We are on the air, and so I call this meeting of the West St. Paul environmental committee to order.
All right, and we start off with a roll call.
Eric, can I have a roll call, please?
We have a full House of all members.
We do.
All members of our presence.
The feeling from the planning commission is here.
And Robin, Council Member Robin Gully was unable to make it.
All right. Next we have citizen comments, but no citizens to comment.
So move and write along.
The first bit of new business is approving the minutes from our last meeting on May 7th, 2025.
Can I get a motion to approve those minutes?
Some moved.
And a second?
Second?
All in favour of approving the minutes?
Aye.
Any opposition?
All right, hearing none. The minutes are approved.
And now we get to the main new item of business for this meeting.
And that is looking at plans for the 150 Thompson development.
Both the apartment buildings as well as some plans for the park.
But one at a time.
Yeah, so yeah, thank you to that one at a time for sure.
So the two projects are happening on parallel, but somewhat different timelines.
So we can kind of think of them separately.
They're not necessarily combined together.
Obviously we have only so much space and there's other considerations and we want them to be seamless.
But the approval processes are going to be handled separately.
It just happens to be that we're bringing both to you tonight.
Since we want to keep things moving forward.
Melissa Haltma, our senior or our city planners here tonight.
She's on crutches. She's just she's going to present room over there.
But so she'll go through the development park and then I'll go through the park park.
Any questions on anything.
We'll get to it.
All right.
Melissa.
Let me know if you can't can't hear me.
So you're just said we're looking at one to two.
So it's kind of a phased project largely.
So most of it will be happening in phase one.
So we've got the apartment building.
First phase number, you can see the number one there.
That will have 272 units.
We'll also include town homes.
So that's south of Crawford there nearby the existing town homes.
I have 21 units.
It also includes some improvements to the existing or former auto zone building.
There were number three is.
And then there'll be some, as Eric mentioned, some public park improvements.
Or at least the infrastructure will be laid.
So that the park improvements can be done at earlier date.
And then I mentioned this in the memo, but there are also some public and private infrastructure improvements that we made.
So one of the larger ones is relocating.
I believe it's a storm storm pipe from the where the dark blue is to where the light blue is.
I think that's a six or seven foot wide pipe.
So it's a pretty substantial relocation.
And then phase two will include that second apartment building for number six is in the 509 units.
So it's a big project.
It'll take a couple of years to get through.
Looking at the removal and replacement of the landscaping on site.
So there's quite a few trees on site.
However, just with basically rewriting.
The entire site all but four trees will be removed.
So that's a total of or 200 trees.
46 of those were actually either diseased and or damaged.
So we're only able to count 152 of those as quality trees.
So as per our code or the zoning code requires that at any time there's a removal of quality trees.
At least 30% of those have to be replaced.
So the math on that is 577 kelp branches or roughly 231 trees.
If you assume that each tree is 2.5 inches.
That is considered the minimum for a quality tree.
All right.
So proposed the submit plans included 217 trees or about 542 kelp branches.
And some of the information on the submit plans were left blank or were lower than what would be considered the minimum requirements.
Those numbers are assuming that those numbers would be at least the minimum requirements.
So the size would be increased to 2.5 inches or 6 feet in height.
So since that does still that 502 kelp branches does still fall below the minimum requirement of 577.
We're looking for some additional additional trees or additional height or diameter for those trees.
So possible locations that we're able to come up with or showing right here totally up for discussion.
As I mentioned, you can all if this isn't ideal location for different trees.
You can also just increase the higher size of the existing ones.
One thing I'll note and I'll talk about a little bit later is the streetscape along Crawford is designed here.
But it's kind of just a place holder.
So the park design consultant is going to help with designing the park but also that streetscape because it's so important in bringing people into the site.
So I wouldn't I would just kind of ignore what's mapped out on here for landscaping on that sidewalk.
It's just kind of a place holder.
So there's the possibility that trees will go there as well.
We just we don't know exactly yet.
Good point. Thank you.
Since a lot of us will go to new impervious for the site and then that combined with the kind of clay soils just doesn't lead itself to very good natural infiltration for that water drainage.
So those multiple components for storm water treatment retention.
So they've got the two larger underground tanks.
So one but essentially kind of between the two buildings and then one sort of south and east.
And that curve underneath the curve.
And both of those will be underneath parking lots.
And then for the town homes there will be a biofiltration pond that will actually be able to treat all of the water from this portion of the site.
So just overall looking to ask the community to review this submitted plans from environmental natural resources and sustainability perspective.
And then from staff perspective just recommending kind of what I mentioned already that the height of those ever greens be at least six feet to be counted as minimum.
For quality similarly increased to at least two and a half caliper inches.
And that any additional trees are planted or further increased in size right to meet that minimum requirement.
Open getting in with the good stuff.
I'm wondering why we have the green road trees in front street.
I'm sort of they're not made up like they're from different parts.
I don't know if they're part of the climate resilient trees.
The made in hair tree and the fringe tree.
Actually I can speak specifically to the ginko that was actually commented since there is some tree that are in close proximity to the trail.
Dakota County actually did say can we not have the ginko trees as well.
So definitely open to different species if you've got recommendations of sounds like you're wanting more native.
One of the ways that I learned about before was the true north that Kentucky that grew from Arizona created.
It's a coffee tree that they don't dot pods.
And they have a very good tolerance for the salt and it's sort of weather.
So those were that's one that might be able to get some sort of something from the University of Minnesota for using that as well because they created this strand of tree.
And then the other one was the honey locust that I've been saying that there are those little tiny leaves that can get into cars really easily.
So that might be something to consider since there's really a lot of people with cars living around there.
They can like really clog up engines and stuff.
So that's just something to be aware of.
We actually have one next door.
It's the main of our existence because it can literally make our car not start because it all those leaves get into the engine.
You can't control it.
So what are the do you know what the priority was for those two trees like the was it to bring visual interests or stuff like not dropping leaves or dropping.
I'm not I'm not I always differed to I'm not the tree guy I always call called Dave's I'm not super up and later with with landscaping specifically.
But I'm going to guess the what you mentioned some some visual interest.
Are you talking like the ornamental trees.
Is that the way to ask me about it.
No, no, I think those are probably okay.
I'm just talking about the the suggest trees the maiden hair tree which is canco and the fringe tree.
Like the like canco isn't from the US and the fringe tree I think is from Southeast US so.
And I don't know if it's a climate like that's the thing is it is it because of some things and could we look for something that has the same properties that.
That was involved in the selection of the tree species of the landscaping design so.
You can't really speak to their intention but we can definitely offer you kind of the feedback.
The other one is to is the the maples you know we are trying to diversify we ask was our number one and maple was our number two so.
You know adding 30 more trees isn't necessarily going to break the bank.
If we could kind of lower that number that's probably what we would recommend is a little bit more balance.
Maybe some burrows might be like if we're that the keystone species.
The oaks that maybe diversifying and having more oak trees.
The included and I don't know if I don't know the sizes of the maiden hair tree in French tree if it's a size consideration because of the size of different oaks.
