09-17-02 CCM - Laserfiche WebLink

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Speech to the Lake Elmo City Council, 9/17/02 Re: Response to Met Council rejection of LE Comp Plan Very briefly, I urge you to fight the Met Council with everything we have. I urge you to hire the best zoning lawyer you can find. I urge you to mount an educational: campaign aimed at informing Lake Elmo's residents about the long term consequences of our losing the fight. I urge yqt to mount a public relations campaign aimed.at publicizing Lake Elmo's desim for" self-determination and exposing the Met Council's obvious favoringof developers. I urge you to mount a lobbying cam 4i n p g Y Y� g pa g with the State Legislature aimed at exposing this abuse of power by the Met Council and raising the legitimate question as to whether this abuse is what the Legislature had in mind when it established this non -representative board. I urge you to contact the newly elected governor, whoever that may be, and lobby to get Met Council members appointed who are sympathetic to our interests, rather than to developers. Finally, I urge you to have a non -binding, advisory referendum in November's election, asking the Lake Elmo residents whether or not they want you to raise our taxes for a limited time in order to pay for this fight..ObAviously, this is similar to:I}.}r-" ' situation in 1988 when we voted to raise out tal es to fund the fight againstal " landfill in the Regional Park Reserve, which referendum passed by a 4:1 majority, you may recall. There is an argument to be made for trying to compromise with the Met Council, such as agreeing to extend the MUSA line along I-94 in exchange for revising the Metropolitan Development Framework to show no MUSA extension anywhere else in the City. The problem with such a compromise is that such a Framework revision may not last long. Once the sewer is in along I-94, it will never be removed. But as