Land Use categories
For more information about the Regional Plan Land Use dataset published by the Metropolitan Council is available here.
Single-Family Residential—Land used exclusively for residential purposes and containing a single dwelling unit; includes farmsteads, seasonal/vacation, single-family detached, and manufactured housing.
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Farmsteads
- Land that encompasses the single family residential dwelling and associated buildings of a farm. Associated buildings of a farm may include buildings used for animal husbandry (barns, chicken coops, grain solos, etc.) along with accessory uses, provided that such accessory uses are incidental to the agricultural activities.
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Seasonal/Vacation
- Land meeting the general definition of single-family residential containing a dwelling unit occupied seasonally or used as vacation property.
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Single-Family, Detached
- Land meeting the general definition of single-family residential and detached from any other residential dwelling unit (i.e., with open space on all four sides, includes detached town homes).
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Manufactured Housing Park
- Land meeting the general definition of Single-Family, Detached dwelling and designated for the placement of multiple manufactured housing structures. Note: this classification IS NOT used for an individual manufactured home.
Multifamily Residential—Land used exclusively for residential multiple-family dwellings containing a building or multiple buildings. Includes single-family attached and multifamily.
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Single-Family, Attached
- Land meeting the general definition of multifamily residential containing two or more attached dwelling units (share a common wall, each with primary ground floor access to the outside regardless of the number of units or size. Ex: Attached townhouse, double bungalow, triplex, etc.
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Multifamily
- Land meeting the general definition of multifamily residential containing two or more attached dwelling units, one or more not having primary ground floor access to the outside. Ex: Apartment building, condominiums or elderly housing – with minimal assisted living facilities – with a main entrance for all residents.
Commercial
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Retail and Other Commercial
- Land used for the provision of goods or services. This category is for general sales and services that comprise the vast majority of establishments typically associated with commercial land use. This category is used as the default for commercial/retail land uses. Ex include: store, restaurant, hotel, bank, Metrodome, Excel Center – large commercial stadiums or arenas, Mini-storage, Canterbury Downs, YMCA, seasonal RV-Parks, American Legion, thrift stores (e.g. Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc) skeet clubs and outdoor gun ranges (large game/gun clubs (80+ acres) should be Park, Recreation or Preserve).
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Office
- Land used predominantly for administrative, professional, or clerical services. Examples are, law offices, accounting firms, clinics (but not hospitals), and veterinarian clinic or hospital.
Industrial
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Industrials and Utility
- Land containing manufacturing, transportation, construction companies, communications, utilities (including water towers) or wholesale trade. This category includes publicly owned industrial lands (e.g. waste water treatment plant, see Special Situations below), warehouses (including commercial warehouses), automotive junk yards, and some special horticultural uses (large greenhouses that do not sell to the public).
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Extractive
- Land containing extractive industry (Ex: Gravel Pits and Quarries).
Institutional
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Institutional
- Land used primarily for religious, governmental, educational, social, cultural or major health care facilities – patients with overnight stays (Ex: hospitals, schools, places of worship, cemeteries, city halls, museums, and county and state fairgrounds).
- NOTE: All land should be classified based on use NOT ownership! If land is owned by a church but appears to be Single-Family, Detached housing, say for the minister, or clergy, then the land use should be Single-Family, Detached residential NOT Institutional.
- Institutional category should include all publicly owned land that is not clearly in any other category (e.g. not in office, parks, or industrial, etc.). Clinics and health care facilities where there are only out-patient procedures will be classified as Office NOT Institutional.
Mixed Use—Land containing a building with mixed uses.
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Mixed Use Residential
- Land containing a building with multiple uses in combination with at least a residential unit(s). Examples include: Galtier Plaza in St. Paul, a mom & pop bakery with living space above it.
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Mixed Use Industrial
- Land containing a building with multiple uses in combination with industrial uses and NO residential units. An example would be a building containing a warehouse, offices, and stores.
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Mixed Use Commercial and Other
- Land containing a building with multiple uses but with NO residential units or industrial uses. An example would be a building containing commercial shops, childcare facility, offices, and/or restaurants. Downtown areas usually have buildings where the first and/or second floor is commercial and the rest is office (e.g. Lawson Software Building), these types of buildings would be coded under this category.
Park and Recreation
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Parks, Recreation, or Preserves
- Land used for park and recreational assembly (Ex: community level ball fields, regional or small urban parks – public or private, playgrounds, rest areas, and other venues – indoors or outdoors – for sporting events or like purposes). Also includes passive activity uses such as park preserves, wildlife refuges, habitat area, public plazas, river walk, DNR owned land, greenways, and other public or private preserved land.
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Golf Courses
- Land used for golfing, including driving range and practice areas and in most cases includes all land belonging to a country club if the predominant land use is golf course.
Transportation
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Major Highway
- Major roadway strips of land or area, on which a vehicular rights-of-passage exists under the following conditions: all interstate highways; all 4-lane divided highways with rights-of-way of 2,00 feet or greater in width; or all 4-lane roads with a Metropolitan Council functional class designation of "Principal Arterial."
- NOTE: Where closely aligned frontage roads exist along vehicular rights-of-way which meet the preceding criteria, these frontage roads will be included in the total rights-of-way. Additionally, land uses occurring within a Major Highway rights-of-way, as specified above, but clearly has a different use (i.e., agriculture – row crops) are to be classified by its actual use. In addition, for consistency, if some major roadways that don’t meet the above criteria yet have been classified as a Major Highway in past land use dataset, will remain Major Highway.
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Major Railway
- Land used and occupied or intended to be occupied by multiple railroad track lines or similar use including railroad classification, storage and repair yards, intermodal containerized freight and transload facilities, depots, etc. that could be classified under an industrial land use.
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Airport or Airstrip
- Land used for the operation of aircraft and any related uses that are on the airport property (Ex: parking lot or car rental) Uses such as ball fields on the airport property would not be included in this category
Agricultural
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Agriculture
- Land used for agricultural purposes. Includes discernable cultivation (Ex: ground tillage or crop rows) horticulture, floriculture (exotic flowers), viticulture (grapes) activities, pasture, and a broad range of other agricultural activities (Ex: horse boarding and training, kennels, sod farms, tree farms, fish production and processing, storage areas or buildings). Agricultural buildings (including feedlots) that are not part of the farmstead (see definition below) are included in this category. Note: Not all agricultural lands are discernable based on available data (aerial photography and assessors data). Thus, a significant amount of agricultural land may be placed in the Undeveloped category. Previously, large feedlots were put in the industrial category.
Other
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Undeveloped
- Land not currently used for any defined purpose that may or may not contain buildings or other structures or has no discernable use based upon the aerial photos or available data. Undeveloped may include non-protected wetlands or lands currently under development.
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Open Water