09-14-2009 Council Work Session Packet

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City's current zoning or planned guiding. While the household increase is nearly the same as that projected in the System Statement, the starting points are different. The Ciry shoN�s the existing number of households in the community to be about 500 units less than the System Statement forecasts for 2010. Council estimated that in April 2008, Orono had 3,002 households. (MPG Note: MC has misread Table 3B-2; it actually shows 3239 dwelling units, the equivalent of about 3,075 households at 95% occupancy, relatively near MC's 2008 estimate) The current guiding may be insufficient to accommodate the Council's forecasted growth through 2030. The Update needs to indicate how or what will be changed or reguided to accommodate the Council's forecasted growth. Tables 3B-4a and 3B-4b calculate future land use projections. These tables include existing and future households in the calculation, so it is difficult to determine whether new development will occur at densities consistent with Council policy (3 dN�elling units per net ac). Using the information provided in the Update, the overall development in the communiry (existing and future) results in a gross density of 0.8 dwelling units per acre (2,96� dwelling units on 3�78 gross acres). The Update describes the development of five different "Parcel Groups" within the community, but it appears that these areas have limited capacity to accommodate the City's forecasted growth as several of these areas have already undergone development. The land use categories used in the analysis of these groups does not match the guiding shown in Map 38-6. The Update indicates that future urban development will be carefully integrated into existing neighborhoods, but outside of the Parcel Group analysis, the Update does not indicate where future urban development will occur and at what densities it will occur. Council staff would like to meet with the City staff Co go over the land use questions. � POLICY ISSUES Urban Densitv The Update contains policies that are inconsistent with the 2030 Regional Development Framewof�k (RDF). In its description of u��ban and rural areas of the community, the Update indicates that development in the urban area "will remain relatively low (ranging from 1 unit per ac�°e to as much as 4-6 units per acre, with a few individual multi family sites as high as 1� units per acre)" (p. 3B-10). As described above, the Update does not provide sufficient information to assess whether new development and redevelopment will occur at densities consistent with Council policy,for sanita�y sewer serviced areas. In addition, because the Update has a stated policy of not expanding the MLISA, it is unclear how and where the Ciry will accommodate new sewef•ed development and/or redevelopment. The policy descs�ibed above and text elsewhere in the Update indicate that it may be unlikely that overall new development receiving sanitary sewer would achieve an overall net density of at least three units per acre (Text on page 38-13, Policy # 1 on page 3B-19, Policy #12 on page 3B-23). The City is advised of the Council's Revised Met�°opolitan Urban Service A�-ea Implementation Guidelines (http://www.mnetr�ocouncil.org/planning/assistance/MZISAChangeGuidelines.pdfl, which indicate the conditions under which properties may be connected to regional wastewater services as well as the Council's method fo� calculating residential development net density. Review of Met Council Comp Plan/nitial Response Page 8 of 17 August 28, 2009