The south shore of Lake Bemidji is poised to undergo an AUAR, an in-depth study that has not been done before in the Bemidji area.
The Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Board on Wednesday approved a resolution calling for the completion of an Alternative Urban Areawide Review, or AUAR, which will examine the redevelopment area along the south shore of Lake Bemidji.
An AUAR examines the issues that will affect a potential development such as environmental issues and impacts and traffic concerns.
An AUAR is an alternative to an Environmental Assessment Worksheet, which would examine a specific proposal such as an events center, explained Paul Richards with Widseth Smith Notling.
An AUAR, instead, looks at the overall management of and planning for the entire development area.
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"We want to cover it all now and look at it as a whole area," Richards said.
Once a project has the capacity to hold 5,000 people as an assembly, a project is required to undergo an EAW, Richards explained.
As the events center has the potential of holding 5,000 people in a non-hockey setting, the Bemidji project is required to have done either an EAW or AUAR.
The planning and design teams on the project decided to pursue an AUAR since the entire development area is now proposed to contain a hotel, restaurants and local shops, Richards said.
Why a JPB issue?
The city of Bemidji has purchased about 130 acres of land along the south shore of Lake Bemidji with the intention of developing the area. An events center, hotel and restaurants have been proposed to be located in the redevelopment area.
Because the city of Bemidji is acting as the developer, the JPB must act as the local government unit responsible for zoning matters associated with the project, explained JPB Zoning Administrator Mel Milender.
"The city has become the developer and you have become the zoning authority," he told the JPB Wednesday. "We need to keep that separate."
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The JPB voted unanimously to approve the resolution calling for the AUAR. The action ties no funds to the study.
Richards said the funding for the study would come from the $3 million allocated to the city of Bemidji through the Legislature last year.
