CONSENT AGENDA

Manager Casale requested that the minutes of October 1 be pulled from the Consent Agenda. 

Awards Committee Report

Manager Keeley reviewed the program plans for the annual awards event, and recommended that complimentary invitations be extend to members of the Citizens Advisory Committee and Rulemaking Task Force.  The managers concurred with this recommendation.

The managers and Mr. Evenson reviewed the upcoming meeting schedule.

Approval of Minutes

Manager Casale stated that he had requested removal of the October 1 minutes from the Consent Agenda because he had not been able to review them.  Following discussion, it was moved by Manager Blixt, seconded by Manager Keeley to approve the minutes as distributed.  Upon vote, the motion carried, with Manager Miller voting against the motion and Manager Casale abstaining. 

 

BOARD DISCUSSION ITEMS

Rule A

Mr. James Wisker appeared before the Board of Managers and stated that staff had reviewed various considerations for the extent of notice provided under Rule A as set forth in a memo from Steve Christopher.  The staff is not recommending any change to the current rule provisions which require noticing property owners within 600 feet of a proposed project.  Manager Casale asked if it would be possible to amend the rule to provide for extending this notice requirement to a larger distance on a case-by-case basis.  Mr. Smith recommended that such an objective be pursued with rule language to guide the Board’s discretion and promote consistent application of the notice requirement.  Following discussion, the Board of Managers suggested that staff develop additional language to amend Rule A providing that the District can expand the scope of notice at the cost of the District in cases where potential effects of the proposed project extend beyond 600 feet.

Rule N

Mr. Wisker reviewed the rulemaking process to develop recommendations for the Stormwater Management rule from the Technical Advisory Committee and Rulemaking Task Force.  He referred to the proposed draft rule, and reviewed it for the Board of Managers.  He explained that this draft would be presented to the Technical Advisory Committee and Rulemaking Task Force on October 29 for their further review and comment. 

Manager Miller asked if there is some means to support or subsidize the use of trees as a stormwater management tool.  Manager Casale asked if there is a more species-specific approach to address the various stormwater abstraction benefits of larger or smaller trees, depending on the species.  Mr. Wisker explained the range of choices given many tree species, compared to the value of picking a middle range for general abstraction benefits of trees.  The general abstraction benefits that are calculated will likely serve as an incentive for landowners to keep trees on site. 

Manager Blixt noted the relative uneven distribution of permit applications across the watershed, and asked how the benefits from water quality improvements would be allocated to the various cities who are facing load allocations.  Mr. Wisker explained that this progress would be traced through the annual reporting, and that redevelopment that resulted in net improvements to water quality would result in decreasing the need for capital improvement projects to address water quality problems. 

Manager Calkins asked for further justification for exempting parcels less then one acre in size.  Mr. Wisker explained that representatives from the municipalities felt that these small sites should be exempted, and that stormwater issues on smaller sites would perhaps be addressed through city requirements.  Manager Calkins asked that further analysis be prepared to indicate how much of the land within the watershed would not be regulated under the stormwater rule with this threshold.  Manager Calkins stated he felt that many of our stormwater quality problems are the result of activities on smaller parcels.  Manager Calkins also expressed his concern that trails should not be constructed in a manner that exacerbates erosion problems, referring to the exemption of a trail that is less than 10,000 square feet in new impervious surface.

Manager Calkins noted that the allowance for regional stormwater facilities is not within the sequence of alternatives.  He asked if the staff’s technical judgment is that the regional facilities are better than onsite treatment.  Mr. Wisker stated that the Technical Advisory Committee felt that in many cases the key to successful treatment of stormwater is the control and maintenance of stormwater facilities, and on occasion such maintenance and control is easier with regional facilities.  District inspection of regional stormwater facilities is also more efficient than inspection on small sites.  Further, some of the municipalities see these regional facilities as providing incentives for redevelopment.  Manager Calkins questioned whether regional stormwater facilities should automatically be considered a preferred solution; Mr. Evenson offered the possibility that they could be considered an exception, and Mr. Wisker stated that he felt many of the municipalities involved in the rulemaking process would want greater assurance of support of such regional facilities so that they would be reviewed earlier in the process.

Mr. Evenson stated that the intention of the abstraction bank would be for the District annually to adjust the value of credits. 

Manager Calkins expressed a concern about the gradual loss of efficiency in stormwater treatment facilities due to sedimentation, and Mr. Panzer explained that past studies have confirmed that removal efficiency is relatively consistent up to a critical point, typically when 50 percent of the volume is lost through sedimentation.  Mr. Panzer suggested that that an alternative could be to require 55 percent removal efficiency to provide an additional margin of treatment capacity.  The managers recommended that the Technical Advisory Committee be consulted on this issue.

Manager Calkins noted the importance of protecting and preserving large canopy trees for their multiple benefits, and the risk of construction impacts that are not detected until a long period of time has passed.  Mr. Evenson asked whether it would be appropriate to consider some type of surety to assure tree survival, and Manager Calkins noted that it would be difficult to identify and attribute impacts to particular construction activities given how long it may take for the trees to manifest these effects. 

Manager Blixt again expressed her concern about the one acre threshold in the stormwater rule, and asked whether 0.25 acre would be a better threshold.  Mr. Wisker confirmed that the staff would develop further modeling information and report back to the Board of Managers.  He noted that in particular the Technical Advisory Committee has had a strong preference for a threshold of 1.0 acre.  Manager Calkins noted that this approach exempts most parcels in the watershed district, and places a greater burden or even arguably a penalty on new development compared to redevelopment.

Potential Regulation of Agricultural Activities

 

Mr. Wisker noted that members of the Rulemaking Task Force including developers had expressed an interest in evaluating the potential regulation of agricultural activities, given impacts to water resources.  Mr. Wisker asked Mr. Smith to provide an overview of the District’s legal authority to regulate agricultural activities in relations to other government agencies.

Following Mr. Smith’s presentation, the managers discussed the available information and expressed a desire to obtain further information about the actual impacts on water resources from agricultural activities within the Minnehaha Creek Watershed.  Dr. Udai Singh described the District’s monitoring program and available information, as well as the limitations on assessing various causal relationships between certain landscape activities and water quality outcomes. 

The managers noted the presence of Mayor Marvin Johnson of Independence, who noted the regulation of horse facilities by municipalities and efforts to follow MPCA guidelines on feedlots, as well as the role of the Farm Service Agency in scrutinizing agricultural practices through crop rotation, slope and erosion issues.  Following discussion, the Board of Managers requested that the staff and engineer develop and present a report to the Board of Managers on phosphorus loading and other water quality impacts from agricultural activities in the District, including e-coli monitoring information.

Land Conservation Closed Session

Mr. Mark Ten Eyck appeared before the Board of Managers and asked that the Board conduct a closed session to explore the development of a potential land conservation acquisition at 14814 and 14802 Timber Hill Road in Minnetonka.  The Managers adjourned to a closed session.

Upon returning from the closed session, the Board of Managers elected to defer remaining items on the agenda.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business, the meeting of the Board of Managers was adjourned at 10:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Lee Keeley, Secretary