The City of Blaine is in the process of exploring the opportunity of restoring a portion of Pioneer Park as a wetland mitigation bank. A wetland bank is an area of fully restored or created wetland that generates wetland credits that can be used to offset authorized wetland impacts that often occur as a result of development and construction work in Blaine and throughout Minnesota. 

The City has been coordinating with the Coon Creek Watershed District, Anoka Conservation District, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine if part of Pioneer Park meets the requirements for establishing a wetland bank.  

The City has submitted a conceptual mitigation plan to the above agencies and is waiting for their comments.

The revenue generated through wetland banking projects is used by the City for improving, maintaining, and augmenting our parks, trails, and open spaces.

The City is currently in the initial phases of developing a wetland banking project and is considering options for moving forward with this project. Once comments are received from the regulatory agencies, city staff will be scheduling a community meeting to gather input and then meet with the City Council to determine if a formal wetland bank application should be prepared and submitted for consideration by the regulatory agencies.

The process of establishing a wetland bank is lengthy and there will be ample time for residents to provide comments on the project prior to the start of any restoration work. The current plan does not include any restoration work to the east side of the existing trail within Pioneer Park and does not include the entire park area (see attached map). The plan does include an additional boardwalk along the western side of the wetland restoration area.

The City has set up a notification system for this project. If you would like to be kept up to date on this project, please sign up at BlaineMN.gov/NotifyMe, enter your email and mobile information, then select Main Street Wetland.

Current Project Status

The City is currently in phase two of a three phase process. During phase two the City receives feedback from regulatory agencies on the proposal. The City Council would have to authorize moving the project into phase three. If the project moves into phase three there would be several opportunities for community input on the proposal before final approval. Phase three would last several months.