03/31/2004 Env Bd Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Agenda Item 5B Environmental Board Meeting Date: March 31, 2004 Topic: Junes Subdivision Application Background: The City received application to subdivide a parcel of about 66 acres and build two houses on newly created lots. The property is located North of 62nd Street, and west of West Shadow Lake Drive (See attachment 1). The Junes property is zoned LDSR (Low Density sewered Reserve) in an area staged for growth between 1998 and 2010. The following attachments are provided: 1. Location Map 2. Preliminary Plat, Grading and Erosion Control Plan 3. MLCCS 4. Landscape -Scale Resources 5. Soils 6. Rice Creek Watershed Correspondance Analysis: The Minnesota Land Cover Classification (Attachment 3) shows short grasses with sparse tree cover, a pond, and a few aspen in a saturated situation. Recently the entire area has been cultivated and is for the most part bare ground. There are no significant trees on the site; therefore, a tree preservation plan is not needed. The larger scale picture (Attachment 4) shows the Junes property in a unique /rare plant corridor area. The rare plant corridors were generated on GIS by referencing the soils, and hydrology of known rare plant locations. This corridor generally follows a designated greenway area in the City Land Use Plan. A survey of the site verified that there are no remaining rare plant species on the portion of the site to be developed. It would be desirable to obtain a conservation easement for the rest of the site in the unique corridor. The soils for this area are wet (Attachment 5). These soils would be very difficult, if not impossible to develop. A portion of the site abuts a feed line to County ditch 25, and the conservation easement would ensure a buffer to this ditch. According to the Blandings turtle modal, the area of this conservation easement is an activity area of the turtles, with a breeding site to the SW. Since the land to the west is City parkland, perhaps the developer would plat this conservation easement as park.