HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-01-07 Work Session Meeting MinutesMINUTES
OF THE EDINA CITY COUNCIL
WORK SESSION
COMMUNITY ROOM, CITY HALL
TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2025
5:30 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Hovland called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Answering rollcall were Members Agnew, Jackson, Pierce, Risser, and Mayor Hovland.
Staff in attendance: Scott Neal, City Manager; Ari Lenz, Assistant City Manager; Chad Millner, Engineering
Director; Jennifer Bennerotte, Communications Director; Bill Neuendorf, Economic Development Manager;
David Yanagisawa, I.T. Specialist; Sharon Allison, City Clerk.
Others in attendance: Katy Senn, Messerli Kramer; Senator Alice Mann; Senator Ron Latz; Representative
Cheryl Youakim; Ann Finn, League of Minnesota Cities; Representative Julie Greene (remote); Daniel
Lightfoot, League of Minnesota Cities; Patricia Nauman, Metro Cities; and Tom Poul, Municipal Legislative
Commission.
2025 STATE LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION MEETING
Manager Neal briefly reviewed the City's legislative priorities including bonding for interchange
improvements at Highway 100 and Vernon Avenue/West 50th Street; Bonding for the Aquatic Center; Sales
Tax Exemption for projects in the Braemar Park Master Plan and Fred Richards Park Master Plan; Tax
Increment Financing Legislation for 70th and France and 72" and France #2; and to protect municipal
employees with enforcement functions.
The Council asked questions of staff and discussed with the delegation present the work and conversations
that had taken place related to the local land use regulations/housing issue since last year; finding room to
acknowledge the value of existing housing and keeping things out of the landfill; accessory dwelling units
rights; ways to incentivize naturally occurring affordable housing; the incorrect idea of density equaling
affordability; ways to ensure that TIF financed affordable housing was compliant; the fact that the housing
issue was working towards solving something that not everyone agrees is actually a problem and possible
ways to `up the ante' on getting more people to see the problem; providing more data that supports the
notion that there needs to be greater production capacity; awareness about who affordable housing is
actually for; work force and market rate housing; whether the cost of building new housing was still part of
the discussion at the legislative level; home ownership versus rental; comparisons with what Hopkins has
done; possible changes in governance that may take place with the special election; things that the City may
need to be mindful of in order to help the legislators outside of their legislative priorities; the requirement
of bipartisan cooperation in order to approve a bonding bill; the State budget forecast; the possibility of
requiring cities of a certain size to have an affordable housing policy; the value of local control and discretion;
beliefs about the zoning preemptions; coalition of developers; local option sales tax methodology and pending
legislation; conversations that have begun at the legislative level related to transportation; demographics of
the State related to population growth; the impact migration has on schools and ways to find a way to plan
long-term; and the accessibility of the delegation for Edina.
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Hovland adjourned the meeting at 6:41 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Minutes approved by Edina City Council, 01, 2025.
Sharon Allison, City Clerk
Page 1
Minutes/Edina City Council Work Session/January 7. 2025
ames B. Hovland, Mayor
Page 2