Citizens flex their planning muscles

               Local  comprehensive plan updates are due to the Metropolitan Council for review by  the end of 2008.
 Many  cities use focus groups and surveys to learn what their residents want for the  future.
 Lino Lakes’ process resulted in more residents  joining city boards and commissions.

            

Local governments seek public’s view on local comprehensive plans

For many people, long-range planning is a foreign concept. With the possible exception of retirement plans, most people don’t develop roadmaps that show them what their life will be like two decades from now, ten years from now, or even a year in the future.

But citizens have a chance to exercise their planning muscles by helping their local community develop its long-range comprehensive plan.

“Creating opportunities for people to get involved in local planning makes them feel more a part of the future of their community,” said Tom Gamec, mayor of Ramsey. The city, with funding support from the McKnight Foundation, is engaged in a visioning process branded “Ramsey 3.” The city wants its residents to answer the question, “What should Ramsey be in the next 30 years?”

Plans updated at least once each decade

The Gables townhomes in Ramsey's Town Center

Ramsey’s current comprehensive plan calls for diversifying the mix of housing in the city. The Gables townhomes are part of Ramsey’s new Town Center.

The Metropolitan Land Planning Act requires cities, townships and counties in the seven-county metropolitan area to update their local comprehensive (comp) plans at least once every 10 years. The current batch of comp plan updates, which will reflect community planning through the year 2030, is due to the Metropolitan Council by the end of 2008.

Local comprehensive plans cover land use, transportation, housing, parks and other components. The comp plans must be consistent with the Council’s 2030 Regional Development Framework and its system plans for transportation, aviation, water resources and regional parks.

Where to start? At the end! For many communities, the answer to “getting there” requires the question, “Where are we going?” Many communities turn to their residents and community leaders to help develop a vision that defines what the community should be in 2030. Here are some of their stories.

Georgie Hilker, who represents northern Ramsey County and southeastern Anoka County on the Metropolitan Council, talked with Rice Creek Watershed District board member John Waller at a public meeting in Lino Lakes.

Falcon Heights is known chiefly as the home of the Minnesota State Fair, and the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. The city is also home to 6,000 people. More about Falcon Heights planning.
Scott County started its visioning process with public and stakeholder workshops in the cities of Belle Plain, Shakopee, Prior Lake and New Prague. More about Scott County's planning process.
Six hundred and seventy-six ideas in one day — that’s the kind of input Burnsville received in its “21st Century” kickoff meeting last June. More about Burnsville's planning efforts.
Lino Lakes was so named because each of the smaller communities that joined together in 1955 to form Lino Lakes wanted the word “lakes” in the name of their new city. That value was reinforced in the city’s “Spotlight on 2030” visioning process. More about Lino Lake's visioning process.

Watershed management organizations are also in the process of updating their management plans. These plans are reviewed by several state agencies, including the Council, and approved by the Board of Water and Soil Resources. The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District started asking the “Where are we going?” question more than two years ago. In January 2007, the District adopted its Comprehensive Water Resources Plan.