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Conservation Commission - 07/12/2011 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JULY 12, 2011 7:00 P.M., CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Prashant Shrikhande, Anthony Pini, Kurt Lawton COMMISSION STAFF PRESENT: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary Leslie Stovring, Environmental Coordinator Stu Fox, Parks Manager GUEST: Jeff Strate Vicky Miller Mark Casanova I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Shrikhande was absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Jester added Item V.A. GreenStep Cities and Item V.B. GE Capital Plans. Motion: Brown moved, seconded by Daniels, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 6-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the June 14, 2011 Conservation Commission Meeting Curielli noted the words "Non Usable" should be changed to "non-reusable" in Item II. and Item VIII.C. Motion: Daniels moved, seconded by Lawton, to approve the June 14, 2011, minutes as amended. Motion carried 6-0. IV. SPEAKERS A. Birch Island Woods Parking Lot (Jeff Strate) Jeff Strate, 15021 Summerhill Drive, Eden Prairie, said he wanted to talk about some issues with the parking lot project at Birch Island Woods. He said provision Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 2 for a parking lot in the northeast corner of the area was included in the Management Plan adopted in 2002. The plan for the parking lot was shelved for over seven years, and he assumed there would be a public process at the time the parking lot was to be built. Last fall he saw a crew removing trees from the area for the entrance road and the parking lot. There was a public hearing at the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District for grading of the parking lot. He said in the meantime Ms Stovring found we might put pervious pavement in there, and the Watershed District gave a $25,000 grant to the City to install pervious pavement in the parking lot. Jester asked why the public hearing was held at the Watershed District. Strate said the City requested a grading permit and that permit was approved, contingent on some additional data about soils in the area. There was an old dump and a hog barn on the site,but no one knows where the dump was located. He thought that was something the Watershed District should pay attention to because the parking lot will be pervious pavement. Strate said during the course of all of this none of the commissions that might have been interested in this parking lot plan were advised about the project, which he found to be disturbing. Strate said the City claims they want to open up the woods for more parking to make it more available to more people. He believes there is plenty of existing parking, both at Edenwood and along Birch Island Road and Indian Chief Road. He said a number of people agree it is not a good thing to put a parking lot in a conservation area like this. hi addition the City's agreement states the Watershed District is to maintain the pervious pavement for only ten years. Jester asked why the parking lot was included in the plan in 2002. Strate said as part of the Task Force he opposed it then, and suggested other options for parking. He was also somewhat offended that this is being used as a site for the pervious pavement since it is a conservation area and has degraded wetlands where the parking will be. Brown asked if Mr. Strate's objection was to the City putting any kind of parking lot there. Strate said that was correct. Brown noted that would mean the fact that it is pervious pavement is not pertinent to his complaint. Strate said it is not pertinent to his complaint but would be to the Conservation Commission. He thought it would be better to not put in an internal parking lot, and there are better and more visible places to put a demonstration project for pervious pavement. Olson said he was hearing that this is a natural area and it doesn't make sense to tear out a lot of trees to put in a parking lot. There also may be problems with the subsoil we don't know about. Fox said Mr. Strate has been an advocate for Birch Island Woods for many years; however there were some things that were overlooked. He said there was a Phase I Environmental Assessment done prior to the City acquiring this, as well as a Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 3 subsurface investigation of the area where the parking lot was proposed. The full report was done by Hennepin County. Based on that information, the City purchased the property in 2002. A Birch Island Woods Task Force was appointed by the City Council to take a look at this area. The Task Force consisted of 12 residents, one consultant and five staff members who spent five months studying Birch Island Woods. The Task Force report was presented to the Parks Commission and to the City Council in 2002. One year later a concept plan was taken to the Parks Commission and the City Council to put in a parking lot in the area designated in the master plan. Jester asked if the parking lot plans have changed at all and when it become a more permanent plan. Fox said money was put into the Capital Improvement Plan in 2004. Jester asked who did the transition from concept to final plan. Fox said Hansen Thorp Pellinen Olson, Inc. (HTPO) did the concept plan, and the City changed it from a conventional surface to a pervious pavement. Jester asked if there are plans now that someone could use to go in and build. Stovring said it is in the same location and the same shape. What