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Item No: 7B Meeting Date: December 12, 2005 Type of Business: PH & CB Administrator Review: _______ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, Community Development Director Item Title/Subject: Public Hearing and Consideration of a Resolution to Amend the City’s Wetland Zoning District Map Associated with the Spring Creek Wetland Basin Introduction: Last year, the City Council authorized Short Elliot Hendrickson, Inc. (SEH) to conduct a wetland delineation of the Spring Creek Wetland basin located south of Woodale and Woodcrest Drives, east of Pleasant View Drive, north of County Road H and west of Silver Lake Road. The delineation was received and staff noted a discrepancy between the delineation and the City’s official wetland zoning district map necessitating a formal adoption of a map amendment. A public hearing is necessary to make such an amendment. Discussion: The City’s official wetland zoning maps were prepared in the 1980s based on land elevation data and low-resolution aerial photography. As presented, the wetland boundaries (we cannot call them delineations as they were not) represented the best estimate of the wetland areas at the time without conducting full-scale delineations. The wetland maps and wetland areas were not field verified, and for that reason along with the passing of time, the maps are not accurate. When delineations are conducted, field verified and accepted by the agency having jurisdiction (Rice Creek Watershed District) the City should then amend the wetland zoning maps, however this step has never been executed due to the difficulty of updating the official maps. The problem presented by not amending the maps is that housing subdivisions, roads and developments now show up in wetland zoning districts, which then require alteration permits or buffer permits to be issue for driveways, fences, additions, etc. simply because the “official map” is out of date. Staff has made it a priority in 2006 to update the official maps and converting the data from paper to a GIS based overlay. The Spring Creek basin is the first wetland in the City to go through the process and we can consider it the test case, if you will. Property owners who abut this wetland basin were notified of the hearing and encouraged to attend, however upon explanation of the purpose of the meeting and the nature of the change (the wetland area in every instance of the basin is retracted from the 1980s boundary) the residents feel no need to attend as there is no dispute or controversy. (Public interest would be heightened if the delineation resulted in an expanded wetland and wetland buffer). Rice Creek Watershed District reviewed the delineation and concurs with the findings. Their letter of concurrence is attached to this report. The concurrence satisfies the Mounds View City Code requirement regarding amendments, which articulates the following: