Minutes - Planning Commission - 06/02/2011

Home

Motion Carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Levine, Commissioners Van Scoy, Bauer, Brauer, and Schiller. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioners Dunaway and Field. NOTE CITY COUNCIL MINUTES The Council minutes were noted. PUBLIC HEARINGS /COMMISSION BUSINESS Case #1: Public Hearing — Consider Amendment to Chapter 117 of City Code Relating to Required Depth of Topsoil; Case of City of Ramsey Public Hearing Chairperson Levine called the public hearing to order at 7:14 p.m. Presentation Associate Planner/Environmental Coordinator Anderson presented the Staff Report. Citizen Input None. The public hearing closed at 7:16 p.m. Commission Business Commissioner Bauer questioned why the change was made from 4 to 6 inches to begin with. Associate Planner/Environmental Coordinator Anderson explained the Council passed the change to go to 6 inches because adding two inches insured there was enough substance to retain water in response reducing the specification of topsoil required. Also, it was difficult to find the materials to make the mix for requiring only 4 inches under the current ordinance. Commissioner Van Scoy suggested the action seems counterintuitive. He questioned whether there was data to support the theory that water retention would increase. City Engineer Himmer explained staff prepared an original mix of topsoil originally to help with water retention, since that was a large issue to address in the area. This did seem to help. However this ordinance is only one year old, and in that time it has been determined that this is an expensive mix of topsoil to use, and causes hardships with developments in progress. There is no scientific data to show how much water savings there will be. The reason for reducing to 4 inches is to alleviate the cost and hardships while still retaining water. Planning Commission /June 2, 2011 Page 2 of 4