has changed is that Nine Mile Creek Watershed District now has infiltration requirements that had to be added. Instead of rain gardens we proposed using permeable pavement. She said the railroad bed is not paved but it is very compact and will be accessible to the handicapped. Olson asked about the concerns regarding what is under the soil. Fox said they did a subsurface test down to five feet. Daniels said Mr. Strate has raised the question of what is under it at 10-20 feet down. He asked if we can say there is not a dump there. Fox said we cannot. Brown asked if we know why the parking lot was proposed in the first place. Fox said it was proposed because of a desire to bring people in off the road. There were concerns about people offloading from the road and the access grade would not allow them to come in. The site of the hog barn lends itself to putting in a parking lot at minimal grade. Only the buckthorn and box elders were cleared out last fall. Brown asked if there is any study about the traffic to the area. Stovring said the Engineering Department was concerned about parking on Indian Chief Road because of the speed of cars on that road. She said Gene Dietz told the City Council he did not endorse parking on Indian Chief Road. Jester noted she would like to concentrate the discussion to concerns about the environment and conservation. Strate said he has been working with a landscape architect to look at parking areas, and they feel the best thing for the area would be indented parking along Indian Chief Road rather than an internal parking lot. Jester asked what the projected increase in use of the conservation area would be because of the parking lot. Stovring said it will make it more accessible. Daniels asked if we have contacted any group that works with the handicapped to come in and evaluate the Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 4 trail for accessibility and to see if the entryway could be modified to make it accessible. Lawton said most of the parks he has been to in Eden Prairie have parking lots and asked why this shouldn't have a parking lot like the other ones. Strate said it is a conservation area, not a recreational park. Jester said she thought getting people to a resource is important and as more people access the woods, the more they will be concerned about it. Vicky Miller said she also served on the Task Force, and it was a unanimous decision of the Task Force that the parking lot be built. Indian Chief Road is very narrow and it is difficult to get children out of a car. Strate said he agreed about the safety issue because right now that road is narrow. He thought we could solve the safety issue by developing on-street parking. He didn't believe a parking lot is the best way to promote the area. Daniels asked what the plans are for Indian Chief Road. Stovring said there are no immediate plans. Fox said one of the conditions of the grant is that we have to provide information to the Watershed District about the soil borings. We have provided them with extensive information of what was done in 2001. He said the plan is to put the parking lot in at grade, and the only excavation would be to remove the slab for the hog barn. Jester asked if there have been additional soil borings done. Fox said we got back preliminary results of those but do not have the final results. Jester asked how that might affect the project. Stovring said they looked at permeability of the soil. Jester asked if it was analyzed for contamination. Fox said they tested for permeability or ground water. Strate said the City has applied for a capital improvement bonding bill to improve Edenwood, and the Midwest Asphalt site will probably be redeveloped. Any parking along Indian Chief Road has to anticipate what the development of the area will be. The City has the option to buy from Hennepin County a line of trees by Indian Chief Road to plan for the redevelopment of the road and he thought we could negotiate parking for that. He said he brought a proposed resolution for action by the commission. Jester didn't feel action is required by this commission. Daniels said he would like to see the plans to see how it feeds into the woods and how it will make the woods accessible for the handicapped. Fox said copies are available. Pini asked what he would like to see on the plans. Daniels said he has walked by the area that has been cleared and wondered how much area the parking lot will take up. He would also like to see handicapped accessibility here, but he didn't know how much accessibility there could be. That was why he suggested having an outside group review what the accessibility would be. Fox said one of the members of the Task Force was in a wheelchair, and that individual could not get into the area as it is currently graded. He gave a plan of the parking lot to Mr. Daniels, noting it shows raingardens which will not be needed if permeable pavement is used. Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 5 Daniels said he was concerned about the ground water because this is an area that is collecting water and a certain amount of oil will be added from cars parking there. He asked if there are ten spaces on the parking lot plans. Fox said the recommendation was eight, but they included nine and the handicapped spot. Daniels asked why the parking lot was placed so far into the area. Fox said a concrete slab was already there and there were very few trees in that area. Brown felt there are a lot of issues and she thought we should study this project if we are going to do something with it. She would like to see natural areas stay natural,but there is an accessibility issue. Olson asked if there will be more soil testing. Jester said the testing gave us information on permeability, not contamination. Olson said he thought it would be preferable to do testing for hazardous materials. Pini said from a conservation perspective he found it hard to defend a parking lot, but also understand there are issues of accessibility. There may be another solution that is less intrusive that would serve the accessibility issue. Lawton said it seems all the due diligence was done properly and the approval of the Task Force was unanimous. He thought efforts have been made to make it as conservation oriented as possible, so he was of a mind to accept it as is. Jester said she was not hearing any wish to proceed with the proposed resolution. She wondered if there is a compromise to be made with the parking lot maintenance issue and perhaps specify it be maintained in perpetuity. Stovring said if we went with non-pervious pavement we would have to put in rain gardens. Either way there would be treatment of rain water on the site. Fox said we have strived to make sure we don't add to the pollution of the lakes, and he thought we have been pretty good stewards. He could understand the 10-year maintenance issue, and he offered to talk to the City Attorney and the Watershed District to see how we could deal with that. Jester said since the master plan was approved it should be solid. She did not think we will take any action tonight. She suggested we look into the possibility of including language to extend the life of the pervious pavers and perhaps look into the possibility of contaminants in the soil. The Commission recessed at 8:05 PM,returning at 8:10 PM. B. MS4 Stormwater Permit (Leslie Stovrins!) Jester said we get the MS4 stormwater permit from the EPA every five years to allow us to discharge stormwater in the system. They are coming out with a new draft permit, and many staff members have concerns about it. She said she asked Ms Stovring to come tonight to go over the concerns. Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 6 Stovring said the draft was put out by the MPCA who is designated by the EPA to administer the stormwater permit program. She said Eden Prairie was one of 30 cities who had extra requirements for non-degradation. Our current permit expired on May 31, and we got the draft of the new permit the same day. She said there is a Minnesota Cities Stormwater Coalition (MCSC) that is administered by the League of Minnesota Cities. The MCSC formed a subcommittee to review the draft permit and prepare comments, and an additional subcommittee was formed to work with an attorney to draft a contested case hearing request. She said these groups want definitions included in the permit in order to know what to expect. There are a lot of forms to be developed that would allow the MPCA to change requirements at will. They are trying to pass rules through the permits and are trying to transfer the permitting authority to the cities so they do not have to do enforcement. They want to regulate volume by putting it in their permits. Jester asked if they are specifying a certain volume of infiltration. Stovring said it just says that cities should infiltrate. Jester asked how it differs from the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District's requirements. Stovring said it is worse than the Watershed District's requirements. Daniels said it sounds like Eden Prairie cannot meet the standards as they are written. Stovring said it would be very expensive to meet the standards and would limit development. She said we want the permit to specify up front"to the Maximum Extent Practicable" when imposing standards because we believe that is the intent of the Federal Clean Water Act. That would allow for flexibility on a location by location basis. Daniels asked if that would give some cities an out for not doing it. Stovring said there is a process to ensure something is done. She noted our cost for the inventory alone is $2,000,000. She said the contested case petition forces the MPCA to come to the negotiation process. She distributed copies of our draft comments letter. Jester thought the phrase "eliminate exposure" is very general. Stovring said her suggestion was that it should reduce exposure to pollutants to the MEP. Jester asked Ms Stovring if she saw anything in the permit that would give a positive change for the environment. Stovring said she was glad to see that the pond inventory requirements were stepped up. We are already doing that and have submitted a schedule to complete it in ten years. The permit just says it must be done to determine the treatment efficiency of the ponds. Jester asked if this is something we can put in the comments letter as a positive note. Stovring said she has told them verbally but would not want to include that in the letter. Olson asked if this will be presented to the City Council at some point. Stovring said she has talked to Council Member Aho,but the comments are due Friday. Jester asked if the Council knows we are part of the contested suit. Stovring said they do, and the City Attorney and the City Manager reviewed it. Daniels asked what the outcome of the process will be. Stovring said we hope to make the definitions better and clearer so we know what we need to do to meet Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 7 the requirements. Daniels asked what their response to that will be. Stovring thought some of the definitions will have to be resolved. Olson asked why the State continues on the course if they know they will be sued. Stovring said there were a lot of meetings held before the last permit and then they were sued anyway. It will be a few months until we know how this shapes up. