02-13-2023 City Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,February 13,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Walsh pointed out it's an add-on to figure out how you can take that little piece and add it to over there, even though you can't get to it. I'm not saying don't bring it to the Planning Commission, if it'd be interesting to vet it out and kind of see how it all works. Gronberg said the Planning Commission seems to be in favor of a rezoning of the house piece down to a half-acre. Walsh said that's something we haven't done in a long time to rezone areas because it's like where do you stop rezoning? Gronberg said it's a unique situation with the lagoon that goes through. Walsh said I'm not saying it's not. You have obviously come up with a very interesting creative kind of possibility. Whether it works or not,I'm not sure.But it seems like it might be worth taking them through the process. Larsen said he believes if the City creates a precedent,there's nothing to really apply it to other than potentially next door, although it's a bit different. Walsh said there are a lot of different issues,I think, on this piece,for sure. I mean,just splitting properties having non-conforming lots, attaching a strand of land that doesn't attach to it. It brings up some strange possibilities. Seals said if the applicant thinks it's worth a go,then definitely bring it back through planning. I don't think looking at it right now,I would say yes. I don't love the idea of having this weird L-shaped thing underwater. It doesn't feel quite right.But I appreciate running it through the process. We've looked at this property several times. We've said no a lot on it. I appreciate wanting to put more properties on the lake. But I also appreciate most Orono residents don't want more properties around the lake.If you guys really want to go for it,bring it back through planning and see what comes back to us. Benson said she'd say if it's been a while since you took this to the Planning Commission, if it was the previous owner,I'd be in agreement with Councilmember Seals.I'd like to see what planning says. In further community development reporting, Oakden said she had attended a few Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and other training meetings recently and has been busy trying to catch up on some internal projects and permits. There are no major updates. FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT Finance Director Olson reported the auditors were on site last Wednesday for field work for the 2022 audit and that went as smoothly as can be expected.Reporting on building permit revenue, Olson said January of 2023 was about 45 percent higher than January of 2022. Permit revenue generally follows a bell-shaped curve, so if we follow that same bell-shaped curve this year,the one month look is positive. Page 9 of 16