Glen Strandberg
Staff Reporter

As soon as plans for the harness racing track and card room appear to be making progress, another concern arrives that slows it all down again.

At the June 14 Columbus Town Board meeting, members of the North Metro Harness Initiative spoke to supervisors about the townís acceptance of the final plant and animal species survey, acceptance of North Metroís Phase II archaeological survey and appropriate mitigation, and finally, the Proposed Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery Plan.

The conditional use permit contingent upon town board approval. Once these matters are accepted, the issuance of building permits can actually take place.

The final plant and animal species survey, and Phase III plan were met with little resistance, but the idea of signing off on ìappropriate mitigationî under Phase II brought rounds of discussion that led to three different motions.

Supervisor Tom Hefty was the first person to express concerns about granting approval of Phase II because the mitigation process is open-ended.

How long will it take? What if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office discovered something new during the process? Columbus Township would have already granted its approval, and therefore have no legal recourse in case there were changes to be made, he offered.

Bill Griffith, Jr., the townís attorney, had just received North Metroís report that evening, and he agreed with Heftyís idea of waiting on Phase II.

ìWhatís implicit in your (Columbus Township) acceptance of a plan for mitigation is that somebody with some review authority did look at it and said, ëThis is OK.íî

This is where North Metro and the town differed on when Columbus should grant its approval, because North Metro believed two review authorities had already stated that all issues surrounding mitigation were in order.

ìThatís what the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have done,î countered Tom LaSalle, a representative of Southwest Casino and Hotel Corp., a 50 percent partner in the North Metro Harness Initiative.

Hefty motioned to accept the plant and animal species survey, but to wait on approving mitigation until the board has time to review the specifics of the plan.

The motion generated more comments but was never seconded.

Supervisor Glen Miles then motioned to postpone the talk of mitigation until the next meeting, and to have a member of SHPO or the Corps of Engineers present. This motion also failed.

Eventually, on Griffithís suggestion, Hefty motioned to accept the Phase II evaluation and effects analysis of the SHPO, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the North Metro Harness Initiative, provided that such acceptance is not deemed ìappropriate mitigation,î and authorize the Proposed Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery Plan. This was seconded by Miles and met with general acceptance from the board and North Metro.

ìI like the motion that Bill is recommending,î Supervisor Renae Fry said. ìSimply because it reflects what I think may be what we intended by the CUP in the first place.î

Tom Snook, general counsel for Southwest Casino Corporation summed up the wishes of the two sides: ìI think what weíre talking about here is the board accepting the mitigation plan, but contingent upon a report of the results of that mitigation. And thatís really what weíre looking for. We want the authority to go ahead with an expensive mitigation plan.î

It should be noted that this is a draft that can be changed up until it is approved at the next board meeting on Wednesday, June 28.

North Metro expects the mitigation process to begin in approximately two weeks, and would take anywhere from four to six weeks for the site work to be completed.

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