The Metropolitan Planning Organization is funding a study on which local governmental bodies are placing a lot of interest.

The Regional Future Land Use Study is an estimated $115,000 MPO-sponsored project being conducted by Ulteig Engineers. The study is about 11 percent complete, Ulteig's Steve Grabill said, with completion expected sometime next year.

"The study is primarily intended to look at fringe and extra-territorial areas in the vicinity of this community," Grabill said. "It will identify future land uses in the surrounding area pertaining to transportation planning and various land uses."

Grabill said that there have been previous efforts to provide such information, and the expectations of this study are not to supercede those efforts, but to interlock with them. The study looks at land uses through the year 2030.

Bismarck Mayor John Warford urged Ulteig to take the study out as far as possible from the communities of Bismarck and Mandan.

"The farther out it goes, the better off we'll be," Warford said. "Planning commissions have been running into, with increasing frequency, the clash between residential communities and commercial-industrial uses. Most often people living in residential areas are unaware they are living next to commercially or industrially zoned land. And then, when a business wants to locate near them, these residents are caught by surprise."

The Burleigh County Commission is hoping the information gathered for the land use study can be incorporated into their updating of the Burleigh County comprehensive plan. County commissioners also are hoping information gathered for the MPO's Highway 83 corridor study and Expressway corridor study can be used to reduce any duplication of effort in rewriting the comprehensive plan.

Grabill said that Ulteig and the land use study's steering committee are in the process of identifying stakeholders in the project as well as discussing how to bring the study to the public's attention as it attempts to gather feedback.

Morton County Commission Chairman Matt Erhardt said the land use study is important, particularly as land values continue to rise and governments attempt to judge future values and uses.

Lincoln council member Karen Daly said she feels the study can play an important role in future development throughout the area.

"I grew up in the rural area, on a farm, and I've seen a lot of prime farmland turned into urban housing developments," Daly said. "It bothers me that it seems what land is left is not good for farming and has no value for farm productions. Everybody is putting their homes on the best acreage. A lot of people buy lots and homes from real estate agents and don't have a clue to the zoning. People buy homes and don't know the land across the fence is zoned for commercial."

Grabill said that one thing being done with the study is to look at physical features of the land and, by working with planning staff, come up with reasonable population densities where it makes sense to have residential development.

"We're trying to come up with a plan that avoids land use conflicts that have been wrestled with in the past," Grabill said.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)