##VIDEO ID:U_uTVirjGAs## okay we call to order the August 12th 2024 regular meeting of the East bethl Minnesota city council please join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of to the flag of the United States of America the stands Nation God indivisible jce for all thank you uh we don't have anything under the well first thing is to adopt the agenda I'll make motion to adopt tonight's agenda second motion made second it all in favor say I I I uh next next thing on the agenda is presentations and public hearings we don't have anything scheduled but if I could I just would like to make one announcement for the record and that is recently we dedicated uh a new playground facility up at the at the Lake community center community and Senior Center and I want to thank uh Nate Ashford who's our director of Public Works and his team for making that uh playground as goodlook as I've ever seen it in 28 and a half years and the new equipment is great and was really well received by the community and just on on behalf of the people who lived down there just want to say thanks for the very good effort um the next item is the public forum and I'm probably going to butcher your name but James Robel Rubble Rubble okay well got I'm surprised I got that close uh come on up and you can if you can restate your name and address and very good okay my name is James Rubble the second that's r o u b l i live at 19245 Greenbrook Drive longtime resident of East bethl I just want to mention I appreciate the efforts this Council has has put forward for the residents and the fact that you brought back the public forum for the residents to come and in and speak directly to the council I have a question I hope you can answer for me today um I was looking for a place to hold a family reunion and it was suggested that I might be able to hold this at one of our local parks or rent out one of our community centers I was checking out a few locations when when I came across this I have a picture I want to show you guys can I hand it out to each one of you guys thanks bu thank you you thank you thank you no worries okay my question is the community center at uh Whispering primes Aspen has a business sign right in front right in the front in fact I drove by it for the first time because of this does the city own this if so why is there a business sign for a private company out front and how long has this business been there is the city renting this out and how much does it cost to rent space I have a business and I'm curious it obviously includes lawn service because the city crew is cutting grass the day I drove by I am concerned that a that a city-owned building is being used for other reasons than it actually was intended and that my tax dollars may be in this case being misused so that's it okay um anybody want to respond or it's not necessary for us to respond it's necessary for us to listen Okay we don't have to actually respond but does anybody want to respond well if not then thank you for oh very good thank you bringing it to our attention all right thanks for listening well can somebody I mean is it a city building is it a private building oh it's a city own building is what guy what he wants to know yeah oh well it is a city- owned building yeah Mr Mayor as I understand there's a um a contract from years ago that was written I don't know if this building was given to the city with an understanding of usage um I do have the contract but I don't have it at my disposal right now um and uh there is some some agreements that the city had made in the past um and I'm not sure how that plays out going into the future but um but I you know I know that um I think there was a Firebird LLC I think initially the contract was and I think the names changed and and um and then it's uh as I stands still under contract at this point so if uh since when if the if the resident would like he wants to make an appointment I'd be more than happy to share the contract with him it's public record he can read through it himself and then we can try and answer any questions based on that none of us were obviously around when the contract was written so we can only answer to the best of what we can glean out of what's on paper so but if you want to grab my card on the way out I can certainly uh Aaron I'm the community development director okay yeah touch yes thank you that might be the best way to try and answer yeah it's a good starting point anyway yeah yeah okay with that we'll uh I can be involved with that if you want to help you through any of this you know in your situation we want to figure out stuff I'll be willing to help you you talking to me yeah okay yeah thanks Jim I appreciate that Y no problem okay if there's I gra your C you have a card there to yeah yeah he did supp do I okay uh so if there's nothing else no one else on the list is signed up so we'll close the public forum so we move into the consent agenda and so I I don't know what is the matter with me but it's like we'd have to have a meeting every night for me to remember this it seems like but I think we approve the consent agenda and then we actually we approve discussion to the on agenda and then we go into it and we pull stuff mayor there's really no right way or wrong way what you have done no wonder I can't so there is no right or wrong so at at the end of the day what you have been doing is you've been moving the the consent agenda seconding it and then you've allowed people to PLL and then you get a vote of those remaining items and then you've gone through uh those individual items that have been pulled okay that's kind of sort of how I remember it okay so who wants to make a motion on the consent agenda make a motion to approve the consent agenda okay motion's made do we have a second second motion made and seconded I'd like to pull items a C and G A C and G I'll pull a also I want to pull Item B anything else need to be pulled so we got a b c g correct those are pulled and then the remaining is d e and f okay so for item a Brian we have to vote you can vote on those that remain on the consent and then have a discussion on those that are pulled okay all those so we have a motion we have a second so you want to approve the consent agenda all in favor say I I opposed none heard so item a um my question isn't about anything in particular on the bill list uh it's been brought out in the news under investigation that the City of Blaine uh was defrauded of I think 1.2 million by a wire fund transfer and it's been an active investigation since then so with that coming to light what practices do we have to make sure that the city isn't defrauded in anyway our bean counter yeah it it's not necessarily a question that could be answered tonight but uh was it an IT system thing that like Metro inet would it it was a wire transfer that uh however when you do a wire transfer you have to send it to a certain location yeah somehow was it a staff member involved in it I don't know how it happened in usually a defrauder will somehow get the different send routing numbers in there somehow and it's not the first time that uh this has happened I think uh two or three years ago it happened to a couple real estate mortgage companies uh I in realy being one of them uh in one day I think three house sales the proceeds were wired out to to go to another bank and they were lost that somehow uh the new instructions came in and the people thought it it was legit and they sent the money out to the new instructions and it was gone and uh two of those real estate companies did or mortgage companies did not uh warranty that but Ed realy did they honored that but that's just one example of seems like you might want to have we might want to have Mike borski as the financial director come before the city council on a next meeting and kind of let us know what Mr Mayor Mr Mayor we um we do have policies in place for this but I what I will tell you is the the county was even you know at risk um a lot of these people that put together invoices will look identical to you know some of the others and um yeah they're professionals they're absolutely professionals what they do um we have multiple eyes