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2 <br />b. The Legislature has often considered but has up to this point rejected the <br />enactment of proposed joint planning laws covering counties, cities and <br />townships. Consequently, counties and cities operate under different statutory <br />schemes when they regulate land use, with some differences between them. <br />However, with amendments over the last decade, the statutory schemes have <br />become more and more similar. <br /> <br />B. Highlights of Minnesota Statutes <br /> <br />1. Forms of Official Controls. <br /> <br />a. The zoning ordinance. <br /> <br />i. A zoning ordinance establishes districts within the municipality, such as <br />agricultural, residential, commercial and industrial. <br /> <br />ii. Within each district there are certain development activities which can <br />occur. Some are permitted as of right in the zone. Some are conditional <br />on certain requirements being met. If a use is neither permitted nor <br />conditional, then the common position is it is not allowed in the zone. It is <br />prudent and recommended to include a statement to this effect in your <br />zoning ordinance. <br /> <br />iii. Within each district there are performance standards such as setback <br />requirements, height limitations, lot size requirements and the like that <br />may impact the use of the land. <br /> <br />b. Subdivision regulations. <br /> <br />i. Subdivision regulations of a municipality are invoked when a landowner <br />proposes to divide a parcel into two or more smaller parcels of land. <br /> <br />ii. “Subdivision” means the separation of an area, parcel, or tract of land <br />under single ownership into two or more parcels, tracts, lots, or long-term <br />leasehold interests where the creation of the leasehold interests <br />necessitates the creation of streets, roads, or alleys, for residential, <br />commercial, industrial or other use or any combination thereof. By <br />definition, subdivision does not include the separation of an area or parcel <br />into lots, tracts or interests that will be 20 acres or larger in size and 500 <br />feet in width for residential uses and 5 acres or larger in size for <br />commercial and industrial uses. It does not include cemetery lots, nor <br />does it include the separation resulting from court orders, or the <br />adjustment of a lot line by relocation of a common boundary.