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05/15/1997 - City Council SpecialAGENDA SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING Thursday May 15,1997 5:30 p.m. I. ROLL CALL & ADOPTION OF AGENDA II. VISITORS TO BE HEARD III. DISCUSSION RE: COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE IV. DISCUSSION RE: FIRE RELIEF ASSOCIATION DEFINED BENEFIT TO DEFINED CONTRIBUTION V. TOUR AMPHITHEATER SITES VI. OTHER BUSINESS VII. ADJOURNMENT MEMO city of eagan TO: HONORABLE MAYOR & CITY COUNCILMEMBERS FROM: CITY ADMINISTRATOR HEDGES DATE: MAY 9,1997 SUBJECT: SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETINGIMAY 15,1997 A Special City Council meeting was scheduled for Thursday, May 15, 1997, for the purpose of. 1) reviewing the schedule and work program for the comprehensive guide plan update; 2) giving consideration to a proposal by the Fire Relief Association to convert their pension program from a defined benefit to defined contribution; and 3) to tour sites for the Rotary Amphitheater. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE All cities in the 7 -county metropolitan area have been mandated to update their comprehensive guide plans by December 31, 1998. The City's original plan was prepared in 1974. The City's existing comprehensive plan was prepared in 1979 and 1980 by the City of Eagan Advisory Planning Commission and the City Council and adopted in 1983. This document is often referred to as the "1980 Plan." The Plan has been amended 90 times over the past 14 years. Most of the amendments were the result of development proposals necessitating revisions to the plan map. Over 2,300 acres of land was redesignated to a different land use as a result of those amendments. At the time the comprehensive guide plan was first adopted in 1983, the City was approximately 50% developed. Today, the City is approximately 80% developed. An update to the plan was adopted in 1988 and several land use studies have been completed during the last few years. The infrastructure plans (water, sewer, storm sewer and water quality) were updated in the early 1990's. The transportation plan was updated in the late 1980's and adopted in 1990. Most recently, the City has updated the Water Supply & Distribution Plan and the Parks Systems Plan. The land use plan has not been comprehensively reviewed since the original plan was developed. Since 1980, over 7,000 acres of land has been developed and about one-third of the land was developed somewhat differently than the original plan. Enclosed on pages through is a copy of a memo from Senior Planner Freese related to this item. The memo reviews recent studies and amendments, identities revisions needed. presents a project time -line and requests further City Council direction on process, approach and staffing. Exhibits D and E of the memo are enclosed without page number. DISCUSSION RE: FIRE RELIEF ASSOCIATION DEFINED BENEFIT TO DEFINED CONTRIBUTION Since its organization more than 25 years ago. the Volunteer Fire Relief Association has had continuing agreements with the City to provide pension benefits to retired members based on years of service. The maximum level of the pension benefit has been and continues to be controlled in law by the State of Minnesota. The actual amount of the pension has been subject to negotiations between the City Council and the Relief Association. The pension funding has come from the 2% premium tax from the State passed through the City to the Relief Association and from a City ad valorem tat levy. In recent years. the agreements have covered three (3) year time periods. the last of which ended December 31. 1996. The City in the last agreement. actually allowed a pension benefit of $4.200 per year of service. However. the State limited the benefit to $3.500. $3.750 and $4.000 for the years 1994. 1995 and 1996 respectively. As part of the budget submitted for the 1997 operating budget. the Relief Association requested a pension of $5.200 per year of service for the years 1997 - 1999. During the budget discussion. the City Council was supportive of the Fire Pension Committee seeking special legislation that would remove the caps for firefighter pension amounts. In addition to working at the Legislature. the Relief Association Pension Committee began exploring the possibility of switching the pension plan from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. A defined benefit plan is one in which a retiree's benefits are fixed and pre -determined based on an established formula. A defined contribution plan is one in which an individual retirement account is established for each participating employee. Benefits are based solely on: (1) the amount of employee and employer contributions to the account: and (2) any investment income. expenses. gains or losses credited to the account. Enclosed on pages _A through A are listings of advantages and disadvantages of defined benefit and defined contribution plans. These listings were provided by Symmetric Investments. Inc.. an Independent Broker - Dealer and Registered Investment Advisor firm which has worked with various fire relief associations during conversions and with investments after conversions. The City Administrator and Director of Finance have had a