00:00:12,500	It is 5:15. We’re in the Tom Baker of the City County Building. We have 2 meetings tonight, um, but before we get started, we’ll have invocation and the pledge of Allegiance, uh, Chaplain Kayliss, please. You wouldn’t mind. Yeah. On behalf of crisis. On behalf of Crisis care chaplaincy for Bismarck Burleigh County.

00:00:51,000	Thank you for the opportunity of opening this meeting in prayer. If you, uh, Wood, would you please stand with me for the prayer and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and for this evening.

00:01:12,100	We are looking forward to the spring season as we anticipate seeing new life and rebirth. And we are reminded during this season of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the joy of being reunited with family and friends during this Easter celebration. Please comfort any who may be adjusting to loss of loved ones during this time, and give them your peace.

00:01:32,100	Thank you for the privilege of living in the city of Bismarck, as well as in the state. Thank you for the many blessings and opportunities that this local community offers for those of us who live here. I pray today for those who are in the offices that govern this community.

00:01:50,400	I ask your spirit guide as they make decisions. Many of which are not easy. That they be wise and godly and would prove to be in the best interests of the community. Thank you too for the freedom citizens have to speak up and be heard, whether in agreement or dissent. For in discussion and diversity.

00:02:11,470	Some strength in this community. I pray for our mayor and those who work in that office for each Comm as well as other elected officials and city workers. I ask that each one would be blessed by you, God, as they carry out their responsibilities.

00:02:34,000	I also pray for our first responders, those who put themselves in harm’s way to protect the citizens of this community. Our law enforcement, our firefighters, EMS workers, dispatch, healthcare workers, and others. Please protect them in their line of duty. So that they might protect those of us who have placed our trust in them. So God guide us in everything said and done this evening.

00:02:57,530	I’m so thankful for each and every one of these blessings. And Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, sir.

00:03:27,470	It is May, excuse me, it is April 8th and our first meeting that we’ll call to order is a continuation of the board of equalization. If we can call the meeting to order first, please. Comm Risch. Here Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary here, Mayor Schmitz here.

00:03:48,730	So this is a continuation of the hearing on the board of equalization, um, Allison, can you just give a quick Update because there’s a lot of people here who may not even know why we’re doing this, so.

00:04:11,230	Sure, um, we’re here to continue our meeting from last week, and this is the opportunity for property owners to contest their 2025 property valuation, um, so we’ve got a signup sheet here at the, up here, um, at the podium, if you choose to come up and speak.

00:04:25,100	If we have not already spoke with you, our office will get in touch with the property owners, um, in the next couple of days to discuss their evaluation concerns and set up an appointment to review the property, um, and then, After your public hearing, we have a few lists of people we’ve already spoke with, um, some that agree with our valuation recommendation and some that don’t, um, we’ll ask that those be approved tonight.

00:04:44,370	And then also the annual report that we presented last week will ask that that be approved as amended by any changes made this evening. Thank you.

00:05:02,500	So again, as I said, this is a continuation of that public hearing, so anyone who would wish to speak regarding their property, please come forward, state your name. Uh, sign in and make sure we have your address. A second call for anyone. You A 3rd and final call. The public hearing is now closed. So Allison, you want to present the rest then.

00:05:30,470	OK, well, we do have um a few lists that we shared with you. For the meeting today. There is a list that, um, Property owners we visited with and we’ve been able to make a review of their property and Recommend a change evaluation based on.

00:05:53,200	The things we saw with our review, um, and so we ask that that be approved, um, and then we’ll notify those property owners of any changes with a letter and then we have a second list, um, it’s a shorter list, there’s just a few people on there that did not agree with our recommended change, um, and so we’re, we just ask that those be approved tonight as well. Commissioner’s questions.

00:06:22,530	We take one motion on those properties that there’s agreement on, correct? That would work, yep. I’ll move to approve the list of properties, um. With value changes. Second. Any discussion He none will call roll. Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly? Yes, Comm Cleary, yes, Comm Risch, Mayor Schmitz, yes.

00:06:55,170	And then the next item is the List of 5 or 6 where there’s not agreement. Commissioners Moved to approve the list of The 2025, um, value changes. Um With their recommendation. So Is there any discussion You’re none will call roll. Comm Connelly. Yes, Comm Cleary, Yes. Comm Risch, Comm Zenker.

00:07:46,000	Mayor Schmitz. Yes. And then I’ll also move to approve the annual report. as presented last week. Second. is our discussion. He no will call roll. Comm Cleary? Yes, Comm Risch. Yes. Comm Zenker. Yes. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz. Yes The Board of Equalization is now Adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.

00:08:14,730	Well, Now call to order the board of City Commissioners. We can call roll. Comm Risch. Here. Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary, Mayor Smith. Here. Our first item is recognition of the Bismarck Citizen Academy participants and Jason, are you going to make a brief presentation? It would be my honor, Mister Mayor and Commissioners.

00:08:43,530	Uh, tonight we have the good fortune to recognize uh not quite our full class of Citizen Academy participants from 2025, but I’m pleased to say that, uh, this group is the 4th class that’s gone through the program. We’ve made a number of tweaks over the years.

00:09:00,200	We were just chatting before the meeting with Comm Risch, who was part of Group One, season one, and we’ve modified the program a little bit over the years and added a few things to it, and I think in the future we will continue to see some tweaks and adjustments, but, ah, we just

00:09:13,300	want to use this as a chance to promote the program a little bit more for anybody that hasn’t heard us talk about it or is curious to know more. Basically it’s a 12 week program.

00:09:30,200	Every Thursday throughout January, February, and March, we gather at uh City Building, uh, one location or another and spend 3 hours going through, you know, behind the scenes in depth, look at budgets, look at facilities, um, meeting with staff, I think I counted up somewhere close to 80 different city staff were involved in the 12 weeks as we went through the various departments, um, obviously we

00:09:46,670	spent, you know, at least 36 hours together. Over the course of those 12 weeks and we have a bonus week coming up where we will be tomorrow, actually we’re heading down to the wastewater treatment plant to meet with Travis and his team and see how the other side of the water treatment process

00:10:02,100	works. Um, so that’s been something we’ve added in the last couple of years and we’ve left it up to the group to decide if that’s something they want to take advantage of and this year they said yes, please. So we’re heading, heading south um tomorrow or I’m sorry, on Thursday.

00:10:16,930	So, what we’d like to do tonight, I’d just like to read everybody’s name that was part of the class this year and then for those that are here, if we can get a group photo with all of you.

00:10:27,530	I know our communications folks would love the opportunity to put this out on social media and shine a light on it one more time. So with that, if I can just read everybody’s name real quick and then we can get everybody that’s here. Oh, there’s a few folks that would like to share their comments, if that’s OK as well.

00:10:41,670	Um, I think somebody wants to roast Doug, uh, this time around, so I’m just kidding. Um, so for the participants this year in no particular order other than how they’re on my list, uh, participants included Noah Weber. Mirabella Punga. Uh, Natalia Kupitz. Tim Click, Lillian Johnston. Sargianna Wutzke, who I think you’ll be hearing from later with a different matter.

00:11:04,400	Layne Hoffer, Andrew Carlson. Stephanie Gray Chantel Lem Joe Dash Dan Taylor Courtney Houston. Robert Tubbs. Matthew Presler Maiya Fleck Jennie Messer Zarina Arapovik, and Corey Ralstead. So that’s our group from 2025 and who, who wants to speak first? I think, oh, Sargianna is gonna go first. Thank you.

00:11:39,630	Thank you First of all, I want to thank the city of Bismarck for offering this unique opportunity for a behind the scenes look at how the city runs.

00:11:54,770	A huge thank you to every department of the city for taking the time to educate us on how the department works and for being very open to any questions we had for them. I feel extremely lucky to have been a part of the Citizens Academy. This experience made me realize that it is truly the people that make this city amazing, and there are some great people who work for this great city.

00:12:12,900	I’m not gonna lie, when I was given the schedule of departments, we would meet with on the weeks. Some were less than exciting to me. However, I was pleasantly surprised as I had a great time every single week. Each department is unique, and I got more out of this experience than I ever imagined.

00:12:32,100	I’m sure that my classmates and I have varying opinions on our favorite week of the academy. As a book nerd, my favorite was the library. It was so interesting to see the inner workings of the place that homes some of the greatest works ever written, and to be able to tour this facility as well as talk with their very

00:12:48,770	enthusiastic staff. We also learned about the variety of programs offered for all ages from toddlers to adults. Some of the things offered include storytime, gaming tournaments, book clubs, crochet, chess, classes for parents and computer classes. I would strongly encourage everyone to take the time to tour the library.

00:13:11,470	I don’t have the time to talk about every department, but I’d like to talk about 5 interesting facts that I learned through the Citizens Academy. Number one, in 2024, the tree count in Bismarck was 25,551, and every one of these trees are plodded out on a GIS inventory.

00:13:34,500	The landfill takes in an average of 594,060 pounds of garbage a day. The attendance for events at the Bismarck Events Center and Belle Mehus in 2024 was 403,953. There are 450 licensed food establishments that a city has to inspect yearly. And the fire department responded to 6,217 emergencies in 2024.

00:14:00,170	These are just a few things I learned from the academy. To this, I like to say thank you to all the other participants in the academy. Thank you for being an engaging group each week and for always asking so many good relevant questions.

00:14:19,270	One last thank you though, goes being there each week alongside us and for supporting us in this experience. I would strongly encourage anyone to apply for this wonderful opportunity, you will not be disappointed. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Commission members, city staff, cadets, and fellow citizens of Bismarck. My name is Matthew Pressler.

00:14:52,470	I work for the Senate Tax and Finance and Transportation committees for the North Dakota Legislature. I’ve lived in Bismarck for nearly 3 years, but have been coming to Bismarck and the state of North Dakota for nearly 20.

00:15:09,730	Uh I would like to start by giving my heartfelt thanks to all the departments, department heads, and employees for taking time out of their busy schedules and lives to engage and educate our group every Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. for the last 12 weeks, often staying late to answer any questions we might throw their way.

00:15:27,130	I’d like to give a special thank you to Jason, Doug, Ken, and Maiya for being there with us every single week and for their patience and candor and failed in literally ques any questions or scenarios I would to them. Thank you for indulging me and thank you for allowing me to participate in Citizens Academy. I’m eternally grateful. I’d also like to thank my fellow cadets.

00:15:44,770	It’s been a pleasure getting to know each one of you over the past several weeks. Secondly, I would like to encourage my fellow citizens to become engaged with their local government and perhaps consider applying for next year’s Citizens Academy. 3 years ago, I moved to Bismarck to be closer to my family and decided it was time to become more immersed in the community.

00:16:01,130	I came into this program wanting to learn more about the community and how the city operated. Citizens Academy exceeded my expectations and and I was particularly struck by the dedication, care, vigor, and due diligence of all of the city of Bismarck’s employees.

00:16:22,530	They take the responsibility of spending our tax dollars seriously and promote efficiency, integration, and cost analysis across all departments within the city. More importantly, they care deeply about the city of Bismarck and try to foster a community which we can all be proud to call our home.

00:16:38,630	Each Thursday evening began with me being tired, hungry, and ready to call it a day, and each one ended with me asking questions or chatting sometimes nearly to 10 p.m. and not wanting to go home. Some highlights for me were the water treatment plant, fire station, library, police station, airport, and roads and streets, all the departments were impressive, but those were some of the ones that came to

00:16:54,130	mind immediately while I was preparing my remarks. It was a privilege to get an inside look at each one of the operations. Anyone interested in municipal government and getting to know fellow members of their community. Should give citizen’s Academy serious consideration.

00:17:13,270	Thank you again for the very enjoyable educational and fulfilling experience. My name is Mirabella. And um I wanna thank everybody for the privilege of being tonight here, um, as former foreigner, I want to say now I feel like this community became my home and I, I love to live in this in this uh city.

00:17:41,570	I love this country and I love the opportunity that you, um, can give us what we need in this city, and you can, now I am confident that all the money you are deciding where to spend here are well spent for our benefit for the community benefit. Um, now when I see comments on social media that all they can do these commissioners is to spend.

00:17:59,800	Now I can argue that’s not the right thing to say. Now I can really argue because I, I, I was a part of this um entire learning process, and I, I see things that I couldn’t see it before, how everything and how the process actually work, um,

00:18:17,870	I wanna say a big thank you to the ads administrative um team that make this happen. I think this program is a great opportunity for the citizens of this community to see how this city operates and how the money are spent and It’s, it’s a great opportunity to um invite more people to Experience what

00:18:41,470	we experience all the departments I went to, I had a great, uh, pleasure, and I learned a lot from this program. I will encourage everybody who want to participate and um after all we we all have ideas of what else this program can look like in the future, so I wanna say a big thank you again

00:19:02,730	to make this, uh, city a great city to be in, to invite other people that want to create a family and have a good life here. So I’m very thankful again. Comm, Mr. Mayor, I just want to comment.

00:19:21,930	She’s got a wonderful store here across from the Dairy Queen with a Russian and Ukrainian, and I go down there and get pickles and canned fish and all kinds of stuff. Make sure you check it out. Other commissioners, thanks for your time tonight. I’m Joe Dosh, Citizen of Bismarck here. Um, wanted to say thanks again for putting on Jason, Doug, for allowing me to be part of the Citizens Academy.

00:19:40,630	I came into it, um, being part of a family business, 3rd generation here, uh, in Bismarck and so more of the private sector view, so, um, needless to say, I’ve seen the city kind of operate, but it was always from kind of, uh, from the side of a city, uh, citizen, and so, you know,

00:19:59,170	being able to go. Behind the scenes, talk to the employees, see kind of the, the culture that they have, the, um, you know, answers that they’re able to provide for all of our questions we are kind of drilling them and talking about how things are around each of the various departments was, ah,

00:20:15,470	very entertaining and also just educational for for me to see. So appreciate them taking the time, uh, I know from kind of the past experience too, to create that culture is tough, um, to where you have an atmosphere that employees want to be there, want to participate.

00:20:31,470	One engage, um, and from, you know, the 60 to 80 employees that we got to interact with it was very evident that they enjoyed what they did and, um, so it made me feel proud to be a citizen of of Bismarck. So thank you to, to all the city staff.

00:20:45,470	Thank you to, to Doug and Jason and Tim, and then thank you city commissioners, uh, for what you do too. We saw how much goes in to every night just meeting, you know, on Thursdays, and I know that you guys spend a lot of your time, uh, you know, helping for the betterment of our city too, so.

00:20:59,800	Really appreciate it. That’s all I’ve got. Thank you. Any other comments? I suppose. I’m, I’m not going to go ahead. All right, so I’m good advertisement for this. So I’m Dr Timothy Click, uh, so, uh, assistant professor of chemistry at U Mary.

00:21:25,930	I actually moved here this last summer, lived around the country, lived abroad in Taiwan for 6 years and Most places I’ve been don’t have anything like this. So it’s been rather enjoyable to be able to get on the ground running.

00:21:46,770	And even though when we first started a half jokingly said, part of my reason for it was it helps with the promotion packet that I will eventually go for with you marry, that it’s been an enjoyable experience, uh, from that standpoint, being able to see how things work within the city government to be able to see.

00:22:07,100	How everything, you know, all fits together because we might think, oh, well, there’s, you know, because I take the bus too and going even over the summer when South Washington was getting worked on just all the different things there, but you don’t see that or we don’t necessarily think that everything works together.

00:22:25,630	It’s not simply, well, there’s the construction crew, but how would that be affected with say, Department of Forestry or anything else. So knowing that everything Marchs together and being able to have that time with other people, getting to know other people, even though I’m fairly new here.

00:22:45,400	So, do appreciate that and certainly appreciate being able to work with Doug and Jason, as well as being able to hear how things work for you all, you know, at times, being in academia, meetings aren’t fun, and I know those aren’t probably always the same for you all depending upon the tasks at hand. So certainly commend you all for that as well. Ready for a photo.

00:23:06,870	Yeah how it works, call people back. That’s true. No. This is gonna be a big crowd Yeah Just pop up a few of them here. Somebody smiling. That’s good. That’s fine. All right, we have two proclamations. This evening The first is the National Public Safety telecommunications Week.

