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http://sunthisweek.com/2014/09/10/burnsville-blasts-met-council-transportation-housing-pians] sunthisweek.ccm %-'_ -- - Crime v Sports ♦ Govt • Education ♦ A&E v More • SunThisweek Government Burnsville blasts Met Council transportation, housing plans By John Gessner September 10, 2014 at 6:04 pm Planning body's agenda 'out of control' The Metropolitan Council frames its new 2040 development planus a vision for orderly, equitable growth in a Twin Cities region beset by growing gaps in income,race and economic opportunity. But the plan's details, Burnsville officials charge, reveal a set of overly prescriptive transportation and housing policies that sap local control, deprive the suburbs of highway dollars and ignore market forces. The regional planning agency even wants to dictate the kind of development that will occur around Burnsville's future transit stops, officials complain. They lit into the plan, dubbed Thrive MSP 2040, at a City Council work session Sept. 9. The"unelected"Met Council's agenda is"so out of control," Council Member Bill Coughlin said. "This is government planning, overreach, dictation, whatever you want to call it, at its finest!" exclaimed Council Member Mary Sherry. Mayor Elizabeth Kautz chuckled in agreement. "You go, girl," she said. Council members were so incensed they said they want to drop out of Livable Communities, an optional affordable-housing program administered by the Met Council. The Met Council approved Thrive MSP 2040 in May but is now taking comments on drafts of its housing and transportation components. "System statements"will come later—requirements that metro cities must meet under state law, Community Development Director Jenni Faulkner said. Meanwhile, Burnsville is beginning to update its own comprehensive plan, which will be submitted to the Met Council for approval in 2018. "We have to meet those system statements in our comprehensive plan,"Faulkner said.