Title
Preserving the status quo and protecting the City's planning process pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 462.355, Subd. 4 pending the adoption of the Great River Passage amendment to the City's Comprehensive Plan, for that area of the City commonly known as the Island Station Power Plant.
Body
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAINT PAUL DOES HEREBY ORDAIN:
Section 1.
Council's statement of findings and legislative intent: The Council of the City of Saint Paul finds that the City's planning commission is, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 462.355, Subd. 2, presently in the process of updating the Parks and Recreation Chapter of the City's Comprehensive Plan through the potential adoption of the proposed Great River Passage Master Plan ("Master Plan" or "Plan") whose purpose, when adopted, will be to provide direction for future land uses and development along the 17-mile stretch of the Mississippi River within the City's boundaries.
The Council finds that work on the Master Plan began in 2010 and although work on the Plan is nearing completion, the Plan is now in draft form but has yet to be reviewed and finalized by the planning commission so that the commission may recommend to the City Council and the Mayor that the Plan be approved and formally adopted as an amendment to the City's Comprehensive Plan.
The Council is informed that the draft Master Plan states specific goals and objectives for four separately defined subareas or "reaches" of the Mississippi River as it passes through the City including that reach described in the Plan as the "Valley" which extends from "the Fort Road Bridge to Downtown." The Council is further informed that the draft Master Plan recommends "creating gathering places" within the Valley's reach and that the Plan recommends and notes that gathering places can be created by "repurposing existing iconic places." As a specific objective to that end, the Plan also states "as part of a public-private partnership, transform the vacant Island ...
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