I’ve gotten behind in my detailed logging of the weekly happenings. The last two weeks have primarily been about continued work on the review of the Land Development Code at the 2/11 work session and the 2/18 special meeting.
I also attended part of the business park Master Plan Steering Committee meeting on 2/18. Unfortunately, Thursday meetings now conflict with the Planning Commission meeting schedule, so I wasn’t able to attend the whole thing.
I hope to be able to post an update about the business park master planning process Real Soon Now.
The Planning Commission met on 2/4 to continue our review of the Land Development Code. I have some supporting materials to post, but won’t be able to do it for a couple of days; or perhaps I’ll include it with the update at the end of this week.
On 11/24/09, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on the request for annexation from two landowners in Bridgewater Township. The Commission discussed the request and its attendant issue at our 12/8/09 and 12/15/09 meetings. The links for the dates referenced contain the minutes from those meetings.
On 1/7/2010 the Planning Commission made its official recommendation, which will be presented to the City Council at their 2/9/2010 meeting.
The Planning Commission’s recommendation to the Northfield City Council, along with its rationale, is as follows:
The vote of the Commission was five to one in favor of the request. The vote
against annexation was based on the position that it should be delayed until
completion of both the Land Development Code and the updated stormwater and
stream protection ordinances, both critical tools given the unique, sensitive
natural resources involved.
Commission members stated that they are unanimous in their support of the
annexation requests, but have significant concerns about the impact of future
development on the environmental resources, including the two streams in the
area and more particularly the Brook Trout habitat represented in Rice Creek.
The Planning Commission advises the City Council that development in this area
should preserve and enhance the environmental features of the annexation area,
while at the same time pursuing viable economic development for Northfield.
To accomplish this, the Commission encourages the Council to direct that any
eventual development on the site be informed by a complete hydrological and
biological work-up for both Rice Creek and Heath Creek, research needed to
ensure that these acres are developed in a manner that accords with the principles
of the 2008 Comprehensive Plan. Furthermore, in accordance with the conditions
stated in Option #1, the Planning Commission encourages the Council to direct
City Staff to work closely and cooperatively with Bridgewater Township and to
engage the technical expertise of the Rice Creek (Spring Brook) Concerned
Citizens Group, the Cannon River Watershed Partnership, and other interested
groups, in the revision of storm-water and stream protection ordinances.
(Found on p. 17 of the 19-page Staff Report on the Gill-Prawer Annexation in the 2/9/2010 meeting packet.)
The Planning Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals page on the City website now has a link to a press release (PDF) which I believe was written by Brian O’Connell. I don’t know when or if it was sent out – when I asked Scott Peterson at KYMN if he’d seen it yet, he hadn’t as of this morning. I’m posting it here in its entirety:
The Planning Commission of the City of Northfield has made significant progress
on the revision and re-writing of the Land Development Code of the City. The
Land Development Code is an important series of rules that will serve to
implement the recently adopted Comprehensive Plan.
The hard and persistent work of this group has resulted in changes to the initial
draft code that has created a greater degree of clarity and usability of the code by
builders, developers, citizens, Commission and Council members as well as
administrative staff. The Planning Commission continuously refers to the
Comprehensive Plan to ensure that the Land Development Code reflects the
Policies and direction established in the plan.
The Commission has sought and obtained numerous comments from builders and
Developers in the Northfield area along with representatives of Boards and
Commissions of the City and the public in general. Armed with this input, the
Commission has been able to complete the review of three of the six articles of the
document and is making clear progress on the remaining portions of the Code.
The Commission is working on a review schedule that involves weekly meetings.
The Commission anticipates completing their review of the Code in the
next several months at which time discussion with the City Council and the public
at large will begin with the goal to adopt a new Land Development Code later in
the summer of 2010.
The Planning Commission continued its weekly meetings to review and revise the draft Land Development Code (LDC); at Thursday’s work session, commissioners also gave brief updates on any meetings they attended (Rholl – EDA; Thomas – Council goals meeting). Councillor Buckheit, the City Council liaison to the PCZBA, reported that completion and adoption of the LDC is one of the Council’s top goals for 2010.
