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III. RURAL DENSITY <br />Rural Character <br />Figure 4 illustrates the existing character of Ramsey <br />outside of the Metropolitan Urban Service Area As shown, <br />the City's non - sewered area has already undergone extensive <br />development. Existing development ranges from minimum lot <br />sizes of 1 acre to larger and undeveloped lots or parcels. <br />Two and one -half acre lots are the predominating size in <br />developments. <br />Also illustrated on Figure 4 are existing and designated <br />parks and open space as well as areas unsuitable for <br />development such as floodplains,wetlands, and poor soils. <br />Table 10 indicates existing developed and undeveloped <br />acreage by service area. <br />The gross land area in the'unsewered area of the City is <br />14,412 acres. All but 4084 acres (28 %) are either developed <br />or unsuited for development. Of these 4084 acres, 74 acres <br />are zoned Rural Business (1.8 %), 72 acres are zoned <br />Industrial (1.8 %) 23 acres are zoned General Business (0.6 %) <br />and the remaining 3915 acres are zoned Rural Residential <br />(95.9 %). <br />There are no designated agricultural preservation areas in <br />Ramsey. There are few large contiguous areas remaining <br />which have either a significant agricultural history or long <br />term future prospect of remaining "productive agricultural <br />land ". Approximately 3,130 acres, however, are currently <br />enrolled in the "Green Acres" program. These parcels are <br />shown on Figure 5. <br />The character of the City is generally a transition from the <br />more densely developed urban use through less densely <br />developed suburban to rural use areas. This transitional <br />character extends well beyond Ramsey. Neighboring <br />communities of Andover to the east and Burns to the north <br />are significantly developed with two and half acre <br />residential lots. To the west, Elk River has three zoning <br />classifications with minimum lot sizes of 1 acre in the <br />future sewered area, minimum lot sizes of 2.5 acres in the <br />transitional non - sewered areas and minimum lot sizes of 10 <br />acres in agricultural preservation areas. <br />Given the aevelopinent and character of the City and <br />considering that outlying communities beyond Ramsey have <br />zoning that has resulted in similar lot size developments, <br />no portion of the City can be construed as being totally <br />rural. Rather, Ramsey is a transitional Community which may <br />be more accurately classified as having a sewered urban area <br />and a non- sewered residential transition area. <br />11 <br />