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To.- Roseville Planning Commission Roseville City Council Re.- Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee — Minority Report Classification of Target and Har-,Mar Sites as Regional Business These two areas,, which the draft comprehensive plan for many months had listed as guided into the future for "Community Business" should remain guided for "Community Business" and not guided for "Regional Business."' Regional Business provides goods and services to a regional market area, i.e. it seeks to attract customers from outside the community to drive into the community, acquire goods and services, and then leave the community. This designation includes regional-scale malls, shopping centers, freestanding large-format stores,, among other uses, with no specific limit on scale or size. The Target and Har-Mar areas are more appropriately guided for Community Business, with a scale limit of 100,,000 sq. ft./individual building or perhaps another method of limiting scale). The draft comprehensive plan allocates substantial areas to "Regional Business"' designation,, areas including the Rosedale area, and other areas adjacent to Highways 35 and 36. Snelling Avenue approaches its capacity today. Rosedale-like traffic at Snelling and County Road B is not a wise plan for the future. The neighborhoods north, south,, east and west of these two areas merit protection from development of Regional Business in the heart of Roseville. "Community Business"' designation presents many opportunities for eventual redevelopment without sacrificing the livability of the neighborhoods. Residents of those neighborhoods should not expect to have as quiet environment, perhaps, as areas that are not immediately adjacent to commercial development. However,, they should not expect to have their neighborhoods swallowed by "Regional Business"' when there are adequate areas in other parts of Roseville for large-scale businesses that are designed to attract customers from all around the region. Freestanding large-format stores do not provide living wage jobs for families. The development of transit and transitways depends upon the development of ridership — and ridership is linked first and foremost to employment. In order to be transit-ready, Roseville should guide its future toward employment. There is nothing wrong with limiting the deployment of such stores in our community. Other communities have done so in their comprehensive plans, excluding additional development of something of which the community already has adequate supply. Roseville already has more retail capacity per capita than any other city in the State of Minnesota. The draft comprehensive plan identifies other areas,, beyond Target and Har-Mar sites,, that are appropriately guided for "Regional Business."' "Regional Business"' does not get short shrift in Roseville today or in the draft comprehensive plan identifying Target and Har-Mar sites as "Community Business."'