04-03-2006 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Traffic counts on Old Highway 8 are 6,800 vehicles per day, so even at the peak traffic time in October, this business would only increase traffic on Old Highway 8 by a little over one percent. The trucks that come to this business would drive completely into the building to unload and the property would be set up for truck staging on-site. Each truck only takes 7-10 minutes to unload, so there would not be trucks waiting for long periods of time outside. This area already has high truck traffic due to the existing businesses in the industrial park, so additional traffic going to this new business would not be out of place. The site is located on Old Highway 8 which has good access to nearby highways and freeways. The applicant has owned and operated the “Sewerman” business for over 25 years and understands the need for this type of business in Minnesota. The Metropolitan Council currently operates the stations for septage discharging and treatment in the metro area, but they have plans to begin closing the receiving sites beginning in 2009. The product that is discharged at these stations must go through a pre-treatment process in order to remove paper, plastic, and anything else that cannot be part of the regular treatment process of septage. This is an expensive extra step that must be done because things that should not be in the sewer system do get put into it, which then clogs and deteriorates pipes. The Met Council would like to open up this “pre-treatment” process to private businesses in order to reduce the Met Council’s costs for water treatment and pipe maintenance and repair. There is great potential for the environmental processing industry and Star Environmental would also include a research & development piece. This would be a state of the art facility, and would be the first one in Minnesota and the first of this exact model in the United States. Public Input: A public hearing will be held when this Conditional Use Permit application goes to the City Council for approval on April 10, 2006. Staff and the applicant held a neighborhood meeting on Thursday, March 30 at the Towns Edge Manufactured Home Park to talk to the park residents about the proposed project. Concerns: Both staff and the Planning Commissioners have concerns regarding odor, noise and traffic. The noise concern hasn’t generated much discussion and since all the equipment will be indoors and the trucks will be unloading indoors, there shouldn’t be much noise from the business. Old Highway 8 has high traffic counts and includes a lot of truck traffic due to the trucking firms in our industrial park. Industrial areas generate a lot of traffic and this business would only add about 1% of additional traffic during peak time in October. The septic trucks that will be coming to the site are completely sealed and don’t allow any leakage. Bio-filter tour: On Wednesday, March 29, 2006, several city staff, two Planning Commissioners (Herb Zwirn and Gary Meehlhause) and one City Council member (Sherry Gunn) went to a Met Council lift station in Woodbury where they have a large sewer interceptor with a 60 inch pipe coming in and then running to Cottage Grove. Leo Hermes from the Met Council met us there along with Mr. Brisbin. They use a bio-filter to eliminate odor just like what Star Environmental is proposing. We wanted to see what they looked like, how they operated, and if they did indeed eliminate odors. There are pictures of the bio-filter included in this report. It looks like a landscaping garden with woodchips and no plants. There was no bad odor anywhere outside. People even got down to smell the top of the bio-filter where the woodchips are, and there is no smell other than the woodsy odor of the woodchips. Inside the lift station building there also were no foul odors. Staff Report Star Environmental Page 2