Watten Ponds - Emergency Action Required!

Watten Ponds is approximately 8 acres of wooded wetland in Shorewood. The area features at least 5 natural wetland areas as well as old growth woods. It is one of the last natural wooded wetland areas in Shorewood. After decades of declaring that the Watten Ponds area could not be developed, the City of Shorewood now proposes to allow a development on 4 acres of Watten Ponds.

The development will cut down almost 100 old growth trees as well as hundreds of younger trees. The developer proposes to replace the hundreds of trees with - 8 new trees.

In addition to the destruction of a large wooded area, the development will seriously degrade the wetlands, not only on the developed lots but in the multiple wetlands into which those wetlands flow.

Development Score: F

Reason for this Development Score:

Land use is very inefficient, with only 2 single family homes on 4 acres.
The environmental impact is very significant.
The affected environment is unique in Shorewood.
The large and unique ecosystem is critical to wildlife and surrounding areas. A large disruption is likely to have outsized impacts on the entire area.
Irregularities in the city's notice to residents, inaccuracies in the developer's application, a review process by the Planning Department that disregarded or minimized public comment and the city's demand for a quid pro quo from the developer create significant uncertainty about the city's motivation to approve this development.

Additional considerations: After reviewing the developer's plans and the templates of the houses offered by this developer, as well as this developer's other construction, we are concerned that the proposal that the city proposes to accept is a "Trojan horse", and that the actual development will require significant exceptions and waivers, such that the actual impact of the development will be greater than shown in the current plans.

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Approximate location of this development.

Not an official map. Refer to maps on file with the city for official location.

For more information, visit the City of Shorewood page: https://www.shorewoodmn.gov/183/Projects-Under-Review

* Note, certain information provided by the developer in its application and distributed to residents in the city's public notice was inaccurate. We do not know as of this time whether the information on the city website has been corrected.

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What Can I do?

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Why is the City Biased Toward this Development?

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Developer History

This developer has a history of cutting most or all the trees on his properties. It is not surprising that he proposed to plan 8 trees to replace the hundreds he will cut down.