09-28-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, September 14, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 18 of 26 Printup moved, Seals seconded, to table consideration of LA19-000048 – Timothy Whitten O/B/0 Irwin Jacobs 2018 Rev Trust, 1700 Shoreline Drive Preliminary Plat – Resolution. VOTE: Ayes 5, Nays 0. Seals said prior to this one coming up again, she will reach out to the residents, and asked if Barnhart wants to come with her to walk the property because honestly, there is a lot going on in this situation. She said the property is such a fishbowl, no matter what the Council ends up doing, people will think it’s crazy that they put all those houses there. She’d like to make sure they get it right. Barnhart said yes, he’d be happy to walk with her. Walsh noted he’d like to go with at the same time. Barnhart stated he could take two at a time. Crosby said perhaps he could do two tours because he’d also like to see it. Mayor Walsh recessed the meeting at 7:36 p.m. The meeting was reconvened at 7:43 p.m. 16. LA19-000065 – CITY OF ORONO TEXT AMENDMENT RELATED TO SUBDIVISIONS Barnhart reminded the Council this proposed text amendment was brought before them in early August and at the time the Council wanted time to review it. He noted he provided some confusing drafts that they wanted to review more clearly and he hopes they were able to do that. At this stage, Staff is recommending approval of a text amendment that would regulate or redefine the subdivision process. It would clarify what they’re trying to do, how they’re trying to achieve it and also clarify the code in terms of making sure definitions match across the zoning and subdivision code and that the ordinances are consistent with state statute. At the August City Council meeting, Council directed Staff to send this to area surveyors, the people who do the platting for projects in town. Staff sent it to five surveyors, and the only comment received was about the unbuildable definition or the definition for dry buildable. The only change proposed in terms of dry buildable definition is to make it consistent with the zoning code, so both zoning and subdivision codes match. He noted the comment received took offense at the 18% limitation and the argument was in some lots when you grade a walkout basement, the side hills to that area could be 22-22.5% and therefore would not be dry buildable. While that may be the case, Barnhart said they don’t calculate dry buildable at the time of building permit, it is calculated at the time of plat creation and certainly in the subdivision code that is the only time they do it. He doesn’t anticipate any issues there and are not changing anything in practice, it’s just making sure they match. Staff recommends the changes as proposed. Johnson asked if the definitions on screen already exist in both the zoning and the subdivision. Barnhart said those are the definitions in the zoning ordinance and in the subdivision code for the same thing. He provided the Council with the email chain with Mark and noted his issue was the 18% and he felt that was excessive. Staff does not recommend a departure from that, there is a magic to that 18% and they only calculate it at the time of subdivision. He said the Council should keep in mind the dry buildable intent is to establish an area where they could reasonably put in a house or septic system and if there are steep 18% slopes, there is quite a bit of work necessary and likely with vegetation in that area