02-21-2023 Planning Commission Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION February 21,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Ms. Yorks responded it's a problem that they caused themselves. There were things that had to be corrected,probably,but not to this extent. She said she had photos which Curtis did not have available. McCutcheon invited her to pass her phone around the table. Curtis clarified that the applicant's engineer has approved plans as designed. We don't approve their engineering,their civil engineer takes the responsibility by stamping the plans. Ms.Yorks said the work is too egregious.And then after-the-fact,I mean, come on,really?The whole thing is just egregious. I get that it was an emergency. McCutcheon said it's one of those things with the construction season, and I'm not trying to make excuses,but I'm just trying to be logical about it.If you start pulling back layers of the onion and you're holding that much earth back,you do have to act with a sense of urgency.Was it handled the best way? Obviously,we would like them to go to City first,which they did. They came in--well, after-the-fact, of course,but they did try to make it right. Margaret Martin,2821 Casco Point Road. I sent in this information earlier in an email and it is from a member of the family who is a civil engineer, a geotech.You have all that information and I won't go through all of the points,but I will just reiterate a couple of the things that he emphasized.He indicated that the wall does not appear to be replaced in-kind and therefore should fall under scrutiny of new construction.It increases impervious surfaces within the buffer, increases discharge to the lake and does not appear that anything has been done to naturalize the shoreline, and I understand timeframe with winter etc.,that that can't be addressed immediately. Surface drainage pads have not been identified. Tree Removal completed prior to plan approval has been discussed. The damage caused by this disturbance may put neighboring properties at risk in the future and this has been addressed. So again,you have a printed version and this is from an engineer who is very knowledgeable.But moreover,we need to consider the fact that that allowing things to go through sets precedents that should not be given in our City so that people think they can get away with it and do things not according to how they're set up. These rules were set up by our City and should be complied with. Commissioners took some time to review the photos that Ms.Worth and Curtis had been able to access. Tyler Warnke,2147 Valley View Place, St.Paul said he was the equipment operator on the shop. I just want to reiterate that I went off what the plans were. I've never seen a slope this steep.And in order to get to the bottom,I had to dig around that. They said it was a road. It did look like a road but I can't reach all the way down to the bottom to pull out the timbers. So we're pulling up timbers going down as we go. Some of them are eight feet back and I have to dig those out.I'm not going to leave those in the ground, because when I construct the new walls,I have to go back. I`ve got to do the tie back. So it's different than just digging a hole. I've got to put a six foot to eight foot chunk on the back to nail the tie back to,to hold the wall., so all that has to be dug out. There's different aspects that made that difficult.Up on the top there's a tree and the neighbors were adamant about leaving the tree. So we worked around that and did what we could to keep it.And that's why there's a little adjustment over on that side just to keep and not destroy the roots on that tree. But it's just it's a big job,no doubt about it.A lot of the stuff had to be dug Page 4 of 19