Agenda - Council - 06/09/1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. WiIliamGoodrich June 3, 1998 Page 3 473.175, subd. 1. Systems plans include waste water treatment. Minn. Stats., section 473.146, subd. 1 and 473.852, subd. 8. Under Minn. Stats., section 473.858, subd. 1: "[a]fter August 1, 1995, a local government unit shall not adopt any fiscal device or official control which is in conflict with its comprehensive plan, including any amendments to the plan, or which permits activity in conflict with metropolitan system plans..." Thus the statutory framework provides that the Metropolitan Council's system plans prevail over local planning. In a strict legal sense, there is no support in the statutes for the proposition that the city council has any real control over the Metropolitan Council's determination of where the MUSA line should be. Therefore, arguably, the charter provision which purports to control how the city changes the MUSA line could be disregarded as irrelevant because it is beyond the powers of the city council. However, I understand from the memorandum of May 8, 1998, from Fred Hoisington that the unvarying practice of the Metropolitan Council is to expand the MUSA only at the request of a city. The procedure for applying for, or requesting, such an expansion is by a comprehensive plan amendment. Given the practice of the Metropolitan Council, therefore, the charter provision at least appears to make procedural sense. That is, there is a sense in which modification of the MUSA is initiated by the city council. In general, if a provision of law (such as a charter provision) can be interpreted in a way which is illegal or inoperative and one which is not, the. courts will interpret the law to give it legal effect. Therefore, I believe it is likely that a court would interpret the charter provision to apply to the act of the city council in initiating a change to MUSA by submitting a comprehensive plan amendment, calling for a change in the MUSA, to the Metropolitan Council. Assuming this to be the meaning of the charter provision, each provision of the charter should be reviewed to determine its validity. Section 14.1, of course, is merely an introductory paragraph. III. CHARTER SECTION 14.1.1 Section 14.1.1 provides that initiation of modification of the MUSA must be made by a 4/5ths vote of the city council. Assuming again that this applies to the approval of a comprehensive plan amendment which could result in the Metropolitan Council changing the MUSA, the Council would have to adopt this one kind of comprehensive plan amendment by a 4/5ths vote. Minn. Stats., sections 462.351 to 462.364 (also referred to as the Municipal Land Planning Act, hereinafter referred to as the "MLPA") sets forth the procedures for land ,2LL14425~. RAI2$-51