Minutes - Council - 04/09/1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Tomaszewski stated that his point is that his neighbors have been using the Planning Commission office to harass him since he moved there. His neighbors decided they did not want to look at his cedar storage shed. He stated he would put them into a machinery shed or a garage, but since he cannot do that because of his neighbors, he was forced to leave his vehicles outside and his neighbors do not like his vehicles. He added that the people who are in favor of this ordinance are trying to control a neighbors yard. Ms. Williams stated that they have restricted covenants - it's not her that won't allow him to have a garage. Even if she were to tell him he could do that, he's got a personal injunction that prohibits him from doing that. Mayor Hardin stated that he still has concerns with this. It appears that this would allow someone to scrape off their sod and bring in gravel and then they could park as many vehicles as they want to in the rural area. There needs to be a limit on the number of vehicles in an area of space. This is not a good quality ordinance. Councilmember Beyer stated that when a joint meeting was held with Council and the Planning Commission, she asked the question about a certain percentage of a lot that could be made into a hard surface that would impair or harm the neighboring lots. Do we have anything in our Code that would prohibit that. Ms. Frolik stated that she has not seen anything that causes a run-off problem. Mr. Jankowski interjected that unless it's a nuisance or is damaging, you can do what you want. City Attorney Goodrich confirmed that. Ms. Frolik stated that the junk vehicles have been eliminated from the outside - if they are outside, they have to be operable and licensed. Ben Deemer, Planning Commission member, stated that they "wrestled" with this a lot as a Planning Commission. They could not see how it could be equal for everyone in the City. The analogy of taking up your sod - prepared surface costs more than sod. We are hoping that better judgement will prevail. We have tried to make it compatible. We are trying to make it enforceable. Mayor Hardin stated that Mr. Deemer is right - in 99% of the cases, people use good judgement. He added that he gets more calls on the junk vehicles than anything else. He stated this needs to be something the City can enforce. Councilmember Peterson felt that staff, based on discussion and Council input, could come up with some possibilities and present options at the end of April and a public hearing could be held in June. When it goes back to the Planning Commission, it should reflect what we can support. Motion by Councilmember Peterson and seconded by Mayor Hardin to table action on the proposed ordinance to amend Chapters 5 and 9 and direct Staff to do research and suggest alternatives or solutions to the fact that in the rural area, there should be some control over the amount of land or cars that can be stored and that the City Attorney look at it too. Also, the public hearing should be postponed until this has been researched. Further discussion: Councilmember Zimmerman inquired of Mr. Goodrich if the changes suggested are considered major to which Mr. Goodrich replied they were and would require a public hearing. Mr. Deemer stated that the Planning Commission addressed R-1 and R-2 but not really the rural area. Mayor Hardin commented that he needed to feel more comfortable that there is some control of the numbers, etc. City Council/April 9, 1996 Page 11 of 17