look at and signatures on on the bills that come through a lot of them have you'll see on here a lot of them have the uh receipts you know that go with them so um and uh and and we are covered I will say by Insurance on this sort of issue as well I think Blaine was covered as well on that um doesn't mean your insurance rates don't go up is that another League of Minnesota cities right deal yeah trust and um and so um it is a it is something that um that is every every Community is at risk on this one um it seems rather incumbent upon the banking institutions themselves to verify a a swift number or whatever rooting number is is legit or not you know associated with the name and all that that well you get good you get the number it could be the difference between an Inc and an LLC you know same name and uh just got to be identical we did talk about this at the last staff meeting a week ago and Mike stated that we maintain paper invoices and paper checks and uh that is the best way to thwart any electronic payments going to the wrong place because we don't use electronic payments we use paper check retaining paper ballots right so um but I mean certainly he can come in and answer to that but that was our conversation last Tuesday as well so well I I just want to make sure that the city has safeguards scen all happen in one city want to make sure East Beth is not at risk as well Mike Mike doesn't get excited about very much but he got excited about that one yeah I'll bet yeah yeah he lives in blame as a resident his his property tax went to that offshore company somewhere yeah so okay so is that is factly y so all right Jimmy you had a question on a yeah I got a here I just got some questions Matt on the arena operations because like now is the offseason correct so we're really not doing much there are we uh we're actually um I believe that uh Nate indicated what we're going to be uh creating you know making ice here pretty soon if not already oh really yeah cuz I'm just curious cuz like for electric 58 173 I'm just so yeah based on that then my assumption is that um that in fact they are making ice already then based on that size of a electrical bill and also like for refu removal $282 I mean how much garbage can we get if nobody's there really uh is that yeah generally speaking that's what you pay for with a you know half a yard container or whatever and and U no matter what's in it you still got to pay that much very similar to at home you're on vacation for the week and you didn't generate any garbage you're still paying the garbage fee okay I got you okay under Finance on page five Metropolitan Council $3,185 NE sack remittance yep what is that I'm just curious because usually it falls underneath sewer and stuff doesn't it well that's that those are the fees that are collected for the Metropolitan Council for the sac fee sewer access charge fee and then we just it's we're a pass through for that okay cuz I page seven then we have Metropolitan Council for 6,071 is that is that for the you're going to see a lot of them because elevage is coming in and every one of those units has a significant sack connection for for sewer y so then built in built into the permit fee is the sack fee with with overage obviously and then we get build from the Met Council we pay out from what we took in on the application okay I got just I just see two different places and I'm wait a you you're going to see a lot of them in the next couple of months okay we not being generous oh yeah I was say knock that off okay thanks that's all I got anybody else I'll make a motion to approve item a on the consent agenda second motions made and second and all in favor say I I opposed none heard I pulled Item B that's the work meeting minutes very minor things but uh just just reading it or speaking it into the record for this so they can make the changes in on packet page number for the number packet page number 13 line one and that's in the July 22nd 2024 work meeting minutes correct what you what is in there right now from it did not good to it was not good and uh the second correction is in the same packet this packet the packet for this meeting packet page 15 line 17 corrected from quote Lots in applied subdivision unquote to quote Lots in a platted subdivision unquote and with that I'll move I'll motion that we approve Item B unless somebody else had Item B second okay motion made in seconded all all in favor of approving Item B of the consent agenda say I I I opposed none heard Brian I think you pulled c too didn't you yes um is it for air exchanges I can add those in there but uh if you want to cover it that's fine on yeah page uh 22 of our packet uh discussing the variance for 23558 ulses it looks like some of the discussion is missing um and there's some confusion about motions here uh I believe I did make the motion to uh approve the variance I think no actually I did oh yeah I think he seconded but I made the motion okay CU you got you have the motion to open up for discussion but we don't have a motion for approving the variant in here well that's you know that's the problem with some of these minutes is whoever transcribes is almost like they're putting in what the words that they interpreted as and not verbatim what's being said yeah Mr Mayor we we do not pay for verbatim we pay for kind of the generalized but this is a good example of why yeah verbatim verbatim is significantly more expensive he made the motion it's all right we all voted on it yeah yeah but the there is an a motion in here for approving the variance so was wondering if staff could so yeah Mr Mayor and council members uh generally speaking if you make a motion to get it on the table for discussion comes with that and that's the motion that you can vote on you know being that it's on the table and that's the discussion we had that's your understanding Yeah by council member deros uh even if he used uh the words open this up for discussion what he was doing he was he was motioning the action item yeah and then council member mundle seconded it which of course opens it up for discussion so it's it's it's it's another way of saying the same thing so so there was a legitimate motion a legitimate SEC second there was a legitimate discussion there was an amendment that was voted on and then the major motion was voted on so I I do agree with council member mundle it is confusing but in the today as I listened very carefully that time the council did it right okay well if you have no colums with the minutes as they are on this subject item then I'm comfortable with it I I appreciate council member mundle because I I agree even these the summary is confusing but at the end of the day if anyone was to drill deep deeper they would understand the council appropriately uh moved down this action item yeah in other words it doesn't need to be changed but you could if you wanted to but it doesn't need to be okay I just if you're comfortable with it then I'll I'll go with it uh and so unless there's any other changes I will make a motion to approve these minutes with the changes that uh um the City attorney has made on pages 18 of the packet yeah and 21 of the packet uh as as as it was submitted to council oh sure and Council will provide those to the city administrator to give to the is that how you have a copy of them Aon mayor council members I have provided a copy to the city administrator as well as community development director so that it can be uh entered into the record as corrected good deal okay Mr mundles made a motion do I have a second second motion made seconded to approve item C the consent agenda all in favor say I I opposed am heard and I believe you pulled item G2 right Brian yes yep um I was wondering more about this this is a ask for $5,000 to attend uh conference in Philadelphia for Pittsburgh Pittsburgh for the city administrator yeah I actually that's why I I wanted to pull this uh was so that Matt could explain more about it for all of you so mayor and Council uh the IMCA stands for the international City County management association uh they offer membership professional development programs research Publications data informations technical