00:24:35,100	Whereas emergencies can occur at any time that require law enforcement, fire, or emergency medical services and whereas the emergency occurs when the emergency occurs, the prompt response of law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel is critical to the protection. Of life and the preservation of property.

00:24:56,230	Therefore, be it resolved that I, Mike Schmidt’s mayor of the city of Bismarck, on behalf of this commission do join the central Dakota Communication Center. Board of Directors to proclaim April 13th through 19, 2025 is National Public Safety telecommunications Week here in the city of Bismarck signed this day, the 8th day of April 2025.

00:25:20,370	And this next one is It’s really for me, it’s for what I’m Trying to establish for our community, uh, as a whole. So the proclamation is, whereas the cities of Bismarck and Mandan have long been recognized for their strong sense of community, Rich heritage, vibrant culture, and fostering an environment where residents and businesses thrive together and whereas the

00:25:44,270	municipal government for the seas city of Bismarck and the city of Mandan are important components to this growth, providing critical services each day and ensuring the Capital Metro flourishes with new residences.

00:26:07,730	Businesses and opportunities and whereas the importance of welcoming people to our communities is recognized as a as an important aspect of strengthening our workforce, expanding the local economy and tax base, increasing the pool of volunteers and contributing vitality to our communities. Whereas the foundation of welcoming and inclusive community begins with a simple gesture saying hello.

00:26:34,900	Which serves as the first step in building meaningful connections fostering a sense of belonging and strengthening social fabric and whereas participating in the welcome home means more than hello. Initiative seeks to create opportunities to welcome new residents by engaging residents and business owners to take an extra step to integrate them into the fabric of our community.

00:26:55,800	Therefore, be it resolved that I, Michael Schmidtz, mayor of the city of Bismarck, on behalf of this commission. Do hereby proclaim May 2025 is Welcome Month in Bismarck, Mandan. I urge all citizens of our community to learn more about how they can contribute to a more welcoming community.

00:27:15,670	Take action to join this effort and let every individual who arrives in our community know they are truly home. Sign this 8th day of April 2025 and There will be an events announced coming up that this all partakes in in the city of Mandan is also proclaiming May as welcome month. Um, I think that their next commission meeting because they’re off a week on ours, so.

00:27:38,130	Those are our two pro proclamations. Now we move to public comment. We have several people here tonight, so we’ll want to make sure those who want to speak, because I believe there’s a couple of topics that people are gonna want to speak about, um.

00:27:58,870	So let’s try to be respectful of time of 5 minutes or less if we can, not going to cut anybody off, but disrespect that we want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak. Um, so the items are those on the consent agenda or regular agenda.

00:28:19,000	That are not public hearings, so, uh, please come forward, tell us who you are, sign in, and then the topic you’re speaking to and um if we run out of space on the sign-in sheets, we’ll find more for you, but. I think we have we have plenty, so. Uh, Poly comment period is now open. Anyone who wished to speak, please come forward. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Commissioners.

00:29:15,100	Uh, my name is Tom Dice, and I’m here tonight to speak to you about the Tyler Parkway extension proposal. Uh, my wife and I are long time, uh, longtime residents of Tyler Parkway, and we just have deep concerns about the extension proposal.

00:29:33,200	Uh, we are opposed to the extension, and I have just short 8 points so that I want to make, so. Be patient with me. The first one is just a kind of a conflict of interest, um, the city’s request for proposal contract with the engineering firm, uh, they were contracted to do 3 things, uh, the survey, if the residents wanted the Tyler extension.

00:29:57,800	Uh, the second was traffic calming measures for anticipated increase in traffic, and third, the preliminary design for the extension road. Um, does the engineering firm have a conflict of interest in presenting the survey. It’s in their best interest for the extension to go through, they are designing the road. That’s my first point. Second point is that the survey.

00:30:17,500	The developments in Tyler Parkway were started in 1979. There are approximately 60 homes on Tyler Parkway, who are going to be negatively affected or impacted if the extension goes through. Uh, the survey sent out 700 notices and they received 312. To me, that’s skewing the the the support for the project.

00:30:37,900	Virtually nobody spoke in support of the the project at the public input meeting. This should be about people who live on Tyler Parkway, who are going to incur the negative impacts. When do the rights of the city or the newer developments supersede the people who live on Tyler Parkway.

00:30:56,230	Tyler Parkway was not built as an arterialor road. It was a collector road. The city changed its classification in 2012. To put Tyler Parkway in the half cent sales tax with roads like 43rd and fifty-seventh, um, in my opinion was not right.

00:31:15,200	Those other roads have house, no housing impacts, and we, and they have 35 mile an hour speed limits consistent with arterial roads. Tyler Parkway speed limit is 25 miles an hour, and we back out into that road. Tyler Parkway is not built to handle high volumes of traffic. Talauli was designed or designated as a conservation area.

00:31:33,870	While we were in a high volume road through this beautiful area. Probably the most important part I want to make is traffic. The current traffic on Telle Parkway is approximately 5000 cars per day and 85% are excessively speeding. If the extension is built, the engineering firm gives us the residents a narrow traffic forecast.

00:31:58,000	They predict 300 more cars per day on day one. What about week one? What about month one? What about 3 months? What about 6 months? What about a year? There is none. The next forecast is 25 years. That’s one forecast, guys. That’s not complete. We will take traffic from every direction, you guys. It will attract traffic.

00:32:20,470	Traffic will be much higher than forecasted. I warned the city before, uh, the Elk Ridge Editions, uh, were built about the traffic problems. It could create for Tyler Parkway residents, and now we have a traffic problem. And how are you going to move this traffic safely without destroying property values.

00:32:38,470	Kyle Parkway is not built to handle high volumes of traffic. Project costs, the estimate for this project is $10 million and I’ll be surprised if it’s $10 million.

00:32:58,800	What if, what if it’s much higher? What if you go over budget? Who’s going to pay for the ongoing maintenance costs for a field dirt road, 35 to 60 ft high at an 8% grade in a watershed that runs wet year round. The city is going to do stormwater projects in the Tyler Coulee watershed. There are 3 areas north of Valley Drive that are part of the stormwater project.

00:33:19,100	As you know, the city’s purchasing the land for both the extension project and the stormwater project to purchase this land, the city sites using half-cent sales tax. Money and special assessment money, yet no special assessment money has been collected. Does the city mean, does the, does that mean the city is using extension money to purchase the land.

00:33:37,830	What happens if the extension doesn’t go through, does that obligate you to, to approve the project. Emergency vehicle response driving 30 miles an hour from the fire station on Century up to Elkridge takes less than 5 minutes. It’s even less time to go to horizon School. Just a couple more things, um.

00:34:02,630	The process, I don’t think has been very transparent. We get one public input meeting and an online survey regarding a project that costs $10 to $20 million. Why are there public hearings through planning and zoning and the city commission. There should be video record available on the concerns of Bismarck residents.

00:34:23,230	In summary, Tyler Parkway residents followed all the city rules regarding development. Our road was not an arterial road, and Tyler Parkway was supposed to be a dead end road. But the city changes the rules. We put the money into our homes based upon this area being a quiet residential neighborhood. You don’t need this road, you want this road.

00:34:39,730	It serves a small area of residence that could easily move within the existing road infrastructure. If this road is allowed, traffic will substantially increase and your traffic calming measures will need to be changed to something like losing on-street parking, 3 or 4 lanes, traffic lights, or road widening. You will destroy our property values.

00:35:01,530	I encourage you to do nothing on the Tyler Parkway extension. Take the sales tax money, put in the road budget and reduce taxes for the residents of Bismarck. The city of Bismarck’s responsibility is to protect the individual rights of Tyler Parkway.

00:35:17,200	Homeowners who played by the rules, you’re supposed to set the rules and enforce them, not change them. I urge you to do so. Thank you. Anyway have questions? Mr. Connelly. Just to clarification. On the encouragement on the last paragraph because I do follow like home rule charters very closely and things because it was a vote of the people in 2018 on the half cent.

00:35:39,470	We can’t redistribute the money in that way. It has to, it can go to one of the road projects on the list, but it can go in any other bucket. Just a point of clarification. Um We try to follow what the voters say when they vote something very specific in to a homer charter.

00:36:00,370	I just find it interesting that we, we’re voting, we’re collecting sales tax money on a road we haven’t even approved yet. Ma Um, the, you know, on that particular point in the home rule charter, it was one of 8 projects that were listed.

00:36:18,630	A lot of us weren’t here at that time, and Tyler the Tyler corridor was part of that home rule charter back in 2018. So it’s just a clarification. We cannot take that half cent and put it into a different bucket other than what it was designed to do. You could see the frustration for us people who live on Tyler.

00:36:35,400	We thought the rules were this, and it’s all changed and you’re going to run a bunch of. Traffic down our street with the city street and It’s going to destroy our property values. It’s going to destroy our quality of life. You’ve already diminished it. I mean, the noise, the, the speed of the traffic. I mean, it’s not 30 miles an hour or 35 miles an hour.

00:36:53,900	We have traffic going 50 or 60 miles an hour down Tyler. When you guys reconfigured the stop signs, it was awful. I mean, people run through there like it’s a racetrack. I tell people it’s Tyler Freeway. It’s not Tyler Parkway anymore.

00:37:11,530	You know, how are we supposed to be living safely on our, on, on, on this road. I get that. I kind of broke the rule on the clarification just with the homer charter cause we try not to engage when we hold it for the later on. Yep.

00:37:30,470	But I felt a necessity to talk about the home rule charter specifically, because there’s been a lot of discussion on multiple levels of government here locally. So I just mentioned it there. I have to, uh, hold the other comments for later, but I appreciate that and I’m gonna listen to everybody, so. I appreciate that. Anything else, commissioners? Thank you, sir. Yeah. Again, this is public comment.

00:37:48,270	Anyone who wished to speak, please come forward. On this is where I’m supposed to write my name in. Yes, I’m sorry. And I’m not sure if Mr. Dice signed in or not. I didn’t. Oh Sorry. My name’s Sean Schmidt. I also live on Tyler Parkway and. I can Agree with Mr. Dyce on pretty much everything.

00:38:24,400	Uh, the residents of Tyler Parkway are extremely concerned, and it feels like this thing has been fast tracked and our voices have not been listened to, um, they assembled the committee. I was one of the people who was on that committee. Objection to this project at that meeting was 90%.

00:38:42,630	There was a huge meeting up at Elk Ridge. The opposition to this project was well over 90% there. I don’t really completely. understand how We’re being told that this is You know, for our input and the overwhelming input is that this project not be.

00:39:04,570	Finished that this project not go through, but it appears that it’s, it’s, you know, going to your guys’s vote, and I hope you guys understand that too, that the, like the overwhelming um opinion on this project is that we don’t want it, and I don’t think if, if you guys lived on the street and saw what we did, you would understand why we have this

00:39:23,770	viewpoint and we don’t want this to go through. It’s a nightmare. The, the, the speed is not being enforced. Everybody’s. kind of afraid for our kids. Um, we have contacted the police department’s patrols, and radaring is not being done.

00:39:41,900	And it’s a genuine concern, and it’s only going to get worse when they, if, if the project goes through. That’s all I have to say thank you. Hi, my name is Lareenakkowicz. We live on Cogburn.

00:40:37,500	We built our house in 21, and when we were building, we noticed that, geez, the speed was really, really fast and the our street on Cogburn is very windy and so if two people are parked on both sides of the street and you want to go drive both directions. It is impossible because of the turns of the roadway. Um, I did contact the city and say, hey, our speeds are very very high, um, we have an elementary school that’s going to be going in.

00:40:57,670	Is there any way that we could get a speed limit sign stating that Cogburn is 25 miles an hour. They did put a sign up by the Pickleball courts, so people, I mean, the sign is there, but people do not drive 25. We have very, very fast traffic, um.

00:41:23,300	They, the school now being in, people are driving past our house to and from school, and many of the people probably lived down off a valley and they only have one way to get up to um Elkridge School. You go up Tyler, Del Rio, Del Rio is very fast traffic, then you get onto Cogburn to get up to the school.

00:41:40,870	You can either go on Tyler or Ivory to get to the school. There is no other way to get. to the school other than Cogburn. If Frisco Way would go through a different road would go through. There would be more artilleries in order to get through. Cogburn was never built to be a busy, busy street.

00:42:02,100	And we have truck traffic, everything just like cell on Tyler Parkway, but Cogburn is way busy, new houses, new construction, Elk Ridge 3 is going to be going in. There’s going to be more and more homes, and why should we have all the traffic on Cogburn going down to get to Tyler.

00:42:26,900	Thank you very much, Comm? Oh, I’m sorry. Thank you. I’ll try to keep this as brief as I can. Uh, thank you for allowing our opinions and voices to be heard with respect to the Tilli Parkway extension. I have resided at 3120 Tyler Parkway since ’98.

00:43:07,470	During the last 26 years, we have lived with the growth can I, can you state your name? Oh, I’m sorry, Greg Dean. Thank you. Sorry about that. During the last 26 years, we have lived with the growth of Northwest Bismarck. I have attended, I attended the meeting at Elk Ridge Elementary School in March.

00:43:27,670	For the record, I did not hear one positive comment regarding this project, and yet in your current report that I just read, the estimate was 40% positive and 60% negative. I think some of us can see where this train is headed. Bismarck’s Parks and Rec asked for public comment a few years ago about future recreational needs.

00:43:46,470	The number one issue raised from the public was green space and trails. Guess what? This road extension diminishes both. Off-road trails for walkers and bikers is cut into two parts. I know an access bridge under the road is planned, but that’s really not the point. It’s green space being removed.

00:44:06,130	The fact that a main artillery road is now planned to split an existing neighborhood. And I realized this is not this commission’s doing. If you go back 8 election cycles, that commission kicked the can down the road so the development that we currently have could go forward with no planned artillery roads.

00:44:27,470	We all know about the problems of North-south roads in Bismarck. It wasn’t you guys. I understand that, but it was poor planning from many, many cycles ago. None of the four artillery road upgrades from the half cent sales to have existing homes backing directly into the street from their driveways.

00:44:43,470	When we voted on this. And I understand the money has to be spent on this specific project. Nobody was thinking about. What we’re talking about now. Nobody was. Could this be why this is the last of 5 proposed road extensions to be completed.

00:45:04,400	I attended the master road plan update a few years ago and was assured by the planning and zoning Commission, we would have public discussion well in advance of any work on the Tyler extension being done. Gabe sat in that meeting. Define well in advance. This, this discussion should have been a year ago, maybe even 2 years ago.

00:45:27,370	The city is purchasing easements before the citizens could even discuss the merits of this road. I ask all of you commissioners and Gabe to look me in the eye and say that they, if they lived on my street. That you would 100% support this project.

00:45:47,100	Gabe, I ask you, is this prudent engineering design to bring a major artillery road through an existing neighborhood with small children playing next to the street. It eliminates green space to citizens of Bismarck deserve. It is projected to increase traffic on Tyler Parkway.

00:46:06,800	Many percent over in 10 years by Apex Engineering Calculations, all for what? So that drivers who live west of the bridge and all the way up to Hock Creek can access Bismarck 2 minutes quicker. Is that what this is all about convenience? I ask you, Comm, you have a chance to make the quality of life in Northwest Bismarck better for the long term future.

00:46:27,130	By rejecting this 12 to $15 million dollar taxpayer funded 4000 ft road extension. Is there no better place in Bismarck to spend $12 to $15 in this road. Are we doing this because we have the money? Now we have to spend it. Maybe we need Doge in Bismarck. Thank you for hearing me out and let your conscience be your guide when making this decision. Thank you.

00:47:00,000	My name’s Elizabeth Strathman. I live on Tyler Parkway. I’m not prepared to talk tonight. But after reading your mission statement, I think you’ll agree with me. Your mission statement says that you’re going to protect quality of life. In the city of Bismarck. Our quality of life has changed substantially. Since we bought our homes up there.

00:47:29,100	I’m one of the first ones up there. There were 5 homes in that whole subdivision. When I moved there And we moved there because it was quiet. It was supposed to remain quiet, and at that time, it was almost out of town. But then things changed and more traffic kept coming through.

00:47:50,730	And I know you think, well, gee, we have to have it, but it can’t be that dangerous. One night in the middle of winter. I was up cause I couldn’t sleep. And this was several years ago, probably 20 years ago, way before we have the traffic we have now, and it’s much faster now. I’m sitting in our couch down on the main level.

