03-11-1991 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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i ORONO COUNCIL MEETING HELD MARCH 11, 1991 (#k4)ZONING FILE #1497- TOBERMAN CONTINUED that a building, heavily advertised as being for sale, is not the basis for a new business by the current owner. After reviewing the material on this matter, it seemed to mss that if the Conditional Use Permit had expired, the issue of renewal was a moot question." Barrett stated that his first opinion concurred with the comments raised by Butler, but that the case law introduced by Gilbert put new light on this issue. He said, "In my opinion, the State Courts would consider that case law. The points raised by Councilmember Butler may in fact s:lpport a position that abandonment was voluntary. The facts that Mr. Gilbert discussed with me indicate it was involuntary because of the low level of the lake." Butler stated that she would be receptive to such rationale if in fact the business had ever started. She said, "You cannot attract business with an empty building." Goetten stated that the City has tried to work with Mr. Toberman on this matter. Sine said, "It seems that all of our efforts were for nothing because of the pending legal issue. If we are in fact in a position where we have no choice but to approve the renewal, then I think Council should consider attaching specific conditions to our approval. If the business fails to meet those conditions within a certain period of time, then I think we would have sufficient grounds for disallowing any additional requests to renew the Conditional Use Permit." Callahan stated that the reason for the 1987 Conditional Use Permit was because Mr. Toberman intended to rent the building to :someone else. He said, "Mr. Toberman did not intend to establish a business on that premises himself. The person that was going to rent the building had a business connection with Mr. Toberman. There has not been any consideration on the part of Mr. Toberman -co sell boats from that location. T'ie person who wanted to rent the property for that reason, abandoned the idea, and consequently let go of the property. Mr. Toberman made the improvements to the property based on the representations of the individual wishing to rent it. At first Mr. Gilbert informed us that the property had not been abandoned, because meetings were periodically held there. In my opinion, the use was voluntarily abandoned. The impetus for renewing the Conditional Use Permit was that Mr. Toberman had a buyer, Morrie Wagner, for the property across the street and wished to tie 1960 Shoreline Drive in with that business. I do not believe that 1960 Shoreline Drive will support commercial use, and should not be joined with -the marina across the street. In my opinion, the permit should be denied." - 4 -