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OCT-06-1999 08:23 CITY OF BLOOMINGTON LARKIN, HOFFMAN, DALY & LINDGREN, L ro. 6129488949 P.05/07 Ivlr. Clark Arneson, Manager November 5, 1997 Page 18 that may affect the potential for significant adverse environmental effects, a new EA W is required. "Substantial change" is not defined in EQB Rules. Minn. Rules, Pt. 4410.1700, subp. 7 provides criteria for deciding whether a project has the potential for significant environmental effects. It provides that the following factors shall be considered: · Type, extent and reversibility of environmental effects. . Cumulative potential effects of related or anticipated future projects. . The extent to which environmental effects are subject to mitigation by ongoing public regulatory authority. · The extent to which environmental effects can be anticipated and controlled as the result of other environmental studies undertaken by public agencies or the project proposer, or of EIS' s previously prepared on similar projec~. The currently proposed Phase IV office project on the Phase IV Site is substantially similar to the 300- room hotel project assessed in the original Normandale Lake EA W. Both involve relatively intense . high-rise commercial development with a multi-level parking structure and access to NonnanCenter Drive. Both projects would substantially alter the Phase IV Site and result in comparable amounts of hard surface coverage. Both projects would include an open space buffer along West 84th Street and landscape plantings to screen and soften the loading area and parking structure. Although the boundaries of the Phase N Site have been modified slightly as a resUlt ofreplatting, the current characteristics of the Phase IV Site are substantially similar to the characteristics of the Phase IV Site at the time when the hotel project was assessed in the original Normandale Lake EA W. The Phase IV Site remains undeveloped and is generally flat and low-lying except for a ten-foot rise at the northeast comer. The existing soil conditions were identified in the original Normandale Lake EA W along with the need for construction of buildings on pile foundation. Undisturbed uplands on the current Phase IV Site consist of a woodland:-brush community dominated by northern red oak. A filled former wetland area is comprised of eastern cottonwood, an invasive plant species. The Phase IV Site also includes a 0.68-acre Type 2 wetland that is a smaller remnant of a larger histortc wetland complex that has been significantly degraded by'past fragmentation and hydrologic alterations. This wetland existed on the Phase IV Site at the time of preparation of the original Nonnandale Lake EA W, but was not identified in the document because its preparation pre-dated adoption of the WCA. The surrounding neighborhood and roadway system have developed largely as planned at the time of preparation of the original Normandale Lake EA W. ,The Phase IV Site continues to be bordered by roads on three sides and adjoins the 8300 Tower on the west and an office building and sutface parking lot on the north. Mount Normandale Lake lies to the south across West 84th Street Since the time of preparation of the original envirolUIlental assessment, the City has purchased an undeveloped parcel. .... .-J.