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Current Events
- If you or people in your area want to meet and discuss any topics on your mind, reach out to me and we will set up a time to visit.
- If you hear something you're curious to know more about, feel free to contact me (email, phone call, or in person is fine) !
- As you're driving on the river road by Stephens' park you'll notice construction on the south side of the road. That's the new central water system treatment facility in progress.
- Many of you are familiar with the phrase "rural look and feel" or "rural character." Dayton residents have said this is important to them and I agree. It's even in our mission statement. Unfortunately, our history over the past 20 years doesn't reflect it very well. We've had a couple work sessions on the topic and I believe it'll result in a list of ideas we will be prioritizing for the future. If you have ideas, please let me know.
Council member Fashant was on vacation but was on Zoom for discussions. Due to the open meeting law he was not able to vote.
Item H (Development on Levee St.)
For a few years now this property has been a mess for a number of reasons; an initial bid request put out by the city was a mess and there were significant disagreements on how the bid process needed to work. Last year the property was successfully purchased by a developer that already owned the neighboring property. Combining those properties allowed the development to meet the current guided use in the Old Village. For info on guided use, click Here.
The guided use for the entire Old Village is "Mixed Use." That was decided around 2014 when it was updated or the 2010 update. "Mixed Use" is a category that combines medium density housing such as townhomes or quads with commercial. Given that it overlooks the river and park, medium density housing makes sense for Levee street but I don't believe it makes sense for the rest of the Old Village and that will be a topic when the next Comp Plan update is decided.
Getting back to this specific development, the owner was able to meet all the requirements for the guided use and will create 2 triplexes looking out over the river. There were 2 discussion items of significance. The first was due to the vinyl siding on the sides of the house. I personally have no problem with vinyl siding. I'm always amazed at how people not footing the bill will tell you why you shouldn't use it. The fire department didn't like it because it can burn, even though these buildings have built in fire suppression (sprinklers) and fire retardant sheathing. The council decided vinyl on the sides was acceptable. The second involved the city wanting to take possession of part of the property for a future alleyway... and not pay anything for it. I wasn't happy with that but the property owner wanted to get to developing so that ended that discussion. I believe an alleyway will benefit the properties on Robinson street, especially any future commercial properties.
The project was approved 3-1, I voted to approve it.
Item I (Ziegler Development Final Plat and Condition Use Permit)
Ziegler owns 2 properties next to each other on Territorial road. Their intent is to rent construction equipment and commercial truck sales. The conditional use permit was to allow a sales lot. This was pretty straightforward though one of the council members was concerned that Ziegler had changed their CUP request from the one they were granted back in 2020. Their explanation was that they had seen market changes that they wanted to accommodate. I have no problem with that. Both were approved 3-1. I voted to approve it.
Item J (Driven Auto Sales)
This was to approve a conditional use permit (CUP) for auto sales for one of the 3 commercial entities on the property. The business requesting this buys salvaged vehicles, repairs them, then sells them through a third party. With a CUP the applicant can get a dealers license and directly purchase the vehicles rather than paying someone else to do it. The CUP will have no effect on the activities on the property. While the Planning commission and the EDA recommended not approving it, in my opinion their reasoning didn't make sense. One was concerned about all of the vehicles stored on the property. While I agree that is a concern, this CUP would have no effect on that. The other reason was a concern about leaking fluids on the site. Again, I agree that's a concern (which staff will look at) but the CUP approval has no effect on that either. This was approved 3-1. I voted to approve it.
Item K (Kwik Trip Truck Stop)
Back in 2021, Kwik Trip proposed a truck stop at the north east portion of the Dayton interchange. At that time the city was seeing quite a bit of development throughout that entire area and 3 of the council (including me) thought that we should hold out on that property for a better answer. It's been a couple years now and that hasn't happened. While this was a concept plan and is just intended to give feedback, 4 of the 5 members were ok with it including me.
Item L (Ditch Stabilization Project)
This was to approve final plans and go out for bids on stabilizing a ravine on the river road that Hennepin County decided not to do during their stabilization project last summer. Given this is a county road, a majority of us didn't believe city funds should be used here and for now it looks like it'll be entirely covered by grants. It was approved 4-0.
Item M (Road Maintenance Project)
Back a few months ago the council approved going out for bids on resurfacing 152nd and Thicket Hills Lane. The bids came in and this was to approve the low bid. The estimate was $261K and the low bid came in at $158k. It was approved 4-0.
Item N (Park Improvements)
This is a continuation of a discussion on park spending and where the money is going. The specific parks discussed were a small neighborhood park in Ione Gardens, area #21 park (next to Brayburn Trails, and phase 3 of Elsie Stephens park. The concern by some council members was that Brayburn Trails was consuming a lot of park funds, was over budget by about 80%, and some of the spending was extravagant (i.e. an estimate of $2000 for a trash container). A resident also came forward with concerns about some of the prices on items. There were a lot of details in this discussion, so if you're interested you might want to watch that portion of the meeting. Essentially the explanation for the high prices was to get the best quality and life out of the items. I'm always skeptical of that answer. While these items likely do take a lot more abuse since they're used by kids (as I'm very aware of the abuse they can impart on things) I don't think durability is worth the cost sometimes. Yes that item might last 100 years, but it's extremely likely it won't need to and isn't worth the 4x price tag. But... sometimes it is 🙂
Typically we pay around $700k for a larger neighborhood park. This one is estimated to cost the city about $1.5M (mostly park funds). What works in it's favor though is that this neighborhood park is going to be used by roughly 1000 homes when the area is built out. By staff's estimate those houses will generate about $2M in park funds. Another significant factor is our estimates seem to be very high (which I understand but don't like). Park funds need to not only pay for neighborhood parks but also cover regional park improvements. If the numbers are close this will still allow about $500k to go into regional parks.
The discussion on Stephen's park was on a few items; A cover for the performance stage, north pedestrian bridge, and a picnic shelter. For the performance stage, a tarp was proposed. An $80,000 tarp. Yes it's a pretty tarp. The decision was to look at some sort of roof, even if it's slightly more. The pedestrian bridge is frustrating. Apparently state statute doesn't allow us to just use a culvert. We have to use pilons which will consume about $180k of the $220k cost. The picnic shelter size and building wasn't clarified very well during the discussion other than asking staff to come up with some options for a future meeting.
Please contain me for questions, concerns, or ideas.