01-17-2023 Planning Commission Packet

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Thursday, August 24, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 3 of 8 put in under County Road 15, it changed the routing of water off of this property – water does not flow across it, but instead flows through the neighbor’s yard. Regarding the little inlet that goes up and hits the lagoon right on the property line, he said he’s gone out and stood there and it has been a rainy season and he has not seen water flowing across it. He said they will address the water flow, the wetlands with the Watershed. He stated again, they moved forward because they would like to see what the outcome will be, and this is the far simplest layout they’ve come up with. He stated they and are looking for some feedback for the owner. Walsh asked Mr. Gamble what he thinks the Council’s biggest challenge is to make a decision on tonight. Mr. Gamble answered, to him - and he has been before this Council and many others - it sounds like the challenge is: is the Council setting some kind of precedent by allowing this or not. He said the idea of grabbing a chunk of land from across the bay never would have occurred to him and noted he is not sitting in front of issues like the Council is all the time. He clarified that until after the March meeting and after talking to the attorneys, did they even find out that it was possible to do use land across the bay, and for two years in talking to Staff he was told they couldn’t use land North of the lagoon at all. He said the benefit of this is the City is getting one-acre lots in an area where they will be the only ones. Mr. Gamble said the fact that there are some funny parcels North, the actual parcels they are creating are actually very viable, very usable and a benefit to the community, noting it is half-acre zoning up there and he was a little surprised that they couldn’t just subdivide them off but he has learned a lot. He said he can understand the challenge for the Council; however, it would be a shame not to figure out how to utilize these lots because if there isn’t some way of configuring it, then that parcel of land is basically locked up until something is allowed. He said he hasn’t pursued anything else and thought he’d put it before the Council last time asking what they would like to see. He noted the owner is trying to come up with something the City will allow, stand behind and that is of value. Mr. Gamble stated they’ve worked within the confines to make it as good as they can and the reason they’re still discussing it is because it’s a sketch plan review and they are still open, but want to move forward with what the Council thinks they can allow. Walsh said it’s certainly a unique piece of property and that is part of the challenge they are trying to grapple with, because even when they divide the land it doesn’t solve all the issues one normally wants to solve in a subdivision. He said especially with the weird configuration of the land and the width issues, some of that is going to suffer. Walsh stated it looks like the Applicant has come a long way and he recognizes what Johnson said regarding whether you can grab land across the water; whether that’s reality or not, he is not sure. Mr. Gamble said this is all one lot and he doesn’t know how they look at the land under the lagoon, it’s a contiguous lot through that lagoon and it isn’t grabbing land from somewhere else to make it work, it is taking the lot that is actually there. Walsh said it’s completely separate, and it would be like having a pond and you can’t get to the other land, noting it’s kind of like Fletcher’s, as they have the little island and you can’t get there unless you get on a boat and get to the island to get picked up. Mr. Gamble said he remembered the bridge they put in once and said he thinks they had to take it out as it blocked the waterway.