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Jcpt~mher.ll $teerin; Committee Meeti~lg C~ptembc-r 4, 2008 Pu~~: 5 of the Council insist on no change, the other three have nu legal pov: er to change the result hz effect, then, a minority of the elected Cotmcil is given the povaer to derail or block even a cummuniry-backed effort to change a specific Master Plan. Because such concentrated power i~ an exception and nut the norm in our democratic process, I believe ~i•e must be eery careful nc~t to inadvc~-tently expand this prnvcr by making it apply- to master plan amendments, through their inclusion in the Comp Plan, when it would not otherwise apply to such. That may nut seem like a Iiig problem until you revie~r it in anuext. ,1s an example, consider the situation invoh~ing the City Center Master Plan ~a•hich was adopted many years ago during the discussions that resulted in the improvements at City Hall and the surrounding campus. Currently, this Master Plan includes a layi~ut of the City Center campus that incorporates a building for a community center. Because this Master Plan, like a sizeable list of others, is cun~ently part of Roseville's G>m}, flan, the elected Cit}' Council would be unable to proceai to support the establishment of a community center at anv city location other than on the Ciry Hall campus without a 4;'S vote to change the Cump flan. I'm confident that the citizens who regularly request that their elected leaders consider entering into an arrangement with the school district to rcfiirbish the Fairview Community Center into deity-owned ur suuporred a>mmunin• center facility would he surprised to learn that their elcctc,l leaders have ttu pue~.~cr to du so unless four of the five of them first agree to modify the existing City Center Master Plan. This situation points alit trvo important lessons: (I) it ~eould be irrc~ponsihle for our Steering Committee to vote to continue to include Master Plans into the Updated Comp 1'1 n without doing the vtork necessary to Learn what is included in each one of the currently included Master Plans, because w-e have a duty to at least know what we are binding the city to into tlu future; and (2) it is nut a good idea to continue to include Master Plans in our Comp Plan, because they become outdated and are inflexible to other market-driven influences, such as the possible availability of alternative locatiuils f~~r important city assets. For these reasons, 1 support taking all master plans out of tha Cump Plan. Y00,000 Sq. Foobge Limitation The second critical issue that I believe we need to address is the inclusion of the 100,000 square footage limit on building footprint for any structure in a Community Business land use area. I do not believe we have a verified majority consensus on this important topic. You arc all aware that the Community Business category is a new conct•pt fur our Comp Plan. As I recall the discussions, the purpose of movinK from our existing land use catet_uries to the three-tired Neighborhood Business -Community Business -Regional Business was a shared gua] of rca~gnizing that smaller scale commercial ventures might be appropriate in some areas of our community where large, shopping mall type commercial ventures would not, and vice versa. I am supportive of this concept. We have struggled, however, with defining the parameters of ~~~hat makes a business a "neighborhood „ „ business versus a "cumnuuaity business" versus a "regional business. We a~nsidered and rejected definitions t}iat identified the geographic market area from which customers from a partiailar business arc drawn, recognizing that each type of business draws from a variable geographic base of customers and concluding that it is not the role of government to define where a business's custcaner should ur ~wuid lire in relation to the businesses s/hc. frequents. The market and the ~~conotny (including gas prices, location of home and work in relationship to businesses, etc.) regulate those consumer choices; governmem doesn't have to and should not. After rejecting the geographic location parameters, the grou}> somehow Wowed to discussions of ~{ifferentiating hetwe~n the three nes~~ commercial business >_unes/ rca, in to-ems of the square footage of the buildings permitted in the areas. However, that plan also proved unworkable fur neighborhood businesses,