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Albert Lea officially has new comp plan
City Council OKs document Monday
Published Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The Albert Lea City Council unanimously approved the city’s new comprehensive plan Monday after almost zero public response during the hearing before the vote.
The action caps an 18-month process of formulating the plan — which included hiring a consultant, forming a steering committee, gathering community input and reviewing drafts.
The plan that passed Monday was the third draft. It is about 100 pages long.
Though some have questioned certain parts of the document or said that the plan was too rushed, only one person spoke out during the public portion in opposition of it.
Albert Lea Economic Development Agency Executive Director Dan Dorman, who has voiced much vocal opposition to the plan in recent meetings, was not in attendance.
First Ward Councilor Vern Rasmussen said the plan is one that has been brought forth by the community. The city has gone to great efforts to get input from everyone in Albert Lea.
The last comprehensive plan — which covers several aspects of the community including housing and the downtown to traffic flows and parks and recreation — was completed in the 1970s.
Rasmussen said he’s been involved intimately with the process of formulating the plan during the last 18 months, and he knows that many ideas in it have been brought up and discussed.
“This is a good choice for us to move ahead with,” Rasmussen said.
Community Development Director Bob Graham said the process of forming a new comprehensive plan started seven years ago with the Albert Lea Listens process that involved more than 600 residents. Another 300 people were involved with the Minnesota Design Team, and 400 people have been involved in the actual comprehensive plan meetings and presentations to service organizations.
A 34-member steering committee was formed to help guide the process, and several public meetings were held. The steering committee met 11 times.
In June, the first draft of the plan was completed, and there was a three-month comment period for the steering committee and the community, Graham said.
The second draft was submitted in October based on the comments received.
That draft was open for review again and additional editorial changes were made, resulting in the third draft of the document.
Graham said during the meeting that he thinks the adoption of the comprehensive plan would show the community that the council has confidence in the future.
He said the comprehensive plan guides the community in the policy of change. It’s essential for applications of grants and in city bonding reviews and ratings.
Many things relating to development and redevelopment in the community cannot take place without an adopted comprehensive plan, he said.
It represents the vision of the greater community, he said.
The only comment from members of the public came from Harold Kamrath, who asked how much it cost the city taxpayers to hire the consultant for the plan.
Graham said the price tag was $108,000.
A condensed version of the plan will be available for people to view in the near future. It will be representative of the plan and will include several graphics, Graham said.
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Comments
Posted by allake (anonymous) on December 22, 2008 at 11:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I wonder how many of them read it or could pass a simple test on it? 2 of them at best.
Posted by wakemaker (anonymous) on December 22, 2008 at 11:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
allake-The City must be grateful to have a jerk like you posting nonsense on the AL Trib website. Do something positive and get involved instead of bitching behind your computer. Odds are 1-100 that you've even read 1 page.
Posted by allake (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 12:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Wakemaker,
We only more grateful you left. I have read about 2/3 of it, but not all of it. You? But then the final version was not on-line last time I checked. So much for input from the public.
Posted by Intheknow (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 6:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The comprehensive plan is irrelevant - obsolete even - given the size of the budget cuts. The $400,000 cut is just the beginning. Now perhaps the city manager will have to learn financial management 1O1. Of course we will all pay for her incompetence.
Posted by alea (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Intheknow - Unnecessary comment about the City Manager's competence at financial planning. What kind of $$$ planning have you done at that level?
The comp plan is not irrelevant nor obsolete. The $400k cut will hurt, but has no relevance to the comp plan. You are wrong again. It is a document that will guide future direction for our city into the future.
Posted by RobertHoffmanRealtor (Robert Hoffman) on December 23, 2008 at 1:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Its simple; its required of Albert Lea to have a Comp Plan in place. Our old 30 year Comp Plan was over 30 something years old and THAT Comp Plan was now "irrelevant and obsolete." We now have a very relevant and complete 20 year Comp Plan in place, again as required, that can be reviewed and amended as much as necessary or when it is required to fit the needs of the community. NO, its not "done," there is no finish line in City Planning but it is completed and after a lot of work-by very many people, we now have a current, up to date, relevant 20 Year Comp Plan. Like it or not, or if you were EVER THERE TO HELP OR NOT, it’s real! Its there! Support it! If there are changes that you see need to be made, discuss them and bring them up (not here! no decisions are made on a chat board) it wasn’t chiseled in stone-it’s a fluid rework able document.
Good work by those who showed up and are looking forward to a positive, productive future for Albert Lea fueled by Community Involvement!
Posted by Truth (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 1:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This plan is not worth the paper it is written on nor will it make a bit of difference. The city will do what they want even if it is not what the people want or if it dosen't follow the plan. Government by the people for the people is dead in Albert Lea and in America. That is my 2 cents... Wish we had all that money and time back, What a waste of resources.
Posted by Truth (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 1:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is it required? How on earth did we ever make it before we required plans. Sounds like Stalin's 5 year plans and we all know how well that worked.
Why should we support it? Before I drink the kool-aid I would at least like to know why.....
Posted by allake (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 4:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Alea,
It may well guide our future. That does not excuse the last minute slam it through. Let's all be honest, they did not think Erdman would lose, and when he did it got pushed forward without much review of the final document.
But you are deflecting again. The City manger is open to being questioned about financial mismanagement.
Posted by Truth (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 5:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The city has been poorly run for years. We can only hope that it will change with the new blood. If not we need to vote them out as well. It will be a short honeymoon for them. The economy and the bad ideas/laws of the past will see to that.
Posted by 57boy (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 6:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
of course there's no public response......they don't listen to us anyway.......why even have a city council meeting......they do what they want weather we like it or not !!!!!!!!
Posted by Wildbill (anonymous) on December 23, 2008 at 10:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The city council does listen, but remember, just because you want them to do something doesn't mean that others do.
They answer to some 17000 people.
Posted by NoDFL (anonymous) on December 24, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
17,000 and dropping......
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