00:48:15,470	And all of a sudden my whole house shakes. I thought we were hit by a car in the front of our house. A girl came down Tyler Parkway. Making the turn just up the street, 2.5 blocks. Lost control and hit our tree out in front. It is dangerous.

00:48:41,100	That would have been during the day, I can assure you. A small child could have easily have been hit. It is dangerous to have the type of traffic that we have up there. Most of us.

00:49:01,100	Have a lot of our savings into our house and that’s what we’re going to retire on. Now since I’m older, I really realized that you really have to rely on that equity. I went through a death. Of my husband And even with the million dollars paid for by our insurance company.

00:49:20,830	I still had $200,000 that I had to pay out of my pocket. That took care of a lot of savings. And a lot of, I had an investment property. I had to sell it. I had to pay these people. Now I’ve got the equity in my house. And I’m gonna lose part of that equity.

00:49:45,670	Probably most of my equity if That extension goes through. I want you to understand how important it is for so many of you, I don’t know how many of you are from Tyler Parkway, but A lot of us, that’s where our money is. And as a realtor for 30 some years, I know.

00:50:08,100	That it’s going to affect our Values of our real estate substantially. You know, it has already because we have no quality when it comes to slow traffic going through. I agree with what everybody has said up here. People go. Easily 45 and 50 miles an hour. And when the schools get out, it’s worse. And we would need some help with that.

00:50:33,870	We don’t need more traffic coming through. More people perhaps losing control and coming up into our yards. And I’m gonna ask you the same question that the gentleman did before me. Would you want it in your front yard? And especially if you knew, let’s just use as a common denominator up there and it’s many are much higher.

00:50:56,130	Let’s say you have a $450,000 house. Many of them are much higher. My experience from trying to sell a home on a through street in Bismarck and one that isn’t on a through street.

00:51:18,770	Met that you were going to lose anywhere from 10 to 20% on your house if you had that same house someplace else in the city. You would get that much more for it. It’s not fair to us. We have purchased our homes. To live on a nice quiet street that is no longer quiet, but let’s at least keep it to the. How quiet it is now. It’s important to a whole lot of us.

00:51:38,370	I don’t know how many of you are of, um. Retirement age But when you turn around and sell your house. That equity might be what Helps us get into a nursing home. It might pay for the expenses that I had to pay for my husband.

00:51:58,130	My house was almost paid for at the time and I had to. I had to uh refinance. Because I owed it To the medical field that had kept him alive for a year to pay them. I’m not gonna walk away. That’s what North Dakota is all about. They’re good, honest people.

00:52:20,030	So I’m asking you to please do not put that extension through. Thank you. Thank you. Person This is public comment. Anyone who wish to speak, please come forward. me. My name is Alan Smetana. I am Lanel. Husband, not better half.

00:53:19,870	Um, a couple of areas here that my experience Leads me to think about things that haven’t been Really delved into. I lived in Montana for 2025 years. I drove almost every road in Montana, and you know they’re not level. I’ve driven 8% grades. I’ve driven 7% rates.

00:53:49,170	And When I saw that this was going to be a 78% grade here with people who’ve never Down a whole lot of mountain driving. And sitting to the northwest with the wind coming through. The snow coming through, the rain coming through, that is going to be a probably the most dangerous piece of road you have in this town because it’s 78% great and some of you’ve driven on, some of you’ve been in Montana,

00:54:07,500	you’ve driven down the slopes. If you’re not expecting it and you’re coming over there fast. It’s not gonna work, and I think you need to think about that, cause that is going to be a lifelong Problem That’s going to cause injuries and problems down the road.

00:54:27,200	The second thing that I would like to just throw out is We’re, we’re at 2931. We have a slope to our driveway. We back into the street. It’s difficult. And all down that street, you get on that hill and come down.

00:54:54,270	Everybody backs on a slope into the deal, into the street, and it’s dangerous for everybody driving and getting on and getting off, and, uh, I think, You should consider those things. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I have some, uh, Visual aids I’d like to show. Can somebody help me put it together the overhead projector before I start. I’ll write my name while I’m doing that. Awesome. It But way you There you go. Awesome.

00:55:46,730	My name is Ryan Warner. I’m a resident on Tyler Parkway. It’s been nice to see all the folks from Tyler Parkway come out tonight and make their voices heard.

00:56:01,670	It’s always great, uh, when we have an opportunity to address our elected officials and appreciate everyone’s time tonight, uh, taking our public comment. Uh Have some Thoughts on this, uh, proposal on Tyler Parkway. I’d love to, uh, run by everyone tonight. Now, it’s true that this, uh, Tyler Parkway extension has been discussed since the 1990s. Um, it’s important to to understand why it’s only been discussed, but not seriously pursued. And it’s pretty simple.

00:56:26,400	It’s because it’s incredibly expensive, relative to the actual length of road that gets built, and it provides limited benefits, mostly derived from traffic convenience. And it also comes with negative impacts, the kind that we’ve heard tonight, for the residents living in and around Tyler Parkway’s neighborhood. In short, the cost is high.

00:56:44,470	The benefits are small, and the negative impacts to those living along Tyler are plenty. Now the current budget estimates for Tyler Parkway extension, uh, have varied from about 10 to 12 million depending on the source. Historically speaking, these numbers have been steadily increasing. Back in 2020, in the Bismarck Manan Metropolitan Planning Organization’s long-range transportation plan called Arrive 2045.

00:57:07,170	The price for the extension was estimated at 5 million. Given these escalating estimates, the and also the complexity of constructing a roadway in a watershed. As well as the ongoing inflationary pressures that are hitting our economy right now.

00:57:28,300	It would not be surprising if this project, um, ends up costing north of 15 or or potentially $20 million when it’s all said and done. Now, where’s that money coming from? Uh, as most know, it’s coming from the halfcent road tax. Now, based on the numbers, um, provided by our city engineer during the May 2024 City Commission meeting, which I’ve got a visual aid up.

00:57:48,370	The city of Bismarck is currently at $10 million deficit between committed funds and collected revenue stemming from that road tax. In essence, the funds, the funds for this project have yet to be collected and are based on projected revenues in 2025 and 2026, and 2027. Currently, we’re in the middle of a global trade war. Uh, which is several leading economists predicting a potential economic recession.

00:58:10,200	As people tighten their belts in response to the recession, how confident are we that they will continue or that we will continue to collect $10 million per year from this half-cent sales tax that’s funding this uh proposed extension. Even before the trade war, Bismarck City’s sales tax revenue decreased from 2023 to 2024.

00:58:30,500	Given these uncertain times, good fiscal policy would be to entertain lower priced capital improvements, prioritizing and optimizing uh the current artilial road system that we have. Instead of undertaking an expensive and lengthy road extension with limited benefits to the community as a whole.

00:58:48,100	Later tonight, uh, we’re going to hear a report from Apex Engineering and the city engineering regarding the potential Tyler Parkway extension. This report is limited in scope. And does not address potential noise or pollution concerns from the extension. For those living along Tyler Parkway. Additionally, the traffic study is based on a proprietary third party data set that shows expected driving behavior changes.

00:59:10,630	Given the proprietary nature of the data set, there has been no effort to authenticate. The analysis or provide transparency to the public regarding the sufficiency of the projection. I think we have some grave concerns about whether this is an underestimate of what the traffic’s going to be if the extension goes through.

00:59:27,730	Secondarily, the analysis does not consider any effects of induced demand. Induced demand is a well established phenomenon in transportation planning. We’re building new road capacity often encourages more driving. And fails to provide increased convenience or relief to traffic congestion. Given these and other limitations to the current study.

00:59:49,470	I thought it would be helpful to return to a fuller study that was done in 2011.

00:59:57,770	Called the Northwest Bismarck in Northwest Bismarck. At the beginning of the study, the focus was on a dual corridor. This is where I’m gonna go to my 2nd visual aid.

01:00:26,370	OK At the beginning of the study, the focus was on a dual corridor, one that incorporated both the extension of Tyler Parkway, as well as a separate Tyler Coulee corridor that would run west of Tyler Parkway. You can see it here I’ve kind of outlined the one Tyler Parkway there is on the right. Talaco extension would be going through the Tyler Coulee there on the left.

01:00:41,570	During the study, the practicality of building a roadway in a watershed was questioned. And so the Tyler Coulee extension idea was not pursued. In essence, what was a cool, uh, a dual corridor became a single corridor. With increased traffic demand foisted on Tyler Parkway.

01:01:03,130	Recognizing this potential issue during the drafting of his report in 2010, Steve Grable of Oltech Engineering, the lead author of the Northwest Bismarck subarea study updated the Bismarck Mandan NPO about how how much this would impact Tyler Parkway. Here is what appears in the meeting minutes from the February 16, 2010 NPO board meeting, quote. Mr.

01:01:20,000	Grable used a visual aid map to describe primary efforts taking place in the last month of the study. He said that all corridors in this area are being analyzed in a full build-out scenario. He also explained that up until this study, the extension of Tyler Parkway had really been the primary focus for a future corridor.

01:01:37,200	However, in analyzing that extension, it becomes apparent that without coming down through the coolie option there on the left. The ADT or A daily traffic is about 333,000 through this very high access corridor.

01:01:58,770	He further stated that right now, it is a two-lane roadway with parking on both sides that travels through a residential area and the choices available to accommodate and move that amount of traffic, we’re not very desirable. He indicated the need for 6 to 7 lanes to move that volume of traffic. And as that is not a viable option, it leads to the realignment of Tyler Parkway. So that’s the context for tonight’s report. The realignment of Tyler Parkway.

01:02:19,730	From a residential collector street in a quiet neighborhood, which is how it was originally envisioned and developed in the 1980s into what would become a major arterial road with 33,000 cars worth of traffic per day. Now I know we still have a lot of people left here with something to say, so I’ll stop here and conclude with this.

01:02:36,500	Later when we hear the report regarding some of the impacts of the potential extension of Tyler Parkway. Uh, I urge this commission to ask for a full study of all of the impacts, including specifically noise and pollution impacts for those living along Tyler Parkway. And the traffic impacts of a full build-out scenario. Using transparent data sets and methodologies.

01:02:57,930	The only way to make a good public policy decision. is to have all the facts in front of us. And right now we only have partial understanding and until we get a fuller picture, I would urge this commission to take a pause on this decision. Thank you for your time. If you have any questions, I’ll take some now.

01:03:13,400	Thank you, sir. This is public comment. Anyone who wish to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Hearing and seeing no one else, public comment period’s now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes with regard to the consent agenda. I’ll move to approve.

01:03:59,500	I’ve, I’ve got one recommendation on the minutes. Oh, sorry. OK Solved, you want to pull the minutes? Sure, and then we can do the rest. I’ll hold a minute. OK. OK. OK. So your motions still. With the minutes pulled 2nd. OK. Any discussion He and I will call the roll on.

01:04:27,770	That portion of the consent agenda, and we’ll come back to the minutes. Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly? Yes. Comm Cleary, Comm Risch, Mayor Schmitz, yes. Comm Risch, we’ll let you address your comments on the amendments and then. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

01:04:53,370	The only thing I was going to suggest is we add something uh talk about the BNSF presentation and essentially said we received the presentation from BNSF on their construction of the bridge over by the walking trail and River Road. And, um, there was considerable discussion there, and I’d just like the minute to reflect that the commission was disappointed in the walking trail being removed for a two-year period and that the commission also, um, recommended that it be open,

01:05:11,470	kept open as much as possible, a better reflection of really what took place in the discussion. Yeah. Agree with that? Can Can we, Comm Mayor Comm, Comm, Comm Risch, I don’t know if that was a.

01:05:31,730	There was ever a consensus that we agreed, right? There could be some of us who did, some of us who didn’t, we can, I think factually, we can say that some members of the commission disagreed and, and that’s fine, um, but I don’t think there’s any type of consensus taken through through that presentation. Certainly we didn’t vote on anything and I’m, I’m acceptable with saying that some of the commissioners were concerned. I would have. OK.

01:05:52,630	Or can we just edit the minutes for that and then if we can take a motion for edited minutes approval. I’m make make a motion to approve the minutes as um edited by Comm Risch. Second. Any further discussion. Heal. Mr. Connelly? Yes. Comm Cleary? Yes, Comm Risch, Comm Zenker. Yes, Mayor Schmitz. Yes.

01:06:18,930	Moving to regular item, regular agenda item A, uh, consider a request to receive an annual report from the city of Bismarck Human Relations Committee, and Sergean or who’s who’s presenting? The 3 of us. Three of you, OK. Wonderful.

01:06:46,470	Uh, Mayor Commissioners, thank you for your time tonight and allowing us to present our 2024 annual report. My name is Tia Jorgensen and I had the privilege of serving as the chair for 2024.

01:07:05,200	Um, before we run through things, I really want to just, uh, express our gratitude to you, Mayor, uh, the commissioners for your continued support of our committee, uh, for the work that Comm Connelly has done as our portfolio holder and then of course, Jason, Doug, Whitney and Kaitlin. Uh, we know we are not a. Not demanding committee. So we just really much appreciate your time and commitment to the work that we do as well.

01:07:27,570	I’ll just provide some background initially, um, the mission of the Bismarck Human Relations Committees to create an atmosphere of inclusion, equality, and accessibility through education and outreach to recognize the value of a diverse community.

01:07:47,870	As a committee, we have 5 primary goals, which I’ll just Um, go over quickly here to exhibit leadership in the areas of civil and human rights to educate the public about civil and human rights, to identify issues of principal concern in the area of civil and human rights to recommend priorities and objectives about issues about issues of community concern to the city commission.

01:08:09,130	And to advocate for Compliance with federal and state laws regarding civil and human rights, including North Dakota Century Code chapters 14-02.4 and 14-02.5. Um, just for awareness for the public, uh, the committee was established on October 8th, 2002 from Bismarck Ordinances 5208.

01:08:40,130	Um, and as I stated, our purpose is to promote acceptance, respect for diversity through educational programs and activities and to discourage all forms of discrimination, including protected class discrimination, ADA violations, or other statutory or constitutional violations. Uh, one of the ways that we do this is through our support of organizations and events in the community. Um, we are appointed, uh, the committee in 2024 consisted of nine members who serve without pay.

01:09:01,730	We are appointed, um, by the President of the board of city commissioners and then were subject to confirmation. from the Board of Commissioners. Um, we serve a 3-year term. And, um, one thing that we will just start with really quickly here is, uh, hopefully you’ve seen it on public or social media that we are currently accepting applications for the 2024

01:09:23,000	humanitarian of the Year awards, um, in 2024 we awarded the 2023 Humanitarian of the Year Awards, um, for an individual, Micah Olson, who is an attorney for the North Dakota Protection and Advocacy Project, and he advocates for the needs of individuals. s with disabilities in the community.

01:09:47,530	And then we awarded Sanford Health as our organization, um, for their work in prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion since 2021 to expand initiatives that provide expand and scale lasting and meaningful impact to the employees, patients, and our community. With that, I am going to hand it over to, um, our new vice chair, Katie Wu. Thank you. Good evening, Katie Hall.

01:10:12,570	Um, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to Tia, um, for, um, serving as chair of our committee over the last year and spending a couple extra months with us as we went through a transition. Um, one more plug for humanitarian of the Year. Um, there’s two changes that we’ve made.

01:10:29,630	We have communications and, and nomination form open. Um, we’re moving it a little earlier in the year, um, because we’re recognizing humanitarians and change makers in our community from the last year.

01:10:46,670	Um, we’re also accepting nominations for youth, um, so we’re individual youth, adult, and organizations that I wanted to mention as well. So as, um, Tia talked about one of our main goals is to actively plan sponsor. participate in events that promote and celebrate diversity in our community.

01:11:04,370	Um, these community events are such an important way for us to engage with residents, um, talk about our mission, um, and, and really celebrate our community, uh, some of the events that we attended this last year included our Martin Luther King Junior, um, event that took place at uh, Trinity Lutheran Church, uh, celebrating his incredible legacy, um, we sponsored, promoted, and had a table at that event.

