The purpose of this case is to review feedback provided as part of the City's kick-off to participation in the regional planning cycle to help inform the City's response to the draft Regional Development Framework. The regional planning cycle provides added value to the community to ensure region, state, and adjacent plans are adequately coordinated and compatible and addresses land-use related topics that would be difficult for the community to address alone. For example, proper coordination and collaboration amongst multiple communities for projects such as future Highway 10 improvements may be more likely to achieve successful implementation.

The City of Ramsey last updated its Comprehensive Plan in 2008. The City's existing Comprehensive Plan can be found at www.cityoframsey.com/ComprehensivePlan. Due to file size, the document is not attached to this case, but is available through the preceding webpage or by request.

The completion of the 2010 US Census kicked off a new regional planning cycle. The first key milestone of that process wraps up this April 28, 2014 with a Metropolitan Council Public Hearing on ThriveMSP 2040, the Regional Development Framework that serves as the base for all future planning documents in the cycle.

Based on feedback from the community in the last cycle, the community did not feel that it was adequately involved in the policy development stages of the City's 2030 Comprehensive Plan.  Thus, the City set a goal to participate early and at each of the key milestones of the cycle to ensure that our feedback and goals were included. The recent City workshop was the first of several in a series that will unfold over a variety of mediums and venues over the next two (2) years.

Attached to the case are comments from the recent City workshop, the Regional Development Framework, and a suggested City response to the Regional Development Framework based on the following:
 

1. The existing 2030 Comprehensive Plan
2. Existing Small Area Planning Documents
3. Recent Workshop Feedback

The Planning Commission is reviewing this case at their April 3, 2014 Regular Meeting. The draft minutes from that case will not be available by the time of publication of this agenda. Staff will provide said minutes as soon as reasonably possible prior to the meeting. Staff is advancing this discussion topic at this time to ensure adequate time is provided to respond by the official close date for public comment of April 28, 2014.

Notification is not required at this time.

The suggested response to the Regional Development Framework is attached for detailed review. Generally speaking, the proposed response highlights two (2) key categories previously discussed with the City Council:
 

1. Transportation (Highway 10, Highway 47)
2. Water Supply (ground water and surface water supply balance; water conservation)

Additionally, the proposed response highlights or previews likely comments to the next stage of development of regional System Plans.

Staff would recommend an ongoing citizen engagement platform, now focused on more virtual and kiosk-based opportunities on citizen input related to land use, as opposed to a focus on in-person workshops, although these in-person opportunities will continue to exist. The Planning Commission is considering an ongoing collaborative process that extends beyond this response to regional forecasts, through the next Comprehensive Plan Update, to create an evolving document for the community's land use vision that adds true value to the community and to the process. It should be noted that this is not the last opportunity to participate and comment during the regional planning cycle. Much of the detailed responses to this process will come at the next stage, when System Plans (Transportation, Water Supply, Parks/Open Space, and Housing) will be released for comment. The next stage of public input will likely be to seek direct comment and feedback on the proposed regional forecasts, followed by comment on individual System Plans.

The attached document outlines general feedback and feedback specific to the City's existing Vision and Values Statement found in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The hope with these series of public input mediums is to look for common trends in topics, regardless of whether there is full consensus on the implementation, to see what areas the community should focus on in the next Comprehensive Plan Update. Initial feedback on the existing Vision and Values Statement is that generally speaking, the vision serves the community well, but warrants additional review to consider restructuring and inclusion of potentially missing pieces. Staff is also working on developing a plan to integrate the next Comprehensive Plan Update with the City's current organizational Strategic Plan.

Based on this information, Staff will begin putting together a detailed work plan on next steps for consideration by the Planning Commission.

Alternatives:

Alternative #1 - Authorize response as drafted. Staff believes it has captured the feedback from a combination of small-area planning, City Council feedback, advisory board/commission input, and citizen feedback available thus far. This is as it relates to the broad, goal-oriented purpose and detailed growth forecast numbers of the Regional Development Framework. Staff acknowledges that more detailed responses will be necessary at the next stage of the planning cycle.

Alternative #2 - Authorize an amended response. Details of this alternative will be based on discussion.

Alternative #3 - Do not respond to the Regional Development Framework. As the City has a variety of regional goals, most notably transportation and water supply, Staff does not recommend this option. This is a key opportunity that the City's goals remain part of the regional planning documents, thus making said priorities more likely to come to fruition.

Staff recommends authorizing the attached response to the Regional Development Framework (ThriveMSP 2040), acknowledging that future public input opportunities and more detailed responses will be coming over the next year.

Motion to submit the attached response to ThriveMSP 2040, the Metropolitan Council Regional Development Framework.