The Land Use Planning Program provides professional planning assistance to local units of government to accomplish:

• Comprehensive Plans

• Land Use Plans

• Strategic Plans

• Trails Plans

• Maps (Zoning, Land Use, etc.)

• Zoning Ordinances

• Needs Assessment

• Ordinance Book Codification

• Capital Improvement Program

• Housing Market Analyses

• Solid Waste Plans

• Water Plans

• Hazard Mitigation Plans
  

Examples of projects that we have worked on:

• Ordinance Book Updates for the Cities of Westbrook, Milroy, Slayton, Hendricks, Round Lake and Chandler

• Ordinance Book Codifications for the Cities of Mountain Lake, Belview, Storden and Currie

• City of Tracy Land Use Plan Updates

• City of Pipestone Zoning Map Update

• City of Round Lake Needs Assessment

• Windom Regional Housing Analysis

• Wabasso Capital Improvement Program

• Slayton Needs Assessment

• Murray County Comprehensive Plan

• Land Use Maps for the Cities of Lake Wilson, Marshall, Lynd, Russell, and Redwood Falls

• Solid Waste Management Plan updates for Lincoln County, Pipestone County and Murray County

• Pipestone County Comprehensive Plan

• Lincoln County Sustainable Development Plan & Zoning Ordinance

• Nobles County Comprehensive Plan

• Cottonwood County Comprehensive Plan

• Hazard Mitigation Plans for Murray County, Redwood County, Nobles County, Rock County, Jackson County, Pipestone County, Lyon County, Cottonwood County and Lincoln County.

• Local Water Management Plans for:
  Rock County (Plan and Maps),
   Murray County
  Cottonwood County (Plan and Maps)
   Jackson County (PCSD)
  Nobles County

If you are interested in the Land Use Planning Program please contact John Shepard, AICP at (507) 836-8547, extension 103 or at jshepard@swrdc.org.

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The Prairie Ecology Bus Center, started in 1995, operates a mobile environmental laboratory and classroom. The "Prairie Schooler" Ecology Bus brings its programs to schools, organizations, and public gatherings throughout southwestern Minnesota and northern Iowa. Programs are designed for pre-kindergarten through adult learners with classes offered year-round. The PEBC offers advantages over distant, fixed-site environmental learning centers. Students are transported via the Prairie Schooler to nearby outdoor learning areas. Once there, students spend the day exploring, observing, experimenting, analyzing, and interpreting the ecology of their site.

For more information visit their website at http://www.ecologybus.org

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CERTs-Clean Energy Resource Teams.  Minnesota Department of Commerce, Minnesota Project, Rural Minnesota Energy Board, Southwest Regional Development Commission, University of Minnesota's Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, Metro County Energy Task Force, and Resource Conservation and Development Councils have joined forces in a united vision of smaller, more local and cleaner electricity generators which encourage local economic development and energy independence.  The CERTs program is connecting and empowering citizens, all over Minnesota, with technical resources necessary to identify, plan and implement community scale, energy efficient and renewable energy projects.

The project began in 2003.  Through a series of meetings and feedback an energy plan and action plan were developed for Southwest Minnesota.  The Southwest Clean Energy Resource Plan is located on the SW Section of the CERT website at http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org. 

For more information about CERTs and funding resources contact Annette Bair, SW CERT Coordinator at 507-836-8547 ext. 101 or phydev@swrdc.org 

The Rural Minnesota Energy Board (RMEB)
This Joint Powers of seventeen counties, primarily in Southern Minnesota, formed to provide policy guidance on issues surrounding energy development in the region.

The members are committed to seeking broad community benefits in the development of the rich renewable energy resources of our region.  SRDC Staff provides staff assistance to the members of the RMEB.

http://www.mncounties2.org/rmeb is the link to the RMEB website for information about the Board, its members and projects.

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GIS, Geographic Information Systems, is a tool for the visual display and analysis of geographic information.  SRDC can provide professional support for sophisticated computer systems or simple map making.  

Using funding from the McKnight Foundation, the SRDC invested in the necessary hardware, software and training for a GIS. Current capacity includes ESRI ArcMap 9.x, ArcView 3.x, and ANSI-E large format plotter output.

Community Cooperative GIS Program
The Community Cooperative GIS Program was developed to bring the GIS capability and technology to communities within the Region. The program involves creating a base map for a community with material from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, digital orthophotographs (aerial photography), and digital raster graphics (digital form of USGS 7½ minute quadrangle maps). The base map can then be customized to meet the needs of the community.

For information on GIS, contact John Shepard at jshepard@swrdc.org or by phone at 507-836-8547, ext.103.

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Technical Assistance to Local Units of Government. The SRDC provides staff and technical assistance to assist counties in meeting solid waste planning requirements as outlined in the Minnesota Waste Management Act.

Study of Impacts and Location of Former Open Dump Sites in Southwest Minnesota. The SRDC documented the location and condition of former municipal dumps sites through out the nine county region. This study also considered the potential need and means of site clean up.

Southwest Regional Solid Waste Commission. SRDC provides professional staff support to the Solid Waste Commission. The Southwest Regional Solid Waste Commission is a joint powers board consisting of Cottonwood, Jackson, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rock, and Yellow Medicine Counties. The Commission was organized to provide the greatest public service benefit for the entire twelve (12) county area in planning, management, and implementation of solid waste management.

The goal of the Southwest Regional Solid Waste Commission is to foster an integrated approach to solid waste management in the region and follow the order and preference of waste management strategies identified in the Minnesota Waste Management Act.

Southwest Minnesota Solid Waste Management Collaborations:

• Regional solid waste planning: Regional Review of Solid Waste Management Alternatives, an in-depth planning study of landfilling, waste-to-energy and composting to be incorporated in 12 county solid waste management plans.

• Reciprocal Agreement between the region's three landfills. This agreement provides each of the landfill operators with the option of using one of the other landfills in the event that their own facility is temporally closed.

• Operation of a ten county Household Hazardous Waste Facility at Marshall and multi-county Mobile Household Hazardous Waste Collection Unit.

• Employment of a multi-county waste abatement specialist.

• Coordinated approach to legislative issues affecting southwest Minnesota.

• Enhanced communications between county boards and county solid waste administrators throughout the region.

For more information on Regional Solid Waste, go to www.lyonco.org/sw/. 

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All-Hazard Mitigation Plan Development.  During the end of calendar year 2002 and the beginning of calendar year 2003, the SRDC submitted the letter of interest to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on behalf of all Counties in Southwest Minnesota to participate in the All Hazard Mitigation Plan Development process.  As a result, the Southwest Regional Development Commission was granted funds to work with three counties, Redwood, Murray and Nobles.  These All Hazard Mitigation Plans have been completed.  SRDC staff worked with the Emergency Management departments to develop these plans. The  SRDC is now working with each of the Counties in the region to complete their plans.  

 Plan development consists of identifying all hazards that pose a threat to the area, identifying which plans and programs are in place to mitigate impacts from these disasters, identify where the gaps are and what needs to be done to further safeguard the area, develop goals, policies and outline implementation steps in order to mitigate negative impacts from future disaster events.  The public will be involved in both the identification and planning processes.

 If your county is interested in  All Hazard Mitigation Planning, please contact John Shepard at 507-836-8547, ext. 103.

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