Minutes - Council Work Session - 10/17/2023 - Special

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Councilmember Riley asked that Community Development Director Hanson and Planning Manager Larson be strong advocates of the City's position. Councilmember Musgrove asked about the urban reserve areas that are east of Highway 10. She asked why they are putting these areas in the urban reserve category. Planning Manager Larson explained that the comprehensive plan has a staging plan in it which designated the growth over the next 40 years to be towards the end of the 40 year period. He stated that this identifies the areas that are within the MUSA but are areas that they are not targeting for development currently. He added that the expectation is also that these areas will not be hooked up to services. He explained what happened with the North Brook Meadows property where they wanted to develop the land that was within the MUSA but the utilities were not going to be put out there for years. He added that this gave the developers a false expectation that they had developable property. City Administrator Hagen added that these developers met with Staff and asked when the utilities would go in which would not be happening for years. He stated that this urban reserve adds another layer of protection for the City to not have to spend money on infrastructure before the City has the funds to do so. Councilmember Musgrove asked if it protects them in some ways and in others it counts against them as they cannot designate this as medium or high density. Planning Manager Larson explained that the numbers come from the comprehensive plan and the zoning code implements this. He noted that the urban reserve talks about when the time comes that the utilities are there the Council can rezone it to whichever zoning district is in conformance with the comprehensive plan. Councilmember Musgrove asked if it still works against the numbers while it is not being developed as they cannot tell the Met Council that this is potentially high density. Planning Manager Larson reiterated that the comprehensive plan is the underlying land use plan. Councilmember Woestehoff added that the property right next to the urban reserve is zoned for medium density anyway. City Administrator Hagen explained that if they wanted to change the densities in this area there would need to be a comprehensive plan amendment at that time. He stated that they cannot go from urban reserve to any residential zoning, it would have to go to whatever it is guided for in the comprehensive plan. Councilmember Musgrove asked if there is an underlying designation for the urban reserve that counts towards the comprehensive plan numbers. Planning Manager Larson said yes. City Council Special Work Session/ October 17, 2023 Page 5 of 16