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<br /> <br />NOlL VII\IH():lN <br />HOMESTEAD TO HOMES <br />PART FIVE IN A SERIES <br /> <br /> <br />CRAIG BORCK, PIONEER PRESS <br />Working in a lowland area, biologist Ryan Hughes recently checkE:d soil <br />type and hydrology with a soil auger at a lakeville site. Hughes also notes <br />plant species to determine the wetland's exact boundary. In Minnesota, any <br />builder who destroys a wetland has to create another one twice as big. <br /> <br />Editor's note: <br />This is the fifth <br />part of an extended <br />series about the <br />transformation of <br />the storied <br />.an.dtjen Farm into <br />n1que <br />ubdivision. <br /> <br />Today: The <br />tangle of <br />environmental <br />regulations. <br />Next: Will city <br />officials allow <br />housing that breaks <br />the rules? <br /> <br />For previous <br />stori~~,go tG---~, <br />/wWw.twincities.com.:) <br />(.- , . ... --- ,-- ,'- <br /> <br />pn Page$A: <br />_Developers see a <br />need for more <br />uniformity among <br />environmental <br />agencies. <br /> <br />_ The 24 <br />government <br />units that <br />examined the <br />Brandtjen Farm's <br />environmental <br />plans. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />BY BOB SHA~ <br />Pioneer Press <br /> <br />On a cool day in April, Ryan Hughes draws the <br />line between man and nature. <br />He slogs along a marshy area, inhaling the <br />earth's aromas, and pauses to kick aside the reed <br />canary grass. He twists an auger into the ground <br />and gingerly lifts out a foot-long chunk of soil. <br />He squats like a shaman, studying the dirt for <br />signs. With one finger, he picks at the faint red <br />stripes that tell him the soil is chemically active, <br />kept moist by the rise and fall of underground <br />water. <br />He checks the color in his Munsell Soil Color <br />Chart book, holding the dirt against a series of <br />paint chips. The color is l0YR34, a chocolate brown. <br />"This is wetland," he says, planting a small pink <br />flag nearby. Builders could put what they wanted <br />on one side, but not on the other. <br />A year ago and a few miles away, another wet- <br />lands expert drew similar lines for the Brandtjen <br />Farm project in Lakeville. . <br />Developers of Brandtjen Farm envisioned an <br />environmentally friendly housing project, where <br />rain would be recycled to water lawns, fertilizer <br />runoff would be filtered through a chain of man- <br />made and natural lakes, and water spilled into <br />rivers would be kept cool for trout. <br />Yet to do this, builders had <br />to wade through environ- <br />mental rules as tangled <br />,as the grass beneath <br />Hughes' feet. <br /> <br />RED TAPE, SA <br />