Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/27/2018

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Metropolitan Agencies should: • Recognize that its role is to review and comment, unless it is found that the local plan is more likely than not to have a substantial impact on or contain a substantial departure from one of the four system plans; • Be aware of the statutory time constraints imposed by the Legislature on plan amendments and development applications; • Provide for immediate effectuation of plan amendments that have no potential for substantial impact on systems plans; • Require the information needed for the Metropolitan Council to complete its review, but not prescribe additional content or format beyond that which is required by the Metropolitan Land Use Planning Act (LUPA); • Work in a cooperative and timely manner toward the resolution of outstanding issues. When a city's local comprehensive plan is deemed incompatible with the Met Council's systems plans, Metro Cities supports a formal appeals process that includes a peer review. Metro Cities opposes the imposition of sanctions or monetary penalties when a city's local comprehensive plan is deemed incompatible with the Met Council's systems plans or the plan fails to meet a statutory deadline when the city has made legitimate, good faith efforts to meet Met Council requirements; • Work with affected cities and other organizations such as the Pollution Control Agency, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Health and other stakeholders to identify common ground and resolve conflicts between respective goals for flexible residential development and achieving consistency with the Council's system plans and policies; and • Require entities, such as private businesses, nonprofits, or local units of government, among others, whose actions could adversely affect a comprehensive plan, to be subject to the same qualifications and/or regulations as the city. 4-H Comprehensive Planning Process Metro Cities supports an examination of the comprehensive planning process to make sure that the process is streamlined and efficient and avoids excessive cost burdens or duplicative or unnecessary planning requirements by municipalities in the planning process. Metro Cities supports resources to assist cities in meeting regional goals as part of the comprehensive planning process, including planning grants and technical assistance. Grants and other resources should be provided to all eligible communities through a formula that is equitable, and recognizes varying city needs and capacities. 4-1 Comprehensive Planning Schedule Cities are required to submit comprehensive plan updates to the Metropolitan Council every 10 years, with the next plan updates due at the end of 2018. A city's comprehensive plan represents 2018 Legislative Policies 41