03-21-2011 Planning Commission Packet

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' i . PC Exhibit D-f� �� . February 22, 2011 F� �/�� �a 2 Honorable Lilly McMillan. cj �20,� Mayor ��F�R City of Orono, MN . �Np Dear Ms. McMillan and Council Members: I am writing with regazd to the Boat Club Parking Use Draft Amendment to be discussed on February 22, 2011. The attached Draft Amendment, Subparagraph 5 is the pazagraph at issue. As you know, I have lived across the street from Sailor's World Marina for the past 261/z years.� I check my dock lines almost every night of the summer. I have witaessed the marina go from a complete eye-sore, unkept and littered with trash and.potential pollution to the modern well-kept and extremely well run marina that it is today. The "secret" of � � that transformation was the combination of good public policy and extremely hard work and stewardship of the Disantis/Seylor family. For its part, the City has been insightful in allowing the mari.na to configure its dock � together with the neighbors providi.ng some setback and other waivers. This in turn . allowed the marina the cash flow to invest in improvements which enhanced the mari.na � to go from a blighted property to an attractive one. Throughout the many yeazs since . then, the Disantis and now Seylor families have mai.ntained the property and done a good job at controlling parking. � Being directly across the street from the Wayzata. side of the marina, I see the south side of the buildi.ng and the north side of the lot every single day. Only occasionally, usually on either the 4�' of July or a da.y or two in Spring when people are preparing their boats for launching have there ever been any problem with pazking in that area. In each and every case, when requested, the people who pull their cars in on my land were asked to remove them by the Sailor's World crew and they did so promptly. In my mind, there is no parking problem real or potential that demands the City of Orono's changing the parking requirements in turn lessening the ability of the business to mai.ntain its good appearance and staffing. To the contrary, I believe there are fundamental flaws with the proposed change represented by Subpazagraph 5 of the Draft Amendment. I think it is well-recognized that on even the most beautiful day of the summer—with the possible exception of the 4�' of Ju1y — only about 30%-35% of boat owners actually go out on their boats. � Furthermore, the boat club is to my knowledge usually people with families that come in