Agenda - Council - 04/08/2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-124- Principal City Engineer Olson replied that he thought he could put together a logical budget on projected growth, but the amount of time spent on a project can depend on who the engineer is they are worldng with. The City Council directed staff to write a Development Policy Guideline that can be used to help define the responsibilities of developers and the City of Ramsey and then bring it back for Council consideration. Principal City Engineer Olson inquired if he should build in some target development percentages in the policy. Councih'nember Strommen replied that thOse percentages should not be included in the policy, but have some internal guidelines. Councilmember Zimm&man stated that they definitely want to make sure that the Town Center gets started. That should be the number one priority. Mayor Gamec requested that a draft of the policy be presented to the Public Works committee with a copy going to all Councilmembers. 6) Conditional Rezoning Principal Planner Trudgeon stated that about 1-½ years ago, Councilmember Zimmerman came across an article in the Anoka Union regarding Andover City Council recently amending their City Code to establish provisions for contract rezoning. He suggested that there be some discussion regarding whether or not a similar ordinance should be adopted into Ramsey's code. Under a contract rezoning, a request for rezoning will require the applicant to submit a site plan or subdivision plan showing exactly how the property is proposed to be developed~ If the property is not developed in accordance with the plans submitted at the time of the rezoning request, the City may initiate action to revert back to the previous zoning designation. As the discussion of contract rezoning proceeded, it evolved into the fact that sometimes an amendment to the land use plan in the Comprehensive Plan is necessary in order to approve a request for rezoning. Consequently, staff made some attempts to study whether or not the City could establish provisions for conditional comprehensive plan amendments. This would go a step further and allow the City to revert the land use plan back to. what it previously stated, if a rezoning and related development did not proceed within a certain timeframe. The last report to the City Council on September 24, 2002, there was discussion of both conditional rezoning and conditional comprehensive plan amendments. The City Attorney recommended that the two issues be separated because of the uncertainty of the feasibility or legality of conditional comprehensive plan amendments. Council agreed and directed City staff to draft an ordinance to establish conditional rezoning in the City of Ramsey. Some of the concerns raised with conditional comprehensive plan amendments were that the City does not have total control of the process. The Met Council would have to agree to change the land use back if the applicant for the comprehensive plan amendment did not follow through with his/her development plan. Typically the follow tln:ough on a rezoning and related project development has not been a City Council/March 4, 2003 Page 14 of 16 I I I I i I I I I I i I I I I I I