PC item-dry stackboat storage/2001

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#2667 North Shore Marina April 13, 2001 Page 2 Background I. Ancient Historv. The North Shore Marina site has been used for commercial purposes since the 1950's or even earlier. The property was first zoned in 1957 for commercial use, and at that time it contained a sma11 resort. A marina was being operated at the site in1966 when the City chose to rezone it to residential (LR-1C-1). The City was sued by the owner, and the courts ruled that the rezoning was arbitrary and capricious. As a result the City was ordered to rezone it back to commercial (B-2) in 1967. As part of the 1975 City-wide rezoning, the site again was rezoned to residential(LR-1 C-1),based on the directives of the Comprehensive Plan,claims that access to the site was dangerous for vehicular use, increased commercial use would intensify the traffic hazard, and the marina is surrounded by residential uses. This rezoning action brought on the filing of another suit by the then owner, Larry Hork, but the suit did not go forward. In 1977 Hork began construction of a"dry-stack"boat storage system on the site.This led to a legal battle between the City and Hork,the ultimate result of which was a settlement known as "the Dry Stack Agreement" (Exhibit I), allowing construction of a pair of two-tier, 24 space storage units without roofs, and a storage height for the 2°d tier of boats not to exceed 15' at the deck line of the stored boats.In the settlement,Hork agreed to erecting a fence to help screen the stored boats.Those of you who were in the area in the late 1970's and early 80's will remember the infamous ugly blue fence that was installed along North Shore Drive. The storage units were originally constructed so as to contain a 3`d tier, but did not have a roof. However, in 1984 after Hork reconstructed his docks to meet City and LMCD requirements, the property was rezoned again to B-2 Lakeshore Business District,as it is today.Hork was then issued a permit for a new 40' x 75' service building on the site, and was permitted to add roofs to the dry stacks, which extended them to a peak height of 29' above the adjacent ground level, as they exist today. II. Recent Historv. Rich Anderson, current owner, purchased the marina from Hork's family in 1994. Since 1988 the LMCD has been licensing a1172 of the dry stack spaces for boats intended for lake use (as opposed to boats "for sale", "waiting for service", "company boats" or other boats not owned by customers for on-demand launching). Anderson states that he has not exceeded the City's 201ake-use boat limit,even though he continues to pay annual LMCD license fees for the extra 52 spots which have been used primarily for service/repairs, company boats, and long term storage. Staff has discussed the inconsistency with LMCD staff on a number of occasions through the years, but the LMCD policy is not likely to change; in LMCD's view,a boat stored in a rack on the site is likely to be used in the lake,so that space gets licensed. Arguably,every marina probably contains boats stored on trailers for various reasons, and they don't get licensed by LMCD, but they could be going to the lake the same as a dry-stacked boat. Anderson has made great strides with the marina since 1994 in terms of site maintenance. The site has been cleaned up,whereas prior to his occupancy the site contained old decaying boats and debris