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Item No: 7E Meeting Date: August 24, 2009 Type of Business: ROLL CALL VOTE Administrator Review: ______ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Heidi Heller, Planning Associate Item Title/Subject: Second Reading and Adoption of Ordinance 809, an Ordinance Vacating a Surface Water Easement at Greenfield Estates, 7521-7661 Greenfield Avenue (ROLL CALL VOTE) Introduction: Tycon Companies, owners of Greenfield Estates Apartments at 7521-7661 Greenfield Avenue and 2370 County Road I, is planning to replace their existing garages with new buildings. The new garages would be a drive-through style with parking spaces (similar to an underground garage) rather than individual garages that currently exist. The existing 4 large garage buildings have been a problem for the owners in that half of the individual garages are on the back/eastside of each building facing the rear of the property, and many residents do not want to rent these garages because they feel unsafe using them. Fires have been set in these rear facing garages, the property owners have found illegal and unsafe items being stored in them, and people “hang out” behind these buildings because the area is very isolated. Tycon Companies is proposing to build three large garages, reconstruct the entire parking lot and add new curbing to the site. The new garages would be placed further east than the existing garages. There is a ditch running along the east property line of Greenfield Estates – it starts from the wetland area on the south side of County Road I and runs south between Greenfield Estates and Landmark Estates to Bronson Drive, where it then enters underground piping and eventually runs into Rice Creek. Tycon’s engineer discovered a 10-foot drainage and utility easement, and an overlapping 17.5-foot surface water easement along the east property line. The proposed new garages would be further east than the existing garages and would encroach into this 17.5-foot easement by a couple of feet. This encroachment is the reason for the easement vacation request. Discussion: The surface water easement runs along Greenfield Estates properties all the way south to Bronson. The applicant is only proposing to vacate the portion of this easement that is on their property. The 17.5 foot easement will remain on 7501 and 7511 Greenfield Avenue. The applicant opted to use the City’s engineer consultant, Bonestroo, to do the review of the easement vacation request. The surface water easement was recorded in 1951 and the 10-foot drainage and utility easement was added when the property was platted in 1965. Bonestroo reviewed the request to determine whether the 100-year ditch high water level (HWL) would be contained within only in the 10-foot easement. Based on their modeling analysis, the ditch would contain the 100 year HWL within the portion of the ditch in Greenfield Estates. Previously, Tycon was planning to build the new garages at the 10- foot easement boundary, but are now planning to be about 5 feet away from that line. The applicant’s engineer has indicated that the site improvements will not impact the ditch.