assistance and training to thousands of City Town and County chief administrator officers um and um and the the the one reason why I'm I'm contemplating the importance of this is to two administrators came up to me at a uh local government officials meeting and said you absolutely need to go to these at least for the first couple of years um after a while they kind of you know you learn what you learn and they become less productive uh but um kind of going over some of the agenda there's some legal issues there's uh teamwork issues there's um when I say issues I mean uh presentations classes you can attend and uh and I think it would be a um you know from my experience after 18 years in this business I um I I have a way of doing things but there's other ways of doing things too and and kind of learning those maybe maybe better more efficient ways of of of conducting uh City business might be beneficial so that's kind of the deal it is a not to exceed um 5,000 I know that uh that's just a place Setter I think it'll be significantly less than that so my hope is it will be it depends on what the airfare ultimately comes in at when when approval is you know granted if it's granted so and and I um Matt and I talked about it he had called me and my experience you know a couple centuries ago when I was a working stiff and went to conferences and all that kind of stuff it was not only what you learned in the conference sessions but I found more importantly was the context you made at conferences were much more valuable than the content in most cases but at least to check it out a first time and at least have a firsthand experience of how valuable it is I think is is worth the expenditure that's my opinion Mr Mayor I will also say that a lot of what they do is continuing education credit I do not need continuing education credit but I can say that um uh classes that offer continuing education credit are not fly by night I mean they have to meet a certain criteria as far as information and quality of information goes and so I have not having never gone to one of these before um I'm assuming it's going to be a productive productive deal and if it isn't certainly I wouldn't uh wouldn't dream of wasting money going we'll expect a complete report when you get back about how wonderful it was I can do that but I I don't know that uh you'll never go Pittsburgh is going to be a great place to go to but we'll see now if it was Maui I could understand some more concerns but Pittsburgh yeah um does that cover it for you yeah I guess it's just kind of surpris I guess it's just kind of surprising to see a $5,000 expenditure on it at the outside yeah yeah but it's a five day four night deal MH leave Monday morning get back Friday night hotels are around $200 a night airfare I'm estimate around 500 the cost is 1763 uh for the conference itself um they'll probably come in about 3500 to 4,000 more than likely yes the food there's there's food included in a lot of this um so um I'm hoping you know hoping that we'll be able to find those venues as opposed to having to you know go out for food but yeah well I hope it's valuable anyone want anyone want to Mo make the motion that we approve this agenda item I'll make the motion do we have a second UC motion made and seconded to approve Mr look attending this conference all in favor say I I opposed guess nobody opposed it thank you so that completes the consent agenda next is new business and under the Planning Commission Mr Aaron Berg is going to take Center Court and uh we got some variances to discuss yeah go ahead thank you Mr Mayor members of the council uh on June 12th 20124 the city received a variance application from John Stewart the owner of 2073 Tyler Street Northeast to reduce the rear yard setback on his property from 10 ft to 5T for the placement of a detached accessory building Stuart's property is located in a single family R1 residential zoning District in the Hidden Haven Country Club development where accessory structures are in approved uh use uh in an R1 zoning District the property is recorded at 87 acres and would be permitted one detached accessory structure at a maximum square footage of 1100 square ft by the East bethyl zoning code documents un file with the city show that the well is located in the front yard and the septic system is located in the southwest corner of the rear yard all properties in the uh Hidden Haven Country Club Estates have a platted drainage and utility easement on all lines of the perimeter of the property for maintenance drainage and utility placement factors the city does not typically permit the place of structures in drainage and utility easements Stuart's property has a 10-ft easement along the rear property line which overlaps and matches the 10- foot rear yard setback required by city ordinance in order to reduce the setback a variance would be required to hear requests for variances from the literal provisions of the ordinance in instances where their strict enforcement would cause practical difficulties because of the circumstances unique to the individual property under consideration and to Grant such variance is only when it is demonstrated that such actions will be in keeping with the spirit or intent of the ordinance practical difficulties as used in connection with granting of a variance means that the property owner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted under an official control The Plight to the land owner is due to circumstances unique to the property and not created by the landowner himself and the variance if granted would not alter the essential character of the neighborhood economic considerations alone do not cons constitute a practical difficulty to consider the consideration of a variance requires that three FR Factor practical tests for difficulties the first factor is a test of reasonableness which means that the landowner would likely use the property in a practical way but cannot do so under the rules of your ordinance in this case accessory structures are in approved use in the R1 Zone uh placing the accessory building as required by ordinance would not deny the land owner reasonable use of his property there is an there is 85 ft of rear yard on this property well placement and septic locations would not interfere with the placement of a detached accessory structure in compliance with the ordinance requirements the second factor is that the landowner's problem is due to circumstances unique to the property and not caused by the landowner in this case the property is 182 ft in depth and the house was placed 48 ft from the RightWay leaving 80 ft 85 ft rear yard a majority of the Lots in this development are 34 of an acre to an acre in size and there is a small grovee of trees across the rear property line the third factor is that the variants would not alter the essential character of the neighborhood that is a factor used to consider whether the resulting structure would be out of scale out of place or otherwise inconsistent every lot in the Hidden Haven Country Club Estates has a 10-ft drainage and utility easement following their perimeters there are other accessory buildings in rear yards throughout this development however none of them required a variance for placement and the proposed accessory building placement is to the rear of the house and in combination with the existing tree cover the accessory building would not be visible from the front right away on July 23rd 2024 the Planning Commission held a public hearing which there was no public comment after a review of the application material and a discussion the Planning Commission by a 6 to zero vote recommended denial of the variance request due to the lack of practical difficulty tests being met city council should review the request consider the planning commission's formal recommendation and approve or deny the request to reduce the front the rear yard setback excuse me from 10 ft to 5T for the placement of an accessory structure as presented in the two versions of the resolution so does he thank you Erin I'll open up the this I'll make a motion to Grant the variance just to open the discussion okay I'll second it does he