PL PACKET 05121989 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

1 incentive for these concentrations. It also proposes an absolute 2 concentration level of only 1% of the population of any planning •3 district or city for all human service residential facilities. The St. 4 Paul Planner told the Council that state law now mandates that human 5, services for six or fewer persons are to be permitted uses in all single 6 family zoned districts. She also said St. Paul would be able to 7 distance those residences 1,320 feet apart but smaller communities would 8 not at this point be permitted to require that much distance. 9 The existing laws permit residences for 16 persons or fewer in multi- 10 family zoning districts but riders which attached conditions dealing 11 with the health, welfare and safety of the residents have been 12 effectively used to block the placement of those types of facilities in 13 many. of those districts. The proposed bill is written to eliminate 14 those conditions and to clean up the distance and concentration issues 15 in the existing law by requiring different types of facilities to be 16 located certain distances from each other, requirements which the large 17 and suburban cities had never had before. 18 In regard to local governments, Ms. Homans reported the new legislation 19 perceives a need for planning concentrations on a county-wide basis and 20 therefore requiring the planners to return for discussions with the 21 Council related to what the needs are for the northern suburban areas 22 and how suburban cities can meet those needs. She emphasized that she 23 believed people within a community who need these type of services 24 should not have to move away from their home surroundings to get them. 25 Councilmembers had been provided copies of a book which contained �6 listings of licensed facilities in Ramsey County by Commissioner 7 District which Ms. Smith acknowledged was somewhat outdated and needed 28 revising. 29 Some of City Concerns Addressed 30 Councilmember Marks reported that during his campaign for the 31 legislature, he had found talking to different people in his legislative 32 district that a lot of them perceived that the state had more or less 33 just walked away from its responsibilities for the vulnerable just to 34 save .money rather than to provide the quality of care these people 35 required and deserved. He said he perceived that under that arrangement 36 some people got better care than others and he hoped the new legislation 37 would provide more equity than in the past. 38 When questions were raised about how the County would be monitoring 39 these suburban facilities, Ms. Homans indicated that in the case of the 40 mentally ill who, of course, can legally refuse treatment, the County 41 now requires a caseworker who would be responsible . for dealing with 42 questions the City might have related to a particular client. However, 43 because many of these are not wards of the state, they would therefore 44 be free to come and go as they chose and she said such monitoring would 45 not involve locking up those persons or keeping them busy 24 hours a 46 day. • 7