Agenda - Council - 04/02/2024 - Special

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Governor Walz and all Minnesota Legislators Re: Retention of City Zoning Authority We would like to thank you for your dedication in addressing the important issues of middle housing, lifecycle housing, and housing availability. As the cities of , we share your commitment to ensuring that every individual and family can find their home and hope it is within Minnesota. While we appreciate the efforts being made to address the housing crisis, we also believe the proposed legislation being considered does not align with the unique needs and challenges faced by local communities across the state. Local zoning authority allows cities to implement regulations that go beyond the structure someone lives in, allowing cities to plan for their needs whether it is with infrastructure or environmental protections. If passed in any form, the current legislation will cause grievance and undue hardship for our cities by changing local control on setbacks, limiting parking requirements, mandating types of housing on residential lots, authorizing subdivision of residential lots, mandating local minimum densities, controlling replacement of affordable housing while simultaneously commandeering the use of private property, restricting the use of appliances and removing both the public and elected officials from the review process among many other detrimental items in the legislation. Furthermore, this legislation does nothing to guarantee or increase affordable housing but may in fact increase the unaffordability and unattainability of home ownership by mandating and prioritizing efficiency over affordability. Allowances under the proposed legislation will inadvertently negatively impact aspects of our community we look to protect. Through zoning we can minimize these impacts on the natural environment and neighboring properties. Limiting conditional uses and precluding the ability to request important safety measures, such as traffic studies, impedes our ability to prioritize the safety and well-being of our residents, business patrons, and community members. Infrastructure, as you are aware, is costly to implement and can take years of planning to provide decades of service to our communities. The provisions being proposed may cause infrastructure to become inadequate earlier than anticipated thus not allowing utilization of its full useful life. Serving as stewards of our respective communities, we firmly believe in transparency throughout every aspect of the public process and that it is important to ensure that every resident has a meaningful opportunity to contribute to decisions made by their government. Limiting public hearings not only restricts the voices of constituents but removes the ability of public comment to affect positive change to development proposals that benefit both the proposed development and the existing community surrounding new development. Our concerns about legislative bills HF 4009/SF 3964, HF 4010/SF 3980 and SF 1370 stem from our commitment to safety, environmental preservation, and stable communities for current and