CITY HALL:
Offices are closed the following days:
New Year's Day, Jan.1
Martin Luther King Jr Day, Jan. 20
Presidents' Day, Feb. 17
VILLAGE NEWS:
FALCON HEIGHTS POLICE CONTRACT UPDATE
St. Anthony Village & Falcon Heights City Councils Renew Police Partnership
The St. Anthony Village and Falcon Heights City Councils voted to move forward with a contract to renew a police services partnership between the two cities. Beginning March 1, 2025, the St. Anthony Police Department will provide 24/7 emergency response within Falcon Heights. The department plans a phased increase in daily patrols within city limits as additional officers become available. Patrol hours will ramp up as staffing permits, with 24-hour patrols expected by January 2027. SAPD will hire nine additional staff members. The cost of these new positions will be covered through contract fees paid by Falcon Heights and will not result in a levy increase to St. Anthony Village property owners, though the increased SAPD capacity will benefit both the St. Anthony Village and Lauderdale communities.
Prioritizing Communication and Alignment
The new partnership includes a commitment to prioritize communication between the three City Councils to ensure stability and ongoing alignment on contract management, service expectations and shared risk. A Joint Operations Committee consisting of City leaders and SAPD command staff will meet quarterly.
2025 UTILITY RATES
- New rates are effective Jan. 1, 2025. Visit savmn.com/utilitybilling
- Meters are automatically read at the end of each quarter: March 31, June 30, Sept. 30, Dec. 31
- Bills are mailed: Jan. 20, April 20, July 20, Oct. 20
- Payment is due: Feb. 25, May 25, Aug. 25, Nov. 25
PAY ONLINE: Visit savmn.com and click on orange Utility Billing button to visit Invoice Cloud, our online payment platform. Enter your account number (without dashes) and Last Name. Search Invoices to view most recent bill and make payment.
CONNECT WITH YOUR COUNCIL
Saint Anthony Village residents and business members are invited to visit with City Council members, ask questions and share insights, learn what was accomplished in 2024, and look ahead to the City’s goals for the new year. Refreshments provided. More dates will be announced for February & March - savmn.com/connectwithcouncil
DATE: Saturday, Jan. 25
TIME: 9-11AM
LOCATION: Council Chambers
SERVICE LINE INVENTORY UPDATE
The City of Saint Anthony Village service line materials inventory is now publicly available. Residents can check service line materials by visiting the Lead Inventory Tracking Tool (LITT) at maps.umn.edu/LSL. To complete the inventory, the City performed record reviews, community outreach, and visual inspections. Letters were sent to households with galvanized pipes and/or pipes with an unknown material. If you received a letter, there may be action requested (additional in-person inspection or pipe replacement). If you did not receive a letter, no further action is needed. Thank you to everyone for your assistance with this initiative.
WHAT’S NEXT? The City will apply for grant funds in 2025-2026 when the application for funding grants open. If awarded funds, the City will work to complete replacements as federal/state funds are provided.
ST. ANTHONY WINE & SPIRITS
Maximizing Efforts; Producing Results
Now that the year 2024 is over, the staff at St. Anthony Village Wine and Spirits, your Municipal Liquor Stores, will be evaluating our successes and missed opportunities. Our goal is to improve operations and determine what we can do to provide a better shopping experience for customers. Our mission to “control the sale of adult consumables while simultaneously generating revenue” will not change, but our goals to continue this mission may adjust to maximize our efforts and produce the best results.
Early figures from our pending 2024 financial statement indicate that our sales dropped slightly while net profit increased. We continue to implement new retail initiatives to increase sales and profits. 2024 brought the introduction of THC/CBD drinks to our market. This was an important addition to our product selection as many consumers have transitioned into these low dose seltzers from products that contain alcohol. We expect this trend to continue as the introduction of Cannabis enters the marketplace.
It is important for our customers and residents to know that our profits are used for the benefit of the community. While you are enjoying our beautiful parks and the services that our Police, Fire and Public Works Departments provide, remember that our liquor stores contribute to the funding for equipment to provide city services. We want to thank our customers for shopping at our stores and keeping the profits in our community!
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you!
