The city’s Comprehensive Plan has been in the hands of the Austin Planning Commission for months, and it was informally approved by the council two weeks ago.

Sunday, July 09, 2000

The city’s Comprehensive Plan has been in the hands of the Austin Planning Commission for months, and it was informally approved by the council two weeks ago. Now it’s the turn of the public to peruse the plan. Community Development Administrator Craig Hoium has set a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. He’s hoping the Council Chambers – on the lower level of the Municipal Building at 500 Fourth Ave. NE – will be packed.

"We had a similar meeting when we started this whole process more than a year ago, but that was to get the input of the citizens as to what direction they wanted to see the community headed," Hoium said. "The purpose of this meeting is more to show the citizens what we did, and get their approval. If it seems like people approve, the Planning Commission will probably vote to recommend the plans adoption by the council. If they don’t, we’ll have to make some changes."

It’s been 12 years since the city adopted its last Comprehensive Plan, in the aftermath of the Hormel strike, and Hoium said it’s high time a new one went into effect.

"A lot of things have changed since then," he said.

Thus, the plan itself should reflect those changes and project a future direction for the community. However, a Comprehensive Plan is not a rigid set of rules by which Austin must make its growth decisions over the next 10 to 20 years. Rather, it is a framework intended to guide development. When the Planning Commission or the City Council consider an annexation, or a rezoning, development plans and other activities in a growing community, the Comprehensive Plan as well as City codes and ordinances must be a part of that decision making process.

Commercial development along Fourth Street NW is a good example of the influence of the Comprehensive Plan. When an auto parts store wanted to build on the old Baudler property opposite Burger King last year, one of the reasons the Planning Commission and council could deny that rezoning was the statement in the Comprehensive Plan that Austin should discourage further development along that arterial street.

"All the planning we do in the future basically comes out of that plan," Planning Commission member Rich Bergstrom said. "So if people have any concerns about the Comprehensive Plan, they pretty much have to voice them now or it will be too late."

There are several things in the plan that may spark some controversy, like the zoning of the farmland west of the J.C. Hormel Nature Center for single family homes or the zoning of nearly everything northwest of the Cook Farm for industrial/commercial.

The plan itself is the result of nearly two years of work that involved eight different focus group meetings, a mass mailing of community surveys and many, many hours of work by the Austin Planning Commission, Hoium, and consultant Jeff Mundt of Yaggy Colby.

That doesn’t mean every person that’s seen the plan agrees with every aspect of it; there are a lot of compromises in the plan.

"Personally, I would like to see some residential development north of Austin to make the commercial area by the mall and Target more centralized," Bergstrom said. "And I think there are better places to build houses than across the street from the nature center. But those are just my personal opinions, not the position of the planning commission."

Hoium insists that the public meeting is not just a gesture.

"It’s not just a formality," Hoium said. "We’ve tried to keep the public involved all along and that is still what we’re after. If it were a formality, I wouldn’t be inviting the public or people from the county board, Apex Austin and township board members."

"I would hope the public could have an effect," Bergstrom said. "If there are enough people there in opposition and they have good reasons, then we’d better listen."