Planning Commission Meeting Date: February 15, 2024
To: Members of the Planning Commission
From: Jake Reilly, Community Development Director
Mikayla Schmidt, City Planner
Title
Consider Resolution Adopting an Interim Ordinance Limiting Development in the Northwest Area.
Body
Action Requested:
Consider and discuss a draft resolution recommending an interim ordinance enacting a moratorium on new development applications in the 530 acres of land known as the Northwest Area.
If desired, forward the resolution and related draft ordinance to the City Council for its consideration and for that body to hold a public hearing.
Summary Report:
Under Minnesota law (Minn.Stat. ?462.355 Subd. 4), a city may adopt an interim ordinance, often called a moratorium, to protect the planning process. Such an ordinance may, "regulate, restrict, or prohibit any use, development, or subdivision within the jurisdiction," if certain conditions are met. Those conditions include if the municipality is conducting studies (or has authorized a study), has scheduled a public hearing to consider adopting or amending a Comprehensive Plan or official controls, or if the area includes land for which plans and/or controls have not yet been adopted.
In the fall of 2023, the Northfield City Council adopted an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) (Attachment 3 - link to website) for an area of approximately 787 undeveloped acres (530 acres in the city limits and the remainder in Greenvale Township) northwest of downtown and west of the Northfield Hospital complex. The AUAR is a unique-to-Minnesota environmental review process intended to evaluate cumulative impacts under multiple development scenarios, including the existing scenario described in the 2008 Comprehensive Plan, and consider mitigation strategies. By frontloading environmental review in this way, the AUAR may serve as a development incentive. However, Northfield is now updating its Comprehensive Plan and will revise offici...
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