01-14-1985 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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LUEET-R. PLANNING AND ZONING LAW CHANGES (11) The League supports legislation conforming the statutory procedures for modifying a city's comprehensive land use plan with the statutory procedures for modifying a city's zoning ordinance. Existing state law requires a simple majority vote of a city council to adopt or amend a comprehensive land use plan, but requires a supermajority (2/3) vote to amend a zoning ordinance. The differing voting requirements cause a problem because the law also requires the plan and implementing ordinances to be consistent with each other. Situations have arisen where a majority of the council votes to amend the city's comprehensive plan but there is not enough support to effectuate a zoning change. In order to facilitate the process and avoid possible legal challenges, the League proposes to amend the law to require a supermajority vote to amend a city's comprehensive plan. The preceding problem is one of many problem areas in our planning and zoning laws. Recent piecemeal amendments have compounded, not helped, the problem. Therefore, the league recommends that the legislature create a task force to reform the state planning and zoning laws. The task force should be composed of representatives from cities and other local units cf government. LUEET-9. ENERGY CONSERVATION AND PRODUCTION (C) The League supports legislation providing incentives for energy conservation and production in both the public and private sectors. Overall energy conservation strategies involving the public, private, commercial, and industrial sectors are being developed by cities based on the rationale that conservation efforts achieve the greatest energy savings at the lowest cost. The League believes that a city's individual energy conservation strategy can he accomplished if the legislature permits or establishes some of the following measures: 1. Retrofit of Local Government Buildings. Local governments and school districts operate nearly 8,000 buildings in Minnesota. Possible energy savings in this sector range from 16-67 percent of current energy consumption by implementing operation maintenance changes and capital improvements programs. The League recommends support of the use of special levies to local governments for implementation of energy conservation measures, including building energy audits. This special levy could be designed to complement 1983 legislation authorizing 10-year installment payment contracts for capital equipment or services intended to improve the energy efficiency of municipally owned buildings. It would also supplement the existing special purpose capital expenditure levy law available now only to school districts. 2. District Heating. To promote statewide applications of district heating technology and to allow communities to make most efficient use of the State District Heating Bond Program, the League recommends the following: -30-