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City of Ell< River 2004 Annual Report I 2005 GOALS & PROJECTS The 2005 Goals and Projects for the department can be grouped into five areas: · Comprehensive Plan Implementation · Natural Resource Inventory Implementation · Inter-department Planning Projects · Housekeeping/Ongoing Projects · Staffing Changes COMPREHENSIVE PLAN IMPLEMENTATION Now that the Comprehensive Plan has been adopted, the implementation tools need to be modified to be consistent with the Plan's long-term vision for the growth of the city. Three new land use districts have been identified, Old Town, Mixed Use, and Commercial Reserve. Current zoning standards do not address these three land use categories and need to be modified to achieve the goals in the plan for these areas. The area north of CSAH 33 is projected to change from agricultural to rural residential densities in phases over the next five years. Staff will need to prepare appropriate ordinance amendments and work with city and county engineers to prepare an access management plan. The mineral excavation areas have been identified in the Plan as future growth areas for the city. It has been determined that it may be possible to extend sewer and water to this area of the city. However, a focus area plan needs to be prepared to identify land uses and transportation corridors. Input from the area's property owners will be important in preparing this focus area plan. This project is proposed to start in the fourth quarter of 2005. NATURAL RESOURCE INVENTORY IMPLEMENTATION Several recommendations regarding the city's implementation tools were made in the final report for the Natural Resource Inventory (NRI). These include changes to the cluster development regulations in the subdivision ordinance, wetland buffer ordinance, stormwater ordinance, park dedication requirements among others. The department will need to coordinate the review of these regulations across department and commission lines in order to implement resource preservation and restoration as recommended in the NRI. The challenge will be to balance these goals with the goals of private property owners. With these new recommendations, it is the department's hope to resolve the tree preservation ordinance issue that has been unfinished. In addition to ordinance changes, development agreements will be modified to reflect the requirements of the city's NPDES program.