Consider U of M Environmental Sustainability/Land Use Clinic

The City has been approached by Jean Coleman, Attorney and Land Use Planner with CR Planning, regarding a project proposal for a student project for two (2) University of Minnesota Law School students to evaluate the City's Comprehensive Plan and ordinances as it relates to environmental and natural resource policies.  Staff has identified this as a potential collaborative project to assist the City's Environmental Policy Board (EPB) with the EPB Work Plan.

None required.

The EPB Work Plan includes an item to explore green/sustainable building and development practices.  In a Joint Work Session with the Planning Commission, the EPB identified several opportunities that warrant further research that could be incorporated into the City's Zoning, Subdivision, and Building ordinances.  The overarching theme of the potential amendments was to allow for flexibility and options, without adding additional or burdensome requirements.  The group discussed incentive based approaches.  The group also suggested a points based system to achieve certain goals by giving a menu of options.

Consistent with the City's Vision and Values Statement, Staff discussed the need to balance protection of natural resources with the rights of private property owners.  Ms. Coleman stated that she feels this is an excellent opportunity for the students to better understand the need for this balance.  Furthermore, the City is in no way obligated to adopt any of the recommendations provided by the project.  Staff would recommend that the recommendations be presented to the EPB for further review, who would then carry their own recommendations forward to the City Council.

Staff believes this is an excellent opportunity to maximize existing staff resources by allowing a student project to provide the necessary research that would ordinarily need to be accomplished by Staff.  It is anticipated that the Staff commitment would be fairly minimal at 20 hours total maximum.  Again, this is time already anticipated to be allocated to this project as part of the EPB Work Plan.  In return, it is anticipated that the City would receive some 200 hours of work of the student project to complete the analysis and recommendation.  The project is proposed to be completed in May of 2012.

A more detailed description of the project is attached for the City Council's review.

Staff recommends approval of the project collaboration for the proposed Land Use Clinic.

No additional funding required.  The approximate 20 hours of staff time required to implement and monitor the program would be handled as part of regular staff duties.  This time was already anticipated to be allocated to completion of this portion of the EPB Work Plan.

Direct Staff to arrange collaboration on the U of M Law School Land Use Clinic.