11/30/2021 Environmental Board Minutes

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Environmental Board November 30, 2021 Page 2 APPROVED MINUTES northwest corner of the intersection of Hodgson Road and Blue Heron Drive. The parcel is located in the Neighborhood Business zoning district. The report included a detailed discription of the site’s characteristics, including soils, significant resources, stormwater management and drinking water protection, wetlands and a tree preservation plan among others. The majority of the trees on site are cottonwood. Staff recommended approval of the request with the following recommendations: 1. A Natural Heritage Information System request must be submitted to the DNR to identify any rare, threatened, or endangered species that have been documented within one mile of the site. 2. Exposed soils must be stabilized within 7 days due to proximity to an impaired water (Rice Lake). This must be noted in the plans. 3. Preservation and mitigation standards require 2 additional trees to be planted. Consider oaks in the turf area between the building and Hodgson Road. 4. Open area landscape standards require an additional 42 large shrubs to be planted in open areas. 5. Buffer and screen requirements have not been met. A double row of triangulated plants is needed for the area between the parking lot and right-of-way on Hodgson Road. Also, plants should not be planted under future tree canopy. A fence might be a better option to screen the project site from 6681 Blue Heron Drive. 6. Canopy cover requirements have not been met. An additional 395 sq. ft. of canopy coverage is required. 7. Foundation landscape standards have not been met. An additional 2 large trees and 3 large shrubs will be required for the northeast building face. 8. A seed mix must be specified for the area scheduled for native seed northwest of the infiltration pond. 9. Mulch should be type 3, with MCIA tags provided to the city at time of install. 10. Rolled erosion control product shall be category 25 natural net, per city standard specifications. Mr. Sullivan inquired on the reasoning behind removing a tree on the north end of the property and why it is being mitigated with two new trees. Mr. Nelson responded that the tree removal is necessary for the grading for stormwater management, and that the two mitigation trees are needed because that tree removal is in an Environmentally Sensitive Area which has higher mitigation rates. Mr. Sullivan mentioned that stormwater management for this project included discharge to wetland, and inquired if future projects, such as development on the southwest corner of Hodgson and Lake Drive, were taken into consideration as they might also be discharging stormwater to the same wetland.