Forest Lake council finds no EIS required for Tim's Marina expansion after environmental review

The Forest Lake City Council on March 9 adopted Resolution 03092602 concluding that the environmental assessment worksheet (EAW) prepared for Tim's Marina's proposal to add two seasonal floating docks (72 slips) does not require preparation of a full environmental impact statement under Minnesota Rule 4410.17.

Steven, community development staff, told the council that the city served as the responsible governmental unit for the review and that the decision before the council was narrowly whether the record shows the potential for "significant environmental effects" requiring an EIS. He said staff reviewed public and agency input (28 submissions that produced 119 comment topics, of which 89 were deemed substantive) and concluded the project is most analogous to an incremental, reversible change rather than a fundamental one requiring an EIS.

Why it matters: an EIS would trigger a much…