plan on taking out all those trees in the back no in fact his application suggested that the trees uh by moving it back 5 feet would would help better hide it in the trees so I'm just trying to kind of picture um you ain't got a laser or anything do you so we could kind of got a cursor on the screen right so this uh is the proposed location of the structure oh you can see it's straddling that 10 foot drainage and utility easement line by five five feet which is also the same distance as the the setback required by zoning code the 10 feet okay one of my questions because I've seen an issue is he is he leaving enough space in the back to maintain that shed so I mean he doesn't build it right too close and then you got to do roof work or the back of the shed looks like crap without TR trespassing on his neighbor's property can he maintain this thing well with the 10ft setback he certainly could um here's a picture of the rear yard with staked out proposal location as you can see there's a there's dense coverage but there's also a fence his rear yard neighbor is the golf course there'd be 5T between the back of it and the fence right however if we needed to get in and do drainage utility or easement work his shed is going to be in the way yeah typically so how do we deal with it then so he understands if we have to get in there and do that work that we can do it how does that shake out here well the city can do whatever it wants with that just destroy it and there's nothing he can do about it put something in the variance to say that if he would have to move it if need be yeah yeah it would be smart if he would move it before the city went in so when we have people who apply for a fence permit if you will and they want to put a fence in the drainage and utility easement we let them know right up front that although we're not going to prohibit this if work needs to be done your fence will be removed and the city's not going to spend the money to put your fence back because we don't allow building in the drainage and utility easement just for that purpose alone now the fence that's in the backyard is actually I believe it's the golf course's fence and it's on their their property line and then the easement was put in 10 ft into all of the properties on the other side of the fence when the the subdivision was was platted so you can see the 10 foot easement all the way around his parcel of property here if it were just because our ordinance set a 10t set back I wouldn't be in favor of denying this if that's all it was because I went out there and it it's not going to bother the golf course if it's 5et closer to that fence it's not going to bother any neighbors or anybody else it's just that's what our ordinance says but the fact that it's an easement made made the difference for me then because the the logic works the other way too it's not going to enhance his property if it's 5 ft closer to his house than it would be if it's 5T further away so it's like why why do it so I I see the planning commission's point of view on it well they voted to accept it correct oh deny it really yeah I see their point of view well if we put the stipulation in the variance so that they understand if something has to happen that we can do it who who cares I mean it it would be our cost to move it at the time time when it needs to be moved well yeah and it's his responsibility to put it back if he wants to I don't know if we can bill for that removal uh oh community development director is is correct by granting the variance you are increasing uh the city's costs as well as you know the difficulties of having to essentially go on what was initially empty land and now remove an accessory structure to to do your drainage and or utility work but if we put it in there and he understand kind of like when we license the properties over on Front Street okay you can put this your septic here and we're going to let you use this driveway or this piece of property this little piece here as an access but we want it we want it back now if we go and Grant this variance and say okay but here's the deal if we have to move this for utilities you pay for it we don't I think you could write that as a condition think so you know throw it out there to them you you could do that the only open question is um whether that's a reasonable amount and I don't think you can impose any sum upon the property owner so that could be a dispute issue um so that would be the only open question that you would not be able to resolve it'd be nice to be able to put in a condition that whatever the city's costs are uh the land owner cannot dispute and has to accept it we can certainly try to put that language in um and I would suggest we do but I just also want to be clear uh with this Council and and and and future elected uh officials as well as staff that that one may not be as enforcable but the ability obviously to remove and impose the cost on the property owner would be an enforcable condition well you know we we talk all the time about not just plain and simple either Grant or I have variance and I recall a conversation where we said well you know it's not just that black and white you can put stipulations in there to these variances so where you can control it and if they don't want to do that well that's a different story but at least if we give them the option say look you know we're willing to do this however this is the situation we're running into are you willing to work with the city on it or do we just plain deny it I mean I can I can understand the the Planning Commission doesn't find practical difficulty there's in order to Grant a variance he doesn't have a practical difficulty yeah number two if he says no you can't come on to my property but we can go in there on the 10- foot easement I don't know how we move his shed if we're not trespassing when we have a right to be in the easement but his shed's in the easement how big is shed uh 32 by 16 32 by 16 are the trees really in the way if it was mooved 5 ft that's cuz that that was where I was potentially seeing practical difficulties but that photo doesn't seem where the the trees would be impacted whatsoever no so I'm not seeing anything geographically that is helping out of practical difficulties it's more of a wish and a and a preference rather than essentially a necessity or a near necessity yeah I I see this as a want and not a need the the point of having a variance is I would like to have a second garage it's allowable by code but because of these practical practical difficulties I cannot fall into line with the rules so I'm asking you because of these reasons these practical difficulties can I have an exception and I and I don't see that here well how about the pool down on Cooper Lake so variances are supposed to be um evaluated Case by case without precedent so where where was where was the problems with the one on Cooper Lake that I mean if we had to hold up and say why we granted it why did we Grant it there wasn't you could have you know done without that was kind of a w it didn't Grant it it was as it was initially requested he but they made changes he worked the city he came into compliance as much as he could and that was my reasoning cuz it was 18 18 from a permanent to a semi permanent or movable solution which was I thought a very ingenious solution for it not to not to skew your decisions but the next two cases you're going to see some extreme practical difficulty so will'll be examples all right well we got to try yeah I mean I wanted to Advocate but when I saw the easan it's like okay well and he's got 85 ft of backyard so it's not like it's you're so why can't he move it 5 feet or what what's the easeman how how big are 10t fo which also matches the the setback 10 feet 10 feet they over why can't he just move it he can and we told him when he initially applied that his placement would have to be 10 ft from the fence and he said what can I do I need a variance so here we are today okay well no I mean he can move it that much it's not like there's something in his way I guess no I looked at it from best I could see it I couldn't see how it would make much dimes worth of