Minutes - Charter Commission - 09/06/2001

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Mr. Henke stated that the Commission is making that change but then they are trying to raise the bar for citizens to have input. Mr. Goodrich stated that this Commission is not passing anything. This Commission is recommending Charter amendments to the City Council and that means it has to go to an election and the citizens of Ramsey will vote on it. They will not be voting to adopt a Comprehensive Plan, only on whether it takes three Councilmembers or four Councilmembers to pass the Comp Plan. No authority is being taken away from the City Council. Commissioner Henke stated she believes that this is politically motivated and put on the Commission agenda. The City Council does not have a four-fifths majority right now to pass the Comp Plan. This is being put so the Charter can be changed so a political victory can be made. Commissioner Milless stated she also agreed with Ms. Henke. We are trying to get the Council to put it to the voters. Mr. Hendriksen stated it is interesting how a group of citizens become a special interest group but landowners who will significantly benefit from the Comp Plan are citizens. He believed this is politically motivated for some members who are sitting on this Board. Commissioner Deemer stated he takes offense to that. Chairperson Vogt stated that all meetings in Ramsey have citizen input where their voices can be heard and allowing them a vote allows them a voice too. Mr. Hendriksen stated that when his Council packet arrived on Friday, that was the first he was aware of this case. The Comp Plan has become a more developer friendly plan instead of citizen friendly. This is not allowing citizens to make a decision on the Comp Plan, it changes the threshold for Council to make that decision. Maybe we should put two advisory questions on the ballot with number 1 showing the 1999 Comp Plan and number 2 showing the 2001 Comp Plan. That would be legal and he would support that if it was a binding vote. In his opinion, the plans had changed drastically from one another. Commissioner Ebel inquired what the difference is in the two plans. Mr. Hendriksen explained that the density transition has been removed, the 1,000-acre central planning area was added, permitted densities have doubled in terms of how many dwellings per units would be allowed, etc. Commissioner Swanson stated that his understanding of this change is that we have the potential for this type of gridlock we are seeing because we have a five-person Council. If we had seven members, it would be more handleable. The Comp Plan we are working on now shows we have a different time to pass the plan with a super majority. We are in a gridlock and we cannot move forward. If we all agree with the way the City Council is now structured (super majority) is Charter Commission - September 6, 2001 Page 5 of 11