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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2.b. UMore Gravel Mining Plan4ROSEMOUNTEXECUTIVE SUMMARY CITY COUNCIL City Council Worksession Date: February 16, 2010 AGENDA ITEM: UMore Gravel Mining Plan AGENDA SECTION: Discussion PREPARED BY: Eric Zweber, Senior Planner AGENDA NO. 2R. ATTACHMENTS: Phasing Plan with 24 Hour Operation, Phasing Plan by Decade, Reclamation APPROVED BY: Plan with Lakes, Ancillary Facilities Plan RECOMMENDED ACTION: Discussion Only SUMMARY The University of Minnesota is interested in mining aggregate in the western third of their UMore facility. The portion of UMore that is proposed to be mined in Rosemount is roughly bounded by Biscayne Avenue to the west, Akron Avenue to the east, County Road 42 to the north, and County Road 46 to the south. The University would like to mine this aggregate for a number of reasons; including to provide funds to clean up and develop other portions of the UMore site and to create a more interesting and attractive topography when the mining is completed. The University has selected Dakota Aggregates, LLC (a partnership between Cemstone and Ames Construction) to operate the gravel mining operation at UMore. Dakota Aggregates has proposed a preliminary gravel plan and staff would like to take this opportunity to inform the City Council about the scale of the proposed mining operation, some of operational proposals that Dakota Aggregates has made, and the process in which the mining operation is proposed to be regulated and approved. This item is scheduled for Council discussion so that you may review the plans and discuss particular issues that may come up with any large scale mining operation. Staff has provided information about a variety of issues below and also laid out the ideas and regulations staff is looking to incorporate into a new draft ordinance. Should the Council feel there are items missing in the discussion below that are of importance to the community or additional information is needed please raise those issues. Staff intends to review the mining plans the City had previously received, however, additional modifications to the plans are expected as future discussions with UMore and their mining partner continue. DISCUSSION Mining Scale Dakota Aggregates is proposing to mine approximately 1,250 acre of the UMore property for sand and gravel, as well as use approximately 200 additional acres for ancillary facilities complementary to the aggregate use, such as cement and asphalt plant. About 550 of the 1,250 acres being proposed for mining are located in Rosemount, while the entire 200 acres of ancillary facilities is located within Rosemount. The operation within Rosemount is roughly bounded by Biscayne Avenue to the west, Akron Avenue to the east, County Road 42 to the north, and County Road 46 to the south. The mining is proposed to be as deep as 150 feet with groundwater being reached at about 75 feet deep. One result of the mining effort will be two large lakes after reclamation, one located north of County Road 46 in Rosemount and the other located south of County Road 46 in Empire Township. To facilitate the scale of the mining operation, Dakota Aggregates has proposed to split the mining into ten phases within Rosemount, each phase varying from 35 to 90 acres in size. To describe the type of mining that would occur, the ten phases are described as five dry mining phases (being phases that would not be mined below the groundwater level) and five floating dredge phases (which would be mined below the groundwater level). All ten phases would be mined by the normal excavation equipment (bulldozers, front end loaders, back hoes, and scrapers) above the groundwater level, but the five floating dredge phases will include a barge to be brought on site once groundwater is reached. This type of mining would not require pumping of groundwater or any other type of de- watering of the site. The mining plan anticipates two phases operating at any given time, one dry mining phase and one floating dredge phase. The dry mining phases are generally located on the northern two- thirds of the site, nearest County Road 42 and the floating dredge phases are located generally on the southern third of the site nearest County Road 46 and the northeast corner of the intersection of County Road 46 and Biscayne Avenue. It is anticipated that mining would take the next 25 years (until about 2036) within Rosemount and an additional 15 years (until 2051) to mine the Empire Township portion of UMore. Dakota Aggregates is proposing to maintain the ancillary uses in the same location (within Rosemount, north of the intersection of Station Trail and County Road 46) for the entirety of the 40 years of mining operation. Operational Proposals Dakota Aggregates' is proposing to operate two mining phases at any time; one of the dry mining phases and one of the floating dredge phases. The first dry mining phase is proposed to be located southeast of the intersection of Biscayne Avenue and County Road 42, while the first floating dredge phase is located northwest of the intersection of Station Trail and County Road 46. The dry mining phases will first progress to the