10-13-1997 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

propert}' owners would like to individually, or as a group, purchase a portion of a property to obtain lake access or purchase an entire propert>' and divide it among a number of nearby owners for the lakeshore. To allow such arrangements w ould raise the value per foot of lakeshore to such a high level that many, if not all lakeshore owners wou>d be tempted to sell small portions, or all of their propert>' for such uses. Veiy likely the resulting property' tax increases would force or persuade many more to do the same. Left unchecked, it could result in a substancial proportion of iakcihore changing from single family residences to a proliferation of many small slices of land serving nearby properties as purely lake access sites. This clearlv is not the future which the citv's CMP and Cit\- Code book advocate for single family residential properties with lakeshore. I feel that the proposed subdivision of the 905 property' is a very similar situation in both the motivation and the result. Add to this subdivision, the proposed .subdivisions on 1045 and a yet to be submitted additional partitioning of the 905 property and you can very' well see the pattern that I'm referring to. t hese are combining to effectively redraw’ the properties surrounding our home. I realize propoity ow ners have a right to do as they wish w ith their land w'ithin limits. But the city also has zoning and land use regulations for many reason.s, which I strongly feel are present in this situation. There are a large number of sections in the Ci^^ Cede book and the CMP-which are directly related to this application and those for adjoining properties. Page 4-3 of the CMP when discussing rural land use plans, points out that Orono's citizens are making pri\ate investments based on the concepts and information in the CMP and are entitled to kno w that they can rely on the plan. Certainly the same can be said for your zoning rules and regulations and the other sections of the CMP. .And yet to allow property cw ners to change property lines and relationships purely on a whim or personai likes and desires alone would leave all properties vulnerable. This constant change and uncertainty would prov ide no protection from a wide range of affects on each property’s usage and value which would certainlv result in a substancial nurriber of these 9 situations. There also is no criteria and predictable system in place to guide decisions regarding small divisions and redraw ing of property lines such as w'e see occurring around us at 905. 980. 1045. and 1055 West Femdale Road. Kow could any potential or current property ovviier possibly anticipate and react to such -’n unpredictable and unstable environment or assess its potential impact in the fiiture. Property owners sh«.nild have an assurance that property lines are more than merely a temporaiy agreement that can be. chansed at anv time and for aiw reason.