Comprehensive plan updates due in six months

Council approves guidelines for extensions to deadline

The clock is ticking down to a Dec. 31 deadline. That’s when government jurisdictions in the seven-county metro area are required by state law to submit their latest comprehensive plan updates to the Metropolitan Council.

Communities are required to submit their comprehensive plan updates to the Council by Dec. 31, 2008..

The clock started with Census 2000. Next, the Council adopted the 2030 Regional Development Framework, including new regional growth forecasts, and then updated the system plans for transportation and aviation, water resources and regional parks. In 2005, the Council issued customized system statements to each community in the seven-county metro area.

Three years have since passed and the deadline approaches. While the majority of communities have indicated they will submit their plans by Dec. 31, there will be some exceptions, according to Guy Peterson, director of the Council’s Community Development Division.

The Metropolitan Land Planning Act gives the Council authority to set procedures for granting extensions to the deadline and in June, the Council did just that. Highlights include:

Staff may administratively grant an extension to May 29, 2009, if a community requests it and submits necessary documentation.
Communities identifying conflicts in forecasts or obstacles to plan completion may be asked to meet with staff to resolve them.
If an update cannot be submitted by May 29, 2009, with the mandatory six-month adjacent community review complete, an extension of the submittal date will require action by the Council’s governing body.
After Dec. 31, a community should not submit comprehensive plan amendments until the Council has acted on the community’s 2008 plan update.

The Council’s Community Development Committee made some changes to the guidelines in response to concerns raised by Louis Jambois, executive director of Metro Cities. One change was to make the deadline extension one month longer.

“No question about it, we would like each jurisdiction to submit its plan on time,” said Council Chair Peter Bell. “But we also recognize that some communities may encounter obstacles that require an extension. We think we’ve come up with appropriate guidelines to deal with those exceptions.”