5.2. SR 09-08-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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DORSEY & WHITNEY LLP Mr. Stephen Rohlf Page 11 August 13, 1997 document that fails to satisfy the requirements of Minnesota law for meaningful environmental review. Community-Based Planning Goals The proposed project is also fundamentally at odds with the goals for municipal and county community-based planning enacted by the Minnesota Legislature on May 30, 1997. Minn. Stat. 1997, Ch. 202, Article 4A.08. In the Act, the Legislature articulated eleven goals for sound, community-based planning. These stress the importance of consideration of all the downstream consequences of public projects, and the critical need to preserve open space and agricultural land. In particular, the proposed project ignores the pattern, placement, and spillover effects of the residential, commercial and industrial development that would be drawn to the extension of city utilities, and the impact of new development on existing land uses. The narrowly focused, piecemeal approach to development embodied in the Urban Service EAW is contrary to over half of the Act's goals: (1) Balanced distribution of growth (Article 4A.08(3)); (2) Conservation of agricultural land and open space (Article 4A.08(5)); (3) Livable Community Design (advocating "...mixed land uses and compact development [and] green spaces..." Article 4A.08(6)); (4) Transportation Planning ("...maximize the efficient use of the transportation infrastructure by increasing the availability and use of appropriate public transit throughout the state through land use planning and design..." Article 4A.08(7)); (5) Evaluation of the Full Consequences of Public Projects ("...account for the full environmental, social, and economic costs of new development, including infrastructure costs such as transportation, sewers, and wastewater treatment, water, schools, recreation, and open space..." Article 4A.08(9)); and