Shakopee City Council and Scott County Commissioners Joint Workshop – October 29, 2025

On October 29, 2025 (the provided agenda was dated October 1, 2025, a discrepancy noted here), the Shakopee City Council and Scott County Commissioners met jointly at the Scott County Government Center in a workshop format. No formal minutes were available. Officials agreed at the start to move the County Road 17 neighborhood meeting update to the top of the agenda because the room was full, and the meeting ended with a motion to adjourn.

County Road 17 Neighborhood Meeting Update

• County staff member Tony said the previous night's open house covered the Marshan neighborhood north to County Road 79 and east–west from County Road 70 to 78 and 79 to 17. Changes since the April open house included revised access at Marshan and Norton Drive and upgrading the roadway from County Road 14 north to County Road 42 from two lanes to four lanes. The main new discussion point was a proposed frontage-road connection between the Marshan neighborhood and the neighborhood to the north, with red and blue alignment options.
• There were 65 attendees and 26 comment cards, with additional comments still arriving by email. Comment themes included widespread dissatisfaction, concerns about added traffic on north-side city streets and at the Wood Duck/County Road 17 intersection, pedestrian and bicycle safety, lack of sidewalks and trails, impacts to Blue Heron Court and the Bolt and Welsh properties, and the fact that the northern neighborhood had not been notified for the April open house. There was general consensus that the new U-turn opportunity near Marsha Lane/Norton Drive was an improvement over the earlier April proposal.
• An official, identified in the discussion as the mayor, requested a smaller northern-neighborhood meeting similar to the earlier Norton neighborhood session, rather than another large open house. Tony said the county project team will review all comments and return with recommendations. Right-of-way decisions are on the critical path for the planned 2027 project, with roughly 14 months available; a separate meeting with the Bolt and Welsh property owners was scheduled for the following week.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Julie Welsh, 1525 29th Avenue, a directly affected property owner, said she disagreed with Tony's characterization of the open-house comments. In her view, the majority of attendees opposed the frontage-road connection, not just the two directly affected property owners. She referenced a petition.
• Jim Neilson, 1393 Woodduck Trail, who lives on the corner of Marshall and Wood Duck, confirmed that his emailed comments had been received.
• Megan Nelson, 1316 Blue Heron Trail, said she planned to gather more petition signatures and asked about deadlines. Officials responded that additional petition signatures could still be submitted to the record.

Solid Waste – Regional and County Plan Update

• Kate, from Scott County Environmental Services, said the MPCA updated the metro solid-waste policy plan in January 2024, and counties must update their plans to be consistent. The state statute goal is to recycle 75% of waste by 2030. She identified organics — food and yard waste — as a key component, noting food waste is about 25% of waste going to landfills.
• Scott County used its Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC) to choose optional strategies. SWAC supported the required strategy to make curbside organics collection available in cities with a population over 5,000 by 2030, while leaving collection methods flexible. SWAC recommended an alternative frequency strategy: haulers must provide an extra recycling cart at no cost to households that want more capacity.
• The City of Shakopee's letter to SWAC said Shakopee is currently contracted with DSI and has every-other-week recycling and weekly or every-other-week trash collection. Residents have expressed interest in weekly recycling; DSI indicated it would be extremely challenging to add that service without charging for it. Shakopee stated a preference to retain local control over hauler and service levels. City staff also raised concerns about a third container for organics.
• Kate noted landfills are necessary but leachate, PFAS, VOCs, and long-term monitoring costs make landfilling unsustainable as the primary destination. Food-bag organics programs and anaerobic digestion are available options. County–city partnership programs include single-day cleanups, recycling drop-offs, business recycling grants, and school outreach. In response to questions, she said energy-market benefits from organics digestion are not guaranteed, and the county is working with other counties on solid-waste legislative priorities.

Co-Responder Program Update

• Amber Barnes, Scott County adult mental health supervisor, said coordinated response launched in March 2023 with embedded mental health professionals at Shakopee PD, Savage PD, the Scott County Sheriff's Office, and the Scott County jail. In July/August 2025 it expanded to all Scott County jurisdictions. It is primarily a follow-up model that connects people to longer-term services, with some in-progress response when scenes are safe.
• Chief Tate reported significant results: calls involving one individual declined from 84 to four; patrol hours, multi-officer responses, and transport holds were reduced, including 133 fewer combined transports/holds. He said the return on investment has been strong and urged continued investment. Shakopee currently has one co-responder; a council member asked about adding another. Barnes and Tate said the workload justifies watching for burnout and future expansion.
• Officials praised the program as an effective investment producing transformative outcomes.

Housing/Homelessness Update

• Tanya Ward, Scott County director of behavioral health and housing, reviewed the housing continuum. Hope's Portage, a 14-unit emergency housing project in Prior Lake for families and children, is under construction with a $6 million state grant and about $800,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for land; the approximate cost was discussed as just under $450,000 per unit. It will operate with community partners, including CAP and Shepherd of the Lake, and is intended to help keep children in their school of origin.
• Coordinated entry numbers in Scott County rose in 2025. Minnesota Department of Education data showed 136 students in Scott County experiencing homelessness, which Ward said is an undercount.
• Damascus Way will begin moving people into a new women's transitional home in Shakopee the following Monday; a men's home already operates there. Ward cited an evaluation showing high crime-free outcomes: 89% and 78% for people involved with the homes, and 90% and 81% for program completers at one and two years. ALOS Ministries is expanding with two additional buildings in Shakopee, and Prairie Point is expected to open at the end of the year.
• Julie, from the Scott County CDA, reported on local affordable housing aid funded by the quarter-cent housing sales tax. Shakopee contributed about $200,000 in 2024 plus an additional 2025 allocation. The residential rehab loan program has received 46 Shakopee household responses, 10 pending applications, and two initial inspections completed. Loans are zero-percent deferred loans repaid upon sale or refinance.
• The CDA purchased a Shakopee four-plex using ARPA and CDA funds; units give preference to people with disabilities and accept housing vouchers. The Moraine Addition received building permits the prior week; 10 single-family homes will be built by 2027, with construction costs around $500,000 per home and sales prices around $300,000 under a shared-equity ground lease. The CDA also plans to demolish an old property by year-end and is discussing townhomes with a private developer.