number of meetings with representatives of the Fire Relief Association since early February when the City was first approached with the idea of making a conversion. The purpose of the meetings. one of which included representatives of Symmetric Investments. Inc. and the most recent which included Attorney Steve Eide. was to help staff and Relief members to identifj- and understand issues related to any change in the pension system. Because of the complexity of the issues and the need for the City Council, staff and the Volunteer Relief Association membership to be comfortable in even considering the concept of making this switch, the process has been very deliberative to this point. The Relief Association representatives would like to present the concept of a switch to a defined contribution benefit plan at their special meeting to be held on May 19, 1997. Prior to that meeting, the Association representatives and staff would like to discuss the merits of the concept with the City Council. If the City Council or the Relief Association are not agreeable that the concept is worthy of being pursued, it probably should be dropped before additional work is done on the actual details of conversion, negotiating an agreement, changing by-laws, etc. In the event that both the City Council and Relief Association would like to pursue the concept, it is staff's recommendation that an attorney who is an expert in the field be retained to guide the City and the Relief Association through the process. Mr. Eide, who has worked with a number of these considerations and conversions, has estimated that it would cost in the range of $5,000 to $10,000 for legal services to make this conversion. Enclosed without page number is a packet of information provided by the Relief Association Pension Committee. The cover page is a memo dated May 5, 1997, which outlines the committee's desire to explore the defined contribution concept. The balance of the pages contain information about the Volunteer Fire Department and the services provided by them to the community. The purpose of this agenda item is twofold. First, to provide the City Council with information about the concept of a defined contribution pension plan and to seek direction regarding subsequent activities. Second, assuming the City Council would like to pursue the concept, to gain authorization to engage the appropriate technical support. TOUR AMPHITHEATER SITES At the April 29 Special City Council meeting, members of the Eagan Rotary Club presented a plan to develop an amphitheater for the community. There was considerable discussion about where the amphitheater should be located, including the Municipal Center site, Patrick Egan Park, the Unisys site and Sky Hill Park. The Dart property was also mentioned as a possible site at the May 6 City Council meeting. On Thursday, May 15, the Council will have the opportunity to walk the above sites. Staff will have topography maps of each location to help the Council. For the Council's information, the City of Rosemount recently completed the first phase of an amphitheater behind (north of) its city hall which was designed to seat approximately 800-1,000 people. The amphitheater has informal seating. Parking space is provided at city hall and at the athletic field to the north, which provide above 365 spaces. Additional parking is provided on the street and in the downtown area. Phase 2 construction will provide a stage. This facility is to be used this summer for the first time. A shelter is to be under construction this summer which will provide restrooms, etc. .3 The tour will end by 8:00 p.m. so that any City Councilmember who wishes to attend the Northwest Airlines presentation at the Airport Relations Commission meeting may do so. /S/ Thomas L. Hedges City Administrator t_. city of eagan TO: Tom Hedges, City Administrator FROM: Lisa J. Frees:., Senior Planner DATE: May 9, 1997 RE: Comprehensive Plan Update Requirements This memorandum will give you a brief overview of local comprehensive planning requirements as provided in the 1995 amendments to the Metropolitan Land Planning Act and proposes some alternative approaches that the City may wish to consider for the update process. The 1995 Amendments In 1995 the Legislature amended the 1976 Metropolitan Land Planning Act in three major ways. Details of the changes area listed in Exhibit A. The changes are summarized as follows: I . Content. A local land use plan must have a Water Management Plan and a plan may now contain three optional sections: intergovernmental coordination, economic development and redevelopment areas. 2. Consistency Between Planning & Zoning. The City's official controls, such as zoning ordinances and capital improvement programs are now required to be consistent with the City's comprehensive plan. Any inconsistencies between the two must be resolved as a part of the state mandated review and update required to be complete by December 31, 1998. The Metropolitan Council has indicated that making this determination will be a local jurisdiction's responsibility. They do not have any authority to review for consistency. 