CONTACT:
Liquor Store Operations Manager, Mike Larson
612-782-3455 | mike.larson@savmn.com
CITY PLANNING
Zoning Ordinances, Variances & Reasonable Use
Most know that the City has a Zoning Ordinance that regulates the use of land, and how intensely land can be developed. Zoning regulations are formed around the idea of “reasonable use” – what can a property owner reasonably expect to use their land for? Reasonableness is a concept built around our own expectations for land use, the impacts of that use (and therefore, the intensity of the use) on our neighborhood, and also, how we can expect our neighbors to use their land.
Variances as Solutions
But what can we do when the things we want to do on our property exceed the box that zoning has created for us? The process for considering an expansion of how we use our property is called a variance. The variance process is built into the State’s land use laws as a way to appeal to the zoning authority for a modification of its regulations. The variance process requires the property owner to apply for a variance, which is then reviewed by Planning Commission following a public hearing and continent upon City Council approval. Variances can only be considered for changes in some dimension of the allowed use, not for the use itself. Thus, in a single family zoning district, a variance might be possible from a setback standard, but cannot be employed to change the nature of the land use (such as for requesting a two-family residence or a commercial use).
Moreover, variances require that certain statutory measures be met to qualify. In sum, the property owner is supposed to prove:
1. The proposed use is a reasonable use of the property.
2. There are unique physical conditions on the property (not created by the applicant) that create practical difficulties to accomplishing “reasonable” use, thus requiring a variance to overcome these conditions.
In simpler terms, for single family parcels, these criteria usually come down to showing that there is some less-than-standard aspect of an existing home, and that there is no realistic way to correct that deficiency without getting a variance. Also, Note for Variances - the property owner is not permitted to use economic conditions as the sole factor for variance support. Explaining that the proposed solution is cheaper, and complying with the ordinance is too expensive, is not adequate support for variance consideration.
What is Reasonable?
In St. Anthony, a common condition that could come up would be for properties that were built with a single car garage. A nice feature in 1954, but no longer adequate in 2024. The code requires at least 15 feet of total side yard space - and no less than 5 feet on either side (so for instance, 5’ on one side,10’ on the other).
Imagine that the condition of a property is such that the property owner wants to add a second garage stall to the side of an existing single garage. However, the garage addition would result in less than a 5’ setback. In this case, we might say that a two-car garage is a reasonable use for a contemporary single family home, and the current owner obviously did not build the original house and create those existing setbacks. Therefore, the condition on the property (not created by the applicant) results in needing a variance for the reasonable expansion of the garage. Note: This analysis is for hypothetical purposes only.
Variances and Reasonable Development
Variances are a possible solution when contemporary land uses don’t fit on an existing parcel in compliance with current zoning restrictions. They are intended to be used rarely and sparingly, since the presumption is that most parcels are designed to accommodate reasonable development. With this acknowledgment, St. Anthony Village encourages property owners to reinvest in their housing stock, and further encourages creative design and use of land.
GARBAGE and RECYCLING
HOLIDAY COLLECTION SCHEDULE: Trash and recycling will be delayed one day New Years Day (Jan. 1 - Jan. 3)
RECYCLE YOUR OLD HOLIDAY LIGHTS – drop off old and broken holiday lights in the atrium at City Hall through Jan. 31
HOLIDAY TREE DISPOSAL
Aspen Waste will pick up trees at no charge for residents under the City Single Hauler Contract. To have your tree picked up, bring it to your curb Jan. 1 through Jan. 17. Be sure to remove all decorations, lights, tinsel and tree bags. (Flocked trees are not accepted.)
ASPEN WASTE SERVICE REMINDER
• Be sure to clear snow and ice from around your carts.
• Do not place carts, bulk items or your holiday tree in snow banks.
• If you have walk-up service, please be sure the path our drivers use to collect your cart
is free of ice and snow, salted and sanded, to ensure driver safety.
• Please have carts at the collection point by 7am on your service day.
UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS
Jan. 1 News Years Day Holiday*
Jan. 4 Cardboard Recycling Event
Jan. 14 City Council Meeting (with Work Session)
Jan. 15 – 17 City Goal Setting
Jan. 20 Martin Luther King Day Holiday*
Jan. 21 Planning Commission Meeting
Jan. 25 Connect with Your Council
Jan. 28 City Council Meeting (with Work Session)