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 7 of 13 14. LA21-000029 – ROBERT ERICKSON, 365 WESTLAKE ROAD., STREET VACATION – RESOLUTION NO. 7211 – Continued as it is. She is completely supportive of what Mr. Erickson is trying to do as it will actually beautify the street as it is ugly and a mess right now. Secondly, Ms. Thrasher said as changes happen to everyone’s neighborhoods, they are hampered by dozens of delivery vehicles and her yard is unfortunately the turnaround yard, therefore lights are broken, landscaping is ruined, and she would love to see a solution that benefits all of them. If Mr. Erickson takes care of this area much like he has his current property, Mr. Thrasher can assure the City Council it will be gorgeous. Wade Kram, 340 Westlake Street, said he and his wife have been there 5-6 years and have 3 small children. If one starts putting public access in there, they may get pathways into there and noted one cannot really get in there as it is. He asked if the City will go in and cut down the vegetation…if they don’t put the public access then it stays beautiful and getting rid of the black top and putting a nice cul-de- sac helps beautify that street. Mr. Kram noted it is a tiny little street and to put another public access when there is one around the corner, one on North Arm, one on Maxwell Bay; it does not seem to make sense to him. Crosby asked to go back to the map to see the closest public access. Barnhart showed the public accesses on screen and pointed out the subject property as number 14. He noted the one right around the block is noted as no public access in the Comp Plan. It was identified during the Planning Commission meeting that while there are 5 accesses on Stubbs Bay, one is winter only and two are no public access so it is not as wide-open as one might expect. Printup said when fire lanes and public accesses come up, he always says he does not want to give away any City land and he has maintained that. However, sometimes it does make sense and there have been a couple before the City Council. Regarding this one, Printup does not like giving up the fire lanes or the City property, but this is one of those unique ones. Crosby stated visiting the property in person gives a very different perspective: this is an area that, although it might be called a public access, no one has been accessing this whatsoever. Similar to Crystal Bay Road, this is cleaning up areas and to Crosby this is an area that needs to be cleaned up. There is no proper turnaround for emergency vehicles at the end of the street, it would help the neighborhood overall, and Crosby thinks it is a big improvement. Mayor Walsh noted part of the reason they look at these is to see if it makes the streets safer and better for the public good and he said Mr. Erickson would be donating land and money and the City can take that money and do a whole bunch of greater public good in access points on the lake, working with the Parks Commission. He can see it going both ways but, in the end, there are more positives in cleaning it up because there are two accesses around the corner already. Printup is the only one on the City Council that does not live on the lake and he wants to be able to go ice fishing on the lake and the access has never been identified by anyone he knows. Johnson said similar to the Forest Bay vacation, he was not in favor of doing that but it was on a cliff and no one could use it; if they received donations, they could use those to better utilize some of the existing accesses. He would like the City to do a better job with the ones they can create access to. He is not a