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Heat.

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Heat.

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Okay, I guess we'll start. I'd like to
call the meeting to order.

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» We'll start with the council. So,
Calbert

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» here.
>> Kley is absent. Foster Bolton

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» here.
Rome is absent, Wilburn is absent, and

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Maxwell
>> here.

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» Mayor Shack
>> here.

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» And then for the park board, we have
Hanley

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» here.
>> Schultz

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» here.
>> Christy is absent. Samki

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» here.
>> And Sher Ingram

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» here.
>> All right. We have uh two business items

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today. You want to tee up the first one?
>> I will.

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I'm operating two computers here so I
have to

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do both. So our first item is uh
regarding a youth action climate action

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grant which the city has received which
is an exciting opportunity for the youth

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of Minnetonka. So we have Ally
Sutherland. She is the city's uh

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sustainability coordinator and she
coordinator and she is going to provide

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you with some information.
>> Hi everyone. You can hear me? Okay.

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Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Leslie. Uh,
thank you all for having me here

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tonight. Ally Sutherland, sustainability
coordinator. As Leslie mentioned, um, I

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am in the community development
department. I think I've spoken to the

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park board maybe one time. So, thanks
again for having me. This is a really

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exciting time for this program. So, this
is a brand new program that we're just

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launching actually officially as of
yesterday.

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So that's why I was excited to get in
front of you as the park board and it's

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great to have the city council here as
well so everyone can get an update. I'll

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be taking the same presentation to other
commission meetings and board meetings

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so everyone can kind of be informed and
uh get the latest status update of this

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program. Um so
even though it technically went live

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yesterday, we've been working on this
program since January. So I learned of

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this program through another city who
informed me of it. Um it's through

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Bloomberg Philanthropies which is a
nonprofit and uh they support this

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program. It's called the youth climate
action fund and uh they support it to

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support youth in creating climate action
projects and getting them involved. So

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when I learned about it, it seemed like
something that really uh resonated with

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our climate action and adaptation plan
goals, which my main role here is to

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implement that plan. And then also with
uh the city council's goals of engaging

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youth, it just seemed like a perfect
fit. So we went ahead and applied. Um

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we're very excited to announce that we
were selected. Um and we're extremely

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honored to have been selected. We were
one of 300 cities to be participating in

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this cohort and we were selected what
the program told me from among hundreds

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and hundreds of applicants which is
pretty phenomenal. Um when I look at the

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list of past cities that have
participated and even current cities in

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this cohort um typically at least within
North America they're very large cities

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like uh New York City, Chicago, Miami,
Madison is on there. So, there's some

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more modest cities, but for um a city, a
suburban community the size of

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Minnetonka, about 55,000 residents to
have been selected, I think is pretty

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incredible. And um we're frankly we're
shocked to have been selected, but we're

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very excited. Um and I think it goes to
show that um you know, even if you're

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suburban community, you can be leading
in this climate space and it's really

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exciting to have been recognized for
that. Um, so thank you for all the

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support uh that the the council has and
park board and others um for getting us

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to this point because having that
climate action and adaptation plan um

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there and ready to go when we went to
apply I mean is the reason why we were

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selected. So thanks for that. Um so
through the program Bloomberg

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Philanthropies provides cities $50,000
to redistribute as youth climate action

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grant so or micro grant. So, we'll be
taking this money and then

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redistributing it to youth projects. And
they're meant to be selected based on

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how they can um help um move our climate
action and adaptation plan forward. And

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these are some real examples of youth um
that have participated in this program

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throughout the last three years. So,
this program is actually fairly new.

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It's only about three years old.
Um over the last three years, Bloomberg

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has engaged around 300,000 young people
in their climate action um planning and

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implementation. And I included the the
latest map. So they have 300 cities

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participating in this cohort. The last
two cohorts had 90 cities. So they've

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added um you know almost doubled it. and
uh all of these cities. So this whole

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global network of cities is now at the
point where we've all received the funds

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from Bloomberg and we are accepting
applications as we speak. So we're all

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kind of at that same um stage.
And in terms of the background, so uh we

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have received this $50,000.
We'll redistribute these as micro or

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this money as micro grants which it can
be um requested in lumps of $1,000 up to

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$5,000 per project. We can keep about
10% of that for administrative fees for

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program development, which is helpful um
because we obviously didn't have

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anything uh created already for this
project. Uh projects that are awarded

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must benefit the Minnotonka community.
So whether that means um the social

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aspect of our community or the
environment, they have to benefit one.

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These have to be youthled projects which
is actually pretty unique for this

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program. So youth are the ones that must
lead and design it and really just

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generally created. So um they do need to
be supported by an eligible

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organization. Um but it has to be
created and developed by the youth. And

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when we use youth in this case, it's 15
uh students or uh young people 18 to 24

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years old. Uh the youth must live in
Minnetonka or go to a school in

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Minnitankka if they're participating. So
what's really interesting about

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Minnotonka is that not only does that
include the Minnitonka school district,

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but that also means that Hopkin High
School students can apply. We also have

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at least one charter school high school
in Minnetonka and then at least one

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specialty high school. So I think that's
also what made our application stand out

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is I think there was over, you know,
4,000 high school students in

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that could potentially be eligible to
participate.

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U and then in terms of the eligible
organizations, they have to be a

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nonprofit or a public entity such as
like a watershed district for example.

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Um and what's also really cool is that
they can be in uh located inside

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Minnetonka or outside Minnetonka. So we
have the opportunity to connect with

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organizations throughout the Twin Cities
or Minnesota in general. In terms of our

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timeline, we were informed about the
program April. In May, city council

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approved our program acceptance. So, we
moved forward after that. So, thank you

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again for your support. Uh, in June
through last month, we've been spending

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a lot of time with program planning. Um,
so that means just generally creating

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the program. I worked with our amazing
communications staff. We created a new

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Minnotonka Matters page. So that's our
program page which uh there's a link

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there minnotonkamatters.com
youth-climate-fund

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that you can go to to learn um all about
the program but we've created flyers,

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brochures, the email list serve blast,
social media content. We have the

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application already developed the
application scoring process and then we

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also have developed um an application
selection committee internally uh who

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will help review the applications for
eligibility. They'll do a scoring

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process and then their recommendations
will go to the sustainability commission

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who ultimately will select the awarded
projects. But there's been a lot of

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planning up until this point. Uh but
yesterday was an exciting day because

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that was the day that we officially
opened the application. So if you go to

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the website, you can apply now. Um and
those applications are accepted through

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October 19th. And another pretty
exciting part about this is that we're

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going to hosting application support
events which is pretty fun. Normally

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grant applicants don't get a lot of
handholding but Bloomberg uh highly

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recommends and I believe even even
requires us to at least hold a couple of

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these support meetings to teach the
youth how to apply for a grant. Like

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what is a grant? How do you write a
budget? How do you think of a project

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timeline? And helping them scale down
maybe a very, you know, broad idea into

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something that's truly implementable um
and achievable with the time frame. So,

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we're excited about that. We just
started connecting with the high schools

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to be on site. So, um looking forward to
that, but a few of those are already

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scheduled. Um and then in October as
well, that's when the the sustainability

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commission will review applications.
That'll be a special meeting that we're

