Minutes - Council - 01/11/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7.05: Introduce Ordinance #22-06 Amending City Code Chapter 117, Sections 1 and 351 Regarding Home Occupations Zoning Code Enforcement Officer Raines reviewed the staff report and recommendation to introduce Ordinance #22-06 to revise the Home Occupation Section in the Ramsey City Code. Councilmember Howell referenced the section including piano teachers where it says they have up to 60 students per week but it also says they can only have up to eight round trips, and asked if that is conflicting. City Attorney Knaak replied as he read it, it seems okay. He noted it would seem to be a conflict, but when dealing with greater specificity, the greater specificity provision in the ordinance prevails. The ordinance is considered more general so the more specific one would be allowed. He felt it was understandable. Councilmember Howell commented that in reading this, before adding in the section for minor home occupations not requiring a permit, it seemed that everyone with a home occupation would have been required to have a permit, which she found concerning. She wondered if there were ways to condense this and make it more simple, as was done with the animal ordinance. Councilmember Musgrove commented she had a lot of notes about this, some regarding included language that would be hard to enforce or regulate. She gave an example about neighbors being disturbed and questioned if it would be regulated by complaints. Zoning Code Enforcement Officer Raines replied there are three different levels. She explained the first one is minor which wouldn’t require a permit because it is intended to be more of an interior home occupation where there wouldn’t be much visible evidence of it. Level two would be administrative and level three would be when it would have to come to the Planning Commission and City Council. When it hits the higher two levels, it could be determined if it was a disturbance. As far as what is in the ordinance, anything in the minor home occupation would be able to use the sections to verify that what someone is claiming as excessive noise is not violating the other items for that ordinance. Councilmember Howell questioned if there is a noise ordinance already, wouldn’t this be redundant and hard to enforce because it is vague and subjective. Zoning Code Enforcement Officer Raines replied with the mention of excessive noise, traffic, and impact on neighbors, it shows the intention of what the home occupation is meant to be. She understood the question about monitoring excessive noise but felt there is a difference between showing the intention for the home occupation versus having a number, which is what the public nuisance code would show. Planning Manager McGuire Brigl suggested striking the second half of sentence “A” since it would make it clearer, instead of the incompatibility section because it is redundant and vague. The Council agreed with this suggestion. City Council / January 11, 2022 Page 22 of 25