Lakewood Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.
Lakewood Town Hall
Call to order: Commission Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, Bob Wolfe called the Public Hearing to order at 7:02 P.M.
Present: Chair Wolfe, Dick Bodine, Angie Dickenson-Palmer, Chris Roningen, Robin Downs, Recorder Shannon Ostazeski, Zoning Administrator Brennan Mears, and public (see attached registrar).
Pledge of Allegiance: The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America was recited by all present.
Minutes of Previous Meetings:
May 30, 2006 Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting- Motion by Bodine. Seconded by Cutts.
May 23, 2006 Planning and Zoning Conditional Use Public Hearing- Motion by Cutts to accept the first conditional use hearing and Second by Dickenson-Palmer. Minutes accepted. Motion by Dickenson-Palmer to accept the second conditional use hearing of the night. Seconded by Cutts. Minutes accepted.
Eastman: I would recommend to the Town Board that we only have one meeting a night.
June 20, 2006 Planning and Zoning Commission Conditional Use Public Hearing
Wolfe: Correction page 3 issue #4 add the number of endangered 30 species, the study up in Schroeder book cited by Jan Green.
Roningen: Change last line where it says Zoning Board to Zoning Administrator.
Mears: Follmer contacted 3 bonding companies and they laughed at him. They won’t just insure an arbitrary time in future. There is a meeting on Saturday so we could table it.
Wolfe: These are the conditions of the permit. Without a quorum it stands as written.
Mears: If an applicant makes a good faith effort and he can’t live up to it how can we hold that against him?
Wolfe: If it is truly undoable I am assuming he could come back and address us.
Motion by Roningen that we table the minutes until we have the original quorum of the June 20, 2006 meeting. Seconded by Eastman.
Campbell: If we extend the 60 days on Saturday your quorum could get together and solve this.
Vote: Unanimous. Motion passes.
Select Representative to July 5, 2006 Board of Supervisors Meeting: Bob Wolfe
Unfinished Business:
Town Board Meeting Report- June 7, 2006- Chris Roningen
Dan McCorrison has resigned as a commission member. He is interested as alternate status.
Retail Sales Definition for LIU-10 zone- subcommittee recommendation- Robin Downs
We discussed the definitions of retail and commercial in industrial areas. The definition in the ordinance was very clear and not controversial.
The wording when it says “sales” just wants to be changed to “wholesale sales.” The easiest way to change this is to put an asterisk beside the word to indicate it means wholesale that way we do not have to change the wording.
Wolfe: Our recommendations are on the document sent to the Lakewood Township Board of Supervisors under the numbers 1-5. We also referenced definitions for certain items. We also recommended the omission and addition of several other items. (see attached sheet)
Dickenson-Palmer: Thanks for all the work Wolfe and Downs have done. I would recommend that you use some type of line out so that we can see what has been changed.
Eastman: This is a taking of these landowners’ rights. This would be better put if we just adopt the counties LIU standards by reference.
Downs: Does the county allow retail in the LIU?
Eastman: No. The point is our general fund is in the hole we could not win a court case against a landowner. If we adopted the counties standards we could defer to them.
Downs: We didn’t change anything we just clarified what it said.
Eastman: Page 18 in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan states it is industrial and commercial.
Bodine: The examples in the CLU plan for the LIU (or M-1) are retail commercial. That whole area needs to be in a new category.
Wolfe: This is the path that leads us to nowhere. The Board has requested that we go through this list.
Dickenson-Palmer: If the CLU was updated this area could officially allow retail zones in this area. Eastman your contention is that it is allowed?
Eastman: Yes. Concept 5 in CLU page 45 Commercial developments will continue.
Take a proactive approach instead of reactive. If we agree on adopting the county by reference it would show the Town Board we have some foresight.
Downs: I think that this needs to be updated in the CLU plan.
Bodine: We need to look at the future of the township. We need to have organized growth and not stay stagnant.
Downs: We should stay conservative until we get the CLU plan updated.