I will also point out that a couple of the items that they've suggested the swap white and the northern pinnacle particularly are also listed on.
The U of M's website as climate party trees so those are good anchor trees for this so I want to make sure it's also pointed out that there are good.
Yeah on this it's just work concerned about the just your ornamental part of some of those trees that would not be necessarily beneficial.
If we're going for a decision considering I'm wanting them to be the bigger party or trees and why not put in stuff that's actually benefiting the community more.
So as you can see here it's it's a pretty urban site.
Right that's I like to be pretty nice.
Some of those bigger trees is going to be pretty difficult but you know there's some really nice kind of column shaped trees that other places have fit.
So I think there's there's a lot of options which is good.
I was excited about that all the flowering possibilities just knowing just even the spring bringing my mom to a park in Des Moines that had.
You know like less flowering trees in this it just amazing to be able to drive through and stop and families were there taking pictures and just kind of hanging out in that so that might be a nice place for people to just go and be in the spring when we're also hungry.
For flowering trees have that many in one spot could be really pretty.
Excuse me a little interest.
Yeah.
Especially if we're going to go through all the effort to make this sidewalk a really nice walkable place.
Right.
Yeah which you know we have quite begun with the consultants but this is all things that we've you know it's good to reiterate with.
In terms of just the tree math here there they're they're so close to the requirements I don't see why they can't meet them just by by doing lighter trees I did a little math is 0.16 inches per tree without adding any more trees to the to the plan.
So yeah I think that we should definitely ask them to meet those requirements I don't think it's out of line.
And I'll say to the I know the developer in the architect and their landscape architect team met today.
I got a call or for 30 today so I know this is a kind of a fast moving project and it's quite possible that by tomorrow they will have figured out a way to meet this so.
I would I would.
It'd be an easiest assumption that what we're seeing right now is already updated.
Okay.
I know that makes it difficult to provide feedback on it.
But there's there is that possibility the other thing to that we don't quite have details on is the court cards so there.
There's the possibility that there could be trees in there as well and.
Yeah, we've asked for that and for onnings or something.
Okay.
All right.
There was concern about this being a very tight space as well with the signs of some of those trees would that be something that.
If they don't meet that number of trees would we consider if they had ones that will grow bigger.
Eventually is going to take a while but would we consider that as a.
As a body as a way to kind of meet in the middle where if they do invite some more of those.
Eventually larger growing trees maybe the number isn't as high and at the gate but the initial planting could be lower but with the intention of bigger.
And that could be visual interest within the park to have a beautiful large tree in the future.
Yeah, bigger for ourselves.
Provide more stability to the landscape that's going to be very disturbed over the next couple of years,
but the Earth movement that I'm going on there.
And that could be something to that this body could explore and consider as we look at our tree list,
but also even just redevelopment.
Like it's that balance of wanting to add trees, but sometimes you just can't make it happen.
So how do we provide that flexibility?
Well, kind of sticking to that desire to have trees.
So it's that it's these instances where it gets a little sticky in the application.
But again, they probably have already changed this plan.
So I think it's good guidance, you know, and good to hear that, you know, you're all thinking about this and about our tree canopy variety.
You know, I think for such a tight site, they've really thought about using every inch.
And I think we're doing the same for the park, so it's just a good way of kind of shifting the mindset.
And you know, I've seen other cities too, really just, you just got to think differently about how to incorporate stuff.
And, you know, I've seen places do those, those column shape trees or other ornamentals just do it really well.
Or it adds that greenery without adding more complex.
Sort of on the tree common conversation where I'm looking at this chart, is that the sidewalk at the very top that white line off of Thompson?
Another way we talked about before, one of the developments about a year ago, about visual safety for cars that are going to be going in and out of the space so that they can see pedestrians.
Yep.
You're talking about the trail right here.
Yep.
Yeah.
So, no way to talk about what the development didn't go through, but the one we were concerned about with how many trees and bushes they had right next to the trail.
Yeah.
That could provide the, that would cause a blockage of visual for people on the trail to be seen by motorists.
So, that's also going to keep in mind that we don't want to suggest trees that are going to be too low, low line, both to those visual spaces.
Mm-hmm.
So, I mean, obviously, because the developments probably changed by now, but just a comment to put out there for our safety concern as well.
It looks like it's a fact for a house.
Yeah.
Hopefully, yeah.
I don't know if the last one will look like this, but this one looks like it is.
Yep.
We should provide a good visual buffer for the people living on that first floor.
Mm-hmm.
And these are market rate apartments correct.
Correct.
Yep.
All right.
I think I, with the exception of some of the species and with a lot of the carryout to have mentioned about the idea that this plan is evolving and there's only so many trees we can fit in a space this tight.
I think we're basically happy with, you know, the number of trees, especially with all the red dots we're seeing here for more recommendations for more recommended trees.
Any other significant input on trees, particularly here?
All right.
What do we got for bike parking?
TBD.
I don't have information on that yet.
All right.
I'll let you have a lot of time.
Another one of our favorite topics.
Yep.
But as no codified as a formal requirement, so I'll have to have that above ground and below ground.
Excellent.
Well, especially with that will help to alleviate the flow to the park as well.
If there's outdoor bike parking for residents and for visitors, which is the separate thing.
But if there's visitor parking as well as resident parking for bikes, that's just.
And we'll get to it.
I'm sure, but I'm assuming it'll be like parking in the park as well.
Yes.
Yeah, similarly, we haven't quite gotten to that level detail, but certainly something we want to include.
And I know with our partners at the county, too, that's something that they want to see.
Yeah.
And also for an impermeable surface kind of conversation, too.
They right off to the developed some of the developers that were here was a couple weeks ago.
They did confirm that they're going to be underground parking as well, which will reduce the number of parking stalls.
We did on the surface, which is good.
Is that, do you know if it's true for the town homes as well?
Or is it just for the apartments?
We have underground parking.
For the town homes, it must be parking at grade.
But it'll be similar to the new M&I, so be parking on base.
And then two or three levels above.
Okay.
Or one or two, excuse me about that.
And yeah, the plans, I saw it, like the vast majority of parking for the apartments is underground.
And then there's a handful of underground.
Again, thinking forward to that space, making sure that they have adequate parking for, because that's their home.
So, making sure they have adequate protected parking for that.
All right.
Any other thoughts on this right now?
I'm just with everything that is so preliminary.
I'm assuming I'm hoping we're going to see this plan again at some point.
In the process, or on certain, on the certain point.
Okay.
I think the timeline is still...
That's what one of the phone calls was on the phone.
You know, really letting the community development director kind of make some of those decisions.
Look at process.
Well, if it doesn't make it back to us, I'm assuming it'll be in the city council meeting.
It'll be a public hearing properly.
So, an opportunity for us to talk about it then.
Yep.
That's it.
Yeah.
All right, cool.
Anything else on this plan?
All right.
Let's talk about the park.
Yeah.
What is it?
Okay.
Park.
So, obviously, a lot of you all know but for anyone at home, this is a city guided redevelopment
of the former YMCA and city golf course.