3. Periodic Updates. Each municipality shall review and, if necessary, update its comprehensive plan by December 31, 1998. In updating their plans by the 1998 deadline, local governments are required to consider the Metropolitan system plans in effect on December 31, 1996. For amendments to the metropolitan systems plans adopted after December 31, 1996 the deadline is nine months after the Council adopts its system plans. Relevant Metropolitan Council Activities The Metropolitan Council adopted its "Regional Blueprint" in December 1996. The Executive Summary is in Exhibit B. Under the Blueprint, the Metropolitan Council hopes to focus jobs and economic development activity within or around the Interstate Hwy 494/694 beltway. There will be an emphasis on increasing housing density in the urban area. Eagan is entirely within the urban area. To assist communities with their comprehensive plan updates, the Metropolitan Council developed a handbook in 1996. Based on initial feedback the Metro Council is revising the handbook to clarify their requirements. In addition, the Metro Council staff is meeting with individual communities to present the IIP recently adopted Growth Options, discuss each community's planning activities and ask for community input on the Metro Council's land use data and target community goals for population, housing, employment and development density. Eagan staff met with Council staff in April and currently are reviewing their existing land use data. The Metropolitan Council will use the revised information to assist WIN with developing more realistic metropolitan land absorption needs to detennine hove much land should be added to the urban area to facilitate the metro gromm th projections. Status of Enan's Comprehensive Plan The City's original plan was prepared in 1974. The City's existing comprehensive plan was prepared in 1979 and 1980 by the City of Eagan Advisor\ Planning Commission and the City Council with the professional assistance from Urban Planning and Desian. Inc. and Cite Staff. The Metropolitan Council completed its review in 1982 and the City finally adopted the plan in 1983. This document is often referred to as the "1980 Plan." The Plan has been amended 90 times over the past 14 }ears. Most of the amendments were the result of development proposals necessitating revisions to the plan map. Significant amendments since 1984 initiated by the City include: • 1988 Plan update. This amendment updated the 1980 Plan policies. goals and standards and updated the Land Use Plan map. It included a statistical update, involved an analysis of commercial & industrial land uses and a dialogue with developers. owners of those properties. The update included reviev. of housing development trends and incorporated changes in the residential land use categories. and added new policies for residential and other land uses. • 199, Land Use Maty. Incorporated changes approved to the 1988 comprehensive plan map. • 1994 Commercial Studv . This study included a market study- and a commercial land use inventor-. Interim working policies for commercial land use decisions were developed by the Cit\ and intended to be incorporated into the revision of the comprehensive land use plan. • 1995 Lone Oak Plan. Created a rural residential district and policies redesignating properties within this neighborhood to this designation. • 1995 Central Area Transportation R Land Use Plan. Developed a central area transportation plan including the ring road system circulating the central area and created the Central Area Commercial land use district and policies from the interim commercial policies for the Major Diversified Area in the Commercial Land Use Stud\. • 1995 Southeast Industrial. Redesignated the industrial]\ zoned property from a residential land use to industrial land use. • 1996 Business Park Land Use Plan. Created a business park land use designation as lower intensity industrial district not allowing outside storage and ]imitations on warehousing and trucking uses. This new district was applied to the area on the southwest of the 1-494149 interchange north of Highw-a\ 55 • 1996 McKee Addition. Redesignation of residential zoned propem from industrial land use to residential land use adding policies for redevelopment of residential properties in airport noise contours • 1996 Land Use Map. Incorporates changes approved since the 1993 map reprint. corrected minor errors in previous maps and redesignated land recently acquired for public use. The contents of the existing plan are summarized in a narrative included with this memo as Exhibit C and a table under separate cover entitled Exhibit D. This table provides detail of when the element was drafted and lists any related studies or documents completed since the official documents were approved. The table also identifies what is necessary for the required update and homy these tasks could be performed (cit\ staff. consultants. etc.). Process and Approach Before moving forward with the actual task of the plan update. the City Council will need to decide on two important elements: who will serve as the advisory group for the plan and the public input process. Advisory Group Options: 1. Advisory Planning Commission. The state statute requires that the Planning Commission review and make recommendations on the Comprehensive Plan prior to its adoption by the Cin-. Because