Agenda - Public Works Committee - 09/19/2000

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UPDATE FOR MINING AND GRADING ORDINANCE Brian E. Olson, City Engineer PW CASE # Background: In;q999, the City had some difficulty enforcing the removal of a berm on C.R. #116. Residents wanted to extend their lawns by the removal of soil that was placed for the purposes of a berm. Also within the last few years there has been some issues raised by residents regrading their yards to redirect the flow of storm water runoff. The City Council directed staff to review the current policy regarding the removal or addition of soil to see whether or not the mining and grading ordinance should be reconsidered. Observations: The current portion of Chapter 9 in the City code that deals with these issues states that a conditional use permit shall be applied for all grading, mining, and filling operations with the £ollowing exceptions: · No additional permit shall be required if the grading, mining, and filling operations are being done as a part of a subdivision plat, site plan, or planned unit development. · No permit shall be required if the grading, mining, and filling op~erations are b. eing done by a public agency and is incidental to construction or maintenance ot streets or utilities. · No permit shall be required for grading of individual lots by~ less than 3 feet in depth, filling o£ less than two feet at any point and which does not intertere with surface drainage in the area. · No permit shall be required for grading, mining, and filling operations that require removal of less than 400 cubic yards of earth material. City Staff has solicited response from 15 other communities throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area. We received response fi.om 7 communities of which 3 did not have restrictions or ordinances in place. Three of the remaining communities are similar to the City of Ramsey in that they differentiate between commercial grading and residential operations and require a permit if export of materials exceed 100 - 1000 cubic yards of material. The last ordinance that we received, submitted fi.om the City of Savage, has a three tier approach. No permit is required for any excavation that would export soils less than 25 cubic yards. A minor excavation permit is required for export of soils greater than 25 cubic yards and less than 2000 cubic yards. This permit requires the filing of an application, supplied by the City, and the supply of a legal description of the property and copy of a,section map showing the proposed grading and export plan. Any operations that would require the export of soils greater than 2000 cubic yards would qualify as a commercial operation and would require a special use permit. One of the reasons that other communities do not have any ordinances that control residential grading projects is that those operations are already controlled to a point. Any operation that alters the drainage patterns in an area that creates damage to adjoining property would be the responsibility of the property owner that has that work done. The City of Ramsey also addresses that issue in the current policy as represented by the third exception as stated above. Committee Action: Based on discussion Reviewed by: City Administrator Director of Public Works PW: 9/19/00