City comp plan could be set by end of year

Published 8:56 am Wednesday, November 26, 2008

By the end of the year, Albert Lea’s new comprehensive plan could be approved and readied for publication.

A series of meetings are scheduled for December to finalize the plan and seek input from the public.

Albert Lea Community Development Director Bob Graham said the comprehensive plan is the culmination of a public process that began several years ago.

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It began with Albert Lea Area Listens and was followed by a visit from the Minnesota Design Team.

After that, committees were formed on appearance and attitude, culture and recreation, business development and the Blazing Star Landing, Graham said. Most recently, a steering committee was formed, comprising interested people from all of the previous citywide planning activities, he said.

During the comprehensive plan process, there were two public open house meetings, where people were able to suggest community policy alternatives.

On Dec. 10., the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. in the Freeborn Room of the Freeborn County Government Center in what will be the final formal meeting of the committee. There, the consultants in charge of drafting the plan will present the final draft.

The steering committee then will make a recommendation to the Albert Lea Planning Commission.

On Dec. 16, the comprehensive plan will come before the Planning Commission, and there will be a public hearing on it as well. The hearing will be in the City Council Chambers at 5:30 p.m.

The following Monday, on Dec. 22, the plan will come before the Albert Lea City Council, and there will be an additional public hearing. That is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.

The public is encouraged to attend and voice their opinions on the final draft.

“The two public hearings at the Planning Commission and City Council will give the public additional opportunities to comment on the plan prior to the City Council’s anticipated adoption of the plan,” Graham said. “Once the plan is adopted, it is not fixed in stone but becomes a dynamic and fluid document that guides development policies for the community. It is reviewed on a regular basis and is always subject to amendment. It does set the stage for the community to react to future opportunity.”

The city’s last comprehensive plan — which covers several aspects of the community including housing and the downtown to traffic flows and parks and recreation —was made in the early 1970s.

The draft is available online on the city’s Web site, at the public library and at the Community Development Office.

To review the plan online, people can go to www.city.albertlea.org/, click on the Community Development tab and then click on Comprehensive Plan. Once that page comes up, there’s an explanation of what goes into the comprehensive plan process. Further down is a section called Final Draft Plan, which has links to the five different sections of the plan. From there, people can pull up the actual document and review it.