Sales and Use Tax Plan Update

• Lisa, from Scott County, presented the county's half-percent local option sales tax program and distinguished it from the regional three-quarter-cent sales tax, of which the county receives 17%, with the rest going to the Metropolitan Council for transit. The local sales tax was adopted in 2015 following 2013 state legislation.
• The program has funded or helped fund interchanges and projects including County Road 69 in Shakopee, Highway 13/101 in Savage, the 21/13 project in Prior Lake, the Mobile Manor frontage road, the County Road 14 overpass near the Renaissance Festival, the CHS/FabCon interchange, the 59/169 and Bluff Drive interchanges, the 282/County Road 9 project in Jordan, transit and park-and-ride investments, and the 169/17 pedestrian bridge. The county renewed the tax in 2022 through 2032 and shifted focus toward county principal arterials such as County Road 17 and County Road 8.
• For every $1 of sales tax invested, the county has leveraged about $2 in state and federal funds. Sales tax revenue was about $13.1 million in 2024, peaked at $15 million in 2023, and is on track for about $13 million in 2025; future budgets assume $12 million per year. Upcoming major projects include Quentin Avenue, County Road 17, the County Road 17/12 roundabout, the Trunk Highway 13 Corridors of Commerce project, and County Road 8.
• In response to questions, Lisa said the county does not calculate sales tax contributions by city, and Shakopee's share likely tracks population and development activity. She said the draft county Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) will be released to cities in the coming weeks and will show additional safety projects. The county is also evaluating river-crossing flood risks with MnDOT and Carver County. Officials thanked Lisa for her work; she is retiring.

Renaissance Festival Traffic Update

• Brad Davis, Scott County planning director, said the Renaissance Festival's 2025 season closed the prior weekend. Attendance was slightly down from 2024, with no single day reaching 30,000 patrons. The on-site parking cap of 7,000 vehicles was exceeded once, reaching 7,700. Staff scanned 79,912 parking passes; prepaid passes were 53,000, while gate purchases rose to 26,000 from 14,000 in 2023. Parking fees were noted to have increased from $10 prepaid/$20 at the gate in 2023 to $15/$30 in 2024 and 2025.
• Bus ridership from the Canterbury park-and-ride dropped to 18,000 from 24,000 in 2024 and 31,000 in 2023, but Southwest Transit and MVTA had record years. Preliminary total transit ridership was 83,499, including 37,000 Southwest Transit riders, which would put transit mode share near 30%. Davis called this a positive outcome: attendance down slightly while transit ridership grew. No major traffic backups were reported to the county over the seven weekends, though there were some Highway 41 backups at the north entrance.

LETG Update – CAD/Mobile

• Adam Jesson, assistant county engineer, said Scott County plans to replace its LETG CAD/mobile system with Hennepin County's CAD Enterprise product (formerly TriTech, owned by Central Square) as part of a Hennepin–Scott CAD sharing project. The project will not change jail management or records management systems. Benefits include shared real-time information during mutual-aid incidents, dispatch backup, fire auto-dispatch, and cost savings through the negotiated contract. Cutover is planned no earlier than Q2 2026.
• Work is focused on GIS data alignment, software upgrades, common identity management (CIM/SIM), governance and cost-sharing, and a cross-jurisdictional training and testing team. Sheriff Hennan said the goal is a consistent workflow and better data without making Scott County dispatch exactly like Hennepin; event codes will expand, and auto-aid and fire-response options will be more flexible. Chief Tate said the enhanced training and super-user group is important and patience has improved. Officials noted the CAD change will improve data extraction, while records management consistency will be a future project.

Public's Expectation Working Together

• The mayor opened a discussion on public expectations for how the city and county work together. He said communication, clarity, and respect are essential even when the two bodies disagree, and strong intergovernmental relationships matter, especially amid state and federal turbulence. The county board chair agreed, saying communication is critical and both bodies should be able to disagree with grace.
• Other officials emphasized that both bodies serve the same residents, encouraged open communication, and noted that SCALE meetings are open to city council members, held the second Friday at 7:30 a.m. at The Link with a Zoom option. Citizen advisory board appointments were also mentioned as connections between the city, county, and community. In round robin, a council member thanked county staff for prompt responsiveness, and a county official said both bodies should be seen as working for the community.

Key Outcomes

• No consent calendar or formal action items were before the workshop. The only vote was the adjournment motion, which passed by voice vote.
• County Road 17: staff will review all written comments, meet with directly affected property owners, consider alternatives, and report back. A smaller northern-neighborhood meeting was requested.
• Solid waste: the county plan is pending MPCA review; organized cities will need to incorporate organics collection and/or extra-cart requirements into future hauler contracts.
• Co-responder: officials affirmed continued support; data will continue to be tracked, and future expansion and burnout prevention will be monitored.
• Housing/CDA: Hope's Portage construction is underway, the Damascus Way women's home is preparing to open, Moraine Addition building permits are approved, and the old CDA property is scheduled for demolition by year-end.
• Transportation: the draft TIP will be circulated soon; the sales tax program remains on track through 2032; Renaissance Festival transit outcomes will continue to be monitored.
• CAD/Mobile: the project continues toward a no-earlier-than Q2 2026 cutover, and the cross-jurisdictional training team is being formed.