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• • • Eagle Brook Church May 12, 2003 page 3 This is not to discount residents' concern over additional traffic. However, additional traffic will occur with or without the church. In fact, the existing transportation infrastructure is inadequate to handle the development planned by the communities of Lino Lakes, Hugo, and Columbus Twp., not to mention possible development in Centerville. Recent discussion of a professional sports stadium and related development in the immediate vicinity represents an extreme case of major infrastructure reconstruction. Clearly, the road capacity issue cannot be resolved by Eagle Brook Church. One of the purposes of an EAW is to identify possible mitigation measures. At a minimum, the City of Lino Lakes, Anoka County, and the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation all must cooperate to address the problem. This also should include Columbus Twp., Hugo, Centerville, and Washington County because they will affect and be affected by the transportation infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of the proposed project. All of these jurisdictions are discussing how to address the roadway issues that are known to all of them and highlighted by this EAW. The proposed church project does not create this problem of inadequate infrastructure. The church project is simply the first one to confront the problem. The next development project will face the exact same traffic issues, but on a day -to -day basis during the week. Such impacts likely would be greater than the traffic generated by the proposed church. The church has proposed the temporary mitigative measure of traffic control personnel at the affected locations: Main St. and 20`h Ave., the freeway ramps, and the entrance to the site. As part of redesigning the site plans, the City and Anoka County will work with the project proposer to examine access options such as access roads rather than just driveways onto 20`h Ave. The solution lies in a cooperative study of the land use in the area and the transportation infrastructure needed to support it. The problem can be corrected through cooperative infrastructure improvements by the numerous regulatory authorities involved in planning the infrastructure. Stormwater Management: Water quality questions are best addressed through the design of stormwater facilities. In the case of the proposed church, the design incorporates numerous elements known as best management practices, or BMPs. These include rain gardens, overland runoff, and swales, as well as native plantings around wetlands and on a large area (40+ acres) of the site intended for prairie grasses. The existing woodlands along the lake will remain undisturbed. The original plan was to leave the existing "ditch" underground. The EAW analysis resulted in a probable redesign to bring the ditch to the surface —to "daylight" it and realign it to improve the ability to maintain flow through the site. This likely will be an