5.5. SR 04-09-2007
City of EII< River Item Number
REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION 5.5~
Agenda Section I Meeting Date Prepared by
\Y./ orksession i\l)ril 9, 2007 Lori Tollllson, City i\drlllnistrator
Item Description Reviewed by
Potential Retreat/\'lorksession Fralne\vork Questions
Introduction
l"'his itenl is a follo\v-up to an earlier discussion regarding a \vorkshop or retreat to discuss itelTIS
of ll11portance to tlle city and, in particular, tlle cOlmullruty developl11ent departJ.l1ent. TIle
Council asked that a list of questions and issues be brought back so tl1C Council could deterllune
hO\\7 to proceed; dle lis t is attached. The intent at this \vorksession is not to discuss tllose iten1S,
but to deterl1llne \Vllen and ho\v tlle Council \vants to proceed to address theIn.
Discussion
\V c all agree d1at having good planning and development policies and plans in place is crucial to
developing tile city in the best \vay possible. In addition, it is llnportant tllat tllose inte11Jreti.ng
dlcse policies and plans have an understanding of tlle Council's desires for tlle city. \\litll a 1110re
clear understanding of \vhat tlle Council \vants and ho\v it sees tlle city in tlle future, staff call do a
better job of responding to tlle general public. The most unportant result of this understanding,
ho\vever, is tllat staff d1en has tlle tools to \vork \Vitll developers so that tl1e proposals presellted
to the Council take into consideration \vhat tlle Council \vants and, as a result, are closer to tile
Council's \vishes tlle fIrst titne dle Council sees tlle proposal. Staffs goal is to 1111plelnent d1e
vision tlla t dle Council has for dle city.
I1trached is a ll1elno froll1 Conunul"llty Developluent Director Scott Clark \Vitl1 a list of potential
questions and iten1S of discussion for dle Council. I l11et \vid1 tl1e cOl111nllnlty develoPlnent
departll1el1t in tlle initial stages of preparing for tllls Ineeting and kno\v d1at tlley take tlle issues of
future developlnent, ll11plenlcnting existing ordinances and plans, and helping dle Council by
providing excellent professional ad,rice very seriously. "'rhey lmo\v tllat tllls is a very critical t.itne
in OtU' dcveloprnent as \ve conthlue to open up residential developll1cnt to tlle nord1, deterlnine
tl1e future of tlle gravellnining areas, \vork on a plan for redeveloPlnent of do\vnto\vn, plan for
conl111uter rail service, and plan for tlle Gate\vay Business Park/I-I\v.y 10 area develoPlnent to
nanle a fe\v. In order to do tlle best job possible as dley cOntll1ue to \vork on tllcse, input frolll
the Council is very ll11portant; \Vitll0Ut it \ve are responding after tlle fact instead of bei.ng
prepared to respond on dle front end.
I can't stress enough ho\v unportant tlle Council's ,rision is to tile future developtuent of tlle City
and ho\v itnportant it is tllat staff kno\vs tlle Council's desires so tlle)' can use tllat cfuection to
develop tlle city you \vant. As you can see frol11 :tvIr. Clark's list of itelTIS:7 lnal1Y of these questions
are far reaclling and require discussion by tile Council.
s: \ Council \Lori \2007\ Community Dcn:lopmcnt QUl.:stions,doc
Finally, tlle pUlpose of dle discussion at tllls \vorksession is for tile Council to revie\v dIe list of
itcl11S and detern1l11e 11o\v to proceed to address dlelu. Earlier \ve discussed possibilities ranging
fr01TI a \vorksession to an off-site retreat \vitll a facilitator.
Financial Impact
~rhere \vill be no cost if tlus is done in a \vorksession \vithout a facilitator. Tllcre \vill be SOIne
cost if tlle meeting is held off-site or \vitll a facilitator~
Attachments
. Ivlenlo froln COlllinunity Developlnent Director Scott Clark
Action Requested
The COllllCil is asked to set a forlnat (\vorksession, series of \vorkshops, or retreat) and date(s) for
cliscussing tlle itetTIs as stated in tlle l11elTIO, along \Vitll otller developn1cnt related itclns tlle
Councilll1ay \vant to address.
