HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Information Memorandum 05-11-2023CITY OF PLYMOUTH
COUNCIL INFO MEMO
May 11, 2023
EVENTS / MEETINGS
Official City Meeting Calendars .................................................................... Page 2
Tentative List of Agenda Items ..................................................................... Page 5
REPORTS & OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Developing a downtown Plymouth, Finance & Commerce ..................................... Page 7
First-ever Twin Cities West Metro Asian Fair to be held in Plymouth, Sun Sailor ......... Page 10
Plymouth leaders want their own version of Centennial Lakes on Prudential site,
Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal ......................................................... Page 16
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May 2023
3400 Plymouth Boulevard Plymouth, MN 55447 OFFICIAL CITY CALENDAR 763-509-5080 plymouthmn.gov
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5:00 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Tax Increment Finance (TIF) overview and Beekeeping regulations Medicine Lake Room 7:00 PM REGULAR COUCIL MEETING Council Chambers
5:00 PM CLOSED COUNCIL MEETING City Manager Annual Performance Evaluation City Hall 7:00 PM REGULAR COUCIL MEETING Council Chambers
6:00 PM PARK & REC ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
MEMORIAL DAY CITY OFFICES CLOSED
7:00 PM HOUSING AND
REDEVELOPMENT
AUTHORITY
MEETING
Council Chambers
4:00 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Prudential site tour and visioning/ council engagement session Prudential site and Medicine Lake Room
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June 2023
3400Plymouth Blvd. Plymouth, MN 55447
763-509-5080 plymouthmn.gov
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CHANGES ARE NOTED IN RED
5:00 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Budget Goals and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) Medicine Lake Room 7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
6:00 PM PARK & REC ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 PM HOUSING AND
REDEVELOPMENT
AUTHORITY
MEETING
Council Chambers
5:00 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Plymouth Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) discussion and Former Four Seasons Mall site discussion Medicine Lake Room 7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
OFFICIAL CITY CALENDAR
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
Council Chambers
7:00 PM ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE MEETING Medicine Lake Room
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July 2023
3400 Plymouth Boulevard Plymouth, MN 55447 OFFICIAL CITY CALENDAR 763-509-5080 plymouthmn.gov
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5:00 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Environmental Stewardship Medicine Lake Room 7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
INDEPENDENCE DAY CITY OFFICES CLOSED
7:00 PM HOUSING AND
REDEVELOPMENT
AUTHORITY
MEETING
Council Chambers
7:00 PM ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE MEETING Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
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Tentative Schedule for
City Council Agenda Items
May 23, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Overview
•Beekeeping regulations
May 23, Regular, 7:00 p.m., Council Chambers
•Approve final closeout for the Zachary Water Treatment Plant Coatings Rehabilitation Project
(WA229003)
•Award contract for Mission Farms Lift Station Rehabilitation Project (SS230002)
•Authorize use of Resource Planning Funds for conversion of building plans to electronic
records management system
•Approve Temporary Liquor License application of Mount Olivet Lutheran Church for an event
on August 5
•Public improvement and assessment hearing and award of contract for the Nathan Lane Area
Pavement Rehabilitation Project (ST249005)
•Public hearing on approval of resolution on vacation of right-of-way within French Regional
Park
•Public Hearing on the on-sale intoxicating liquor license application with Sunday sales of
Maheshwari Foods LLC d/b/a Nawabi Hyderabad House Biriyani Place, 3195 Vicksburg Lane
North, Suite D
June 13, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•Plymouth Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) discussion
•Former Four Seasons Mall site discussion
June 13, Regular, 7:00 p.m., Council Chambers
•Approve general amendment to the 2022 Community Development Block Grant annual action
plan - TreeHouse
•Adopt Ordinance establishing City Code Section 411 regulating short-term rental licensing
•Resolution authorizing summary publication of ordinance regulating short-term rental
licensing
•Discuss City Code Section 1135 related to therapeutic massage
June 27, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•2024/2025 Budget goals
•Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
June 27, Regular, 7:00 p.m., Council Chambers
•Approve final closeout for 2021 Street Reconstruction Project (ST219001)
•Approve final closeout for 2022 Vicksburg Lane Improvements (ST229005)
•Approve final closeout for Hidden Lake and Beacon Heights 2nd Street Reconstruction Project
(ST229001)
•Approve final closeout for Ridgemount Avenue Rehabilitation Project (ST210002)
July 25, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•Environmental Stewardship
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July 25, Regular, 7:00 p.m., Council Chambers
•Present Annual Financial Overview (City Manager Dave Callister)
•2022 audit report
August 8, Regular, 7:00 p.m., Council Chambers
August 22, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•2024/2025 Budget – Levy impacted funds and related CIP
September 12, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•2024/2025 Budget – Levy impacted funds and related CIP
October 24, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•2024/2025 Budget – Enterprise funds with utility study and related CIP
November 14, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•2024/2025 Budget – Internal service funds and related CIP
November 28, Special 5:00 p.m., Medicine Lake Room
•2024/2025 Budget – final review if needed
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J.D. Duggan//May 8, 2023
For the first time, Plymouth’s entire City Center area could allow residential.
