Summary of Shorewood City Council Meeting November 24, 2025

SCA provides transparency, accountability and education for residents in the bi-weekly city council meeting summaries. The summary will include sourced clarification and fact checking whenever possible.

• Watch the full council meeting and work session (work session recording follows the council meeting)
  
• Council work sessions are held the same night as council meetings generally starting at 5:30 pm. The sessions are not broadcast live, but are recorded and can be viewed at the end of the council meeting recording.
• Read the complete packet.
  

2. CONSENT AGENDA (video)

The Consent Agenda is a series of actions which are considered for adoption
under a single motion and will have no discussion by the Council or audience.

A. City Council Work Session Minutes

B. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes

C. Claims List

D. Renew Multiple Dock Licenses

E. Contract with HKGI for Zoning & Park Dedication Code Update

F. Resolution Setting Public Hearing for Proposed Vacation of 2nd Street Lying South of the Southerly Right-of-Way Line of Clara Avenue

G. Seasonal Ice Rink/Warming House Attendants Moved to 4F

H. Walnut Grove Villas – Final Acceptance Moved to 4G

I. Timesaver Contract Renewal

J. Legal Services Civil Contract Renewal

K. Arctic Fever Sponsorship

3. MATTERS FROM THE FLOOR

This is an opportunity for members of the public to bring an item that is not on tonight’s agenda to the attention of the City Council. Anyone wishing to address the Council should raise their hand, or if attending remotely, please use the “raise hand” function. Please identify yourself by your first and last name and your address for the record. Please limit your comments to five minutes.

None.

4. GENERAL BUSINESS

A. Public Hearing: Title 900 City Code Amendments  (video start min. 05:11)

• Title 900¹ is a “catch all” for a wide variety of city regulations. Updates over the years have caused fragmentation and outdated sections. Revision work will be done in-house because a consultant could not be retained. The proposed code now matches with state law and present policies.¹In the Shorewood City Code, a “title” is a way to organize and categorize local laws, with specific examples showing titles like “Title 12” for the subdivision ordinance, which is used to designate specific sections of the code. For instance, the “Rental Housing Code” is another example of a titled chapter that contains rules and regulations.

Regarding Title 900, right-of-way, Sanschagrin asked for confirmation of which plantings can be put in the right-of-way. Griffith said the ordinance allows for 3 feet or less in height, and plantings must not interfere with sightlines. The ordinance does not address plants that grow taller² (because “plants grow” per Griffith) and in essence anything planted in the city-owned right-of-way must be maintained at three feet. However, should plantings exceed the height limit, the city will not enforce the code unless there is a complaint from the public.

²Read:
The Cost of Reclaiming City-Owned right-of-way, May 2023, SCA
Howard’s Point right-of-way Planting & Fence Dilemma, May 2024, SCA
Get Smarter: Know Your Rights of Way, Apr 2023, SCA

PUBLIC HEARING: Resident Kenneth Kaiser of Timber Lane asked for clarification that the water utility code can now be changed without an automatic public hearing for residents. (video start min. 21.30)

Griffith confirmed this is the intent as it brings the water utility in line with the sewer, storm water, fire district or other parts of Title 900 wherein it is an optional council decision to have a hearing. Mr. Kaiser countered that there is a difference between storm water and sewer – all residents have it – whereas many residents are not on water.

DISCUSSION: Sanschagrin asked about the water section of the city code (903.18 WATER IMPROVEMENT PROCESS) that currently requires a public hearing. Griffith said he is essentially doing away with that ordinance and keeping a placeholder for whatever the council wants to do in the future. He referred back to the June 9 water work session.

MOTION to approve code amendments to section 900. All in favor.

B. Winter Operations Policy (video start min. 31:31) Background memo

Public Works Director Morreim presented the updated policy based on new equipment added in the last year, along with some staffing changes. He reviewed the changes in routes and how the new equipment will work within those routes that are mapped and color coded within the report.

In response to a query by Council member DiGruttolo, Morreim explained that residents are responsible for clearing snow around the hydrants near their properties.

MOTION to approve winter operations policy. All in favor.

C. 2025 Mill & Overlay Change Order ((video start min. 41.17o)

Andrew Budde reported that the mill and overlay projects as approved on Apr. 28, for $1.07 M. The first change order was approved on May 27, for >$200,000 which included additional ash tree removal, West Lane, the public works parking lot and the Freeman Park road. There were several items, including more tree removal that overran the original estimate requiring the second change order of $157,000. State Aid (MSA) will pay $42,900 of the cost.

MOTION to approve mill and overlay change order. All in favor.

D. 2025 Crack Sealing Change Order (videostart min. 1:04:07)

Crack sealing is part of the pavement maintenance program and has been done for the last three years. The change order required is due to two things combined: (1) The scheduled streets required less work than budgeted. (2) Due to less work, additional streets were added to the project which then caused the dollar amount to go over by $10,206.48 to be funded by the pavement preservation fund.