Council Action
l\.fouon by _
Second by _
\Tote
Follow Up
s: \ Council \Lori \ 2.007 \ Community D cn~loplnL:nt Qucstion~.Joc
MEMORANDUM
TO: Lori Johnson, City Administrator
FROM: Scott Clark, Community Development Director
DATE: April 2, 2007
SUBJECT: Retreat Frameworl< Questions
Attached are a series of frameworlt questions that could be used for a Council/Community
Development Department retreat. Our Department is of the opinion that it is critical that
the City pauses, from time to time, to reflect upon our development progress, i.e., what have
we built to date, where are we today, and what issues are in front of us that need to be
addressed.
These framework questions can serve many purposes, including:
1~ Creating an environment where Council and staff/Commissions can have a
common understanding of our development wants and needs.
2.. Enabling staff/Commissions to better support the Council.
3. Enabling staff to more accurately communicate to the public the objectives of
the City..
4~ Assisting in establishing Council/Community Development Department
organizational values and priorities.
5~ Better defming the future provides a greater chance to secure opportunities that
could greatly benefit the community.
6.. Assisting the City in establishing priorities, phasing, etc. to ensure that we can
afford desired future endeavors.
The last question to answer is how could the City use these questions to advance our
community? Community Development staff)s perspective is that these questions
have been constructed to generate a structured discussion.. The result of these
questions, if affirmative, would direct staff to generate a short term/long term worlt
plan to address specific issues~ An example from the questions: If the Council
affirmed Question #A-2, that Highway 10 should be redefined, staff could present a
;rork J;>lan illustrating the following types of solutions, with varying levels of
mtenslty:
(1) Initiate a formal redevelopment planning approach.
(2) Develop a planning process to modify zoning and/or other land use
regulatoty ordinances to achieve desired objectives.
(3) Identify interim modifications to allow future decisions to be more closely
aligned with Council objectives.
Each question has a wide array of "solution possibilities" which would be the next
step after a retreat.
Lastly, our staff views that it is critical to secure a facilitator for these discussions..
All of these questions have the possibility of a wide array of divergent opinions and a
facilitator is critical in order to assist in the non~biased formation of a group
consensus. At the end of this process it is hopeful that what is achieved is a
Council/Community Development framework: that will greatly benefit our
commumty..
If you have any questions on this memo, please contact me accordingly.
S:\Community Development\Scott dark\2007 staff memos\04 02 07 Retre::1t Questions.doc
Potential Retreat/ Work-session Questions
A. IMAGE.. A basic community development principle is that the image of a city
reflects its economic viability and community health. At this point, the City has an
opportunity to confirm and/or reinvent the frame,vorl{ that defines the future
image. Identifying this image is critical for the Community Development
Department, and its commissions, to partner lvith the Council, to ensure that our
collective actions establish our community's highest ideals.
1. Gateway/ Northstar - Is the Council willing to impose design standards on
private property owners and a land use vision which may not be ready for today's
market, with an understanding tllat the market may absorb these uses at a much
slower rate?
2. Higllway 10 corridor - Does tIle Council view Hwy 10 as a gateway to tIle
community and does this gateway reflect the vision the Council Ilas for the
COffitTIunity? If not, does tIle Council desire to dedicate its resources (financial,
time, etc.) to radically redefine tllis corridor?
3, Components - Are tllere components of otller cities that YOll would like to see
incorporated into Ell( River's planning and redevelopment efforts?
4. Commercial Reserve - Does the Council see maintaining a hard-line approacll
against temporary land uses in tIle commercial reserve area as a necessary and
important policy in order to successfully develop this area in tile future?
5. Large scale, intense land uses - Does the Council feel tllat tIle large scale land
uses (Mining, Land Fill, Peaking plant) impact tIle image of tIle community?