The city is overhauling its City Center plan, aiming to create a sense of place
for its downtown area. The City Center 2.0 update includes a massive
overhaul of Plymouth’s City Center Design Standards.
Some other proposed allowed uses include:
• Temporary uses, like food trucks and pop-up businesses
• Vertical mixed-use development
• Restaurants, breweries, bars
• Public and private plaza
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Prohibited uses would include buildings that lack a pedestrian-scale footprint
like a Walmart or gun range, drive-thrus, pawn shops, industrial buildings,
auto-oriented uses like car repair shops and self-storage buildings.
“It’s more [about] that sense of place. That’s kind of hard to quantify or
describe, but when you know it, you can kind of feel it when you’re in those
special places,” said Plymouth’s Senior Planner Lori Sommers. “So providing
those connections, providing that while you’re walking down the street, you
don’t feel kind of in the middle of nowhere.”
The hope for the reinvention is to bring in more entertainment and nightlife
while bringing in residents to feed the commercial uses.
During community engagement, the city found that residents want walkable
gathering spaces for families that have opportunities for eating and
entertainment. Respondents broadly welcomed mixed-use apartments, more
bike and pedestrian trails and outdoor cafes.
Plymouth’s City Center is an area around Vicksburg Lane and Highway 55 that
stretches east to Fernbrook Lane and some of which reaches north to
Rockford Road. It’s home to City Hall and other civic buildings along with a
variety of amenities like a movie theater, a park, medical services and retail.
It’s also home to acres of surface parking lots. “There’s where a lot of our
opportunity lies,” Sommers said, adding that there’s an expectation for more
infill redevelopment and hiding parking or putting it into a structured ramp.
City leaders understand that cars will be a major driver to the City Center as
they also seek to make it more walkable and transit friendly.
The city is likely to ask developers to do things like focus on bikeability and
walkability, consider art with new construction, add “high-quality” landscaping,
abut buildings to the street and implement main floor active uses.
Planning Commissioner Michael Boo said at a recent meeting that he wants
to see a greater emphasis on density. He pointed to 50th and France in Edina
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and Minneapolis’ North Loop as a place with “vibrancy” because of the
concentration of activity and buildings.
“Most of the buildings, if you drive around City Center right now, they’re mostly
one-story,” he said. He hopes that will change to integrate more mixed uses
within structures.
Planning and development manager Chloe McGuire said the city has already
received multiple questions about City Center. “Developers are, I think, really
excited about this because they can do that density,” she said at the meeting.
The city also owns much of the east side of Plymouth Boulevard and could
make improvements to help spur development, she said.
Sommers said as Plymouth’s remaining greenfield is overtaken by homes, a
new kind of developer is showing interest in the area — those with specialties
in redevelopment that may be better equipped to meet the goals for City
Center.
City staff members are finalizing the design guidelines and code updates this
month with more public city discussions expected in the summer. The hope is
the new code and guidelines will be in effect by the end of summer.
“There should be some exciting movement in the next few years,” Sommers
said.
