Agenda - Council - 04/24/2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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OW t hi lon: To work together ko respotibiy grow oar community, and to provide quality, cost -affective, and efckent government tet does. CC Regular Session 7. 5. Meeting Date: 04/24/2018 By: Chris Anderson, Community Development Information Title: Approve Resolution #18-063 Authorizing Services for Updating the Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) for The COR (Project No. 18-112) Purpose/Background: In 2003, the City Council adopted Resolution #03-01-012 ordering an Alternative Urbanwide Area Review (AUAR) for The COR (formerly known as Ramsey Town Center). An AUAR is an environmental review process that can be used in lieu of more traditional environmental reviews such as Environmental Assessment Worksheets (EAW) and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), as long as the geographic area is covered by an acceptable Comprehensive Plan. When considering The COR as a whole, it is likely that a series of individual projects in short sequence could trigger the need for an EAW. For example, the recent project known as Affinity at Ramsey likely would have triggered the need for an EAW based on the number of projects approved in the past number of years. The benefit of an AUAR is that it looks at the cumulative impacts of planned or anticipated development within a specific geographic area, whereas an EAW and/or EIS are project specific and typically can add significant time and cost to a proposed development. This can assist with reviewing cumulative potential effects to the environment, which may result from multiple developments within the specified geographic area, and can be done in advance of those developments to eliminate potential project delays. However, an AUAR does need to be updated every five (5) years until the geographic area is fully developed. In 2013, the City ordered an updated AUAR that is now set to expire in July of this year. The purpose of this case is to consider engaging the services of WSB to prepare an update to the AUAR for The COR. Notification: No notification has been provided specific to the AUAR Update at this time. As part of the update process, the AUAR will need to be published in the EQB Monitor and the publication date will start the 10-working day comment period. Observations/Alternatives: While an updated AUAR will generally assist with more streamlined review of individual projects, it is worth noting that not all projects would trigger mandatory environmental review (EAW and/or EIS). Generally speaking, the threshold that triggers environmental review would be a project that proposes 250 unattached units or 375 attached units (or some combination thereof). However, due to the potential environmental impacts of cumulative development within an area, there is the possibility that a project under the mandatory EAW threshold would still be subject to environmental review (based on the 3-year look back rule). This can not only add expense to a project but also, and potentially more importantly, add additional time to the review process. Updating the AUAR for The COR is not required. However, if it is not updated, the AUAR will become invalid