Minutes - Council - 03/22/2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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because a small group o£profiteers want to accelerate this city growth at a rate far surpassing this City's capacity for schools, traffic, and funding to mention a few? Government is designed to protect the individual, the little guy. I work for the government, my job is to protect people from those who would choose to do them harm. You should be doing the same. You should be looking out for the little guy. We keep hearing your majority say you will do the right thing, but in the end, what you do speaks so loudly in our ears we can no longer hear what you are saying. You have the opportunity to prove us wrong tonight and in the future. We hope you do. In 2001 the City of Ramsey issued permits for 102 single family units, in 2002 - 82, in 2003 - 380, in 2004 - 542. Our City's comprehensive plan does not allow for sewer and water lines in the proposed development areas. There is good reason for this. Our City is not prepared for the impact of additional 800 or more homes per year without first accomplishing traffic management and road quality improvements. When done, traffic impact studies, done properly, will show this is true. Our Comprehensive plan allows for 200 new homes per year in the City of Ramsey, far less than four and five hundred permitted during 03 and 04. The Metropolitan Council approved our plan. Citizens who were involved during the development phase approved the plan. It took three years longer than expected, but I believe this was for the good of the plan; they wanted to get it right. Now it appears this Council is eager to take front money from the developer(s) to push sewer and water far beyond the parameters established in the plan. And as I understand it, with rebates later, this developer gets front money payback, perhaps even a profit beyond reimbursement; it is unclear to me what is proposed there, as a limit to rebating. ()ur plan is designed to develop our city comfortably through the year 2008 when we will re-view and re-write a new comprehensive plan for the following ten years. These proposals allow for development to occur a minimum of five, ten, maybe fifteen years ahead of the plan. However, as a result of the front money offer, we citizens will be paying back to the developer, so it's no savings; the City Council seems willing and eager to abandon the Comprehensive plan through this erosive amendment process, until all restraint is eroded, nothing being left but dense housing and a few rich and happy development people. The Comprehensive Plan amendment process, for all intent and purposes, has become the development machine's way around the earlier, sensible will of the citizens.