05-21-2012 Planning Commission Packet

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. . . � � MIlVUTES OF THE � � ORONO PLANNING CONIlVIISSION MEETING Monday,March 19,2012 � ' 6:30 o'clock p.m. complaints that do arise are typically from neighbors where boat siips are being rented to a non-owner, non-renter, or non-occupant of the property. The impacts include traffic,noise, activiiy at odd hours, parking concerns, and the uncertainty of unknown persons being in the neighborhood. Gaffron stated in his view there are situations that have caused issues but there are probably a signifieant number of situations that have not caused problems. Orono does have a number of commercial marinas. In total they provide approximately 450 rental slips. The marina owners are aware that some of the boat owners likely will gravitate to a less costly,private slip if the opportunity is available. Whether this is a common occunence has not been studied and Staff does not know how often this is happening. Staff does have some e�camples of property ownership in the leasing of lakeshore property that makes this more of a complex issue than it may seem on the face of it. , Gaffron stated two actual examples Staff has faced in the past include the following: If one person rents or leases a lakeshore cabin,does that give them dock rights even if he is not living . there. What if up to four unrelated persons each have a lease of the cabin but do not live there and just _ visit the property to use their boat? This situation existed in 1993 and exists today,with�a residence structure that has a tax valuation of$4,000 and is not habitable. Four slips continue to be rented out to various people because the property owner is able to produced cabin rental leases for the boat owners. This situation was looked at by the City Attorney in 1993 and resulted in the following opinion: "Absent some evidence that the spaces at the dock are being rented out to persons who are not entitled to use the remaining portions of the property,we believe this does not constitute a commercial use of the dock." His comparative analysis concluded that"If this type of arrangement is construed to be an unlawful operation of a�commercial dock, any dwelling in this(residential)district would also constitute an illegal commercial dock if the tenant used the dock on the properiy to store a boat." The second situation is: If I live in and homestead in Maple Grove but my parents own a lakeshore cabin on Lake Minnetonka, and my boat that I keep at the cabin is registered in my name to my residence in Maple Grove,what is my status? I'm clearly neither the owner nor the occupant. In a few past cases,the boat owners have re-titled their boat to the property owner's name and address to get around this. The effect of the code sections that currently, in combination,act to prohibit slip rental at private residential property cannot be extinguished by merely crossing out some wording. The regulation as it exists relies on the established zoning premise that because"rental of in-water boat slips" is a recognized permitted use in the B2 District and not in other districts is,by definition, a marina business,which �requires a license per Section 94-76 but which cannot be issued for property in a district otlier than B2. In order to make rental of slips legal in�residential districts,the City would have to list it as an allowed use in those districts, as well as revise the definitions of"Marina Business" and "Business of Docking, Mooring or Storing Boats"where they appear in the zoning and licensing codes. Per City Council direction and following input received from the public and Planning Commission, Staff and the City Attorney will begin working on draft language for each of the two regulatory options under consideration. � The Planning Commission should address the following: � 1, Hold a public hearing to gather public input regarding the issues surrounding rental of slips at private residential docks. Page � 17