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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
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Success at meeting land use goals aired CROW WING COUNTY BOARD Senior Reporter How is Crow Wing County doing when it comes to meeting goals laid out in its comprehensive plan?
That was one of the questions Tuesday at the Crow Wing County Board meeting during a planning and zoning annual report presentation.
Bonnie Finnerty, county planner, provided an overview of 2006. Commissioner Paul Thiede asked Finnerty if the comprehensive plan, which acts as a guide as the county grows, and county ordinances were doing what people expected.
In terms of goals to preserve the rural character or open space, Finnerty said: "I'm not sure we accomplished that."
By the numbers
In 2006, Crow Wing County had:
35 - major subdivisions approved.
140 - applications to rezone property that created 412 lots and rezoned 2,035 acres.
227 - housing units added per year based on the last 30 years.
1,421 - construction permits issued.
70,573 - approximate number of lots available based on current zoning classifications.
526,474 - acres within the county's jurisdiction.
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She said a next step of creating a countywide land use map was never completed; funds were not available to hire a consultant. Thiede questioned the need to hire a consultant and asked it those duties couldn't be handled in house.
The county does have land use maps developed by individual townships. Chairman John Ferrari said a complication arises when neighboring townships want different things. Commissioner Dewey Tautges said his biggest argument is that township plans did not reflect the county's comprehensive plan.
Tautges said he agreed with Thiede that some things should be changed, but he didn't elaborate on the areas of concern.
Finnerty proposed sitting down with a facilitator to discuss the issues and the county's direction, whether that meant taking part in ongoing regional planning or updating the comprehensive plan. The Brainerd Lakes Area Chambers of Commerce initiated a regional planning process to manage growth and invited local units of government to take part. Thiede said he was concerned about the regional effort becoming the driving force and perhaps clouding the picture.
"All they are doing is gathering information and that can't hurt us," Finnerty said, adding that capitalizing on people's energy to plan for the future wasn't bad.
The county received nearly 500 planning and zoning complaints in 2006 and reported resolving 200 of them. But there is not a process in place to eliminate the frivolous complaints from real ones.
The vast majority of complaints were in the shoreland zone, within 1,000 feet of a lake or 300 feet of a river or stream. About 44 percent of the permits the county issued were within the shoreland zone.
Finnerty said the department could track the complaints in more detail for 2007.
The county may need to consider a downward trend in revenue as the numbers of permits in most categories have declined in recent years with a notable exception for miscellaneous structure permits - such as gazebos and car ports.
The county administers planning and zoning regulations in 29 townships. Crow Wing Township administers it own as of this year. Eighteen cities in the county also administer their own.
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