Bloomington City Council Study Session – March 9, 2026
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Bloomington City Council Study Session – March 9, 2026
This study session covered three agenda items: a discussion on franchise fee rates, a review of the Urban Forest Master Plan, and a closed session for the city manager's performance evaluation. The council provided direction on both franchise fees and urban forestry, with no formal votes except on procedural motions.
Consent Calendar
- No consent calendar items were presented.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were heard during this session.
Discussion Items
- Franchise Fees Rate Discussion (Item 2.1): Staff presented a proposal to increase franchise fees at a flat rate for commercial categories while keeping residential rates unchanged. The increase would generate $8.8 million annually, with $200,000 allocated to retaining walls. Staff recommended a flat rate over a percentage-based rate due to revenue stability and equity concerns. Council members discussed the pros and cons: Councilmember Dalessandro argued franchise fees are a charge for utility use of public rights-of-way, not a consumption tax, and supported the flat rate. Councilmember Nelson noted that a percentage rate could incentivize efficiency but agreed the flat rate is more appropriate. Councilmember Loman expressed concern about the impact on nonprofits and called the fee a tax. Councilmember Rebas asked about the levy impact. The council generally supported the flat rate structure and the inclusion of retaining walls, directing staff to proceed with the proposed rates and public hearing process.
- Urban Forest Master Plan Review (Item 2.2): Staff and consultants from Davy Resource Group presented findings from a canopy assessment and street tree inventory. Key data: Bloomington has 35% tree canopy coverage (up 390 acres over 10 years), 24,549 street trees along 450 miles, and 45,000 potential planting sites (11,000 in priority areas). The plan proposes six goals, including proactive management and private stewardship. Council discussed options for right-of-way tree planting: Option 4 (combining a resident permit program with a city-initiated targeted equity program) received strong support from Councilmembers Carter, Dalessandro, and others. Councilmember Dalessandro asked about planting goals and utility conflicts. Councilmember Nelson raised concerns about potential pest threats (e.g., Asian longhorn beetle) but was reassured by staff. On private property, staff recommended continuing the current practice of not entering private property for tree inspections, and the council concurred. For development and redevelopment, council requested more information on tree preservation standards and a comprehensive approach similar to the pavement management program.
- City Manager Performance Evaluation (Item 2.3): The council moved into a closed session under Minnesota law for employee evaluation. The session was held in the Dakota conference room. After returning to open session, the mayor announced that a report on the closed session would be provided at the next meeting on March 10, 2026.
Key Outcomes
- Agenda approved: Motion carried 6-0 (Councilmember Loman initially absent, later present for votes).
- Franchise fees: Council directed staff to proceed with a flat rate increase for commercial categories, include retaining walls, and schedule a public hearing. No formal vote taken.
- Urban Forest Master Plan: Council directed staff to explore Option 4 (permit program plus city-initiated equity planting) for right-of-way trees, continue current private property policy, and bring back more details on tree preservation standards for development. Staff will return with a draft plan by end of April 2026.
- Closed session: Completed; report to be given at the March 10, 2026 concurrent meeting.
- Meeting adjourned: Motion carried 7-0 at 9:06 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone, and welcome. I will call to order this Bloomington City Council meeting Monday, March 9th, 2026. This is a study session. Under items two, organizational business. Item two point one is a discussion regarding our franchise fees rate. And that'll be a uh an evaluation of our city manager's performance on his first months on the job. Those are our three items on our agenda this evening. Unless there are changes or additions, I would move approval over the agenda tonight. Motion and a second by Councilmember Dalessandro to accept tonight's agenda. Oh, Victor, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Councilmember Revoss. To accept tonight's agenda. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed. The motion carries six zero. Uh, Councilmember Loman, not with IC out this evening. Caught in traffic is my guess. We will move on to our agenda item two point one. This is our franchise fees rate discussion. I think we have Lori Economy Scholar. See Bob Simon's coming up. Julie Long is also on the list. But she might be just coming downstairs from the watershed meeting. Oh, there she isn't back. She's laying low. Good evening and welcome. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um Julia's here to answer questions if we need Julie, but I also wanted to make sure that Council's aware that Kat Knutson from Center Point is here, and Scott Johnson from Excel is here to join us tonight. And so let's see. We had brought before the council a fixed rate increase, and we had looked at um also adding uh retaining walls and sustainability to our franchise fee categories, and we had numerous conversations and walk arounds with the council during um from about April through June, and then in July, we had the um public hearing and eventually um the council asked us um postponed adding any rate increases last year and asked us to come back for this year. And so um during that time frame, um we looked at a number of different things um with percentage rates and fixed rates. And so the for you tonight is the March to July time frame where we'll look at hopefully the rates and then direction tonight, and then um we'll go to if we move forward. Uh we'll create a lex talk page. Um, we'll host an open house, and then um, depending on where the council wants more direction or more guidance on things, we would bring more meetings with the council on behind the scenes before we have our public hearing. We would look to have a public hearing um later this spring and then early fall implementation. With that, moving on to that. All right, thank you, Lori. I'll give a little bit of information on the history and the status and condition of the work that we've done using franchise fees. A lot of this will look familiar to what was presented last July, but there's some updated information as well. First of all, uh the goal of franchise fees that was established back in 2015 with the goal to um councils show council's commitment to maintaining a sustainable and consistent funding source for a few different components of our pavement management program. It was never intended to fully fund pay fully fund PMP, but we have a few different components that have been included since 2015. This gives you an idea of other cities within Minnesota that use franchise fees. We have about there's about a hundred cities in Minnesota that do utilize franchise fees, 61 of which are in the 7 County Metro, and 24 cities in Hennepin County that utilize franchise fees. This was information that was pulled later in 2025. A little bit of a history of the franchise fees in Bloomington. As Lori mentioned back in 2015, December of 2015, City Council approved the implementation of franchise fees with the next scheduled increase to be in January of 21, and then every other year after that. We began collection of franchise fees in April of 2016, and initially from 2016 till now, we used it for overlays, seal coats, park trail construction and maintenance, and right-away trail construction and maintenance.
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