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hosting. And then in November, that's
when the projects will receive funding

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and they can start with implementation.
And they have to be completed um by

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April of 2027. So, it's a pretty short
implementation time frame, but um long

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enough that it gives them, you know,
enough time to actually get something

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off the ground, too. Um and then in
terms of eligible projects, their

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projects must support sustainable
transportation, energy efficiency and

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renewable energy, waste reduction and
recycling, or climate resiliency. And

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that um list is limited based on our
climate action plan so that we know that

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the the projects are aligning with our
our goals that have been set. And um

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lastly, I'll just end on how you can
help. So the reason I'm here is just to

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get everyone kind of on the same page of
uh knowing about this program, what it

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is, and asking you for your help in
promoting the program. If you have the

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capacity and interest or if you think
your uh network would be interested in

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something like this, you know, you're
welcome to share word of mouth. You can

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share our digital uh communications
content. You're welcome to share our uh

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website, the program website. If you go
on to our homepage, actually, I believe

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as of yesterday, there's a big banner on
there that talks about this grant

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program, too. So, even if you just share
our website, uh they'll get the

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information.
Another option is if you have a youth

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group in in mind, for example, like a a
student activity club at the high

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school, could potentially be an
applicant or if you know of another

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group uh organization that might be
interested. You're welcome to let them

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know directly about the program or send
their contact information to us and we

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can get in contact with them. Honestly,
just however you can share this program

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out would be amazing. We just want to
get as many informed about this as we

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can. And I think lastly, I'll just
mention that if you um have questions

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about, you know, if a particular
organization would be eligible or um if

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a project could maybe be a possibility,
you're welcome to reach out to me

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directly and we can talk offline about
those specifics. happy to talk to you in

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any capacity or you know to present for
example to an organization if you think

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that they could benefit from a kind of a
one-on-one conversation. So with that um

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I'll end my quick update but I will open
it up for questions too if anyone has

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any like general project questions.
>> Thanks. Any questions from the council

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board?

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City of Mitanka got $50,000.
So you have five

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10 $5,000 grants potentially.
>> Yeah, thanks for asking. So um chair,

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board members, council, um we yes, we
received $50,000. We can keep 10% of

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that for administrative cost. So, we're
keeping 10% uh $10,000 for um we

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actually worked with a digital content
specialist that helped create videos

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that you might see on uh Facebook.
>> 5,000.

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» Um Oh, sorry. Of 50,000.
>> Yeah.

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» Yeah. Would be 5,000.
>> Yeah.

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» Yeah. I heard sorry.
>> Okay. Yeah. So, we're keeping that money

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and we're using that for our
communications purposes. So, then I

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think we can up to like eight projects
in total. So,

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» thank you.

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» I guess I'll take that.
>> How have you um what kind of outreach

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have you done to uh school
administration, teachers? This seem to

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be a classic win-win.
>> Yes. Yeah. Great question. Um, so we're

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still in the midst of that and it's been
kind of tricky with um, you know,

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reaching out over the summer is when
they're typically depending on their

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their role um, if they're you know
looking at their emails or not. But

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starting at the end of July, we started
sending outformational

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emails and we actually created an
interest survey on the website to say

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this isn't you applying, but if you're
interested in learning more or

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interested in being a sponsor, you can
submit that here. So, we sent that out

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to all organizations, which included uh
school activity clubs and teachers. Some

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were interested, but I will say over the
last couple weeks, we've gotten more

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traction. Um, and I have at least one
contact at the Minnetonka school that's

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connecting me with teachers and I'm
hoping to get into their classrooms uh

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for just like a quick little blurb about
it. We heard from our interns here at

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Minnetonka, which we interviewed while
some of them were still here over the

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summer, that getting in front of their
classroom would be most impactful. So,

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00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:57,360
we'll see. It's unfortunately it's
really up to the teacher and if they

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they want to have us there or not, but
yeah, we're attending lunch periods,

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too, so we'll see. It'll be a little bit
of a experiment, if you will, to see

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what's most effective and possible.

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» So, I have a I have a couple questions.
So, it sounds like the the projects

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would be group projects and so you're
going to have, you know, you'll get in

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from So, it's up to the kids to get
together and try to figure it out

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before they apply. And the

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So the so the application phase ends mid
midmon next month.

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» So they have that much time to kind of
get themselves together and and do the

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00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:52,240
thing. Okay.
>> And that's the tough part. And so the

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the application phase um actually is
created by Bloomberg. So they usually

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recommend at least six weeks, not much
more than that, which is a really tough

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time frame. Um So what we heard from
interns actually here was that linking

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not only sharing example projects but
linking to past ones that other uh you

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know groups in Bloomberg have done would
be helpful. I wish there was a better

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00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:22,720
database of that but after scouring some
local sites I found at least one page

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that had really really good examples. So
we're hoping that between sharing those

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links on Minnotonka Matters and then
hosting these um the events that were

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we're able to help give ideas without
doing too much handholding.

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» And I if I if I remember correctly, we
have a sliver of Weisetta school

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district and we have a lot of kids in
Minnotonka that do go to Weisetta

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schools. So there's that.
>> Um and then I was just curious in terms

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of the our application because it is
kind of amazing, you know. Um and so you

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think that you It sounds like you
submitted the the cap um with the

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application. Do you get feedback about
what

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you know what it was that uh put us over
the top or and and what besides the cap,

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» what else was in there that you think
>> did the trick?

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» Um I I can't remember if I received
distinct feedback or not, but I do have

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some suspicions. So, first off, asked
Leslie if she would be a supportive

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applicant with me because you needed at
least two um internal staff to support

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the program. So having more than just
one sustainability person for sure

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allowed us to even apply. Um I think
because we had so many high schools

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within Minnetonka that that was
compelling. I also think of course the

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climate action and adaptation plan I I
mentioned that our goals are the most

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ambitious within the state of Minnesota
or one of which also stands out. Um I

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think piece that stood out is that we
have so many commissions. So, I noted

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that we have a DEI commission, a park
board commission, and they all have

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youth representation on them, too. Um,
as well as the youth advisory board that

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we have. So, even though the application
was very short, it uh included a lot of

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these kind of like unique aspects of
Metanka that must have stood out.

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So, we have some engaged
um young people that we've given the

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sustainability awards to and
>> we had some young women who received

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writing awards. To me, those seem like
engaged and um motivated students. I

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mean, are we pushing it out to other to
these types of people that we've had

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communication with in the past directly?
>> Yeah, I mean, that's my intention. I

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think um it's it's tricky because they
have to be within that 15 through 24 age

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range and I believe that some of them
that at least participated with this

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within the sustainability um or
sustainable matonic awards program might

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be younger like the most recent ones
>> but I actually was thinking even like

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our youth volunteers might be a good uh
group to at least just inform. So we're

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creating this giant spread list of
emails. So you have any to add to that?

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um I would welcome them. But yeah,
>> and then one other suggestion and I can

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follow up with you on this, but I think
um groups like the optimists and the

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Rotary
>> and actually League of Women Voters had

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um
>> a group that I think also spoke to us to

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the council that was doing research on
water quality.

