05-12-2014 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, May 12, 2014 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 11 of 16 CITY ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT 9. SPECIAL EVENT PERMIT – LONG LAKE ROWING CLUB Gaffron stated the City received a letter requesting permission from Orono for a special event permit for use of Long Lake for regular rowing practice during the boating season. The applicant is part of an organization sponsored by Minneapolis Springs Rowing, LLC, represented by Todd Wilson. The letter of request indicates they do not have a name yet but Mr. Wilson references it as the Long Lake Rowing Club. The Hennepin County Water Patrol’s standard procedure requires written approval by the affected local government bodies prior to issuing such permits. At its February 24, 2014 meeting, the Orono City Council voted 4-0 to approve issuance by the Water Patrol of a 2014 Special Event Permit for the Long Lake Rowing Crew. The approval was subject to two conditions: One, no organized practice on Sundays; and two, the Crew’s use of the lake shall not impede the use of Orono’s Summit Park Beach facilities and access by the public. The application by Mr. Wilson for the Rowing Crew raises the following concerns: 1. The proposed overlap in times of operation, between the Rowing Crew and the Rowing Club may cause problems of congestion on the lake. Even without overlapping use periods, the amount of hours devoted to this single use may be problematic for other users of the lake. 2. The application materials suggest that while the applicant currently has five students, the estimated number of students could be as many as 15 for 2014, and as many as 20 participants total. This potentially places a significant demand on daily lake use as well as parking needs. 3. While no specific event location is noted in the Water Patrol application, the request for storage racks suggests they want to use Summit Beach as a base of operation as well as for equipment storage. 4. The event parking location is listed as private in the Water Patrol application, with no location listed, which seems to conflict with the request for use of a public park/beach as a base of operation. 5. The City generally does not grant exclusive use of City park property for private activities or enterprises for-profit, non-profit or otherwise. Gaffron stated the Rowing Club is proposing to hold practices in the early morning and mid-late afternoon on Monday through Saturday. In addition, the applicant has requested the ability to create a rack for rowing shell storage at Orono’s Summit Park Beach at the southeast end of Long Lake. The use of Summit Park Beach for the proposed level of Rowing Club use would not necessarily rise to the level of a City special event permit but could have impacts on other public use of the park and beach. The potential level of 20 participants suggests the need for parking for up to 20 vehicles, which would potentially create problems for other beach and park users due to the limited available parking. Summit Park Beach has parking currently for approximately 10 to 15 vehicles.