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RURAL DENSITY Rural Character Figure \..l iJ...4:ustra~es t~~ existS-ng ch9.racter of Ramsey outside of the Metropolitan Urban Service Area,. .A$ shown, the.City's non-sewered area has already under(jone extensive development. Existing development: ranges from minimum lot sizes of 1 acre and larger lots wi th 2.5. acre lots predomina;ting. , Also illustrated on Fi<iu~e '....\.. are existing and designated parks and open space as well as areas unsuitable fortlevelopment such as floodplains, wei!lands, and poor soils. 'Fable JL indicates existing developed and uhde~eloped acreage by zonin~ Classification. The gross land area in the unseweredarea of the city is 14,412 acres. All but 4084 acres (28%) are either developed or unsuited for . development. Of these 4084 acres, 74 acres are zoned Rural Business (1.8%), 72 acres are zoned Industrial (1.8%) 23 acres are zoned General Business (0.6%) and the remaining 3915 acres are zoned Residential 95.9%. The character of the City is generally a transition from the more densely developed urban areas to less densely developed suburban areas. This transitional character extends well beyond Ramsey (Figure 5) with neighboring communities of Andover and Burns being developed with two and half acre residential lots. To the west, Elk River has three zoning classifications with minimum lot sizes of 1 acre in the future sewered area, minimum. lot sizes of 2.5 acres in the transi- tional non-sewered areas and minimum lot sizes of 10 acres in agri- cultural preservation areas. There are no designated agricultural preservation areas in Ramsey, and as illustrated on Figure -L-, few large contiguous areas remain which have either a significant agricultural history or long term future prospect of remaining "rural agricultural". Given the existing development and character of the City and con- sidering that outlying communities beyond Ramsey have zoning with similar lot size requirements, the city cannot be construed as being "rural". Rather Ramsey is a transitional Community which may be more accurately classified as having an urban area and a nbn-sewered transition area. City Services "~ile the largest portion of the city lies outside the MUSA area, many of the community's services and amenities are situated in the non- sewered areas. For example, both city Hall and the Ramsey Elementary School are outside of the MUSA. The most extensively developed athletic facilities in the city's Park system are located at Central Park, some four miles beyond the MUSA and a privately owned public golf course is also situated in the transition areas.