of this requirement. often times communities charge the Planning Commission with the task of updating the 420 comprehensive plan. Sometime communities have delegated the responsibility of certain elements of the comprehensive plan to other advisory commissions (Economic Development, Parks, Utilities, etc) and this can be an effective way of involving more of the community in the process. Advantages: • Delegating the task to the Planning Commission is often times the most efficient advisory method. You have a group of people who are familiar with the city plans and ordinances, so the `learning curve' is less steep. • The APC members have committed to serve the community and have set aside time for monthly workshop meetings. Disadvantages: • Less of a cross section of people involved with developing the plan. • Interferes with the ongoing development review responsibilities of the APC 2. Ad Hoc Advisory Committee. It is not uncommon for communities to set up a special task force comprised of representative from the various city advisory commissions, the City Council, the business community and residents to work on the plan. If this option is considered desirable, care must be given to make sure the committee size is workable and the Council should appoint a chair with the ability to facilitate the committee and work closely with staff. Advantages: • A broader cross section of the community can more directly participate in the process. • The group has a sole function, so work on the Comprehensive Plan won't get postponed as easily. • Members from other advisory commissions can be considered liaisons and provide reports back to their respective commissions. They can also bring input from their commissions or groups they represent back to the ad hoc committee. Disadvantages: • May be difficult to get a commitment for ongoing participation for the group. If this ad hoc committee is involved with the entire process, they may be required to meet for up to two years on a monthly basis. Some communities have used a hybrid approach of the two common advisory committee methods. In Roseville, several ad hoc committees were established to complete the visioning and goal setting (Housing, Land Use, Recreation, etc.) for the City and then as a next step the Planning Commission was charged with taking the goals and developing the physical land use and infrastructure plans to facilitate those goals. Public Input Process Ideas: It is very critical to design this part of the process carefully. It is important to make sure that the process can be adequately staffed and expectations about how the input will be integrated into the plan should be clearly identified up front. Alternative practices that can be used independently or in conjunction with each other are: I. City-wide Public Hearings and Informational Meetings scheduled at different points through the process. This is the easiest to manage and probably the least costly, but this method doesn't encourage participation of the community as much as some of the other methods. The persons that become involved with such hearings generally have a self interest for following the process closely. 2. Community -wide Survey. The survey conducted by the Wallace Group last year had some questions focused on the form, design and future of the City. It is good base information, but the Council may wish to have a more focused survey for assisting with comprehensive goal setting. Hopefully, a well designed survey will provide a representative view of the community but will not benefit from the interaction involved with other participation processes. A typical cost to administer such a survey is between $7,500410,000. 3. Neighborhood Outreach Meetings. Often communities will begin a community goal setting process by doing a neighborhood outreach process. Typically, this involves dividing the community into 4 to 6 areas and having town meetings in the neighborhood. The purpose of the meetings can be to educate people about the plan and to seek their input on issue identification and desirable goals and policies. It should be hosted b,,- the APC. Citv Council or Ad Hoc Advisory Committee. This process general],, costs about S20.000 to S30.000 to hire an outside facilitator and prepare materials for the meetings. Lakeville employed a similar process as a kick-off to its comprehensive plan update. 4. Visionine Process by Topical Area. The process typically starts with a town meeting were areas of interest are identified and then it is followed by an intensive citizen meeting process over the next month or two to develop vision and goals to achieve that vision. Such a process can be really invigorating for the participants and can build community involvement and spirit. The process. however. is labor intensive. It should be spearheaded b%:a facilitator (professional consultants and will require significant staff support. The process is likely to cost about S30.000. There are many variations to the participation themes described above that can be effective. It would be useful to have the City Council provide staff w ith a general direction prior to developing further detail for the input process. Timeline A draft master time line has been developed and is included as Exhibit e. It