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Environmental Assessment Worksheet Nature's Refuge Conservation Development Lino Lakes, Anoka County, Minnesota Draft Document — September 25, 2006 Page 22 Vegetation Policies Vegetation Policy 1: Encourage the preservation of natural vegetation including plants of Oak Savannas, prairies, woodlands, wetlands and aquatic vegetation to be a design consideration for new subdivisions. Vegetation Policy 5: Promote the use of native grasses, forbs, shrubs and trees in development site restoration. Vegetation Policy 7: Implement strategies for the control of invasive /exotic plant species in greenways, natural areas, and open spaces. Comment: The project is specifically designed to restore and preserve native vegetation, and to manage the natural areas to eradicate exotic plant species and minimize the chance of further invasions. Storm Water/Wetlands/Drainage Policies Storm Water/Wetlands/Drainage Policy 2: Restrict or prohibit development on wetlands, floodplains and other natural features that perform important environmental functions in their natural state. Where desirable and practical, maintain such natural features in a condition for appropriate storm water system or recreational uses. Storm Water/Wetland Drainage Policy 3: Prohibit development on or alteration of natural drainage system components where storm water can be adequately managed without construction of storm sewer. Storm Water/Wetland Drainage Policy 4: Require subdivisions to plat lots with minimum lot area above the designated wetland boundaries to insure adequate buildable area and usable yards. Storm Water/Wetland Drainage Policy 6: Promote higher quality surface water treatment facilities through the use of infiltration and bioretention where appropriate. Storm Water/Wetland Drainage Policy 7: Utilizing the Shoreland Ordinance, establish natural vegetative buffer areas along all lakes, wetlands, creeks, and drainage ways in new developments. Comment: The City has a Surface Water Management Plan, with which all development projects are required to comply. The project will require fill of approximately 7.5 acres of existing wetland, but will restore and preserve the large majority of wetlands on site, including those directly connected via surface channels /ditches to the City ditch system that leads to Marshan Lake. Storm drainage will be handled on site using local -scale infiltration and bioretention solutions: rain gardens, swales, retention ponds. This will prevent direct runoff impacts to wetlands, allowing the existing drainage system to continue functioning without significant alteration. Buffer zones and greenway areas will separate built areas from wetlands, ensuring retention of vegetated filter/buffer strips along all wetland boundaries. Pedestrian/Bicycle Trails Policies Pedestrian/Bicycle Trails Policy 1: Implement the trail planning recommendations of the 1992 Lino Lakes Comprehensive Park Plan and Development Guide, as may be amended. Pedestrian/Bicycle Trails Policy 2: Where feasible, provide pedestrians separated rights -of -way apart from all forms of moving traffic in heavily traveled pedestrian zones, along major thoroughfares and in the more densely developed portion of the community. Comment: The project will establish new public - access trails that will join Main Street and Pine Street, allowing pedestrians to traverse the entire development in rights -of -way that will be separate from vehicular traffic. The Parks plan also gives considerable priority to the City's developing Greenway and Trails systems. According to the Preliminary Park, Greenway, and Trail System Plan, the project site is slated to be part of the City greenway system, with a portion of the City trail network crossing through the property. Much of the site's upland acreage is proposed Natural Resource Conservation Area. The main wetland complex (including Wetlands 3, 4, 6, 7, and some smaller wetlands) is proposed Natural Resource Protected Area. The project is largely consistent with these designations, in that it will restore, manage, and conserve in perpetuity most of the wetland acreage on the site, and will restore, manage, and conserve a portion of the upland acreage as buffer area. Further, as noted above, the