02/02/1994 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION FEBRUARY 2, 1994 area to be developable. Mayor Reinert felt that this is a poor message. Mr. Brixius noted that growth within the community impacts the land use, environment, transportation, utility services and finances. To minimize the negative aspects of urban development, the City growth should be planned, controlled and orderly. The City should provide for manageable time period, address changing development and market trends, and identify logical utility expansion and urban growth areas. The Comprehensive Land Use Plan should be updated to indicate compatible land use patterns and orderly staged growth. Policies that define growth objectives, define development quality and integration of development/environment should be prepared. Mr. Brixius said that a staged, orderly growth philosophy encourages growth radiating from existing development area. He noted that past planning efforts have promoted this concept. The benefits of staged growth include development concentrated in a more confined service and utility area, reduced City costs for utility and services, reduced emergency and public works response time, reduced land use compatibility problems, and promote infill development policy implementation. Concerns associated with staged growth are the current piecemeal development patterns, the current one and 2.5 acre lots and the amount and placement of wetlands, park land, and interstate highways. Mr. Brixius continued by saying that financial planning is also important to orderly staged growth. Planning must be fiscally responsible and take into consideration staged growth, quality development/high value development, mixture of land use types (i.e., economic development, industrial), reasonable utility planning, timeliness and workable densities. Some problems in achieving these goals is the City Charter, the current one and 2.5 acre lots and the long utility extensions. Other issues to be considered are land supply for urban development and the future growth direction. The MUSA area is a major development factor and the possible expansion of the MUSA must take into consideration factors such as distribution of the MUSA, the current sewer service district/service area, costs of utility extension, the affects the City Charter will have on development and the utility need area. The physical barriers consist of interstate highways, regional park, City of Centerville, existing development and wetlands. Unsewered suburban lots of less than 10 acres can create barriers and are sometimes difficult to resubdivide. The final planning issue is the relationship between the City Council, Planning and Zoning Board and City staff. The City Council must define the growth PAGE 5 1 1 1