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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-04-07 ENR Minutes CITY OF MAPLEWOOD ENIVRONMENT AL AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION Apri I 7, 2009 515 p.m. COUNCIL CHAMBERS - MAPLEWOOD CITY HALL 1830 COUNTY ROAD BEAST 1. CALL TO ORDER. The meeting was called to order at 522 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present Chair Carol Mason Sherrill Commissioner Judith Johannessen Commissioner Carole Lynne Commissioner Frederica Musgrave Commissioner Bill Schreiner Commissioner Dale Trippler Commissioner Ginny Yingling Council Liaison Councilmember Kathleen Juenemann Staff Environmental Planner Shann Finwall Natural Resources Coordinator Ginny Gaynor Community Development and Parks Director DuWayne Konewko City Engineer Mike Thompson Engineer Steve Love 3. INTRODUCTION OF NEW CITY MANAGER Mr. Jim Antonen, the new city manager, was introduced by Chair Mason Sherrill. Mr. Antonen wanted everyone present to know that he had an "open door" policy in his office and he looked forward to working with all of them. 4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chair Mason Sherrill said that under Unfinished Business, Felicia Szott will not be presenting on Wind Turbines. The Environmental Protection Ordinance will be continued in May; and under Commission Presentations, there would be an update on recycling in city parks; CoPar and Fish Creek; and under Nature Center programs there would be announcements of activities at the Center. Commissioner Lynne made a motion to approve the agenda, seconded by Commissioner Schreiner. The motion carried by a unanimous vote. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. February 3, 2009 1 Commissioner Musgrave said there has been discussion that minutes of meetings will follow a standard procedure format. She also asked about announcing commission members who arrived late for meetings. She said she had made a motion during the February 2, 2009 meeting that had not been recorded in the minutes. Chair Mason Sherrill concurred with Commissioner Musgrave on late arrival times. Commissioner Trippler disagreed, stating the Planning Commission implements this procedure. He said when a member is late for a meeting, it would be adopted to note the time of late arrival. The "standardized" minutes will be adopted this year as well. Commissioner Lynne said she did not attend the February 2cd meeting; however she asked whether the call to order was made at 5.30 p.m. Chair Mason Sherrill answered yes, because there were not enough commission members to make up a quorum. When Commissioner Musgrave arrived, they had quorum; the meeting was then called to order. Commissioner Musgrave recommended they table the minutes until they have been rewritten to reflect the motion she had made. Commissioner Musgrave made a motion to table the minutes, seconded by Commissioner Yingling. The motion carried by a vote of six to one, with Commissioner Trippler voting against. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. RAMSEY SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT GROUNDWATER PLAN Mr. Jeff Nash, who is employed by the Ramsey Conservation District, is heading the efforts of the Ramsey County Groundwater Protection Plan. He was present to give background on the project and answer questions. He said this plan was written vvth the help of a technical advisory committee of sixteen members of the groundwater community the Metropolitan Council, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Department of Health, cities, and county environmental planning and health. He said it also involved city engineers on a local advisory committee. The plan is currently out for a 60-day review and comment period. He hoped that anyone who had an opinion would submit their comments within the next month. Mr. Nash said this project would involve collecting groundwater samples from the near-surface aquifers, submitting them for analysis yearly to check water quality level. They would also like to collect ground water elevation data, matching it with precipitation data to determine how ground water recharge is occurring. They would also look at precipitation and match vvth elevation change in the groundwater levels. The cost of this project is $130,000 for the first year; which includes capital and staff costs. Ramsey Conservation District believes Maplewood has a leadership role to play in this project. The second year the cost would be $120,000, because capital costs do not occur in the second year. Questions were asked from the commissioners. Mr. Nash answered the questions. b. MAPLEWOOD ROAD PROJECT PROCESS UPDATE City Engineer Thompson was present to give the commission an update on road projects as part of the Capital Improvement Plan. The first step in a road project is to conduct the feasibility study, once that is complete they obtain authorization from the city