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MEMORANDUM ATTORNEY/CLIENT PRIVILEGED PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL TO: City of St. Anthony Planning Commission CC: City of St. Anthony Mayor and City Council FROM: Phil Steger DATE: July 12, 2017 RE: Principles to Observe When Considering the Lowry Grove Redevelopment Application The Village LLC, which is owned by Brad Hoyt’s Continental Property Group, LLC (“Continental”), will soon submit its formal application to redevelop Lowry Grove. As part of its review, the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the application. In preparing for this hearing, the Commission should keep certain principles in mind. In reviewing the application, the Commission will act in a “quasi-judicial” role, which imposes certain constraints on the Commission’s conduct. The quasi-judicial role and its constraints is in contrast to the “legislative” role in which a city body often acts. When adopting or amending an ordinance, a city entity exercises so-called “legislative” authority. It makes policy and establishes rules to advance the health, safety, and welfare of the community. When acting legislatively, a city entity’s discretion is at its broadest point and will be shown considerable deference by a reviewing court. Like a member of Congress or a state legislature, a city official may express an opinion or advocate for or against a particular policy proposal or proposed rule without first hearing all the evidence and arguments concerning it. In contrast, advocacy by a city official acting in a quasi-judicial capacity can result in a legal challenge to and even overturning of the city’s decision in the matter if the advocacy occurs before all the facts have been gathered. When considering a specific request, such as for approval of a redevelopment application, the city acts quasi-judicially, like a court, in that it applies rules already in existence to a specific situation. When acting quasi-judicially, a city body’s job is first to determine the facts of a particular request, and then apply the legal standards or rules contained in the relevant ordinance and state law to those facts to reach a legal conclusion regarding whether, given the facts, the request meets the standards or satisfies the rules. As such, its discretion is limited. The League of Minnesota Cities has illustrated the spectrum of discretion in terms of a Pyramid: a city decision-maker has the most discretion when creating rules (zoning/ subdivision ordinances and comprehensive plan), some discretion when applying rules (variance and CUP