Agenda - Council - 06/22/1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

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! ! TO: FROM: RE: DATE: RAMSEY CITY COUNCIL CITY ATTORNEY DRIVEWAY ONTO COUNTY ROAD 56 AT 7200 - 152ND AVENUE NORTHWEST (DUANE LEE) JUNE 17, 1982 As you will recall, at its June 9, 1982 meeting, the Council directed that the City's maintenance crew remove the above referenced driveway. After your meeting on June 9, 1982, Mr. Lee's attorney came to my office to discuss the matter. He stated the Lee's were adamant in their position and that if anyone came onto their property they would call the Sheriff for trespassing. The attorney also stated that Lees' legal description showed them owning th.e property up to the center of the road. I then told City Staff to take no further action on removing the driveway until I had a chance to further examine this matter. I checked the County Recorder's Office records and have reviewed the County Surveyor's Aerial photo for 1977, 1980 and 1981. Based on that information, I am certain that there was no driveway onto 56 or the service road until sometime in the summer of 1980. The City's Ordinance restricting access onto a collector or thoroughfare street was adopted in January, 1980. Also, there is no question that the Lees have never had direct access onto 56, just access onto the adjacent service road. I do not, therefore, believe that the Lees can successfully raise the defense of being "grandfathered in" in regard to this driveway. Another question raised is if the City restricts the access rights to the highway, have we in effect taken property rights from the individual for which he should be compensated, e.g. inverse condemnation. In my opinion, the most important legal question is: Can the City through its Zoning Ordinance take away highway access rights as opposed to paying for these rights through a condemnation action? Since the highway in question is a County highway, the County would have to bring any condemnation action deemed necessary to acquire the access rights and pay damages for this right. I do not know at this time if the County could or would assign its condemnation rights to the City in order to allow the City to take the condemnation action.