Posted: 10/1/03

Columbus reviews 17-lot housing plan

Joe Drennan

Staff Writer

There was not much on the agenda for the Wednesday, Sept. 24 Columbus Town Board meeting, but there was one issue that seemed to take up a lot of time.

The development group that hopes to develop the Carlos Avery Estates located near 133702 Jodrell St. was on hand to find out if their preliminary plat proposal would be approved. The development calls for 17 lots, and each lot would meet the five acre minimum requirement, but would be 150 feet wide.

The development group has submitted their preliminary plat, and is waiting for approval. Town board members still have four issues that they would like figured out first though.

The first issue pertains to the surrounding wetlands, which ties in closely with the second which is a conservation easement. The wetlands cannot be disturbed, and the board would like to see a buffer zone around the wetlands to ensure their preservation. Such a buffer, or conservation easement, would essentially be a ëdo not mowí zone.

As board member Renae Fry pointed out, such a buffer zone is necessary otherwise if a homeowner mowed all the way up to the wetland, all the chemicals that people put on their lawns would run into the wetland water and contaminate it. The natural vegetation around the wetland would filter such toxins out.

The town is asking for a 16 foot buffer around the wetland, but the builder feels that is a bit excessive.

ìWe understand you cannot approach wetlands and we plan to let the homeowners know that,î Mike Black said. ìI just donít think itís reasonable to ask people not to mow up to wetlands.î

Township attorney Bill Griffith said a 16 foot buffer is reasonable, pointing out that other communities have from 50 to 100 foot buffers.

The floodplain for the proposed site is another issue the board wants more information on. The Coon Creek Watershed District and Anoka County do not have any accurate or up to date 100-year high water level maps of the area so there is some uncertainty of exactly how much buildable land there is, but several documents show the level to be 903 feet which is acceptable.

The final issue remaining is a half mile stretch of gravel road that leads to the subdivision site.

The board mentioned that somewhere in the future, the road will have to be blacktopped due to high levels of traffic. They wonder if it is reasonable to expect the developer or future homeowners to be responsible for a portion of that cost.

The developer insists that they would have a grater on site to regularly maintain the gravel road, and that they would probably leave it in better condition when the subdivision is complete than when they start it.

Although the blacktop would be an added expense, the developer mentioned he would be willing to talk it out and come up with a reasonable solution if they had some numbers on how much they would be responsible for.

The subdivision application request was filed April 25,2003, and its 120 day period ended Sept. 23. Because the application was near expiration at the time of the meeting, the board voted to extend it to the next meeting in the hopes that all issues can be resolved.

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