09-14-2009 Council Work Session Packet

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� �► MPG Background Notes for 9-1-09 Meeting w/Jim Murphy & Bob McFarlin - Orono first began providing municipal sewers around the Lake in the early 1960s - The vast majority of Orono's sewer system was put in place long after original development occurred; we have been retrofittin� neighborhoods around the Lake - Orono's MUSA has been expanded on a regular basis since 1980 to accomplish this retrofitting - see the MUSA parts listing. - The area along the northeast side of Maxwell Bay was added to the MUSA in 1998 as the final stretch of Orono's 40 miles of Lake Minnetonka shoreline to be placed in the MUSA; Met Council approved that MUSA addition without any specific conditions for its development. - Orono's 2000-2020 Comp Plan showed that as of 1999 there were 2 connections to sewer within the Maxwell Bay MUSA area, that there would be 3 more connections expected by 2000; 25 more projected by 2010; and an additional 25 projected by 2020. Met Council approved that plan without any comment, and without any conditions relative to Maxwell Bay. - In October, 2004 Met Council adopted "Guidelines for Evaluating Amendments Proposing Metropolitan Urban Service Area(MUSA) Expansion". These Guidelines clearly indicate they are intended to apply to proposed new expansions of the MUSA, and that previous Met Council actions and commitments regarding the city's comp plan will be honored. - In early 2007 Met Council approved the extension of municipal sewer to the Farview neighborhood in the Maxwell Bay area, a neighborhood of 2+ acre lots. Sewer laterals were constructed during the 2007 construction season. - In August 2007 Met Council adopted revisions to the 2004 Guidelines that indicated they will not figure into the density calculation remaining undeveloped land within the 2020 MUSA per the city's existing 2020 Plan, unless those areas are being re-guided in the 2030 Plan. - When the City in the spring of 2008 requested approval to extend a sewer lateral to serve the house at 3125 Fox Street, a property in the Maxwell Bay area already in the MUSA since 1998, Met Council denied that connection. The letter to the City dated July 10, 2008 by Kyle Colvin indicates the connection was denied on the basis that it drops Orono's density calculation below 3.0 units per acre. - The property at 3125 Fox Street is not being reguided in the 2030 CPU. It is not the subject of a requested Comprehensive Plan Amendment to which the Guidelines and their Revisions were intended to pertain. It is not being developed. This is not an expansion of the MUSA. This is not a land use change. This is not a staging change. For those reasons alone, we do not understand fundamentally why the property should be included in the density calculation, nor do we understand the basis for denial of the connection.