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Um, they were really League of Women
Voters might have some suggestions. And

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then there there used to be an AP bio
class or AP environmental

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science at Hopkins. I don't know if they
have it anymore, but they did. So, I

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think that these clubs, right, with
adults who are motivated to be mentors

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and can because this is kids are great
and they'll be able to do it, but it

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would be also probably have some mentors
that are helping guide it.

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» So I think that might be an opportunity.
>> Great.

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I know the groups, the Rotary group, but
Optimus and other groups are always

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welcome to come

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» and Leslie's probably put you on
already, but the wershed districts

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» that would probably be possibly a good
>> source, too.

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We'll all be ambassadors if we
>> Yeah. Yeah.

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» This is great.
>> Wonderful. Well, thank you all.

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» Just one curiosity on I hate to think
downside. So, what happens if we only do

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three grants
>> and we spent $5,000 on?

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» That's not an option.
>> Okay.

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» Um
>> I like that attitude.

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» Yeah. I don't know. Some days I'm
concerned we're going to get none and

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then some days I'm concerned we're going
to get 50 applications. So, I don't know

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what will happen, but I have faith um
that we'll get a lot because we have so

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many high school students and they seem
engaged. So, I'm just hopeful at this

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point that that won't happen.
>> Great.

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» Any other questions or comments?
>> Um just one more thing. I think about,

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you know, the
you know, it's been several years, so

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they they're probably off at college,
but the young people that kind of got

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the ball rolling on the mountain bike
I mean they go out there and I know that

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they were volunteering
um to do all kinds of trail work. So I

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just feel like there are, you know,
people that are out there in our young

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people that are out there in our hearts
doing work. And um so I just think about

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that as well and
even church and you know places of

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worship, their youth groups.

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» Well, thank you Ally. That was very
helpful.

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Our next item is 3B, the Opus Station
Park Vision. Is this

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» Matt first or Leslie first?
>> Matt. Okay.

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» Thank you, Chair Ingraham, Mayor Shack,
Council Park Board, everybody in

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attendance. Um, tonight we're going to
go over our um first few months in the

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Opus Station Park Vision Plan, as we've
renamed it recently. I have our

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consultants with us tonight, Sandy and
Olivia from Mend Collaborative. Um,

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we've had a wonderful process so far to
get to this point. We're really excited

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about how it's going. So, tonight's um
presentation is going to be sort of a an

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introduction into the process thus far,
an update on the the openhouse and

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outreach and engagement that we've been
doing so far and our conversations with

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the developer that have been really
exciting in this area and sort of the

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timeline um as we proceed into the
future. So, I'll kick us off with a

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little bit of a background. Um, so Opus,
this is an important area of the city as

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I'm all as you're all aware. Um, and we
do have thankfully some precedent

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documents that we've been leaning into
during this master planning effort,

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specifically the Opus Opus area
placemaking and urban design

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implementation manual, which is a really
wonderful guide um that some folks at

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Men Collaborative actually helped when
we were putting that document together.

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So there's some legacy institutional
knowledge there. And then our parks open

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space and trails system plan references
opus quite a bit. Um specifically how

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that area of the city um is is lacking
in some park space down there and how

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Opus is really a wonderful example of um
multimmodal transportation network and

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specifically the trails through Opus
area. So there's a lot of sort of leadin

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to the effort that we're undertaking
these days.

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Um so Opus as you know is fairly
innovative um in terms of its design way

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back in the 60s at this point. Um but
really the focus was the natural

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environment blending with a mix of
residential and commercial through that

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area. They really leaned into this idea
of being able to bike to work and you

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can really um see that um in terms of
multimodal transportation in that area.

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We do have the light rail coming in. So
that's a that's a big deal. So the idea

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here is that um we are looking to
develop a public space and redevelopment

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adjacent to the light rail station in
Opus which we know is going to be a very

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vibrant node in our community and we
want to make sure we put the right foot

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out in terms of what folks see when they
come into the city of Minnotonka or are

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they getting on the train and and able
to live in the Opus area and easily

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commute downtown if their work if their
work is down there. So really we

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understand that this this park and and
the visioning that goes in behind it

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needs to, you know, sort of um check a
lot of boxes.

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Um I'm going to turn it over to Sandy um
from men to walk us through

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the the process thus far.
>> Great chair, board, and council. Thank

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you so much for having us here. My name
is Sandy. I'm a landscape architect and

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I'm a founding partner of Mend
Collaborative. I'm the project manager

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on the consultant side for this project.
And Olivia, I'll let you introduce

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yourself.
>> Hi, I'm Olivia Haldney. I'm a landscape

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architect as well and serving as the
assistant project manager on this

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project.
>> All right. So, zooming into the site a

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little bit. Um, currently there's a
large building, the Minneapolis Mart.

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Minneapolis Mart. Yep.
>> Um, quite quite a large building,

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singlestory building kind of tucked into
the landscape there. um and a lot of

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impervious surface. Majority of the site
is covered by building and by parking

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lot. Um so excitingly doing a park here
is going to be a great improvement to

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this site with helping with um
increasing permeable surfaces. Um

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speaking to you know sustainability and
and all of that stuff that Minnotonka is

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really um you know prides itself on. So
what we're looking at here the dashed

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orange line is the um outline of the
parcel. Um, we are hopeful that the um,

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uh, developer that's working with this
parcel owner will also be acquiring the

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parcel adjacent to it, so we can kind of
even this out as a nice square. Um,

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we'll see where that goes, but we're
hopeful that that will be a successful

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conversation. Um, the site is bound by
Bren Road, um, west and east. Uh and

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then we also have Green Oak Drive which
is actually going to be reversing

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direction here shortly um in an upcoming
project that the city's doing. And it's

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very well bounded as well by in the
existing trail system through um the

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Opus area. And we have a diagram to kind
of show the greater trail network for

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that area as well. The trail currently
doesn't cut through the site though, so

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it's really just a big impervious space
that was um you know used for the

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Minneapolis Mart. And then you can see
that big green line on the side there is

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um the light rail that'll be going
through and the opus light rail stop is

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the one stop for the the uh green line
extension in in um Minnotonka here. And

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I did also, you know, want to speak to
this slide a little bit and how unique

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this station is going to be for the
green uh for the the green line. Um, as

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you can see, the Shady Oak station to
the north and then to the south, the

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00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:40,880
city west station, Golden Triangle, Town
Center Southwest, down Eden Prairie and

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beyond, they're really park and ride
focused, surface lot, um, big um,

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parking structure focused. Whereas what
we're looking at for um this site here

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is more of a welcoming open green space,
a public space, which is going to be a

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really unique typology for our public
transit in the entire state, upper

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Midwest. Um there's not a lot of
examples like this in Minnesota or the

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upper Midwest. So this is a very
exciting project that Minnotonka um is

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undergoing. We have an existing um storm
water it functions as a storm water

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00:28:13,279 --> 00:28:20,000
pond. Um uh it it is a designated
wetland with that pond. It's it's quite

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large. There's a couple islands in
there. Um and then there's some newer

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00:28:22,159 --> 00:28:28,720
developments um uh for multifamily
housing and then some of the legacy

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businesses that have been in the opus
area. So a lot of a lot of change in

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this area currently. Did you want to
speak to the priorities?

