Wrong message to citizens about their input value

What a way to set the tone for Ely’s Comprehensive Plan!

Tonight, Tuesday, November 4, 2025 the Mayor of Ely signaled to the citizens how valued (NOT!) their input is when it comes to the direction of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Two citizens requested to appear before Council voted on Planning & Zoning’s recommendation to create a new steering committee. Their requests to appear were submitted “too late,” the Mayor announced. They should have been submitted by Thursday noon last week to get into the Council packet posted Friday PM.

Note: this deadline is not posted anywhere on the 2 different request forms available. (One of the 2 forms – without protocols section at bottom – is apparently no longer available online as of today?) Tonight the Mayor said citizens should look for the submission deadline in Section 2.02 of the City Code. Hopefully it will soon be printed on all the forms as well as clearly mentioned everywhere on City webpages that mention submitting requests to appear.

How can citizens submit a request to speak a day before the agenda item is posted?? This is not logical. See https://www.ely.mn.us/council-meetings Agenda Additions packets are frequently created after the Friday postings.

The Planning & Zoning agendas and packets are posted on the City Government webpage at https://www.ely.mn.us/government. This was a pro-public transparency decision to post P&Z info before the meetings. It’s a great way to encourage public discussion and attendance at their meetings. But for some reason, the agenda and packet for P&Z meeting are not available to view this evening. Agendas and packets for other meetings are available.

To repeat: There was no reasonable way for concerned citizens outside the inner group to know about – much less request to speak publicly before Council rubberstamped – until after the Council Packet was posted Friday, October 31st. The window to respond was closed the day before we knew. Expect this to continue in the future.

City Hall + P&Z tactic successful: Rush things through P&Z Commission and City Council to limit commissioner input, Council questions, and public awareness or ability to respond quickly. Part of this tactic is to NOT have items clearly identified or announced in the meeting packets. This seems to have intensified after January 2024. Council will not publicly protest the last minute Agenda Additions dropped too late for them to review and do followup research. The faster P&Z + City Hall push pro-developer projects and contracts through, the faster their personal reputations grow.

Here’s an unasked question: Why aren’t all the City Council members directly involved in Comprehensive Plan discussions? Why not during their regularly monthly scheduled Study Sessions? Council Members best know who’s in our community and their needs. What they don’t know, they would be eager to learn. It’s obvious they are passionate about and proud of Ely. According to the Ely City Calendar, Council didn’t hold a single Study Session so far in 2025. They held 2 and cancelled 10 in 2024. They held 3 and cancelled 9 in 2023.

In public, City Council Members seem to be afraid of challenging or revising recommendations from Harold Langowski, whether directly from him or thorough the City Planning & Zoning Administrator. Not a single Council Member questioned why 6 members total was the magic number for steering committee members. Council doesn’t really seem to care about seats and votes for citizens. During and after Council’s August 29, 2023 Study Session on Animal Licensing and Regulations lots time was spent discussing the maximum number dogs and cats a household could have. The Comprehensive Plan is less important?

Look closely at the wording used in the unapproved October 20th minutes from P&Z. Future development and funding will be based on what’s in and what’s not in the Comprehensive Plan. What are P&Z + City Hall pushing?

1) There is no mention about quality of life issues in the minutes. Planning & Zoning isn’t (primarily) focused on quality of life or social services. What is not mentioned in their minutes, is not considered important for the proposed steering committee. Guess how many quality of life professionals are currently seated on all the Ely commissions, boards and committees. Here’s the webpage: https://www.ely.mn.us/boards Click on each commission to see the list of members. Expect no quality of life professionals to be seated with voting power on the steering committee. Therefore, quality of life won’t be addressed throughout the Comprehensive Plan, because nobody will keep bringing up that issue. It was ignored in the 2015 Plan. Note: Quality of life isn’t just about sports and active recreation.

2) There is no mention about the environment and nature as being valuable in their undeveloped state or to be preserved and protected. Spaces used for active parks and recreation use and community gardens have different characteristics than “natural areas” used for quiet contemplation, healing, birding, etc. It is appears the current P&Z + City Hall push (strong, hard, fast) to switch Miner’s Drive quiet green areas into business development is working. Green space isn’t valued. Quote: “It is important for land annexation to further enhance the development opportunities with the city.” For more info about anthropocentrism, read https://elyminnesota.com/blog/reviewing-ely-city-visions-plans/

3) There’s no mention about seniors, accessibility, blight, vacant buildings, dog park, or accessibility in the October 20th minutes. Has P&Z already worked on these? What was changed? Seniors and accessibility were ignored in the 2015 plan, aside from handicap parking spaces. No mention means not important, even though 50% of the population are seniors. BTW, we no longer have a designated Ely Senior Center.

4) There’s no mention about Climate Change, the GreenTeam or sustainability issues. P&Z, City Hall and Council surprisingly made no mention of these. Has a seat with voting rights already been designated or rejected for someone who’s been actively involved in these important issues?

Note”. Look at Morris (MN) strategic plan https://morrismodel.org/planning/.

https://morrismodel.org/2024/01/11/revamping-morris-models-sustainability-strategy-unveiling-the-strategic-plan-2-0/

5) There’s no mention of neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are not important? Houses are just property?

6) There’s no mention about ATV trails. Trails keep getting build in Ely. As many in Miners Lake neighborhood know, there are empowered Good Old Boys and allies who want to make Ely an ATV mecca. If ATVs are not mentioned in the notes, you might assume a pro-ATV advocate will be seated with voting power.

7) There was no mention about reviewing other Cities’ Visions and Comprehensive Plans. The desire is craft the Comprehensive Plan the same way it was done previously. Do not expect the City to pay for a survey company or contract. Expect P&Z and City to do outreach, data collection and analysis.

Listen closely to the video to see if anyone was lobbying for citizens, local business owners or key representatives from various community organizations to be seated at the steering committee table with voting power. Assume the lobbying will be off camera. The community and local businesses have strong feelings about whether or not Ely should be a tourist town. What criteria will be used to decide selection of the 1 Council Member and 3 “at large” members? Should Council decide that or P&Z?

Here’s the “description” for the short video clipping of Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. It’s not the full Council meeting.

Regular City Council meeting in Ely, MN held on November 4, 2025. Only part of the meeting was recorded to capture discussion about Planning & Zoning forming a steering committee to update the City of Ely Comprehensive Plan. The discussion and vote took 3 minutes total. Time markers 3’20”- 6’20”