MOTION to approve change order for crack sealing change order. All in favor.

E. Change Order and Work Scope Modification Policy (video start min. 1:04:07)

Administrator Nevinsky  said he feels the need to establish policy to guide the staff through working with change orders in a consistent, transparent and accountable manner. He explained the proposal that would allow change orders for up to $75,000. The draft policy was taken from the city of Burnsville and also includes guidance for scenarios that include emergencies or urgent conditions.

DiGruttolo said a $75,000 ceiling for staff to act without council approval is too high in her opinion. In spite of staff explanations, she stood firm that the amount was too high. Emergency situations that would by-pass the policy would be sanitary sewer/endangerment of health, soil stabilization after a big rain event, or other matters that require measures be taken to adhere to permits.

Gorham was concerned that the change order process should be more transparent to the public. He implied that placing a change order on the consent agenda was not adequate for transparency. Nevinski said there needs to be more work done on the paperwork to document history of the payments.

The council did not approve the policy as staff had recommended, and instead asked Nevinski to make amendments to the policy and bring it back for future review.

DiGruttollo requested language be added that exigent situations are the exception to the rule, but the majority of items should come to council to be debated making the process more visible to the public.

F. Seasonal Ice Rink Attendants (formerly 2G on consent agenda). (Video start 1:43:02)

DiGruttolo asked the details for the hiring, the total cost, and the contingency if there is no snow. Czech explained hours, dates and deadlines for flooding and maintaining. She asked for the total amount budgeted. Czech did not answer that question.

MOTION to approve hiring of seasonal ice rink attendants passed 4-0. (Maddy missed the vote as he had left the room with the city attorney)

G. Walnut Grove final approval (video  start 1:46:49) ⁴

DiGruttolo asked about the trail completion. Budde said it is not finished but will be done so before the certificates of occupancy are given. DiGruttolo also asked about the tall weeds on the property and asked if it complies with the noxious weed ordinance.³ Griffith says it does.⁴

MOTION to give final approval to the Walnut Grove final plat. All in favor.

4 Shorewood’s noxious weed ordinance is based on state law, requiring landowners to control or eradicate certain listed noxious weeds to prevent their spread. This includes controlling weeds that grow over 12 inches tall and specific noxious weeds like buckthorn, leafy spurge, and Canada thistle. … Non-compliance with the ordinance can result in an individual notice, the cost of work being contracted to a third party and added to your property taxes, or other penalties. – Source: Shorewoodmn.gov DiGruttolo was referring to the weeds growing onsite at the Walnut Grove development, which exceed 12” . The response was the weeds conform to the ordinance. Do you agree?

(Click to enlarge)

5. STAFF AND COUNCIL REPORTS (video)

No related documents in the public packet.

A. Staff

• Public Works-Morreim: PW is prepared for the coming winter weather.
• Engineer-Budde: Plans are being finalized for the Mill Street and Galpin Trail projects.
• Finance-Schmuck: Her team is pulling together the assessment rules and wrapping up the budget for the December council meeting.
• Planning-Griffith: The Dec. 2 planning commission meeting is cancelled; this is the busiest time of year as projects are getting ready for winter; the zoning code update project will start before the end of the year.

B. Mayor and City Council (video start 1:47:44)

• Attorney: 3-year contract was approved on the consent agenda
• Administrator-Nevinski:
  • November park commission meeting was cancelled,
  • Rink attendant training is starting
  • Metronet is wrapping up their fiber deployment for the year and will start again in the spring. Questions should be directed to Metronet.
  • The fire district sold its heavy rescue truck for $172,500. Excess revenues will be refunded the difference-Shorewood will get $26,535 according to the formula.
  • The refund will help offset the cost of the replacement chiller.
• DiGruttolo asked for a 2nd time to be included in the Hwy 7 meetings and be more involved.
• Gorham said he fields questions about Hwy 7 as well.
  • He has questions about assumptions and the conceptual design.
  • He wants to review their modelling, or have MnDOT make a presentation to the council to challenge the work so far.
  • Budde suggested an outreach to MnDOT to get more info. He and Morreim have attended several meetings.
  • Gorham asked how to inform residents and the council, neither Budde nor Nevinski could answer the questions.
  • Nevinski will “add it to the list.”
  • Gorham feels that since Shorewood is pushing the MnDOT planning, it should take more leadership to get conversation going about the mystery of the assumptions made so far.
• Sanschagrin: Net proceeds from the LMCC building sale will be $527k to be received on Dec. 1. LMCC receipts were tallied at $251k, and disbursements at $293k.
• Labadie: Thanked SSSP and the Legion for handling the Veterans Day luncheon in early November. She attended various other meetings.

6. ADJOURN