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First-ever Twin Cities West Metro Asian Fair
to be held in Plymouth
Kaitlin McCoskey May 9, 2023
Food, performances, booths, and activities from over 12 Asian countries come to the Hilde June 3
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For those looking for a night of cultural immersion and exploration, look
no further than the Twin Cities West Metro Asian Fair, which is scheduled
for on June 3 a5 the Hilde Performance Center.
This first-of-its-kind event will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and feature food,
performances, activities, and informational booths from a large variety of
Asian cultures. Admission is free and open to the public.
Chen Zhou, a Wayzata High School parent, has previously been involved in
putting on the school’s International Night, and is one of the key people
planning this event, among other residents.
“[Wayzata High] School hasn’t done International Night [due to the
pandemic] for quite a while and they’re starting again this year, and we
have a lot of Asian population or new immigrants coming to this area,”
Zhou said of the event’s inspiration. “Everybody loves the school district,
everybody’s moving in, but there’s a way to make people feel more, how
should I say, welcomed and also feel like this is very family oriented, and
[an] activity for the kids.
“We figure, people have done the International Night, they are very proud
of their heritage. We can use some of that,” Zhou said, concluding that this
event offers a similar opportunity to the student’s International Night on a
much larger, city-wide scale that’s open to adults as well.
Wayzata School Board member and Plymouth resident Milind Sohoni, who
is helping the event organizers, agreed.
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“Having lived in Plymouth for [over] 28 years, and as a proud Indian
American, I am very happy that Chen and his team have undertaken the
gargantuan task of promoting the Asian culture,” Sohoni said. “The Twin
Cities West Metro Asian Fair is the first of its kind in Plymouth, and I wish
the organizers success this year, and every year thereafter.”
Zhou shared the long list of attractions the fair will feature, and it would
seem the organizers have indeed set themselves up for success in the
coming years with so many activities to explore.
“We have over six and a half hours of music, dance, and performance. We
have food vendors, food trucks, coming in to try different varieties. We
have about a dozen right now, and probably you could add more, different
cultural booths, that are Chinese, Korean, Indian, Japanese, all varieties,”
Zhou said. “So when people come to see it, they’ll realize, Asia is a big area,
there are many countries.”
He shared that the event will also feature “traditional face paint or
potentially henna,” making Japanese paper cranes, and “some traditional
games that they play in China or other areas.
“We wanted to have people try different things and get a flavor of, what
would you experience in different countries? The whole idea is, when
you’re there, we take you to a different place. You still speak the same
language, but you can try different things.”
He explained that while this event is going to be a celebration of culture
and a fun experience for everyone, the inspiration for it also came from a
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desire to show people in America the beauty and value of Asian cultures
and people, amidst the recent rise in Asian hate crimes.
“There’s all kinds of protests and things that have happened, but we think
that doesn’t really always change people’s perception,” Zhou explained.
“But if you can bring people together at an event, see each other and talk
to each other, that probably will make more difference. It’s softer, but you
know, it might [make] change.
“We don’t want to drive people to any way of thinking, so we figured, let’s
do what we, a lot of Asians, do well, which is have a good party, have great
food, performances, and you know do some fun activities together.”
Zhou also highlighted that this event is meant to represent all Asian
cultures, and is an invitation for people of all backgrounds, cultures, and
ethnicities.
“Even though I’m Chinese and in this first year we have a lot of Chinese
people helping out, we want to make sure it’s broad and brings other
people in, working together. Thai has their own program [at the event],
Hmong has their own program, Cambodia has their own program, India
has their own program,” he said. “Everybody has a very unique culture, but
you know, sometimes it’s harder for one culture to step out and to see
another culture. So when we bring our Asian cultures together, then you
get a flavor of each and you experience variations and you see a lot of
similarities.
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“It’s open to everyone who wants to learn about Asian culture, or just
wants to come have some great food.”
Other organizers of the Twin Cities West Metro Asian Fair shared Zhou’s
sentiments, including the organization’s president Fiona Kan.
“I feel very honored to have this opportunity working with a few other
community leaders to organize the inaugural Twin Cities West Metro
Asian Fair. It is exciting that this is a part of and continuation of
celebrat[ing] AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) heritage month,” she
said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to foster cross-cultural understanding
and appreciation while enjoying a truly memorable day out.”
