08-23-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, August 9, 2021 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 5 of 13 14. LA21-000029 – ROBERT ERICKSON, 365 WESTLAKE ROAD., STREET VACATION – RESOLUTION NO. 7211 – Continued Mr. Jabbour told him that would not happen. Life went on, and Mr. Jabbour noted he and Mayor Walsh locked horns badly and subsequently tried to figure out in their own way to do good for the City. Mr. Jabbour said Mr. Erickson was an only donor to Mayor Walsh in 2016. Mr. Jabbour is not accusing Mayor Walsh of any wrongdoing, as the Mayor was kind enough to decide to run his campaign at his own expense. Secondly, Mr. Erickson had himself appointed on the Comprehensive Plan Committee and for the first year in 50+ years the group decided to strike the language prohibiting vacating any of those parcels of land. Mr. Jabbour said before that, in October 2014, Mr. Erickson reached out to him through Attorney Peter Johnson to have a meeting about Mr. Erickson buying a piece of land from Mr. Jabbour or to have a way to facilitate this vacation. Mr. Jabbour dodged Mr. Erickson because he was taking boats out and said he would do it in December. At that time, Mr. Jabbour decided not to do it. He called Peter Johnson earlier today and asked if he recalled any conversation about selling land and Mr. Johnson replied he could not see Mr. Jabbour selling the land as that is not his theory of public purpose. Mr. Jabbour noted he spent 7-figures on City issues and he does not have to hustle a guy for $2.50. He noted he has never in the last 25 years sold any land besides Big Island. He thinks the City Council should think twice about who is selling land to Mr. Erickson. Mr. Jabbour does not appreciate Mr. Erickson’s standards of morality to be broadcast on Mr. Jabbour as he is different, unique, and unusual. Regarding the application, he asked the City Council to remember the first thing on the agenda was to sell Big Island and second was to get rid of the docks. Today, this City Council embraces Big Island, invests in Big Island, asks the Senator to bring State money to Big Island, and Mr. Jabbour helped and is helping today. Things change and cities should think 5 years, 20, 50, and 100 years – when he testified in front of the legislators to preserve some land, Big Island, Maxwell Bay, Gray’s Bay, he physically got money and did those projects and told them if they are not careful, the only way they would see Lake Minnetonka is through the historical society and in the theater. Passive enjoyment of the lake is profoundly important and it is going to get to the point that they have such dense houses that people have to drive miles to be able to see it. Is Mr. Jabbour selling land to Mr. Erickson? No. Mr. Jabbour bought that land to help the City and there was a person who spent 5-10 years giving a hard time to his girlfriend and they can ask Bruce Anderson who was there at the time – Mr. Jabbour bought him out, bought his boat, helped the City get out of the mess they were in for the noise from Fletcher’s and Mr. Jabbour still owns the land and never thought about selling it. He tried to use it as a safe crossing for snowmobiling in that channel and the City has an appellate court order on it not to have docks. If the City would change its mind, that land would be full of docks. How can Mr. Jabbour convince the City Council that he is not prostitute towards financial gain? Mayor Walsh replied besides the innuendo and hyperbole, he has not heard a lot of things about why this application is a problem for Mr. Jabbour. Mr. Jabbour is correct that when the Comprehensive Plan came up, Mr. Erickson was one of a number of people on the Committee because they wanted people who understood all of the language and how the process works. Basically, the City took everyone as they wanted everyone to have eyes on it. Years ago, one thing that was very frustrating was when the Comp Plan said one could not do anything even though for 150 years around Orono there are weird little roads, dead ends, and platted subdivisions in the middle of lakes; they changed that specifically so they could look at each individual issue that comes up on its own merit. It is interesting to hear for this one today, and noted the City has probably done 6 of these in the past 12 months so Mr. Jabbour has obviously missed the other 6 but were all evaluated on their own merits – some of them worked and some did not. Everyone at least has the opportunity to come and ask to see if it makes sense. He thinks the City Council is pretty thoughtful on how they judge that and noted they are no just looking to get rid of land but if they