10-14-2019 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, September 23, 2019 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 8 of 11 Kelly Hueler stated they just want to make sure all citizens are treated equally. If people are respectful of the code and of their neighbors, a variance should be considered, and unreasonable variances should be limited. Mattick suggested at the end they could simply add, if the line continues to bisect building, the next most lakeshore point is to e used until the setback line does not bisect the adjacent building. Walsh stated that would be acceptable. Johnson asked if the City has a definition of where or what the lakeshore is. If not, the City Council should have a conversation about changing it to the ordinary high water level. Barnhart stated he does not know off the top of the head whether the City has a definition of lakeshore. Johnson commented they might want to further look into that. Johnson indicated he has spoken with several surveyors that are active in the community and one of the complications they can encounter is how they obtain that measurement if the adjoining neighbor does not agree to them coming on their property to measure from their corner. Barnhart stated his understanding is they obtain that from aerial photographs. Johnson stated to his knowledge this got started because City Staff was interpreting the city code one way for a long time and then the City started interpreting it differently. The surveyor with their direct reflex laser are able to get property corners, which makes it easier to go from a property corner to a property corner, but somebody has to get permission to do that. If you start throwing in 42-inch maximum height, the surveyor would have to stand on that property and measure the height, and they may not get that permission. Ultimately they will have to survey the house on both sides to be exact. At one point Staff was interpreting corner to corner as average lakeshore setback. Johnson stated the other thing he learned on the Council was that he was using the words line of sight or sightline, which is not in the code, and that he should be using average lakeshore setback. People get confused between the term line of sight and average lakeshore setback. Walsh noted the average lakeshore setback affects someone’s line of sight. Johnson stated at the Planning Commission meeting they had a neighbor on Casco Point that thinks they deserve a180-degree line of sight but there is nothing in the code that protects the sight. The average setback line is to keep houses from boxing in other homes, and the spirit of what the City Council is trying to do is make it understandable and fair to everybody. In his experience in talking to the surveyors, the City Council should take a harder look at this whole thing before they add any tweaks. Walsh stated the onus is on the surveyor to provide the information and that he is not sure how to change the code to make it easier to obtain. The Code needs to be clear on where that point is, and that he is not sure if ordinary high-water mark is clear either. Barnhart stated ordinary high water is a pretty standard term and it is the point where the 75-foot setback is measured from.