Zhou further shared his hopes for the future of the Asian Fair, and for
what he hopes people will take away from it, including an understanding
of what it means to be Asian.
“A lot of people think Asian [means] black hair, brown face, [thin] eyes,
that’s very stereotypical,” Zhou said. “But if you come you’ll realize there’s
a lot of varieties.
“If we have a good showing, we would like to make it this annual thing. We
think there’s a lot of people who love to learn about other countries. We
don’t get to travel to other countries a lot, and Minnesota has the best
summer anywhere, you know, so why not stay here to experience other
cultures?”
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For more information about the Twin Cities West Metro Asian Fair,
visit tcasianfair.org, the Twin Cities West Metro Asian Fair Facebook page,
or follow @tcasianfair on Instagram.
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Commercial Real Estate
Plymouth leaders want their own version of Centennial Lakes on
Prudential site
Plymouth leaders seem to want their own version of Edina's Centennial Lakes.
Plymouth City Council members met Monday night to discuss the future of the
75-acre Prudential Financial Inc. site, a corporate campus that Prudential is
leaving and moving its operations to downtown Minneapolis. The city leaders
outlined a vision for what they would like to see there, including a central park, a
mix of uses and inter-connected walkability. In a couple of instances, council
members pointed to Edina's 100-acre mixed use site, called Centennial Lakes, for
inspiration.
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This discussion, which included city staff and representatives of site’s
development team of Minnetonka-based Roers Cos. and Indianapolis-based
Scannell Properties, followed a tour of the 75-acre insurance company’s former
campus (see photos from the tour in the gallery above). Demolition work has not
yet begun.
In all, the $300 million redevelopment could include five residential buildings, a
grocery store, a cluster of retail shops, restaurants and a business park, according
to developer plans initially submitted to the city, the Business Journal reported.
The co-developers had announced in early August their intent to redevelop the site,
which they bought that same month from Prudential for $20 million. The site is located
on the corner of Interstate 494 and Bass Lake Road.
At the meeting, city leaders appeared to be open to the site’s proposed range of uses.
They also noted desires like pedestrian walkability throughout the site, a park with year-
round programming and for it to be considered a destination, drawing residents beyond
just the city – aspects similar to that of Centennial Lakes.
Centennial Lakes, the culmination of a years-long redevelopment project in
Edina, offers a mix of residential, office, retail and public uses, including a central 24-
acre park with man-made ponds. The area also has year-round uses like fishing and ice
skating, while pedestrian trails weave throughout the site and are connected to surface
and structured parking lots.
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The Prudential site as-is has similar features to Centennial Lakes, like the water and
greenery, Ward 1 Council member Alise McGregor noted at the meeting, but she
wondered whether there would be a way to better blend the park with surrounding uses,
such as the retail buildings, "since you kind of have a clean slate as far as what's already
in the site.”
Another council member, Clark Gregor, who represents Plymouth at-large, pointed out
that he enjoyed the more natural features, like the pond and trees, of the Prudential site,
over the man-made aspects at Centennial Lakes.
But McGregor also said the Plymouth site should be a destination, perhaps with a name,
adding that “I've heard Centennial Lakes how many times? Right, so that's a name that
we are referring to.”
Other aspects city council members said they'd like to see included quality architecture
and aesthetics, as well as parking that is largely hidden from main roads. Plymouth
Mayor Jeffry Wosje also said he'd like to see density by height, that is, higher structures
instead of buildings being spread out.
The city needs to be sure it allows flexibility for the developers to create what is
financially feasible, said Ward 3 Council member Jim Davis, who also voiced his hope to
see the site's future office and retail spaces fully leased.
Looking ahead, the development team will continue to revise the plan, Scannell
Development Manager Dan Salzer told the Business Journal. The team expects to go
before the council for site-plan, planned-unit-development and platting approvals near
the end of the summer or early fall. After that, it expects demolition by the end of this
year or early next, Salzer said at the meeting.
The city has also put in a request to the Minnesota Legislature to create a tax increment
financing district for the site.
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