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Council actions to leverage the Sewer Availability Charge structure to expand affordable housing <br />Collaboratively explore opportunities to promote affordable housing production through its handling <br />of SAC, and, if any are identified, include those in the Sewer Availability Charge Procedure Manual. <br />Consider including an “Affordable Housing SAC Credit” in the 2040 Water Resources Policy Planto <br />be adopted in 2015. <br />Part III: Council Policies and Roles, page 89: <br />Review of Housing RequirementsforLocal Comprehensive Plans <br />Cities, townships, and counties in the seven-county area prepare local comprehensive plans as <br />required by the Metropolitan Land Planning Act. These plans must include a housing element and a <br />housing implementation program. Local governments will begin thisdecade’s round of local <br />comprehensive plan updates following Council adoption of Thrive MSP 2040and the systems <br />and <br />policy plans (including this Housing Policy Plan) and the anticipatedSeptember 2015 distribution of <br />SystemsStatements. Comprehensive plan updates must be submitted to the Council in 2018. The <br />Council assists local governments to create consistent, compatible, and coordinated local <br />comprehensive plans that achieve local visions within the regional policy framework. <br />The Council reviews updated local comprehensive plans based on the requirements of the Metropolitan <br />Land Planning Act and the comprehensive development guide (Thrive MSP 2040and the system and <br />policy plans). The Council considers each local comprehensive plan’s compatibility with the plans of <br />other communities, consistency with adopted Council policies, and conformance with metropolitan <br />system plans. If the Council finds that a community’s local comprehensive plan is more likely than not <br />to have a substantial impact on or containa substantial departure from metropolitan system plans, the <br />Council can require the community to modify its local plan to assure conformance with the metropolitan <br />systems <br />plans (Minn. Stat. 473.175). <br />Under the Metropolitan Land Planning Act, local comprehensive plans must include a housing element <br />that: <br />Contains standards, plans, and programs for providing adequate housing opportunities to meet <br />existinglocal and regional housing needs; <br />Contains standards, plans, and programs for providing adequate housing opportunities to meet <br />projected local and regional housing needs; Aacknowledges the community’s share of the <br />region’s need for low- and moderate-income housing (the Need); and promotes the availability <br />of land for the development of low- and moderate-income housing; and <br />Includes an implementation section identifying the public programs, fiscal devices, andofficial <br />controls, and specific actionsthe community will use to address their existing and projected <br />needsNeed (Minn. Stat. 473.859, subd. 2 and 4). <br />With the development of this Housing Policy Plan, the Council has identified an opportunity to improve <br />the consistency and quality of the housing elements and implementation programs of local <br />comprehensive plans.While communities are now guiding enough residential land at densities to <br />support affordable housing development to address their Need, the Council had not previously provided <br />specific guidance to local communities on other housing element requirements in the Metropolitan Land <br />Planning Act.comprehensive plans could do more to strengthen the connection. For example, <br />comprehensive plans could identify sites (or the characteristics of sites) that offer the best opportunities <br />for affordable or mixed-income housing. In addition, local governments can improve the likelihood of <br />new affordable housing by expressing what types and locations of new affordable or mixed-income <br />housing they would support or finance. <br />Page - 9|METROPOLITAN COUNCIL <br /> <br />