difference one way or the other tell you the truth but anyway do we have a motion to do so Mr Mo Mr Mayor the motion was to approve so either the motion withdrawn and the second withdrawn or you can take a vote on approval what a safe time I withdra it okay who second you have to withdraw the second yeah who who seconded Kevin did oh according to my notes I withdraw too hello okay sorry I'm kind of tired we're back to square one okay not my usual Snappy self all right so in that case we have a motion to deny the variance request we'll make a motion approving resolution number 202 24- 51 a resolution denying a variance for the reduction of the rear yard setback from 10 ft to 5 ft for the placement of an accessory structure on property located at 20738 Tyler Street Northeast as follows very well enunciated Mr mundle do we do we have a second second okay all in favor of the motion as enunciated by Mr mundle say I I I opposed none heard next item on the agenda Mr Berg talking about 263 University Avenue Extension Northeast of variance for a structure placement thank you again Mr Mayor members of the council uh on June 18th 2024 the city received a variance application from Paulo fi for the placement of a detached accessory structure closer to the street than the primary structure due to Wetland restrictions on his property fan chees property is located in a rural residential zoning District of the city according to the zoning code no accessory buildings or private detach garages shall be located near the front line of the principal building then when the lot is 3 acres or greater and the existing building is located 200 ft from the front lot line the accessory building or detached garage then may be closer to the front lot line than the principal dwelling this property is 5.37 Acres with the primary structure set back 125 ft from the front lot line this request does not meet the criteria set forth to for the the structure to be placed closer to the road so a variance would be required for the placement of this structure the applicant's property is over 5 acres in size however nearly two acres are Wetland or lowlands that extend from the northeast corner of the lot diagonally to the South property line which is uh I will bring that up here in a second uh section 66255 requires that the minimum building and setback distance from a septic system uh would be 25 ft as well as the Wetland Edge additionally uh this variance request is only for the placement in front of the primary residence and according to section 44-7 B2 the front yard setback distance for structural placement is 40 ft therefore if a variance for placement in front of the primary structure is approved the detach accessory structure would still need to be 40 feet from the front yard setback the consideration of variance requires a three Factor test of practical difficulty the first F factor is a test of reasonableness which means that the landowner would likely use their property in practical way but cannot do so under the rules of the ordinance in this case accessory structures are a permitted accessory use in a rural residential zoning District the septic system is located on the north side of the primary residence the second factor is that the land owners problem is due to circumstances unique to the property and not caused by the land owner in this case the property is over five acres in size however nearly two acres are wetlands that extend from the northeast corner of the lot diagonally to the South property line and Wetland setbacks require a 25 foot setback from the delineated Wetland Edge the third factor is that the variant would not alter the essential character of the neighborhood uh in this case the accessory structure would be used for General storage allowing for personal property to not be visible from adjoining Properties or the city right away as required by section 24-3 A and standing tree growth stand Standing tree growth between the property between the proposed detach accessory structure in the front property line would screen it from view of the public right away on July 23rd 2024 the Planning Commission held a public hearing which there was no public comment after a review of the application material and discussion the Planning Commission by a six to zero vote recommended approval of the variance or the placement of a detached exess structure nearer the front line than the primary structure city council should review the request consider the planning commission's formal recommendation and approve the variance as presented in 2024 d49 I will bring up the Wetland uh overview for you for your information as you can see this there's nearly two acres of wetland running right down the middle of the property uh the applicant would love to place the structure behind the front of the house but just cannot do so because of the Wetland yeah thank you Aon anybody want to make a motion so we can discuss or and or approve make a motion that we approve this I'll second motions made and seconded discussion think gon you're correct this one is pretty uh unique yeah yeah yeah there's a there's a little bit of property maybe on the other side of the Wetland but for him to get to it would be nearly impossible as well without driving through his front yard and over his septic system so he doesn't really have any other choice yeah he's on five acres right correct but if you take out the Wetland he's really on three that's fine call call for the vote I'm looking at the pictures here but I okay so a motion has been made to Grant the variance which is to approve resolution number 20244 motions made and seconded any further discussion if not all in favor say I I I opposed none heard once more we call upon the Intrepid Mr Burke on another variance 23785 marman Street Northeast thank you again Mr Mayor members of the Council on June 6th 2024 the city received a variance application from Carl Mitchell owner of 23785 marman Street Northeast to reduce the side yard setback standard from 25 ft to 10 ft on the south property line for the placement of a detach Ed accessory structure excuse me the applicant's property is located in The Meadows of Fish Lake subdivision in a rural residential zoning districts where accessory structures are in approved accessory use the property is recorded at 1.45 acres in size and would be permitted one detached accessory structure at the maximum square footage of 1520 Square ft according to section 427 b1c the sidey setbacks in the rural residential zoning district is 25 ft this request for a reduction to the setback is due to grade and existing elevations on the property when The Meadows of Fish Lake subdivision was graded by the developer in 2005 home sites were raised in order to achieve walkout basement elevations Mitchell's property has an 8ft elevation difference between the front of the house and the rear yard due to Elevation changes a Terrace Boulder wall was constructed to support the driveway and parking pad which limit the buildable area available in the sidey yard a Additionally the uh septic system is located in the Southeast corner of the property uh of the rear yard limiting the depth of the lot area available for the detached accessory structure placement in order to meet septic setbacks of 10 ft as well as the zoning requirements which states that no building uh or detached garage may be located nearer the front line than the principal building a sidey yard setback reduction might be necessary The Meadows of Fish Lake subdivision was ploted with a 10-ft drainage and utility easement on side yard property lines of all lots for maintenance drainage and utility placement factors the city does not permit the placement of structures in drainage and utility easements the consideration of a variance requires the three Factor test of practical difficulty the first factor is a test of reasonableness which means the landowner would likely use the property in a practical way but cannot do so under the rules of the ordinance in this case detached accessory structures are an approved accessory use in the rural residential zoning districts the second factor is that the land owner's problem is due to circumstances unique