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LE-3. Official State Mapping <br />Responsibility <br />Issue: For many years, the Minnesota <br />Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has <br />provided the mapping services to keep <br />survey -level accuracy in place for the state's <br />official maps and records. That information <br />changes when roads are made or improved, <br />and needs regular adjustment when <br />municipal boundary adjustments are made. <br />The information is then used at all levels of <br />government to accurately determine <br />property boundaries for transportation aid, <br />utility service boundaries, state and local <br />funding formulas, election issues, and a <br />number of other uses. <br />No state agency, however, has ever been <br />statutorily provided with mapping <br />responsibility and MnDOT is not funded for <br />providing that level of detail in its mapping. <br />Because MnDOT, as an agency, requires <br />less specificity in its maps, a change has <br />slowly been integrated to mostly restrict <br />MnDOT mapping to what changes occur in <br />road ownership and responsibility, leaving <br />many mapping needs unmet for other users <br />of boundary data. <br />Response: The League of Minnesota <br />Cities supports legislation making a <br />named state entity the official provider of <br />survey -level mapping for the state, <br />including maps for municipal boundary <br />adjustments. The Legislature must <br />provide the necessary appropriations to <br />the entity for providing that service. <br />LE-4. Electric Service Extension <br />Issue: Minnesota law preserves the right of <br />municipal electric utilities to grow with the <br />cities they serve. Municipal electric utilities <br />may grow either through application to the <br />Minnesota Public Utilities Commission <br />(MPUC) or through condemnation <br />proceedings. Eliminating authority of <br />municipal electric utilities to extend <br />services, or making extension of municipal <br />electric service to annexed property <br />unreasonably costly, would interfere with <br />community development and make it <br />unfeasible for municipal electric utilities to <br />serve properties located within rural electric <br />cooperative (REC) or other electric service <br />provider service territory in annexed areas, <br />even if the REC or other electric utility had <br />not served them prior to annexation. <br />Response: The League of Minnesota <br />Cities opposes any attempt to remove or <br />alter the eminent domain option available <br />to municipal electric utilities in state law, <br />or to make it financially unfeasible for <br />municipal utilities to compensate rural <br />electric cooperatives or other electric <br />utilities for serving future customers who <br />reside in annexed areas where that <br />electric utility has not provided service. <br />LE-5. Statutory Approval <br />Timelines <br />Issue: Cities since 1995 have been required <br />to act on written requests relating to zoning, <br />septic systems, the expansion of <br />Metropolitan Urban Service Areas (MUSA), <br />and other land -use applications in <br />accordance with a statutory time period <br />generally referred to as the 60-day rule. <br />Pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 15.99, state and <br />local government agencies must approve or <br />deny a permit within a statutory timeframe. <br />Failure by the agency to issue a specific <br />denial of the application is deemed an <br />approval. <br />Minn. Stat. § 15.99 does not directly address <br />whether an appeal of a decision triggers an <br />extension or is part of an original zoning <br />request that must be handled within the 60- <br />or 120-day time period. In a 2004 court of <br />appeals decision, the court found that a <br />League of Minnesota Cities <br />2015 City Policies Page 47 <br />