It is evil to bastardize all norms of local control that way. It is Met Council.
Unlike Ramsey, Oak Grove does not want to prostitute itself to growth.
Natalie Steffen says they have no choice.
Ramsey's been complicit in stupidity, Met Council's way, witness the driving role Met Council and Ms. Steffen in particular had in pushing the ill-advised and failed Ramsey Town Center. It is her stepchild, and it is clear proof on the ground of failure of the way Met Council operates. And now Steffen, who was quite publicly vocal in earlier times is not saying peep in Ramsey publicly over the mess she's largely responsible for. I imagine the last time she said "Ramsey" to a reporter was years ago. Instead, trailing failure and disaster in her wake, she is taking her show to Oak Grove. I hope nobody there buys a ticket.
ABC Newspapers, here, reports:
Oak Grove, Met Council at impasse regarding comprehensive plan
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Metropolitan Council District 9 representative Natalie Steffen attended Monday’s city council meeting to discuss the comprehensive plan, which the council failed to approve July 13.
The major sticking point for the council with the 2030 comprehensive plan is 2,680 acres, with just more than 1,000 buildable acres, set aside for municipal sewer and water service sometime after 2030.
Steffen told the council Aug. 10 that the city’s request to keep the entire city rural residential, allowing 2.5-acre lots without land designated for future urban development, is not possible.
“The answer is no, we will not allow 2.5 acres,” she said.
In a letter to the Metropolitan Council, city officials also sought assurance from the council that the Metropolitan Urban Service Area (MUSA) outlined in the comprehensive plan would not be expanded in the future.
“I can’t find an instance where Met Council has brought sewer anywhere,” Steffen told the council.
Sewer expansion has always come as a result of a city request for a comprehensive plan amendment, usually bringing sewer and water in at the request of a developer, she said.
“That is always initiated by the city,” Steffen added.
That said, Steffen continued to tell the council that current Met Council representatives cannot bind future councils by saying the MUSA will never go beyond where it is planned post-2030.
Lake Elmo tried to oppose the Beast. The Beast went to court and prevailed. Oak Grove is facing the history of the Beast. Bless them if they fight. It is the human will against the steamroller. It is still important that the human will is shown, even if defeat in the halls of justice might be an inevitability.
Ramsey, it had those opposed to the Beast, but too few.
Those holding large land accumulations and wanting easy money prevailed. And, folks in Oak Grove, on the City council there -- rent a bus and come visit the Ramsey Town Center.
It will galvanize your will to resist.
Fight the Beast. It is the future of your community as you want it, vs. your community as a few there with hopes of cashing out at your expense want it - subsidization as was the case with the Ramsey Town Center, putting taxpayers into the red, with unneeded gaudy ugly and grotesquely expensive public structures that only planners could love.
Men such as James Norman and Thomas Gamec left a Ramsey legacy of serving the interests of Met. Council and that legacy is alive in Ramsey, still, to this day. Add to those willing facilatators the one-term wonder council "service" of one such landowner, stir in grants with strings attached for things not beneficial to current residents in Ramsey, and the deal got done. People were told there would be shops and restaurants. The truth, "For Lease" is the Ramsey Town Center's key tenant. Years after the disaster started we await a restaurant. Closest thing to that, a Subway sandwich shop. Bless the Met Council and the complicit facilitators who were on council and in Ramsey city administration. And - they are spending more; see the quote, here - this time chasing mop-up hopes and plans, the Ramsey version of disaster relief for the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Natalie.
Wheelbarrows of money, indeed.
There are false forecasts. There are lies. There are big lies. And there is Met Council.
___________UPDATE____________
You have to love the Internet Archive WayBack Machine. Without it, this blast-from-the-past gem might have been lost to us. [Click to read. Colors added, original Feges - Nedegaard "ramsey03.com" propaganda item had photos not saved by the WayBack Machine. Better for laughs if we had the photos, yet names being named back in Oct. 2003, is what counts.]The fingerprints of Met Council are all over the thing, back then as things unfolded; the Met Council's mischief is manifest AND exposed. Ramsey did not fail by itself. It had help. It had Met Council.
Thank you, WayBack Machine.
_____FURTHER UPDATE______
Anoka County Union has an archive too; with the quote of the day, given below, from ending paragraphs of this archived Oct. 2, 2003 item:
Although the master development agreement has been approved, "there is still a lot of work to be done," said Norman.
The city will work with Ramsey Town Center LLC to iron out dozens of secondary development agreements, he said.
But there should be some businesses open for Christmas shopping in 2004, said Norman.
Bless them all.