Open public hearing, take testimony on the 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update and close the public hearing.  No official action is requested at this time.

All cities and counties within the seven-county Twin Cities Metropolitan Region are required to update their comprehensive plan every ten years.  As required by the Minnesota Metropolitan Land Planning Act, each local jurisdiction's plan must fit within the regional goals set forth by the Metropolitan Council. The Council has established their regional goals in Thrive 2040, which is the vision for the region over the next 30 years. Thrive MSP 2040 sets the policy foundations for systems and policy plans developed by the Council, which include transportation, water resources, regional parks, and housing policy plans.

Upon completion of these policy plans, the Council prepares and distributes a system statement to each community and county in the region.  This document addresses the implications of the metropolitan systems plans for each community in the region and are intended to help in the preparation or update of their comprehensive plan.  Included in the statement is information specific to each community, which in our case included:

• Our City's designation as "Suburban", which are communities that experienced growth and expansion in the 1980s and early 1990s that typically have auto-oriented development patterns at lower densities.  Suburban communities are expected to plan for forecasted population and household growth at average densities of at least 5 units per acre for new development and redevelopment.  They are also expected to identify opportunities for more intensive development near regional transit investments.
• Forecasted population, households, and employment through 2040, which the Council has determined to be:

• Guidance on appropriate densities to ensure that regional services and infrastructure can be provided in an efficient manner.
• The City's affordable need allocation, which is 468 new units affordable to households earning up to 80% of area median income (AMI).  Of these units 221 should be affordable to households earning at or below 30% of AMI, 118 affordable to households earning 31% to 50% of AMI, and 129 affordable to households earning 51% to 80% of AMI.

Each plan is required to contain a land use, transportation, water resources (water supply, water quality, and wastewater), parks and trails, and housing chapter and may contain an economic chapter.  Drafts of the required chapters have been completed and are ready for review and consideration by the Planning Commission at the June 6, public hearing. 

As was the case with the 2030 Comprehensive Plan Update, a draft economic chapter has been completed, which was reviewed by the City's Economic Development Authority at their May 24, meeting. 

As previously noted, the City is required to update the Comprehensive Plan every ten years, which looks out 20 years.  The primary focus of the 2040 Plan Update has been on updating facts and figures as the majority of the goals and policies set forth in the 2030 Plan remain relevant.  The SRF Consulting Group was retained to be the lead consultant and has be responsible for the preparation of the required Land Use, Housing, and Transportation chapters; as well as Vision, and Community Context chapters.  Separate consultants were retained to prepare the Water Resources and Parks and Active Living chapters.

The Planning Commission, acting as the steering committee for the project, met with the consultants on several occasions in 2017-18 to review and provide input on the Plan's chapters. Also, during the past year the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee discussed the Parks and Active Living chapter of the Plan at their meetings, and formal presentations of the chapter were given to the Committee by staff and Confluence, the consultant retained by the City to draft the chapter.

The consultant also attended the 2017 Home and Garden Expo, conducted an online survey, and met with several stakeholders such as DARTS, School District 196, Dakota County Community Development Agency, Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Dakota County Transportation Division, and the Sustainability Alliance. 

City staff attended this year's Home and Garden Expo and had Comp Plan information available for review by the attendees.  And finally, two open houses were held on April 30 and May 7 at the City Council chambers where the public had an opportunity to review  and discuss with staff the proposed update. 

On May 24, 2018, Staff presented a draft Economic Development chapter to the City's Economic Development Authority and the City Council authorized the distribution of the draft plan to adjacent cities, Dakota County, school districts and state agencies for their review.  These affected jurisdictions have up to six months to review and comment on the City's Plan.

Staff will make the appropriate changes from the comments received from the those jurisdictions and public and submit the final Plan to the Metropolitan Council by December 31, 2018.