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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20260325 Environmental Board Minutes Environmental Board March 25, 2026 Page 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES ENVIRONMENTAL BOARD MEETING DATE: March 25, 2026 TIME STARTED: 6:30 p.m. TIME ENDED: 6:53 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Alex Schwartz, Lindsay Buchmeier, Mary Jo Stevenson, Danielle Berger, Jonathan Parsons, Elizabeth Larkin MEMBERS ABSENT: Kelli Damiani STAFF PRESENT: Thomas Hoffman, Jennifer Alderink 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Ms. Schwartz called the Environmental Board meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. on March 25, 2026. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 3. PUBLIC COMMENT Mr. Schwartz declared open mike at 6:34 p.m. There were no public comments. Mr. Schwartz closed public comments at 6:34 p.m. 4. SETTING THE AGENDA: Addition or Deletion of Agenda Items th Mr. Schwartz took a motion to approve the March 25, 2026 agenda. Ms. Buchmeier motioned to approve the agenda. Motion was seconded by Mr. Schwartz. Motion carried 6-0. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES th Mr. Schwartz took a motion to approve the February 25, 2026 minutes. Ms. Buchmeier motioned to approve the agenda. Motion was seconded by Mr. Parsons. Motion carried 6-0. APPROVED MINUTES Environmental Board March 25, 2026 Page 2 6. ACTION ITEMS Lyngblomsten PUD Amendment #4 Lyngblomsten is a proposed mixed-use building as part of the senior living campus in Lino Lakes. The site is located at the corner of County Road J and Hodgson Road and sits on approximately 3.37 acres. It is located south of the existing senior development and bordered by residential homes to the west and commercial businesses to the east. The site is currently two separate parcels. The project consists of a mixed-use building with commercial and resident-oriented space on the first floor and market-rate senior independent living units above. Lyngblomsten at Lino Lakes, LLC is currently proposing 59 market-rate senior living units and 29,800 SF of commercial business: 1. 59 market-rate units 2. Commercial 29,800 SF Tom Hoffman, Environmental Coordinator for the City of Lino Lakes, presented and was available for questions. Ms. Larkin noted that this is a key gateway entrance to the City. Because of this, she inquired about the additional landscape requirements Lyngblomsten must abide by beyond what is current being proposed. Mr. Hoffman said that Lyngblomsten only has to meet our landscape standards. He also noted that they are proposing 100 extra shrubs and some other trees, so they would be providing extra landscaping along that cooridor beyond what is required. In addition, Mr. Hoffman said that the signage requirments will be taken care of with the roundabout project. A City entrance sign will be a part of the roundabout project, not this development. Ms. Stevenson asked about the likelyhood of those additional trees/shrubs being moved around. Mr. Hoffman said that the extra trees/shrubs could be moved around. He also noted that because Lynblomsten is is exceeding their landscape requirements, there is some flexibility with the species and placement. Mr. Schwartz asked if the city code has anything in it regarding diversity of species used in landscaping. Mr. Hoffman said that the city code requires that you cannot have more than 30% of one species for the trees. This does not pertain to the shrubs and plants. The city code is for the tree mitigation and preservation. You will see a lot of shrubs with these developments that will be one species or one family. Ms. Berger commented that she does see some native species that are on the planting schedule, but was wondering if there could be a recommendation for a higher portion of native speciies to be planted. Mr. Hoffman said that they could make that recommendation, but noted that where these shrubs are proposed to be planted have hard growing conditions. The native plants are more susceptible to the heat, drought, and salts. For that reason, they usually see the same 7-10 species planted in these situations. Mr. APPROVED MINUTES Environmental Board March 25, 2026 Page 3 Hoffman did say that he will give Lyngblomsten more species recommenations for native or pollinator habitat. Mr. Schwartz makes a motion to approve the recommendations for the Lyngblomsten PUD Amendment #4. Ms. Berger motioned to approve the recommendations. Mr. Schwartz seconded that motion. Motion passes 6-0. 2. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. Earth Day Mr. Hoffman said that the City will participate in the Earth Day event at Wargo Nature Center again this year , near the bounce house. They will have quails for kids to interact with, minnow races with native species, and storm water and forestry stuff there. B. Water Conservation Grant Met Council is opening up their Water Conservation grant again, which is what the City had the Smart Irrigation Controller rebate program through and now the Water Conservation Rebate program through. Our current grant goes through June of 2026. Mr. Hoffman will be asking for $6,000 more in funding for the next round of grants. This will bring the total to $30,000 instead of the $24,000 that the City had previously. This additional funding request comes because we are opening up the rebate to four items instead of one. money for City irrigation upgrades. This will depend on how much additional funding we have. This is an option, but Mr. Hoffman wanted to extend the money from the grant to the residents first. Mr. Schwartz asked about the nature of the City irrigation upgrades. Mr. Hoffman answered that it would be for the older systems in our parks that would go to either re-use, switching our irrigation heads to ones that are more efficient, or getting updated controllers that we can program and possibly hook up to our SCADA water system. This would allow the City to see peak demand, skip waterings, and generally bring our system online so we can help better manage it instead of having it just on a set timer. Mr. Schwartz asked if we have any more of the Smart Irrigation Controllers from last year in stock. pick them up yet. Mr. Schwartz noted that the Smart Irrigation Controller could be the low-hanging fruit that could help manage City water usage. APPROVED MINUTES Environmental Board March 25, 2026 Page 4 Mr. Hoffman said that the problem with the current Smart Irrigation Controllers is the number of zones and size that they are able to cover. Most of our City parks far exceed that, so we would have to look into a possible commercial device to cover our needs. There is a program through Met Council where we could have someone come out and look at our current system and give us a list of potential upgrades. Mr. Parsons asked if you need an input for every zone or could you have a master input to turn the whole thing on and off. Mr. Hoffman said that he believes those systems are up to six zones. He said that the one that we have Mr. Parsons said that he thought there should be the option to have a master controller for the whole Mr. Schwartz said the option of a master controller would be something good for public works to look into. Mr. Hoffman also talked about the insert that will be going out with the next round of utility bills. This insert would notify residents about the Water Conservation Rebate program. He said that the City is also also doing Facebook posts, a page on the City website, and some other marketing efforts to alert residents to the program. Ms. Buchmeier asked if there is an attachment for those that get their water bill electronically? Mr. Hoffman said that we can certainly set something up for that. 7. ADJOURN Ms. Schwartz took a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:53 p.m. Ms. Buchmeier motioned to adjourn. Ms. Stevenson seconded the motion. Motion passes 6-0. Respectfully submitted, Jennifer Alderink Office Specialist APPROVED MINUTES