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PL 12/15/2004 - 30874,-1 CITY OF FRIDLEY ' PLANNING COMMISSION DECEMBER 15, 2004 CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Savage called the December 15, 2004 meeting of the Planning Commission to order at 7:30 p.m. ROLL CALL Members present: Barbara Johns, Larry Kuechle, David Kondrick, Diane Savage, Leroy Oquist, and Brad Dunham. Others present: Julie Jones, Planning Coordinator Rebecca Brazys, Recording Secretary APPROVE PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES — November 17, 2004 MOTION by Mr. Kondrick, seconded by Mr. Oquist, to approve the minutes as presented. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SAVAGE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 1. Uacomina Sprinabrook Watershed Proiect / Restoration Plan � Ms. Jones stated this item is part of a very large project that has been going on for a number of years in the city. They have not had to come to the Planning Commission for anything related to this project, so she provided a brief review. The City of Fridley is part of the Springbrook Clean Water Partnership Watershed Project with the main source of funding being the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The project is designed to restore the wetlands at Springbrook Nature Center. Starting in 1997, they spent a number of years studying the wetlands as Phase I of the project and came up with solutions. Now they are in the second phase of the project, the actual implementation. The wetlands are not only important for the wildlife at Springbrook but also for the quality of water that is released from the Springbrook watershed into the Mississippi River. This phase is about a$600,000 project. Ms. Jones explained this is a multi jurisdictional project including four cities; Spring Lake Park, Blaine, Coon Rapids and Fridley. Also included are the businesses around the Nature Center as well as representatives from the Anoka County Conservation District, Anoka County, and community volunteers. Ms. Jones stated the first portion of the project was expansion of a storm water pond on University Avenue just south of Northtown Mall at the intersection of 85�'. That storm pond was expanded to reduce the volume of storm water coming into the east side of the Nature Center. There are several inlets that bring storm water into the main wetlands in Springbrook, but in the Phase I investigation they found that per acre of land, there was 10 times the volume of storm water coming in at the east inlet. That is the inlet that drains the south portion of Northtown Mall and the residential area to the east of Wal-Mart and other surrounding properties. They knew from the beginning that once they expanded the storm water pond they would also need to correct the erosion problems on the east side of Springbrook. Because of the extreme volume %� of water coming through there, significant erosion has occurred. They plan to restore that stream bed. Also they have spent the last finro years draining the Nature Center wetlands as an CITY OF FRIDLEY PLANNING CONIlVIISSION MEETING, DECEMBER 15, 2004 Page 2 of 4 ,� attempt to expose the mud flats and get the plants to grow big enough to generate seeds and replenish the seed bank. Ms. Jones explained there are 17 members on the Advisory Committee for this project and they are now ready to proceed with the part of the project where the streambed will be restored to reduce further impact to the wetlands. Part of how this will be done is by installation of a 48 inch PVC bypass pipe and restructuring the stream bed. The committee plans to finish the project over the winter depending upon the weather. Ms. Jones stated the reason this matter is coming before the Planning Commission is because a significant number of trees will have to be removed. There is a tree preservation ordinance in place, Section 510 of our code that requires the Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, and the City Council approve any tree removal on city-owned property. Springbrook Nature Center is city-owned property. The approval is also to approve a plan of reforestation to restore the land to its original condition. In the Springbrook Watershed Project, they do not want to restore the land to its original condition. They want to restore the wetlands. The health of the Springbrook Nature Center wetlands depends upon changing the current condition. Siah St. Clair, Director of the Nature Center, has been involved in this process and one of his goals is to remove some of the tree canopy in this part of the park to restore a natural habitat area, regardless of this project. So he is not concemed about removing the trees. Ms. Jones explained that everyone involved in this project is concemed about ensuring that there are no clear line of sight views for an entire swath of the park in any one direction. So, the reforestation and landscaping plan is focusing on planting vegetation in key areas to prevent a � clear line of sight. Part of this plan includes re-vegetating the spring bed. In many portions, the stream bed will be raised to make it more of a bowl-shaped bed with an erosion control blanket across the entire bed. She reviewed an aerial map of the area involved in this project. She explained there are two large pipes that go under University to the east side of Springbrook. An additional pipe will be installed so that when storm water reaches a certain level it will flow into the bypass pipe. The initial flows of a storm will stay in the stream, but the heavy flows in a heavier sto�rn will go into the bypass pipe. Even though there has been a reduction in water volume with the expansion of the University Avenue pond, additional reduction is necessary to prevent further erosion of the stream. She explained that they will be removing trees in a swath ranging from 20 to 52 feet wide along the stream. In 