06-11-2012 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, June 11, 2012 • 7:00 o'clock p.m. (5. #11 -3503 CITY OF ORONO, ZONING TEXT AMENDMENT - LAKESHORE RESIDENTIAL ZONING DISTRICTS. DOCK RENTAL, Continued) A public hearing was held before the Planning Commission on March 19, 2012, during which public comment on the topic was received. The hearing and discussion were reopened at the April 16 Planning Commission meeting, tabled again, and reopened at the May 21 meeting. Through the various hearings, a common theme expressed multiple times by multiple persons was, "we do not want rental of residential docks, but we want to allow relatives, neighbors, and friends to be able to store a boat at our dock for some short or long period of time without them being in violation of the ordinances." At the May 21 meeting, City Attorney Soren Mattick presented draft language for discussion purposes. The draft language included the originally proposed language from May, 2011, that prohibits slip rental, plus three "exceptions" that would be allowed. 1. Relatives of the homeowners shall be allowed to dock a boat on the private dock; 2. Property owners located within 1,000 feet of the private dock may dock a boat at the,pzivate dock; 3. Any boat may be docked on a private dock for a period not to exceed 72 consecutive hours.. The City Attorney made it clear that the exceptions as drafted are not his recommended solution, and he led the Planning Commission through a discussion about the potential pitfalls, interpretation issues, and • enforcement difficulties associated with each exception. Gaffron stated at the end of the discussion, the Planning Commission voted 5 -0 to recommend adoption of the original draft "rental prohibition" clarification language and adoption of just the third exception. That recommendation would add language to the existing "private dock" provisions within the Accessory Uses section of each of the Lakeshore Residential Zoning Districts, as follows: Private docks, subject to this code and other applicable regulations, including boat storage density requirements. The accessory use of a private dock shall not include renting or otherwise providing space, including boat buoys, for docking, mooring, or storing one or more boats belonging to persons other than the owner or occupant of the property, except when licensed as a joint use. However, any boat may be docked on a private dock for a period not to exceed 72 consecutive hours. Gaffron stated this item is before the City Council tonight for discussion and that he would not recommend adopting the language that is before them. Rahn noted this application has been before the Planning Commission three times and three times for the City Council and that perhaps it has been discussed enough. Rahn commented it would be difficult to enforce residential dock rentals and that in his view creating a separate set of rules is not the path he would like to go down. The one common denominator in all the discussions is that the City does not want homeowners to have the ability to rent private residential docks. Rahn moved to amend Staffs report at Item No. 1 to state: "Private docks, subject to this code and • other applicable regulations, including boat storage density requirements," and to amend the second sentence to read: "The accessory use of a private dock shall not include renting space..." Page 3 of 17