6.b 1 Staff Report- St. Croix River Partnership Team
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: February 1, 2017
To: Planning Commission
From: Neil Soltis, Administrator
Re: St. Croix Partnership Team
Background:
Mayor Maefsky was contacted by Natalie Warren, of the St. Croix River Association, regarding
participating in the St. Croix Partnership Team. The following information regarding the Team
is an excerpt from Natalie’s email:
The Partnership Team is a group comprised of 35 communities/agencies in both
Minnesota and Wisconsin that gets together to discuss land use and surface water in the
Lower St. Croix. The Partnership Team consults the Lower St. Croix River Commission
(DNRs and NPS) on land use and water surface issues.
The Partnership Team just started meeting regularly again to review the resources that I
am building for the riverway and to provide feedback and suggestions to improve
educational materials that we will be putting out this year (this includes clear and
orderly processes for zoning applications, so perhaps a planner or someone on the
planning commission would be ideal to have on board). We also discuss slow no wake
issues and review any after the fact land use decisions in the Lower St. Croix River. It
would be great to have representation from Scandia in these discussions.
The Partnership Team has floundered a bit over the last few years so I am not surprised
that fewer and fewer local governments are represented at the meetings. However, I
have taken the charge to rebuild Partnership Team attendance to support the work I am
doing and to get proper feedback from the communities along the river.
Their January meeting was scheduled for 1/31/17 and Dan Squyres attended at the invitation of
the Mayor.
At the February 1 work session the City Council felt that it would be appropriate for a member
of the Planning Commission to participate as the City’s representative. Dan has expressed an
interest but felt that the recommendation to the Council to appoint a representative should
come from the Planning Commission.
Information on the Partnership Team and its role in making policy recommendations follows
this report
Issue: Should Dan Squyres or other member of the Planning Commission be recommended for
appointment as the City’s representative on the St. Croix Partnership Team?