Comprehensive Plan

Isanti is starting a new comprehensive plan. This will be a concerted effort to incorporate all levels of planning. City growth centering on residential and businesses planning, utilities, traffic flows and amenities will all need to be discussed. This is a plan that is desperately needed. The current comprehensive plan was out of date the day it was finished.

This leads to my first concern. The same organization that did the previous plan is doing the new plan. Fool us once shame on you, fool us twice shame on us. The new comprehensive plan will cost $50,000 to $100,000. If done correctly we will receive a tool that can guide us for the next decade.

If, as the last plan, not completed carefully we will have wasted tax payer money and have to start all over again. The excuse for the last plan failing was the rapid residential growth. This was stated to be a surprise. I am unimpressed by this. The City Council reviews each plat that comes before it. If there is a plan for growth in place it needs to be followed. We do not need to allow ever development that is proposed. All plans must be flexible but the guiding principles must be followed.

The discussion needs to start with one simple question. What type of city do we want Isanti to be? What type of businesses do we need to attract? What type of amenities do we want to have for our citizens? What type of housing do we need? Then we need to make sure we have a plan in place and a 3-5 year plan to have the necessary services. We need to discuss the level of services we want to provide and discuss the ongoing cost. This then finally leads to how much we need to pay in property taxes to fund these services. Each mile of road we build adds maintenance cost for each generation. Each new city hall employee increases cost every year.

A vast portion of our total city budget is funded by development fees. These fees will dry up when development slows. Unfortunately we will still have all the cost with running city government. The only way to close the gap is by reducing city staff and services or raising property taxes. A good comprehensive plan can take a slow down in development into consideration. This will allow us to make the transition to lower city revenues and ease the pressure on property tax payers.

These are simple hard truths we need to face. I encourage every citizen and business to voice their opinion and help plan the future of Isanti. We will have a brighter future if we do the work today.