Le Sueur County is seeking proposals from qualified consultants to help the county government update its comprehensive land use plan, which guides future economic development and environmental protection goals.
Le Sueur County’s comprehensive land use plan was last adopted in July, 2007. The 174-page document takes an exhaustive inventory of the county’s wetlands, natural resources and potential areas for future development and collects, population, economic and agricultural data on a countywide, citywide and township-wide scale.
But that data, which informs the county’s zoning and environmental protection policies and it’s goals relating to housing development, urban and agricultural growth is now 16 years out of date. As a result, the county is seeking a full rewrite of the comprehensive plan.
On Tuesday, the Le Sueur County Board of Commissioners voted to put out a request for proposals from firms to assist the county in putting together a new comprehensive plan. According to a preliminary timeline, should the county choose to hire a consultant, the Board of Commissioners would select a proposal for approval in September. Drafting the plan is expected to be a year-long process and is anticipated to be completed by the fall of 2025.
The RFP asks consultants to consider analyzing several potential changes to the county’s zoning ordinance. One of the key ideas discussed in the RFP is the creation of additional density options to increase housing density in areas where the county is seeing less agricultural development.
On the agricultural side, the county has requested consultants take a look at the possibility of creating an overlay district to encourage animal feedlots to be located in a specific area within Le Sueur County.
To incentivize commercial and industrial development, the county is interested in exploring the creation of growth corridors. The RFP also suggests consultants consider a review of the five acre lot size minimum in the Mineral Overlay District.
While the Commissioners agreed to send out an RFP, they haven’t committed to hiring a consultant to help with the process. Commissioner Steve Rohlfing noted in the meeting that they could reject the bids if the costs were too high or they did not align with the county’s vision.
“I still think there’s some good things in our ‘07 plan. Some of it is outdated, but some is still pretty solid,” said Rohlfing.
Commissioner David Preisler added that it was important for the county to monitor the scope of the proposals.
“From my standpoint, I’m supportive of going ahead and doing this. But we really need to be actively involved as we look at the scoping piece to see if we really want to scope this out and see the value the outside company really brings to it and balancing that with the resources we have with our existing staff,” said Preisler.
County Administrator Joe Martin noted that the county does have the option of crafting a new comprehensive plan entirely in-house. But an outside consultant would be able to provide manhours county staff can’t toward getting input from the public in open houses and doing outreach with counties and townships during the development of the plan.
“What you are buying from an entity is to do the stakeholder outreach, because you’re really going to need another entity to really go out and spend a lot of time with the cities and the townships and the citizens,” said Martin.
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