to the property and not caused by the land owner in this case elevations on the property limit the area for construction of an accessory structure the zoning regulations restrict placement of accessory structures in the front yard and the rear yard uh location of the septic system limits the depth of of in the lot available to build the third factor is that the variant would not alter essential character to the neighborhood in this case there are multiple detached accessory structures throughout the meadows of Fish Lake development the accessory structure will be used for General storage allowing for personal property to not be visible to adjoining Properties or the city RightWay as required by city ordinance by maintaining a 10-ft drainage and utility easement distance throughout the development the proposed structure would not alter the essential character of the neighborhood on July 23rd 2024 the Planning Commission held a public hearing which there was no public comment after a review of the application material a discussion and hearing from the applicant the Planning Commission by five to one vote recommended approval of the variance request to reduce the sidey guard setback standard from 25 ft to 10 feet along the South property line at 23785 marman Street for the placement of a detached accessory structure city council should review the request consider the planning commission's formal recommendation and approve the variance request to reduce the sidey yard setback from 25 to 10 ft on the south property line for the placement of a detached accessory structure as presented in resolution 20245 thank you Aon I'll make a motion to approve the variance for 23785 marman Street Northeast resolution 224 D50 second motions made and seconded is there discussion I was out at these three properties today and this one is definitely something else with them walls of bers it's like man yeah I have a photo here Jim if uh you want to oh it's crazy I know I seen that I'm like and then you can Mound systems back there so it's like he's got no room a lot of big rocks that's all I got how big was this again 1500 square F feet um that's he can do 15 20 he's [Music] proposed let me see I have a drawing here uh 32 by 45 but the Corner's clipped out of it so it'll be 1,200 square ft he'd be allowed I think 1250 when the uh building permit application comes in we'll tackle the square footage uh this is just for purposes of can he put it in that location where do he proposed to put a driveway to it especially with the boulders there yeah so he uh he's in the rural residential so he can have a second driveway um so he'll be able to come off of marman street right through the property here five feet from o excuse me wrong I'm sure his neighbors wouldn't mind sorry so the um the neighbor's uh septic mound is actually just to the right in the picture so that's not usable land for the neighbor either um the property line is between the fence and this tall grass is the actual property line um and you can see the yellow flags way back here in the backyard that's going to be the edge of the garage it'll extend over to this part of the garage with that L shape here and he'll be able to drive right uh to the garage um along this right here you can see where they're kind of using an approach already for construction purposes he'll be parking or getting to the garage right back here coming off this elevated driveway there'd be no way for him to make a second turn to come off of there without uh a steep incline that's at 8 foot difference in elevation so he'll probably have to come in off of here and he'll have to apply for a driveway permit to get that approval any further discussion motions made and seconded all those in favor of approving let me read it again approving resolution 2024 D50 a resolution granting this variance say I I I opposed none heard thanks Saron you back on our agenda that moves the C to Department reports under Community Development again getting our mileage out of Mr Berg tonight uh item a Community Development point1 rezoning R2 to B2 West Highway 65 kondak drive to 207th AV Northeast one second to get this folder open all right here we go thank you again Mr Mayor members of the council this item was discussed at the March 11th 2024 Council work meeting with staff direction to explore the requirements to initiate rezoning to include met Council requirements public hearings and possible comp plan amendments City staff have received uh requests from 20454 Highway 65 the former hunter in for a resoning of the property in order to facilitate the sale of the property this property although once in active commercial use in a residential Zone has been disconnected for longer than 365 days which makes it a non-conformity uh but it does lose its non-conforming status after the discontinued use um additionally City staff have responded to zoning information request from 1351 Klondike Drive Northeast which is also on the market uh it is a corner lot and it may have more value as a commercial parcel rather than a residential parcel due to its proximity to Highway 65 I ask you a question on that is that open land right now or is there a structure on yep it is open it's open okay thank you yep these two properties are located in a larger 120 acre uh section Zone single family and town home residential which stretches from kondik Drive Northeast to the area of 207th Avenue Northeast although there are two single family residential Parcels um within this Zone it contains the 35 acre over 35 acre upar part salvage yard which is was approved as a conditional use permit on July 17th of 1996 when this Zone was originally a B2 Zone in summary and according to Anoka County tax assessor Alex guggenberger as long as the existing use of a property Remains the Same the tax classification would also remain the same tax classification is how a property is assessed and not the underlying City Zoning designation the property zoning designation might change but that would not change its actual tax classification the underlying zoning classification helps determine the highest and best use of a property from a valuation perspective if a rezoning were to be approved the two residences located in the area would be allowed to remain as residential use located in a commercial Zone and taxed residential the rezoning would also create a continuous commercial Zone on the west side of Highway 65 from Sims Road the north south to 197th the mixed use Zone uh in the sod Fields um Eric wack the city's met Council sector representative was consulted and does not believe that the Met Council would be opposed to a rezoning of the area as it's currently outside of our Musa area uh in review of the 2040 uh comp plan commercial industrial development is allowed within the future growth area and his recommendation was provided that each site could be supported by a viable septic system um is that is that did you mean to use septic there is that interchangeable with sewer or was that specifically a so this would be outside ofs yeah this would be outside of the Met Council boundary so would not have access to the sewer and water system okay um so this would be required to be on its own well and separate uh at this point until if when future expansion happens that's why it's in the future use area instead of the Musa area um an amendment to the text of the chapter of the zoning code or change in boundaries or designation on the official zoning map it must be initiated by a simple majority of the city council staff are are requesting the city council as required by ordinance provide a formal direction to staff to take the steps necessary to rezone this area from single family and town home residential to Central Business V2 District in order to better align the use of this area with the city's overall goals thanks thanks again yeah I'll open it up I'll make a move to approve it just for to open up the discussion second motions made and seconded to approve discussion no is this all being done you know I I what I have a problem with is you got two separate people that are requesting it to be changed and is this going to be a build it they buil be done on