May 5, 2009 City Council packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

• In the special resources section the comprehensive plan identifies certain resources within the boundaries of the jurisdiction and outlines plans to ensure their protection. Public Facilities Plans This section describes plans relating to transportation, water resources and parks. The expected population growth in the region places extraordinary pressures on these systems. For this reason, local plans relating to these systems must be thorough and appropriate. The transportation section must address the legal requirements for maintaining and developing roads, highways, transit, non -motor transportation and aviation. The waterresources section addresses wastewater, water supply and surface water management. Maintaining an adequate and safe water supply is critical as population grows. This means assessing resources and attending to safe and thorough treatment methods. The parks and open space section must identify and describe parks and trails facilities within the jurisdiction. Implementation In the implementation section, the jurisdiction shows how local official controls will ensure the continued viability of plans outlined in other sections of the comprehensive plan. This section also outlines the community's capital improvement program. Lake Elmo last updated its Comprehensive Plan in 2006 after a lengthy negotiation process with the Metropolitan Council. Because this update was submitted outside of the normal time frame applied to all other communities in the metropolitan area, Lake Elmo is in a unique situation with regards to its 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The Met Council has determined that Lake Elmo must only update certain sections of its plan in order to comply with the systems statement that was issued on September 12, 2005. Three of the specific sections that need to be addressed with the update fall under the heading of "Public Facilities Plans", including sections pertaining to transportation, water resources (including water supply and surface water management, and) and parks and open space. The other components that must be updated include "Protection of Special Areas" (solar access and aggregate deposits protection) under Land Use and Implementation. The Parks and Open Space Plan was submitted to the Met Council last year, and is therefore being re -submitted at this time with revisions to address the comments that were received. The only section that the City Council has not reviewed to date is the "Protection of Special Areas", which has been drafted by the Planning Department and reviewed by'the Planning Commission. As noted above, the Background Information and Land Use Plan are not required to be updated at this time, and have therefore not been revised as a part of the 2030 update submission to the Met Council. All land use forecasts for the updated sections, including population projections, will be based on the current land use section. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: In December of last year, the Metropolitan Council granted the City of Lake Elmo's request for an extension until May 29, 2009, to update its Comprehensive Plan and submit the document for review. The initial request to the Metropolitan Council was for a two-year extension that would have given the City until December 31, 2010, to complete the required updates. The later deadline was sought to provide additional time to incorporate information from the Village AUAR planning process into the overall update and to complete a more extensive review of the transportation plan. With the decision by the Met Council to grant a shorter extension, the scope of the proposed work has been scaled back by removing any