01:11:25,630	Another event um we attended, um, was, uh, families around the world that took place at the public library, um, connecting with children and families, um, engaging them in rock painting and other experiential activities and conversations, um, really supporting the goals of celebrating diverse community, uh, diverse families throughout, uh, Bismarck.

01:11:49,670	Another event, um, uh, that we participated in was, um, Capital Pride, which is an annual event, um, that happens to celebrate the LGBTQ 2S plus, uh, community. Um, we had a booth, um, and had that opportunity to speak and engage with residents, celebrate inclusion and diversity, um, in Bismarck. And another event, um, we’re pretty active, um, out there, um, we had a, uh, we sponsored and participated in the Juneteenth event, um, an event.

01:12:13,730	Um, that celebrated freedom and culture, and I was filled with learning and community spirit, um, a really great opportunity, um, as I’ve highlighted in Juneteenth and other events, um, to talk, talk to our residents, um, and celebrate, um, the mission of the Human Relations Committee.

01:12:30,570	Um, and I’ll turn it over to Sergeianna. I also would like to thank Tia for her service beyond a year. Um, I’m Sergeanawitsky and I’m the newly elected chair of the human relations Committee, um, just a few more things that we’ve done.

01:12:54,370	We also, there is a t with High Plains for housing that we participated in, um, they had an event that they showed the movie Evicted as well as there’s community leaders who talked and came together to discuss home ownership and the gap and other barriers with housing in our community. and committee members were able to visit with those attending that event and to talk about our committee.

01:13:15,100	One thing That we’ve done in the past year, which is new, is a community conversations forum, um, the community conversations forum is an opportunity for us to facilitate conversations about different adversities that many of our neighbors in the community face.

01:13:38,000	Each time we have the community conversations forum, we have a panel of subject matter experts addressing various issues in the community with the hopes of building an ongoing conversation with the city commission so after these community conversations, we come back to the city commission and report. Well, the information from the community conversations forum.

01:13:57,800	I’m in 2024, we had three events and the topics that were focused on in those events were being a diverse community accessibility and housing. And just for everyone to know our next community conversation is is May 8th and is actually gonna be in this room this time and it’s gonna be at 6 o’clock.

01:14:18,530	Um, we’re asked by the transportation steering committee to facilitate this community conversation in regards to transportation, um, as many of you know, there’s a half cent sales tax that was voted on and approved in November, and we will be having a discussion on different possibilities and what the public wants as far as that funding goes.

01:14:35,100	And what input the public sees as far as barriers and gaps as far as transportation goes. My favorite thing about being on the Bismarck human relations Committee is the podcast I get to host, um, these are your neighbors as a podcast that T and I host, um, we just aired episode 53 today, and, um, many of you sitting at that.

01:14:56,630	Table know very well about our podcast because you’ve been on it in the past 2 years we’ve hosted, um, Comm Cleary, Comm Risch, and Mayor Schmitz on the podcast and what the podcast is, it’s all encompassing for change makers in our community, people who make a difference in our community and encourage others in our community as well

01:15:15,730	to make a difference, um, our podcast airs on Dakota Media Access and radio access on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 10 a.m. and is on a bunch of streaming platforms as well, so I really encourage you to tune in to learn about the amazing people in our community, some being Paul

01:15:33,870	Redman is one of our guests coming up. She’s on the park board, um, we have Da Cop who’s been on it from the Downtowners, Renee Mack from, um, public health, and Jim Barnhart from the Dream Center. Those are just a few people who’ve been on our podcast, so we really encourage you to listen to that.

01:15:50,470	So as you can see, we had a jam-packed year and we are excited for 202. coming up, so I, we really encourage you though to think about those people in our community who make a difference and really nominate them for the humanitarian of the Year, so we have a plethora of people to

01:16:05,400	choose from, so thank you so much for letting us present tonight. Thank you. Any questions for him? Thanks, ladies. Next item B, consider. The request to receive presentation recommendations on Tyler Parkway extension project. And provide direction to staff. Gabe. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

01:16:48,770	Uh, the item, as you mentioned, is our Tyler Parkway proposal, uh, from West Century Avenue to Ash Coulee Drive, uh, the program for this evening will include Derek, uh, excuse me, Derek Anderson from Apex Engineering.

01:17:03,770	Do you have a presentation on the, the project what we’ve done so far, uh, we’ll have some input provided by our fire chief and our police chief, and then I’ll come back up at the end here, uh, to provide recommendations as well as then take any questions that you may have, um, so as you’re, if you, as, as we make our way through the presentation, if you have technical questions for Derek and any of the.

01:17:15,900	The subject matter that he’s referring to, uh, please interrupt him at that time, that’d be a good opportunity to, to ask those questions as we go so with that, um, here’s Derek.

01:17:36,830	Uh, I thank you, Mayor and Commissioners, um, as Gabe mentioned, I’m here to present on the Tyler Parkway Project, um, I’m Derek Anderson with Apex Engineering Group on the Project Manager. Um, talk a little bit about the project. Uh, most of you, uh, know about it. This project is broken up into two distinct uh portions, the extension portion.

01:17:55,000	is shown on the screen in orange, uh, essentially the extension of the roadway from Valley Drive up to Cogburn Road. Um, the secondary part of the project would be the study area from Century Avenue, uh, over to Ash Coulee Drive, uh, looking for improvements along that corridor.

01:18:19,370	Purpose and need of the project, uh, the, the purpose, uh, the need is essentially the pro the street proving improve the street and trail connectivity in Northwest Bismarck. Um, as the expansion and development continues to occur in North West Bismarck, the need of the roadway, uh, is getting larger.

01:18:44,130	Um, this project has long been supported, uh, in a multiple planning studies dating back to 1996 in the long term transportation plan as most recently, uh, mentioned in the last year’s update of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, um, along with that, uh, one key benefit of this project would be the, uh, improve the. emergency response time. Uh, in Northwest Bismarck. Getting into some of the traffic and and uh traffic data and some of the trends, um.

01:19:07,570	When we looked at this project, we, we, um, we try to identify how, um, the vehicles and, and, and were, were moving and so we, we obtained streetlight data, which essentially Uss cell phone data to find where these trips are generated from and where they’re going to, and so, um.

01:19:31,000	In essence We looked at trips generated in northwest part of the city, um, essentially, um, north, north of Century Avenue in West of Washington Street and trying to find those destinations that we’re heading down to the Tyler Parkway, Century Avenue intersection. Uh, what we found out was 95% of those trips that were being generated.

01:19:52,630	We’re currently utilizing Tyler Parkway, uh, essentially through Valley Driver Ash Coulee. Um, with this project, um, there would be an increase in traffic, um, there would be essentially a 5% increase some of those existing travel patterns that would now be routed onto the Tyler Parkway, uh, corridor. Here’s some traffic data, uh, essentially explaining some of the, the opening day traffic projections.

01:20:19,400	And so the numbers highlighted in in red essentially those are um the opening day traffic without the extension of the extension would not be built the those traffic numbers highlighted in blue would indicate the um traffic numbers with extension being built as you can see, um, if you look on the left of the screen, there

01:20:37,200	is an increase along Tyler Parkway with the extension being built, but what you also do see is on Long Valley Drive, there is a decrease, um, Of those traffic is those traffic, the traffic is getting redistributed off of Valley Drive and on to Tyler Parkway.

01:20:57,030	Um, in purple, you’ll see the 2050 ADT, that is uh number um through the NPO study, the, the long term plan, essentially what that takes into account is, uh, future developments, full development in Northwest Bismarck, uh, essentially that, that would be the traffic pattern that would come, um, down to the Parkway, uh, just note, as mentioned before, 95% of those trips are currently

01:21:21,400	utilizing Tyler Parkway, uh, with that extension. Likely a similar number of, um, uh, Increase in traffic would occur, um, along the corridor. With or without the extension. We did do some speed analysis along the corridor, uh, two locations south of Valley Drive, um.

01:21:43,930	The there’s a 25 mile an hour post the speed limits. What we found is 90, greater than 90% of the public is traveling uh higher than the posted speed limits and then uh by the school north of Cogburn Road.

01:22:04,730	Um, the 85th percentile speed is 42 miles an hour, so, um, you know, we did hear a lot of public comments about speed and speed concerns, and it was evident in in some of our findings also. Talk a little bit about the project alternatives, um, first, let’s talk about the Tyler Parkway extension. Um, for you today, there are two alternatives brought forward a no-build alternative. And the build alternative essentially uh the extension of Tyler Parkway from Valley Drive to Cogburn Road.

01:22:30,830	There’d be a 36 ft urban roadway. With a 10-foot shared use path, lighting, and earthen embankment across Tyler Coulee, um, with this alternative, there would be an, a sub-option.

01:22:53,200	Um, essentially, uh, we heard a lot of concerns and uh about some of the pedestrian usage in Tyler Coulee and so there would be a, uh, either an A grade crossing or an underpass, um, that would be an option for you to decide on today. Here’s a look at what this extension would, uh, would look like. Essentially, there’s an 8% growth or 8% grade, uh, going down, up and down Tyler Coulee.

01:23:16,200	This would be similar to an East divide, um, over there by 33rd, 35th, um, the recently constructed 43rd Avenue, um, Down by 16th Avenue, that that’s, uh, those are similar 7.5% to 8.5% grade, so it’d be similar to that, um.

01:23:38,100	Within that earthen embankment, we would have a large storm drain conveying all the storm water, uh, through the coolie, uh, we do, as you can see on the screen, there’s a potential location for the pedestrian underpass option, we would, uh, make sure that the connectivity of the trail system was intact with the project. There’s a shared use path on the west side of the roadway.

01:23:56,900	And then the lighting essentially would be, um. Would be extended all the way from Valley Drive all the way to Ash Coulee as part of this project, um, that would be, you know, everything else is kind of valley drive to Cogburn Road, um, but the lighting would be extended all the way to Ash Coulee.

01:24:15,470	Here’s a look at the typical section. Essentially it’s a 36 ft roadway, um, it’s a little bit narrower than normal uh two different reasons. One, there’s not a lot of access points along this corridor and the second is, um, by minimizing the width of the roadway, uh, we can help control the speed,

01:24:34,770	um, if, if, if there’s not a large wide roadway, people feel less comfortable and drive slower. Tyler Coulee, it has some geotechnical challenges, uh, in the very bottom of the coolie, there are some weak underlying soils, uh, with this project, we will treat those soils with rock aggregate peers,

01:24:59,270	um, before we add the embankment on top of it. We did look at alternative embankments for this project. Um, those were all ended up being cost prohibitive, um.

01:25:20,200	Essentially, at the end of the day, we, we chose the most cost effective option, which is utilizing the, the uh embankment that’s on site, uh, adjacent to the project is in uh in incorporated that as part of the project. Um, with that, there’d be, we would. Install the embankment year one, essentially, and then the roadway would be, we would allow that to settle over winter and then the following year, it would, we would pave the roadway.

01:25:47,870	Here’s a drone image of, uh, kind of looking to the east of, of Tyler Coulee. Uh, and essentially here’s a rendering of what this roadway would look like, um, this has a couple of options included on it, including the pedestrian underpass option, uh, that you could, uh, potentially select tonight.

01:26:09,200	uh, as you can see the trail connectivity is maintained through the Coie. Uh, we also have the option on the far right of the screen with the uh mini roundabout at the Valley Drive intersection. There was a couple of alternatives that were considered, but ultimately not incorporated. Um, we heard a lot of concerns about wildlife.

01:26:31,630	Um, while we did look at wildlife crossings, those are typically used on high-speed r r rural roadways, uh, not necessarily lower speed urban, the main, probably takeaway, um, for that is in order for that to function correctly, these, the animals need to be funneled to uh, to this point, uh, with that you’d have some high, high

01:26:54,170	fencing, the woven wire fence, you’d have to fence in the coolie, just wasn’t practical or feasible. And how that works with the trail connectivity, uh, would be very difficult.

01:27:15,530	Um The other alternative that was considered was a bridge that had a higher upfront cost, um, along with that there’s maintenance, maintenance concerns, inspections, uh, ultimately, um, there is a design life on, on bridges and they would ultimately have to be replaced. And so, um, that is not included as part of your package tonight. Environmental studies, uh, the wetland delineation was done, um, along the project corridor, um, any impacts to those wetlands will be mitigated.

01:27:41,000	There was a cultural resource, um, survey that was done as part of the project. Um, there was no findings in that report was submitted to Shipo. Um, there was a lot of concerns from the public about the noise.

01:27:59,800	Uh, we did take a look at that, uh, from a high level, um, the noise would be, uh, would, would increase but would be minor in nature. It did not, it was, I guess it was not even close to meeting any thresholds for mitigation. Um, and so it was not um proceeded any further, uh, mitigation, including noise walls are, are are very difficult in an urban setting also.

01:28:24,300	Talk a little bit about the traffic calming options. Uh, first, I want to talk about the area, essentially this is gonna be south of the Cooee now, first I wanna talk about West Century Avenue to Valley Drive. So with uh option 1A is essentially leave as is, um.

01:28:45,000	there were some concerns from the public about some of the, the speeding along the corridor and a lot of it has to do with the wide, wide roadway, um, there’s a essentially a 48 ft street, there’s on-street parking, but very. Few people actually park on the street, so it’s, it’s kind of a, a thoroughfare.

01:29:05,000	And so that’s option 1A was essentially leave it as is option. 1B would essentially convert that to a three-lane roadway. What that would do is, would constrict those lanes and give that narrowing effect and help control the speed along that corridor.

01:29:27,200	Parking would be maintained along this corridor with the exception of the area near the raised median that we would propose to install near just north of Montego Drive. Um So that’s option 1 B. Option 2A, um, this is gonna be very similar to 1A. We’re gonna leave it as a this option would leave it as a two-lane roadway. Uh, parking would be maintained.

01:29:52,370	Um, I’ll point out on this option and the next option we, we have visually shown option 3s and 4, those are intersection improvement options for the, the country West and Valley Drive intersections, uh, essentially there’s a, no improvement option. The mini or compact roundabout option or the raised median option.

01:30:15,470	So what with option 2B was to be similar to 1 be, essentially convert conversion to a three-lane roadway on street parking would be maintained with the exception near the median island, uh, near Canyon Drive. With this option, all three of those intersection options would be viable. Option 2c is a little bit different, um, with this option.

01:30:42,400	Uh, a raised median would be installed between Country West and Valley Drive with this option, the only intersection improvements that could be installed would be at the roundabout in order for um motorists to circle around and, and get to their desired destination.

01:31:05,570	Talked a little bit about option, the intersection options, so option 3 is that Country West, um, the no improvements would keep the stop condition on Country West and, and continue to keep Tyler Parkways through. Um, the compact or many roundabout and then there’s a median island option which would give, uh, a traffic calming effect in that near that intersection, which would also give pedestrians some refuge at that intersection.

01:31:30,570	Option 4 are the same three alternatives, um, no improvements, compact roundabout and then the median islands. Talk a little bit about the public engagement process. Um, we started our public engagement uh back in late November, early December. We started out with a public survey, uh, and released a story map for the project.

01:31:52,470	From that we, we got a lot of great information, um, we asked for volunteers to be part of the homeowner stakeholder committee, um, from, we had overwhelming response for that, so we had to kind of narrow that down, um. So We selected those that were potentially most impacted as part of the project to attend that homeowner meeting.

01:32:13,370	We selected people along Tyler Coulee and um and Tyler Parkway. From there we further uh after that meeting we further refined our alternatives and options and presented at the public input meeting last March, and we’re here today for, I guess direction from the commission on how to proceed.

01:32:35,130	Talk a little bit about that, that initial survey, there was uh over nearly 700 mailers were sent out to area residents. Uh, those are kind of keyed in on the Tyler Parkway, Tyler Coulee area.

01:32:53,630	Um, in addition to that, we, we did have a lot of uh social media blasts to try to promote everybody within Bismarck, uh, to take the survey. Um, we had some key takeaways, um, those were uh increased the traffic. There were some concerns over increased traffic, which you heard earlier. Um The, the speed was a concern along the corridor and then the safety.

01:33:17,000	Um, a couple, couple things that were probably, um, good to know about, especially about the people that use Tyler Cooee is there was a high usage within Tyler Coulee itself, um, which helped kind of refine some of our old alternatives going forward. And there was both support in opposition for the project.