council to move ahead, the engineering staff would start preparing a report from September to December and ideally hold a public hearing in December. If the 2 project is approved by the City Council then from December to March plans and specifications would be worked on and staff would come back to the City Council in March to get final approval of the plans. They would then put the plans out for bid, and the last phase would take place in April when they would award a construction contract. That is the time that an assessment hearing would be held and the final approval by the City Council would be given. Mr. Thompson said city staff vvll work closer with the environmental commission earlier in the road projects to ensure they are addressing environmental aspects of each project such as storm water. Commissioner Lynne stated that her residential street was reconstructed, and she was told that the street was built to last only 30 years. One reason for this is because of the multitude of trash haulers driving on the street. Ordinarily the street would last 100 years, and she wanted to know if the staff could conduct a study to find out the impacts of trash hauling trucks on city streets and what the city could do about it. Mr. Thompson said large trucks do have an impact on city streets. The weight of some of the trash hauling trucks is equal to over a thousand car tires. Mr. Thompson said he would put related information into a report format and submit it to the commission. Chair Mason Sherrill asked about wide, blacktopped streets and thinking about making the streets look more aesthetically pleasing. Mr. Thompson said they were attempting to work toward environmentally conscious projects and will now work more closely with the commission to ensure this is accomplished. Commissioner Schreiner asked about impervious versus pervious surfaces. Mr. Thompson said they are redoing some parking lots vvth pervious surfaces; however it is not typically an accepted practice on roads in our northern climate, but new products are being tested. Hopefully in the future they would be able to work vvth more pervious materials with streets and roadways. c. STORMWATER MANAGEMENT ENHANCEMENTS AT SPOON LAKE PRESERVE AND KOHLMAN PARK Engineer Love was at the meeting to present information about the Carsgrove Neighborhood street project which is located south of County Road C between Highway 61 and Keller Parkway. He said that approximately 1.3 miles of residential roads would be reconstructed, including Cypress Street, Forest Street, Brooks, Lamont, Connor, and Palm Courts. As part of this street reconstruction project, the city is required to infiltrate an inch of runoff from these impervious areas. While the staff realized this is a fully developed neighborhood, there are a couple of areas that this could be done, one of which is at the entrance to Spoon Lake Preserve at the south end of Forest Street and the other is at Kohlman Park, between Cyprus Street and the basketball courts. He said they would also be offering individual rain gardens to residents. According to the plans, the basin at the south end of Forest Street would treat approximately 57 percent, and the basin at Kohlman Park would treat about 43 percent of the water. In Spoon Lake preserve, there are two wetlands; a high quality wetland in the north, and one in the south. The south wetland has had disturbances and is in the impacted area. When this was proposed as a location, they knew it would have a significant impact to the preserve area, so they wanted to come up vvth the best plan to fit this area. The following items outline the plan 1) Incorporate the basin into the preserve with native plants and technology that allows planting trees in the bottom of the basin; 2) hire a landscape designer to design a good planting plan at the south end of Forest Street; 3) original plans presented by the Watershed District had a large concrete area to allow water and sediment to flow, and also allow water to overflow at a controlled rate, but those plans have changed to allow that to happen underground and plant vegetation over the area; 4) address the existing erosion control problem at the south end of Forest Street by capturing the water, 3 rerouting it to a filtration basin, and allowing that water to be controlled; 5) upgrading the foot trail into the preserve, bringing it as close to the basin as possible, and planting this basin as an amenity and creating a soft trail entrance. Natural Resource Coordinator Gaynor said they found 19 hardwood trees and 6 softwood trees in this area, plus buckthorn. They did a site analysis and it is extremely disturbed ecologically. There are erosion issues and deep gullies; however there is a nice wetland to the north of the site. She said that ecologically it is not a high quality site. She stated it is a difficult tradeoff to remove the trees on the site for storm water management. If approved, however, this