Title
Amending Chapters 61, 63, and 69 of the Saint Paul Legislative Code pertaining to Parkland Dedication.
Body
WHEREAS, MN Stat. § 462.358, Subd. 2b, Dedication, states that municipal subdivision "regulations may require that a reasonable portion… of any proposed subdivision be dedicated to the public or preserved for public use as streets, roads, sewers,…storm water drainage and holding areas ponds,… parks, recreation facilities,…playgrounds, trails, wetlands, or open space" provided that "the municipality must reasonably determine that it will need to acquire that portion of land for the purposes stated in this subdivision as a result of approval of the subdivision;" and
WHEREAS, in 2011, the Planning Commission initiated a zoning study to consider the following amendments to parkland dedication requirements originally adopted by the City Council on March 28, 2007:
1. An amendment to § 69.511 to base the amount of required parkland dedication at the time of platting just on the total acreage of new lots being created for new residential, commercial, or industrial development that would create a need for additional parkland, and not on lots for which the use would be unchanged or for something that would not create a need for additional parkland, bringing the text of this code requirement into greater conformance with state and federal law, consistent with City Council variance decisions; and
2. Amendments to decouple the parkland dedication requirement at the time of building permits from parking, and replace it with different measures of density and intensity of use that are always known, easy to track, and would result in a roughly similar amount of parkland dedication so that even if a development has no parking there would still be a parkland dedication requirement, and so that the requirement is proportionate to the need for parkland created by the development as required by state law; and
WHEREAS, in 2013, the state legislature enacted le...
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