assumes that the land use analysis begins immediately and that the draft plan will have a formal public hearing in the fall of 1998. leaving time for final refinements prior to submitting the plan to the Metropolitan Council in December 1998. Project Costs/Budget )While some costs can be identified at this point. the scope of the project budget will depend upon the work program elements defined by the City Council. The project will occur during calendar years 1997 and 1998. During the 1997 budget process. the City Administrator's budget recommended placing S75.000 in the budget for the Comprehensiv a Plan update process. The final approved budget earmarked S75.000 in the contingency budget to cover both the Comprehensive Plan update and the winter trail maintenance program. Staff needs council direction on what tasks should be delegated to staff vs. consultants. Depending on the level of effort desired by the City Council. additional money will need to be budgeted in 1988 for outside consulting services and or other associated costs such as printing. mailings. etc.. If the Council decides to hire a consultant to provide a complete turnkey product. a detailed RFP should be prepared and proposal, should be sought within the next'_ months in order to ensure completion by December 31. 1998. If the Council desires to utilizes a combination of Citv staff and consultants to complete the update. a more detailed timeline will be developed and detailed scope of services w ill be developed for the major tasks to be outsourced. Staff has begun initial work on the data collection and land use inventory and will move forward with those tasks in either scenario because the consultants will ask the City for this data. When the Metropolitan Council staff met with City staff they indicated that the Council has a limited amount of money available to distribute in the form of either loans or grants. The guidelines for this program will be announced later this month with an application deadline of July 18. Discussion [questions for the Cite Council 'What elements of the plan should be done by consultants? Vb'hat elements of the plan should be done by in-house staff? Who should serve as the advisory group for the Comp Plan Update? 1h hen should the advisory group become involved? At what stage is their work complete? What type of public participation process would the City Council want? Does the Citv want to pursue any grants or loans from the Metro Council for the Plan update" r'� EXHIBIT A Summary of 1995 Amendments to Metropolitan Land Planning Act Content of Comprehensive Plans The following additional sections are to be included in comprehensive plans: Mandated - The local land use plan will include the water management plan required by the Metropolitan Area Water Management Act, Sec. 103B.235. Optional - (1) A plan may contain an intergovernmental coordination element. (2) A plan may contain an economic development element. (3) A plan may designate, when appropriate, redevelopment areas. Consistency Between a Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinances In 1985 the Minnesota Legislature amended the 1976 Land Planning Act to state that if a local government's comprehensive plan conflicts with its zoning ordinance, the zoning ordinance supersedes the comprehensive plan. This relationship between the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance was reversed in the 1995 amendments to the Land Planning Act through the following provisions: • After Aug. 1, 1995, a local government cannot adopt a fiscal device or official control that is in conflict with its comprehensive plan. If the comprehensive municipal plan is in conflict with the zoning ordinance, the zoning ordinance will be brought into conformance with the plan by the local government in conjunction with its review and update of its comprehensive plan required by December 31, 1998. Periodic Update of Comprehensive Plans Each municipality in the metropolitan area will review and, if necessary, update its comprehensive plan, fiscal devices and official controls by December 31, 1998, and at least every 10 years thereafter. In updating their plans by the 1998 deadline, local governments are required to consider the metropolitan system plans in effect on December 31, 1996. If amendments are necessary, a local government must submit its plan amendment to the Council for review, as well as amendments to its fiscal devices and official controls for the Council's information. This deadline for updating and submission of comprehensive plans is subject to the completion of metropolitan system plans as follows: . • For amendments to metropolitan system plans adopted before December 31, 1996, the deadline for updating and submitting comprehensive plans and official controls is December 31. 1:198. A3 hluly 1996 For amendments to metropolitan system plans adopted after December 31, 1996, the deadline for updating and submitting comprehensive plans is September 30, 1999, or nine months after the Metropolitan Council adopts its system plan, whichever is later. Extensions The Metropolitan Council may grant extensions to local governments to submit their updated comprehensive plans. Such extensions must include a timetable and a plan for completion of the plans. Technical and Financial Assistance In awarding grants and loans for local planning, the Metropolitan Council is required to give priority to local governments updating their comprehensive plans under the December 31, 1998, deadline. /,!