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October 24, 1995 Dear Louise, I am writing you this note because I will not be able to attend Thursday nights Planning Commission public hearing of the Draft Comprehensive Plan. I am currently the chair of the Elk River Park and Recreation Commission and its representative to the Steering Committee. I would like to take this opportunity to share some general comments about our Draft Comprehensive Plan. Because transportation and parks will be discussed at future meetings, I will not comment on those issues at this time. I had hoped to be able to review staffs recommendations prior to writing this note, but as of late Tuesday, October 24th, they were not available. As I am sure you are aware, there was a significant amount of public input on several • issues throughout the Steering Committee process. This public input is generally reflected in on recommendations and I would like to address two of those issues which are tied closely together and those are residential land use and extension of the urban service area. The overwhelming sentiment of long time residents and newcomers alike is the desire to plan for growth that will maintain or improve the "quality of life"we now enjoy. While those words cover a very broad range of issues, the main theme always seemed to be to maintain the "rural character" of our community. The steering committee made recommendations regarding the extension of urban services to impact commercial and industrial opportunities much more significantly than residential. We made this decision based on a number of factors of which maintaining rural character was most significant. Other issues were residential tax burden, traffic, impact on schools and city services, and amount of wet lands and utility corridors which significantly affect the net amount of land that can be developed which, in turn, affects the cost effectiveness. Still, the basic issue is , what do we want our community to look like in the future? We must remember community growth should be planned and not driven by developers requesting a zoning change or expansion of our urban service area to utilize sewer plant capacity. The other issue which the steering committee discussed that relates to "quality of life" and "maintaining rural character"is allowing or requiring significant open space to be designed into