11/03/2004 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• • • WS -1 WORK SESSION MEMORANDUM To: City Council From: Mike Grochala, Jeff Smyser Date: November 3, 2004 Re: Work Session Item #1: Conservation Development Amendments To Growth Management Policy Background The City Council approved the Parks, Natural Open Space /Greenways and Trail System Plan in August. The top priority of the plan is the creation and preservation of greenways. This echoes the direction in the comprehensive plan to establish greenway corridors. The main way to achieve this is the use of conservation development. Conservation development is a means to achieve higher public values than would be the case under a conventional development approach. Toward this end, we are proposing revisions to the growth management policy. The spirit of the revisions is to encourage the type of development that meets the highest goals of the comprehensive plan and the recently completed parks and open space plan. The community has expressed the desire to preserve open space and natural features. Slowing growth may delay the destruction of these elements, but it does not preserve them. Conservation development results in higher quality development that preserves the natural features and open space. By giving the City Council more discretion under the growth management policy, the expectation is that developers will be encouraged to work collaboratively with the city on achieving the highest public values for their private developments. This discretion would only be applied in cases where the developer of property successfully collaborates with the City and submits a conservation development proposal that includes public values that exceed those achievable under a conventional development approach. The determination as to whether or not the project reaches this threshold will be at the sole discretion of the City Council. "Conventional development" is defined as a development proposal that meets the minimum requirements of the City's ordinances regulating subdivision and platting, zoning, street standards, and other pertinent requirements. "Conservation development" refers to a