01:33:39,730	public input, public input meeting was uh was well attended we had close to 120 individuals show up for the meeting. Uh, we did have 3. 3 commission members, uh, present. I appreciate that. Um, we, we sent to nearly 700 postcards, uh, those same people that were sent the original survey.

01:34:00,730	Um, once again, the multiple social medias, there was a fair amount of people that, that uh spoke at the meeting, um, in addition to that, we did have 47 written comments that were submitted in 208 uh online. Uh, responses to our survey and the survey was, um, essentially asking people what they would, they wish to, to choose for along the corridor.

01:34:24,130	All that information on all the public input is in your packet tonight in the public involvement Report. Just want to go over some of the, the, well, I guess goal for all the, the survey results from this last meeting or from this last survey.

01:34:46,000	Um, regarding the Tyler Parkway extension, which alternative do you prefer? Uh, it was nearly 50/50 with a slight edge to the no-build alternative A, uh, with 106 respondents. Uh, versus 102 for the alternative B. Um, of those, um, people that selected alternative B they had the option to to choose what. Um, what option they wanted as far as the crossing.

01:35:11,130	Uh, about 60% chose the underpass option, a couple key takeaways, I, I think we would be beneficial for the survey, um, 87% of respondents that lived a long Tyler Parkway selected alternative A. And 77% of respondents that live in Northwest Bismarck, essentially outside Tyler Parkway, um, selected alternative be so you can kind of see the contrasting viewpoints.

01:35:39,100	Um, getting into the, into the 4 options, um, option one, be slight majority, um, would prefer the three lane conversion. Um, option two, the build alternative, uh, slightly outweighs the, the no-build and the uh preference there would be a three-lane section.

01:36:06,530	Um, when it comes to option 3 and 4, I guess the majority, um, requested a mini roundabout be installed. Talk a little bit about the project costs. So the project costs, um, probably the, the number there includes, uh, you know, some of the public input meetings that was, um, just construction costs, um, this, this cost is, is an all in.

01:36:28,570	This is, um, right away engineering utilities, construction costs, um, in that 14 to $16.5 million dollar range depending on How, uh, what is, um, chosen tonight. The Tyler Parkway extensions right around that 14 to 14.

01:36:53,200	5, uh, then depending upon what options are chosen, um, as you can see on the screen, anywhere from 0 to $2 million if if everything is included, uh, reminder that the, the fund, this is funded by the half cent sales tax, which was mentioned before. Uh, there will be no special assessments to adjacent property owners as part of the project.

01:37:12,200	Project schedule, we’re at uh bullet point number 4 right now, we’re in that concept approval, uh, depending on the wishes of the commission tonight, um. We would uh go to work and work on final design, ultimately having a uh plans ready for bid in November, start construction early next year, um, as far as the embankment would be uh placed next year in the roadway would be built the year after.

01:37:38,000	With that, I’m gonna hand it over to Gabe and he’s gonna talk a little bit more about some of the recommendations. Um, Mayor Commissioners, I just want to let you know we did hold a staff meeting with various departments that are affected or could be affected by this, and, and through that

01:37:56,170	conversation, um, it was, I guess recommended that we, uh, bring up those departments, uh, in particular the law enforcement and fire that can speak on their own behalf and not necessarily have it through our consultants, uh, viewpoint or through mine, so, um, with that I think I’ll have Joel

01:38:10,930	base flu our chief base flu of fire chief come up first. Mayor and Commissioners, good evening. Out of full respect for all of the input, my, my comments are just simply limited to. The fire response into this area. And the the facts that would be before us.

01:38:39,270	So Speaking to the emergency response, this connectivity would be advantageous to us and the people we serve. I believe it would cut off 3 to 4 minutes as we get into an area. So we always look at how can we improve service and any time we can connect a street networks such as on Century Avenue connecting over to 52nd.

01:38:58,470	That over to Gold Avenue, that allows us Much better access into the lower part of Silver Ranch. So these are things that we look forward to in order to better serve our customers.

01:39:17,830	Um, I don’t know a lot about the raised medians that I’d like to work with Gabe some more to learn more, but I, I’m wondering if that would obstruct some of our abilities through here. Maybe, maybe not, but that’s one thing I would have to. dig more into. I should mention sirens sometimes uh we, we hear the sirens and what our intent is, is that we don’t use them when they’re not needed.

01:39:37,000	It’s the middle of the night, there’s no need for that. There’s sometimes needed, but we’d like to be respectful to the persons that are in a corridor or any corridor or any street that we’re traveling through.

01:39:55,670	So in summary, yes, this would connect our Tyler Parkway Station, which is on entry and Tyler Parkway up to the northwest. It would be an advantage, obviously. Any questions? Thanks, Joe. Good evening, Mayor of Commissioners. Um, I really don’t have anything to add to what the fire chief just said. It’s the same thing for us.

01:40:23,000	It’s just to be able to respond more quickly to those that are going to need us so and this gives us a more direct role to be able to do that. I have 11 question for you chief. um, just in reflecting on the like options, not with the extension, but with the existing section of Tyler Parkway that they’re talking about.

01:40:40,530	We hear so many people talk about speed, uh, you and I have talked about speed up there. We’ve, we’ve listened to them. Is there one of those slowing options that you view better. I know the engineers all have their, their input, but I’m just curious.

01:40:58,100	Yeah, that’s, I don’t know that I want to go against what they, what they’ve studied and everything. Sure. Um. It sometimes it does seem to me that when things are not as wide open, people tend to go a little bit slower because I, I got, to be honest with you, I get on West Century as soon as I look down, I’m doing 45

01:41:11,030	because it’s just wide open 5 lane road and it, so maybe if you can pack things, I think that kind of makes sense to me. Sure, OK, thank you. So the last couple slides that we have here today are for decisions.

01:41:31,630	Uh, so this is what we would like, um, some feedback on, um, with the direction that we’re on currently, if you’d like a different direction, this is really the opportunity for the board to, to take all the information that you’ve heard so far, uh, that we’ve prepared and that you’ve received directly from the public to, to

01:41:44,470	move forward in whatever way that you, you desire. So, on, on the screen that we have here as well as in the agenda packet. I put what would be our staff recommendation or engineering’s recommendation for which alternatives to pursue, um, if you agree with those, then we’ll proceed in that manner if

01:41:58,470	you would like, um, other options to be considered or, uh, any, any other direction, we’d also take that at this time. So, first question is, do you concur with the project concepts as proposed, we’d recommend yes there, um, second question is what alternatives should be uh should proceed

01:42:13,470	with the project. Uh, we have the alternative of the no build, and then we have the alternative of. Extending Tyler Parkway, uh, from Valley Drive to Cogburn, uh, through all, all the, the, the stuff that’s up there in terms of the components that we’re referring to, um, and it would be my

01:42:28,270	recommendation to choose alternative B for this project. Um, if alternative B is selected, uh, I would recommend that we install that, uh, pedestrian underpass, uh, to promote the continued utilization of that trail network by those members of the public that don’t want to cross that grade and just want to stay in, in the coolly, you

01:42:47,470	know, network itself, uh, as we move on to the options. These options were the traffic calming options that we had discussed or that Derek had mentioned earlier.

01:43:02,000	So option one was the traffic calming between Century Avenue and Country West Road, um, I would recommend that we, we put our three lane section out there, put a raised median between Montego and Santa Gertrude’s loop, uh, in an order to slow low speeds as well as we, um, can, uh, with, with the improvements that we have listed here. So I’d choose option or I’d recommend option 1B there.

01:43:17,630	As we look at option 2, which traffic calming plan should be implemented between Country West Road and Valley Drive. Uh, here’s kind of the, the, the spectrum that we gave here was on the, the far end is do nothing.

01:43:32,800	On the other far end is is a treatment that we believe would slow traffic down, but it comes with some, some trade-offs with that option to see, uh, the raised landscape medium because we would have to remove parking so that vehicles. would go slow, um, that’s not something that I would recommend that we pursue with this project.

01:43:50,730	So I would recommend here option 2B, which is that pavement marking with the three lane section and a raised median pedestrian crossing at Canyon Drive with maintaining on street parking, uh, except near the median. And the last slide that we have today is what intersection improvements should be implemented. Uh, this is a scenario that also we can give the, the, the do nothing, keep the stop signs the way they are.

01:44:05,500	Uh, we do have guidance, um, in, in the federal manual of uniform traffic control devices that we should not be putting stop signs up in places where they’re not warranted, and there’s some latitude that’s granted in in these documents and other times it’s more of a shal statement and that is

01:44:19,930	definitely a shall statement to say don’t do that. That’s not good traffic calming, um, procedures, and that’s nationwide so we’re trying to follow those guide. lines, uh, but so that’s why we wouldn’t, we don’t even give you the option of an all-way stop.

01:44:33,870	There’s, it’s not something that we considered or should say it’s something we considered, um, but then discounted because it did not meet those standards, but we would recommend that both of these, uh, intersections of both Country West Road as well as Valley Drive to implement a mini roundabout in order to slow traffic down to proceed through that uh mini roundabout slower. It also has some operational benefits.

01:44:52,400	By allowing any traffic that might be on the side streets of Country West Road, uh, as well as or Country West, uh, road and Valley Drive, uh, to gain access onto Tyler Parkway as well.

01:45:08,400	So it kind of kills a couple of birds with one stone, um, in those scenarios, but this would be once again a mini roundabouts would not be the full scale type roundabout. There’s limited right of way, um, to places we’d have to find that, uh, type of design that still allows a fire truck to go through it if they need to, a school bus to go through it, um,

01:45:20,830	if they need to, um, even a. for that matter, to go through these intersections, uh, they might have to use more of that truck apron in in order to do so, but it does have a a traffic calming benefit for all those normal pickup trucks, cars, SUVs, etc. that the daily drivers use.

01:45:36,770	So with that I take any questions that you may have on the project, the anything we’ve done and go from there. Comm Risch, I just have a question about the increased traffic.

01:45:56,570	Uh, your engineer said just a few percentage points on one of the members of the public said it could go up as high as 30, 40% or 30,000 cars a day. What, what, what are your thoughts on the increased traffic is this, if this is built. Mayor Comm Risch, uh, fellow commissioners, anytime we do a traffic plan or study, uh, we, we take a look at what attractants are there, so the development that could occur, um, those.

01:46:14,830	Types of developments could be houses, could be businesses, whatever it is, we will generate trips. We’ll use the land use plan that’s current at that point in time, and then understand how much develops in that horizon. So that’s kind of the, the basis of this.

01:46:31,730	So our current plan in 2024, the Metropolitan Transportation Plan takes into account all of the concepts and plans and provisions that you have in your comprehensive plan of where we think we’re going to develop, what’s in our urban service area boundary. What does this community look like by 2050 and implements that.

01:46:46,170	integrates that all into a transportation plan that says, here’s a 1 acre of residential development, it’s going to generate 10 number of trips. Let’s figure out where those trips need to go by the network, by, by connecting this, this network up.

01:47:02,200	So, I’m much more trust in the accuracy of the projection that we’d have today with today’s assumptions. When we go back into 2011, um, that, I can’t speak specifically to win the land use plan was updated, but the flood that we’ve had, uh, changed our whole outlook on Northwest Bismarck.

01:47:18,000	It previously we looked at all the area below River Road as prime real estate for the city of Bismarck to develop and grow into. It was only until after the flood. that we really changed that position and changed a lot of that future land use to be a rural in nature that doesn’t generate as much traffic.

01:47:32,200	So we’re seeing the differences likely because of the density that we would have expected, um, I should say even in that 2011 plan, um, it would have included full development of the Claremont Family Conservation Park.

01:47:47,230	That would have been apartments, that’s what it was zoned for or, or programmed for at the time in 2011, we all know that that’s not going to happen. It’s going to be a green space, I guess forevermore. So we try to take all of the, the current situation and the current understandings.

01:48:00,870	Um, and place that in our plan and so I would just have more trust in our current plan than we would on the 2011 plan or the 1996 plan or the 1950 plan, you just lose the accuracy the further back you go. Other questions? Not at the moment anyway. You might not be off the hook. OK. Take any, I guess take direction, um. Our recommendation would be to approve as presented, uh, take any other questions you may have. OK.

01:48:34,530	Commissioners Go ahead, Comm Singer. Mayor Commissioners, I mean, it’s my portfolio, so I’m. Been well entrenched in this. process Um I do, I do appreciate the comments from the public, um, and I’m sure if the chief had his ways, uh, we probably have more police staff out there to take care of the speeders

01:48:55,530	because they’re not just on Tyler Parkway, they’re not, they’re not just divided century. Um, I mean, just the other day, I was pulling out of Uh, the Hay Creek shops onto, uh, State Street or 83, whatever you want to call it. Gentleman in a, well, I think it was a gentleman.

01:49:11,630	I’ll just use, it was a yellow motorcycle, um, they were in the straight lane before I knew it. They were in front of me taking a right, dropped the hammer and went up State Street type thing and then, and then sped off. Um, unfortunately, the only way to control speeding Comm Cleary is the person behind the wheel.

01:49:30,000	That’s the, that’s the only way. Um, we can, we can advocate to, to, um, for not to have speeders and those types of things, but unless you’re controlling that vehicle and And making sure you’re driving safely, um, it’s just not gonna happen.

01:49:50,370	I mean, I’ve been hawked at before going past Bismarck High driving 25 because people are going past me 30, 35, 40 miles an hour. So I appreciate those comments and I understand those comments, and they are real because it, it does happen.

01:50:08,570	Um, the calming effects that are here, uh, when Gabe and I sat down, I, uh, wholeheartedly support them, um, every roundabout that we’ve added to our, uh, network of streets has calmed uh traffic. I’ll use the second leg of 43rd as an example. We, um, of course, maybe none of you were here, but I was here. um, we had a, we had a long discussion about traffic signals and those types of things.

01:50:28,770	Well, the war, it wasn’t warranted to put a traffic signal up, so we went with the option of roundabouts, and I drive 43rd a lot, um, as I navigate my work life, and they do. They, it, it does slow down, um, traffic.

01:50:45,900	The, the one that we added on, on 19th and, and, uh, Calgary. Some people seem to maybe cut that a little bit too short, but it does do the same thing, and there’s a lot of residents, um, that are east of east of 19th that are happy that that was put in.

01:51:02,900	They were really excited when the Fourway stop finally went in, but there were, they were very excited, uh, when the, when the roundabout went in. So it does serve its purpose. It, it, it does do what we needed to do, um. I understand the the concern from the, from the people on Tyler Parkway, but we also have to um take into consideration the rest of the city.

01:51:25,470	Um They’re, they’re concern is, is valid, but this is a street and, and one of the gentlemen acknowledged it, right? It goes back multiple commissions about going north and south within the city. And it’s the, it’s the most frustrating thing, and we’re going to have a tough construction.

01:51:41,300	Season this year going north and south because one of our critical paths, um, is getting a new, um, bridge because of the construction on 984, right, which puts even more pressure on 9th and 7th and State Street and and those types of things. So, um, that’s what I have for comments.

01:52:02,200	I’ll let the rest of you comment if you want, um. But This is a project that is critical for us for for the city of Bismarck. Comm Connelly. Thank you, Mayor Commissioners Gabe, um.

01:52:35,270	This is probably one of the most significant corridors I’ve spent my last 10 years having a conversation about And A lot of it’s under When I was more of a citizen advocate. I’ve knocked on a lot of doors in this community. I’ve talked to a lot of people. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people along the corridor.

01:52:55,030	And then that I was even in meetings with, um, stakeholders between developers and citizens and one of the conversations that did come up a lot. They knew it would be more expensive was the access of nature up and down to provide opportunity for green space. When projects go in new, you only have one opportunity to take that swing and make it. Something special.

01:53:19,270	I agree with the citizens in that area to where um that coolie is very unique. It’s very dynamic, um. The overgone century, although um there’s been significant engineering mistakes with that bridge that’s plenty of meetings in that. A lot of people really like that corridor underneath. It allows an opportunity for nature.

01:53:44,730	It connects um parks and golf courses and a lot of um multiple functions that coincide with both parks and neighborhood spaces. Um, by just putting an embankment there, even with just a pedestrian, um. Like at the meeting where you shared, nature will find its own way around. It will.

