04-20-1998 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Orono Councfl approves vision for land use By Michelle Wallin Pgbnnesota Sun Publications The Orono City Council is making clTorts to preserve the city’s rural character. The council at its Feb. 23 meeting approved a resolution adopting a gencial concept plan for land use along Highway 12. According to the resolution, this concept plan most closely re- nects the council ’s vision for the Highway 1‘2 area. At a hch. 12 work session, the council had re viewed three alternatives for a general ccnccpt plan. The approved general con cept plan calls for “community- scale ” retail development fo cused in a compact area in and near downtown Long Lake, clos er to Brown Road than to Willow Drive. This means the council ’s goal is to keep retail development in or near the current retail area ^ which is downtown Long Lake, City Administrator Ron Moorse See story on Orono’s industrial zone moratorium on Page 37A. said in an interview. The concept plan restricts “strip retail" development and prohibits all regional, “big box ” retail development along High way 12. Examples of “big box" development, Moorse said, are large supermarkets or discount stores that draw customers from beyond the local community. “We arc stating up front what we think should happen hero, Orono Mayor Gabriel Jabbour said in an interview. Jabbour said the resolution was passed to provide guidance to city stalf concerning prospective develop ers’ requests. . i j "Staff people are bombarded with requests," Jabbour said. “We wanted to be proactive rather than reactive.” He said there arc five super market offers for the Highway 12 area, some of which do not fit the council ’s vision. Having a vision from the council will help city staff mem bers and prospective developers understand which kinds of de velopments would he acceptable in Orono, Jabbour said. Land: City ‘committed to community ’ From Page lA Jabbour said Orono ’s “No. 1 coinmit- monl ” is to provide for the local commu nity. According to the resolution, the concept plan has several benefits, including: “fo cuses on downtown Long Lake remaining a strong retail area; focuses on maintain ing a viUil downtown and ‘sense of place* for Long Lake and Orono; and a more com pact community scale retail area matches the design of new Highway 1*2 with no in terchanges through Long Lake.” Construction is expected to begin in 2001 on the new Highway 12 corridor, which will be built along the Burlington- Northern-Santa Fe Railroad Tracks from Wayzata Boulevard to County Road 6. The only interchanges for the corridor will be at Wayzata Boulevard and Coun ty Road 6. Regional retail, if built along the cur rent Highway 12, could cause problems with the new Highway 12 design, Moorse said. People likely would want to access downtown Long Lake from the new Highway 12, he said. Moorse and Jab bour also said the local roads are not built to handle increased traffic that re gional retail would draw. According to a city report, the focus of the land use concept plan is to preserve the city’s natural rural character and to facilitate “high quality" development and employment opportunities. Moorse said the types of uses envi sioned for the city’s industrial area on the south side of Highway 12 and east of Old Crystal Bay Road are “high tech" manu facturing, medical, ofiice and similar uses. The concept plan also outlines desir able locations for “medium-density" resi dential development and office develop ment. According to the resolution, the up date of the city’s land use plan is an im portant element of the Comprehensive Plan update process. The update must be completed by the end of the year, Jabbour said. Moorse stressed that the resolution reflects a general vision from the council and that these ideas for land use in the Highway 12 area are not final. The city’s work on the Comprehensive Plan in cludes requesting input from the com munity and from affected property own ers, he said. The city will be providing op portunities for public input in the near future. Concerning Highway 12 area land use, Councilmember J. Diann Goetten said, “We really want to have a plan and we want the plan to work with Long Lake." tWN fAUjoa