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MINUTES OF THE <br />ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING <br />March 13,2023 <br />6:00 o'clock p.m. <br />Curtis said that was correct but they did not,they just stabilized the slope. They did not do the final wall <br />as they requested. They determined that they would just protect the slope and then evaluated it and <br />decided that a higher sixth wall that was already installed would be more beneficial support for the slope <br />rather than an additional seventh wall more towards the home back into the yard. The fire happened in <br />July.We issued the permit for the in-kind replacement of the walls,which is administrative,in <br />September.We issued that stop-work order in October because of the expanded wall footprint that our <br />inspector confirmed for us.They did not utilize boulders because that would have expanded the footprint <br />of the wall and they were trying to expedite the repair. So they did not want to go through the timeline for <br />the variance publication and approval for boulders. <br />Joe Valdes,owner of Valdes lawn care, 6476 St. Croix Trail South,Hastings,Minnesota, appeared before <br />the Council along with Tyler Warnke,2157 Valley View Place, St.Paul,the equipment operator on the <br />job and Paul Schimnowski with Criterium-Schimnowski Engineers, 161 Dunbar Way,Mahtomedi, <br />Minnesota,the engineer of record. <br />Walsh noted Valdes had said before the Planning Commission that he didn't look at the plans. He also <br />noted that Valdes just went and started digging. <br />Warnke said he was first on-site,and had the plans with him. We were looking at the plans as we were <br />starting the project. <br />Walsh asked if they had the plans,why did they think they could bring a bulldozer down there and scrape <br />out the entire hillside? <br />Warnke said we had to remove all existing walls. In order to get down to the bottom, I had to dig a road. <br />Walsh said,no you didn't.You didn't have to dig a road. That was your choice. You had other options, <br />and that's my whole issue here is that you had other options. You didn't have to do it from the top and dig <br />an entire road down a hillside,you chose to do that.I think at the Planning Commission you said it would <br />take way too much work to do it all by hand from down in the bottom, so you chose to build a road down <br />the middle of the hillside and scoop it all out. So instead of a hill on the hillside,now you have a cliff I <br />have a cliff too. The guys handed it all in my cliff when we had to re-do mine. You chose to go and dig it <br />all when you had a specific plan for in-kind replacement.And so at some point,you dug it all out,your <br />engineer came and designed an entirely different plan that you then pulled a permit for. So it's like going <br />and getting a permit for a 3000 square foot house and then building an 8000 square foot house. <br />In the discussion, Council Members asserted that the applicants had gone beyond the scope of an in-kind <br />solution and removed a great deal of dirt from the bluff The applicants stressed the complexity of the job <br />and noted they had to deal with burned remains of the previous structures and then found underneath the <br />burned wall several feet of old timbers and concrete which had to be removed. They said most of the <br />material hauled away was that and not the hillside itself The also said they had filled in behind the new <br />walls with several feet of supports and material for proper drainage. <br />Page 7 of 21