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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?