Minutes - Council - 02/24/2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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to the association. He explained the storm sewer system in this subdivision was designed to not need the volume that is necessary for these infiltration basins. The rain gardens are above and beyond what a normal subdivision would be required to do because they are trying to treat them a nnmber of times before the water gets to the parks. Mayor Gamec stated he has been involved with rain gardens in the City for a long time. It is fancy word, but they have a business development park that looks very nice with a drainage pond that is growing up a bunch of weeds. They are also in a couple of their parks and other areas. This area of Town Center will be an example. These rain gardens may be unique and in their premier development, but he is concerned about it. The water stands in the rain gardens and they silt up. He questioned how long the water would be standing while the City goes back and forth with the association to correct it. In his personal opinion they should use some other maintenance; this is bad news in a premier development. Councilmember Cook stated there is a huge difference between a holding pond and a rain garden, and he does not know if they have ever actually had rain gardens in the City. The one thing he does not like about raingardens is in doing their job they silt in. He does like that rain gardens allow some plant material that could not be done without irrigation. He also likes that they are doing some cleaning of the storm water. He stated the federal regulations are getting tighter and tighter about what can actually be drained into the Mississippi River or Rum River. The City will have to do some of these things in order to purify their water, especially in this area where there will be significant water coming from here for recreational purposes in the parks. There cannot be dirty silted storm water going down this creek and pond system that is being formed. He indicated there needs to be a much closer look at the landscape plan. Councihnember Strommen commented there are beautiful raingardens and the bottom line is any landscaping takes maintenance. She applauds utilizing something a little different. Mayor Gamec inquired about the types of plants that would be used in the raingardens. Assistant Community Development Director Trudgeon replied the Planning Commission shared the same concerns that the Council has expressed. Staff has indicated this to RTC and they appreciate the concerns. There will be a specific planning detail, and at the time of final site plan approval the Council will be able to sign off on the specific plantings that will be in the rain garden. RTC is very open to working with the City to get to that point. Assistant Public Works Director Olson explained they are still working through some of the issues and RTC is very willing to work with the City on that. The biggest key is that if for some reason in the future someone decided 20 years from now that this rain garden would be filled in they would still have the City storm sewer and the treatment downstream. The rain garden provides a function, but the development guidelines can still be changed if they decide it did not work well. The rain garden is another layer of protection and treatment they are providing to the water that the City would not normally otherwise require in a development. City Council/February 24, 2004 Page 14 of 31