� A4 July 1996 EXHIBIT B Executive' Summary A Vital, Livable Region for Future Generations 'The Metropolitan Council Regional Blueprint serves as a guide or framework of ideas and program of action for a vital and livable Twin Cities metropolitan area. It outlines policies and steps need for the :short -terra and long-ter€n health of he region. While the Metropolitan Council is the principal architect of the Blueprint, many have contributed to its :shaping and deveiopment More will need to participate in its implementation. The entire region plays an important role. The public sector, private business and corporations, nonprofit agencies, associations, civic and community groups and neighborhood residents all must work together as partners for the well- being of the region. The foundation of the Blueprint is based on the Council's new role to strengthen public support of the regional economy, in addition to the Council's historic role of coordinating regional development with regional systems and sound fiscal management. The Blueprint cites these critical policy directions for the region: • encourage regional economic growth. • foster reinvestment in distressed areas. • build stronger communities. • preserve the natural environment. • set directions for guided growth. • expand life -cycle housing opportunities and affordable housing choice. • provide financially sound regional public facilities. With these policy directions in mind, the Blueprint identifies a series of action steps. The steps integrate regional planning and operations and emphasize regional collaboration. A Plan of Action for the Region The Blueprint takes a dramatically new direction to shaping the future of the Twin Cities area. • The Blueprint moves the Metropolitan Council beyond its traditional focus of regional systems planning and fiscal management to address complex economic and societal issues. • It draws on the Metropolitan Council's new responsibilities for operating vital regional services for transit and wastewater treatment, and coordinating those services more effectively with regional planning. 0 It promotes a role for the Council as an active partner with both public and private interests to take actions benefiting the region as a whole. • It supports and advocates incentives rather than penalties as the preferred and most effective method for resolving regional issues. e It provides broad directions rather than detailed requirements to better encourage flexible, innovative approaches that respond to unique circumstances, while achieving regional objectives. EXHIBIT C Plan Element Status Narrative Summary Introduction, Summary & Analysis The overall summary of existing conditions and trends needs to be updated. ;Most of the base data in the current plan dates back to the 1970's. This is a fairly straight -forward technical task involving data collection. environmental scanning., summary and writing. This task should be the first step in the planning process and would be most appropriately handled by in-house planning stats. The task can be completed in approximately a 3 month time frame. Goals & Policies This portion of the plan should be revisited after the initial environmental scanning and data synthesis task is completed. Minimally, this process should include a compilation of all existing goals and policies in the plan. The City Council should review these goals and policies to determine if they are still applicable or if any new goalslpolicies should be considered. The bulk of the policies were developed in the late 1970's so the City may wish to take on a public input process to assist with the development of plan goals and policies. The process should occur after the inventory is complete. beginning in early fall. Staff recommends that a facilitator be brought in to assist with this process. Land Use. Housing, and Economic Development/Redevelopment Elements The Land Use Plan needs a fair amount of work to reflect current policies and the land use map. The plan map should be reviewed to identify and propose alternatives for land use+zoning consistency issues. Policies for various land use studies approved during the last 10 years need to be synthesized into the plan. The land use plan will also need to be statistically summarized by uses. densities and acre to meet the data requirements of the Metropolitan Council. The development of the GIS data base over the past year will assist with this task. The housing element also needs updating. A fair amount of data was collected an analyzed for the Livable Communities work on housing and with the D-11 study currently in process. so this shouldn't be too difficult. The State statute allows for an economic development/redevelopment element of the comprehensive plan. As the community moves toward full development. redevelopment and economic development strategies will become more important. The City Council prepared economic development goals and targets during the early 1990's. The City has developed a policy with respect to