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Parks and Environmental Commission Regular Meeting Minutes June 3, 2024 Page 4 1 WSB Project Manager Katie Koscielak reviewed the Parks and Environmental Commission 2 received a request from a resident at their March 4, 2024 meeting to review the City 3 Engineer’s policy on pervious pavers. 4 5 Currently the City does not consider pervious pavers as impervious surface and thus cannot be 6 utilized to increase what would otherwise be impervious surface. The City Engineer provided 7 a memo that describes the rationale for the current policy, and a recommendation for adjusting 8 the policy with specific conditions. She explained filtration vs. infiltration. The goal is to 9 reduce the amount of rainwater that gets into the sewer system and improve the quality of the 10 water going into the system. 11 12 If the Commission wishes, Staff can present the recommendation to Council as part of a future 13 batch of City Code Amendments. 14 15 The City Engineer’s memo was provided for Commission consideration. 16 17 Commissioner Holliday asked how much control does St. Anthony have given the other 18 jurisdictions – watershed, county, state. Ms. Koscielak stated the rules per lot of the 19 impervious amount is set by the City. 20 21 Chair Fee asked if there other models that could be reviewed. Ms. Koscielak stated she will 22 check with Justin Messner. 23 24 Mr. Paul White, 3201 32nd Avenue, has a project where he wanted to put permeable pavers to 25 support parking for a trailer. He was told by the City Engineer that permeable pavers are not 26 allowed in St. Anthony. He stated there are a couple of issues that he sees with the 27 permeability policy that St. Anthony has. It doesn’t incent large properties to pave. 28 Residential properties are permitted to pave 10 sf. The category of providing a percentage 29 across the board doesn’t seem to meet the goal. The memo doesn’t address the clay soil type 30 which is relative impermeable. Grass lawns are actually impermeable but they are counted as 31 permeable. He described permeable pavers and noted they are actually more permeable than 32 grass. 33 34 Ms. Koscielak stated when water goes through the grass it is providing some quality 35 management before it goes to the street drain. The permeable pavers would not provide the 36 same effect. 37 38 Commissioner Holliday asked if the clay soil could be removed and Ms. Koscielak stated they 39 have found clay at 12-15 feet deep. Commissioner Holliday asked if the minimum parking 40 requirements could be reduced would that allow for more permeable pavers. Richard Sonterre 41 representing the Code Committee stated they looked at the parking code last year. The entire 42 code has been rewritten and referred to as parking pads. Commissioner Holliday stated he 43 trusts the experts but still wants to allow flexibility where it is an option. 44 Chair Fee stated she agrees with Commissioner Holliday. Mr. Yunker stated Staff is looking 45 for Commissioner’s comments. Commissioner Holliday asked if this could be addressed with 46 a variance. Mr. White stated he was instructed by Staff that a variance would not be a good