For the park project and the streetscaping, we've hired Damon Farber,
they're landscape architect.
They are also helping us with the Smith Dodd work.
So, they'll be working on the city park, which we will all see tonight.
And then the streetscaping, like I mentioned, still in development.
Actually, don't even know if we've started to develop it.
So, I don't know if I can say it's still in development.
Community engagement.
We've got a lot of different conversations about this park and this site.
Going even further back than fall of 2023, but we really started to talk about the park itself.
And what it could include in the broad vision in the fall of 2023.
And then there's been a lot of kind of figuring out how this site could work and how the development
could go in there.
Obviously, the development helps to pay for a lot of the park.
And we had to have that kind of be the lead.
We, Damon Farber then developed several site sketches, which we released in late spring.
Had some feedback on those.
And that led us to the two concept alternatives that we're considering tonight.
But our goal, broadly, we really want this to be a unique space.
We want it to be different than our other parks.
We really want it to be that kind of town center feel.
I want to take advantage of the location.
It's centrally located.
It's on the river to River Greenway.
It's a lot.
It's near a lot of different amenities within walking distance, which is great.
You know, we want to tell the story of West Saint Paul.
We really want to kind of lean into some of our branding and place making initiatives
and our kind of growing art efforts.
Want this to be really welcoming.
All ages, all seasons, and all seasons is something that we've all talked a lot about.
And then have these different gatherings spaces.
And think of it as a space for events.
You know, farmers market art festival, music in the park.
I really want you to not think about explore West Saint Paul days our biggest biggest event.
It might just be a little bit more of an acoustic kind of music in the park type thing.
So we don't want to do kind of the black Friday planning of parking lots where we make them as big as they can be for two days out of the year.
We asked the community about priorities in that early stage.
I won't go through all of them, but they're listed down there on the right hand side.
It really aligns well with kind of what the vision has been for a long time.
Accessibility and bathrooms, though, are two things that have come up.
Bathrooms come up all the time.
So in the park designing process, you know, you've probably seen this.
We start with kind of a broad vision, which there was a vision for the site when the IV project did not move forward.
That helped to kind of set the stage as does our park system plan.
And then we get into more sites specific planning.
So we really start with the concept plan and then we do design plan and then construction planning.
You can think of, we're at the like 20, 25% stage.
We're still really early.
So it's that later stages that we figure out what are the tree species going to be.
Where exactly are the benches going to be, what are the benches going to look like.
All those detailed things kind of come later once we kind of set the stage.
You know, a little bit of this came up at the earlier conversation, but as far as site constraints and considerations, there's a lot to consider here.
And I always encourage people to think about not just the ground, but above ground utilities and below ground utilities.
So there's always a lot that has to fit into a site.
And then of course there's things like water and safety and materials and programming and operations.
So you know, definitely as you're providing feedback.
We want to think about all these different pieces.
And then of course, the last two, which are, well, the second to last one is the least fun, but money.
Of course, we always have to think about money.
Like I mentioned, there is some money that's generated from the site through tax increment financing that goes into the development of the park.
But at this stage, we don't know exactly, you know, kind of if we'll meet that mark, if we had, you know, we will go look for grants of course, as we always do, but we don't necessarily know what that gap will be.
But of course, if there are gaps and Damon Farber has already thinking about this, if we don't have all the money at the beginning.
We are thinking about how can we face things in.
So as additional resources come in, or as we secure grant, how can we incorporate those at a later time?
Of course, easier to do it all at once, but, you know, we're a pragmatic here.
So we have two concepts.
The first one is this fill way.
What's fun about both of these is they really kind of play around with the site in different ways, but fit a lot of the same things.
We do have the possibility at this stage where if you like one more than the other, but you feel like one amenity or component of the other,
Should really be incorporated, we can still do that.
So it's still an early sketchy now idea that.
Faith.
You know, getting to the site obviously we hope that people will buy bike walk and use transit, but we know that people will still drive.
So this really takes a look at how do we incorporate more parking.
We wanted to do that without it really feeling like it's taking over the site.
So this, I don't remember exactly number, and of course there's still some details to work through, but it's about 70 parking stalls.
The other one has about 50.
This one, you know, it does offer kind of that opportunity to close one portion off.
If we did want to put a farmer's market in there, or we've put in these spaces along kind of the more active, the parallel parking stalls, so that food trucks or other vendors could sneak in here.
So, you know, we could have an event where we just had two food trucks and they kind of sneak in there and they don't really take up a lot of the other parking.
Both consider, you know, the stormwater plans that you saw for the development side have this sketched out as the layout, either one we can figure out how to put the parking under or put the stormwater under the parking.
This one was included in the plans, because this one, as I'll get into, is kind of the clear favorite not to be biased or to move your conversation in one direction or the other, but staff, staff like this option more.
And the community feedback has been pretty clear that they like both, but that this one is preferred, so we kind of move that roadway part.
Working plan forward. We do want to think about stormwater and there's a potential to put it in the
sister and underground, but we also think that there's some ways that we can play around with
the stormwater so that people like to be near water and plane in water. So this one would
kind of pull some of that stormwater into the site and create kind of this creek dry creek kind
of feel. The splashwater feature could also kind of dumping to that. So I haven't quite figured
out all the details, of course, early concept, but there would be this splash feature and then this
creek and you can kind of see some of these stones. It could be a laser people could kind of also
have a place to play and explore. And also a space that we could, you know, incorporate a lot of landscaping
and trees and gardens. Damon Farber helped to develop. There's a new park out in the parking lot of
ridge down mall and I'd encourage any of you to go visit it because it's pretty dang cool, but they did
something similar at that site and it's beautiful.
Rushrooms, as I mentioned, really important, so we would put something in probably similar to Marthaller Park,
a different design, a little bit of a shade, potentially, concessions, of course we have to kind of see what
the market is there. You could be sees no, we don't exactly know it's so early conversations. A smaller
picnic shelter for smaller events or gatherings. A ban shell in this option, it could be a
two way of ban shell. So facing north, if it's a bigger event, south, if it's kind of a smaller
more intimate event. We'd have this play feature, which, you know, we've kind of discussed early on something
unique, something a little bit more structural and artful. This urban beach, you know, we thought
how could we do something a little bit different than anyone else has in the metro. And since it's near
this water feature, we thought just kind of a layout of sand and some movable chairs and some shade.
So you could hang out, get a little tan, and then if you get too hot, you jump in the splash
feature and cool off. Out of all places, we kind of stole this idea from Detroit Michigan, where they put
in an urban beach and it's incredibly popular and it has totally out there of idolized downtown.
It's a very cool spot. It's super cool. I'm trying a part of downtown Detroit is very cool, but that in
particular it's a very popular hang out spot. People kind of go great place for music and this is
close enough to the beach and shelf. Yeah. It's also very European. Yeah. There's something different.
We would have this large event one. That is something that could be, you know, that is kind of where
we could play around at the site too. We could collapse that. It's fairly decent.
With some shade, it's a pager for you this. This kind of sits within a bowl. It's kind of hard to imagine
right now. And there are some renderings and we're going to get renderings of these parts of the well,
but it kind of sits in a bowl. So kind of this eastern edge would be up a little bit higher.
So we thought we could pull in some of this hillside play. Some of these more quieter spaces for
hammockine, you know, some benches. This would be kind of the area where if you want to read a book,
you're just with one friend you'd probably hang out on this side, but if you're with a couple of friends,
you'd probably hang out on this side. And then probably the last piece is that pond overlook. So
we know it's not the nicest water, but people still like to look at water and people actually are
down there quite a bit right now. So just another opportunity for people to enjoy that space.
And then a few little spots where we thought about incorporating art. That could be something that we
phase in as funding becomes available. Signage of course is really important, so we would scatter that
throughout, you know, other things to benches and whatnot. And then probably the last piece that
I'll highlight in Ensemble is maybe a little bit hard to see, but just kind of sketching out some of these
lights. So you know, this will be, people will be able to go all the way through, but we want it to be
pedestrian-oriented. And so we don't want people flying through here. So the thought is that we would create
this kind of ceiling on the park or on the drive. So there's just kind of another visual of this is a unique
space, don't drive as fast, be aware. It also helps with kind of playful and artful and light it up.
So it kind of hit them a lot of different things there. And to there is, we've examples, photo examples
of a lot of these. So if you have any questions, I can pull this up as well. It's like,
what is the drift? A lot of the same features, just kind of in a different location. The big thing
that drives this design is the different road and parking layout. The big stormwater feature
is put closer to the apartment buildings. And it's not quite sketched out on here, but we could think
about a creative way to kind of pull people down from the apartments. People won't be able,
the public won't be able to get through here. So I think that's where there's, there's some
upsides to kind of utilizing a lot of the space here for the public side. But we would look at some kind
of creative pond solution there. You know, a lot of the same amenities, concessions,
restrooms, you know, a lot of spaces to sit, music. Probably the difference is there's only kind of
one play area in this option. Incorporate a couple of table games. So it could be, you know, table tennis
or there's kind of a foos ball, kind of great things that can be put in. A half court basket ball,
these two hills, they wouldn't necessarily be all that tall, but we have dirt that we have to kind of
play around on the site. So we could put that there. There'd be some kind of a kind of a kind of a
concrete bench along the outside of those hills. Another pond overlook one thing that we've
talked about with the county. And they've said that they're, they like both plans. So it's not totally
critical, but wanting to provide a little bit of a buffer between the bikeway where people sometimes
bike faster and aren't always on the lookout for kids or people walking. You know, you can imagine
if they quickly dart south from a place-based that there could be conflicts. So just wanting to think
about a little bit of a buffer. So in this option there's this kind of a grove seating LA. I think is what
it's technically called, which is a very European term, but just kind of this arcade of trees.
So again, I can pull up some photos. I've got a little bit more information. It's a lot to take in.
I know we have done engagement. We've we had the open house. We had information out at WestFest. We had
information at the Martheller Park Grand Opening. And then we have an online survey, which is
still open for folks. We've asked people to rate the two parks on a five-point scale, five stars scale,
technically. But in the cumulative, the spillway option has a higher score. So quite a bit.
This I thought you'd all be very interested in. So we've put, we bucketed everything into kind of eight
different categories, which you can see there. And we asked people to rank them home-point they were. And again,
in the cumulative, you can see where things landed. You can see on the left-hand side is just the basic ranking.
But on the right-hand side, you see how they're weighted. And what's fun is that, you know,
kind of these natural features are really high at the top. You know, even the game in sports compared
to the water player, the trees. It's like two and a half times for the trees and these more natural features.
So pretty clear that, you know, people want to emphasize that in this park, which is fantastic.
And interestingly, you know, some of the comments have been kind of the one-on-one conversations,
the comments have been about parking, but parking here is a much lower priority, which kind of shocked me.
So yeah, interestingly, they kind of wait through. When we ask about kind of when we dug into the
next level down on features, and we just kind of asked, do you want to include it? Is it a high priority? Do you want to
include it? Is it a lower priority? Should we not include it? Or are you unsure? And then we kind of wait them?
These are the more popular features versus least popular features. And when I say least popular features,
nobody, it's not like anyone's like really mad about the basketball court. It's just a handful of
people said, maybe not. So there's a lot of support for most of the features.
That's why there's only three because really there wasn't much kind of rose to the top.
But there is a little bit of alignment to the previous question. So restrooms and trees, though,
were, I think everyone said restrooms and one person said no on the trees. So
why don't know what that was about? Maybe they misunderstood the question or something. So the far
ton of support for restrooms and trees. Not not. So that online survey will probably keep it open
through the end of July, even though we're kind of getting a sense of where things are going.
In-person conversations, we've had the information out in the lobby. A couple of people I've
chatted with. It seems like pretty clear people want the spillway option.
Which, like, maybe this group too. So we'll take this also to the Parks and Record Advisory Committee
next week, kind of dig into some of it. But it kind of seems like the writing is on the wall that we
should move forward with the first option. Maybe pull a couple of those other components in
and then we'll begin to narrow down into one specific design. We'll also work on some of the streets
caping and then, you know, don't exactly know what the timeline will look like. Maybe it'll come back to
this body again. But regardless, we'll have the concept plan approved by Council and then we kind of
hash out a lot of the other details kind of behind the scenes. We will also do 3D renderings
of the one concept that we narrow down. So, you know, again, it's kind of hard to imagine kind of the layout
of this site and people don't always look at a park from above. So we're kind of designing it like
if you were in an airplane and we want people to see what it will look like on the ground. So that's
coming as well. So any questions on any of them? Would you like to see any of the images too?
I have a question. I have a question. Yeah. On the first plan, the spillway, is that
hill, is that hillside big enough for sledding? Probably not. Okay. And then the second question is for the
ban shell with that open line and the ban shell with the possibility going either direction.
Is it one of the options for later on possibly doing like movies in that park from the ban shell?
Probably we can figure out just a screen situation. We do own a screen as well. Actually. Okay.
So, you know, it's something that we could even put on the north side when we do a movie in the park.
Yeah, those are kind of some of the details that we figure out a little bit later. We do want to
think about, you know, kind of how to performers get to the space and unload. We also want to think about
some storage there. So some of those more logistical behind the scenes type things are still kind of
in development. And then maybe on the bottom right where the hammocks are putting some of those
tabletop games in our mixed in there. Possibly. I was thinking that to review with the basketball.
I know it wasn't a super popular option, but I feel like the basketball courts are a really good
structured play opportunity for like older kids or teens who might not want to play on like the
natural stuff that still want to be out in the park. So I guess a question for you all and thinking that
this would be a little bit more of a quiet kind of sheer hope. I like that for me.
One thing that, you know, we've already talked about, can we put a row of trees on this side?
But we've one discussion we've had is, you know, because this is right on the sidewalk,
could we shift everything, maybe 10 feet in, provides a little bit more of a natural buffer.
