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Wednesday, July 28, 2004
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Specific district approach considered Baxter wrestles with how much paved-over area it should allow Staff Writers BAXTER -- Baxter officials dropped plans to consider a city-wide ordinance amendment allowing for greater than 25 percent paved or built over surface within shoreland zones in the city.
Instead, the Baxter Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday unanimously recommended having city staffers look into a possible ordinance amendment allowing for greater than 25 percent impervious surface in a specific district on the northeast side of Perch Lake.
More impervious surface creates greater water run-off. Concerns can come not only from potential soil erosion but from impurities from parking lots.
The city of Baxter recently determined that a wetland area, on the northeast side of Perch Lake, was below the ordinary high water mark and considered part of Perch Lake, therefore within the state's Shoreland Management Act.
Under state guidelines, property within 1,000 feet of the wetland could only have 25 percent impervious surface. Within that 1,000 feet lies Home Depot, Glory Road, Isle Road, Highway 210 and Foley Road -- areas designed to house businesses.
"We have a lot of commercial classification, a lot of street and infrastructure in there. That's how this process came about," said Todd Holman, Baxter community development director. Holman said the city-wide ordinance amendment was abandoned after speaking with DNR officials.
With only 25 percent impervious surface allowed, most commercial developments would be prohibited in that zone. Much of the specific area on the northeast corner of Perch Lake is zoned for commercial or office space.
Several people at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Tuesday spoke against an ordinance amendment that would allow for greater than 25 percent impervious surface.
David Paul, president of the Perch Lake Conservation Group, showed a computer presentation on the adverse affects that could face Perch Lake if more than 25 percent impervious surface is allowed.
Some of those affects included increased runoff, a decline in habitat, a decline in water quality and a decline in fish diversity.
"We would advise caution in developing this area, and definitely caution in changing the ordinance," Paul said.
"We encourage you to keep the rules as they are so you can protect the interests of the property owners around the lake," said Loren Beilke, president of the White Sand Lake Association.
Commission chairman Bob Kinzel said the city had received a petition with 200 names of people who do not want a change in the 25 percent impervious surface rule.
During the meeting, Kinzel and Holman often said the fact that city staffers would be looking into a possible ordinance amendment for the northeast side of Perch Lake doesn't mean it is a done deal. In fact, Kinzel said the commission may decide against making any changes at all once it has Holman's findings.
"When we get close to a final decision we will have a special meeting and at that time, as they say, the rubber will hit the road," Kinzel said.
The issue also was addressed Tuesday by the Crow Wing County Board.
At both meetings, Crow Wing County Commissioner Terry Sluss expressed concerns not only with the wetland in question but with a nearby wetland that was an issue during the Wal-Mart Supercenter debate in 2003.
At the Crow Wing County Board meeting, commissioners voted to ask Crow Wing County Attorney Don Ryan for a legal determination regarding their options for the Perch Lake watershed. Sluss questioned whether Baxter's proposal was legal.
Part of the problem is a survey that found existing development, including Home Depot and Elder Road, to be partially in a wetland considered part of Perch Lake, Sluss said.
Sluss told commissioners he has repeatedly asked to have another wetland on the lake's southeast corner delineated so the same mistake will not be made there. Wetland delineation is the actual field assessment to determine what is a wetland and where the boundaries lie. Sluss said the overall concern was with the health of Perch Lake.
Sluss asked Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District members, present for another agenda matter, if they had the option to do a wetland survey on private property.
Keith Pohl, SWCD district manager, said they can provide information to the DNR. But Pohl said the DNR is the decision-making agency. Pohl said the city could identify the land as shoreland by ordinance.
"That's my problem," Sluss said, adding everyone he talks to puts the issue to someone else.
Sluss pointed to a previous controversial DNR decision that a bay on the northeast part of Perch Lake was wetland and not connected to the lake. If the bay had been designated shoreland and part of Perch Lake instead of wetland, a small portion of the northwest corner of the Wal-Mart Supercenter property would have been within 1,000 feet of the lake. None of the proposed Wal-Mart buildings would have been affected by a redesignation, but it would have affected the parking lot and green space. Part of the concern at the time was a man-made channel that connected the wetland to the lake. Sluss said the channel was not part of an earlier inventory, which the DNR relied on to make its decision.
"We rely so heavily on data that is 40 years old," he said. At Baxter's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Tuesday, Holman said the DNR has determined the channel between the bay and Perch Lake is man-made, is considered a wetland and therefore does not fall under that state's shoreland regulations.
Pohl said he thought the wetland should have been considered part of the lake but that was not the DNR's opinion. The DNR typically does not take jurisdiction regarding artificial connections with the exception of harbor areas, Pohl said.
Bob Albrecht, SWCD member, suggested berms -- such as those used at Deacon's Lodge golf course in Breezy Point -- may be an answer to keep the water from going between the wetland and the lake itself.
Commissioner Gary Walters said he also had fielded questions on the matter. Walters suggested directing the question of the county's jurisdiction in the matter to the county attorney. Commissioners also voted to check on the SWCD's authority for a soil survey and wetland delineation.
RENEE RICHARDSON can be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
MATT ERICKSON can be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.
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