We'll go ahead.

Is there a motion?

Move by Commissioner Ruthburg is our second.

Yeah, which is secondary by Commissioner Say.

Is there any discussion on the minutes from the last two sessions that we've had?

All those in favor say aye.

And we have both slides signed.

That's all those two minutes are move on to announcements.

I don't have any announcements, and I'll turn it over to director for the I also don't have any announcements.

So today we are gonna be uh including two public hearings.

One will be on the fourth side of Highland Bridge Master Plan Amendments.

The other one will be on the first thing in the time.

The zoning code amendments probably just one at a time.

Um I do have a script that I need to read into the record for each item.

So I assume people I have comments on bold.

So if you do, I would just ask that you hold your comments to the respective item that is before the commission.

So first the board site pilot bring master plan amendments and then the parking lot's too and designed over masks.

So today the city of St.

Paul Planning Commission of holding a public hearing on the proposed board site of having bridge master plan amendments.

Notice of the public hearing or public for the same hall planning here for us on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.

And we're such a citywide early notification system, list the recipients of other interested parties and all property owners within the study area.

The following rules of procedure will be used to conduct the hearing.

Speakers and states are named address for the record before beginning their presentation.

All presentations must be confined to the topics of the public hearing, which is a proposed board inside Highland Bridge Master Plan Amendments.

Speaker may speak only once.

Speakers are requested to address the question to the clear and planning amendment.

Members may ask address questions to the speakers and to staff.

When the planning commission closes the public hearing and reversed the matter to the comprehensive neighborhood planning committee, uh planning staff will we will ask to have the planning staff will open the record for an additional testimony that is received by 4 30 p.m.

on Monday, May 1, May 1st, 2023.

And speakers are requested and will be held to a time limit of three minutes.

Um before we begin taking testimony or statements pulling the Ford side how bridge master plan amendments.

I think the director Pernida is gonna address a concern.

Um just uh issue with regards to how we're gonna oh no, we're not sorry, so we'll call call on the first speaker, which is Maureen's slip second.

Okay.

So this is Amy McDonald.

Yeah, I'm Amy McDonough, and um thank you, Mr.

Chair, for having us today.

I serve as the chief of staff at the University of St.

Thomas.

So we've been working closely with Doreen.

So I'll I'll do a little intro here and I want to stress kind of two points to the um commission members and then we're in um get more of a technical um presentation first uh to answer some of your questions.

Um so as you know, uh we have a proposal uh that is it involves uh building softball and baseball fields at the former CP rail site adjacent to Highland Bridge.

And um uh we've been working uh on two uh on this proposal for a while.

And the first thing I want to really stress with the planning commission is that we take community engagement really seriously at St.

Thomas.

Our main campus sits you know in between um Mac or in the middle of Mac Rhodland neighborhood and union park neighborhood.

We have a full-time community and uh neighborhood relations director, Gerald Bennard, who needs to work with the city, um, is our is our director.

And uh we're the only higher end institution that has a position like that, and so it's really important to us that we be a good neighbor, and this would be new for us to be in the Highland neighborhood.

So we've uh done a lot of community engagement throughout this project and that the details are in your packet, and the slide above shows all of the um neighborhood meetings we've had, particularly with Highland District Council, and there's a letter of support from Highland District Council in your packet too about the project and the master plan amendments.

We've also had outside the district council meetings, though we've also had two um two community meetings that were held, um, really um uh good attendance at both, and we were able to meet with neighbors and answer questions.

And then we've also met with a series of individual neighbors too who had specific concerns just as soon as Monday night, we had a group of neighbors on campus to talk through.

And we have a deep commitment to continuing those conversations as the project continues, and um we have experience knowing that it's important to engage with neighbors um not just in the planning part, but also during construction and after something's built.

So I want to just stress that that's really important to us.

Um the other thing I want to stress is that there are a lot of community benefits that come along with this project uh for the broader community.

It's a project that will be completely privately funded, so we will be raising uh donor funds, so it's not public money doesn't go into it, but we do um want to stress that there are a lot of benefits that come to the community because of the because of the proposal.

You know, we're taking a vacant and unutilized site, the former CP Rail and cleaning it up and bringing quality facilities and investment to the property.

Um the fields will be accessible to public and private groups and in particular to youth sports.

Um we anticipate that St.

Thomas will use the fields for about 50 games per year.

So between our women's softball team and our men's baseball team, it's about 50 games.