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- ~ •,^ // ~ <br />.ver <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Planning Commissioners <br />CC: Mayor and Council Members <br />FROM: Lori Johnson, City Administrator <br />DATE: June 18, 2009 <br />SUBJECT: Elk River Landfill, Inc. Request for Expansion -Follow-up to <br />June 9, 2009, Planning Commission Meeting <br />At the June 9, 2009, Planning Commission meeting both City staff and its consultants and <br />representatives of the Elk River Landfill, Inc. (ERL) presented information on ERL's <br />proposed expansion. ERL received the Planning Commission packet in advance and <br />posed questions about the City's material at the meeting. City staff was not prepared to <br />comment in detail on the information presented by ERL at the meeting as staff was <br />hearing it for the first time along with the Commissioners. There are several items in <br />ERL's presentation that require a response from the City. Those items along with the <br />questions raised by ERL and planning commissioners are addressed by City Attorney <br />Peter Beck in the document titled Comprehensive Plan, the memorandum and <br />accompanying supplemental information from Brad Scheib of HKGi, and in this memo. <br />Before responding to the questions submitted in writing by Waste Management, there are <br />a few general comments on the action requested that are worth reviewing. First, the <br />action currently before the Planning Commission, and ultimately the City Council, is <br />whether to amend the Comprehensive Plan to change the land use on the proposed <br />property. As the city attorney reaffirms in his response, a land use change is required in <br />order to allow ERL's expansion into the 109 acre proposed development area known as <br />the Southern Development Area (SDA). The question for the Commission and Council is <br />this; does the City want the 109 acres in question to be a landfill or is some other type of <br />development envisioned on that property? If the City wants the area to develop into a <br />landfill, the Comprehensive Plan needs to be amended to change the land use because at <br />the time it was adopted this property (the SDA) was not envisioned as a landfill. <br />Second, in order to analyze the impact of this land use change, a long term approach must <br />be taken as the property cannot easily or quickly be redeveloped in to a different use after <br />it is used as a landfill. In doing the long term analysis there are some factors that are <br />