6A - Brian Pahl, Shoreline Alteration

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STAFF REPORT Item: Brian Pahl,Shoreline Alteration Land Use Permit Application 07-62 Agenda Item:6(a) Background: Mr. Paul requested permission to do grading within the Shore Impact Zone, such as removing old wooden gardens and the ridge to gain access to the dock. City Planner Marohn and Staff met with Applicant onsite and approved the following: i. Removal by hand of logs and debris within the ice ridge. 2. Removal of the perennial ice ridge, which is approximately the upper 8 to 12 inches of the ice ridge. The remainder of this ice ridge is part of the historic ice ridge and will not be disturbed,except as permitted herein. 3. The removal of timbers that surround the garden areas on the back (house) side of the historic ice ridge. 4. The grading of up to to cubic yards of material so as to remove parts of the historic ice ridge necessary to have access to the dock.The opening in the ice ridge will not be more than 8 feet wide at the base with at least 3:1 side slopes. 5. The grading of material left over from the garden area and removed as part of the dock access so as to drain water away from the dock access area. Applicant states that as they began removing the logs and debris, they found the rocks. Apparently the rocks had been placed by a previous owner in an attempt to stabilize the shoreline.They cleaned the dirt away and stacked the rocks along the bank, essentially altering the historic ice ridge. Excess dirt was sloped back into the yard. Staff issued a Cease and Desist Order. City Planner Marohn and Staff met with Applicant and directed him to slope the yard away from the water and to stabilize the area with ground cover. Applicant states that less than io cubic yards of material was removed. The concern at this point is that the shoreline appears to be lined with rip-rap and, to all appearances,is freshly installed. Pequot Lakes does not allow new rip-rap installations except as a last resort to control erosion,which is not the case on this property. Although the new looking rip-rap can be explained by their construction methods, the end result is not what was anticipated when the permit was written.Additionally, when the rip-rap is counted, the actual amount of material that was moved would be greater than io cubic yards and exceed that authorized in the permit, although the applicant indicates that most of it was done by hand (not by "mechanical means" as per the definition of grading). Finally, by removing the rock, the historic portion of the ice ridge was damaged.This was also not anticipated when the permit was written. Request: The Staff is seeking guidance as to whether or not this would be a violation of the Ordinance (placement of rip-rap, volume of grading, damage to the historic ice ridge) or whether the Planning Commission would give the Staff authority to amend the permit to match the conditions on the site as they developed. If the former, Staff would also request some guidance as to potential remedies for the situation. City of Pequot Lakes Staff Report 4-1 August 16,2007