05-22-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 8, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 5 of 12 Benson said she thinks it is fair to say as a member of the Council this application will get a higher level of scrutiny. Her preference would be to see a building plan before approving this type of variance. Johnson said he should be treated as every other resident and not be penalized as a Council Member. Walsh said what Benson is proposing would penalize anybody who comes forward because it would make them spend a great deal of money on building plans before a variance, which the City has never done to anybody. He said applicants typically don’t have building plans at this stage when they often don’t know who is going to build the structure. He pointed out the proposal reduces density by going from three pieces of property to two. Benson asked if the City had ever asked for building plans ahead of a variance. Curtis said there have been times when a building plan was requested at this stage depending on the type of variance. Johnson said average lakeshore setback is more for preservation of the neighbors and how a proposed plan would affect them. He said the existing house is his property. Seals said the original concern of the neighbors was high density and that as many as eight new houses might be planned. She said more density is what the City does not want to encourage in that area, so there is benefit in this plan reducing the number of lots. Seals said she does remember seeing a number of these historically when the Council looked at the building envelope versus a full plan, and she would be comfortable with approving it. Seals moved, Walsh seconded, to approve LA23-000014 – Matthew & Susanne Johnson, 1007 Wildhurst Trail, Variance – Resolution NO. 7364 conditioned on Hennepin County accepting the lot line rearrangement. VOTE: Ayes 2, Nays 1 (Benson). Johnson did not vote. FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT Finance Director Olson presented building permit revenue to date. He said a third of the way through the year the City has received one third of the budgeted building permit revenue. The first three months of the year are typically the slowest months of the year so that is a good sign, he added. Olson said several months ago the Council approved moving forward with the SIP protocol to replace the old copper lines for the phone system and he thinks that will be done in the next week. The City is also in the process of changing its domain to Oronomn.gov and has been testing that. Within the next week Council will be able to use the new email addresses. If people use the old emails, messages will be automatically forwarded to the new emails. He suggested Council members put the new email address in their signature block. Olson explained the federal government is recommending cities and counties go to the .gov domain for added security. This is a domain that the federal government maintains and confirms. It should be seamless to the end-user, he said.