So, you know, for kids running, it's a little bit further to run to the parking lot, for those driving,
it's a little bit more of a visual barrier. So, you know, that does cut in your food truck access pretty quickly.
Yeah, maybe we could keep some of it open. And we would still have a sidewalk along the parking, but it's just saying this urban beach would maybe be here.
Yeah. So providing just a little bit more of that landscaping opportunity. It's squeezing. So I guess the question, if we were to do table tuck games, would you like to see them over in the more active space?
I think table tuck table makes sense in there if they were like, or I guess I'm thinking more of like chess or something like that.
That's easy. That's true. I guess I wasn't thinking about like, yeah, do you think like that?
Yeah, I was thinking the quiet ones.
Games could fit the hammock area.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, if we do want to throw like a ping pong or a fuzball, I think that would very much more of a long and the more north, north, west.
Yeah.
And things.
The splash, the splash, pad area or the, um, or the play area.
Mm-hmm.
So, and I know, you know, parking wreck, well, obviously review a little bit more of the recreation side of things.
Yeah, just for your consideration, just the size of a half core basketball.
Mm-hmm.
You know, kind of thinking that that's what you have to kind of fit it.
So it is, again, one of those things of how much space do you have?
You have to take a lot out to fit.
It takes a lot of space.
I think that things that you'd want for adolescents, so you'd want close to the things that are also for the little kids.
If they're, you have a family in a certain area.
I don't know, you know, if that's the consideration of, did they need to be close to their family or not?
To have a closer to that feature play and splash pad area where the kiddos are?
Mm-hmm.
I don't know.
I don't know that it needs a basketball court.
I'm talking table, yeah.
Oh, the table talking, see.
Yeah, I go back and forth because I was wondering about what the surveys chances are of adolescents weren't surveyed as much.
You know, like, you do have some demographic.
There's, I think, very few that have responded.
Yeah.
And so I'm wondering what they're, how are we hearing from them to make it a space that they would use as well?
Yeah.
I think we, it's a balance.
It's a balance.
And, you know, there's a lot of teams that don't play basketball too, right?
Right.
Well, that's what I'm saying.
That's a basketball focus.
Yeah.
And I would say as far as, like, more outreach, that's where you all come in for sure, too, is helping to spread that on social media and to your neighbors and whatnot.
So, definitely appreciate any support you can get in getting the word out, because we'd love to see more input for sure.
Can we share these on social media?
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Yep.
I have a few questions.
Is that okay?
Yeah.
So I'm wondering if the creek is safe, if it's stormwater, if people go into the creek, is that considered safe for them?
I would say, and I, I've, like, thought about, do we all do a field trip out to this fridge still location?
Yeah.
I mean, the thought is that it would be, it's filtered.
It's not necessarily something, you know.
Because you said it's going to probably go through, like, that slash pad, so it would probably somewhere in there.
Yeah.
Is this slash pad water coming from the stormwater?
Nope.
Is there a way to design it that it could be?
If we got a really big grant.
Like a huge deal.
I can't think that thing's big thing, right?
I'm wondering if in the future play area or the hillside play, maybe, are there natural play features like logs and builders going anywhere?
Yeah.
We haven't gotten to that level of detail.
Okay.
But, you know, that's what we're doing at Kennedy Park and sort of interesting to see how that plays out.
Yeah.
Certainly things that we're thinking about.
Okay.
Are there grills in the, any of the picnic areas?
Yeah.
That's.
Again.
It's like those really fine.
If it's the size of this, yes.
I'm sorry.
It's not in there.
That's probably like a good thing.
Okay.
I have one more question that might be on that.
I'm wondering.
And this might be just me not having enough awareness.
What's the concern of movable chairs and hammocks?
Is there a way of, of waiting theft of those things?
Is that something that?
Something I want to hear about over at Smith.
But I'll say, I just did a road trip out to Rhode Island.
And I looked at, I was by myself.
So I could look at any park I wanted to look at.
Which was fantastic.
And they're everywhere.
And they're in some cities that you would think that's going to be gone.
Yeah.
And they're not.
And Detroit was one of them that kind of did it.
Detroit and Brian Park in New York.
Which Brian Park was in a really bad state when they did that.
And they've most places to find that they don't go missing.
Okay.
But there are ways to hook them up too.
Yeah.
So it's that.
Extremely easy.
Yeah.
We all make it easy.
And maybe they're heavier.
And so.
Thank you.
Can we give enough on the idea of a skateboard park?
Hmm.
A dislocation.
Um, you know, again, you can.
I don't even know.
It would probably be about the size of this hillside point.
Yeah.
That's what I'm wondering.
Yeah.
So at this location.
It would be for adolescents.
Yeah.
So it would that make sense.
But if that's an entertainment space, that's going to be a noise issue.
Yeah.
So.
I feel like the table top games are good.
Like in between two that don't take up a ton of space.
You know, they've done a lot of kind of.
There's been a lot of more emphasis on teen girls.
And how do you design for a park?
Yeah.
It's places to sit and places to walk.
Mm-hmm.
And something.
Hands on.
But.
But it's like you can kind of.
Unfortunately, kind of kids age out of play stuff.
Yeah.
Kind of pretty quickly.
And then they'd just become many adults.
So it's a lot about socializing.
And that's where we've thought about socializing spaces, water.
Yeah.
You know, hopefully we can do the concessions and food and stuff to drink.
So.
But yes, skate park not necessarily something in our draft park system plan.
We've sketched it out as a maybe a future possibility.
It's what's complex, which you know, isn't very far either.
I've got a couple of questions.
Maybe we're comments.
But comparing.
Well, my first question is, I don't think I'm visualizing.
I think I'm visualizing currently the light situation for safety here on this billway.
Would that be something where the lights are literally pointing across from each other sort of thing.
Creating a ceiling.
Because that's something we'll see in a render.
We, again, haven't quite figured out the level of detail.
Okay.
I can show you one thing that we've.
I don't need to open another one.
We had a picture in season.
One thing that we've talked about.
I think it just kind of go through some of these.
This is kind of that two way.
And show idea.
You know, this is, this is that rich deal location.
So they actually did this.
The water feature is actually the outline of Lake Minotanka.
And then it just kind of bubbles up.
So it won't be like the harm in park splash pad.
A little bit more just kind of bubbly.
Also because we don't want it to be too kid focused.
So, you know, a teen wouldn't necessarily feel weird.
Or an adult wouldn't necessarily feel kind of dipping their toe in this space.
You know, you can see here a lot of these movable chairs.
Oh, and I should say once this kind of fills up this outline,
it then spills into that creek way.
If we go back to the other one,
one thing that might be in cool climbing features for the page up.
And that might be a liability thing.
But on the right side, it looks like there's a little bit of a climbing thing.
Yeah, you can kind of see kind of that.
Some of that hillside play with that could look like.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, on again, like I just went to this park.
This is in Fort Wayne.
And everyone just loves water.
Right?
That's a great way to play with these lugs.
The playground kind of want to think about a more kind of like structural iconic play feature.
Do you want to have these kind of areas of respite and quiet?
