11-04-1999 Council Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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Historic development patterns have resulted in a city which is partially urban and partially rural. Development patterns established 100 years ago are responsible for the dual personality that characterizes Orono. The lure of the Lake drew summer residents and resorters who established the crossroads of Navarre, which continues to this day as the commercial center of Orono. Likewise, away from the Lake, Orono has developed slowly as a farming or rural residential community of agriculture, woodlands and open space. The lifestyles are different, the needs and desires of the citizens are different and the requiren.ents for public services are different. Orono’s urban areas provide ample opportun-fy for a vast spcetnim variety of housing opportunities and all of the neighborhood serv ices necessary to support the residents of the Citv, urban and rural alike. Orono's rural areas provide the opportunity for low density housing at affordable prices, orchards, greenhouses, hobby farms and recreation areas not possible in either urban areas or in commercial agricultural areas. This low density of land use is particularly valuable as a protection for the marshlands, woodlands, and other natural resources that dot the area. The citizens of Orono have determined that a long range planning objective of the city is the permanent retention of the rural community. This objective is in line with the existing developed density of the area, and with the similar plans of other cities abutting the rural area, and with the legislative inte n t of-metropolitan planning such that expensive ur ban services not be over-extend ed in to u nd eveloped areas. Orono is partly in the Metropolitan Urban Service Area and partly in the rural service area. TTie Metropolitan Council as part of its Regional Growth Strategy has established a MUSA Hne boundary’ that rings the Twin Cities separatin g u rban an d ru ral-areas defining the urban area, the permanent rural area, and an urban reserv'e which is expected to be converted from rural to urban over the next 40 years. Within the MUS.A area, metropolitan facilities will be provided for urban development. Outside the MUSA area, in the Permanent Rural Area, developed density is expected to be low and metropolitan facilities and capacities will not be provided, ©n In the past the Metropolitan Council's broad-bru.sh maps, this line has always been have shown the MUSA boundary to be running through Orono dividing our City into Urban and Rural sections. While the current MUSA boundary does divide Orono. the illustrative 2020 MUSA shown in the Regional Growth Strategy places all but the northuest tip of Orono within the MI’S and virtually all of Orono is shown within the MUSA bv 2040. CMP 3B - 7