02-22-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, February 8, 2021 6:03 p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 13 of 26 19. LA20-000048 - TIMOTHY WHITTEN O/B/O I. JACOBS/A. JACOBS REVOCABLE TRUST, 1700 SHORELINE DRIVE, PRELIMINARY PLAT - RESOLUTION – Continued Shoreline Drive and then start imagining having either grandchildren who are small or young children and trying to cross that road. None of this makes sense, he said if they just had 2-3 lots it would really be easy, but they won’t do it as they want a high-density development that does not work for this property. It is the obligation of the Jacobs, not the City Council’s obligation and not the Burwell’s obligation, to provide a plan that satisfies all requirements and it is not enough for Mr. Gronberg or Mr. Steinhoff to say “well, maybe it will fit,” or “likely it will fit.” No, it has to definitively fit within the right-of-way in order for the City Council to approve. Attorney Dean said the City Council is being asked to take a leap of faith without any engineering and approve a plan that has the potential to hurt only one person: Barbara Burwell and her family. Yet, elevating the future potential rights of people who don’t live here, it does not make any sense. One thing that Attorney Dean also thinks needs to come to the forefront is the Applicant is able to show the dock plan that exists on Tanager – why didn’t they show any docks on Lake Minnetonka? Because he thinks they are trying to reserve some wiggle room for themselves to create this community dock that just came out today and the only reason it came out is they must have talked to at least one of the City Council members before tonight but they have never said that before. He said that is bothersome. Why is there this secrecy and lack of transparency? It should bother them as elected officials that the neighbors next door are not given the same information…that should be bothersome. Attorney Dean provided to the City Council a good photo that really illustrated the problem and it is on page 10 of his letter. Mark Twain said something over a hundred years ago that remains true “if I had more time, I would’ve written a shorter letter.” Attorney Dean said if he would have had more time he would have written a shorter letter; he had some family circumstances that prevented him from allocating the time that he needed. The picture on page 10 really shows what is really at risk because it is taken from a vantage point looking to the east from the Jacob’s property and looking towards the Burwell property. It clearly shows that there is not enough room. There is a telephone line and pedestal, existing power lines, all of that is going to have to be moved out and the only way to do that is to take more land from the Burwell’s. Why? Because the Jacobs are proposing that high-density development and they are asking the City Council’s approval to take Barbara Burwell’s land and if they think that is going to happen without a lawsuit, it is not going to happen without a lawsuit. He said they will not agree to any of Mrs. Burwell’s land taken to allow the Jacobs to have a high-density development…it is not going to happen. Attorney Dean said the Applicant has tried to cure their problems with the ALS line and he does not think they fixed them. He thinks Councilmember Johnson’s questions were spot-on. They have kind of manufactured a new story on the ALS line to try to salvage a high-density development but really it is right in front of them and the easy solution is 2 or 3 lots. Attorney Dean noted they would consider 4 lots, but 5 or 6 lots do not work in this area. He said the City Council has a really important decision and he hopes they do not suffer from fatigue as this is probably the fourth meeting they have had and he does not know how much time they have spent reviewing letters and meeting with people. Attorney Dean asked the City Council to do one thing: if they are not certain, do not approve. Don’t even preliminarily approve with 10-20 conditions – make them go back and do the work to provide a compliant plat and prove that they can fit everything in that right-of-way. Until they do that, he asked the City Council to please deny. Attorney Dean knows Mrs. Burwell would like to come up and tell the City Council what she thinks of the proposed plat and he would ask that they give her a little bit of time. Barbara Burwell, 1100 Millston Road, approached the podium, and said she is the person that lives to the east on Millston Road. She thinks Attorney Dean has done a great job of summarizing a lot of the concerns. She said there are concerns and that is why she is standing before the Council saying this is not a clean deal. She was interested in that being a citizen she is trying to keep up with all of them as she has