Agenda - Council - 08/12/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Pursuant to MS §473.585, Subd. 1 the City also is not allowed to adopt official controls (Zoning Amendments) ". · . which permit activity in conflict with metropolitan system plans. . ." The Metropolitan Council's Regional Blueprint contemplates increased density within the MUSA area. Again, adoption of the Amendment may very well conflict with this State statute requirement. Both Article I, Section 10 of the United States Consti- tution and Article I, Section 11, of the Minnesota Constitution prohibit impairment of contract by providing the state shall not pass any law impairing the obli- gation of contracts. The retroactive application of the Amendment to January 1, 1997 may very well be an impair- ment of contract and therefore unconstitutional as applied to specific development contracts the City has entered into with developers prior to the effective date of the Amendment, assuming it does become law. The Amendment text is ambiguous and therefore perhaps unenforceable because the text requires the subject property (new plat) to conform in density to the density of existing residential lots where there is a common border. However, no provision is made in the case of a new plat which has more than one common border with existing residential lots of varying density. No direction in the text is given as to which density the new plat is to conform with. The following Amendment text interpretation problems exist: The Amendment text, read literally requires that the density of a new plat shall be the least density of (i) the existing property immediately adjoining the subject property~ or~(ii) one platted lot per acre. In the event the new plat is adjacent to existing residential lots which are larger than one acre in size, the lesser density requirement would dictate the largest lot size. It is believed the drafters of the Amendment did not intend this result, however, this is the Amendment text which was circulated by the five member committee. New plats that do not share common borders with existing residential property are presumably exempt from the Amendment, except if located within 1000. feet of an existing residential property, a graduated density plan must be provided to the City. No direction in the Amendment is given as to what the graduated density plan is to require. I I I I I I I I