Agenda - Council - 04/02/2024 - Special

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'Missing middle'housing bill concerns city officials I Prior Lake I swn... https://www.swnewsmedia.com/prior lake_american/missing-middle-h... and multiplexes. The bill was recently amended and approved by the Housing Finance and Policy Committee. The bill awaits its first hearing in the Senate. At the Feb. 27 Prior Lake City Council meeting, Mayor Kirt Briggs brought up some concerns within the bill that would eliminate local control at the city level. "There is a bill circulating in the House, soon in the Senate, that would bring lasting and significant consequences to every homeowner and tax-payer in cities across Minnesota," Briggs said. "This bill is a preemption that puts in place one-size fits all zoning in our current existing neighborhoods. What it does is, if it passes into law, it will eliminate city authority to oversee local planning and zoning in residential neighborhoods." According to legislation, the bills HF 4009 and SF 3964 would essentially eliminate single-family zoning in Minnesota towns with a population above 101000. It also takes away the ability of towns and cities to shape housing with rules about parking and aesthetics, or whether lots can be subdivided. "The law would give a for-profit developer the full right to purchase your neighbor's home, tear it down and replace it with a fourplex," Briggs said. "While the law gives the developer the full protection of statute to do just that, it also strips each and everyone one of us a right that we all enjoy today, which is the right to a public hearing so that I could bring my voice of support or opposition to this new development." Briggs argued that the bill could potentially create infrastructure issues because as the bill sits now, there would be no need to adjust sewer/water pipes and developers would retrofit the current single family home water main and sewer to accommodate up to six more housing units. "The unplanned density would sit on top of our existing infrastructure. If demand exceeds capacity and if you put too many of these high density units on that infrastructure, tax payers would be left with one of two unpleasant realities," Briggs said. "It would allow for the degradation of the public safety or incur the cost burden of retrofitting that infrastructure that was brought on by the new and unplanned for growth." City Managerjason Wedel added that even though the underlying premise of the bill is t create more affordable housing, nowhere in the bill does it state it will require any ofth ® ' 2 of 3 4/2/2024, 1:09 PM