building they will come or because you you're saying that would initially be on well and septic and so what happens I still would like to see the specs on the pipes cuz I know what we were told back in 2011 about the sewer water and the pipe that was put in there and we' had this discussion before we were told that it was not big enough to handle oh lost my rubber um it wasn't big enough to handle that much and the only reason that we ran the Force main to begin with was to decommission Whispering Aspen and at that time Castle Towers because that system up there was failing and so are we doing it because you've got two people that own property want to change the zoning so they can maybe sell it and I guess what I'm looking out for kind of is so they put in their well and septic all of a sudden sewer water goes past there are they going to be forced to hook up yes and are they going to be made aware of when they buy it or when they go to sell it that hey you can you get sewer well here now but there is plans to put sewer water up here or utilities and then you're going to have to hook up what what kind of a Mr Mr mayor council member D Ro um we've brought this up to the engineer already Craig Yokum and uh he is confident there's capacity in that line to uh to feed this area the sewer line um as as everyone recalls we're kind of going to the legislature asking for uh dollars on the water component side of it um so this is kind of a in preparation of because I think the argument's going to be a little stronger at the state legislature to say we've already rezoned this ready for you know this ask so to speak so I did put uh I put the Wetland overlay so the area we're talking about is uh right here south of Johnson Street uh back here be encompassing the salvage yard and then choices are there's there's a house here the same owner owns the 10 acres back here but then that corner parcel is right here which is mostly underwater in terms of residential density if we were to leave it residential uh there's not much territory here to build homes to connect to the system um this may be better off suited as one or two businesses than to try and put multiple connections into the system because of the wetlands that are located on the property in addition to the fact that there's a 30 acre salvage yard there that's never probably going to go away or be cleaned up this makes there would be very limited connections uh there if and when sewer and water was available there um because of its current use it's been it's been that salvage yard like I said since I think 96 I don't foresee that changing they're very heavily invested in that location so well Johnson Street back around 2012 2011 we call that the road to nowhere because the one going north right I mean we we have dead ends both yeah we have the rights to the property alongside that road because there were was plans of putting residential in there and that was kind of another Fang dangle this uh this 20ish acres is zoned um higher density residential on this side and this is Zone commercial uh these we've had numerous conversations with the land owner about was that Kurt strandin no this is um used to be Cambridge State Bank they've now sold ownership to some other bank First Bank and Trust or something up in Cambridge y um but they still own the land it's an it's it's an investment group of the bank um this without sewer and water will probably never be developed unless you put one town home on here uh and then ghost plat the rest of it waiting for sewer and water to come in which may never happen because of the way it's platted right now so we're running into the same scenario down here this is platted for town houses or higher density residential but we can't accommodate that because there's no ability to connect to sewer and water but according to the Met Council making a transition to business or industry um in the future uh use or future growth area they wouldn't get in the way of the city doing that well of course not we're out of that area now anyway and God only knows when that's ever going to develop I mean yeah whatever I mean I I've I've been looking and looking at this stuff for since 2011 and I know what was proposed I know what was told to us and I know the reasoning behind doing what we did and I guess high density housing isn't that going to bring more than a business as far as connections and Flowage and it certainly would I don't know if anybody's going to rent something next to a salvage yard but maybe well at one point the the salvage yard people wanted to buy hunter in property and they tried to get a variance to come in from the north and they were denied and that wasn't that quite that long ago there's there's other underlying easement issues with the hunter in property that we won't need to get into tonight they've got some things that they would have to um take care of if they purchase that property and that's an a private easement with a utility company so H there are some hurdles yet even if this property is rezoned for that to become something and it would be even a bigger hurdle if it was a apartment complex or a townhouse complex well I mean I understand where you're coming from I just have a problem with somebody coming in saying hey I got this piece of property you want to rezone it so I can sell it well that'd be kind of nice if everybody could do that but that doesn't happen so we looked at um is in isolation just re zoning hunters in as a business we ran that by the City attorney we thought that spot zoning may be applied to that scenario uh because it's surrounded by 126 Acres of residential but you're going to change one parcel to commercial just for one occupant or one parcel could be looked at as spot zoning although there is a B2 zone right across the street so potentially maybe not but um we take direction from you guys and if you uh see this as something helpful we we would move forward on it if if you have reservations we would also then put an end to it tonight if that's your if that's your desire well I have a feeling everybody else is in favor and I'm not going to vote against everybody else I mean might as well be United on that front yeah we still have to hold a public hearing I guarantee you we're going to hear from both of the occupied residen is there they're going to be worried specifically about their taxes and how they're going to be assessed that's why I reach out to the county immediately before we even move forward uh to be ready for that potential uh question uh when it when it arises um I don't suspect upull our parts is going to complain they have a conditional use permit so it doesn't matter what we change their zoning to they're going to also be assessed for commercial property under a conditional use permit so uh there's some egg land here on the North End that will continue to be assessed as egg land it's bare um the residences will remain residential taxed and then that commercial Corner although it's currently a uh being being um taxed as potential commercial or potential residential be Land Development it'll change to commercial be Land Development so I'm surprised the question hasn't come up what about the east side of 65 in the same stretch that's already zoned B2 it is it's already zoned oh okay that's Sharon Johnson's property isn't it on the East side yeah right right here in this bottom corner I don't know if you can see my M that's strange that has that has a an odd zoning to it it was like Highway business is what I recall yeah so if you look up and down the corridor does that mean that's that's our that's our more like fast food restaurant um uh Car Wash uh you name it the kind of things that you see along a main Highway um if you look up and down and I'm trying to get uh a better picture here um for you uh there's a flip-flop pretty much up and down between Highway commercial and be and beef 2 which is our Central Business well so if it's a 40 acre parcel half is one and half is the other but then the next 40 acres is flip-flopped the other way I don't know we we were creative when we were resoning I guess I don't know I guess I'll show you what I mean here well originally when the sewer