Feb. 2016- Notes from meeting & emails Re: Building on filled wetland

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Mike Gaffron From: Drewry, Kate (DNR) <kate.drewry@state.mn.us> Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 1:41 PM To: Mike Gaffron Cc: Spiegel, Jason (DNR); KSylvia@minnehahacreek.org Subject: RE: Orono -Casco Point- Building on Filled Wetland Hello Mike: We have searched our records and find no information about historic illegal fill on this site and specifically, no information on the John Chell site inspection referenced in the 1975 letter that you sent. Given the lack of documentation, difficulty of reconstructing events that occurred so long ago, and the fact that the current survey shows the area proposed for building site(s) is above the Ordinary High Water elevation of 929.4 feet, DNR would not oppose this development provided that it meets all of the provisions of the City's Shoreland and Floodplain ordinances. You also may want to require that a wetland delineation be completed as some of the site may still meet the parameters to be considered jurisdictional wetland as regulated under the Wetland Conservation Act. Regards, Kate Drewry Metro Area Hydrologist DNR Division of Ecological and Water Resources 1200 Warner Road St. Paul, MN 55106 Phone: 651-259-5753 Fax: 651-772-7977 kate.drewry(lstate.mn.us www.mndnr.gov From: Mike Gaffron [mailto:MGaffron@ci.orono.mn.us] Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 11:49 AM To: Strauss, Ceil C (DNR); Drewry, Kate (DNR) Subject: Orono - Casco Point - Building on Filled Wetland Ceil & Kate— There is a vacant property on Casco Point in Orono (PINS 17-117-23-42-0001/0002/0003)that is being proposed as a building site. This property consists of wetland that was filled in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and according to the attached letter received by the City during a proposed re-platting of the site in 1975,the fill was not approved by the DNR. Attached are various documents including: - October 201975 letter from Richard Haefele, attorney representing himself and the neighborhood, indicating that John Chell (whom I worked for as a Laborer in the DNR Rochester Office in 1977) had visited the site and indicated the fill was illegal; - Airphotos from 1937-1971 that help to pinpoint the time the majority of filling occurred, sometime between 1956 and 1967; - Plat drawing when the property was subdivided as Tracts W and X of the Casco Cove Addition in 1955, and a copy of current plat map and plat/airphoto overlay; - Copy of the 1971 re-plat of W and X into Lots 1-2-3 of Casco Point Addition;