Does tIle Council desire staff to take a more in-depth review of these proposals
and tlleir potential impacts to botll sun"ouuding properties and tIle community at
large?
6. Entrances - Do the entrances (Land Fill, Great River Energy, Allina, etc.)
adequately express tIle Council's inlage of the City of Elk River, and if not,
should improvements be made (public and private) to redefine or redirect tllis
image?
7. Fairgrounds - Does tIle Council feel t11at it is advantageous to initiate tIle
planning and pro actively guide the County fairground property?
8. Commercial/ Industrial - Has the Council identified any major marlcet
components tllat are not currently in tIle City (office park, corporate campus,
higller valued mantlfacturing) and, if so, is the City willing to secure property,
and/or protect the property from development of projects inconsistent witll this
vision?
B. REVITALIZATION.. As a community ages, a city must decide lvhat role they
are going to play in this process: lead and anticipate these changes, or to allolv the
private marl{et to guide these changes.
1. Neighborllood Reinvestnlent - Does the Council agree that neighborhoods
create tIle foundation of the community? As tIle City ages, does tIle Council view
it necessary to play a role in supporting our neighborhoods in their efforts to
maintain tllemselves ill relation to safety, reinvestment, and overall sustainability?
2. Marginalized Uses - Does the City feel that marginalized or inconsistent uses
11ave an impact on the community at large in addition to tlleir understood impacts
on the immediate area? Does the Council agree that the sum total of every
decision (code enforcement, land lise, signage, variances, etc~), establishes tIle
ultimate inlage for our community? If yes, what should be the City's role to
ensure that our collective actions move us toward our desired image?
c. ENVIRONMENT - Environmental character is unique to our community and
\ve have an opportunity to fully protect, and/or enhance these features. Every
action the City takes affects these environmental features in some fashion and it is
critical that the City establishes for itself the level of importance of the environment.
1. What level of importance does the Council place on preserving and/ or
enllancing tIle natural environment? In balancing the interaction betvveen tIle
environment and private marlcet demands, how aggressive should the City be in
it's role as a steward of the environment in the face of this development pressure?
D. ENFORCEMENT - As a city ages, the necessity of code enforcement becomes
more identifiable. Issues that surround this question include overall property
maintenance and value, building and personal safety & the community image this
reflects.
1. Does tIle City COllilCil feel tllat as its' cOl1unercial, residential, and retail
neighborlloods age, increased code enforcement (property and building inventory)
becomes botll necessary and unavoidable? Assuming that the level of
enforcement will need to increase, and that a highly aggressive level of
enforcement is neither desired nor effective, does the Council agree that the City
s}lottld start a gradual level of enforcement and programs to prevent the need for
drastic enforcement efforts at a future date?
E. RELATIONSHIPS - Traditionally, the function of a city's boards and
commissions is to serve a variety of functions including development revie\v, idea
generation, resident interaction and participation, and partnering ,vith the City
Council to achieve the community's overall vision.
S:\Conlmunity Dcvclopmcn~Scott Clark\2007 staff mcmos\04 02 07 Relreat Questions.doc
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1. Does tIle City Council agree that its relationships to boards and commission
are critical and beneficial to the city's overall decision making process? In wllat
way can the City's commissions and boards better serve tIle City Council in their
decision making process?
2. Does the Council agree wit11 the established core mission statements of eacll of
the commissions, and if not, wllat should be changed?
F. EXPECTATIONS- In order to effectively communicate a city's objectives, it is
imperative that the Council and staff have an equal understanding of our desired
outcomes. It is critical that the Council and staff have the same understanding in
order to better advise property o\vners, applicants, and the general public to,vard
these expectations.
1. Does the Council agree with tIle perception tllat different development
standards and expectations apply to differel1t areas of the con1mtlnity (Hwy 10,
Downtown, Hwy 169)?
2~ How can tIle staff better understand and support the Council's expectation for
the different areas of the community?
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