water came in the estimates were 19,000 connections between the south end of the sewer water district in two 241st and if we keep doing that and not well or re resoning we're cutting back on our residential or our density that was originally planned in there to take up some of the sewer water connections and the Flowage because when the thing first came in PR yokam was the one that said if we didn't get more we were going to have to backf flush 750,000 gallons every month into that pond that's down by the water tower just to keep everything circulating and so I mean maybe change his mind I don't know I haven't seen any current data but Mr mayor just two thoughts that I had on this um you know first of all I think it's important to have a healthy balance between residential and commercial industrial and this is a kind of a A downstroke in the commercial industrial part after we've approved two rather large housing projects but the second thing is is just having housing adjacent Highway 65 I think is the noise associated with highways and that generally will you know spawn a sound wall or something like that which is very expensive expensive to put up to try and mitigate the sound so I don't know that that necessarily is the best in terms of Planning and Zoning uh to locate housing directly next to highways um but but having service roads and accessing businesses and the commercial tax base and jobs that come off of that I think are um are a good plan so I concur any further discussion and just correct me if I'm wrong but by doing this we also put ourselves in a stronger position when we are lobbying for the 12 million to get the water tower and the school service so yeah Mr Mayor and Council one of the things that came out of the discussion I had with met Council was that they they need more flow into their to make their uh plant operate more efficiently they believe that a commercial industrial park would create that additional flow and they're very re to that and they're willing to help Lobby for the water component that we need um provided the sewer is has the capacity the water component that we need uh to provide the water and sewer to to that development so it's one more having this done is one more step to you know to um essentially creating the scenario where people think it's a viable project so yeah continuity yeah well we've got a motion to motion second in discussion so we're done yeah but did did we have a motion to because the city staff was requesting that the city council as required by city ordinance provide formal direction to staff to take the steps necessary to rezone this area from single family and town home residential R2 to Central Business B2 District was that that's kind of the same I think there was a generalized motion to approve okay may mayor um there was a motion in a second I think it should be very clear that the council is not approving a rezoning it is approving staff to engage in the necessary steps and processes so you will still have an opport Unity to more thoroughly investigate whether resoning is is appropriate it'll have to go through Planning Commission there will have to be a public hearing and then it'll have to come before this body again for an actual rezoning approval and pursu into the staff report um Metropolitan Council Also may have a say in this whole process as well well that being said I'll amend my motion to add everything the attorne said no it it's all in the staff report okay all that said Thank You City attorney Larson uh all those in favor I say I opposed none heard uh next item on the agenda is City administrator Set Fall town hall meeting dates or date I should say I switched over to you already Mr Mayor and Council the following dates here are available um after checking with the schedules of our school district partners and other uh commissions and committees out there right now uh and so this would be after the election after things somewhat settle down a little bit and uh and these dates would be available so if there's a preference or if there's a desire to look at calendars to see based on availability uh we can certainly um go with one of these and uh start the process of getting that set up okay my first choice is November 20th Wednesday does that work for anybody else I'm good with that I'm good I think I was good with everything except the 27th about you Bob what date Wednesday the 20th of November yeah that's fine that's a couple months up okay it's unfortunately my week of deer hunting I won't be available what was that that it's that's my my week off for deer hunting season so I won't be available going to Wisconsin good okay well looks like November 20th will work for everybody then Wednesday November 20th for the fall town hall meeting at 6 o' we usually start at 6 I believe I'm not sure if it's like six or seven but one of the two will send out a a deal I think we start at 6 and come in in the chambers at 7 yeah we meet in the senior center first for an hour yeah Brian's right no uh Wisconsin deer hunting is November 23 to December 1st so you're available so much for that attempt anyway uh are there any St other staff reports or Council reports yeah somebody lost a set of keys by the boat landing on the county park side and and the lanyard that was on there it's wrapped around the post so if you dropped your keys in the water somebody found them with their feet brought them up put them on the dock and there they sit so is anybody still rowing out there in the middle of the lake maybe might be theirs maybe Mr Mayor yes sir I just have a couple of updates I wanted to I think you already touched on it the Lake Beach uh Park dedication um it was a great dedication a lot of people show up yeah um quite a few Maggie um which made into the newsletter actually made a showing there so she came by in my my yellow lab and uh all the kids seem to enjoy her as well so oh yeah she comes to some of these things periodically it's it's an odd thing but can't always count on her but um the other thing is uh is we're working on uh a Capstone development agreement I know that everyone was very interested in that document because it kind of identifies what we're going to require the developer to do aon's been working hard on that we've been meeting with them and uh that'll be we're sticking to our 10- foot setbacks on the side prop side lines according to the plan yes so um one I'm watching we we'll be providing that to you uh to Mayor and Council for a review of that uh when that becomes available um we had absentee voting here on Saturday uh two staff members were here Manning that and one person came in for absentee so um while the state thought that was critical I'm not sure that it totally is but uh we we met the requirement and we were here for that so thank you to Carrie and I don't know who um might have been Emily who was here Emily probably um and then just want to remind everybody uh to vote tomorrow uh it's going to be a busy busy day for the primary vote tomorrow and as Carrie as I checked with Carrie earlier all three precincts are open any yep so um everyone make sure to get out and vote and uh I know our area Northern inoka County I think we have 95% or something like that people show up to vote it's phenomenal it's off the charts compared to um what other areas do and uh and so a lot of people take it very seriously as well they should so uh I want to remind everybody of that but aside from that that concludes my report unless there's questions very good I had something else I can't just give me a second well I wanted to point out that like the mayor and U Matt here discussed the Lake Beach that was a project that was heavily influenced by our residents yeah they got to pick out the equipment and uh it looks great I couldn't make that but I've been by sense and uh it just goes to show what we can do when we work together in these neighborhoods that's that that's our Lake yep that is a very tight-knit community Community yeah no it really looks great I'm not I was blown away anything else before we adjourn make motion to adjourn second motion made and seconded to adjourn all in favor say I I opposed none heard did you switch