She would like to see us tread cautiously. Councilmember Weber is torn. He wants to be inclusive but the better course of action may be to err on the side of caution and decline. The sponsorship program is open to entities outside of Arden Hills. We are using Twin Cities Gateway funds to draw visitors to Arden Hills. Mayor Grant would support allowing it for the one day and would support reaching out to the other churches in our community to include them. This is a small church trying to be a member of our community and he wants to support that. He understands that opens the door to churches outside of our borders. Councilmember Holden said Presbyterian Homes is a religious organization. So is Bethel. No matter what is decided tonight, we have to do a better job of defining what it is. Discussion ensued about distinguishing between a church and a business/organization that has religious roots. Alternately, it was pointed out that churches have more than just worship services. They have preschools and food shelves. The sponsorship policy should be clarified. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson read the email from the church. It states their goal is to host a booth to reconnect with the community and share that their church is still here and warmly welcomes their neighbors to worship and engage with them. They also enjoy hosting community focused events such as the trunk or treat held in their parking lot. At this event they plan to distribute small promotional items such as pens and chip clips featuring the church's name and address as a way to connect with the attendees. Councilmember Weber said he votes no. Mayor Grant said the consensus is 3-2 against allowing it. Councilmember Monson would like the sponsorship policy to come back so Council can fill any unanticipated gaps created when the policy was adopted. Councilmember Weber said his vote against is due to the sponsorship policy, as it is written. It doesn't single out this one church. Councilmember Holden said when we were approving the sponsorship form, we weren't thinking about the 75a' or having a booth at the event. Discussion ensued that churches won't be allowed as sponsors at the 75t' Anniversary, however the sponsorship policy should be added to the agenda setting list. Further discussion ensued that in future review, Council should be cautious about how religious organizations are described. We aren't just talking about churches. Houses of worship goes beyond just Christian denominations. C. Primer Tracer Site Environmental Review Process Update (Item 3A on published agenda) Community Development Director Reilly said a concept review was presented to Council in January 2025 for the site known as the Primer Tracer site on the TCAAP property. It is where ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 9 primers and tracers were put together for the war effort. In 2024 the federal government held an auction to sell off certain portions of their property, as is, to the highest bidder. The sale to Maplewood Development, a local developer, was completed in 2024. The purchase agreement was finalized early in 2026. There is a mandatory environmental review process that is required as part of the due diligence before the developer submits land use applications. This is a required public process, managed through the Environmental Quality Board and will be published in the Environmental Quality Board Monitor. Once published the 30-day public comment period begins. Anyone can comment on the project proposal. Community Development Director Reilly said the proposal is for four or five industrial buildings. Due diligence will include identifying that the property can be used year-round. There was originally a restriction on the use of the property for a portion of the year. He outlined the land use applications that could be anticipated, upon completion of the environmental impact statement. He said the packet defines what an environmental impact statement is, a brief summary of what the proposed project is and what next steps are. The environmental impact statement is completed by the City but the project proposer does all of the work to write the documents and submit them to us. We are contracting with Bolton and Menk's Environmental Review team to complete the review and detail the significant environmental impacts. Our consultant anticipates submitting the environmental assessment worksheet to the Environmental Quality Board Monitor tomorrow. That will begin Phase 1. A public scoping meeting is required. It is anticipated that meeting will be hosted at Arden Hills City Hall, immediately prior to the existing Planning Commission meeting. It is not a public hearing or a Planning Commission agenda item. Comments received at the scoping meeting will be put into the record for the EAW. The project proposer will draft the environmental impact statement. Our consultants will review the statement and make any changes we want to see on our end. Those changes will be folded into the draft to produce a final environmental impact statement. A record of decision will outline the things that could happen and how we anticipate the developer will mitigate them. This requires a commentary period, none of which require a public hearing. Community Development Director Reilly said the environmental assessment worksheet will be submitted tomorrow. It will be published June 16, starting the 30-day comment period. There will be a public facing web page on the City website, associated with this development. Councilmember Weber said there is no budget amount associate with this. He asked if the cost of the whole process, including our consultant, are covered by the applicant. Community Development Director Reilly confirmed. Councilmember Holden asked how long the process will take. Community Development Director Reilly said it could be 18 months, maybe less, depending upon the nature and volume of comments received. Councilmember Holden thought this property has previously been reviewed by environmental agencies. She thought it should be a shorter time period. The baseline is built so the wildlife determination should not take 18 months. Community Development Director Reilly said that is the hope. From a process standpoint, 18 months is the longest these usually take. ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 8, 2026 10 Discussion ensued about if Council wanted to recess now and reconvene after the regular Council meeting. Councilmember Monson said in the event the work session is not reconvened, she wanted to add e-bikes and the Mounds View High School parking issue to the agenda planning list. Councilmember Holden wanted to add review of the ordinance for tree removal to the agenda planning list. Council recessed the Work Session at 6: 53 pm. Council did not reconvene after the regular Council meeting. The Work Session was adjourned at 8: 52 pm. D. Code of Conduct Not Discussed. E. El Use of City Property and E2. Immigration Enforcement Discussion Not Discussed. F. Rice Creek Commons/TCAAP Discussion Not Discussed. G. Agenda Planning Not Discussed. 4. COUNCIL/STAFF COMMENTS None. ADJOURN Mayor Grant adjourned the City Council Work Session at 8:52 p.m. A Le 01—/ J ing David Grant Deputy Clerk Mayor