6 PCSR 01-26-1993 - Laserfiche WebLink

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N • DRYING Star Tribune/Sunday/January 3/1993 1 r Y. v — — .13A Nie. • ,., UP __ ' etlands-ri • Vch Anoka Cin the ..4,;.._ _ thick of constant clashes By Mike Kaszuba vehicles. In Coon Rapids.one of the most "Staff Writer controversial cases before the U.S. The conflict is likely to escalate as Army Corps of Engineers involves a The bulldozers came rumbling cities in the county simultaneously permit request by developer William through the wetlands in the city of try to attract economic development Cooley to put a 100-room hotel, res- 'Ramsey one morning last August, and enforce new wetlands laws. taurant and stores on a 26-acre plot, and developers Gilbert Menkveld "Have you ever driven around Ano- 24 of which are wetlands.Cooley. -and his son.Jack, had embarked on ka County?"asked Pat McGuire of who once co-owned the Mall of two idyllic-sounding subdivisions the DNR."Nothing but wetlands.. . . America land in Bloomington.is known as Ramsey Meadows and We're going to have real problems mum on what he'll do if the Corps of Sunny Ponds. j there as development happens." Engineers denies a permit. Even though Minnesota's new wet- Much of the county's land is flat and "I think they really struggle with it," elands conservation act was in place, sandy,so few wetlands have distinc- Tim Fell of the Corps of Engineers %1 both projects had gone through the tive boundaries or lie in more tradi- said of Anoka County's overall ap- 'City Council without raising an eye- tional bowl-shaped low spots.That, proach to wetlands protection."They 'brow.And the city's engineer,Steve however.does not make them any want to attract development.... It's -'Jankowski,hadn't gone to any of the less worthy to preservationists. close to downtown Minneapolis and training sessions on how cities were St.Paul... [but]it's got a lot of naikforce the new law. "It's time we put our limited natural wetlands." resources before the monetary gains is isn't a great tragedy,"Jan- of land dcyeloprrs."said Carol Del- The county consistently ranked third kowski said of the 1.3 acres of wet- monico.one of 27 letter writers lands tilled in the Menkvelds'two against a recent proposal to fill wet- in building permits, behind Dakota and Hennepin counties,from 1987 projects. lands in Coon Rapids for through 1990 before being nudged development. into fourth by Washington County Throughout Anoka County, old hab- last year.Since 1989.Coon Rapids its,development pressures and a The skirmishing over the county's has ranked either first or second wariness toward wetlands protection wetlands has at times overwhelmed among 132 municipalities in the met- 'are clashing daily with the move to regulators.Cathy Brehm.a state con- ro area in the number of housing preserve wetlands. Of the seven servation official working in the units built. counties in the metropolitan area, county,wrote at least seven cease- Anoka has not only the most wet- and-desist orders against developers Filling wetlands has been an issue in lands acreage but also the highest building in wetlands in a four-month percentage of wetlands—27.5 per- period ending in November. "Thank projects, of Anoka Che NationalaSports cent of its total land. God.everything's freezing up."she Crojecrs,such as the Sports said as cold weather heralded the permit in Blaine, t which acre obtained wet- Sometimesa the attitude toward wet- annual slowdown in construction. land in to18fill about an of lands in Anoka County is bluntly land in 1988. -:stated. When the state Department of Building permits have jumped in Co- But the more mundane projects have Natural Resources(DNR)an- lumbus Township as homeowners taken the larger toll over time. Per- pushitounced that Andover couldn't ex- north into a township where g tend Eldorado St.across a wetland,a nearly 50 percent of all property is sued have been matter-of-factly is- wetlands. to fill wetlands to make room local newspaper announced the deci- for everything from a driveway in -Sion in October with the headline, But the new state law. which focuses Coon Rapids to the upgrading of 2nd ,-Wetland Threatens Street Project." on preserving or replacing wetlands ! Av.in Lino Lakes to handle more of less than an acre, has left home- traffic. 'One DNR study said that Anoka owners such as Robert Jeukens clear- County had 410 of the 581 acres of 1 frustrated. He's trying Although all projects,at least on pa- i 'wetlands slated to be lost to develop- y g to sella 5- per,call for creating new wetlands to I mens in the metro area from mid- acre property with two wetlands and replace what's being destroyed, many f .1988 to early last fall. says the law has scared off buyers 'r, • and will probably force him to reduce ' projects don't have a happy ending. ilter DNR survey of the most his price. And often the smaller projects lead to j c natural areas in Anoka the biggest headaches. County showed that between 1985 "They're going overboard."he says and 1990 dozens of wetlands sites of wetlands protection. Were harmed by draining,housing developments and even off-road