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» Sure. So um as we take on these efforts,
we certainly want to look to coordinate

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with the city's strategic priorities. So
we're hitting on a number of those with

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this planning effort. um specifically
the finan financial strength of this

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area. We know we're going to get
residents. We know we want to attract

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long-term residents and and this open
space can certainly help do that. Um

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00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,720
safe and healthy community. We know that
there's going to be a lot of traffic

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coming in and out of the light rail. So,
we want to be very thoughtful about

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that. We have an opportunity to plan
park space that addresses those um some

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00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:07,600
of those concerns and make sure our
public safety's folks can keep, you

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00:29:06,159 --> 00:29:11,760
know, a general eye on the light rail
station as traffic really picks up and

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00:29:09,279 --> 00:29:15,279
people um become used to that space. Um
there's a lot of opportunity in terms of

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sustainability, resilience in the
natural environment. These were former

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00:29:16,799 --> 00:29:22,000
wetland sites. We had an opportunity to
remove a lot of impervious surface. So

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we're going to check a lot of those
boxes. And then certainly uh well

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planned and livable development. That's
really the goal of Opus. It's quite

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00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:34,320
unique in that way. So through the
looking at the strate strategic

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00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:39,200
priorities, we identified some vision
plan goals overall. So we want to center

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a nature-based urban park experience.
Obviously in Minnotonka, we're really

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00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:47,200
attached to the natural environment.
This is a bit more urban for us. There's

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00:29:45,279 --> 00:29:51,440
certainly a lot more gray down there
now, but we have an opportunity to

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00:29:48,799 --> 00:29:55,679
retrofit this space, add more pollinator
habitat, add storm water management, add

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00:29:53,840 --> 00:30:00,480
canopy trees. So, there's some really
exciting opportunities there. We want to

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00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:04,480
create a regional destination for family
play and recreation. We understand that

385
00:30:03,039 --> 00:30:07,520
with all this traffic and the
destination that is the light rail

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00:30:06,159 --> 00:30:11,600
station, we're going to have a lot of
folks coming through. Maybe they'll

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00:30:09,279 --> 00:30:16,399
they'll choose to live near here so they
can commute or or or travel through this

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00:30:14,159 --> 00:30:21,360
area to get downtown and stop off at our
park space um to enjoy something um in

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00:30:19,039 --> 00:30:24,720
the city of Minnotonka.
We want to address the environmental and

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00:30:23,039 --> 00:30:28,480
site constraints. As Sandy mentioned,
there there are some storm water issues

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00:30:26,799 --> 00:30:33,200
on site. We're learning more about the
soils down there, challenges in terms of

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00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:38,000
of redevelopment overall. So, we have to
work within that sandbox. And we want to

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00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:41,919
enhance connectivity, access, and
wayfinding. As I mentioned, Opus is

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00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:46,240
really robust in terms of its multimodal
trail network. So, we need this space to

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00:30:43,919 --> 00:30:49,600
function, be a hub, sort of a spoke to
to send people out into the trail

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00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:54,080
system. We have the nine mile regional
trail just to the east of here through

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00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:59,039
Edina. You can easily cross into Edina.
So, we're really at sort of a a key

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00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:03,120
connectivity hub easily um getting to
downtown Hopkins and west into Lone Lake

399
00:31:01,279 --> 00:31:06,799
Park. So, we're really at this amazing
intersection. So, we got to make sure

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that that space coming on and off the
station and then living in that area

401
00:31:08,399 --> 00:31:14,000
really functions in terms of
connectivity, access, and wayfinding

402
00:31:11,679 --> 00:31:17,520
through that area.
And then finally, we certainly want to

403
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:21,279
support the inclusive, connective, and
culturally vibrant community place. We

404
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:26,159
really have an opportunity to do more of
an urban style like Ridgedale Commons um

405
00:31:24,399 --> 00:31:31,919
park space down here with a lot of
vibrancy, a lot of local residents, a

406
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:38,559
lot of opportunity to do community style
events. um possibly um opportunity for

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00:31:36,159 --> 00:31:42,000
integrating public art. Um a lot of
eyeballs coming through that area.

408
00:31:40,159 --> 00:31:45,360
Public art has been something we've been
talking about for a while, but it really

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00:31:43,679 --> 00:31:49,440
represents an opportunity quite the
canvas down here at this open space to

410
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:54,640
integrate some of that public art and
storytelling, history of Minnotonka,

411
00:31:51,679 --> 00:31:59,760
etc. Um so really focusing on quite a
few strategic priorities that we'll be

412
00:31:56,799 --> 00:32:02,760
able to uh to um tackle with this
effort.

413
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:10,640
All right. So, the general approach that
the project team has really been

414
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:17,600
embracing here is, you know, using this
opportunity to really tell a story

415
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:21,840
about, you know, what what people who
are visiting or riding on the light rail

416
00:32:19,679 --> 00:32:25,360
for the first time, what is their first
introduction to Minnotonka? But we also

417
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:29,519
have people that are living in this
area, this is their home. So there's

418
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:32,240
kind of these these two perspectives
that you know we really want to

419
00:32:30,799 --> 00:32:36,159
reinforce that we really want to support
through this process. So the project

420
00:32:34,559 --> 00:32:40,480
team has kind of been operating under
this model of you know this this future

421
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:44,880
public space really needs to operate as
the front porch to Minnotonka. You know

422
00:32:42,799 --> 00:32:48,960
what is that welcoming these are our
values as a city. You know this is what

423
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:52,000
we want you to understand uh about
Minnotonka as you're going by on the

424
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:55,840
light rail as you're visiting someone
who lives there as you're going through

425
00:32:53,679 --> 00:32:59,519
on the trail system. But this also
really needs to function as a backyard

426
00:32:57,679 --> 00:33:04,559
for the folks that live in this area.
There's an a growing and increasing

427
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:08,240
number of of folks living in this area.
Um there's also people that work in this

428
00:33:06,399 --> 00:33:13,519
area every day at at the various, you
know, businesses and corporations. Um so

429
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:17,120
there there's really this opportunity to
embrace a story through the landscape

430
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:20,960
here.
And speaking of the community, um just a

431
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:24,720
quick snapshot of the understanding of
the community in the Opus area. Um

432
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:31,840
there's a lot of folks that work here.
There's over 15,000 employees. There's

433
00:33:27,279 --> 00:33:37,279
140 businesses. And um by 2040, there's
estimated to add over 4,000 more jobs to

434
00:33:34,559 --> 00:33:42,480
the area. And then living here, there's
um about over 7,000 residents in the

435
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:49,039
Opus area. There's approximately 2.2
people per household. And 30 36% of

436
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:54,960
those newest 2,00 units are designated
as affordable. um in the demographic

437
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:59,360
profile of the Opus area, we're seeing
uh more diversity in the Opus area as

438
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:03,200
compared to Minnotonka as a whole. Um
and we're seeing uh a lot of languages

439
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:08,800
spoken at home other than English in
this area as well.