design could reconstruct this as a wooded wetland, using different technologies to plant trees with drain tiles. Mr. Love said they are looking for a recommendation from the commission tonight on this project. Commissioner Trippler suggested determining how many rain gardens residents would want in this area and then calculating how much storm water could be filtrated through them. He suggested that this way they could minimize the amount of area needed in this basin. He thought the stormwater improvements would be very beneficial for the area. A commissioner asked about removal of sediment in the stormwater structure. Mr. Love said they would manage sediment through manholes, vvth large vacuums. Mr. Love said staff vvll bring a landscape plan for the basin back to the commission for feedback. Commissioner Yingling made a motion to give support to the project with the commission having input as the project moves forward. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Lynne. The motion carried by a vote of six to one, with Commissioner Musgrave voting against. d. SILVER LAKE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION REQUEST FOR HERBICIDE TREATMENT FUNDING FOR SILVER LAKE Environmental Planner Finwall introduced Brittney Hummel Brittany Hummel, Aquatic Invasive Species Specialist with the Department of Natural Resources. Ms. Hummel has been working with the Silver Lake Improvement Association on the herbicide grant and study of Silver Lake. Ms. Hummel due to the limited time left in the meeting she would like to make herself available for questions from the commission. Commissioner Musgrave said the mayor was concerned about the chemicals going into the lake in 2008. Ms. Hummel said they would only allow legal chemicals to be put into the lake. She said this is a pilot project, and every lake will have different outcomes. She said Silver Lake is one of the most highly monitored lakes in Minnesota, so it vvll give them excellent data on shallow lakes in Minnesota. She said they suspect that the treatment of Eurasian water milfoil may have caused a problem in 2008. This treatment can damage native plants, and so this year they will only be treating for curlyleaf pondweed. Commissioner Trippler asked if the water quality is improving at Silver Lake. Ms. Hummel said that they vvll have a better idea of how the treatment will work after this year's treatment. Because the water quality went down last year, they are modifying their plans. The DNR vvll reassess the 4 situation after the current season to see if the water quality continues to decline and whether or not to continue vvth this project. Commissioner Yingling made a motion to recommend approval of the herbicide treatment funding ($8,250) for Silver Lake for this year, seconded by Commissioner Trippler. The motion carried by a vote of six to one, with Commissioner Musgrave voting against. e. UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA URBAN TREE MANAGEMENT PLAN Dr. Gary Johnson was present from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Johnson's Urban Tree Management class does pro bono tree work for different communities. This year his class worked on a boulevard tree project for the City of Maplewood. The report discusses the pros and cons and gives a cost benefit analysis of planting trees within the boulevard. This includes thoughtfully placing trees in boulevards to have useful long lives. He stated that the Minnesota Department of Transportation tree plans breaks down the costs of trees, maintenance, and benefits very well. Chair Mason Sherrill thanked Dr. Johnson and the students for their work. 7. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS No visitors present. 8. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS Because of time constraints the commission presentations were tabled. 9. STAFF PRESENTATIONS Natural Resources Coordinator Gaynor announced "Adopt a Park" for April which is an initiative of the Maplewood Nature Center. She said residents could pick up a kit on April 17th and the cleanup will be held on April 18th The "Spring Clean Up" is April 25th at Aldrich Arena from 7.00 a.m. to 100 p.m. Director Konewko said the Nature Center is offering a digital photography class on April 21 ~t in conjunction with a calendar class. He said on April 25th there will be a "Sustainable Landscaping Class" and 'Wild Gardens-Taking Cues from Nature" class. He said on April 13th and 27th the City Council vvll have the first and second reading of the Wetland Ordinance. Open Space Coordinator Gaynor said May 1 ~t is Ribbon Cutting and May Day. Invitations vvll be sent out for the Ribbon Cutting ceremony. Arbor Day is May 2cd, and Chair Mason Sherrill is helping with that endeavor. Natural Resources Coordinator Gaynor said there is also a "Heritage Tree" program which is listed on the city's web site. 1 0 ADJOURN Chair Mason Sherrill adjourned the meeting at 7.00 p.m. 5