In the spring of 2017, the city began the process of updating its 2030 comprehensive plan as required by the Metropolitan Land Planning Act. The planning process focused on the engagement of the community from the very beginning, engaging stakeholders in crafting a shared vision for the future of the community. Thousands of people were engaged using a variety of engagement tools. The input of the community served as the foundation of the plan, establishing the community priorities and big ideas which function as the backbone of the plan. 

In late June, staff and the project consultants released the draft plan at a public open house. Since, the city has sought additional input from the community, hearing from an additional 325 people. Thus far, the plan has been received with overwhelming public support.

State statute requires cities to submit plan updates to the Met Council by December 31, 2018, however, Shakopee received a 6-month extension. This extension allows Shakopee to submit Envision Shakopee by May 1st of this year. The City Council authorized staff to distribute the plan to adjacent jurisdictions for the 6-month review period, this period ended on March 22nd.

Staff notified 23 jurisdictions ranging from townships to state agencies and received written response from nine of those agencies and communities. Generally, all respondents reacted positively to Envision Shakopee and of those nine, five responded with no comment. The four with written comments generally made comments on typos, omissions or small errors in the text or graphics, which staff has corrected with this final draft. 

Additionally, staff submitted the public review draft to the Met Council for preliminary review. They returned 13 pages of written comments back to staff. These comments were mainly on items of the plan which the Council required for approval and Shakopee would need to correct or add in order for the comp plan to be approved. Staff believes it has made those necessary changes in order to received Met Council approval, but many times this process can be an iterative one, meaning more changes could be required by the Met Council after submission of the final document at the end of April.

Finally, staff received two additional written comments from non-governmental entities during the six-month review period. All comments received will be attached for review. 

During this period, staff has also had opportunities to meet and discuss sections of the plan. Since the previous draft, the Sanitary Sewer Master Plan and Surface Water Management Master Plan have both been completed and so significant changes have been made to the infrastructure section of the comp plan to better align with the more detailed master plans. In addition, changes have been made to sections of the transportation and natural resources sections of the comp plan following further discussions with the engineering department.

Major changes to the plan have not taken place, the vision and philosophy outlined through the extensive planning process have remained, but more technical details have been revised and updated following Met Council requirements, adjacent jurisdiction comments and extensive review by city staff. Attached will be a brief outline highlighting the edits made from the previous draft.

A note to remember in this process is that this is, again, an iterative process between Shakopee and the Metropolitan Council, likely the document being reviewed currently will not be the final document for adoption later this year. Staff will keep all Commissioner's abreast of future communication with the Council and any revisions they may require through their formal review process. The Comprehensive Plan will be an evolving document until the time that it is officially approved by the Metropolitan Council and adopted by the City Council.

Envision Shakopee has been a long and thorough process and this item represents one more step to the plan becoming reality. The Planning Commission is being asked to review this final draft and staff is recommending the Planning Commission recommend approval of this draft to allow staff to submit to the Met Council for their formal review. The draft is attached as PDF for review. Staff welcomes a robust discussion and any comments or concerns before the plan is formally submitted to the Met Council.

Attached will be all comments received by staff from adjacent jurisdictions, a memo outlining all major revisions made during the 6-month review period and a compressed version of the revised Envision Shakopee document. A full uncompressed version can be found at the following link.

https://tinyurl.com/yxvocdna - this link will take you to the direct file, if you do not have a dropbox account, click "no thanks" on the prompt, which will allow viewing, download or printing of the full file.