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To; <br />From: <br />Date: <br />Chair Smith and Planning Commission Members <br />Ron Moorse, City Administrator <br />Michael P. GafTron, Senior Planning Coordinator <br />May 7,1998 <br />Subject: Proposed Zoning Code Amendment, Section 10.55 Subd. 15A(3) <br />Code Section:Section 10.55, Flood Plain and Wetlands Management <br />- Subd. 15: Land Development and Platting <br />- A. Minimum Lot Area Requirements <br />- (3) Area credit for 'flood fringe' in sewered areas <br />Proposed Amendment:Eliminate the ability to credit wetland acreage toward development <br />density in sewered areas. <br />Background <br />In early April Council requested that staff provide background on tlie current Code standards <br />allow ing use of wetlands as creditable lot area for developing sewered properties. This eredit has <br />apparently come into play in a relatively small number of past zoning applications; two very recent <br />ones (Brook Park Realty and Touve/Olsen); and an upcoming sketch plan review (Valerius, re: <br />former John Burger property on Stubbs Bay). <br />The basic premise is that for sew'ered property, the Zoning Code has allowed some wetland to be <br />credited tow’ard the minimum lot area and/or density requirements. This credit has apparently been <br />applied to a relatively small number of new subdivisions and perhaps to a few existing lots of record. <br />This credit has not been widely used since it came into effect in 1970, and staff has not attempted <br />to identify which subdivisions or properties have been granted the credit in the past. <br />The primary concern bringing this issue to the forefront at this time is that properties in the newly <br />sewered (mostly since 1980) portions of the 2-acre zone might w’ant to claim the wetland credit for <br />density purposes. For example, a now-sewered 4 acre lot with 3 acres dry and 1 acre wet, which <br />under the normal 2-acre zone standards would not be subdi\ idable, could now' claim eligibility for <br />a 1-acre wetland credit and propose a subdivision to create two lots, each w'ith 1-1/2 acre of dr>' and <br />1/2 acre of wetland. This was not the Council's intent when providing sew er to the 2-acre zone to <br />solve septic problems. <br />Council has also indicated that the use of the wetland credit in the 1/2 and 1-acre zones does not <br />seem to match their current view on the subject of development density, and has directed stafT to <br />prepare a zoning code amendment to eliminate the w’etland credit entirely.