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. GreenStep Cities Rojas said she registered the City on the GreenStep Cities website before it was shut down when the State shutdown earlier this month. When it is up and running again, she will start to get the items entered and checked off. Jester asked that this be put on the Agenda as a regular item. B. G E Capital Plans Rojas said the GE Capital project was presented at the Planning Commission last night. They recommended approval, and it will go to the City Council in August. They are including solar panels, raingardens, educational signage and a section of porous pavement. They are creating an outlot on the south portion of the property to preserve the area near the wetlands. If the Council approves First Reading, it will go for final approval in September. Jester asked if they are asking for a variance. Rujas said they are asking for a waiver of architectural requirements. The Planning Commission recommended that the exterior requirements be reduced to 55% of the building from the standard 75%. Proponent was accepting of that. Jester asked if there were any other requirements. Rojas said they propose to increase the native plantings. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Meeting with Communications Division Recap (Kurt Lawton) Lawton said he met with them three weeks ago. They discussed different ideas of handouts and flyers as well as potential topics for the newsletter and the website. The website is being redone in the next 10 months. They will take a look at how it is organized and offer suggestions for topics and how it could be reorganized from a conservation perspective. Jester said we talked about writing short articles to submit to Life in the Prairie. She asked if he thought we could do that every other month. Rojas said she would get the deadline dates for the publication. Jester said we can put together a calendar of topics at the next meeting if we have the deadline dates. Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 8 Daniels noted there was an interesting article about a company that makes reusable plastic boxes for moving instead of using cardboard. VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. Parks and Recreation Commission Joint Workshop Topics Rojas said the meeting will be on Tuesday, August 9. We will meet with the Parks Commission for an hour downstairs in the Heritage Room and will then come back upstairs for our regular meeting. Daniels said there were no recycling bins within the food area at the Fourth of July celebration. Lawton asked if it is the City's responsibility to remove those from the parks. Rojas said she believes we move garbage from the park system to a larger area. Pini said he was at Staring Lake and saw bins that were not designated as trash or recycling. Brown said she would like to see how they are treating native plants and how we can help promote more natural environments. Jester thought there might be educational signage in some areas. Daniels suggested adding more rain gardens. Rojas said the GreenStep Cities program has a lot of crossover with the Parks Commission and that might be something to highlight. Jester said we should give them a list of those crossover areas. Daniels thought we could review what is going on in the conservation areas like the Richard T. Anderson Conservation Area and the Big Woods. He would also like to know about development at Round Lake. Brown asked if we should include the status of fish in the lakes. Jester thought they are interested in water quality but don't think they have been active in any carp kills or restocking. Jester reviewed the list: recycling in the parks, GreenStep Cities program, native plantings/rain gardens,plus others as time allows. IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Communication Strategies—Website, Life in the Prairie, Facebook, etc. B. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Rojas said the second item is a 22-lot on the south side of Duck Lake Trail just north of Prairie View Elementary school. It has been recommended for approval and is scheduled to go to the Council in August. Conservation Commission Minutes July 12, 2011 Page 9 Olson asked Ms Rojas to point out any projects that would be an opportunity for rain gardens or permeable pavement. Jester asked if there were any conservation designs at Prairie Ridge. Rojas said they met all the requirements. X. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS Rojas distributed a copy of Southwest Metro Magazine. She said several months ago Joyce Lorenz asked for ideas for this issue which is devoted to clean businesses or residences. She said Ms Brown is highlighted in the magazine. The company that did solar panels would like to come before the Commission. XI. UPCOMING EVENTS Daniels said he took photos of places where we might locate our booth for the Fourth of July celebration in 2012. Those places would keep us away from the selling booths and would be close to the Police Department booth. Daniels asked if we plan to do something for Sunbonnet Days. Jester suggested we put that on the agenda for August. XII. NEXT MEETING Tuesday, August 9, 2011 XIII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Lawton. Motion carried 6-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:15 PM.