I provided a summary of Planning Commission activities for the City Administrator’s monthly Boards & Commissions report, which I believe will be include in next week’s “Friday Memo”; most of what I wrote for the report has already been posted here in some form.
The words “walkability” and “connectivity” have probably been engraved on my brain due to the extensive work the Planning Commission has been doing on our draft Land Development Code (zoning ordinances), so I was interested but not at all surprised to learn that there can be a clear economic benefit to living in neighborhoods or communities that meet certain criteria for walkability:
A study published in August by C.E.O.’s for Cities. . . looked at the sales of 90,000 homes in 15 markets to estimate how much value was associated with something called the Walk Score. Using a 100-point scale, this score rates the number of destinations, including libraries, parks and coffee shops, within walking distance of a home. . . The study found that houses with above-average Walk Scores commanded a premium.
I wrote a post about WalkScore a couple of years ago. Some parts of Northfield score very highly; other parts are much worse than the national average. How does your address do? Does this tell us anything about corrections we should make in our built environment? Is it valid?
Additional links and information:
Earlier in the week, Griff Wigley, Ross Currier, and I had Councillor Erica Zweifel as our guest on the LocallyGrown audio show. (Earlier in the month Councillor Betsey Buckheit and Councillor Rhonda Pownell were also on the show; Locally Grown is doing a series, trying to have each councillor as a guest for a review of the past year, and looking forward in 2010.)
After the show I talked a bit with Tim Freeland of KYMN Radio about their ability to stream and store City meetings in the Council Chambers, and asked about doing the same for the Planning Commission (and possibly the EDA). Tim said that technologically there is no obstacle, that everything is set to go, but that there may be some City Hall bureaucracy to work around regarding security and access to Mission Control behind the door in the Council chambers. Erica heard some of this discussion, and I hope will bring it forward to staff/Council for a solution.
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From the City website yesterday:
The City of Northfield has received a $150,000 grant from the MN/DNR to build a new multi-use path along the east side of the Cannon River. Northfield will work with the City of Dundas to develop a trail alignment between Dundas and the Peggy Prowe pedestrian bridge across the Cannon River. The City originally applied for $500,000 from the DNR grant program along with applying for a Rotary grant and money committed from other local sources. The City will be considering the scope of the project to fit within the funding received. A full project webpage will be published as the new trail plans and alignment are developed.
(Note: I don’t think the link above will be the permanent project link on the City website; I’ll try to remember to come back and change it later.)
I did a rather lengthy post on Locally Grown entitled “Open Meeting Law: What it means, what it doesn’t mean, what it might mean”. I may condense and summarize here eventually, but the original post seemed more appropriate to place on LoGro.
On Monday I met with Joel Walinski, Brian O’Connell, Dan Olson, and Betsey Buckheit in advance of the City Council work session on Tuesday, 1/12. Both Betsey and I had expressed concerns about the original staff report provided to the Council for the work session, so the meeting was held to clarify everyone’s understanding of what would be discussed.
At the 1/12 City Council work session, input and direction on the LDC review process was given to the Planning Commission by the Council. From the Northfield League of Women Voters Observer Report of the meeting:
The Planning Commission has been working for over a year on the ordinance creating regulations to implement the comprehensive plan. According to Councilor Betsey Buckheit, who has been the commission’s council liaison, the planning commission felt that the version of the ordinance which the consultant provided was not aligned with the comprehensive plan. This work has been difficult and time-consuming for both staff and commissioners who have met weekly for a year to work on this.
Buckheit, Planning Commission Chair Tracy Davis, and city staff met yesterday and agreed on a new way of approaching the requirements for commercial and residential zones. Zones will be considered in “chunks” rather than in more global form. At issue is how much mixture of land use is acceptable in an area and where the city wants to have in each zone. Buckheit believes the new approach will not only make the work more efficient, but will result in better regulations. It should also improve communication between the staff and commissioners. At each stage of the process, the commission will ask for council review to assure that the regulations are consistent with the comprehensive plan. Before the final adoption by the city, the regulations will be brought to the public for information and response. The commission will take up the new approach at the Thursday meeting.
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