I think that that's really important to have kind of these tiny rooms.
These little alcoves.
Yeah, so that if you.
You know, we all need our quiet.
I want to think about art and light.
Maybe it's artful light.
Different ways to sign it.
And again, those are under this fillway, but a lot of the same concept can be brought into either of them.
You know, we do want to think about nighttime.
We do want to think about winter.
Yeah.
Again, some of that hillside play opportunity.
You know, and we're thinking about some of these.
A little bit more branded benches.
You know, we've got our color scheme and how to incorporate that.
Yep.
We'll opt to use for art and storytelling.
And then we're finding, and then here's what I was finally getting to.
This.
Yeah, overhead.
Like that.
Light.
You'll actually see them in Target as well.
They can be indoor outdoor.
But this is an Arizona.
And they wanted to have this road be a little bit more pedestrian focus.
So they put those lights over there.
So it's more of a visual cue.
And that's it for the president images.
Our Steve, I'm considered.
Yeah, they're not in here, but yeah, particularly for here.
And here.
Here.
And kind of in there.
We want to have control.
Yeah.
I do want to specifically compliment the parking lot.
Yeah.
And I do not like parking lots.
I want to get rid of parking lots.
This is a great parking lot.
Yes.
I was shocked when you mentioned how many spots are there.
And like just the flexibility for food trucks and farmers markets.
Like I acknowledge that we need parking.
This is good parking.
It feels like it's part of it.
Mm-hmm.
It doesn't feel like it's tacked on.
I think what I really like is when you look at the addition of 20 spaces.
And just kind of how it's been designed.
It doesn't feel like you lose anything.
It doesn't really.
Like it almost feels like.
Wow.
And I think that's why so many people are leaning towards the first option is that it's like,
Oh, we get a lot out of this.
Yeah.
That drift also feels like it's encouraging more driving traffic than this one is.
This does have the curving that is just the curving to slip it down.
Yeah.
And I will say of the two of them.
The, some of the original conversations about the space being a community space.
The first one encourages a slow down spend some time here.
But then keep going because there are other features.
Like there was mentioned at the very beginning.
We want this to be a place that people gather.
But then they can go from there to the other amenities nearby.
Like the library or come from library to here and it'd be a moving space.
So it's pretty much a sense out there that the basketball court thing.
It's not like even the community was not really concerned about.
But I think the structure play as part of the feature play is a good idea.
Even some more.
Older teen adults theme sort of art pieces that could be used as a structured play.
And encouraging this place to be lively.
Which on that note would this be potentially a place that could be rented out.
Like the concession area or the part or the.
A billion potentially.
Yeah.
That's another detail.
Yes.
That is kind of the goal.
But.
Some parameters are on there.
Of course.
With the teens.
Like you're saying that they get bored of the thing.
So quickly or whatever.
Just being conscious of the programming.
You know.
Before the programming hits over the middle school go the high school.
That's what we can be like.
What would you like to have happen there.
And then draw them in from the beginning.
Once they start coming, then they'll keep coming.
Probably.
You know.
Do you like that.
I'll let the bands and stuff like that.
Right.
Yeah.
It's probably going to be something that just kind of has to grow over time.
Of course.
We have pretty limited staff.
Yeah.
We want to think about programming and how we can.
Activate it.
You know.
Definitely not on a daily basis.
We don't have quite the capacity for that.
But I think the big open of that long thing.
For sex too.
Because.
Yeah.
To mind.
We have this force complex for some big open green areas.
But those are definitely more structured towards baseball and soccer.
This being open.
I can see people potentially.
Bring your first be here or bringing a blanket to lay on the.
It's not super hot and sunny out and using the space as a.
The ultimate.
Imagine to play because there's no structure.
So I think.
Also having that gigantic bit of green compared to the other concept as well is also really
enticing.
I'll also comment here that I talked about with the developer as well with the open house of.
I like this concept more as well because of the way that it structures the.
The high grade.
Difference between the living space to the event space, because otherwise it's a big stormwater pond.
And it definitely uses that space much more efficiently.
Yeah.
And just from previous conversations we've had about unofficial snow hills. This would eliminate that being an unofficial snow hill necessarily,
which from a safety standard, it would be concerning to have people on that I was thinking.
Talking about this. Yes.
So yeah, this is kind of hard to imagine, but there's a hill right here. It's pretty steep hill up to the apartment buildings.
And also just seeing more trees up there again with erosion and gray changes and all of that.
Anything that you would pull from this plan, again remembering sight considerations and constraints.
Anything that you pull from this plan into this other plan, or adjustments you would make to this plan.
It's only the table tossing.
Like everything like so.
You know, you kind of mentioned, yeah.
How old are you for a baby?
There's a little bit of a dog.
Is there space for something like that?
I don't think I'd want that here.
So there's a dog run just on the other side of the apartment buildings.
But those small dog runs don't really get used.
Okay.
I would, I know if I brought my dog in there.
She'd look at me like, what do you want me to do?
No, I think we like the one.
So yeah, we.
I think that would change the, and you know, I'm a huge dog person.
But I don't think we'd want dogs barking all the time.
That would take away from quiet space.
Yeah.
How do you feel about kind of this edge?
And whether or not we, or even, you know, some of these spaces.
And I'm not saying it would be a consistent kind of landscape buffer.
You know, we could have breaks in it throughout.
But providing a little bit more of a buffer.
Do you feel like that's something you'd like to see?
I think it'd be in squeeze that in, like you were saying with the kids like running out and stuff like that.
I think that would be why.
I like it from a safety standpoint.
Potentially as a more space-efficient alternative.
Maybe like a low fence kind of like what's around the perimeter by the splashbed at Harmon Park.
I don't know.
They've got a lot of, you know, shrubbery and stuff around that fence.
But the fence itself is what's doing the job there.
Well, didn't they end up having to, didn't we end up having to add a part of fence at Thompson for that kind of reason?
Was that something to do?
Around the feature play.
Right.
But that's just, I mean, is that something we need to, at least have that.
Something?
Yeah.
It's something, it's a balance, of course.
Yeah.
Because I think any time you put a fence around a playground, then it does.
Okay.
It puts another barrier to people going into it.
Right.
So, and one of the reasons that it was done at Thompson was that, you know,
the idea is fully accessible playgrounds you want to fence.
Yeah.
Others you may want to just have a little bit more of a barrier.
So, I'm right there, too.
I think.
Yeah.
And this is, you know, and again, like, that's not going to be running water all the time, partly ever.
Probably last week when we got five inches in the rain, it would be pretty wet.
But by now it would probably be dried out.
So, there is that kind of buffer.
So.
If you had more of a buffer with that, also be a concern of visual,
and for the driver is being able to see if the kids running.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That's a balance.
Yeah.
We also want, you know, police to be able to see into the site.
So that's another consideration, too.
So.
This is a thought thinking about making a buffer could that storm water dry creek be made to become the buffer on that western side.
Where sharply, more sharply turns in that way, it kind of flips as an option.
Yeah.
That's.
Yeah.
Because I would provide, I think.
