I put up new blog page (see “Visioning” tab above), with some animations showing different development scenarios. Check it out.
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From the category archives:
Announcements
The Planning Commission is currently working on the commercial zoning regulations of the draft Land Development Code, and in addition to meeting with stakeholder groups, we’ve been trying to review and reference existing work that previous Commissions and Councils have done.
This helps us to maintain continuity wherever possible; avoid reinventing the wheel; and honor the many hours of work that have been put into some of these visioning documents and the tax dollars that have been spent on plans and supporting studies.
I’ve taken pains to get electronic copies of these documents (not always easy) and have included them on my Northfield Resources page. The recently added documents are:
- “Q Block” Master Plan (2006)
- Walker Parking Study (2001)
- Feasibility of Westside Development (1998) and accompanying Present & Future Design Workshop visioning charrette
I’ll keep adding more chewy planning goodness as I find it.
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The most significant event of the month was Greg Colby’s resignation from the Planning Commission. (Et tu, Colby?)
Seriously, though, while we’re sorry to see Greg go, we know all good things must come to an end, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. Since Greg spent time in the 90s on the City Council, and a good chunk of the aughties on the Planning Commission, his commitment to the community is well known, and I suspect Northfield hasn’t seen the last of Greg Colby.
In terms of Planning Commission business, March’s weekly meetings and work sessions continued the Commission review of the draft Land Development Code. The first portion of the final draft of the LDC (as it relates to current/built residential districts) will be presented to the City Council at their April 13 work session.
The meeting dates and materials for March were:
- Planning Commission Work Session (3/25/2010)
- Special Planning Commission Meeting (3/18/2010)
- Planning Commission Work Session (3/11/2010)
- Special Planning Commission Meeting (3/4/2010)
The most current version of LDC (3/4/2010) can be found here.
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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I’m reactivating my civic blog after being elected Chair of the Northfield Planning Commission and Zoning Board of appeals (PCZBA) last week.
It’s my intention to use this blog for my own meeting summaries, information updates, and general pontificating. I know such intentions are generally only good as paving stones, so we’ll see how the updates go.
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I need to put this blog on the shelf for awhile. As one of the Triumvirate, I seem to be spending all my discretionary computer time blogging over on LOCALLY GROWN, and many of my posts there have to do with planning and development.
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This coming Tuesday, Nov. 14, a presentation on Low-Impact Development will be given by Jay Michels, Coordinator of the Twin Cities Project NEMO (Nonpoint source pollution Education for Municipal Officials).
If we can get beyond the trendy obfuscation of terms like “low impact”, “nonpoint source pollution”, etc., this simply means finding responsible accommodation between land use and natural resource protection. The “Low-Impact Development” concept has specifically to do with stormwater management in an environmentally sensitive and cost-effective way.
Stormwater management doesn’t sound very sexy, but it’s very much to the point when so much of our land use involves paved roads and ginormous parking lots. The Planning Commission is considering some LID language in our updated Comprehensive Plan and land use ordinances. Anyone concerned with growth, land use, and environmental issues would probably find this presentation interesting.
Part of the regular Planning Commission meeting at City Hall, which begins at 7:00p on Tuesday evening, the presentation is free and open to the public.
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Between my business schedule this summer and the technical snafus in moving my blog, I’m still not fully functional online. Thank you for your patience as I resolve these issues.
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