east along County Road 42 and then south toward the ancillary facilities. The floating dredge phases will progress west towards Biscayne Avenue along County Road 46 then north along the east side of Biscayne Avenue. After 2036, the mining will leave Rosemount, move to the south side of County Road 46, and mine for an additional 15 years in Empire Township. Access Initially, Dakota Aggregates proposed to use up to eight different access locations within Rosemount; three along County Road 42, two along Biscayne Avenue, and three along County Road 46. As a result of subsequent discussions, Dakota Aggregates is moving toward use of only two access points within Rosemount, an access on the east side of Biscayne Avenue across from Boulder Trail that would serve the various dry mining phases and a second access at or near Station Trail and County Road 46 that would serve the floating dredge phases and the ancillary facilities. There is a possibility that Dakota Aggregates may request a third access in the future onto Biscayne Avenue to the north of County Road 46 to serve floating dredge phases 4 and 5 during the years 2026 through 2036. City staff has stated that it would be expected that the first 150 feet of an access road would be paved to reduce the amount of dust and limit the tracking of mud and dirt onto the roadways. Haul Routes Staff is working to limit, and where possible ban, the use of City streets as haul routes for the aggregate trucks. Current conversations would limit truck use to only Biscayne Avenue between County Road 42 and County Road 46 if it was upgraded to support the weight of the aggregate trucks. A second local road 2 being explored for future truck traffic is Boulder Trail after extension to South Robert Trail at the Canada Circle intersection. The Boulder Trail extensions would need to be constructed to support the aggregate truck weight and a signal installed at the South Robert Trail intersection. The City cannot ban the use of County or State roads by the aggregate trucks during the normal operation of the gravel mine but haul routes could be negotiated if mining were allowed to occur outside the normal operations expressly permitted by the Ordinance. The gravel plan anticipates the use of County Roads 42 and 46, State Highway 3 (South Robert Trail), and US Highway 52 in addition to Biscayne Avenue between County Road 42 and County Road 46. The plan initially included the use of 145th Street West between South Robert Trail and County Road 42 but staff has commented that this route should be removed because it is inadequate to handle the size of the aggregate vehicles, is a local street through residential neighborhoods, and the intersection of 145t' and Robert Trail cannot accommodate these vehicles. Berming Initially, the gravel plan only included berming along the south side of County Road 42. Dakota Aggregates has agreed to extend berming along all the major street frontages including County Road 42, Biscayne Avenue, and County Road 46 but is requesting that the berming be installed on a phase by phase basis instead of all at once. Staff would be supportive of that if the berming is extended an appropriate distance beyond the production phase (possibly 450 feet ?) to visually shield the mining operation. This may also serve as an advantage because the berms may be able to be relocated and reconstructed as reclamation occurs to allow development to occur in the finished and reclaimed areas while still providing shielding from the existing mining operation. Staff and Dakota Aggregate have had several conversations regarding the appropriate height and size of the berm. The purpose of berming is similar, but not identical, to the berms located in other locations, such as along County Road 42. Typically berming is used to shield buildings, structures, or other forms of outdoor storage from view of adjacent properties or public rights -of -way. In the case of mining, most activities after the mine is established, occurs below grade, mitigating visibility concerns. In the case of gravel mining, the berming serves three additional purposes: sound mitigation like berms or sound walls along major roadways; dust control through changing and controlling surface wind patterns; and site security delineating the mining boundary and visually removing any attractive nuisance. Originally, Dakota Aggregates proposed a twelve foot high berm with a five foot wide top. Staff is concerned that this simple measure is not high enough because in many places the ground on which the berm would be placed is lower than the roadway adjacent to the berm. Currently, Dakota Aggregates is preparing a revised berming plan that would require the berm to be 10 feet higher than the shoulder elevation of the neighboring roadway to ensure that there is adequate height. The preliminary results shows that the berm will need to be raised in a couple of locations along County Road 42 and Biscayne Avenue beyond the original 12 foot design, while additional height will be needed on almost all of County Road 46 to achieve the 10 foot height above the shoulder. Hours of Operation The current mineral extraction provisions in the zoning ordinance limits hours of operation to 7 am to 7 