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e e is today, and Ramsey was still a township. Lack of municipal services and its location outside of the metro area made large lot residential development affordable, both for the developer and the homebuyer. It also made high quality commercial and industrial development impractical and too costly. This period set the stage for the predominant development pattern that covers the City of Ramsey's landscape today, large lot (2.5 to 5 acres) residential subdivisions. Houses built on lots with septic systems and private wells required larger lot sizes. In the 1970's popular housing styles were the split-level and the rambler. This time period saw a tremendous growth in population, which most likely included first time homebuyers, young families with small children or young families planning to have children. In an effort to control this rapid development, the City undertook several studies in the mid-1970's resulting in zoning and subdivision regulations and the establishment of urban and rural service areas. In the late 1970' s the growth rate began a steady decrease and by the early 1980's it had dropped off dramatically from its highpoint in the first half of 1970. Municipal sewer services In 1985 municipal sewer and water were made available to a small area in southeast Ramsey. The development pattern began to change from large lot development in the rural areas of the community to the smaller lots (1/4 acre lots) within the new Metropolitan Urban Services Area (MUSA). Regional growth became more of an issue. Development moratoriums and zoning codes were used to control growth by encouraging development within the MUSA and discouraging development outside the MUSA. High quality industry, which was minimal in the area, began to develop in Ramsey because the services were now available to meet their operating needs. Major business and industrial parks were soon to follow adding employment opportunities and industrial tax base. In 1989 the City amended its Comprehensive Plan designating three districts outside of the MUSA, the Urban Reserve, the Rural Transition, and the Rural Service Area. In January of 1990 the City implemented a regional growth tool for these three areas, "4 in 40" density requirements. The intentions of these zoning requirements were to encourage growth within the MUSA and preserve large tracts of land (10 acres) outside the MUSA for future orderly expansion and thus accommodate regional growth within the capacity of the regional systems (roads and sewers). Speculation has it that this policy has caused developers to look beyond Ramsey to communities were greater densities are allowed and development is more affordable and practical (this phenomenon is commonly referred to "leap-frog development"). In the early 1990's 2 story homes, three and four level splits and modified two story homes emerged as the popular housing style. Ramsey's location in the northern suburbs continues to make these homes affordable to two income earning households. Ramsey's second growth spurt In the early stages ofthe 1990's, Ramsey saw a similar growth spurt to the one it had experienced in the early 1970's. A recent expansion of the MUSA line has allowed more land to open up to residential subdivisions and the availability of platted lots combined with low interest rates resulted in Ramsey's second major growth spurt. Having witnessed the symptoms of this growth before, the community began taking steps to City of Ramsey Comprehensive Plan Page 4