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4A.08 Community-based planning goals.

The goals of community-based planning are:

(1) Citizen participation. To develop a community-based planning process with broad citizen participation in order to build local capacity to plan for sustainable development and to benefit from the insights, knowledge, and support of local residents. The process must include at least one citizen from each affected unit of local government;

(2) Cooperation. To promote cooperation among communities to work towards the most efficient, planned, and cost-effective delivery of government services by, among other means, facilitating cooperative agreements among adjacent communities and to coordinate planning to ensure compatibility of one community's development with development of neighboring communities;

(3) Economic development. To create sustainable economic development strategies and provide economic opportunities throughout the state that will achieve a balanced distribution of growth statewide;

(4) Conservation. To protect, preserve, and enhance the state's resources, including agricultural land, forests, surface water and groundwater, recreation and open space, scenic areas, and significant historic and archaeological sites;

(5) Livable community design. To strengthen communities by following the principles of livable community design in development and redevelopment, including integration of all income and age groups, mixed land uses and compact development, affordable and life-cycle housing, green spaces, access to public transit, bicycle and pedestrian ways, and enhanced aesthetics and beauty in public spaces;

(6) Housing. To provide and preserve an adequate supply of affordable and life-cycle housing throughout the state;

(7) Transportation. To focus on the movement of people and goods, rather than on the movement of automobiles, in transportation planning, and to maximize the efficient use of the transportation infrastructure by increasing the availability and use of appropriate public transit throughout the state through land-use planning and design that makes public transit economically viable and desirable;

(8) Land-use planning. To establish a community-based framework as a basis for all decisions and actions related to land use;

(9) Public investments. To account for the full environmental, social, and economic costs of new development, including infrastructure costs such as transportation, sewers and wastewater treatment, water, schools, recreation, and open space, and plan the funding mechanisms necessary to cover the costs of the infrastructure;

(10) Public education. To support research and public education on a community's and the state's finite capacity to accommodate growth, and the need for planning and resource management that will sustain growth; and

(11) Sustainable development. To provide a better quality of life for all residents while maintaining nature's ability to function over time by minimizing waste, preventing pollution, promoting efficiency, and developing local resources to revitalize the local economy.

HIST: 1997 c 202 art 4 s 1

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes