10-12-2020 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, October 12, 2020 6:00 o'clock p.m. Crosby moved, Seals seconded,to approve LA20-000060—City of Orono Text Amendment Related to Amendments to Variances as drafted. VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 0. 19. LA20-000047—CITY OF ORONO TEXT AMENDMENT RELATED TO BOAT STORAGE Barnhart said when he first started in Orono, the direction he received from the City Council was there are quite a bit of rules and regulations and occasionally it will be necessary to review those, re-open the book and take a look at it. He noted this is a good example; regulations are in place that guide the storage of boats on residential property and noted he included a copy of the section in the Code in the packet and it is a mess. There is an opportunity to re-examine what the goals are as a Council and then Staff and the City Attorney can draft an ordinance that meets those goals. Barnhart is looking for feedback from the Council on the 16 questions onscreen/in the packet. He noted they can schedule the discussion for an upcoming work session and asked the Council to look at the questions and start putting their questions and feedback together. Mr. Richie Anderson said this was done not that many years ago and the previous ordinance was for storage of a 23 foot boat and one of the former Councilmembers wanted to store a bigger boat in his yard, so he came and made it a 30 foot boat. Mr. Anderson said a bunch of the things listed on screen are irrelevant; he knows what the rules are because he sat here when the Council went through it talking about 30 foot boats in people's yards, he thought it was kind of ridiculous at that time. He said the City can't even enforce what they have right now, noting there are many boats that are over 30 feet being stored right now. He again said this was just done and he questions why it came up again at this time. Mayor Walsh stated the reason it came up is because the City had a court case that said what they have is not enforceable, so the prosecuting attorney said the City needs to fix their code because it is inconsistent and unenforceable. Mr. Anderson said one other part is that a property owner had an old wooden boat with a blue tarp on it for approximately 10 years, then this rule went in to place that people cannot have a derelict boat in their yard for 2 years. He noted some of the terminology was directly related to that homeowner and he subsequently moved his boat. Mayor Walsh said this is really trying to solve those issues and suggested a work session where the Council can really talk through it. Mr. Anderson asked if the City lost the court case. Mayor Walsh replied in the affirmative. City Attorney Mattick said when Barnhart started working on this and asked for some help, one of the questions Mr. Mattick always asks instead of mandating something: is what they were Page 15 of 24