3(b) Consideration of Comprehensive Plan

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HOUSING INTENT Create a housing approach that accommodates people in all stages of the life cycle, provides quality housing for people and families at all income levels, builds neighborhoods that attract investment and connects those neighborhoods to key destinations within the community. TRANSITIONING NEIGHBORHOODS To respond to the current development pattern and the spatial mismatch that has been created between the areas of greatest infrastructure investment and housing values,the City needs to adopt a different approach within the urban,rural and transition neighborhoods. In urban neighborhoods,an approach that attracts more investment,and a higher-value investment,is critical to the long-term financial and social health of the City.Street standards need to be adjusted to ensure that a complex, neighborhood setting is created with good pedestrian connectivity in a safe, comfortable environment. A new set of development codes are needed to ensure that housing investments address the public realm in a way that adds value to adjacent properties. When each new structure adds value to the overall neighborhood, the task of attracting new investment will become much easier. In rural areas, where public investments are less but still exceed the tax revenues generated from adjacent properties (except for shoreline properties, which generally produce more revenue than they require in adjacent infrastructure maintenance), the City needs to work to limit long-term liabilities. This will require adjusting road standards back to a more "rustic" design. The City should not assume the maintenance liability on new roads and, for places with huge disparities in public cost/benefit, should look at ways to privatize those segments. The Pequot Lakes Subdivision Ordinance requires a cost/bene�t analysis be prepared to analyze ongoing costs to the City to provide services and maintenance to the development. Transition areas must be managed using either the urban or the rural approach, but never a middle zone between the two. A mid-point will ensure that traditional neighborhoods cannot expand while the resulting development will be constructed at densities that do not provide for recovery of the long-term maintenance costs. To facilitate expansion of urban neighborhoods into the transition area, the City may consider developing a plan for extension of a neighborhood pattern. POLICIES The following policies are proposed to guide future housing decisions in Pequot Lakes: Build neighborhoods that are interconnected to the rest of the community and serve to enhance the public realm.Traditional approaches to zoning are inflexible,separating different styles of housing from each other and disconnecting neighborhoods in a way that is destructive to the character of the neighborhood. Placing large apartment buildings next to smaller-sized housing units detracts from each structure. The City's approach must be to provide many housing options — single-family, duplex, multi-family, studio apartment and more — but in a form that complements the existing character of the neighborhood. 9 � Page