City Council Minutes 07-27-2020 SpecialMINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING MONTICELLO CITY COUNCIL
Monday, July 27, 2020 — 4 p.m.
Mississippi Room, Monticello Community Center
Present: Bill Fair, Jim Davidson, Charlotte Gabler, Lloyd Hilgart
Absent: Brian Stumpf
Others: City staff. Jeff O'Neill, Angela Schumann, Ron Hackenmueller, Rachel Leonard,
Matt Leonard, Sarah Rathlisberger, and Ann Mosack
4:30 p.m. Meeting - Planning Commission: Sam Murdoff, Paul Konsor
4:30 p.m. Meeting - Monticello Township: Shannon Bye, Kevin Yonac, Lynn
Dahl -Fleming
1. Call to Order
Acting Mayor Lloyd Hilgart called the special meeting to order at 4 p.m.
2. 4 p.m. City Administrator Recruitment Update
3.
Consultant Liza Donabauer explained the recruitment flyer provided to City Council is
based on information gathered during her visit to the city earlier in the month. The
included the conversations with councilmembers and staff.
Discussion ensued among Councilmembers, who supported the items submitted. There
were no changes to the salary, job description, etc. Liza Donabauer noted she will make
the final adjustments and post and position on Tuesday, July 28. Finance interview
activities will be finalized at next meeting on September 14.
4:30 p.m. Comprehensive Plan Update
Angela Schumann kicked off the meeting and started with introductions. Schumann
explained that in February, 2020, the City Council adopted the Community Vision that
serves as the framework for the Comprehensive Plan update. The Vision Statement
provides a vision and value statement, as well as a preferred growth scenario.
Scott Ruhland, the Lakota Group, provided an overview of the Comprehensive Plan
process. He provided a project update and timeline and information regarding the draft
land use, growth, and orderly annexation chapters. Ruhland noted that the land use plan is
the foundation of Comprehensive Plan. He mentioned that the first drafts of the land use
plan would be complete by the end of the month with the public reviewing a final draft
by the middle of August.
Ruhland reviewed the community engagement to date with both the vision and
comprehensive plan documents. Community events, sounding boards, online surveys,
interviews with stakeholders, open houses, and pop-up workshops have occurred during
Phase 1 or the vision report.
Common themes were identified from the engagement exercises.
For the comprehensive plan update, an online workshop was completed and online
"quick polls" are now being released on a weekly basis.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes —July 27, 2020
Ruhland also discussed that future engagement opportunities would occur. Engagement
from the TAC/CAC would continue to review draft chapters of the plan, quick poll
questions, arts and parks interactive exhibits throughout the community, and an open
house/virtual webinar.
Ruhland provided an overview of the Land Use Chapter. He noted a tiered approach to
growth and showed these growth areas on a draft map. He also reviewed 19 proposed
land use designations, which is expanded from the current plan. These designations focus
on five principle areas: open space, residential, commercial, industrial, and other uses. A
draft land use map was provided showing these designations throughout the community.
Ruhland provided a comparison of the designations from the current plan to the proposed
plan.
Ruhland also reviewed two planning areas, which provides greater detail into these
development areas and looks at potential issues and aspects to development. These areas
included the Northwest Planning Area and the East Bertram Planning Area. Ruhland
provided key factors when considering development of these areas.
Ruhland also explained that the last section of the land use plan included goals, policies,
and strategies. Each goal in the plan will include policies and strategies for
implementation.
Next, Erin Perdu, WSB, explained the creation of the mobility and connectivity chapter.
She explained that the chapter would be broken into four sections.
The first section would focus on the future street network. A draft map of the planned
roadways and functional classifications was provided. She noted the location of a
possible interchange on this map, which works together with the Planning Area
mentioned in the land use plan. Perdu explained that this interchange could bring
additional employment opportunities, and that the area had enough land for construction
of the interchange and complied with MnDOT's sensitivity to spacing requirement.
She also pointed out that no new river crossing was proposed at this time. Perdu
explained that discussion on a regional level was occurring and any recommendation
would be included in the Comprehensive Plan.
Perdu showed a draft map of the planned sidewalks and trails.
She explained that all maps would have insets that are easier to see visually. Those would
be provided in the next draft of the mobility and connectivity chapter.
Perdu noted that the main goal of the sidewalks, trails, and greenspaces section was to
connect people to main destinations in the city. It would be noted in the plan that
Highway 25 serves as a barrier to pedestrians and specific recommendations would be
crafted to aid safer walking and biking around this corridor. Perdu also mentioned that
strategies would be developed focusing on the downtown.
The next section included information regarding rails and transit. The partnership
between the City and Trailblazer Transit was noted, along with a connection from
Monticello to the NorthStar Rail.
Perdu noted that currently the freight system is not heavily used, but the plan would
provide recommendations as the Xcel Nuclear Power Plant will be decommissioning in
City Council Special Meeting Minutes — July 27, 2020
future years. The City should also stay engaged with the proposed Sherburne County Rail
facility to understand future potential impacts to transportation in Monticello.
Perdu explained similar to the land use chapter, the mobility and connectivity chapter
would include overall goals and strategies. She highlighted a few of these goals and
strategies and provided a transportation strategies map. WSB would be updating the map
to include specific local road strategies.
Scott Ruhland opened up the discussion for questions and answers among the members
of the meeting.
To summarize, discussion was focused around the following areas: ADA and
accessibility particularly how it relates to bridge crossings, transit and transportation,
downtown business development and incentives, the change in commercial/retail/office,
and orderly annexation and extension of utilities. Significant discussion revolved around
housing and balancing the focus on compact development with the need for estate
residential lots or step-up housing. They discussed the East Bertram Planning Area, in
detail, emphasizing on the types of housing that should be accommodated in this area.
The newly proposed neighborhood conservation overlay district was also reviewed.
Scott Ruhland provided next steps for the Comprehensive Plan journey. The consultants
would work in land use plan revisions received and place the draft on the City's website
for public review. There also will be additional "Quick Polls" available on the City's
website that will be used to help shape the plan. The consultants will continue working on
the draft Parks and Open Space and Economic Development Chapters and have that
completed by next week. A complete draft of the entire Comprehensive Plan was
expected to be completed by the end of August with review by City Staff, City boards,
advisory boards (TAC/CAC), and the public. There would also be online materials and a
workshop for reviewing the draft plan. It is the hope to get as much feedback on the plan
as possible before approval.
4. Adjournment
By consensus the meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m.
Recorder: Jennifer Schreiber _
Approved:
Attest:
Cityr� inistrator
City Council Special Meeting Minutes — July 27, 2020