Agenda Packets - 2009/03/23 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

April 13, 2009 Item No. 7H Page 2 On January 28, 2009 the RCWD provided written approval of the permit for the project, subject to mitigation of the wetland impacts. Discussion: Wetland Impact The project to construct County Road 10 Trail Segments 1-5 will impact three separate regulated wetlands – one near the intersection at County Road H, and the other two near the intersection at Woodale Drive. The total impact of the wetland impacts is 1,097 square feet. The impacts to the wetlands requires two separate permits to be obtained – a Wetland Conservation Act permit from RCWD, and a General Permit from the COE. Applications for each permit were made in December 2008. Included with this Staff Report is the cover from the application materials submitted to the COE, along with Figure 3 from that submittal which shows the impacts to the regulated wetlands. Required Mitigation of Wetland Impact The wetland impacts must be mitigated at a ratio of 2.25-to-1. Therefore, for a total impact of 1,097 square feet, the required mitigation is 2,468 square feet, which is equal to 0.056 Acres. Wetland mitigation can be accomplished by either creation of new wetland as part of the project improvements, or by purchase of existing wetland “credits”. When development occurs, sometimes the projects create more wetland area than required. Those projects can then put those excess credits on file with the “Wetland Bank”. The Wetland Bank is managed and maintained by the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) at the State level. For the Trails 1-5 Project, with such a small wetland impact, the easiest and most cost effective way to perform the required mitigation is simply to purchase credits from the Wetland Bank. This was identified in the permit applications made for the project in December 2008, and a draft application for the Withdrawal of Wetland Credits from the Minnesota Wetland Bank was included in the materials submitted to RCWD and the COE. A copy of the draft Withdrawal form is included with this Staff Report for reference. The permit approvals granted for the project acknowledged that the wetland mitigation would be provided through the purchase of wetland credits. This is shown in both the approval letter from COE dated December 31, 2008, and the conditional approval report from RCWD, dated January 28, 2009. Copies of each of these documents are attached to this Staff Report for reference.