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Item No: 9F Meeting Date: September 22, 2003 Type of Business: PH & CB City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, Community Development Director Item Title/Subject: Public Hearing to Consider the Introduction and First Reading of Ordinance 720, an Ordinance Rezoning all Parcels Currently Zoned PF, Public Facilities; Special Planning Case SP-118-03 Introduction: At the City Council’s July 14, 2003 meeting, the City Attorney presented a report to the Council suggesting that the Council strongly consider a comprehensive rezoning of all City- owned properties currently zoned PF, Public Facilities. At the attorney’s urging, staff was directed to bring the issue to the Planning Commission for their review and recommendation. The attorney’s report is attached for reference. Discussion: At the August 20, 2003 meeting of the Planning Commission, staff presented the attorney’s findings and requested the Commission review the PF district and to recommend suitable alternative zoning districts for each of the 17 properties. Staff prepared maps showing all of the PF-zoned parcels and provided a map of possible rezoning scenarios. The Planning Commission generally supported the proposed revisions in light of the attorney’s recommendation and the City Council’s direction. One question was raised however concerning the necessity of such a rezoning action; especially since there are city- owned parcels NOT zoned PF. (The City owns residential properties which are zoned residential, and in one case, commercial.) The City Attorney was asked about this and the paraphrased response is as follows: The evidence of city-owned properties not zoned PF is further reason to change from a PF designation, in that all city-owned property is “supposed” to be zoned PF, according to the City Code. Section 1118.01 of the Code states that “The purpose of the PF, Public Facilities District is to provide for land areas, waterways and water areas owned, controlled, regulated, used or proposed to be used by the City. (Emphasis added.) Thus, by not rezoning properties controlled by the City to PF, the City is acting contrary to its own Code. The underlying issue is that property should be zoned based upon the “use” rather than who owns it. Based upon the discussion, the Commission drafted staff to draft an ordinance, resolution and final map showing the proposed changes to the Commission to forward on the City Council. At the September 3, 2003 meeting, the Planning Commission approved a resolution (attached) recommending the changes as presented herein, recommending also changes to the City’s Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map to adjust for the proposed changes.