Tax Increment Financing and use of Redevelopment Districts. It is appropriate to revisit these documents and use them as a basis for developing this element of the plan. All of the work associated with these elements can be handled by in-house staff. Consultants mai be useful on small specialized tasks such a design guidelines. performance standards or financing tools options and could provided assistance on document design. layout and editing when existing staff needs are high for other planningdevelopment review tasks. Infrastructure Elements Most of the City's infrastructure elements are up to date. The City has developed technical plans for sewer. stormwater, water quality and water supply & distribution. A summary of these plans and system maps need to be developed for the comprehensive plan. This can be handled in-house by planning staff with engineering assistance. Some limited engineering work needs to be done on the sewer plan to resolve some flow projection issues with the Metropolitan Council. The water distribution and supply pian was updated last year. so little or no work should be necessary. The water resources plan is now a required element. The City of Eagan has an award winning water quality plan and implementation program. Minor work will be necessary to update the City water quality to be consistent with the watershed plan which is currently being developed. It is anticipated that a consultant will be hired to make these revisions to the City's existing water quality and stormwater plans. The transportation element has not been completely updated since 1980. A significant revision to the transportation element was completed in 1990 and it was based on a transportation study completed in 1987. Since a number of land use changes have been approved by the City and since the regional forecasts have changed since that study was completed, this is an element that will need to be updated. The corridor studies currently underway on 13 and 55/149 will contribute to the city's transportation plan update as will the Central Area Transportation Plan in 1995. The Metropolitan Council will require the City re -analyze its entire transportation system to determine consistency with the metro system plan. Updated forecasts, functional class and jurisdictional class analysis, transit policies, traffic demand management and capital improvements/financing all are required elements. The forecasting portion of this plan is technical in nature and will require consultant expertise. Work on the transportation element should begin after most of the land use issues are identified and resolved. The plan should take about 6 months to complete. Parks & Natural Resources Elements The Parks plan was completed in 1995 and is a freestanding document. It has not been reviewed by the Metropolitan Council. It will be submitted for an informal Metropolitan Council review within the next two weeks. No major work is anticipated in order to meet the Metropolitan Council's needs. A short executive summary of the plan is needed and map exhibits updated to reflect the status of existing parks, trails and the newly developed regional trail system. This work could be handled in-house by planning staff with parks staff assistance. \I,- 13 Defined Benefit Advantages ■ Easy to calculate each members benefit. ■ City is obligated to makeup deficit, by state lave, if there is a deficit. ■ Guaranteed benefit growth per year of additional service. ■ Administration expenses of the Special Fund do not affect Members benefit amount. Defined Benefit Disadvantages ■ Limits potential growth of members benefit to whatever the $ per year of service is already set at. ■ City budgets are being squeezed so much that if the Special fund does run a deficit, it might take extreme action at the State level to get the City to pay its obligation. ■ Yearly- Benefit increase is currently limited to $4000 per year of service. So for full payout after ?0 years of service, the benefit would be $80,000. /`f � Defined Contribution � Advantages ■ With good portfolio management, i.e. doing the S&P 500 return for the equity portion, and the Lehman Brothers Corporate/Government Index return for the bond portion, and having at least a 50150 mix between the t"ro, all firefighters end up with a greater chance at a larger account at retirement than what they would have received through a defined benefit plan. ■ Cities will be much happier to work with a fixed contribution per member per year. They can budget for i this. The alternative is to be blind sided by a poorly managed fund that runs a large deficit that has to be paid for by the city. ■ The members do not have to ask for benefit increases from the city, or worry about benefit ceilings on the state level.. ■ Forfeitures of firefighters who leave before being 100% vested are split among remaining members after a waiting period. 1 15"' 1 Defined Contribution I Disadvantages ■ No guaranteed benefit amount. With a well managed fund, this is meaningless. With a poorly managed fund, this is of utmost importance. ■ The expenses of the Special Fund administration reduce the members return. ■ Return of the fund, in a prolonged poor market environment, may well be less that the comparable defined benefit program.