CCP 04-10-1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

I I. 17 March 1995 R-'''' I ' ,:1...d", ._ ~_,\l._<,.,.: Mr. Gregg Downing WAR ? I Environmental Review Coordinator L.. Environmental Quality Board ;CiTY 300 Centennial Building I 658 Cedar Street St. Paul, Minnesota 55155 I Re: Request for an Environmental Assessment Worksheet Dear Mr. Dowuing: . Please consider this letter and its attachments as our fonnal request that an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EA W) be completed for a proposed project to develop a wetland and I open space in Arden Hills, Ramsey County, Minnesota. The proposed project is a townhouse development on approximately six and one-half acres of land owned by Bethel College and Seminary located at the northwest comer of Ramsey . County Road E2 and Old Highway 10 (also known as Old Snelling Avenue). The proposer of the project is Daniel Ogren, 4570 Churchill Street, Shoreview, Minnesota 55126 (telephone (612) 481-6765). .- We have prepared a petition requesting an EA W which contains the signatures and mailing addresses of more than 25 individuals as required by Minn. Stat. Section 116D.04, subd. . 2a(c) (1994) and Minn. R. 4410.1100 (1993). ~ Exhibit A (attached). Moreover, we contend that the proposed project to build townhouses on wooded open space which contains three delineated wetlands and is adjacent to protected wetlands and a protected water requires a mandatory EA W. I As you know, an EA W is "a brief document which is designed to set out the basic facts necessary to detennine whether an EIS is required for a proposed project or to initiate the scoping I process for an EIS." Minn. R. 4410.0200, subp. 24 (1993). See also Minn. Stat. Section 116D.04, subd. la(c) (1994). An EA W is a fact-finding tool created to give governmental officials important infonnation about a proposed project's potential for affecting the environment. . "An EA W must be prepared for projects that meet or exceed the threshold of any" mandatory category. Minn. R. 4410.4300, subpart L Minn. R. 4410.4300, subp. 27 identifies wetlands and protected waters as a mandatory threshold category. It states in relevant part that I "[flor projects Ihat will change or diminish the course, current, cross-section of one acre or more of any protected water or protected wetland. . . ." an EA W is required.! . 1 A protected water and protected wetland are defined by what is a public water and wetland in Minn. Stat. Section 1030.005, subds. 15 and 19, Wetland "means lands transitional between terrestriai and aquatic systems where the . water table is usually at or near the surface or the iand is covered by shaUow water. For purposes of this definition, wetiands must have the foUowing three attributes: (1) have a predominance of hydric soils; (2) are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of .e hydrophytic vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions; and (3) under normal circumstances support a prevalence of such vegetation, . , ," I 1