440
00:34:06,799 --> 00:34:13,200
And zooming out a bit, you'll see the
the sort of entirety of the site is

441
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:18,000
again outlined in that red outline
there. Um we've zoomed out to kind of

442
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:23,119
the opus area in general. We're looking
at about, you know, a mile wide by a

443
00:34:19,839 --> 00:34:26,480
mile tall um of the Opus area here. And,
you know, as Matt mentioned, we have the

444
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:30,000
Nine Mal Creek Regional Trail. We also
have the Minnesota River Bluffs Regional

445
00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:34,800
Trail just off the map to the northwest
up there. And then we have a very robust

446
00:34:32,399 --> 00:34:38,480
trail network throughout um the Opus
area that the city's also been doing a

447
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:41,760
lot of reinvestment in as well with
lighting and wayfinding.

448
00:34:42,159 --> 00:34:47,679
And then zooming back into the site
here, um, you know, Matt touched on some

449
00:34:45,839 --> 00:34:52,800
of the the constraints that we have to
look at from an environmental lens. So,

450
00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:57,119
we found it very interesting to overlay
some of the information about soils and

451
00:34:55,359 --> 00:35:01,040
flood planes here, especially with that
pond on the site and there's a lot of

452
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:04,720
wetlands. There's a lot of storm water
management happening elsewhere in the

453
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:08,640
Opus area. So we want to really
understand what that means for what does

454
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:13,760
development potentially look like in the
future from you know developable area.

455
00:35:11,599 --> 00:35:18,240
How much of this site do we really need
to dedicate to storm water management?

456
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:23,200
Can that be part of the story? So what
we're seeing here is the deeper blue is

457
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:26,720
that um pond itself. The lighter blue is
flood plane for that pond. So a pretty

458
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:31,040
good amount of the site we're going to
have to be dedicating to storm water

459
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:35,599
management to flood plane which is a
really exciting again opportunity to you

460
00:35:33,359 --> 00:35:39,760
know leverage that story of what
Minnotonka values and what we can

461
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:42,960
embrace as part of this park space.
There's also some constraints in the

462
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:46,960
northwest part of the site. There's some
hydric soils which is essentially wetter

463
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:50,560
soils that you would see in more of a
wetland. So, we are starting to

464
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:53,839
understand some of the constraints from
buildable area here and what we can kind

465
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:57,400
of, you know, work within from an
environmental perspective.

466
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:03,599
And we're going to jump into community
engagement really quick. We've done a

467
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:08,880
handful of engagement events already.
Starting in July, uh we did a popup at

468
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:12,240
the farmers market on July 14th. Uh we
did a design day, which Olivia is going

469
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:16,560
to touch on really quick here. That was
at the end of July. And then the day

470
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:22,960
after that we were able to um table at
the disability pride on July 25th. Um

471
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:26,800
the circular bubbles on the right hand
of the side the the slide here are some

472
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:31,839
of the major themes that we've been
hearing from the community engagement so

473
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:35,280
far. The larger the bubble is the more
we've been hearing that theme. So you

474
00:36:33,599 --> 00:36:40,640
can see we're really starting to hear a
lot of community value in water in

475
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:43,920
seating in play. But you can see there's
also a lot of other ideas in there. and

476
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:47,440
we have, you know, a lot of opportunity,
a lot of flexibility with this vision

477
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:51,760
plan to think about how we can capture
all of these things the community values

478
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:56,560
in the future park. Next week, we'll be
doing a popup in Green Circle Park just

479
00:36:53,839 --> 00:37:00,720
north of this site. And then um at the
end of the month, we're going to be

480
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:04,400
doing an open house inviting um all the
residents, doing sort of a direct

481
00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:07,839
newsletter, direct mailing to the
residents in the Opus area, inviting

482
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:13,280
them to an open house that'll be at the
Marriott in the O Opus area.

483
00:37:11,599 --> 00:37:16,560
And here's just some, you know, fun
photos of community engagement. They're

484
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:21,760
always really fun events. We got a lot
of um kids providing input. We had a lot

485
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:25,839
of sticker activities, a lot of post-it
notes, a lot of in-person conversations.

486
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:29,520
So, really good valuable feedback there.
And Olivia, you'll touch on design day.

487
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:34,480
» Yeah. So, this is design day. Design Day
is one of our favorite engagement

488
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:39,680
activities that we do. Um it's really an
opportunity to catalyze the project into

489
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:45,920
design and get a ton of different people
in the room. So, In this case, we had

490
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:51,119
several people from the city. We had the
developer who's um already on board on

491
00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:57,280
this project. We had architecture. We
had landscape architecture. We had

492
00:37:52,960 --> 00:38:03,599
watershed. We have uh
EO team as well, environmental

493
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:06,800
consultant. Thank you. We had all the
voices in the room together, which is

494
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:10,720
great. So then we were able to talk
about the project as a whole, go through

495
00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:16,079
precedents, talk about our visions for
the site together and then sit down as a

496
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:20,000
group of three in this case and sketch
together some initial ideas of what we

497
00:38:18,240 --> 00:38:23,359
could start to see. And these
conversations are so critical because

498
00:38:22,079 --> 00:38:27,680
you have all of these different
perspectives right there at the table.

499
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:32,320
So I have this great idea for uh
architecture building from the developer

500
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:36,320
perspective and then you also have uh
the city there to talk about building

501
00:38:34,079 --> 00:38:41,280
heights or you have the environmental
consultant to talk about constraints

502
00:38:38,079 --> 00:38:46,800
related to the pond. So it just really
catalyzes us into some realistic

503
00:38:44,240 --> 00:38:50,240
concepts essentially to move us into the
next phase of design.

504
00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:57,520
» Um one second. It was really cool to
have city leadership in terms of um our

505
00:38:55,040 --> 00:39:03,760
our folks internally. So we had Phil the
engineer, we had Susan planner, we had

506
00:38:59,920 --> 00:39:08,000
Will with public works, um Julie, we had
just the the big thinkers in the room at

507
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:10,720
at this design day. It was really
exciting and I heard a lot of positive

508
00:39:09,359 --> 00:39:14,640
feedback that it was really cool to get
away from their desks and be able to sit

509
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:18,480
with the developer and sketch out ideas
and it was more loose and creative than

510
00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:22,000
their day-to-day activities. So, it
ended up being a very positive

511
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:25,359
experience from what I heard from from
city folks. So,

512
00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:30,160
» and you were there, too?
>> I was there, too.

513
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:33,760
» Um, if you need to head out, I can take.
Okay.

514
00:39:31,839 --> 00:39:38,400
» All right. So, what you're looking at
here are very loose sketches that were

515
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:43,680
kind of the outcome of design day. So,
as Olivia said, um this group of, you

516
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:47,119
know, city folks, public safety, the
developer, the developers, architects,

517
00:39:45,599 --> 00:39:49,839
the project team, all these folks, we
kind of broke into three different

518
00:39:48,240 --> 00:39:53,520
tables so that we could see what
different ideas these groups would

519
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:58,640
generate, making sure we had, you know,
representation from all these different

520
00:39:55,040 --> 00:40:03,280
groups at each table. Um, so, you know,
we we gave an attempt to kind of name

521
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:07,280
each of these kind of big concepts that
each table came up with. And you know

522
00:40:05,359 --> 00:40:11,839
the intent was to kind of be loose to
kind of let the pen flow just to get

523
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:15,280
some bigger ideas on paper. Um the first
group came up with this concept of

524
00:40:13,359 --> 00:40:19,440
lines. So you can see you know one of
the biggest moves there is this really

525
00:40:17,359 --> 00:40:23,440
strong prominade from the light rail
stop all the way over to the pond and

526
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:27,839
then park spaces kind of built off of
that you know linear prominade. The

527
00:40:26,079 --> 00:40:32,800
middle concept that the second table
came up with is this idea of funneling.

