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• • • AGENDA ITEM 6 B STAFF ORIGINATOR: Jeff Smyser MEETING DATE: October 25, 2010 TOPIC: Resolution No. 10 -93: Adopting the Five -Year Update of I -35E Corridor Alternative Urban Areawide Review VOTE REQUIRED: 3/5 BACKGROUND The I -35E Corridor Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) is an environmental review document that analyzed potential impacts of development within a study area of 4660 acres. The City of Lino Lakes prepared the AUAR in accordance with MN Rules 4410. The final document was adopted by the Lino Lakes City Council on October 24, 2005. The AUAR serves as a substitute environmental review. As long as a development project is consistent with the assumptions of the analyses in the AUAR, no additional environmental review is required. That is, no Environmental Assessment Worksheet or Environmental Impact Statement is required for any project in the study area if the project is consistent with the analyses in the AUAR. This can save a project developer significant financial resources that can be devoted to the project instead of an environmental review. In order to remain valid as a substitute form of environmental review, the AUAR must be revised under certain criteria. One of the criteria is the passing of five years. Staff prepared the update and distributed it to state, federal, and regional agencies and everyone who commented on the draft AUAR in 2005, as required by the state rules. In addition, we sent it to neighboring jurisdictions as well. Under MN Rules, state agencies and the Metropolitan Council have ten days from the date of receipt of the update document to file an objection to the document. Objections are to be submitted to the City of Lino Lakes and a copy sent to the MN Environmental Quality Board. The ten -day period has passed and we have received no objections to the update. A few agencies have sent messages that they have no comments on the document. There has been little development activity in the AUAR study area since the 2005 approval. Two development projects have received preliminary plat approval from the City, but neither have begun construction. The City also approved an amendment of the comprehensive plan in the study area, but no construction has occurred on that site, either. The AUAR five -year update describes these projects and how they compare to the AUAR, especially its Mitigation Plan. Two transportation projects are discussed in the update: improvements to Main Street (CSAH 14) and the new I -35E interchange project that began in 2010. These projects were anticipated and analyzed as part of the original AUAR. The update also discusses the Resource Management Plan (RMP), prepared by the Rice Creek Watershed District. The update revises the AUAR by incorporating the stormwater management elements of the Watershed District's new rule implementing the RMP. The