pm, Monday through Saturday. Dakota Aggregates is requesting that their dry mining phases be allowed to operate from 6 am to 6 pm (the same hours as allowed in Apple Valley and Empire Township) with an additional half hour on each end of the shift to allow vehicles to operate internal to the site to warm up, load, and stage for the day's operation. For Sunday operation, the existing code allows the Council to grant special approval. In addition, Dakota Aggregates is asking that the code allow a limited number of Sunday operations that can be approved by staff, not Council approval, because they state that there are 3 some job and contract specific cases in which they would not be able to meet the lead time needed for Council schedules. If the Council chose to allow Sunday operation, it would be appropriate to impose additional standards such as limiting haul routes or decreasing hours of operation for Sundays. Dakota Aggregates is adamant that 24 hour operations is the way that the aggregate industry is going particularly with more MnDOT and other public projects requiring nighttime or weekend paving and construction schedules. To meet this need, Dakota Aggregates is requesting that the ancillary facilities (concrete and asphalt plants) and the floating dredge phases be allowed to operate 24 hours a day. Staff has discussed with Dakota Aggregates that for this to even be considered, the truck access to the site would have to be limited to the Station Trail and County Road 46 access and the haul routes would only allow east -west travel on County Road 46 to US Highway 52 to the east or Cedar Avenue or I -35 to the west. No truck hauling would be allowed on South Robert Trail, County Road 42, or Biscayne Avenue. Dakota Aggregates has stated that they would agree to those requirements. Provided as an attachment to this executive summary is a map that highlights floating dredge phases 1, 2, and 3, as well as the ancillary facilities as an example of the limited area for 24 hour operation. Staff would like to hear the Council's concerns regarding further exploring the possibility of 24 hour operation on a limited area of the gravel mine. Additional Issues There are a couple of additional issues that staff and Dakota Aggregate have not come to an amicable solution to, including: • Landscaping on the berms • Mining activity setbacks • Tree preservation • Ability to revoke or modify the permit if the gravel mine inhibits the orderly development of UMore Approval Process The City has an existing mineral extraction provision within its Zoning Ordinance which allows gravel mines east of US Highway 52 within '/2 mile of County Road 42. This language addresses needs of the existing gravel mines in the City that are normally about 40 to 80 acres in size and have phases in 10 acre increments. Staff does not feel that the existing ordinance is adequate to address the issues and needs of a large scale mine like those that are in Lakeville, Apple Valley, or Empire Township. To adequately regulate the scale of the mine proposed in UMore, staff is proposing preparation of a new ordinance for large scale mineral extraction operations as an interim use in the agricultural zone. The ordinance is loosely based on the format of Apple Valley's gravel mining ordinance. In addition, staff proposes an overlay district that would allow the large scale mining only in an area bounded by Biscayne Avenue to the west, Akron Avenue to the east, County Road 42 to the north, and County Road 46 to the south. Staff has met twice with representatives from Dakota Aggregate and UMore to discuss how the ordinance would be written which has resulted in many of the topics that are discussed earlier in this executive summary. The next meeting is scheduled for the second week in March. In addition to the zoning ordinance, the University is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) that is required of any gravel mine proposed at this scale. Normally, the City would be the responsible unit of government (RGU) preparing the EIS, but the City had previously given permission to the University to be the RGU for the gravel mining EIS. The purpose of the EIS is to determine the impacts that result from the mine and develop mitigation measures to address the impact. The City's ordinance and ultimately the mining permit granted to Dakota Aggregates would need to incorporate these mitigation measures. City staff is working with representatives of UMore and the University's consult in developing 4 the EIS. A preliminary timeline for the approval of the gravel mine based on the best information currently available is: EIS Approval by the University: September 2010 Large Scale Mining Ordinance Adoption by the City: October 2010 Gravel Mining Plan Approval and Permit by the City: January 2011 Dakota Aggregate Site Preparation: March 2011 Mine Operation: May 2011 RECOMMENDATION It is anticipated that formal action on the gravel mining plan will not occur until summer or fall of 2010. Any input or comments from the City Council on issues that staff should pay particular attention to when creating the mining ordinance or reviewing the gravel plan would be appreciated. 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