06/15/1998 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Donna Carlson voiced her concern that the citizens did not have enough time to respond with their comments and that there wasn't enough coverage (details) of the comp plan in the Quad Press or anywhere else. Mayor Sullivan responded that she was satisfied with the coverage and believes that the citizens had every opportunity to become involved, attend meetings and respond with any comments or questions. Don Dunn expressed his feelings that Al and the Task Force did get people involved to the extent that citizens were allowed to go to the drawing board and request changes. He believes the opportunity was provided to those citizens who care. Brian Wessel presented a copy of the memo that Al put together for the task force members on May 14th prior the May 21st meeting. This memo includes the draft of the policy plan. Brian invited everyone who did not get a copy to take one for review. Diana Turner expressed concern about highland as well as lowland being included in the preservation for open space and agricultural land. She added that there is a need for agricultural because organic farming is the future in farming. Mayor Sullivan, at this time, asked for comments from the council about any issues they may have. In discussing economic development goals, John Bergeson related that the city is moving as fast as it can, given the tools authorized by the City Council. To move any faster would require the City to reevaluate its incentive program for TIF etc. He also spoke of the preservation concept. He stated that we need to start with what already exists after we set aside the Anoka County Park and all of the wetlands. We must make wise decisions in light of what is left. John also commented that the Environmental Focus Committee seems to have a concept of what is environmentally important and now we must make decisions of what is most important. He stated that environmental protection is not the sole responsibility of the city. John commented that there was a lot of input in the comp plan and the majority has come up with an acceptable plan which he is willing to support. Mayor Sullivan touched briefly on the issue of consensus. She stated that sometimes if you can't agree with the majority and you are not part of the solution, you must step back and look at the overall picture and let majority rule. She also shared some of her thoughts about the Anoka County Regional Park. She said that people talk about the Park and the fact that half of our city is made up of parks. We have to understand what that means as taxable purposes. If we were 33 square miles of upland we would have a different tax basis that we could use than we have now- 50% of what we could have, we don't. She goes on record as saying that she does not consider the Anoka County Park open space because of the way we have developed around the lakes. We have a bunch of lake property homeowners who can enjoy that. We have no other access so it is not an amenity to the rest of us. • • •