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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – DRAFT Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) For the Bridges Office Development Mounds View, Minnesota May 19, 2005 In the fall of 2004, the City of Mounds View City Council authorized preparation of an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) for the Bridges Office Development, an 118- acre corporate campus office development located at the northwest quadrant of Interstate 35W and Trunk Highway 10. The following summary details the development of the AUAR, associated analysis of potential environmental impacts and approval process: • Based on a concept site plan, site engineering and traffic analysis was completed in the fall of 2004 in order to identify potential environmental impacts of a typical office campus development in the AUAR study area. • The AUAR document was published on November 19, 2004, and distributed to the required agencies, initiating the 30-day public comment period. • Comments were provided through December 22, 2004; a total of eleven comment letters from ten agencies were received. • In their comments, the Department of Natural Resources, a state agency, identified an issue with the AUAR being inconsistent with the current Comprehensive Plan. At the time, a Comprehensive Plan Amendment was in the process of being initiated by the City of Mounds View; over the winter period, the stakeholders met frequently to resolve the traffic and transportation issues expeditiously in order to file the Comprehensive Plan Amendment application and obtain approval prior to AUAR approval. • The application for a Comprehensive Plan Amendment was filed with the Metropolitan Council on February 3, 2005. • Based on a request for additional traffic analysis by the Metropolitan Council, another traffic engineer was brought into the project, who confirmed the original traffic analysis recommendations of the AUAR document with a specific end user in mind. • The additional analysis was subsequently provided to the Metropolitan Council, and the Comprehensive Plan Amendment was approved at the Metropolitan Council meeting on April 27, 2005. • An Amendment to the AUAR was prepared, including a Mitigation Plan and response to the comments received in December, 2004. The Amendment was distributed to the reviewing agencies for the second public comment period on April 26, 2005. Comments were received through May 17, 2005. A total of three comment letters were received from the agencies. No objections to the AUAR and Amendment (Mitigation Plan) were received. • A response to the comment letters received in the second public comment period was prepared and distributed on May 19, 2005. RLK recommends that the City Council approve and accept the Alternative Urban Areawide Review dated November 17, 2004, and Amendment (with Mitigation Plan) dated April 22, 2005, for the Bridges Office Development and provide a negative declaration on the need for an Environmental Impact Statement at the May 23, 2005 meeting, subsequent to the approval of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment for the project area.