Agenda - Council Work Session - 08/12/2008 - Joint with Planning Commission

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Ramsey Planning Commission and City Council August 6, 2008 2 Alternatives Each of the scenarios includes basic land use designations and assumptions about density. There are many variables that will affect the future development of the city, some within the city's control, many not. The city can control local land use policy and regulations, but has little control over larger national and regional issues like the economy, gas prices, consumer trends and choices, and other issues. The city has some influence over regional/community issues like the location of a Northstar rail station and the potential Mississippi River bridge crossing. Because there are many variables to consider, we have fixed one as constant - the number of residential units developed by 2030 - for all three scenarios. The Metropolitan Council has projected that Ramsey will develop approximately 8,800 additional residential units by 2030. We use this number for all scenarios, but achieve this number in different ways in different parts of the city. The market overview in our earlier background report for the comprehensive plan estimated about 6,100 units of new residential development by 2030, but the difference between these two numbers is within the range of reasonable projection that far ahead. It is difficult to predict market behavior over twenty years in the future and a number of issues could influence this number going up or down significantly. For instance, if gas prices continue to rise, development in the far corners of the Metropolitan Area may slow significantly in favor of development closer to the core. If a Northstar rail station is approved and built for Ramsey Town Center this would be a significant catalyst to development in Ramsey. If the Mississippi River bridge crossing is built, there would be significantly more opportunity for development taking advantage of this traffic and ease of connection to the Metro Area freeway system. If the economy stays slow for several years to come, this would depress development in Ramsey and elsewhere. If the economy recovers significantly this would improve development scenarios everywhere, including Ramsey. Planning Areas For all the scenarios we have divided the city into seven Planning Areas, for ease of discussion and summarizing development numbers. They are illustrated on the map to the right and described as follows: Planning Area A is in the northwest corner of the city, north of Trott Brook and west of Varolite Street. Planning Area Bis in the north central part of the city, north of Trott Brook between Varolite Street and- Highway 47. Planning Area Cis in the northeast part of the city, east of Nowthen Boulevard and southeast of Trott Brook and Highway 47 to the Rum River.