2017.06.22 PREC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

An On-going Effort Following the establishment of the MLPA, New Brighton completed its Comprehensive Plan in 1980. Since then, the Comprehensive Plan has been updated twice, once in 1988 and again in 1998. The Comprehensive Plan is now 20 years old and needs to be updated to reflect progress made thus far. Planning is an on-going process that attempts to anticipate and guide future change so as to maximize efficiencies and minimize unexpected socio-economic or physical changes to the community. Over the next 20 years, New Brighton will see change in many areas including physical development of mainstreet, also known as the Old Highway 8 Corridor, and is likely to see redevelopment of older strip centers or heavy industry and a growing connection to the environmental community. While New Brighton can certainly control some aspects of change, others are beyond the City’s grasp. However, reaction to these uncontrollable forces can be directed by a sound community-based vision that the City of New Brighton has established. A Regional Perspective The City of New Brighton is a near fully developed suburb of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Being near fully developed, the community of New Brighton must focus its efforts primarily on preservation, renewal and redevelopment rather than on new growth. However, it must not lose perspective of its location in a major metropolitan area. Communities in metropolitan areas need to work together to accommodate the pros and cons that accompany large population growth. The City of New Brighton sits at the intersection of two major interstates providing excellent access to both Minneapolis and St. Paul. As an inner-ring suburb, New Brighton will play an important role in encouraging and promoting private infill development fully utilizing existing infrastructure, a policy consistent with the goals and policies of the Metropolitan Council’s Regional Blueprint. The City has recently seen successful private redevelopment with Applewood Pointe and Lakes Run. Principles Guiding Redevelopment The City of New Brighton has had the opportunity to embrace concepts of mixed-use development within areas of the community that are in need of redevelopment. This comprehensive plan continues to reinforce mixed use directions on land use, originally envisioned as part of the 1998 Comprehensive Plan, particularly within the area known as the Northwest Quadrant. Both this update and the 1998 update contain strategies on ensuring a quality supply of life-cycle housing and details a well-developed park and recreation system with connections that link places to live with places to play and work. This plan continues to address a different approach to traffic control through traffic-calming devices, which create a safer roadway system. While recognizing more people will still desire to drive the automobile, the plan provides alternatives to driving through travel demand management and telecommunications. New to the 2008 Comprehensive Plan Update are the visions and goals established by the Parks, Recreation, and Trails Strategic Plan adopted in May of 2006. These objectives are all part of community based visions that remain part of the 2008 Comprehensive Plan (see Figure 1-1). Redevelopment of the Northwest Quadrant is an effort that will last an additional ten years or more. During this time most of the city’s resources will be focused on this effort. In general, the City will rely on private parties to realize redevelopment goals in the future. 1-2