1986, a tomado caused heavy damage in Springbrook, Ms. Jones explained, which is why there currently aren't large trees on the site. After the tomado, there was a huge effort invested in re-planting and re-foresting this part of the park with hundreds and possibly thousands of trees. Following that effort and in spite of special protection measures, the deer population devoured a significant amount of the new growth. Also, it's very difficult to water trees in certain areas of the park because it is so far away from the building. What they've decided to do in this project is to concentrate their reforesting efforts on the bridge areas over the stream and the entrance area off of Springbrook Apartments. Ms. Jones further explained that all four of the existing bridges will be removed as a part of this project, and then later replaced. The trees in Springbrook are basically elms, cottonwoods, aspen, and not many real desirable species. A lot of the existing trees have collapsed into the stream because of the erosion of the stream bed. To date, Ms. Jones stated the Springbrook Watershed Advisory Committee approved the design plans at their December 1� meeting and gave the engineering contractor the approval to go 2 CITY OF FRIDLEY PLANNING CONIlVIISSION MEETING, DECEMBER 15, 2004 Page 3 of 4 ,-� ahead and develop the bid specifications. The Parks 8� Recreation Commission reviewed and approved the restoration plan. Staff recommends that the Plan Commission also a�prove this project. They hope to have the bid approval before City Council at their January 3 meeting. Commissioner Oquist asked how long this project will take. Ms. Jones said the landscaping won't be completed until April or May but they plan to have the pipe installed by March. They considered an altemative plan, but they believe this plan is a better altemative and will allow wildlife to migrate upstream. Commissioner Kuechle asked if the new pipe will follow the existing stream. Ms. Jones stated that basically it will run next to the existing stream and will be a couple of feet below the surtace. Commissioner Kuechle asked what kind of trees will be used for the reforesting. Ms. Jones stated they have not discussed that as yet. That will be left up to the Nature Center Director. Commissioner Kondrick stated that Mr. St. Clair explained at the Park & Recreation Commission meeting that the trees coming down are insignificant as most of the trees are quite small. He also explained that what Mr. St. Clair was concemed with was having the creek zigzag throughout the park so that it would have some character and so there would not be a � straight line of sight to any one area of the park. Commissioner Oquist commented that currently the water travels through the creek where it has a chance to filter itself before reaching the wetlands, but with the new pipe installation the water will go directly to the wetlands without that filtering. Ms. Jones responded that the experts they consulted with have explained that in a fairly significant storm, the water rises three feet in the creek bed and what was happening is it was chuming up the soils in the stream bed, taking the soils with it and depositing them as total suspended solids in the wetlands. What happens then is that soil and the minerals deposits settle on top of the roots of the vegetation and smother them out. So they've known from the beginning of the project that they need to take some of the velocity out of that stream as well as restore the stream bed to a shallower shape to avoid that soil getting into the wetlands. Allowing the low flows to stay in the stream will help the water infiltrate into the stream bed. Also, where the water comes out of the pipe and before it gets to the wetland, there's quite a great distance where fabric and rip-rap will be installed to allow the energy of that water to dissipate before it reaches the wetland edge. Commissioner Kuechle asked if there is a plan to remove fill from that area to widen the stream bed and to make space for the pipe. Ms. Jones stated there will be some removal, and they will be raising the stream bed a couple of feet in many sections. A lot of the soil that will be taken out for installation of the pipe will be used to raise the stream bed. �"1 Commissioner Kondrick stated that the Park & Recreation Commission requested that any excess soil be used within the park for berms and other applications. 3 CIT'Y OF FRIDLEY PLANNING COMIVIISSION MEETING, DECEMBER 15, 2004 Page 4 of 4 � MOTION by Commissioner Kondrick, seconded by Commissioner Kuechle, to go along with the Springbrook Watershed Project as submitted by staff and as approved by the Park and Recreation Commission. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SAVAGE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 2. Receive the minutes of the November 8, 2004 Parks � Recreation Commission meetin�. MOTION by Commissioner Kondrick, seconded by Commissioner Johns, to approve the minutes as presented. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SAVAGE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 3. Receive the minutes of the November 4, 2004 Housins� & Redeveloument Authoritv meetins�. MOTION by Commissioner Oquist, seconded by Commissioner Kuechle, to approve the minutes as presented. � UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SAVAGE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. OTHER BUSINESS: Ms. Jones stated that Ms. Stromberg was not able to attend tonight's meeting and will present her year end report at the next regular meeting. ADJOURN MOTION by Commissioner Kondrick, seconded by Commissioner Oquist, to adjoum. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SAVAGE DECLARED THE MEETING T 8:10 PM. Secretary �'1 by, � � � �I CITY OF FRIDLEY SIGN-IN SHEET PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING � � r �' � , , Name Address/Business