528
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:36,800
So really embracing the entirety of the
light rail station with this public

529
00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:41,119
plaza, public park space and then
funneling people towards this natural

530
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:45,040
feature of the pond across the site. And
then the third concept is nebula where

531
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:48,560
you know what does it look like to kind
of break this park space into various

532
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:54,079
components throughout the entirety of
the site. Um, but what the the biggest

533
00:40:51,599 --> 00:40:58,079
takeaway for all of us really was was
this, you know, each group independently

534
00:40:56,560 --> 00:41:01,920
with all of these different brains
together started thinking about this,

535
00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:05,760
you know, east to west connection of of
bringing people from the light rail stop

536
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:12,640
from the trail connections that are
already existing on the northwest, the

537
00:41:09,599 --> 00:41:16,160
the southwest, and then the east side of
the site and bringing people through the

538
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:20,319
site and really starting to embrace
those already existing trail connections

539
00:41:18,240 --> 00:41:24,560
and uh embraceing the natural features.
So, you know, it was it was that's a

540
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:28,640
pretty big move um in and of itself to
to start thinking about, you know, how

541
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:33,760
are we going to come up with a concept
plan for this park moving forward?

542
00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:37,839
And this is a version of what that kind
of looks like a little bit more uh

543
00:41:35,599 --> 00:41:43,040
formalized. You know, it's kind of hard
to read architect sketches sometimes.

544
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:46,319
What do those squiggles mean? Um, so
what that kind of looks like in a little

545
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:51,359
bit more of a formality. So, you know,
we can start identifying, you know, the

546
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:55,200
the white lines or how pedestrians or
bicycles might move through the site.

547
00:41:53,359 --> 00:41:58,400
You know, building if the road goes
through the site or if there is no road

548
00:41:57,119 --> 00:42:02,319
through the site, you know, how does
that start looking and then how building

549
00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:06,480
massing could potentially start looking
um throughout the site as a whole. Um,

550
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:10,240
and another encouraging thing was that
each group drew a relatively large

551
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:13,359
amount of park space, which is very
exciting. So,

552
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,920
building masses.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Building footprints.

553
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:24,240
» Building footprints.
>> And I I want to reiterate that these are

554
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:28,800
very high concept. This is sort of a
process for us at this point that these

555
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:32,160
still need to be reviewed by city staff
internally and the developer or the

556
00:42:30,319 --> 00:42:35,680
watershed districts haven't seen these
yet. So this this is just sort of the

557
00:42:34,240 --> 00:42:38,680
process of us landscape
>> architects.

558
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:44,839
the developer would
>> own.

559
00:42:45,839 --> 00:42:50,720
» Yep. Correct.
>> Yep.

560
00:42:48,720 --> 00:42:56,000
» And we we intentionally tried to not
overlabel this as part of the process

561
00:42:53,440 --> 00:43:04,280
just to kind of let general gestures and
ideas and you know figuring out spaces

562
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:04,280
and circulation across the site as well.

563
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:17,400
Yes, we're working together.

564
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:27,680
» Which is also a, you know, kudos to this
process for kind of getting ahead of,

565
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:31,040
you know, something that, you know, a
developer might come to the table and

566
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:35,200
say, you have this quarter acre to work
with for park space. you know, getting

567
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:40,480
kind of ahead of that to envision how
can park and development work together

568
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:44,000
to support and enhance each other is is
a really cool process.

569
00:43:41,839 --> 00:43:49,839
» Just one more to tag on to Ann's
question. So, is the the de is the

570
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:54,720
development in the space commercial,
residential, retail?

571
00:43:52,079 --> 00:43:58,319
» Primarily residential and retail is what
we're hearing so far.

572
00:43:55,839 --> 00:44:04,079
» Thank you. The other examples that they
have pointed to working with the city in

573
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:09,040
sort of a redevelopment style like this
um did feature restaurant space

574
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:13,839
primarily residential with a blend of
some public space mixed in. They

575
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:18,640
showcased an example um on the river in
ana that they just wrapped up a big sort

576
00:44:16,079 --> 00:44:22,720
of prominade along the river that had
residential and a and a city space

577
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:26,640
associated with it was very similar to
our open space. So they totally get that

578
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:29,800
process and seem to be excited to work
with us

579
00:44:32,319 --> 00:44:38,960
» and through internal discussions with
the project team and um talking through

580
00:44:37,599 --> 00:44:43,359
some of the folks that were there at
design day. It seems like, you know,

581
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:49,280
trending towards this idea of funneling
to really, you know, kind of embrace

582
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:54,000
that light rail stop and in enhance the
existing trail connections on the on the

583
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:57,760
west side of the site to really start
bringing people through and make a

584
00:44:55,599 --> 00:45:03,280
really fluid connection of park space
across the site. Again, this is very

585
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:07,200
high level. It'll look probably pretty
different at the end of this, but this

586
00:45:04,720 --> 00:45:10,400
is kind of our jumping off point of a of
a concept that, you know, a lot of

587
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:14,880
people are in the room together kind of
sketching, ideulating together. Do you

588
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:19,200
want to add anything to that?
>> Just that we still have a long way to

589
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:23,760
go, but there there's a fine tuning, a
whittling down of big ideas um and a lot

590
00:45:22,240 --> 00:45:26,720
of a lot of interest. You know, we
certainly need to protect the storm

591
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:30,560
water, so the wershed district will need
to weigh in. Is this accommodating for

592
00:45:28,720 --> 00:45:33,680
enough units? the developer is going to
have to go back and look at those sorts

593
00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:38,480
of things. But this represents an
opportunity for us to take the wheel a

594
00:45:35,839 --> 00:45:42,839
little bit in this process um and
coordinate with everybody along the way.

595
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,280
» Very cool.

596
00:45:49,599 --> 00:45:58,319
» It's that
>> green uh bar on the west side. Yes.

597
00:45:55,599 --> 00:46:05,200
There on the hand.
The concept is there will be no

598
00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:09,599
» parking associated with the residential
units. So if you're familiar, we'll see

599
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:14,640
him tonight on the bus tour. Um all the
parking associated with the residential

600
00:46:12,319 --> 00:46:18,720
area or the residential buildings just
south that that turn on outside E

601
00:46:16,720 --> 00:46:23,680
building that's called Minnetonka
station that just opened. The parking is

602
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:27,200
on the ground level. So underneath the
residential units or there's associated

603
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:31,599
parking garages. It would be this
situation, but it would not have a large

604
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:35,960
park and lot ride lot associated with
this

605
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:35,960
» public space.

606
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:47,280
» Or at the west side, there's a park and
ride drop off area,

607
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:50,720
the west side of the station, there's
essentially like um

608
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:56,640
» a kiss.
>> Yeah, that's what they're called. Yeah.

609
00:46:54,960 --> 00:47:02,079
So, more of a commuter lot than a park
and ride style lot.

610
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:05,520
Pick up and drop off. Well, since we're
kind of diving into some questions, I

611
00:47:03,359 --> 00:47:10,240
guess I'll throw one out, too. Um, so
programming in this space would be

612
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:14,960
really
focused around residents and workers in

613
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:19,680
that in the Opus area. You wouldn't want
to throw a event that would bring people

614
00:47:17,599 --> 00:47:22,800
in substantially unless they were coming
in on the train.

615
00:47:21,599 --> 00:47:24,800
» You know what I mean?
>> Yes.

616
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:28,400
» There's no parking. That's what we're
trying to find out through this out

617
00:47:26,240 --> 00:47:30,720
outreach and engagement process. What's
the appropriate amount of that sort of

618
00:47:30,079 --> 00:47:36,720
space?
>> Okay. Thank you.

619
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:42,960
» So, I'm getting a little bit of like a
uh Centennial Lakes vibe

620
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:47,680
» um to this and we'll see, you know, but
the other thing from the from the

621
00:47:46,079 --> 00:47:52,800
bubbles,
>> community engagement bubbles, granted

622
00:47:50,079 --> 00:47:59,760
there's already water in this pond, but
it also start to give me this like Round

623
00:47:55,680 --> 00:48:03,440
Lake splash pad playground vibe.
>> Um,

624
00:48:01,359 --> 00:48:07,280
so just plug those in.
>> We've talked about Centennial Lakes

625
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:11,119
quite a bit during this process. Round
Lake hasn't come up, but Centennial for

626
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:15,119
sure. There's a lot of similarities with
the office space around it.

627
00:48:13,119 --> 00:48:18,560
» Yeah, I think I think in regard to
Centennial Lake, what you know,

628
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:23,920
community has brought up is the amount
of like family activities available to

629
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:26,880
do there and actually draws you to want
to come there.

630
00:48:25,119 --> 00:48:30,720
» Um whether you're, you know, living
around it as a resident or, you know,

631
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:34,400
you're, hey, let's drive a half hour to
somewhere new that, you know, we haven't

632
00:48:32,559 --> 00:48:39,119
been to in a couple years or something.
So,

633
00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:43,200
um, these are images from, you know,
other projects elsewhere completely

634
00:48:41,359 --> 00:48:47,440
around the world. Again, this is a very
unique opportunity,

635
00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:51,280
um, from a park space perspective. So,
we don't want to be too constrained with

636
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:54,160
thinking, you know, too small here. I
think, you know, there's a lot of

637
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:58,800
opportunity to think big with what could
potentially be here and um, you know,

638
00:48:56,640 --> 00:49:03,359
those bubbles of community feedback were
mentioned and this is what people were

639
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:06,640
really reacting to. Um, you know, what
they would like to see. You're seeing

640
00:49:04,559 --> 00:49:10,960
that balance of, you know, nature, that
connection to nature, natural spaces,

641
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:16,319
native plantings, but also things to do
amongst that. So, places you can gather

642
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:20,000
with friends and family, places to play,
places to maybe learn about the

643
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:25,359
environment, you know, sit alongside
some some water, some nature, and

644
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:28,880
there's a whole, you know, you know,
sort of spectrum of what all of these

645
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:32,079
activities could really look like. And
this is what, you know, our next round

646
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:35,520
of community engagement that we're going
to be doing next week and later this

647
00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:40,400
month is to dive a lot deeper into these
elements and really understand from

648
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:44,480
community, you know, is this is that
type of playground, you know, way too

649
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:47,119
big of a scale of your thinking? Are you
thinking smaller? Or is that what you

650
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:51,359
want to see? You want to see something
really iconic here for Minnetonka. Um,

651
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:54,480
So that's kind of our next step and
intent is, you know, we've kind of

652
00:49:53,119 --> 00:49:58,319
started thinking about this bubble
diagramming programmatically at a high

653
00:49:56,640 --> 00:50:02,800
level and then starting to get into that
next level with community. What's the

654
00:50:00,319 --> 00:50:09,520
right scale? What's the right, you know,
kind of vibe for this space?

655
00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:12,160
» That's it.
>> Thank you all for your time. And any

656
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:17,040
more questions?
>> Thank you. Yeah. Any questions,

657
00:50:14,079 --> 00:50:20,960
comments?
You'll see it with your own eyes. At

658
00:50:18,319 --> 00:50:25,599
least in its current condition here.
>> It's very exciting. Get ready.

659
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:30,640
» Yeah, really. Brace yourself.
>> I guess I'll throw out one since I

660
00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:34,160
always throw out questions. Um,
the Golden Triangle is that I'll call it

661
00:50:32,319 --> 00:50:37,160
the optimum lot. Is that the optimum
station?

662
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:42,800
» Let me go back.
>> No, that one's called City West

663
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:46,559
» on the map. I didn't see. Is that on the
map? Yeah, just south of our Opus

664
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:50,079
station.
>> It is the optimum station basically.

665
00:50:48,559 --> 00:50:54,880
Okay. City city west. I'm sorry. That's
what I meant to say. So that has a big

666
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:58,400
park and ride lot. So if that's where I
was kind of headed is I don't know what

667
00:50:56,480 --> 00:51:01,200
the frequency of the train is, assuming
it runs.

668
00:50:59,599 --> 00:51:08,880
» Um
but Shady Oak and City West have large

669
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:12,800
parking areas. So it's depend on the
frequency. if you were to want to have

670
00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:18,559
something to happen on a weekend or
something, people could park there and

671
00:51:15,440 --> 00:51:24,319
just ride in for four minutes on the
train, too. So,

672
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:28,000
» and and we've heard from community
community members that, you know, having

673
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:32,240
something iconic here, you know, artwork
or an iconic play structure, whatever

674
00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:36,559
that may be, will,
>> you know, make people want to get off

675
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:40,400
the train. So, you know, maybe maybe
someone, you know, does the park and

676
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:44,880
ride lot at the Golden Triangle Station,
commutes into St. Louis Park or downtown

677
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:48,079
every single day, but they see I want to
bring my kid there one weekend. I'm

678
00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:50,079
going to come back here. You know,
that's kind of

679
00:51:48,720 --> 00:51:56,319
» Sure. That's
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, I do have an

680
00:51:53,760 --> 00:52:02,880
announcement of an announcement, which
is that on September 26, there is going

681
00:52:00,079 --> 00:52:08,800
to be an event in St. Louis Park.
location to be determined at 10:00 a.m.

682
00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:12,240
and at that event
opening day of the light will be

683
00:52:10,720 --> 00:52:16,400
announced. Okay. So,
>> all right.

684
00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:21,839
» By the end of this month, we will know
when opening day of the light rail will

685
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:24,480
be. So, that is exciting in the sense of
we we will have an answer,

686
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:29,760
» right?
>> But I encourage you, you know, we had a

687
00:52:26,240 --> 00:52:34,400
really cool event where we um when they
reopened the trails and celebrated the

688
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:37,839
reopening of the and a lot of a lot of
community there, a lot of, you know,

689
00:52:36,079 --> 00:52:42,079
free stuff, ice cream and those kinds of
things. So, keep an eye out for this

690
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:44,880
event and come join us so you can find
out

691
00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:49,599
» when the library is going to open.
>> That's exciting.

