St. Paul staff give 'Planning and Zoning 101' briefing on comp plan, neighborhood plans and rezoning

At a meeting of the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority, city planning staff presented an informational “Planning and Zoning 101” briefing that outlined how the city’s comprehensive plan, small-area and neighborhood plans, zoning studies and master plans fit together and how each is initiated, implemented and reviewed.

Anton, the city’s long-range planning manager in the Planning and Economic Development Department (PED), told commissioners “there are four basic kinds of planning studies” — citywide (comprehensive) plans, small-area and neighborhood plans, zoning studies and master plans — and described how those documents move from broad policy to site-level rules. He said the comprehensive plan is required to be updated every 10 years under Metropolitan Council requirements and that other plans are intended to be recertified or decertified on that same schedule.

The briefing explained common thresholds and uses: zoning studies used to implement a comprehensive or neighborhood plan can be initiated by the council or planning commission and sometimes are done as 40-acre studies when addressing a larger area; master…