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Larson Engineering, Inc. <br />3524 Labore Road <br />White Bear Lake, MN 55110-5126 <br />651.481.9120 Fax: 651.481.9201 <br />www.larsonengr.com <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MEMORANDUM <br /> <br />To: City of Lake Elmo Date: August 20, 2024 <br />From: Larson Engineering Project No: 12236128.000 <br />Project: New Lake Elmo Elementary School <br />Thank you in advance for reviewing our request for an exception to the City of Lake Elmo’s Tree <br />Preservation and Replacement Ordinances. Stillwater Area Public Schools is planning to <br />construct a new elementary school within the City of Lake Elmo. This school will be designed to <br />accommodate 1,100 students and will benefit the local community and meet the requirements set <br />forth by the City of Lake Elmo. <br /> <br />This Memo provides specific design aspects from an engineer’s perspective of the site and <br />outlines design decisions and explains why the New Lake Elmo Elementary is impacting such a <br />large number of trees and why the school is looking to receive an exception for tree preservation. <br /> <br />When designing a new school, one of the first considerations is the proposed layout of the site. <br />There are quite a few elements that go into the initial consideration of a site layout such as <br />potential access points to the site, adjacent parcel uses & zoning designations, drainage patterns, <br />existing wetlands/landlocked basins, and grading. Listed below are major design factors that <br />were identified when designing the site layout the proposed elementary school. <br /> <br />➢ Access Points & County Road: Since the first concept design of the site, the layout <br />intended to have two entry points to access the site. The reason for two access points was <br />to separate student drop-off/teacher parking from the entry that services the school busses <br />and trucks for deliveries. This practice promotes far greater safety throughout the site as <br />the school district can better regulate the flow of traffic through their site. These entry <br />points need to be roughly a quarter mile from intersection of Lake Elmo Ave North and <br />10 Street North which is a standard county requirement to promote safety at intersections <br />and allow traffic queuing at the intersection without inhibiting the access points. In <br />addition, trails are required along both County Roads to service the local community. <br /> <br />➢ Adjacent Parcels: Parcels directly abutting the proposed new school site consist of either <br />residential homes, public park, or a gun club. The gun club was the primary concern <br />after reviewing the adject parcels. <br /> <br />➢ Drainage Patterns, Wetlands, and Landlocked basin: The existing site is broken down <br />into two major drainage areas that split the site from roughly its northwest corner to its <br />southeast corner. These drainage areas flow to landlocked basin located on the site. A <br />landlocked basin is low area where water flows to and has no way of escaping even is <br />major rainfall events, these lowland areas would have to fill up with stormwater around <br />15-20 feet over a vast area to have any chance of leaving the site. There were no <br />wetlands identified on the parcel.