Wolfe: I would ask you Eastman if you will come to the next meeting with a recommendation.
Motion to adopt the subcommittees recommendation for the LIU 10 zone text change to the Town Board by Cutts and seconded by Dickenson-Palmer.
Bodine: We should wait until Eastman comes back to us with something before we vote on this.
Eastman: The Town Board has charged us, yes, but it is a serious issue that needs to be studied further. We should at least wait until the CLU is put together because I bet people want to see little shops there.
Campbell (in audience): This charge has been around for a year. If we adopt the counties we have less control because when the county changes we change.
(Downs, Dickenson, Cutts-yes; Eastman, Roningen, Bodin- no) 3-3 vote and Wolfe votes yes to break the tie. Motion passes.
June 20 Conditional Use Public Hearing Report on Conditional Use for Communication Tower request
Wolfe: First of all we need to have as many of the members at these meetings as possible. I will make every effort to encourage the whole commission to be here. Thanks to those of you that were here. Second, we left a lot of room for appeal. We need to do a better airtight job of our conditional uses.
Bodine: I took a ride up the shore and overall there were areas that had holes (Lakewood Road) but it picked up through the areas where Mr. Folmer’s property is. Along old Highway 61 there were marginal spots the whole way along there. You have to make sure the phone responds to all the dips. There are definitely areas where it is marginal and there are issues where it is good.
Eastman: It depends on the service you have.
Commercial Communications Tower SubCommittee
Wolfe: (Public Hearing regarding the proposed Text Amendment to Article VIII, Sec. 23 Communications and Wind Generating Towers- see attached sheet)
Eastman: They are getting wrapped up in the details. These are questions that a couple people bring up.
Wolfe: The intent is it would be a multiple text change effort. Who would object to the sub-Committee having Halverson and I on it?
Bodine: So you are going to discuss these 7 points? Yes.
Eastman: I object to this sub-committee formation. Some of these points are covered already. Setbacks and the inspections are part of this.
Bodine: I will be on it again.
Wolfe: I will let the Town Board know we are available for the sub-committee.
Zoning Administrator Report – Brennan Mears
Update on Zoning Permits issued:
Jeffery McClarey
Jeremy Linge
Brennan Mears
Jeffrey Anderson
Theodore Tucker
Joseph Burkland
Peter Cagle
Mark Kortesma
William Lisiecki
The Moose Mountain issue I called Ken Butler (our attorney on this) and he is going to get back to me before Friday. We visited, measured and talked to the owner of the driveway.
I have driven about 60% of the roads in the Township as I told the Board of Supervisors I would.
Wolfe: We brought up issues about the road issue with Mr. Follmer’s property.
Mears: It was under 100 feet within the first drive off of the interstate. There is more an issue with easements with the expressway.
Wolfe: Could this be a non-conforming driveway?
Bodine: I think it could be a safety issue with him having an access right of the highway.
Mears: MN DOT says if you can share a driveway off of expressway you should use it.
New Business:
June 28, 2006 Variance Hearing Report- Ann Cutts
Cutts: I cannot make the meeting tomorrow night.
Wolfe: I want to table “The Appeal Limits.”
Mears: We have 30 days on the appeal process and it does make our 60 day rule a problem. Stromm’s recommendation is to shorten the appeal process to something shorter than 30 days. However we change it we need to have a text change.
Bodine: Should a fee be considered as well?
Eastman: It was brought up.
Bodine: The Township takes it in the pocket if we make it free for all appeals.
Eastman: I would do a text change to go back to the original intent and add “the applicant.”
Wolfe: Eastman you write one that could be accepted by the Board.
Wolfe: I want to also table my “Zoning Ordinance Proposed Text Change-Process of change- Article VIII, Section 7 of Zoning Ordinance.
Motion by Eastman to adjourn. Seconded by Dickenson-Palmer. Adjourned at 9:12 p.m.
Shannon Ostazeski
Planning & Zoning Recorder