North Branch city completes required ESSBY site review

The 400-acre redevelopment area in North Branch called ESSBY (see graphic) has seen its every-five-year environmental review completed. The study hasn’t been altered much from two previous assessments, because not much has been developed in ESSBY. The first Alternative Urban Areawide Review or AUAR was completed in 2004. The update was done in 2009 and recently the North Branch City Council accepted the AUAR for 2014 which is submitted to the state. An AUAR is somewhere in between an Environmental Impact Statement and an Environmental Assessment Worksheet, said Andi Moffatt, of the city’s engineering firm WSB & Associates.

She explained that this is not “project specific” analysis but it reviews a large redevelopment area that potentially could have many parcels. If development applications are forthcoming North Branch then promises in the AUAR to proceed with additional conditions and controls depending on the project being proposed. The term ESSBY is in the local news frequently-- but what is it? The letters stand for the original farmland owners family surnames. It encompasses 310 acres designated as industrial park space, and about 70 acres also considered potential residential use. Three non-housing projects have gone in on this land in 10 years-- the Topline Automotive building, and St Croix Stone and a Coca Cola beverage distribution company that are in the upper northwest corner.

Chisago County constructed a Health & Human Services satellite office building on 16 aces to the south end of ESSBY. Moffatt explained that the AUAR does not take into consideration the long-rumored silica sand transfer facility that’s proposed on city-owned land in ESSBY. Council member Trent Jensen also noted that there’s a possible re-alignment of the short rail line serving the area, near 400th Street, and a stormwater pond now shown alongside County Road #30 could be impacted. Moffatt said that as part of the AUAR stormwater management plan the pond’s capacity is necessary, but its exact location can change. When the city council was getting details to adopt the AUAR at a council meeting, an audience member asked at what point does the environmental review get re-opened in light of the possible sand facility?

Moffatt advised that unless the impacts of the project are “greater than the assumptions in the AUAR” this document would remain viable. “If this (sand project) becomes more of a reality it can be (reviewed) later, but it is not a flaw in the AUAR.” Land uses change from original environmental plans, Moffatt added. The AUAR contains analysis of protections the city has adopted for ESSBY for stormwater management, it describes restrictions on outdor storage of materials that could be soluable or could degrade and affect groundwater. It covers future related needs such as DNR permitting of an outfall to the Sunrise River and other work anticipated as ESSBY grows.