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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br /><#' <br /> <br />48.01 <br /> <br />CHAPTER 48 <br /> <br />WETLAND ZONING ORDINANCE <br /> <br />48.01. TITLE. COUNCIL FINDINGS. POLICY. PURPOSES. AND MEANS. <br /> <br />Subdivision 1. citation. section 48.01 to 48.15 may be <br />cited as the Wetlands Ordinance. <br /> <br />Subdivision 2. Findinqs and Purooses. The Council finds <br />that wetlands within the City, as part of the ecosystem, are <br />critical to the present and future health, safety, and general <br />welfare of the land, animals, and people within the City, as <br />well as within the Rice Creek Watershed District; that existing <br />and potential development within the City and Rice Creek <br />Watershed possess increasing ecological and economic problems <br />and demands, having the effect of potentially despoiling, <br />polluting, accelerating the aging, eliminating or negatively and <br />irretrievably altering both the wetlands and their functions <br />(and the processes associated therewith) which, if managed <br />will consti tute important physical, educational, ecological, <br />aesthetic, recreational, and economic assets for existing and <br />future residents of the community and the Rice Creek Watershed <br />District. The City Council has in mind its statutory obligation <br />to comply with Chapters 104, 105, and 112 of Minnesota State <br />Law, the regulations of Rice Creek Watershed District, <br />Regulations of the Department of Natural Resources, including <br />provisions for protected waters, Public Law 92-500 (Federal <br />Water Pollution Control Act), open space policies of the <br />Metropolitan Council and its guidelines encouraging protection <br />and enhancement of marshes, wetlands in the flood plain area, <br />and the public interest in preventing irreparable destruction or <br />deterioration of valuable natural resources. Therefore, <br />recognizing the obligation to protect these assets and natural <br />resource gifts from destruction or deterioration and pollution <br />of all kinds, the purposes of this Chapter are: <br /> <br />A. To preserve wetlands in as natural a state as possible; <br />to serve as natural retention and detention areas for <br />surface waters; to regulate the use of areas adjacent to <br />the wetlands in order to protect and enhance the natural <br />function of the wetlands; to provide for the protection, <br />preservation, proper maintenance, use and enhancement of <br />wetland zoning districts; to minimize the disturbance to <br />them and to prevent or minimize damage from excessive <br />