HomeMy WebLinkAbout2ndrevisedAUAR2 6 07Lake Elmo City Council 2/6/07
Agenda Section: Project Director
No 6B
Agenda Item: The Village Endorse A Process for Reviewing Alternative Urban Area Review (AUAR) Proposals
Purpose The city council is being asked to endorse having the project director move forward with a process for reviewing the three proposals for the city’s AUAR for the Village. Since this is a technical planning and environmental study of the proposed plan’s impacts, the project director proposes to put together a technical review task force made up of representatives from the staff, the Village planning team, the city engineer, and outside experts, who have been involved with an AUAR process and who have had no part of the Village plan. (They were not asked to submit an RFQ). Council representatives will be consulted by the task force on an as needed basis and subject to the opening meeting law. Three firms submitted proposals - SRF, HKGi,DSU/ Bonestroo. As proposed, the outcome of the process will be a recommendation to the city council on how to proceed with the AUAR both in consulting expertise and scope of services. The city council will consider the recommendation at a future meeting. Additional information.
• The AUAR is done as an environmental review by determining the possible impacts of the Village plan. It is not done to create a different vision for the Village. The Environmental Quality Board (EQB) has a set format that must be met in the AUAR (Attachment 1). .
• The AUAR is a very comprehensive evaluation and requires between 8 and 14 months to complete. (The Village project is a complex project so it may take longer than 8 months.) o Finalizing the master plan as much as possible is important before proceeding with the AUAR study. The city council review and comment on the draft final master plan February 27, 2007. o From a land use planning perspective, the AUAR often results in some modifications to an adopted plan based upon the extensive environmental review. Given this, comprehensive plan and zoning code amendments are typically undertaken after the AUAR is completed. However, the city will need to deal with the zoning code revisions for the Village prior to the AUAR completion because of the July 12 deadline with the Metropolitan Council. If necessary, amendments to the zoning code can be made after the AUAR is completed. o The sewer from 30th to the new Village will not be constructed until spring, summer 2008 so this review is not anticipated to delay the construction of this, but to expedite them by avoiding later delays required to meet environmental standards.
• The study will cost between $150,000 to $250,000 depending upon the scope of services requested by the city. The degree of citizen information will be part of this decision. Ultimately, the cost of the AUAR can be included in the development fees of future developers of the Village because the developer would likely be required to do an environmental review of some type at his / her expense. This replaces this requirement.
• Three firms responded to the RFQ for an AUAR. These include: SRF, HKGi, DSU/Bonestroo. These qualifications for this were sent to six firms. (RFQ criteria are in Attachment 2). Three chose not to respond.
Action Items Consider a motion to:
Endorse a technical review task force to proceed with reviewing the AUAR proposals on the Village with the purpose of
recommending consulting expertise and a scope of services to the
city council for its review, discussion and approval at a future
meeting.
Person responsible: Susan Hoyt, Project Director
Attachments: 1. Content and Format for AUAR documents from the EQB 2. RFQ for Village AUAR