Minutes - Council - 10/24/2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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In my mind, all the land in this area, basically all of the City east of Sunfish Lake Boulevard and also south of 153rd Avenue, should be exempt from this ordinance. Time 11:35 a.m. Call from City Hall that the ordinance is ready. Time 12:05 p.m. I have read through the ordinance, and it seems that the Planning Commission listened to my speech on October 16t~, very well, as I can't find anything that I would strongly object to in this draft dated October 20, 2000. But to be sure the Council doesn't regress on this issue here is some of what was said by me on October 16th, and I didn't stay after making the speech, so they did this without further influence. There were provisions in the previous draft that let the City's Comprehensive Plan define numbers in the proposed ordinance. This is very dangerous, and maybe not totally correct within government law. There is a misconception that the Comprehensive Plan is the ruling document of the City. It is not, very big not. It is the document that is to guide the changes that are made within the City, and in Ramsey's case the content of City codes Chapter 9. If no changes are made to the Chapter 9, the Comprehensive Plan means nothing, and the Met Council, who approves the Comprehensive Plan can't really do much to force change to Chapter 9. We must, in good faith, comply with the Comprehensive Plan if any changes are made. Changes to Chapter 9 of the City Code require four of the five people who are elected to agree with the change. There have been very few changes to Chapter 9 in the last eight years because of this, and there was a whole chapter revision ready for adoption four years ago, that was just scrapped along with the then proposed Comprehensive Plan which had been in process for five years all because of the Council at that time could not agree on these changes. Now that being said, having the Comprehensive Plan define a term in Chapter 9, might be giving away the administrative function for the City Council. Following this, the Comprehensive Plan requires a simple majority of the City Council. Generally, this is thought of a three out of five, but lets go to an extreme and say that a Council quorum of three is present, and hold a meeting, now the simple majority is two people. This would be very dangerous, but it is not improbable." Julie Horn, 6031 145th Lane NW, Ramsey, stated that the issue is very important to her and she wants to speak for her neighbors and community. She stated that the Comprehensive Plan talks about a 1,000 foot buffer between new construction and higher density and she felt that that is a good compromise because in their neighborhood they were told that their backyards would be developed the same as theirs until they received notification from Pulte Homes. Ms. Horn stated that the Council needs to be vigilant to the concerns of the residents to keep the roads safe, and keep high density construction close to shopping and transportation areas. They need to look visionary not just look at people with financial interests. Motion by Councilmember Hendriksen, seconded by Councilmember Connolly, to close the public hearing. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Mayor Gamec, Councilmembers Hendriksen, Connolly, Anderson, and Zimmennan. Voting No: None. The public hearing closed at 7:56 p.m. City Council/October 24, 2000 Page 9 of 31