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Orono City Council <br /> Committee of the Whole <br /> January 12, 2010, 6:30 p.m. <br /> Orono City Council Chambers <br /> Present: Mayor Jim White, Council Members Cynthia Bremer, Doug Franchot and Lili McMillan; <br /> Assistant City Administrator for Long-Term Strategy Mike Gaffron, Finance Director Ron <br /> Olson, City Engineer Tom Kellogg and City Clerk Lin Vee <br /> 1. Website Redevelopment Update <br /> • Rachel Dodge presented the design that the IT Committee selected for the website, noting that <br /> both Council ideas and staff recommendations were incorporated as much as possible. <br /> o City Hall and Casco Point pictures were added and the logo for GovOffice was removed. <br /> o The Casco Point background picture is unique to Orono. The background colors match the <br /> pictures and buttons. <br /> 0 8 sets of banner pictures were also presented. <br /> • Staff has been working on navigation tabs, which will include resident and contractor sections at <br /> the top of the web pages. <br /> • Council expressed positive feedback with the results of the final design. <br /> 2. Comp Plan Discussion <br /> • Steve Grittman led a PowerPoint presentation regarding the Comp Plan Update process, which <br /> included the following: <br /> o Objectives/goals of Council for completing the Comp Plan <br /> o Preliminary options to achieve goals <br /> o Likelihood of success of goals <br /> o Other issues relevant to Council concerns <br /> • Goals <br /> a. Rural Area—continue development per traditional 2 and S acre zoning. Orono is placed into <br /> two classes: <br /> 1. Developing—everything in MUSA regardless of how zoning is defined <br /> 2. Diversified Rural—everything outside MUSA regardless of how zoning is defined <br /> Options to achieve traditional development: <br /> ■ Redesignate areas to Rural Residential, potentially at the time Met Council does <br /> updates to the System Statement and their maps. <br /> ■ Obtain waiver from rules. The City would need to have something to "trade" or play <br /> on the "uniqueness" angle (i.e. historical development pattern); other communities <br /> have used this strategy. <br /> ■ Wait out Met Council policy. <br /> b. Exempt Orono from Urban Reserve requirement of 1 unit per 10 acres for non-MUSA areas. <br /> This is a very important policy for Met Council. <br /> Options to achieve: <br /> ■ Redesignate to Rural Residential <br /> ■ Waiver by Met Council action <br /> ■ Note—Met Council has used a 1,000 acre/500,000 gpd sewer threshold as being a <br /> reasonable estimate of feasibility for sewer extension (threshold to build <br /> interceptor). Some areas won't ever meet feasibility to work for 1 unit/10 acres and <br /> could never become Urban Reserve. <br /> ■ McMillan asked about corporate boundaries and how sewer extensions might <br /> work. Grittman commented that this is something to consider while moving <br /> forward with the update. <br /> Page 1 of 4 <br />