692
00:52:47,599 --> 00:52:52,720
» Well, this is a great a great
presentation.

693
00:52:50,400 --> 00:52:57,040
» It's an exciting project certainly and
we got a long way to go before we're

694
00:52:54,400 --> 00:53:00,720
cutting any ribbons out there. Um, but
this setting we're we're hitting the

695
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:04,480
ground running that I think we have a
really solid team. a lot of excitement

696
00:53:02,559 --> 00:53:09,359
from staff in the city, a lot of
excitement from city leaders, you folks.

697
00:53:06,559 --> 00:53:14,720
It's really a kind of a thrilling
opportunity for us here in the city of

698
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:18,000
Manitaka. So, thank you.
>> Matt, oh,

699
00:53:15,839 --> 00:53:21,440
» I know you have some upcoming engagement
events that you mentioned, but do you

700
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:25,920
have any more information related to
timeline for this particular plan and

701
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:30,559
when they might see it? Again, the
parking council. Our current scope in

702
00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:34,640
terms of timeline would be to be
producing a a draft version of this

703
00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:39,680
document to be presented first to the
park board late this fall is our

704
00:53:37,359 --> 00:53:42,880
timeline. Early winter seems more like
it at this point. There there's going to

705
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:47,680
be a lot of distillation of community
feedback. Um I know these these two

706
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:52,400
events are locked in. We're also going
to be at the firehouse open house which

707
00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:56,800
I believe is um October 6th. So we'll
have a table there as well. Um, so

708
00:53:54,400 --> 00:54:01,920
there'll just be some some doing u
behind the scenes before we produce this

709
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:05,839
draft document um that I would go up on
on our Mitaka Matters site for public

710
00:54:04,079 --> 00:54:10,720
feedback and and be presented to the
park board. I'm expecting I mean no

711
00:54:08,240 --> 00:54:14,280
December probably at this point after
the new year potentially.

712
00:54:16,240 --> 00:54:23,280
So, another sort of big picture
question, and I feel sort of stupid

713
00:54:21,359 --> 00:54:29,520
because I don't know the answer to this.
Um, in the CIP plan, there was talk

714
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:35,119
about we're going to have a we need more
park space in Opus and there was a very

715
00:54:33,359 --> 00:54:40,160
big number about how much it was going
to cost and some of that was to buy

716
00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:44,400
land, I think.
>> Is this that park or is that a separate

717
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:46,640
park? That's this part. This part is
okay.

718
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:50,319
» And yes, they're big numbers and we're
we're trying to figure out through this

719
00:54:48,240 --> 00:54:53,680
process that we're on the same page with
the developer. We get a better sense of

720
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:57,599
what they would offer us in terms of the
land, what they would owe us in terms of

721
00:54:55,119 --> 00:55:01,520
the land and with their redevelopment.
Um, so this, like I said, helps us take

722
00:54:59,839 --> 00:55:05,400
the wheel in that conversation a little
bit working with them.

723
00:55:06,240 --> 00:55:12,640
It seems
dog park is kind of on some of our

724
00:55:10,960 --> 00:55:16,400
minds,
>> it doesn't seem like there'd be enough

725
00:55:14,319 --> 00:55:21,200
room for a big one. It would if there
was one, it would be small.

726
00:55:18,319 --> 00:55:24,480
» Yes, it'd be a smaller like urban style,
smaller fencing area.

727
00:55:23,599 --> 00:55:30,720
» Thank you.
>> Well, this sounds so exciting.

728
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:33,680
» Maybe we should take a tour.
>> Good idea.

729
00:55:31,119 --> 00:55:40,000
» So, unless anybody else we could Yes,
Leslie. Um, just a couple of notes. One

730
00:55:36,559 --> 00:55:45,599
is um I know some of you are aware park
board member Brad Lman um ended up

731
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:49,760
having an opportunity to move out of
state and as you know we haven't met for

732
00:55:48,160 --> 00:55:53,520
three months so it's it's been a while
since we met but he had to resign his

733
00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:58,319
position. He was hoping to be at this
meeting, but he and his wife, and I

734
00:55:56,079 --> 00:56:02,480
don't think he mind,
have had an opportunity to move closer

735
00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:05,280
to their children and grandchildren. And
so, it's very exciting for him. They

736
00:56:04,079 --> 00:56:08,640
ended up moving earlier than they
thought they would, but he wanted to

737
00:56:06,799 --> 00:56:12,480
send his regards and his deep
appreciation for serving on the board

738
00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:16,880
board and being appointed by the
council. He really enjoyed his tenure

739
00:56:14,559 --> 00:56:21,200
here. He was sorry to leave. He really
enjoyed it. So, he just sends his

740
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:23,520
regards. So, we certainly appreciate all
that.

741
00:56:22,240 --> 00:56:27,119
He was a good contributor.
>> Yes, he was a very good contributor. Um,

742
00:56:25,359 --> 00:56:32,079
and then the second is, as Matt
mentioned, we will be taking a tour. So,

743
00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:36,160
hopefully you are all on board for that.
And is the bus here? The bus is here.

744
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:41,359
It's always kind of nerve-wracking
making sure the bus shows up. Um, so we

745
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:44,720
will be starting at the OPA station. So,
you will get to see exactly what they've

746
00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:51,200
been talking about.
Right now it's very urban and big

747
00:56:47,839 --> 00:56:56,319
parking lot sort of a bit dated but
you'll get to uh use the information

748
00:56:54,400 --> 00:57:00,160
they provided to try to envision what
this could look like. So we'll start

749
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:05,040
there and then the second place we will
go is the big willow park. Um as you

750
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:10,480
know we are in the middle of completing
a master plan. Last year we went and we

751
00:57:07,839 --> 00:57:15,359
looked at the ballpark or ball fields
area. This time we're going to go to

752
00:57:13,599 --> 00:57:19,839
natural area along the creek on the
south side of the creek along the Tanka

753
00:57:17,359 --> 00:57:24,000
Boulevard where there was proposed you
know picnic shelters trails and Matt

754
00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:29,359
will talk through that but we're going
to go see that area as well. So just two

755
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:34,000
stops tonight so we can take our time.
We should be back about 8:30. Um so I

756
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:37,359
just encourage you to take maybe 10
minutes or so if you need to use the

757
00:57:35,359 --> 00:57:41,680
restroom. If you want to grab something
to drink, we do have some beverages here

758
00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:47,520
you can bring with you if you leave
anything will here. The facility staff

759
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:51,440
will make sure it's um safe and then we
will come back at about 8:30 and the bus

760
00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:53,040
should be out in the front
>> out in the front of the community

761
00:57:52,720 --> 00:57:55,839
center.
>> So, do we need a motion?

762
00:57:54,400 --> 00:58:01,079
» We do.
>> So, those are my notes. Yes. Now, if you

763
00:57:57,280 --> 00:58:01,079
would like to move to

764
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:05,200
» I'd like to move that we adjourn.
>> All right.

765
00:58:03,839 --> 00:58:07,280
» Second.
>> All in favor?

766
00:58:06,480 --> 00:58:12,559
» I
>> And I just also want to say that uh

767
00:58:09,680 --> 00:58:17,559
Council Member Wilburn is here.
attendance. Zoomed in very quietly.