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APA Minnesota Legislative Committee
American Planning Association, National ConferenceNational Delegate Assembly on Surface TransportationTransportation for America APA MN - Surface Transportation Guide (draft for comments)
Legislative Updates (FINAL, as of 6/13/2010) Excel file PDF file
As the APA Minnesota and MACPZA continue to work together on reforming Minnesota’s planning and zoning enabling statutes, measures aimed at redesigning government processes within the state are moving forward at the State Capitol on separate tracks. One track is using the work of the Legislative Audit Commission to look at environmental permitting and review processes, renewable energy, and transportation services. Another track through new legislation will create a commission to review and recommend improving government collaboration by reviewing existing laws that impede intergovernmental collaboration and exploring opportunities to improve service delivery and sharing through the use of new technologies and designing models for new powers.Legislative Audit Commission Directs Legislative Auditor to Evaluate State Environmental Review Processes and PermittingThe Minnesota Legislative Audit Commission (LAC) chose the state’s environmental review and permitting system as one of three new program evaluations slated for study by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA). The LAC is a bi-partisan commission, comprised of six 6 members from the House of Representatives and six members from the Senate, and are equally divided between the majority and minority parties. Membership is governed by Minnesota Statutes. The commission appoints the Legislative Auditor and selects topics for the Program Evaluation Division to review. It also periodically holds hearings to review audit and evaluation reports. The commission chair rotates every two years between the House and the Senate. The commission solicited topics in February and surveyed legislators in March about theses topics. The LAC's topics subcommittee recommended the three selected topics to the full LAC. The schedule for conducting the evaluation will be determined. The OLA is completing work on three 2009 program evaluations. The 2009 program evaluations are:
The issues the environmental program evaluation may include are: How do environmental permit processes and related environmental reviews differ across various federal, state, and local government entities? What are the key elements in the environmental permitting and review processes and how long do they take? To what extent do state agencies coordinate permitting and review processes with one another and with other units of government that issue environmental permits? Could changes to permitting or review processes improve efficiency while maintaining appropriate levels of environmental protection? How do environmental permitting processes vary in neighboring states? Can Minnesota draw lessons from approaches used elsewhere? The background paper summarizing the work is available online at: http://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/announce/envirper.pdf Additional information about the LAC is located online at: http://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/lac.htm Online information about OLA is at: http://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/bkgd.htm Bill Creates Collaborative Governance Council A council to increase collaboration between all levels of government would be created under a bills approved through committees in the Minnesota House and Senate. The legislation creates a 12-member “Collaborative Governance Council’ will be required to:
Misc Documents 2010 Approved Work PlanAPA Minnesota Policy PlatformEnabling Law Reform - Purpose and Need
Come and join the Legislative Committee at their next meeting! See the above agenda or call for more details.
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