2012-04-11 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council 2012 -03 -28 at 6:45 p.m. Minutes of Work Session N O O Present were Mayor Tom Wilharber, Council members Jeff Paar, Steve King, D Love, and Ben Fehrenbacher. Also present were Mark Statz of Stantec, City Attorney Kurt Glaser, and Finance Director Mike Jeziorski, 1. Bill Beard of Beard Group was present to discuss the Downtown Redevelopment Plan. He suggested that the plan may have to be revisited to reduce the amount of commercial- retail space and reposition the portion designated to townhomes. He noted that the market does not have an appetite for much of any commercial development at this time and financing projects is almost impossible. 2. Council discussed purchasing certain real estate parcels. The consensus was to move forward with purchase of the property from Anoka County at 7261 Main Street(on Peltier Lake), but were not interested in a parcel from St. Paul Regional Water Service behind Trailside Park, nor the Anoka County parcel at 1798 Main Street. 3. Council discussed rear -yard drainage issues and the possibility of doing joint projects where the city staff would trench in a drain tile and the property owners would be responsible for installing rock in the trench. While concerns were noted for liability and what to do if all of the property owners were not on board, the idea will be researched further. 4. Council discussed goals for 2012. Specifically they discussed Goal II.,E, Business Outreach and Goal III.,F, Taxpayer Satisfaction. The main element of each would be doing surveys to get information from business owners and from residents. Consensus was that the council will concentrate on the business survey this year and defer a resident survey to 2013. Council members will prepare suggested questions and send them to the City Administrator to be compiled, by the end of April. When the survey questions are finalized, Council will identify -the additional steps, including contact with the business owners in person or by phone to ask the questions. The consensus was that home based business would not be part of the survey. The meeting adjourned at about 9:30 p.m. Dallas Larson, Administrator 4