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Question 5 attempted to understand the status of a community's comprehensive <br />plan--whether it has been amended since its adoption, what types of changes <br />were made, what prompted them, and whether they created an inconsistency with <br />the zoning ordinance. Sixty-two percent of the respondents indicated that <br />their comprehensive plans had been amended. The most common types of changes <br />were minor revisions to the text and changes in the land use plan map, with a <br />slightly greater frequency of map changes (including MUSA line adjustments). <br />Other types of changes included the preparation of new plan chapters; update <br />of existing plan chapters; new street alignments; updated population, housing <br />and employment forecasts; and total rewrites. <br /> <br />The reasons for comprehensive plan amendments can be grouped into four major <br />categories: <br /> <br />o development pressure 63% <br />o update, city initiative 22% <br />o Metropolitan Council requirements 8% <br /> (e.g. urban service area, sewer capacity) <br />o reconcile inconsistency with zoning ordinance 7% <br /> <br />Fifty-eight percent of the respondents felt that changes in the comprehensive <br />plan created an inconsistency with their zoning ordinance. Of these <br />respondents, sixty percent then amended the zoning ordinance so that the two <br />were consistent; 40 percent did not. <br /> <br />Question 6 attempted to understand the status of a community's zoning <br />ordinance, asking for the same information as Question 5. It appears that <br />more local zoning ordinances have been amended than local comprehensive plans; <br />79 percent of the respondents said that their zoning ordinances had been <br />amended. Responses regarding the types of changes made to the zoning ordinance <br />were fairly evenly divided between text and map changes, with text changes <br />being cited a bit more frequently. Responses as to what prompted amendments to <br />the zoning ordinance fell into five general categories: <br /> <br />o development pressure/property owner requests 51% <br />o outdated language, uses/clarification of language 23% <br />o city initiative (e.g. enforcement problems, 16% <br /> reflection of new city goals) <br />o maintain consistency with comprehensive plan 6% <br />o response to legislative requirements, 4% <br /> Metropolitan Council <br /> <br />A slight majority (53%) of the respondents felt that changes in the zoning <br />ordinance never created an inconsistency with their comprehensive plans. Of <br />the 47 percent who felt that zoning ordinance amendments did create an <br />inconsistency, 29 percent said that it "rarely" happened, 17 percent said that <br />it "sometimes" happened, and one percent said that it "frequently" happened. <br />These statistics suggest that either the types of changes being made in the <br />zoning ordinance do not necessitate changes in local comprehensive plans or the <br />communities amend their zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan at the same <br />time where the amended zoning ordinance would be in conflict with th~ <br />comprehensive plan. <br /> <br /> <br />