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CASE # l CONSIDER RAMSEY TOWN CENTER/COR WETLAND MITAGATION OPTIONS By Tim Himmer, City Engineer Background: Ramsey Town Center LLC had a wetland mitigation plan approved by the Lower Rum River Watershed Management Organization (LRRWMO) in October of 2005. That plan allowed for 4.05 acres of wetland impacts in Ramsey Town Center (RTC), requiring 8.10 acres of mitigation; portions of which have been implemented to date. The HRA is now the master developer for the COR (formerly RTC), and City staff has been working with our consultant URS and the LRRWMO in an attempt to bring the project wetland impacts into compliance with the approved plan. Attached is a map illustrating the locations of three wetland mitigation areas that were originally proposed to be created or enhanced to satisfy the requirements of the permitted impacts. The Charter School Wetland and the NW Wetland have been graded to establish wetland hydrology, but still require vegetation management and monitoring before they can be accepted as mitigation. The WNW wetland was proposed to enhance and expand on the existing mitigation area (orange hatched area) that was created during the construction of Bunker Lake Boulevard, and was to remain on the site in the former "west swoosh park" area to create an east -west greenway corridor. With the evolution of the COR it is anticipated that this western portion of the site will be re -guided and utilized for a big box type of use, and include the establishment of a larger water feature/lake. To comply with the existing wetland permit we would need to implement a vegetative establishment and monitoring plan for the Charter School and NW Wetlands. In addition, we would either need to complete the WNW mitigation area, purchase 105,602 S.F. of off -site wetland banking credits, or create this deficient wetland mitigation elsewhere within the watershed. Since the WNW area is proposed for development and the remainder of the COR is still evolving it would seem to make sense to go forward with purchasing the off -site credits at this time. The good news is that since this approach falls under the requirements of the existing permit, and old Wetland Conservation Act (WCA) rules, we would not be subjected to the sequencing requirements and could purchase these credits outside of the metro area at a significantly lower cost of fifty cents per S.F. compared to two dollars per S.F within the metro area. The opportunity may exist to utilize the existing bond, from Glenn Rehbein Companies, to secure completion of the existing mitigation permit. Since the HRA is not the permit holder and is not necessarily supportive of implementing the original mitigation plan on land they own, we could also choose to do nothing at this time but in this scenario we would not be able to utilize any of the originally delineated wetland areas (green hatched area) until the mitigation has been completed. Doing this would limit our ability to continue with COR development proposals in those areas, and would lead to another permit application for a revised mitigation plan subject to the new WCA rules (up to 2.5:1 replacement).