Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 07/11/2019

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Project Site Description: 267.4-acre “Anoka-Ramsey” closed landfill site located in the southeastern quadrant of the City of Ramsey. The site is located 1 mile due north of the Mississippi River. The site is directly adjacent to active light commercial, light industrial, and “multi-optional development” land uses to the south of the site, light single-family residential to the west of the site, Alpine Park to the north of the site, and undeveloped shrubbery, forest, and City-Owned Sunfish Lake (30-acre) & Park to the east of the site. The site is zoned “Institutional” and owned by the State of MN’s Pollution Control Agency. The site was officially closed as a landfill in 1993. The “cap” of the landfill is approximately 64-acres in size, with approx. 3,419,316 tons of waste within the cap. Project Outcomes 1.The City of Ramsey’s “Anoka-Ramsey Closed Landfill” to become the first true “Brightfield” developed in the state of Minnesota, and to be developed in a manner that centers the benefits of the project on LMI-Households in the City of Ramsey and the city’s natural environment as a replicable model for how the other 113 closed landfills in the state may be redeveloped in a socially and environmentally just manner. 2.Additionally, this site will serve as a sort of “living lab” for different ways in which environmentally responsible and just practices may be incorporated across the site. Project Goals 1.Localized Natural Environment Goal: Integrate the most innovative Solar pollinator, vegetation, soil, and stormwater pollution prevention plan Best Management Practices from the MN Department of Natural Resources, MN Board of Water & Soil Resources, MN Pollution Control Agency, University of MN, and the National Renewable Energy Lab. 2.LMI-Household/Societal Goal: Develop the project in coordination with the cooperatively- owned electric utility, Connexus Energy, to utilize a portion of the financial revenues of the project to finance a long-term, LIHEAP-eligible (low-income) household, electricity tariff to financially assist the energy-burdened homes in the City of Ramey. 3.Development Goal: The City of Ramsey’s “Anoka-Ramsey Closed Landfill” to become the first true “Brightfield” developed in the state of Minnesota, and to be developed in a manner that centers the benefits of the project on LMI-Households and the localized natural environment. Identify the most technically plausible development scenario.