02-22-2016 Workshop Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP FEBRUARY 22, 2016 Council agreed that the City Administrator and Mr. Worthington would work together to come up with a timeline and plan for moving forward. SEXUAL The City Administrator showed two maps, each with a different radius PREDATOR around schools, daycares, parks and churches. The first snap had a 2,000 ORDINANCE foot radius from schools, daycares and parks, and a 1,000 foot radius from churches. The second map had a 1,500 foot radius from schools, daycares and parks, and 750 foot radius from churches. The City Administrator explained that the green areas on the maps show the areas where a sexual predator could live that are outside of the designated radiuses. There were very little housing options on the map with a 2,000 foot radius, and more options for housing on the 1,500 foot radius map. The City Attorney stated that a 1,500 radius is about as far as we can go because that still allows some places for people to live. The City Attorney stated that a city was talcen to court for limiting the allowed housing areas too much, and the city won. McGraw stated that Little Canada is going to be one of the first cities in the area adopting this ordinance, and we can be the frontrunners and see what happens. The City Attorney stated that the 1,500 foot and 750 foot radiuses still leave a reasonable amount of areas to live. The 2,000 foot and 1,000 foot radii takes almost the whole city out and is less defensible. McGraw asked if the city will need to develop findings of fact for why the radius distance was chosen. The City Attorney stated that using bus stops as the areas to protect actually has good logic behind it. He noted that he expects the state will be passing a statute as soon as a lot of other cities start passing these ordinances limiting the places sexual offenders can live, or if it ends up pushing most of the offenders into Minneapolis and St. Paul. The City Administrator noted that including a radius around all of the bus stops was discussed, but the list of bus stops is very long and they haven't been mapped yet. He stated that the bus stop list will fluctuate every year, so the snap would need to be updated annually. He noted that someone who is living in an allowed area can stay if that area changes to a not allowed area later on. The City Administrator suggested adding a piece to the rental ordinance to make the rental property owners accountable if they rent to a sexual offender. Keis stated that the Council is in support of adopting an ordinance for sexual predators. He asked that a snap be created with bus stops shown to review. The Council consensus was to bring the ordinance forward for formal approval at an upcoming meeting, and the Council can determine the radius distances at that time.