01:54:04,530	We all know that at the same time, how can we create it more special to where it can stay within where it’s roamed this entire time. It’s going to be a development. We need to expand. I have heard from people all over town and some of the comments I’ve heard are, why should one neighborhood hold the rest of the community’s growth hostage.

01:54:23,130	Now I don’t know if that is the case or it’s not. But it’s a valid comment. They deserve just as much credibility as the people that live in that neighborhood. Um, as far as values of homes, I’ve been here since 1991.

01:54:42,400	The only area that I’ve ever heard within our greater area to where, um, values of homes are significantly impacted. It was long Chick Lane, which is out in the county, and they have, um, chemical problems that they’re 3/4 of a million dollar houses are barely worth 200,000 because of the sediments in the soil.

01:55:02,830	Outside of that, I have not seen like when purchasing, looking at repos to purchase that you’d think there would be a large difference. People buying nearly what the cost of an actual home is. In order to um Gain that extra value of making those investments. I don’t see the valuation impacts. It is part of every single conversation that has come up. I’ve watched.

01:55:25,730	Meetings after meetings, whether it’s county, whether it’s city traffic like Comm Zanker said, um, It’s, that’s part of the topics. I, um, And safety your kids and. It’s a lot to consider. There’s a lot on the map, property values. I have not seen or witnessed significant properties decreasing.

01:55:50,730	And it comes up a lot, um. Yeah, there’s even one project that I can’t remember is on this meeting or it could be coming up about, uh, uh, one resident talking about kids playing um along the 83 and 40 or 57th corridor. I don’t know how to wrap my mind around that. And that, so, but um.

01:56:21,130	The Comm Zenker mentioned the 19th roundabout. I do like roundabouts. When I first went and people were using that like a functioning roundabout, it was working well. I don’t think the We need to work with the elevation a little bit.

01:56:38,300	There are people blowing past it, and it’s a race to see who can get in that area first. Before they just go straight through, and they’re not, they’re not using it as a functional roundabout. Some people are, not all of them. Um, the neighborhood in that area because I’ve knocked on those doors, they do like the roundabout better than the four-way stop.

01:56:54,900	Um, it does move traffic. Um, so, Uh, for the corridor, um, 3 lane country Western Valley with a higher raise on roundabouts, I would be, um, And the raised median to do what we can to slow traffic. Um, I would also, uh, I guess this would be a question game.

01:57:18,870	Flashing pedestrian lights at Country West. And even Valley. Is that something that can be added into the mix. Uh, Mayor and Comm, Comm Connelly, I guess at this point in time, we, we didn’t identify every single component that we would consider, uh, we want.

01:57:40,530	To reserve the use of our rectangular rapid flash beacons in particular at at locations where they have the most benefit and where it’s most apparent that there’s a conflict with the pedestrian and that vehicle.

01:57:59,930	Usually we’ve reserved that for multi-lane facilities where the the inside lane might be yielding to a pedestrian they see, but that outside lane doesn’t know that that’s happening, so this rectangular rapid flash beacon allows for that communication to occur, um, to, to alert the drivers of that pedestrian in the, in the crosswalk.

01:58:15,930	Soccer About to be in the crosswalk, um, we’ve used it on higher speed facilities and we’ve also then used it in areas where school traffic is there, um, so at this point in time it’s probably not something that we’ve identified that we’d want to put it here, um, based on not overusing it, but I wouldn’t let that be, to be the, the component that, um, loses the support for what we’re doing.

01:58:29,370	So it’s something we would consider, but at this point in time, it’s probably not something that we are proposing as part of this build alternative. Um Appreciate that. Thank you. Um, three-way, I just, I just think the Access of a turn lane, I mean.

01:58:54,870	The changes on South Washington and seeing how many people, um, Drive excessively and where you get that protected space for turning, I think that portion is vital, um, switching over to um the communication side of things.

01:59:18,370	It’s been a, uh, Communication’s been a big concern of a lot of people of how the city communicates and over the years, the avenues by where we try to reach out to the community and even efforts to improve that have gone up significantly and we have data to show that, um, People have at least opened up a website and those type of things, um, at the same time when this came up last fall and I talked about that as far as, um, Community input and things.

01:59:40,300	I haven’t told whether it’s the East Century Project, whether it’s the South Washington project or a lot of things. Well, we’re just doing this right now, and that’ll come later. Well, in all three cases that later is a one and done public input meeting. And even at last meeting.

01:59:59,030	Asked if we could postpone it and, um, until after all those, so we’re taking it serious look at all the comments. And It was crickets. And that I don’t like when we dismiss citizens. It really rubs me around. And Offered options on how to get over that and very frustrating. Very frustrated.

02:00:34,130	Um So During the public input meeting and just like the video, the thing, it wasn’t. It wasn’t included in the packet, but we’re showing it here. Although if citizens and developers are talking about. A nature corridor regardless of cost. It seems like it’s almost like Lucy holding the football.

02:00:55,530	Here you go. We were talking about it, OK, no, we pulled it away. So, it goes fine. I. It’s frustrating. So I don’t know, uh, this is probably or could be close to the last project, um, on the half cent.

02:01:24,370	Um I’d like to see more development on consideration for a pedestrian nature bridge or nature space, even if you had to build fencing or the bridge, the rendering up there, it was obvious. It’s an interstate overpass. It’s really not, everything else is built into what Tyler Parker looks like. And on that, it’s almost like, uh, we’ll just throw this up there, carry on.

02:01:41,000	I, I don’t like So Those are some of the considerations that I and It’s unfortunate, but fortunate. That this is when that discussion happens, but there’s a lot to unpack still. Other comments, Commissioners. Mr Risch. Mr.

02:02:07,030	Mayor Comm gave a, what we do know that we have trouble with moving traffic around the city or getting more and more traffic. And what we do know if this is built, the people on Tyler Parkway will get more traffic. There’s no question about that. And what we do know was in 2018, the voters actually approved the sales tax, including Tyler Parkway.

02:02:23,200	Those are the things we do know. It’s a tough decision. I’ve met with some of these people several weeks ago and talked about the issues they have and they’re. They’re sincere. They’re going to have a lot more traffic by their homes, but currently, that traffic is going into other residential neighborhood streets, um, Because we haven’t got Tyler Parkway connected.

02:02:46,100	So You know, my thoughts are that, you know, this is, this has been on the drawing board for about 30 years. Um, I think it’s Pretty necessary.

02:03:11,870	We we do something to have a better connection from the North Down south, even if it does cause some hardships, uh, more traffic and these folks are Commissioners, what are your Mayor Commissioners, I’ll make a motion to approve as presented. Second Do we have further discussion? Comm Risch, I wanted to make one other comment. Uh, the game of fish department is trying to put in more ponds, community ponds in the state.

02:03:32,730	In fact, great power from the game and fish department is his last podcast talked about it. And I know we’re going to be dealing with drainage and whatnot. And um If this goes forward, perhaps we could do a community pond, game and fish department.

02:03:49,030	Provided they’d stocked the pond with fish, so children in the neighborhood have a place to go fishing because it’s a really good thing. We have one in Cottonwood Lake in South Bismarck. We got one in Gabe Pond over there at the game and fish department and it’s a, it’s kind of a hoot thing for children to go fishing.

02:04:02,530	I take my little great nephews to these ponds. Any other discussion. You’re done we call roll. Comm Cleary? Yes, Comm Risch, Yes. Comm Zenker. Yes. Comm Connelly? Yes. Schmitz. Yes. Motion carries. Next item. See. Uh, here, hearing on an appeal for zoning map amendment ZC 204-008 associated with misty waters, Misty waters, 1st 3 platin, Mr. Waters, secondary, Ben. Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

02:04:45,300	Let me just Switch over my computer here. I’ve got a map online that may help with some of the discussion as well. That all, that all, ah. us at some point. OK, thank you, Mayor. Uh, as the Mayor noted, uh, the community development department is appealing the denial.

02:05:15,000	Of a zoning map amendment associated with Project ZC 2024-008. Uh, the property is located, uh, in, uh, the property is located in Northwest Bismarck, or, excuse me, northwest of Bismarck, West of River Road, and adjacent to the west side of, uh, the North-South running portion of Burt Creek Loop. Uh, project area is comprised of 151.

02:05:44,470	4 acres, uh, within 120 parcels in 4 blocks, uh, future land use associated with the proposal is rural residential, and the existing zoning is a PUD or planned unit development. And essentially what this initial proposal was, and I’ll go into a little bit more detail here.

02:06:05,870	But it was to replace a PUD with, with another PUD with the primary change, uh, being the rear yard setback. For, uh, and I’ll, I’ll go into detail on which lots are impacted, uh, but it would be block 1, lots 5 through 12. 14 through 1618 through 25, 27 through 29, 31 through 38.

02:06:32,870	40 to 55, 57 through 62, 64 through 8083 of Misty waters subdivision. As well as block one, lots 1 through 3, misty waters first relatte, uh, which is represented in a surveyor’s affidavit.

02:06:53,770	This is uh an excerpt from that surveyor’s affidavit that you see on the screen, uh, which is in your packets, and it generally is consistent with the interior, what I’ll refer to as the interior edge. Of an existing stormwater and drainage easement that runs, uh, adjacent to, to the bay essentially between the bay and Misty waters and the Homes in Misty waters. In addition, um, Block 1 lot 3 of Misty Waters first. Which is essentially this lot right here.

02:07:16,370	Um, uh, a 50 ft setback. From the property line was identified as the stormwater and drainage easement on the lot, uh, did not coincide with, with the, uh, or did not, did not actually cross the lot.

02:07:38,100	Other changes, uh, that are, I would say are more minor and probably more clerical in nature, um, one of those changes would be the conformance, uh, uh, or a reference to residential building types that Holmes uh or structures must meet, um, staff does not actually have access to this.

02:07:58,570	Document that was referenced, uh, I think from, from early on in the, in the PUD um to my knowledge, we’ve, we’ve we’ve never had access to it or we’re not aware that we ever have. Uh, reference to specific number of single and two-family building types, um, As the much of the area or certain portions of the area have been replatted multiple times in the originally identified lock configurations, no, no longer exist to support the, the

02:08:20,270	specific number of single and two family dwellings. Uh, and then reference to a lot modification process, uh, in Bismarck’s. Uh, and we’re recommending eliminating that from the, the PUD as Bismarck’s zoning ordinance already outlines the, the exact same process in Title 14.

02:08:48,770	Uh, the requested action considers whether the consider the requested action tonight actually considers whether to uphold the the final decision of the Bismarck planning and zoning Commission. Who did not approve uh the proposed zoning map amendment or whether to overturn that decision and hold a public hearing at a, at a future date. Um, I did want to, there were, um, 5 members of the public that spoke.

02:09:09,800	Uh, the planning and zoning Commission I should reiterate, did host a public hearing on this site on March 26th of this year. There were 5 members of the public who did get up and speak on the item, 3 members.

02:09:29,370	Uh, we’re supportive of the change to members were in opposition to the change of those who got up and spoke. Um If you’ll permit me, I, I generally kind of outline what some of the concerns are, especially from the opposing parties.

02:09:46,730	So if you’ll permit me, I’ll kind of identify what those are and some of those are actually in the question of a, of a are actually in the form of a question, and I can You may have some of these same questions or, or concerns, so I can provide at least staff levels response to some of these, these questions, so I’ll walk through, through these questions that were raised, uh, one of the questions is why is the setback being changed at

02:10:04,400	all, um. Staff response, a variety of lots are, are out of compliance with the setback. Uh, in 2024, the rear yard setback, uh, for some of the lots out of compliance, which included lots 30 to 36 and 38 to 39. Of B block one in Misty Waters subdivision were amended.

02:10:29,930	To align with the interior edge of, so it would be essentially this, oh, I’m sorry, you can’t see my pointer. See if you can OK. So it would essentially be associated with this cul-de-sac here.

02:10:54,130	And so currently, uh, a variety of these lots with the exception of lot 37, uh, their setback was changed to the thick black line, and I should have noted that the thick black line on this image on your screen. Uh, essentially represents that interior edge of the, the 20 ft drainage easement that runs adjacent to the bay. And following that.

02:11:16,930	Action, direction was sought and and provided by you all to identify essentially a new rear yard setback line for all lots adjacent to the bay and misty waters. As you recall, uh, some of you may recall that the current setback line is a 2000 or 2005 letter map revision line that was established.

02:11:39,630	Um, there was a concern raised over the ability to regulate uh the setback, whether regardless of what it is, whether it’s the 2005 letter of map revision line or whether some new setback is identified. Um, I can speak to our current process and how we, uh, review, uh, homes or structures as they’re developed out here.

02:12:00,130	Um, we do require uh a lot survey, and as part of that lot survey, we, we have been requiring, um, for the past 4 years at least that the The current setback of the 2005 Lomar line be identified in there on that lot survey, um, if that, if that rear yard setback were changed.

02:12:21,300	I anticipate we would also require if it were, say for instance, what is being proposed. Here with the interior edge of the lot line, we would require that interior edge, that lot line be identified, as well as any easements on the property so we can ensure That were reviewing, uh, the appropriate material, um.

02:12:45,900	There’s a question about how many lots are noncompliant structures or built over the 2005 letter of map revision line. With this change, um, I’ll note that the, the lots in question whose rear yard property line would be proposed to change would be a total of 76 slots of those 76 slots, there’s between 5 and 10 lots that would remain noncompliant.

02:13:15,470	Um, and why I say between 5 and 10, we know of at least 5, last summer we sent out, uh, or actually last spring. early early spring, uh, um. We sent out letters, uh, we did a visual analysis using that 2005 Lomar line identifying Homes that might be right on that line or just over, um, the GIS data that we have, although helpful, is not necessarily

02:13:40,630	survey quality data, so we weren’t sure if it was actually Uh, compliant or not, and so there are about 17 properties that we identified that may be in question.

02:13:59,830	Um, of those 17 properties, um, we have confirmed whether they’re either over that line because we went out and they allowed us to survey that property or they did a survey themselves. Um, or, or not compliant, there were Roughly I, I guess 5 of those 17 property owners who, um, we just didn’t get a response from after a few times.

02:14:27,800	Contacting and frankly once we got the direction to move forward with establishing a new, uh, setback line out there. I, I didn’t pursue it. I thought it was a moot point at that point, so it could be up to 10 lots.

02:14:46,870	Um, there was a question if FEMA had been notified of the proposed rear yard setback change, um, and just so you’re aware, the letter of map revision is not typical or typically used as a setback. It’s, it’s used. Uh, as a, as a way to basically uh modify a map to remove a property from being in the flood plain.

02:15:10,470	And so FEMA, from FEMA’s perspective, they don’t regulate rear yard setbacks, uh, I, I do believe at least some of their staff is aware of this setback issue, but it’s not within their purview or their jurisdiction to regulate whatever the setback line is, uh, in misty waters. There’s a question as to what is the lot coverage for residential lots out in misty waters. I think this was in reference to lots adjacent to the bay.

02:15:29,030	Um, and generally it would be 30% lot coverage for single-family homes and 40% for multi-family homes, according to the PUD. Uh, does the city of Bismarck have the authority to initiate a zoning change. The answer to that is yes, Title 14 allows the city to initiate a zoning change of this nature.

02:15:51,400	Uh, can known violations be grandfathered in. Uh, no, unfortunately our current Title 14 does not allow that, but it does allow for a couple other measures. One of those is being proposed in front of you today, that’s to change the zoning.

02:16:12,200	Uh, the other option would be to, uh, Move through uh a variance, uh, the variance process, uh, uh, uh, from the, from the, uh, identified zoning requirement. Uh, there was a concern over taking or uh uh taking in terms of the government taking property or uh not, not adequately compensating a property owner for what what is perceived to be impact, an impact to their rear yard setback change with this

02:16:39,370	proposal, um, what, and I can show you in a, in a map version a little bit easier, um. Um, so this, uh, the, the yellow lot line or the yellow lines you see on the, the screen are basically property lines, lot lines out in in misty waters, um, this, this particular property here, I think

02:17:08,370	highlights the concern that was raised. Are we going to compensate people for areas that they’re no longer able to develop with the new setback line, um, so let me explain a little bit what the other lines on this map are, and by the way, this was I think available to the public to review as well.