It would definitely put us slow down.
It moves it away from the splash pad.
It is the only negative.
I see to that.
But otherwise, it's like the idea.
What if you, like, flipped the storm water play in the beach?
Yeah.
It's completely changed.
Let's just let those things around.
Yeah.
The one thing.
Mm-hmm.
You know, and again, we'll, we'll keep working on these as we do want that creek to be kind of a space.
Where you could go explore a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
So.
Yeah.
You know, kind of some of these ideas.
Yeah.
I like that.
So we'll think about how we buffer this in some way.
The good thing that I kind of hated was we can crunch this.
So we have space.
And this is still a pretty big.
So this.
Yeah.
This park is.
That's.
It's two and a half acres, just for context.
So.
So this lawn is.
It's pretty big.
Yeah.
So we can crunch that.
And we've actually had some comments of people saying the lawn seems pretty big.
Yeah.
That's right.
It's like what?
What?
What feels worth or so or.
An entire park would be nice.
It's about an acre.
So I don't know what that would.
I just met the open grass park as well.
Yeah.
The open lawn is probably a little bit smaller than an acre.
But.
That's quite.
Yeah.
So we can probably crunch this.
Yeah.
So we can probably add in another row of trees.
Yeah.
I was thinking about that.
So I was just at the Pride Parade on Sunday and I hung out under a tree the entire time.
Yeah.
And made my friends come to me because I was like, I'm too hot.
We can't.
And I'm thinking.
Because I was thinking of that too.
On the side where the concessions are.
But we also might want it.
That people can enjoy from the concessions too.
For whatever.
Or use a bandshow.
Yeah.
We'll figure out, you know, kind of like we mentioned last conversation just the selection of the tree.
Yeah.
I'm also wondering about which I'm guessing is coming later.
Where landscaping of plants goes within this.
Yeah.
That's a future detail.
It also will probably be about your very detail.
Yeah.
I think we want to have more, but the more concrete, the more kind of bedding, the more all of that adds up.
Right.
So we would be adding plants on like the edges of the event line.
Yep.
That's nice.
It's all pretty high level at this point.
Yeah.
It's kind of like we have to figure out the big.
The big details.
And it's those tiny little spaces that we figure out.
Yeah.
I think like you can see.
Like what they did, you know.
Yep.
Go to, go to Ridgedale if you can.
I think that'll give you a good.
I know it's a long drive, but it's a beautiful space.
It's absolutely beautiful.
And it's a ton of landscaping.
So.
It's going to.
Is that a good space to watch dogs?
What's that?
I've got for a field trip with my dogs.
You'd have to ask me to talk about that.
I don't know.
Yeah.
That's something to go.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
Great.
To Kenny.
Okay.
Any other thoughts?
It's exciting to finally see an image.
Yeah.
It is, right?
Like it makes it a lot more real.
Yeah.
And then when we get renderings, it's going to be even more real.
Like I want to go hang out.
I'm excited.
Yeah.
Right.
I'm excited for the potential.
I will say Damon Farber has just been fantastic to work with both.
At the site and the other site.
So I think they bring a lot of creativity.
And just the process that they go through.
I think is also really thoughtful.
So we can go ahead and have a look.
You should have seen them.
They've been enthusiastic about the project as well.
What's that?
They've been enthusiastic every time I've seen them at events, talking to folks.
They've been really engaged.
Yeah.
I feel like even in our staff meetings.
But they're like, oh, we can't put this again.
What do you think about it?
They're fun.
They're really fun.
Yeah.
All right.
Any other last minute that you always wouldn't know where to find me too,
because you all think it's something the minute you leave here.
So you know, you're calling if you need to.
We need to vote on those at all before they go to the next separate,
because Parks and Rec need to see them.
And they're not finalized yet.
I'm good with kind of the head nods on that first option.
If you all are.
First option is a lot of benefits.
Yeah.
And makes really good use of the space.
Yeah.
Just like from a square footage perspective.
The idea that the drainage pond is sort of not accessible.
Yeah.
Don't like it.
Yeah.
I agree.
Yep.
Um.
So just a couple of other updates.
And I guess maybe you guys will talk about pride.
So I'll skip that.
Yeah.
I didn't think I was going to be able to tell you this,
because we haven't signed a contract.
But on Monday, I saw in Fox 9,
but it was announced that we received a tree grant from the Met Council.
So.
Yeah.
Fox 9 can announce it.
I'm going to announce it.
Yeah.
Hopefully not in the Met Council is like.
It's worth to say that.
Um, but you know,
we've been applying to a ton of different tree grants.
It's so competitive.
Um, so there was a,
a Met Council tree grant.
Um.
We said, you know, we're going to go for it.
We're going to ask for as much as we possibly can.
Um.
To spread the level a little bit.
They brought our number down a little bit,
but we're just under 300,000 for trees,
which for context,
our tree budget right now is 37,000 a year.
So it's a huge process.
No.
Um.
We've lost a lot of federal funding for trees.
How much of this does that replace or is it different?
Yeah.
So we, we were a partner in a grant application.
Um, that was going to be out.
About 700 trees.
We're not going to get in here near that.
Unfortunately.
Um, but.
Uh, yeah.
It'll be.
I think I think we ended up at 250 planted trees.
But we're also doing removals as well.
So.
Um.
Is this including boulevard trees?
Yeah.
So it'll be all public trees.
Yeah.
Part trees and boulevard trees.
Um.
Not eligible on public land.
And also it's.
Uh.
Or I'm probably land.
And we.
Uh.
We plant.
We have to.
We're.
Push towards certain census blocks.
So it's a really kind of an equity focused.
All right.
Each low income area is so.
Cool.
Um.
So we can't plant.
We can go a little bit outside of the borders for certain projects.
But mostly focused on those.
I can.
I can share that map with you if you're interested.
But.
Um.
Yeah.
So that we don't have a contract yet.
So.
And that's plenty of money.
You're getting into.
I said that details.
Um.
But it's really exciting.
And I think we're the second largest grant.
In that cohort.
Wow.
Um.
Good job.
Yeah.
We're really excited.
Yeah.
With that sort of this fall or with that.
Be the spring.
It.
Yeah.
I can actually start this fall.
Once we get that contract.
Where is it?
You never know how on contract.
And it's going to take.
Um.
Another kind of exciting thing.
Is a high school.
Senior reached out to me.
About the possibility of a.
A service project.
Um.
So we actually just met today.
Um.
But he's looking to try and organize.
Uh.
Tree planting the community.
Um.
He's thinking about 10 trees.
Um.
But I met with him in his mom this morning.
They're both fantastic.
So if they're watching at home.
Hi guys.
Hey John.
Hi John.
Um.
So.
Um.
But he came in just said, you know, like, I do a lot of walks.
And I was.
I know I had to do the service project.
And, you know, just was noticing the places that were hotter.
Yeah.
And saying.
We need a little bit more love in those places.
So.
Um.
So we talked about some of the details and.
Um.
Kind of through some ideas back to him.
And he's going to think about how to kind of bring it back to us.
So.
Um.
