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STAFF AGENDA REPORT
DATE:
8C
DONALD RYE, PLANNING DIRECTOR
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF PROCESS FOR PREPARATION
OF REVISED ZONING ORDINANCE
JUNE 3, 1996
AGENDA #:
PREPARED BY:
SUBJECT:
INTRODUCTION:
ZONING ORDINANCE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
AND TIMELINES
Following final approval of the Comprehensive Plan by the
Metropolitan Council, the next step is to develop new official
controls to regulate the development of land in the City of Prior
Lake. Official controls include not only the zoning ordinance
but the subdivision ordinance and official map process as well.
DISCUSSION:
In the course of developing a new, or greatly modified zoning
ordinance, it is important to reflect the principles and policies of
the Comprehensive Plan in the ordinance, as the zoning
ordinance will likely be the most important means of achieving
the goals laid out in the plan. It is equally important to receive
input from those most directly affected by the ordinance
including realtors, developers, consultants and the general
public. If a general consensus can be achieved on major
ordinance provisions, challenges and requests for amendments
will be minimized.
Development of a new zoning ordinance can utilize several
different approaches. The first, and easiest approach from a staff
standpoint, is to direct staff to draft an ordinance to take to
public hearings. This approach has the obvious advantage of
not requiring lengthy public input in the development of the
ordinance. This, however, is also the greatest drawback to this
approach because the ordinance appearing at a hearing will be
new to everyone and will not have any "ownership". The most
frequent result of this approach is continued hearings and
frequently acrimonious debate at the public meetings.
16200 t~~~~~. S.E., Prior Lake. Minnesota 55372-1714 / Ph. (612) 447-4230 / Fax (612) 447-4245
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
ISSUES:
DISCUSSION AND
RECOMMENDATION:
PROCES.S.DOCIDR
The second approach has a variety of degrees of public
participation in the development of the ordinance. At one
extreme is a large committee with members from a broad cross-
section of the City which have on-going input into ordinance
development over a long period of time. The other extreme is a
small committee with limited membership which has a cursory
review function. In both cases, the staff develops portions of the
ordinance for review and comment by the committee. The
comments may actually be incorporated into the draft ordinance
or they may accompany the draft report as an addendum.
Whichever approach is chosen, it should be kept in mind that
the Planning Commission must be closely involved with the
development of the ordinance as it will ultimately be required to
recommend some official action on the ordinance.
While ordinance development activities could be scheduled as
part of other regularly scheduled meetings, it is staffs'
experience that separate meetings are better as this allows the
participants to focus exclusively on the task of developing the
ordinance.
The key issues associated with the two approaches to
developing the official controls are: 1) how expeditious should
the process be; 2) how important is it for the council, planning
commission and staff to feel a sense of ownership of the end
product: 3) is there a sense that a higher quality document will
be created using an individual or team approach. These are
subjective issues which each Councilmember is most capable of
analyzing.
Staff believes that public input to ordinance development
process is important but also recognizes that the current
ordinance fails to do an adequate job of reflecting current City
development policy and does not provide an adequate method
of regulating land use in the City. Because of impending
development, and, more importantly, the pace of impending
development, it becomes all the more important to proceed with
development of a new zoning ordinance.
With this in mind, it is suggested that the Council authorize and
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appoint a relatively small committee of seven to ten persons
representing various segments of the community to serve as an
advisory group to the Planning Commission in the development
and adoption of a new zoning ordinance. While this group
would not set policy or determine ordinance content, its
comments would provide the Planning Commission and staff
with a sounding board in the community which would keep
them advised of the likely reception of various ordinance
proposals in the community. In this way, the ordinance
presented at public hearings will not be unfamiliar and could
have more support initially than might otherwise be the case.
Once such a committee is established, its' fust order of business
would be to develop and establish, in conjunction with the staff
and Planning Commission, a process and timeline for
accomplishment of its task.
ACTION REQUIRED: Motion authorizing the Planning Commission to establish
an advisory committee to provide input for development of
a new zoning ordinance and to direct staff to solicit
applications for membership on said committee for
approval by the City Council
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