02:17:24,870	Um, they had access to this information and still do. It’s available online. Um, but the, the The Sort of black dashed line that you can see on your screen. That would be the interior edge of the stormwater and drainage easement, um, this. Uh, sort of, uh, diagonal red.

02:17:55,530	Dashed line uh shape here represents the, the, the full area essentially of the stormwater and drainage easement, so this, for instance, this red solid line would represent the, the, the closest to the bay side line of the 20 ft stormwater and drainage easement. So this area where my arrow is pointing is essentially the stormwater and drainage easement.

02:18:17,670	The green, uh, ha hatched line. Or shape represents the, the area that was encompassed by the 2005 letter of Map Revision. And so now that those lines and those different shapes are explained. The concern is that if this, this. Dashed black line here becomes the new setback line.

02:18:43,900	Well, what happened if the 2005 line is the, is what is currently the, the setback. You you’re essentially Removing some developable area uh from, uh, you know, person’s property and um I I think from staff’s perspective, this is area they never had to develop to begin with, uh, for one, they, they can’t develop if there’s a stormwater and drainage easement on their property.

02:19:10,500	They’re not allowed to develop in there and in addition to that, Uh, the Misty Waters Homeowners Association has defined. This dashed black line as being their rear yard setback line, so essentially they’re, there’s really no impact to some of these properties, and there’s a few of a few of them in, in the subdivision, but essentially

02:19:36,630	there would be no uh negative impact from, I guess, our perspective from area that they aren’t allowed to develop that they weren’t to begin with. Go ahead. Go ahead. Comm Ben, uh, sorry to interrupt, but I just wanna. I just want to acknowledge that, um, we as a city do not.

02:19:58,630	That’s correct, um, hold homeowners associations Covenants or those types of things to our jurisdiction. So if they, if they don’t want green fences in those, that’s their deal, that’s not our deal, so, um, I, I find the fact that the, the line of the, that the Homeowners association.

02:20:18,530	Approved is kind of irrelevant because we still have to go to our ordinances. Is that correct? I would, I would say I don’t know that it’s irrelevant from a development standpoint and the argument that they can’t develop in that. Or they could develop in that area. I would agree with you that we would not enforce.

02:20:35,370	Uh, that, that line if they, if they adopted it. Any more questions before I move on? OK. Um Let me move back to the. Larger screen. OK. OK. I think probably the last item, I’ll, I’ll touch on in terms of the concerns that, that I noted.

02:21:09,200	From the meeting is actually the, the concerns of the, the planning and zoning commissioners, and really it’s, it’s I don’t know what was in their minds, but I, I I, I, I guess I’m interpreting from what I heard from the conversation, um, from at least two of the planning and zoning commissioners that voiced concerns and ended up, uh, voting in not not voting in

02:21:29,800	favor of, of the motion to approve. This change, but uh I, I think there’s sort of two concerns that I, that I was able to discern from the, from the comments, but one is there appeared to be opposition, um, And a focus on not favoring changing rules for the entire subdivision to address perhaps

02:21:55,470	a few lots that might be out of compliance. And I, I think the, some of the suggestions that at least were discussed is perhaps going through the, the variance process was perhaps a more appropriate mechanism in their opinion.

02:22:16,270	Um, it is, it is certainly, and I’ll, I’ll say from a staff perspective, it is certainly something we considered, um, a variance is not a, a guarantee. Um, I, I don’t know where the board of adjustment would go on this, but I, I think in communication with our prior uh legal counsel.

02:22:36,530	This was kind of the direction that was, uh, wasn’t kind of, it was, it was, it was a viable option that um appeared to be less uh risk, uh, filled with risk than the variants, uh, process just because of the uncertainty of a variances would be approved, Mr. Zenker.

02:22:52,730	Mayor Comm Ben, I think one thing we got to remember too, if you when you talk about the, the variants, I don’t know what we would give for the hardship, right? Because, um, it is very well known that we do not give hardships based on financial scenarios. So I don’t know what what hardship they would have by by going to the to the variant board or the board of adjustment. Yes, thank you, Comm.

02:23:12,830	Was there anything else on that item? No, I, I, and I think some of those concerns may have factored into the decision that maybe the first option was not to pursue the variants route.

02:23:31,730	If it is an option, you would like us to pursue it is certainly something we could pursue, um, but again, that we’ll have to identify some of those hardship, uh, areas, um. And I, I think Maybe, uh, from a, a staffing, uh, In a builder perspective and a property owner perspective. I think going the variance route starts to add even more complexity out there.

02:23:56,470	Right now there’s, uh, for the homes next to the bay, there’s essentially Two different setbacks that are being considered one of those setbacks is for, let me pull up my pointer again. One of those setback standards is for this cul-de-sac, who has the For the most part, has the, the interior edge of the The, uh, the, oh, I’m. Oh, I’m sorry.

02:24:21,200	There we go. Sorry. Um So the interior edge of the, uh, stormwater easement. The remainder of the Homes adjacent to the bay have the 2005 Lomar line in there. If we go the variance route, we could be including 5 to 10. different homes With other setbacks.

02:24:47,470	That differ from those two, I, I, I just, I just think it could add to some of the complexity of uh the various different setbacks that exist out there right now. Um, so it, I don’t know that that would be the, from a longer term. Uh, administrative, uh, perspective.

02:25:09,800	I don’t, I don’t know that that would be the cleanest route, but if, if that’s a route, you would prefer we, we go, we can certainly move that direction. Um Any questions on any of those items? So that’s pretty much the extent of the, the, the comments and questions that were voiced.

02:25:31,670	I concur and I also It expressed the concern of the variants, not probably being extremely viable because of the No Dollars is not a hardship. In Seoul and also that this was the wish of this commission. directing staff to come up with this plan. So go ahead, go ahead, Comm Connelly. Sorry I wasn’t ignoring you. No, no, you’re, you’re good.

02:25:57,900	Um, I do wanna say that, uh, I’ve also watched the planning and zoning and one thing that I do support for communication’s sake and things. There was a lot of um Uh, people that commented that this is more money for the city. This is actually property that’s in the county.

02:26:17,130	The mayor brought that up and that’s always we need to reiterate that as much as we can because outside of the fees to advertise them, um, whatnot, uh, there’s no financial benefit.

02:26:38,930	There’s a financial benefit to the counties based on valuations, but not the city, and that was, I was sitting there Like, well, I would be saying this if I was in that room and the mayor did that very well, um, but For me, no houses were torn down that happened at our last decision.

02:27:00,370	There’s been a lot of litigation, um, this has literally been going on for years, and I would be more inclined to support what the members of the planning and zoning determine and Um, I’ll make that a motion. I did have a couple other items to, I can hold off, and I can pause for any other questions, but I did have other couple other comments to to make uh for the time being before we close.

02:27:16,830	Uh, I can do that now. Um, so at the conclusion of the planning and uh or the public hearing associated with the planning and zoning Commission, a motion did fail on a vote of 4 to 3, not to approve the request of the zoning map associated with the, the zoning, uh, project in front of you.

02:27:37,770	So really what you’re acting on tonight is, is it’s not whether to approve the setback, it’s whether to uphold the decision of the planning and zoning commission or not. So if you uphold the the decision of the planning and zoning commission, the process ends here.

02:27:56,570	The setback line will not be changed to this line, at least. Um, and that’s where the process ends. If you decide to overturn the planning and zoning, uh, uh, commission decision, then there would actually be another public hearing and we would renot that public hearing to those members who received, uh, adjoining property notices in the past,

02:28:17,730	it would be noticed in the paper, um, and they would have an opportunity to speak at that meeting and you would consider at that point whether to change the setback or not and, and some of these other elements that I noted as part of the PUD. Does, does that make sense? OK OK. Good.

02:28:38,630	I shouldn’t have done that. Sorry, Comm Zener shall let you speak sir. Go ahead, Comm. Yeah, Mayor, Comm, so, um, you’re right, Comm Connelly, this thing does go back a long ways.

02:28:55,830	In fact, um, I wrote an email on August 13th of 2020 when we first heard None of you are here, by the way.. 1st 3,, 1st heard the, uh, The builder brought, uh, they wanted to move the water drainage easement. And that’s at that time, there, there was a whole area of stuff that was going on, right? The neighbors, couple of neighbors weren’t happy. The builder was still building.

02:29:21,200	I wrote that email, um, a couple days after our meeting because I had needed, needed to let the dust, the dust settle. And I, I addressed it to, to Ben, um. Ironically, the other 3 people are no longer with us either.

02:29:38,530	The former city city administrator, city attorney, and, and the mayor, but I said, hey, what are we gonna do with this home? Um. And I flat asked, have we ordered a stop construction until all setbacks have been determined.

02:29:59,730	Because, because that was or had been verified, um, because that was, that was the crux of the issue, um, and then I asked another question, um, about how the, based on the ordinance that, that Ben just addressed, are we even sure at that time they had, they had uh got a new Lomar to change what that delineated line is. Um, I won’t read the response.

02:30:17,270	It’s just that my point is this, is that this is what caused the issue for us to get here today. Um, when I made the motion to Have staff or direct staff to, to, um, go and, and do the whole area, it was presented to us from the homeowners association that I previously acknowledged that we don’t typically worry about, um, covenants and those things that

02:30:40,730	they’ve talked to the people out there. And, and everybody was in and the only reason why some people didn’t get talked to was because they couldn’t get, they couldn’t get a hold of him. So if, if that’s the case, um, and at that time, the lawsuit was settled.

02:30:57,870	But obviously, they didn’t talk to everybody because there were some people who came up and spoke against it. At the PNZ meeting, um, So I really question, um, Whether we should keep going down this path.

02:31:17,100	Cause it seems like from 2020, all we’ve been trying to do is fix a problem on top of a problem to create another problem, and then here we are again today. Um, last year, at the end of the year, we had that special meeting. Um, if you watch, if you watch the special meeting and you watch the, the previous planet zoning meaning to that.

02:31:33,570	It’s almost word for word identical, and you had to sit through it twice, Mayor, of what we had to listen to for 2 hours, and there was nobody speaking and, and rebuttal against that.

02:31:50,830	So In my opinion, Now is we need to hold, hold true to the, to the, to the PNZ what they determined this this last time? And quite honestly, we need to go back and the, the motion that was made to approve, um, the change to the, to the PUD. We need to have a deeper discussion about that because I don’t think at that time we were given all the, all the correct information.

02:32:09,930	We’re doing this, we’re doing this because Somehow, some way through the checks and balance system was failed and this, this home was built over, over the setback. And not by, if it was by 4 or 5 ft like the other homes or maybe even 6 ft, the other homes, and we don’t know because, because Ben acknowledged that. No one would even, no one would even know.

02:32:28,630	Because no one’s gonna pull a tape measure out for that, but if it’s 48 ft. I mean, come on, when you drive out and you look at that, even if you just look at the, the new updated, uh, Google Earth on the, on the internet.

02:32:41,500	You can tell that this thing just sticks out like a sore thumb. And I think that’s the crux of the issue, is that us as a city didn’t take care of the problem when it was a problem. And now it’s just become a, uh, the, the molehill has become a mountain.

02:32:58,270	And, and that’s, and that’s, in my opinion, that’s the bottom line. That’s the issue. I mean, if, if the inspections happened and, and the final inspection and those types of things. When that was an issue and we knew it, and we knew it back in 2020, there should have been a stop on that, on that project.

02:33:14,100	And it should have been figured out at that time. Now, I can’t tell you from this email how, where the house was. It might have been 95% finished, I don’t know, or 40% finished. I have no idea.

02:33:30,230	But But for this to be drug out this long is just not acceptable. And, and we’ve known it. I got emails after emails going back and forth and then it’s as to what we’re going to do with this home. And it should have never been able to be built. And it should have never, never ever got to this point. There’s no questions.

02:33:56,230	I wasn’t gonna answer anything, so. Comm So the, the question before us is whether or not to If I say this wrong, Ben, you gotta tell me to. I guess uphold The planning and zonings Commission is you’ve appealed this for us to consider having a Hearing to see whether or not we would adopt.

02:34:31,030	The new PUD correct? Yep, if you, if you uphold it. The process ends tonight and there’s no more public hearing in that setback line isn’t changed. If you uphold the planning and zoning Commission’s decision, if you overturn it.

02:34:49,000	We would set a new public hearing date and there would be a public hearing on it and then you would consider whether to accept the setback line or not. OK. Just want to make sure. Um-hum, I moved to uphold the decision from planning and zoning. Second. Do we have discussion Mr. Mayor, Comm, where does it go from here if we don’t address the issue.

02:35:10,030	We assigned Ben this project to go draw this new line. Uh, we thought it would fix things, uh, misty waters zoning is the gift that keeps on giving, I guess, um, so if we We’ll just continue to have disputes, correct? So, so that becomes my concern because there are Probably known for sure 5 homes that are Over a line there might be more.

02:35:33,000	Don’t know. Um And So then You know, I think it’s going to keep on giving. Honestly, it’s going to give more.

02:35:56,370	Than if If this PUD Commissioners, so and, and you’re right, Comm Risch, Until we go back and, and we, we just reboot this whole thing, right? If you’re an IT Guy, the first thing they ask you is, hey, did you, if you call them in, what do they say? Did you reboot your computer, you know, it doesn’t it bug you when they

02:36:09,670	ask that question, by the way? I know, yeah. Anyways, but that’s what would have to happen. I, and that’s why I, I’ll probably have to lean on our city attorney that we need to, we need to reevaluate the decision that we made, um, last, when was that? August? September, whenever we had that

02:36:25,500	special meeting. That That obviously based on this, was not the right decision. Right? I mean because the information we got was, hey, we’re all in.

02:36:50,830	Only time, only thing we didn’t get is, is everybody, and obviously, The people who, who are, so actually, actually the same handful of people that were opposed. Then our opposed now and they were opposed then as well through planning and zoning, um, And one of those persons who was opposed is not opposed anymore, in fact, I think he wants this to happen. Well, we can’t go on speculation though, sir.

02:37:11,570	No, I know that, so that would be my, that would, that would be, I don’t know how we would do that. We’d have to talk to Julie about. That because it was a 50 thing, but I wouldn’t, maybe we just put it on the agenda for next. Next meeting and have that discussion. Any further discussion? Comm Connelly.

02:37:34,530	Just one point when you said you didn’t know where the house was built, there was in watching all of these meetings. At one point, That made it to a public meeting. There was only a stake in the ground. So at some point in time, Things weren’t built.

02:37:57,000	Out and I can’t remember if it was a county discussion or a city discussion, but at some point that discussion happened there, and then things got built and everything made it harder, so. Just no homes are being torn down. I think we need to move on. And follow up with the PUD process that Comm Zenker talked about. And yet, Comm Clery I guess my question, because I agree like so.

02:38:20,100	Homes aren’t being torn down, but there are some out of compliance. So if we don’t move forward with this plan where we’re trying to kind of sim, I guess I feel like it simplifies it, it’s more all-encompassing then are we going back and creating smaller PUDs for these homes, uh, I guess, uh.

02:38:39,130	I don’t I agree that like it has been handled poorly and sometimes and it’s been going on for too long, but I just don’t like. This feels like How we move it forward, I don’t know.

02:38:57,800	I guess I don’t know if I agree that like what the decision that we made about the the PUD and the, uh, issue with that house was necessarily the wrong decision. Last year, so I guess I I’m torn with like not moving forward because I think that this provides a solution, and that’s what we’re looking for because we can’t go back 6 years and stop the construction

02:39:18,670	now, we can’t. Uh, I mean, we can look into what, how we change what happened last year, but I guess I don’t know. That where that puts us if we take back that decision from last year, then that puts us back to where Like, are we tearing down

02:39:36,300	homes or like what are we doing with this line, so I guess. I don’t know if I. Uh, fully agree, but it’s frustrating nonetheless, I guess I would say. Comm Risch, Mr. Mayor, Mr.

02:39:56,170	Sinker, so you’re suggesting we should change the decision we made last August or whatever it is and have them tear down the homes. I mean, sure, Comm Risch, that’s a, that’s a fair question, right? I, I’ll give you this example. I mean, obviously I work in the construction industry. You know, if we have inspections, we have to have inspections.

02:40:15,900	This home had inspections to, to, I just don’t understand how it passed all of those inspections, right? With this getting getting found out prior to this, let’s be honest, um, but if, but if Brady’s team comes to one of my job sites, and there’s something that they don’t like, and it fails an inspection.

