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r ANALYSIS Regional Blueprint (Bob Davis) Ramsey is located at the fringe of the Metropolitan Urban Service Area (MUSA) as defined by the Regional Blueprint. It is an urbanizing community. Ramsey has just under 30 square miles of total land area with approximately 2 1/2 square miles of land in the southeastern comer of the city within the MUSA The remaining area of approximately 27 1/2 square miles is designated as general rural use area. The Council expects urban expansion in the rural area to be planned, staged, and contiguous to existing urban development. In addition, rural policies and protection of any commercial agriculture land are equally important. See attachments 2 and 5. Council and Ramsey staff held extensive sessions during the latter part of 1993 and early 1994 to evaluate existing land use and the supply of vacant land "suitable" (wetlands and other lands < restricted from development removed) for development within the current MUSA Council revised land use figures show a supply of vacant land suitable for development within the current Ramsey MUSA of 800 acres. As a result of the land use evaluation sessions Council and city staff agreed that, based upon- Blueprint policy, Ramsey could expand the city's year 2000 MUSA by 442 acres of land suitable for development to accommodate urban growth forecasts. Ramsey's proposed MUSA expansion is for 442 acres of land suitable for development. The MUSA expansion totals 1,455 gross acres of land including environmental lands restricted from development, the closed Ramsey landfill property, an existing elementary school, the abandoned Gateway airport and other already developed land uses. The Council land use survey considers the closed landfill and the former Gateway airport properties to be used land. When and if reuse plans are developed for these properties they should be submitted to the Council for review and comment relative to Blueprint policy and the MUSA land supply. This will increase the amount of developable land in the Ramsey MUSA Rural Policy In 1990 the city of Ramsey adopted the 4 units per 40 acres policy for development in the rural service area. The city does allow the 4/40 requirement to be slightly modified if the parcel acreage is not evenly divisible by 10. However, an additional lot maybe developed only if the size of the fractional parcel is at least 75% of that required for a single (additional) lot. Parcel size 7.5 to 17.49 acres 17.5 to 27.46 acres 27.5 to 37.49 acres 37.5 to 40.00 acres Elil!ible Units 1 unit 2 units 3 units 4 units Ramsey varies the minimum lot size from 2.5 acres (in the rural transition area) to ten (10) acres (in the urban reserve and rural areas), but all lots must meet the 4/40 standard (see attachment 2). While not set up to be administered exactly like the Council's one unit per ten acre density standard to be applied on a section by section basis, the 4 unit per 40 acre requirement is consistent with Council policy. 6