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Page 1 6. Project Description: a) Provide the brief project summary to be published in the EBQ Monitor, (approximately 50 words). The Oakwater Ridge residential/commercial development is proposed on approximately ±248 acres west of U.S. Highway 10/169 and east of the Mississippi River in the City of Elk River, Sherburne County, Minnesota. The project will include 536 single-family residential homes and a commercial parcel (likely consisting of a multi-tenant retail strip and a gas station). The project will include several internal roadways, a river overlook, an open space/recreational area, a future trail, a greenway corridor, and stormwater features. b) Give a complete description of the proposed project and related new construction including infrastructure needs. If the project is an expansion include a description of the existing facility. Emphasize: 1) construction, operation methods and features that will cause physical manipulation of the environment or will produce wastes, 2) modifications to existing equipment or industrial processes, 3) significant demolition, removal or remodeling of existing structures, and 4) timing and duration of construction activities. The project proposer is planning a residential/commercial development currently referred to as “Oakwater Ridge” in the City of Elk River, Sherburne County, Minnesota (Figure 1) (Appendix A). The project was previously referred to as the “Specht Farm” site. The project area is located along the Mississippi River, south of the intersection between Minnesota Highway 169 and U.S. Highway 10/169, adjacent to the intersection between U.S. Highway 10/169 and 165th Avenue Northwest. The site is located in the southeast corner of Elk River, with the City of Otsego west of the Mississippi River, the City of Dayton to the southeast, and the City of Ramsey to the east. The project area consists of cultivated fields, hayfields, old paddocks, woodlands, wetlands, floodplain, and a farmstead with two single-family homes and barns. A former bus lot with two buried diesel/gasoline tanks is located east of the farmstead structures. One of the structures was utilized as a bus-maintenance garage. Topography on the site peaked along the northern site boundary (896 ft MSL) and was lowest along the western site boundary (Mississippi River; 850 ft MSL). A bluff (per the Sherburne County Zoning Ordinance and Elk River City Code) is present along the hillslope east of the lower cultivated field (1) (2). In August of 2024, Kjolhaug Environmental delineated the wetlands within the project area. The Elk River (the Local Government Unit) concurred with the delineated boundaries based on the February 4th, 2025 Notice of Decision (Appendix E).