Projects

Four Seasons Area Water Quality Project

Plymouth

Project Number: NL-2

Project Status | Active

Original project plans were developed and conditionally approved by the BCWMC in 2013, however those plans were not implemented. Project plans for three subsequent iterations of the project were approved in 2017, 2020, and 2022. Final 90% plans for the project to be built by the City of Plymouth were approved in September 2023. Construction is expected in winter 2023/2024.

Project Funding | Not Grant Funded

The estimated cost of the original (2013) Four Seasons Area Water Quality Improvement Project was $990,000, of which $166,000 was funded from the BCWMC's Capital Improvement Program Closed Project Account and $824,000 was collected through ad valorum tax levy collected via Hennepin County in 2013. After expenditures reviewing multiple designs for the site, the available project funds are approximately $800,000.

Project Description

The BCWMC, in cooperation with the City of Plymouth, planned to construct a water quality improvement project in the area southwest of Highway 169 and Rockford Road (the former Four Seasons Mall area) in order to improve the water quality of the North Branch of Bassett Creek (which flows along the east of the site) and to help meet the phosphorous reduction goal for Northwood Lake. In 2013, a project was designed but due to residents' concerns about the proposed removal of trees and other project plans, the original project was not implemented.

In 2017, the BCWMC entered an agreement with a private developer (Rock Hill Management) and the City of Plymouth to implement water quality improvement practices in conjunction with the redevelopment of the Four Seasons Mall site. Unfortunately, that project also was not implemented due to the redevelopment project falling through.

In May 2020, the BCWMC entered an agreement with a second redevelopment company (Dominium) to implement water quality improvement practices and wetland restoration in the Four Seasons Mall area. The project plans were conditionally approved in April 2020 but the project was not built.

In 2021, the City of Plymouth purchased the property and in 2022 the City demolished the building and parking lot. The City proposes to build the project components ahead of site development. The 90% plans for that project were approved December 2022. An agreement between the City and the BWCMC was approved in July 2023. Revised (final) 90% plans were approved in September 2023. The project will annually capture at least 100 pounds of total phosphorus above the pollutant removals required by BCWMC rules. The best management practices planned for the site will treat stormwater from the site and off-site areas with vegetated swales, one small stormwater pond, and one large stormwater pond. A wetland to south of the site will also be restored and used to further improve water quality by allowing flows to meander slowly through the wetland.