Agenda Packets - 1997/04/07 - Laserfiche WebLink

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EDITORIALS METROPOLITAN COUNCIL • Mend, don't end, governing re �onal �- If Minnesota Rep. Peg Larsen ' If anything, and her allies get their way, the the Metro Metropolitan Council would be dis- Council needs mantled and efforts to manage the I new incentives region's growth would be irrepara- and powers. bly harmed. Fortunately, a I • Minnesota House committee has agreed to shelve Larsen's bill for a least a year. Larsen, a Republican from Lakeland, is trying to turn back the clock 30 years — to a time before the Twin Cities metro area had any means to guide plan- ning and development or to coordinate the delivery of urban services that transcend municipal and county boundaries. Too few legislators remember the days before the council's birth — when some communities were dumping untreated sewage into the Mississippi River; • a private owner was running the region's aging bus system into the ground; and the Twin Cities lacked any method for controlling urban sprawl, preserving open space or resolving regional differences. And too many lawmakers are inclined to use the Metro Council as a political whipping boy. Inner-city legislators fault it for doing too little to encourage development and reinvestment in the urban core, • while many suburban representatives oppose any effort at limiting development on the suburban fringe. Over the next 25 years, the Twin Cities will need to accommodate about 330,000 additional households and 650,000 new residents. Larsen and her allies are naive if they think local elected officials, working through some kind of weak planning organization, can make the tough decisions needed to guide this development. If anything, the Metro Council needs new incentives - and powers — carrots and sticks. The council needs them to help accelerate the cleanup of polluted lands, encourage reinvestment in blighted or underutilized areas and make the best use of the billions of dollars_ . already invested in roads, sewers, schools and other public facilities in the developed portions of the region. Some critics say the Metro Council is "not account- able," though members serve at the pleasure of the governor. If that is the problem Larsen is trying to remedy, the solution may be direct election of Metro Council members. That idea has been rejected many times before. But if that is what is needed to have a strong and effective regional planning organization. better to make that change than to disband the Metro • Council.