Agenda - Planning Commission - 09/04/2014

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Last revised July 24, 2014 Under the Metropolitan Land Planning Act, the Council is responsible for preparing a comprehensive development guide for the orderly and economical development of the seven -county region (Minn. Stat. 473.145). Thrive MSP 2040 provides a framework for a shared vision for the future of our region over the next 30 years. This Housing Policy Plan serves as a chapter in the overall comprehensive development guide alongside Thrive MSP 2040 and three metropolitan systems plans, the Regional Parks Policy Plan (Minn. Stat. 473.147), the Transportation Policy Plan (Minn. Stat. 473.146), and the Water Resources Policy Plan (Minn. Stat. 473.146 and 473.157). This Housing Policy Plan is the Council's first free-standing housing policy in nearly 30 years. The Council's Housing Development Guide was adopted in 1985, but Council actions in 1998 and 1999 eliminated those policies from the metropolitan development guide. Under the Metropolitan Land Planning Act, local governments must prepare local comprehensive plans every 10 years. Housing, although not a metropolitan system under state statute, is already embedded in the local comprehensive plan requirements. For example, the Council reviews local comprehensive plans based on the requirements of the Metropolitan Land Planning Act to ensure that they include: • "...a housing element containing standards, plans and programs for providing adequate housing opportunities to meet existing and projected local and regional housing needs, including but not limited to the use of official controls and land use planning to promote the availability of land for the development of low and moderate income housing." (Minn. Stat. 473.859, subd. 2) and • "An implementation program shall describe public programs, fiscal devices and other specific actions to be undertaken in stated sequence to implement the comprehensive plan and ensure conformity with metropolitan system plans. An implementation program must be in at least such detail as may be necessary to establish existing or potential effects on or departures from metropolitan system plans and to protect metropolitan system plans. An implementation program shall contain at least the following parts: (1) a description of official controls, addressing at least the matters of zoning, subdivision, water supply, and private sewer systems, and a schedule for the preparation, adoption, and administration of such controls; (2) a capital improvement program for transportation, sewers, parks, water supply, and open space facilities; and (3) a housing implementation program, including official controls to implement the housing element of the land use plan, which will provide sufficient existing and new housing to meet the local unit's share of the metropolitan area need for low and moderate income housing." (Minn. Stat. 473.859, subd. 4) Through the policy direction in Thrive MSP 2040 and this Housing Policy Plan, the Council assists local governments in creating local comprehensive plans that advance local visions and help ensure efficient and cost-effective regional infrastructure. This Plan addresses housing challenges greater than any one neighborhood, city, or county can tackle alone and recognizes that the future's increasingly complex housing issues demand ever more innovative strategies and greater collaboration. The Council funds housing development through the four accounts established under the Livable Communities Act (Minn. Stat. 473.25-473.255)—the Tax Base Revitalization Account, the Livable Communities Demonstration Account, the Local Housing Incentives Account, and the Inclusionary Housing Account. The Council uses these financial resources to support the construction, preservation, and rehabilitation of housing, including market -rate, mixed -income, and income -restricted development. Municipalities who participate in the Livable Communities Act must negotiate affordable and life -cycle housing goals with the Council (Minn. Stat. 473.254, subd. 2). The Council's Housing and Redevelopment Authority (Metro HRA) administers more than 6,200 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers for program participants spread across Anoka, Carver, and most of suburban Hennepin and Ramsey counties. Participant families may rent any type of housing in the 2040 HOUSING POLICY PLAN I METROPOLITAN COUNCIL DRAFT RELEASED FOR PUBLIC COMMENT Part I: Introduction I Page 14