The Waseca City Council held public hearings for topics including housing and food trucks at its May 21 meeting.
The public hearings were all on subjects that have been discussed at previous council meetings. Some of the hearings were the final step for ordinances, while the others continued the process of ongoing projects.
Sewer infrastructure
City manager Carl Sonnenberg brought resolution 24-29 to the council to vote on after having a public hearing about it. The council agreed unanimously to approve the resolution for the amendments for improvements within the hospital sewershed.
The purpose of the resolution is to comply with state requirements to construct sanitary sewer infrastructure improvements as the city applies for financial assistance from the state.
Joe Palin from Stantec, the city’s engineering consultant, was at the May 21 council meeting and presented the resolution and the proposed project.
The goal of the project is to obtain money from the state to go toward reducing inflow and infiltration (I&I) and increase advance capacity of sanitary sewer. The city wants to reduce I&I within the Hospital Sewershed because the majority of raw sewage pumping from the sanitary sewers to Clear Lake and Rice lake occurs within the sewershed.
The city received $2.1 million in federal money to go toward the project earlier this year and is continuing to seek over $13 million in federal and state grants for the project as well. $8 million would just cover the costs, while the additional $5 million would cover the roadway and water main.
The resolution simply allows the city to be able to receive money for the project and complete documentation to allow them to qualify for funding for the project.
“When you ask the government for help, you have to jump through their hoops,” Sonnenberg said. “That’s what we’re doing.”
Marketplace
Two and a half years ago, five general partners in Waseca started the Waseca Real Estate Fund (WREF). Their goal is to raise money to help invest into Waseca for the growth of the city.
WREF intends to purchase the lot owned by the city between the Waseca Junior & Senior High School and Wal-Mart, known as Marketplace, for development of a 36-unit apartment building.
WREF applied for Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to help finance the project. A public hearing was scheduled at the April 2 council meeting but then a motion was passed to continue the hearing on April 16. A motion was again passed to continue the hearing to May 21.
The postponement of the public hearing was due to WREF obtaining a term sheet from their primary financing institution, which would provide financing to develop the property.
While WREF did receive two financial lending offers on the project, they have not agreed on a set interest rate. They are still working with the lenders and working to raise a little more money with those current interest rates. One of the general partners that started WREF Tim Collins was at the May 21 meeting representing WREF.
“Due to the need for more time to work with the lenders to see what the interest rates are going to do, and potentially raise more capital, we’re withdrawing our request at this time,” Collins said.
“I just want to assure you that we’re not going away,” Collins added. “You’ve given us a year of exclusive right on that property to try and do something. We’re still going to roll up our sleeves, we’re still going to try and raise more money and we’re still going to work with those lenders to try to make it work within the structure.”
The council had two public hearings for the project at the May meeting, one to approve the TIF District and one to authorize the sale of the Marketplace property. Both hearings were closed, and the council made a motion to take no further action at this time on both resolutions.
Collins said that WREF is very hopeful that they will be back in the fall to ask the council to move forward with it.
Food trucks
The city staff concluded their work on creating an ordinance for food trucks, which will allow food trucks to operate in designated public locations throughout the city. The proposed permit fee is $5 per permit for one year and they can be obtained at city hall.
Before the ordinance was created, food trucks could only operate in private commercial parking lots with no permit needed. Food trucks can still operate in private lots without a permit, but they will need a permit if they wish to operate at the designated public locations.
The ordinance states that food trucks are not allowed to operate on Elm Avenue or State Street at any time.
The council needed to have a public hearing before voting on the ordinance. The public hearing was open at the May 21 meeting, with Tom Sexton having a few comments on the matter.
Sexton is the organizer of LakeFest in Waseca and stated that the ordinance failed to address special event permits.
Sonnenberg assured Sexton that the ordinance regulating food trucks does not apply to special events like LakeFest since they have their own permit process. A special event stand was stated in the ordinance, but only in the definitions.
Sexton, Sonnenberg, and City Clerk Julia Hall agreed that special events should not be included in the ordinance at all. The council agreed unanimously to approve the ordinance as presented with the exception of striking the special event food stand in the definitions part of the ordinance.
Specialized vehicles
The council also voted on the specialized vehicle ordinance which will allow the vehicles on city roads. They are currently illegal as the ordinance would allow them to be legally operated in Waseca.
While riders of specialized vehicles such as ATVs, utility vehicles, mini-trucks, and motorized golf carts can go on trails if licensed by the DNR, they have to have a permit to ride in municipalities. Riders will have to have permits in each municipality they ride in order to operate the vehicle legally.
While members on the council did not like how the state of Minnesota leaves it to the cities and counties to have a permitting process for specialized vehicles, they appreciated the city staff’s efforts in creating the ordinance to allow people to ride them in the city.
The council unanimously approved the ordinance. Like the food truck ordinance, it will cost less than $100 for the city to publish, and the permits will cost $5 lasting three years.
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