03-24-2009 Council Work Session Packet

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r � Aesthetic character: Elements of the Orono landscape affiliated with natural areas, rural land uses, and historic landmarks. Corridor enclosure: The nature, appearance and relative degrees of screening provided by roadside vegetation. Rural Oasis Project Background The City of Orono is blessed with more Lake Minnetonka lakeshore than any other community. The residents and elected officials of Orono have long recognized this important asset, and have a history of working to maintain lake quality through, primarily, the strict control of "hardcover." Hardcover, is considered to be all impervious surfaces (driveways, sport courts, rooftops), which rush water toward the lake without the benefits of infiltration. Historically, Orono has regulated hardcover by preserving most of its land area in large-lot 2- and 5-acre zoning districts. More recently, however, the city has guided certain areas toward higher densities, opening the door for a variety of new possibilities—both positive and negative. On the positive side, Orono can now consider working with developers toward "conservation development", which can have benefits for Lake Minnetonka beyond merely the reduction of hardcover. On the negative side, higher densities can be a threat to both the ecological (large wetlands, Lake Minnetonka water quality) and aesthetic (pastureland, landmarks, views) character of the city as a whole. With proper planning however, the negative effects can be successfully mitigated and the ecological health of the community can actually be improved. In late 2004, the City of Orono placed a moratorium on development within the city, and hired Dahlgren, Shardlow, and Uban, Inc. (DSU), to lead a process to determine and develop strategies to protect the aesthetic and ecological character of Orono in the face of new development pressures. DSU's planners and landscape architects, along with ecologists from Applied Ecological Services, Inc. (AES), facilitated two evening meetings with city staff and elected and appointed officials, evaluated specific "rural corridors" to discover, analyze, and define aspects of rural character in the city, performed ecological assessments, and produced generalized concept development schemes for three pilot sites. Through this process, Orono city leaders were challenged to carefully examine what makes their city special, and the DSU team provided guidance on how to conserve and protect these unique attributes through changes to the city's comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and public education. Process Phase I- Identifying Key Issues The first major task of the project involved identifying the key attributes of the Orono landscape that are affiliated with the community's rural character and potentially affected by growth. City of Orono DSU, Inc Draft CPA 3 August, 2005