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LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MINUTES MARCH 11, 2014 Page 6 of 7 Mayor asks how we can access info that their group has come up with? Mr. Streeter answered that they have created a lot of things. The one document One Vision, One Voice may be helpful for Lake Elmo. Anne asked if they have looked at what Hudson does to keep themselves busy 12 months a year or if they have issues in the winter also. And, does Hudson or would Stillwater use local discounts to try and pull in business? Mr. Streeter answered that Hudson has the benefit of being contained in a footprint of its downtown. They also are the fastest growing county in Wisconsin, which brings more people. The problem for Stillwater, is that they have 8 blocks of downtown, whereas Hudson is 3 or 4 blocks. VII. Key Issues – Overhead Power, Drainage, and Village Green Overhead Power. City Planner Johnson presented on overhead power. Got a ballpark estimate from Xcel, 276K. Doesn’t include domestic connections. Still waiting on Comcast and some other utilities. This is the type of improvement that there is one shot at. LIkelyhood of doing it 5-10 years down the road is not very good. Mayor Pearson would have a hard time voting for it tonight, without any funding source help. It is over 10% of our tax budget. John Schiltz would really like to see the power go underground. Anne would also like it to be underground. Can either move forward and do things spectacularly or so-so. Mr. Streeter commented Mayor Pearson Council Member Reeves Drainage. City Engineer Griffin presented on drainage. There are issues in the downtown. County is leading a limited Village Area drainage study. Only focused on the heart of the downtown. As we come up with plan from the street, need to put storm sewer in. The City is then required to supplement this study to develop a comprehensive Village Area storm water management plan. Stormwater solution is probably going to be 3 phased approach. Site by site compliance, the newer land will have storm water accomplished onsite. If you start to manage it on the north side, it will help the whole city. Regional stormwater facility. Build one large facility for whole downtown area. 3rd piece is innovative stormwater management. Take stormwater ponds and make it an amenity. Storm water reuse, storm water recycling, etc. Lots of innovate techniques or grant funding. Bloyer asked Mr. Streeter about traffic in the summer in downtown Stillwater. They are requesting to have a pedestrian study done this summer. Traffic can be as high as 22-25K in the winter per day (?) Talked about MnDOT program SIMS (?) Mr. Zuleger spoke more on drainage. Most expensive thing you do. Notion of the green is in the comp plan. Talked about the village green being a sense of place in downtown lake elmo. As old village work group looked at components of a green, business community came to us and wanted it to be as close to LE ave as possible. Village Green. Council Member Smith presented on Village Green. Part of the Old Village Working Group. Talked about having a water feature in the village green area. Having a space where anyone from lake elmo, or anywhere, could come and spend time in. Bloyer asked about what size. Anne answered that it depends on the roads and parking spaces needed. Nick added need to define what activity you want to have there when talking about determining size. Also have to think about parking. The importance of parking is discussed. Mayor Pearson asked about how big the village green was in the comp plan. DeLapp Mayor Discussion of where the ball fields could be moved to.