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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Tuesday, June 10, 2013 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 12 of 32 9. #13-3606 LUKE KUJAWA OF YOUR BOAT CLUB, 1444 SHORELINE DRIVE, CUP AMENDMENT Luke Kujawa, Applicant, was present. Gaffron stated a boat club is a conditional use in the B-2 District. The applicant is a tenant of the property and is requesting an amendment of the existing conditional use permit to allow an increase in the number of slips allowed for boat club use from 20 to 30 on behalf of himself and the property owner Brown’s Bay, LLC. The Planning Commission at its May meeting held a public hearing and accepted public comments. The residential neighbor to the immediate north and the commercial neighbor to the immediate south made comments favoring denial of the application. The Planning Commission recommended denial of the application by a 5 to 1 vote. The stated reasons for the denial recommendation varied among the commissioners and were not enumerated in the motion to recommend denial. Some of the reasons for denial that were discussed are as follows: 1. No increase in the use should be allowed until the ownership is resolved and site management responsibilities are clarified; 2. The applicant Mr. Kujawa needs to demonstrate a track record of properly using the residential property; 3. Cannot support it given the neighbors’ complaints; 4. The residential property is being used for commercial purposes; the residential property is in Poor condition; and there are liability questions given the questions regarding ownership. The commissioner voting against the denial motion noted that tabling the application would allow for the applicant to address public relations issues and open lines of communication between the parties. The property at 1444 Shoreline Drive (Your Boat Club) has been operated as a commercial marina for many decades and has undergone a number of significant changes over the years, the most significant being a complete redevelopment of the site approved in 1989. In that approval, the City acknowledged a parking plan that made use of 26 parking stalls located on the two residentially-zoned properties located at 1440 and 1442 Shoreline Drive that were owned by the then marina owner. The total parking requirement at that time was 77 stalls for the 118 slips. The number of actual functional slips has since been reduced to 97 and the parking stall requirement was reviewed in 2011 and it was determined that 70 stalls would be adequate. The site has sufficient parking based on code requirements. Gaffron noted there is a contract in place for parking on the residential properties that would require agreement of both the City and the marina owner to extinguish it. Gaffron noted that the marinas parcels are owned by Brown’s Bay, LLC, but are currently in receivership with Thrivent Financial. The two residentially zoned parcels were under the ownership of Tanager Bay, LLC, but have recently been foreclosed upon and are now owned by Crown Bank. The applicant Mr. Kujawa has advised Staff that he has signed purchase agreements for the residential properties and hopes to close of them and become the owner in June. The southern residential lot is under lease by a new resident tenant this year and the northern lot is not inhabited. Item #02 - CC Agenda 06/24/2013 Approval of Council Minutes 06/10/2013 [Page 12 of 32]