Agenda - Council - 02/22/1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

I i I I I I I I I The Metropolitan Area should consist of an Urban Service Area and a Rural Service Area. Metropolitan Systems and urban Services will be provided only within the Urban Service Area. Rural service standards will be met in the Rural Service Area, and persons choosing a rural lifestyle should not expect to receive urban services. To provide an alternative to scattered growth in the general rural use regions of northern Anoka and west-central Hennepin Counties, areas without Freestanding Growth Centers, St. Francis and Maple Plain are designated as proposed Freestanding Growth Centers and as areas where the Metropolitan Council will encourage growth to occur. The Council will give preference to funding requests from St. Francis and Maple Plain over rural centers where similar demonstrated need is shown .... "lgb. The regional purpose of the general rural use region is to provide very low-intensity land uses such as commercial farming, hobby. farms, horticulture, conservation of natural resource, passive recreation and, in some cases, to act as a holding or transition area between long-term agricultural area and urbanization areas. "19c. The regional purpose of rural centers is the provision of -support service to agricultural enterprises and accomodation of residential development at a scale appropriate to their ability to finance and administer services..." Given the above-cited policies, the following criteria should be applied to applications from communities in the Rural Service Area. Consideration should be given to all applications, both active and passive, from Rural Centers. e Consideration should be given to applications only for passive recreation activities from those communities in parts of the Rural Service Area outside of Rural Centers. This requires defining passive areas. Neither the Development Framework nor the Regional Recreation Policy Plan defines passive recreation. Staff recommends that "passive" should include such areas as: natural resource areas, picnic areas, tent camping, wayside rests, non-motorized trail activities, boat launch sites and beaches. Active areas would include ballfields, court games, playgrounds, and any organized activity (football, soccer, hockey). The Rural Area Task Force Report does identify some of the conditional and non-suitable recreation activities for the Rural Area. Proposed Freestanding Growth Centers should receive priority over other Rural Centers where there is similar (or greater) demonstrated need. If an application from a proposed Freestanding Growth Center does not receive priority on this basis, it should be ranked along with other applications from Rural Service Area comunities according to the recreational project review criteria.