02:40:35,470	I don’t get to say, hey, can I, can I just, um, can I change the code? Can I, um, appeal to the, I suppose there is a process to appeal the city commission. Can I, can I do that? It’s, no, you can’t. You, you have to abide by that code.

02:40:51,030	I mean, I told, I told this to, to Doug Wis when he was a forester. He’s a, he is the most powerful Guy within the city because he, if there’s not the, the correct trees and bushes and stuff planted for, for landscaping. He, he doesn’t sign off on the, on the, on the certificate occupancy. I have to, I have to follow it. The developers have to follow that.

02:41:08,730	How in the heck? Did this house not follow all of the ho. Constraints that are put on that. And, and then get to this point. So yeah, it might.

02:41:26,300	It might have to, and there might be additional lawsuits, but the only way to be compliant is to, is to follow the ordinances and, and follow the codes. I mean, I can’t put a grease duct in a, in a new restaurant and not wrap it. Brady’s crew is gonna be all over that. Because that’s cold. That’s the ordinance. It’s in the mechanical, you know, we accept those things.

02:41:44,470	And this is much, much bigger, right? It’s we’re talking ant hills and mountains, but the other part is, is in none of us. Go all the way back to the beginning, none of us were at the table here. None of the staff was probably even here when this all this whole development started. No, not here. No, back to 2006.

02:42:05,870	When this development was started. The set, the setback line was a well, but that’s where the, that’s where the setback line started. And Then there were interpretations made by various staff members or other people throughout the process where there are homes. It’s not just one home.

02:42:26,100	That was built over this line that is the Lomar line or whatever it was called before, 2006 Lomar line was at it, I’m, I’m losing track of the. Items. But anyway, there were interpretations made that if you went in and got a letter of map revision, you changed your setback. Or That was what was interpreted.

02:42:45,900	The court, the Supreme Court in North Dakota, Change that And, and to make it be back to whatever it was. But Mayor, and those are all valid points. But the only Lomar change out there. On individual lots is this one.

02:43:10,270	No other lots were individually changed and correct me if I’m wrong, Ben and Brady, because they’ll have the most. I don’t, I’m just, none of them were individually changed to do that. You, you’re probably correct. I don’t, so that’s, that’s, and that’s why I’m having such a hard time with this.

02:43:26,900	The reason for the Lomar was because Someplace along the line, they figured out that they made a, made a huge mistake. And this is the, this is the, an avenue to, to fix it. Didn’t fix it. I, I’m, I’m, I’m not saying that I’m, I’m I’m with you. We, we, we got a, we have an issue that we’re trying to, I don’t think, yeah, there’s not.

02:43:42,870	I mean, I don’t think it’s going to be resolved if, if this is overturned. I don’t think it will be. I think we’re gonna have bigger issues because I think we have then.

02:44:01,770	We’ll then have to direct city staff to issue a letter of noncompliance to every home that is over the line and They I mean, I think the, I don’t know what the obligations are then. I don’t know what those obligations are to the homeowner. So And work. So that’s why I think This was an alternative to solve some of those issues, so you aren’t having 10 homes torn down. Or modified Any other Discussion. If not, let’s call a roll.

02:44:42,230	Comm Risch? No. Comm Zenker. Yes. Mr. Connelly? Yes, Comm Cleary, no, Mayor Schmidt. No. So I think I need it I’m gonna go ahead and make a motion to I guess I don’t know what word you want me to use, but to overturn the, uh, PNZ decision and put in the

02:45:09,030	request for the public hearing. Second, Do we have discussion? Harry will call the roll. Comm Zenker. No. Mr. Connelly? No. Comm Cleary, yes. Comm Risch? Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Next item D, public hearing on request for a new class. I too complementary alcohol license for downtown Business Association.

02:45:46,570	Doing businesses downtowners at 122 North Fourth Street. This is a public hearing anyone who wished to speak on this topic, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Hearing none, public comment period is now closed.

02:46:11,870	Comm, what are your wishes? I move we hold the public hearing at the request of a new Class 12 complementary alcohol for the Downtown Business Association of this was the hearing. Oh,. Oh, it says, I’ll make a motion to prove it’s presented. Second, you’re thinking of. You’re thinking of bowling, aren’t you? Yeah.

02:46:29,630	Leaving the split, you got a spare? What do we got any discussion. I guess I just want to point out I do sit on this board, so if anyone has an issue with me voting, OK. Be making money off the deal and we got that. I’m not. All right. And contribute to buying it so you can give it away. No.

02:46:48,270	And any further discussion. He now will call roll. Mr. Connelly? Yes. Comm Cleary? Yes. Comm Risch? Yes. Comm Zenker. Mayor Schmitz, yes. Next item is uh, is a public hearing on ordinance 6612 to amend Title III regarding animal control protection. Um Just the public hearing on that. Anyone wish to speak, please come forward. Comm Risch.

02:47:18,630	Um, well, somebody from the public wants to come first. Doesn’t look like it. Well, anyway, this is just a follow up on the work we’ve been doing as far as animals at large. First of all, we changed it from a misdemeanor to a fraction.

02:47:35,300	The problem with an infraction, you still have to appear in court if your dog gets out. So this actually takes a one step further and it’ll creep. treated as a non-criminal offense. So if you, your dog gets out, your neighbor complains, you’ll get a ticket, a $100 ticket, rather than having to go to court.

02:47:53,870	So simplifies things, which takes the stuff out of the judicial system. We free up the police officers’ time. I think it’s a good step forward. I’ll continue the public hearing if anyone else would wish to come forward. A second call for public hearing comments. 3rd and final call. Seeing no one, hearing no one, public comment is closed.

02:48:15,730	Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move approved. Do we have any further discussion? He no Carol. Comm Cleary, yes. Comm Risch. Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Uh, I F. Consider a request to receive bids and award contract for water utility Pro W. You 148. And my stuff. Go ahead, Gabe.

02:48:43,930	I get the screen up for a second here. Baby. closer here. Right. Mayor Commissioners WU 148, uh, is the annual. Hydrant and valve replacement project. Uh, funded through the, uh, water utility fund, uh. The Project, uh, open bids yesterday. We had 5 bidders on the project.

02:49:50,500	Uh, the low bid is Western Excavation LLC with a bit of $149,925. I should note this is above the CIP amount, but due to favorable bids on other water utility projects, uh, there’s enough budget, uh, when you’re looking at the totality of that for this year to fund this project.

02:50:07,370	So with that our recommendation is to award to Western Excavation LLC for $149,925 and would take any questions you may have. Commissions any questions? Moved to approve is presented. OK. Uh, in a discussion. Harry Dunn will call raw. Comm Risch? Yes. Comm Zenker? Yes. Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary, Mayor Schmitz. Yes. next item G, consider request receive bids and accept.

02:50:35,530	Recommendation to award contract for highway construction project. It’s C170. Mayor Commissioners HC 170 is, uh, to improve the pedestrian, uh, crossing ability at the intersection of Main Avenue and 26th Street, so this project would install some signal modifications and put in the required ADA ramps on the West approach, allowing pedestrians to cross and utilize the

02:50:56,930	sidewalks that are available along 26th Street, uh, in this corridor. We did bid this project in late 2024 and we repackaged this here recently hoping to get better bid prices we got pretty much the same bid prices, so, um, we truly believe this is what it’s going to cost. do this work.

02:51:11,370	It is a little bit above what our engineers estimate and the CIP for this item, um, so our recommendation would be to award this, uh, and use the funds available from the, uh, what was the front Avenue in Washington Street Project signal replacement project.

02:51:28,530	We had some sales tax dollars assigned for that improvement that we’re not used, so there’s some excess funding available in that signal work that we’d like to apply those dollars, uh, to supplement this highway construction project 170 so without taking any questions you may have. I recommend, so I should say we had two bidders.

02:51:45,870	Uh, the low bidder being Strata Corporation with a bid of $95,000,550 and our recommendation would be to award. Commissioners, any questions? Move to approve as presented. Second. Any discussion Here none will call roll. Mr Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly. Yes, Comm Cleary, Comm Risch, Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Next item is to receive a legislative update. From Jason Tomanek.

02:52:18,800	Commissioners, uh, draw your attention to the report at your desk, um, it’s got the current updates if you. Kind of direct your eyes towards that last column highlighted in green. That’s the current status of the bills, um, a number of them have Kind of winding down.

02:52:35,000	Obviously the legislature is not quite over yet and there’s still some, some discussions going on in several of the bills that we are interested in. I’ll maybe draw your attention to 3 of them, um, I guess just a numerical order, House Bill 1020. We’ve talked about this one several times. This is a bill that has the budget for the State Water Commission.

02:52:51,370	This was the particular bill that had funding for the South Bismarck flood control project, which we’ve spent a fair amount of time discussing over. The last year or so, um, Current status of 1020, it’s in committee discussions, however, I should note, uh, the last time I reported out to you, there’s been a significant

02:53:10,030	change, uh, since that time, the funding that was identified for a variety of flood control projects has been, uh, significantly cut and the Bismarck portion of the South Bismarck flood control project went from uh projected or proposed 73 million down to 20 million, um, the committee that’s looking at it felt that.

02:53:34,400	Some of the work that is proposed is more relating to storm water and not so much relating to flood control, um, but it should be noted all the other projects on the list received significant cuts in their funding as well, and so I believe the projections for the state water commission’s revenue, uh, is a little bit

02:53:49,630	down from where they had initially started the session, and that’s uh it’s a result of where we are with that project. We’ll continue to monitor 1020 as it works its way through. Uh, House Bill 76. This is the property tax bill that we’ve talked about several times. Uh, update on that one.

02:54:11,370	There was a unanimous passage of the bill through the Senate last week. There was a failed attempt to remove amendments that were adopted in the Senate Appropriations Committee, uh, from the bill that was on the Senate floor, some of the changes initially was 1176, there was a uh $1550 primary residence credit that was reduced to $1450 in the house

02:54:34,800	and further reduced in the Senate to $1250 for primary resident. Uh, there’s also proposed amendment from the Senate side referred to as the skin in the game amendment and really what that does is it provides a a cap on the credit for primary residences at 75%. Um.

02:54:58,200	Senator Hogue from my not proposed the amendment and and indicated that there should be some Skin in the game as the amendment is referred to for all property owners within North Dakota to help recognize where your property tax actually goes, uh, Some hearty debate on the Senate floor about uh how 1176 could be implemented, uh, some concerns that um lower valued homes

02:55:21,670	might end up paying a higher property tax percentage based on the caps, based on the skin in the game, uh, amendment, and so this one’s not done yet either.

02:55:40,930	Um, we continue to follow this one through the committee work, um, but I guess the, the big piece for us is the proposed bill as it stands would be a 3% property tax for political subdivisions, city schools, parks, um, on their general fund levies, Comm Zenker, yeah, um, Mayor Commissioners and Jason. So the reason I thank you for letting me interject here.

02:55:59,100	I think it’s critically important that that we are ready, I mean at our, at our meeting where we heard the, uh, um, for the taxation. Right? We had a very good discussion about what this 3% actually means and how that’s going to be implemented and, and Mayor, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you reached out to a couple of representatives to try to get that interpretation

02:56:16,400	as well. I did. Um, do you think it’s beneficial to the whole group, I mean, especially. Um, staff because you’re gonna have to try to implement this and figure this out as we get closer to budget cycle is, um, when it passes, right, because we all know it’s gonna pass, that we’re ready to get an

02:56:35,400	interpretation, um, from that, from whether it’s the Attorney General or whoever we got to ask that to make sure that we’re following. Yeah, I know. The intent of, of this new law when it, when it happens. I’ve been thinking about that. I already asked League of Cities. To start working on that.

02:56:51,570	Did you? OK. Um all right. That’s I mean, they’re, they’re looking at all kinds of things and then I think, you know, there may be a bigger discussion because Ultimately what passes. And what is being said.

02:57:12,300	Publicly by some of the legislators, I Right now I’m not sure if it’s an agreement with what’s in the bill, but I think we are going to want to have to pay attention to what the legislators are saying when it comes to how we figure that out because I don’t want us to be in the crosshairs of the voters. Thinking one thing.

02:57:30,370	And maybe just because the law says something, we may have to figure out how we’re going to implement that. I think we just have to be very strategic about it, uh, when it comes, but we’re we’re gonna need an interpretation. There’s no question about it. And I completely agree. I, I appreciate the fact that you reached out to League of Cities.

02:57:42,000	So we don’t need to do it twice, right? If they’re doing it, then fine, and then we can have to if they don’t follow up. I mean, I’m on a call with him every Friday. OK, fantastic. That’s good. Thank you. Yep. Comm Connelly, I’m sorry.

02:57:59,400	I, this, you caught me right as I raised my hand, so you’re good, um, mayor Commissioners, Jason, um, the summation of our last meeting, uh, listening to it on Dakota Media Access, there was terms used to where we have a lot of funding sources that there may be ways to backfill the impacts of 1176 or even

02:58:23,800	possibly 1168, um, or find other revenue sources. Um Those are very challenging after coming out of Measure 4 and a lot of different things and with a lot of people like at the Citizens Academy said they understand a lot, um.

02:58:52,100	I’m thinking that we don’t look at those other avenues and um if they’re absolutely necessary, then we should consider something to where it’s an approval here and a vote of the citizen or something because if we’re finding ways to backfill consequences of a bill that’s meant to Um Limit the cost to the actual citizens themselves, and I know it’s for services.

02:59:12,670	I get it. And that, um. We should let the bill function as it’s designed to do. And that was a concern after hearing that, um. Summation, so just want to put it out there. And I’m not quite sure I’m following exactly, Comm, but I didn’t listen to.

02:59:38,500	Uh, Jason’s report on our commission, but I mean I You know, we just know that there are. Not, we’re not looking to increase taxes or other fees. That’s not what we’re looking at. I would not want, I would not be in favor of that. Since it was sent, said, it’s just easier to have it out there as the discussions go forward.

02:59:57,630	Anything else before Jason goes on. Go, Jason. Maybe just to, to offer some context to that. So in conversations with potential budget challenges, um, you as the commissioners will have decisions to make as recommendations from the budget committee.

03:00:22,270	If the Budget Committee isn’t looking at alternative funding sources for some of these services, then we will be bringing to you services that will need to be considered for changes, um, other communities, excuse me, have talked about uh reduction of services when it comes to snow removal, for example, this city engages snow removal equipment at 3 inches.

03:00:38,800	There may be a discussion about engaging snow removal equipment at 4 or 6 inches because we don’t have the same volume of revenue to provide the same level of service, so that was my. comment that was my summation of this discussion.

03:00:55,900	It was not meant to try and speak for this commission, but just in a general sense and as a homeowner, if you have a revenue shortage, you’re going to look for other revenue streams to come up with those, uh, to come up with the projects that are done.

03:01:10,370	So I guess if, if I misrepresented anything that the commission was implying, I apologize, but uh I, I think it’s a, it’s a fair statement from the administration’s perspective. We are here to provide services to this community and if the citizens want that level of service, we will continue to.

03:01:22,630	and engage that, but if this commission feels that there are services that can be cut because we don’t have the same revenue streams, and we will follow that direction as well. Ah, moving on, the only other bill that I really wanted to bring to your attention was 1389. This was a House bill that was intended to uh make some adjustments to the street utility fee.

03:01:41,270	There were a number of changes that were suggested from the House committee that frankly made the bill quite unworkable from the city’s perspective and the recommendation that came out of the Senate was do not pass, and the bill was voted against and essentially 1389 is dead in the water. Uh, if you have any other questions on any of the other items in. Report.

03:01:59,170	I’d, I’d be happy to try and address those. We’re winding down, I think legislatures somewhere in the low 60s as far as the number of days that they have gaveled in, uh, 80 days is the total number amount and typically they’ll try and set aside a few days to uh meet midterm or you know in between

03:02:16,530	the biennium, so I would anticipate by the end of this month, they should have everything pretty much wrapped up and probably set aside some days for the future, so we will continue to um Appear at the Capitol as necessary, participate in hearings when we can and report back on every

03:02:33,100	commission meeting along the way. Right. Is there any other business tonight? My pleasure. Hearing none, we are Adjourned.