Minutes - Council - 11/20/2001 - Special

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COUNCIL BUSINESS Case #1: Request for a Conditional Use Permit to Grade and Export Soils; Case of John Enstrom City Engineer Jankowski stated that on September 23, 1997, the City issued a Conditional Use permit over a 12-acre area to Mr. John Enstrom to grade and export approximately 114,000 yards of soil fi'om his property at 8701-181st Avenue NW. The purpose of the permit was to create a pond on the property, dry the excavated materials and export them off the site as topsoil. That permit expired October 31, 2001, and Mr. Enstrom has applied for another Conditional Use Permit to complete the grading and excavating project. A public hearing was held on November 5, 2001, before the Planning and Zoning Commission. The Planning and Zoning Commission determined that it needed additional infmxnation, for a positive recommendation. It passed the case on to the City Council with a recolnmendation for denial, based upon the assumption that answers would be available to their questions at the time Council considered the case. An exhibit was prepared by the applicant, which illustrated the extent of the excavation completed to date under the mining and grading Conditional Use Permit issued in September 1997. A site visit conducted by staff on October 27, 2001, corroborated the relative accuracy of this sketch. The original excavation proposed is approximately 60 percent complete at this time. There were several questions and concerns, which were raised by the Planning Commission and the public. There was a question of whether an environmental impact assessment would be required. Guidelines prepared by Environmental Quality Board indicate that a mandatory enviromnental assessment worksheet is required for peat excavations, which exceed 160 acres. The subject excavation for which the Conditional Use Permit is being requested is approximately five acres (40 percent of the original 12 acres). The Planning Commission questioned whether this excavation would be considered a commercial operation in a residential zone. Not all, but many mining and grading conditional use permits are issued with the intention of selling the excavated materials. The most recent example is the Eric Thompson mining and grading conditional use permit issued in 1997, for the excavation of sand material in Section 2. There was a question on the allowable depth of excavation. There is no mention of the depth of excavation in the Conditional Use ?ennit, only that the excavation conforms to Exhibit A, which does not identify the depth of the excavation. There was a question on the slopes of the excavation. The Conditional Use Permit requires that slopes on the working fence be no steeper than two feet horizontal to one foot vertical, and that final slopes not exceed 12.1. The working face slopes were steeper than 1.1 on the date ora staff visit on October 27, 2001. The final slopes are still to be established. There was a question regarding compliance with the requirements for tree replacement. Condition #7 of the Conditional Use Permit requires that the City be notified so the nulnber of trees for reforestation can be determined. The City has no reforestation policy other than what might be negotiated on a case by case basis. This condition may have been included in anticipation that some reforestation policy would be implemented. There were questions raised as to the permitted and actual hours of operation. Condition #25 states the hours of grading and export operations shall be between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays, unless otherwise approved by the City Administrator or his designee. No deviations as to the specified hours have been requested by the permittee. The permittee City Council/November 20, 2001 Page 2 of 12