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Legislative Committee
members:
Friday, March 7th MnAPA Brown Bag Lunch Preceding Legislative Committee Meeting Friday, April 11th
11:30 – 12:00 Brown Bag lunch 12:00 – 1:00 Update on the City/Township Annexation Task Force – Speakers - Patti Garland, City representative on the Task Force; and Kent Sulem, Minnesota Association of TownshipsHouse File 3357 relates to the city/township annexation task force and annexation statute technical corrections. Take a look at it on the Legislature's website http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legis.asp MnAPA Legislative Committee Meeting Third meeting of 2008
Friday, April 11th
Upcoming meeting
date – Friday, May 9, 1:30-3:30 MnAPA Legislative Committee Meeting
Second meeting of 2008 Attendees: Andrew Mack, Mark Ostgarden, Brad Scheib, Matt Brown, Paul Mogush, Suzanne Rhees, John Baker, John Shepard (via phone)
Agenda: Moved
to approve agenda with flexibility, since several presenters could not
attend – approved. Guest speakers – Do we want to try and invite them for another session? A suggestion was made for a Brown Bag lunch to discuss issues at the legislature? The committee agreed to try for a lunch meeting on April 11, the date of the next meeting. May want to invite someone from LMC or EDAM (economic development). Would also like to schedule a Planners Day on the Hill for next year – at LMC offices or elsewhere Legislative Updates: Committee deadline is 3/14 or 3/19 (companion bill must be introduced into the opposite body to meet deadline) – this session is mainly a budget/bonding year Andrew has reviewed all introduced bills and grouped them by category. The intent is to assign areas of interest for tracking by Committee members. Tracking reports should then be sent by e-mail to Committee – summarize briefly and identify any movement, activities, relevance – then discuss what kind of action is needed if any. Categories and volunteer “trackers” are: 1. Sesquicentennial bills – funding for cities, events, etc. 2. Sewer improvements – mainly for funding wastewater treatment plants. This is an issue related to land use, given the number of bills proposed – almost 30 so far. Are there any environmental issues? EPA lawsuits? Andrew will track these, and try to separate out the funding bills from the policy ones. 3. Trails – Mark. 4. Economic Development – Matt 5. Transportation & Transit – Paul (emphasis on transit) 6. Water resources, environmental (still need a volunteer) 7. Land use and zoning – John Baker 8. Annexation – Dannette (volunteered earlier) and Suzanne 9. Ag issues – Brad, with Bob Patton (emphasis on Green Acres, metro issues), and John Shepard (emphasis on rural issues) Mark Ostgarden noted one recently introduced bill would cap property taxes for seniors J. Baker – One “hostile” bill similar to that introduced last year would restrict pending moratoria by requiring notification, hearings, etc. – would allow applicants to “race to city hall” prior to a moratorium. Scheduled for Monday, Vickerman is sponsor, # 1254. May be framed as property rights issue. Have already limited time frames of moratoria. Linked to 60-day rule; would also affect subdivision regs. by striking some language on incomplete submittals, allowing incomplete submittals to be considered valid. Committee identified this as a great example of bill all planners should be aware of. Discussed sending e-mail blast to membership asking them to review file and contact legislators if concerned. (John Shepard lives in Vickerman’s district, so appropriate to contact him). Brad – if it passes committee, then MnAPA should take a position. John Baker will monitor and report back. Annexation Study – Andrew reviewed the bill summary – mainly a technical update, nothing major. Task Force authorization is being extended another year, so that additional meetings can be held. Should chapter take a position? Suzanne and Danette volunteered to monitor and report on it. MnAPA should contact Patti Gartland, who is a City representative on the Task Force. Andrew will contact Kent Sulem with Township association and Rep. Mark Olson from Sherburne County.
Land Use & Zoning – John B. Several minor initiatives are coming up, including one that would give counties the interim use powers that cities have – good idea. Report from Chapter Board Liaison (Brad) – See his memo of 3/6/08, which summarizes the earlier survey results and recommends a follow-up survey. Brad can’t make next Board meeting; Andrew will attend; others encouraged to show up.
Brad will send out memo by Monday. Consensus of the Committee is to support his recommendations. Will frame more detailed survey questions at next meeting. The Committee should make a report to the Board on options for “Tier III” at state conference, in order to get it into the 2009 budget when Board adopts it. Discussion on Sign Issues (John Baker) – John has created draft legislation with the purpose of reversing some of the excesses of the recent nonconforming use legislation. FHWA legislation requires non-replacement of billboards destroyed by natural disasters. This proposal uses the flood control “model” from the law (done in order to preserve Fed Flood Insurance). However, this may not be the best time to bring this forward, because billboard companies are not pushing the issue. The current battleground is digital billboards – trying to make them more attractive with public service announcements, alliances with political parties. Therefore, this might be a better test case for next year.
Andrew – Urges members to check legislative websites for items to track in the broad categories mentioned above. Meeting adjourned 3:50 pm
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Minnesota Chapter American Planning Association |