So he might be at a meeting in the future.
To pass about it.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's great.
It's exciting.
Um.
The city hall pollinator project out on the hillside.
Yeah.
Um.
It's.
Um.
You know, these pollinator projects.
Sometimes they take sometimes they don't.
Whether sometimes throws you.
Yeah.
Ecker.
Um.
There has been some establishment of some of the native and pollinator plants.
It's not quite where we'd like it to be.
But luckily we have additional resources with our project partner.
Um.
So we're staying on top of it.
Gonna.
Till some of it on there.
And do a receding.
Um.
Later in the summer.
And then on the 13th of September we're going to plant some.
Plugs of.
Uh.
Plants to get those established a little bit sooner.
So.
Um.
Saturday September 13th from 9 to noon here at City Hall.
Uh, we have about 40 spots.
Um.
For volunteers.
So.
Hopefully seven of them are already taken.
Um.
So mark and calendar.
That should be fun.
It's under construction.
Um.
Go take a look from the street.
Um.
Uh.
Safety first.
Of course.
Um.
But it's starting to come together and it's it's it's a pretty short.
Construction window.
Fingers crossed.
Of course.
Um.
But things are moving along which in fantastic.
Um.
Of course the natural features are the last to be put in.
Um, but it's.
It's.
It's going well.
Um.
Um, his last day is next week.
Thursday.
So thanks to him for all of his work.
Um.
Of course we.
Yeah.
Hopefully he getting that tree inventory updated is huge for us.
Um, and he's got a couple of other things that he's been kind of working on in the background.
Um, that.
To the next bullet point.
Um, our natural resources specialist.
Once they come on board, we'll be able to take up a lot of this.
And we'll be able to work that simply I just don't have a lot of capacity for.
So, um, we are.
We're reviewing for that position next week. We got a crazy amount of applications. I don't know if we have a track of the applications for positions, but when I talked to HR, he said, this is the most I've ever seen for positions.
We had 217 applications for the floor. And there were a ton of really good applicants, which was fun to see, but also hard to see because so many people are looking for work in this field and a lot from around the country.
So I'm really excited to meet our applicant pool because they'll see really great. So I don't know when that person will start exactly, you know, how it always goes, takes longer than you think.
So hopefully by the end of summer early fall, this person will be on board and we'll get them up to speed and eventually they'll be your staff liaison.
But it's just exciting. I think here a lot of the word of momentum and it feels like we have momentum and it's fun to know that we've got this work from Noah to kind of get some of the
to get the new natural resources person with kind of a slate of work and projects. And now we've got this met council tree grant that they're going to hold our run with on day one.
So that's a cool stuff happening. Any questions for me?
I had one. How do we sign up for the volunteer opportunity for the city hall pollinator project? And if we wanted to tell people about it, how do they sign up?
I don't know yet. So we won't be coordinating that. Our partners. Great for our greenery will be coordinating that.
I think he may all change about that. I'll figure out what I can figure out.
Yeah, we're I'm sure they'll set up a sign up for.
I'm just showing up.
Any other questions?
Okay.
All right. I don't want to talk about pride because that's coming up.
That again is July 12th. People who've signed up should be getting reminders from the service that is is wrangling for that.
I guess the only real concern is making sure we have the materials that we need for the tables.
We've been handing out stuff from other organizations that's been going fairly well.
But I want to make sure that we get our banner and our seed packets for the pride booth.
Well, since I'm taking point on this, I will coordinate with Eric to make sure that we locate the things that we need to locate.
And that always be in touch with you.
Yeah.
A good reminder to our banners are looking a little old and rough.
All right.
So they just kind of fade and then they get wet.
They've been hooked to trucks.
And we have new branding.
So probably an opportunity to brand those.
Yeah.
I'll see if I can get those.
Maybe for next.
Yeah.
I might be able to get them done in time.
They don't take.
Yeah.
That'd be awesome.
But yeah, it looks like our morning slots are all filled.
We only have two people for the afternoon.
So if there's anyone who'd like to sign up for the afternoon, there's still space.
But if you also want to just shop to tear down, I think two people and if we have a floater.
We'll be more than enough.
Yeah.
And Julie, I'll totally take up your offer of stickers.
So you can bring those.
That'll be awesome.
And I will coordinate with Eric to make sure that we have what we need.
And I'll find all the environmental ones I've got.
Okay.
Perfect.
Animals are bugs are.
Electrical.
Well, let's all say a pair to the nature guys that we have.
The last year.
Nice weather.
And not a deluge.
And also, I know that what Saint Paul bread is looking for volunteers to help set up the day before.
So if you are interested, please sign up for that.
I think there are still looking for monetary contributions.
I mean, that's something that they have.
I think posted on their social.
So by something that will be.
If there's anything that they still need as well, but something on their socials.
And I will say that I'm going to be there all day.
So I'll be doing stuff in the morning for the booth.
But then I'll be doing stuff for pride the rest of the day.
So I know some of you have my phone number.
If you're there for the afternoon, just text me and say,
And you can help to break down.
Because I'll be running around the whole day.
All right.
You're a sign up for the afternoon.
Oh, hi.
Okay.
I'll be there all day.
I'll be there all day as well.
So anyhow.
Thank you for people just signing up.
It's going to be fun.
Thank you for all the people.
All the work you do for the same Paul days.
And for Garlow.
And did we ever do something for Mark Foller?
Did we ever have a grand opening for that?
Today.
So the Thursday of Explore West and Paul days.
Oh, okay.
We did a grand opening.
And it was really fun.
I bet 25 Mark Foller showed up.
So it was actually like a little mini family room.
That was fun.
I'm wonderful.
And Joe did a very cool.
I think tradition where people who attended the grand opening
signed the ribbon that was cut.
Yay.
And then I think he said he took it to the historical society.
So I thought that was really a really neat touch.
Nice.
Okay.
Sounds like pride is reasonably sorted.
I think pride's going to be great.
All right.
Yeah.
Just a few updates.
And then we are all done.
How is our landscaping subcommittee coming along?
Because everything going on the summer we haven't been able to meet again.
So you're right.
Now that we've seen these park things, I think we'll have a reinvigoration for that list.
Okay.
Great.
Looking forward to hear more about that in the future.
And then right back to Emily for an update from the Parks and Rec Committee.
Yep.
There was a not a traditional meeting.
It was the May 13th meeting that I kept referencing about the meetings with the developers
for some of these things.
It was the Parks and Enza on the 13th.
And I don't think that they met in June at all either.
Because of, yeah, it was almost like Paul days.
So it was just, it was a long couple hours of talking to people who were able to come about,
different Parks and Parks going on.
And had started to get some questions from Mark Down from Westfest.
So it was really just a, I can, a broad open house that they had.
All right.
Not much from that.
Cool.
Thank you very much.
All right.
And from the Planning Commission.
Thank you.
No.
No news to report.
All right.
And we have no city council members.
So no updates from them.
Looking for motions to adjourn.
So moved.
And the second.
All in favor.
Bye.
We are adjourned.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Open whenever.
Thank you.