A notice of a public hearing was released on Oct. 13 by the City of Cottage Grove Planning Commission. It stated that their meeting of Oct. 25 would enable locals to listen and respond to an application. The City of Cottage Grove is requesting a “zoning text amendment to repeal and replace City Code Title 11-15, Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Overlay District.”

Nearly 50 years ago, the State of Minnesota formally recognized the Mississippi River’s significance in the Twin Cities. This is according to the official website of Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR). FMR is an organization that collaborates with communities in preserving, restoring, and improving said river and its watershed in the Twin Cities area.

Minnesota established the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area (MRCCA). Its purpose: to care for the Twin Cities’ 72-mile portion of the waterway. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) elaborates on their webpage: “The MRCCA was designated a state critical area in 1976 to protect its natural, cultural, and scenic resources. These resources are protected through development standards administered through local government land use plans and zoning ordinances.”

Twenty-five towns sit within the MRCCA. Among them are Newport, St. Paul Park, Grey Cloud Island Township, and Hastings. Cottage Grove is a part of the MRCCA, too. Michael Mrosla is the senior planner for the City of Cottage Grove. He forwarded a recent planning staff report to The Journal. It reveals, “The City of Cottage Grove has over 39 miles of shoreline and bluffs along the Mississippi River and within the MRCCA.”

When the MRCCA was established, local government units (LGUs) were required to adopt standards. These standards regulated a building’s distance from the Mississippi River, for instance. They controlled the vegetation, development, and subdivision on riverfront land.

The rules concerning the MRCCA remained constant until the year of 2007 arrived. Minnesota Legislature assigned the MN DNR with the job of revising the regulations. One year later, the MN DNR finalized a report on the MRCCA. By 2009, the Minnesota Legislature called upon them to lead rulemaking for the MRCCA. The MN DNR collaborated with interested organizations to brainstorm norms. These were drafted two years succeeding. However, it was not until 2013 when Minnesota Legislature motioned for the MN DNR to proceed rulemaking. The new MRCCA rules, as they are now written in “Minnesota Rules Chapter 6106,” were published on Jan. 4, 2017.

“Active” is how the City of Cottage Grove has labeled their participation in forming these new norms. Mrosla judged, “Our city was highly active in the process. We did a lot of—we work close with the DNR in creating the regulations and drafting the new rules or regulations.”

All of the MRCCA townships did not enforce the ordinances immediately. Every ten years, cities of the Twin Cities metropolitan area must update their comprehensive plans. At the time of the new MRCCA rules’ release, cities were preoccupied doing just that. Once the projections were polished, the MN DNR “sent letters to all the communities are impacted by MRCCA, telling them they need to update their ordinance,” recounted Mrosla. “Some cities have not still received their letter yet because they’re working through them all. They don’t want all 25 to do the ordinances because that’s a lot of work for the DNR, to go through all those ordinances.”

The City of Cottage Grove has secured their invitation to draft a new MRCCA ordinance. How the city is reacting, Mrosla detailed to The Journal: “We are adopting the DNR’s model ordinance—on their webpage, there’s a model ordinance—we’re adopting that pretty much word-forword.”

The MN DNR’s MRCCA Model Ordinance was created to assist LGUs revising their sections, chapters, or articles concerning MRCCA. After all, the model ordinance follows current Minnesota Rules. To view it, one can navigate to https:// files.dnr.state.mn.us/waters/ watermgmt_section/critical_ area/mrcca-model-ordinance- with-commentary.pdf . In adopting the MRCCA Model Ordinance, developers and homeowners situated in the MRCCA overlay district of Cottage Grove will be affected. “The current regulations are less restrictive on existing homeowners or property owners along the river than the existing standards,” determined Mrosla. “…So there’s a lot more flexibility there. However, they are more restrictive on development along the river.”

The City of Cottage Grove notes the potential shifts of MRCCA management in a planning staff report. They are copied here:

• Relaxed structure distance from bluffs and ordinary high-water level The OHWL is the maximum elevation that a wetland reaches for a long period of time.

• Decks and patios may penetrate 15 percent into the required setback as long as the structure is not in the bluff impact zone

• Reduced setback for subsurface sewage treatment systems

• Averaging of setbacks for principal structures

• All legally established nonconforming principal structures and decks may be expanded laterally, as long as the structure is not in the bluff impact zone.

• Vegetation removal permit and restoration plan are required for the intense removal of the trees or shrubs in a contiguous patch, strip, row, or block.

The MRCCA Model Ordinance, which the city aims to adhere to, logs regulations for riverfront vegetation. It suggests, for example, that in a MRCCA overlay district, one without a permit may tend to an existing lawn and garden. Furthermore, one without a permit would have the right to remove trees and shrub selectively. Unless an environmental community is harmful, “intensive vegetation clearing is prohibited” under the model ordinance.

Another piece of the model ordinance is the “permanent protection of open space.” Section 11.52 reads, “Permanent protection methods must ensure the long-term management of vegetation to meet its biological and ecological functions, prohibit structures, and prohibit land alteration, except as needed to provide public recreational facilities and access to the river.”

For several years, the City of Cottage Grove has wished to expand access to the Mississippi River. The MN DNR has approved the city’s future plans for the MRCCA overlay district. Now, they are asking to repeal City Code Title 11-15, Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Overlay District. It would be replaced with something nearly identical to the MRCCA Model Ordinance.

In order to remove the current code, a few tasks must be completed. First, the City of Cottage Grove’s Planning Commission must host a public hearing. This was scheduled to occur at their meeting of Oct. 25. A public hearing did not unfold then. Rather, the city attorney was granted additional time to draft the zoning text amendment. The public hearing relating to the repeal of City Code Title 1115 will unfold on Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. It will take place at City Hall (12800 Ravine Parkway S Cottage Grove, MN).

After that, the city’s planning staff will forward recommendations to the City Council. Then, the council will act. Finally, if the city publishes the zoning text amendment, City Code Title 11-15 will be repealed within 30 days.

Its possible replacement, the new ordinance, is favored by Mrosla. He expressed, “… the revised ordinance is very beneficial for the community… I think it goes back to-we didn’t want to change the ordinance, what the DNR did, because it complimented the city well; it complimented our standards well. The state did a good job drafting that and we see it working for us. Our attorneys looked at it…and it meets the needs of the city.”

Cottage Grove is home to four varieties of MRCCA districts. There are six in total. MRCCA district represent the current and projected development of an expanse.Source The City of Cottage Grove