Two hours and thirty minutes, give or take. Given the length of both agendas, that is not terribly bad, but long is long. Here are the highlights:
Water’s Edge #
Full house of attendees showed that interest is high in what we do with that lakefront parcel. Thanks to everyone for coming out, listening to the proposal, and speaking your mind. The proposal was for a $92M development with 119 units. Townhomes and condos, not apartments.
Summarizing the main resident concerns:
- Traffic on 5 Mile Rd
- Open space. It is our only village-owned lakefront property
- TIF assistance of $14M, including $5M up front
As I said before the presentation, we were not sharing the proposal with the intent of acting on it last night. We were trying to keep the community engaged, getting your feedback so that we can incorporate it into our planning.
Between presentation and public comment, this lasted an hour, but it was an hour well spent.
Other public comments #
- Village of Raymond’s President made his case again for relief from the border agreement that gives Caledonia a say in Raymond’s development activity along the Interstate. The agreement was signed in 2009 and lasts in perpetuity. Later in the meeting, there was a closed session where we discussed the latest legal negotiations.
- Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church also spoke in support of their plan to expand their school. This had previously passed the Plan Commission 6-0. Right after public comment, the board unanimously approved the comprehensive plan and zoning changes necessary to accommodate their expansion plans. I’m glad this was quickly and easily approved, but I do wish we had given it more air time. The expansion of a school in our community seems like something we should be openly applauding. And one more thing about this proposal: the degree to which the church proactively thought of and attended to neighbor impact when presenting to the Plan Commission was downright heartwarming. The world would be a better place if more of that happened.
Other approvals #
The dispute with StorageShopUSA is now officially closed. We approved the agreement that we reviewed at the prior board meeting.
Everything else under “Ordinances and Resolutions” was approved as well. It took longer to read them all than to approve them. None of the items were controversial.
Trustee vacancy selection #
We have 12 applicants, an absolutely wonderful number that shows great interest in local government. We are going to winnow the list down to 4 that will be formally interviewed. Each trustee will provide a ranked top 5 list – 5 points for 1st choice, 4 points for 2nd choice, etc. The candidate scores will be tallied and top 4 will move to open session interviews on Aug 4, 2026’s board meeting.
At the Aug 4th board meeting, we’ll establish a process for going from 4 to 1, which is harder than it sounds given the mechanics of Roberts Rules of Order.
Committee of the Whole #
We were at 2 hours when the Board meeting ended, so my endurance was waning. Committee updates were uneventful and then we punted the Comp Plan Visioning Exercise and my own Agenda Management item. I liked the irony of delaying the Agenda Management item because we didn’t do a good job of managing the meeting agenda.
We did talk about fixing the audio issues and adding live streaming capabilities, but ended up punting that to the Finance Committee due to the high price tag. I’m frustrated by the lack of progress on this item. Seems like we should be able to find a poor man’s solution.
Final thoughts #
Please yell at me if you disagree, but I think we’re improving:
- Transparency
- Public engagement
- Meetings are at least a bit crisper if still a bit long sometimes.
We’re improving but need to get better at:
- Agenda management. The marathon meetings need to be a rarity. Repeated deferral of items should also be a rarity.
Still to address:
- Joint priority management between staff and board
Of course, we still have the tactical issues of a Water’s Edge plan, budget challenges, live streaming of meetings, and more.
Relentless forward progress.