Minutes - Council - 06/10/2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Boulevard. are Oroposed to include a charter school, a medical facility with associated medical offices/services, as well as a hotel. The area on farthest western edge of the core at the intersection of new Sun, '004 Drive. and Armstrong Boulevard. will include larger scale commercial and office uses. This a~ea ¢iI1 also include some high density housing facing the greenway running through the middle of tt~e d~velopment. This center greenway will serve two functions. It will serve as recreational a~nd green space for the residents of Ramsey and the Town Center. The greenway will be traversed ¢itl~ trails for walking and biking and have areas for active recreation. The greenway will be surro~nd~ by one-way streets that will also help define the area. The second function of the greenway will b~ for stormwater management. It is anticipated that the greenway will have several wet ponds tl~at ~ill assist in stormwater quality management, and through the use of meandering streams, will ~con~ey the water eventually to the Mississippi River. The area north of the greenway is primarily res!de~ial with attached housing (townhomes, row homes). The Sketch Plan shows a green space ~me~ity embedded in each residential block. In certain areas, some of the residential units may go [as lfigh as 4 -5 stories. The residential areas are intended to be served by sidewalks and trails that wil~. assist in pedestrian and bike movement to the Town Center core. The Ramsey Town Center will ~lra~atically change the present land use to a highly-urbanized commercial, retail, recreational ~nd! residential development that will serve Ramsey residents and residents and commuters o~th~ larger region. Due to the large impact of the development, the City is required to conduct an AJlteraative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) environmental review. The AUAR looks at all envirofime/~tal impacts created by the development. Items that are reviewed and analyzed include impa~ts fo habitat, wetlands and water supply, local infrastructure (roads and utilities), air and noise pol~uti6n, and traffic impact. On April 8, 2003, the City Council released a draft AUAR for the Town iCer~ter that comprised nearly 300 pages. The comment period on the AUAR ended on May 14, 200g. ~taff has responded to the comments received from the agencies and the public. Unless there [are lobjections to the responses, it is expected that the City Council will consider adoption of f~nal'~ AUAR at the June 24, 2003 meeting. The proposed Town Center will require s~gmficant ul~graihng of the local, County, and State road system. The Town Center AUAR identifies magy improvements that will be made to the transportation network surrounding the Ramsey Tow~ C~nter by full build-out. At their May 1, 2003 meeting, the Planning Commission tabled action [on ~he sketch plan to the June 5, 2003 meeting in order to study the plan in greater detail. Since ~hat-time, Staff has met with most of the Planning Commissioners to review the plan. In addition, a~oirlt meeting with the City Council and Town Center Task Force was held on June 3, 2003 to discUSs Town Center matters. The Planning Commission reviewed the sketch plan at its June 5, 2003 ~nee!ing and recommended to the City Council that Ramsey Town Center LLC proceed to prelimina~ >la~ stage. Motion by C~)un,eilmember Pearson, seconded by Councilmember Cook, to approve the sketch plan for the R am~ey Town Center and instruct the applicant, Ramsey Town Center, LLC to move to preliminar plat stage. .i Motion camOd. :Voting Yes: Mayor Gamec, and Councilmembers Pearson, Cook, Elvig, and Zimmerman. [VotingNo: None. Abstained: CouncilmemberKurak. Councilmeml~er Elvig thanked the Planning Commission for moving the issue forward. City Council/June 10, 2003 Page 14 of 22