03-27-2002 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL MARCH 27, 2002 Fahey indicated that he has reviewed the letter from Mentes' realtor and it does not say that the City informed him a CUP would be approved. Fahey noted that the letter indicates that the City Planner said the CUP would likely be approved, however, no one on City staff made the representation that it would be approved. Cindy Mentes stated that they were led to believe the CUP would be approved. Mentes reported that both she and her husband called the City to discuss the issue. The City even assisted in calculating the dimensions of the garage so that the size was under the 1,500 square feet. Mentes indicated that at no time did anyone ever say that the CUP was "iffy". Mentes reported that reliance on the CUP was the only reason they bought the property. Scalze felt that when the CUP request was first made, the City worked out a fairly good compromise that would allow the Mentes to have a second garage that was not so out of character with the neighborhood. Al Mentes pointed out the Code limitation on utilizing more than 25% of the rear yard area. Mentes pointed out his large lot and noted that the garage he is proposing would not come close to utilizing more than 25% of the back yard. Scalze felt that the circumstances have not changed since the CUP request was first presented. Scalze also noted That there was input from the neighborhood last year when the CUP was first proposed. However, the Council's action at that time was based on whether or not the proposed garage fit the character of the neighborhood. Ton Erik Kingstad, attorney representing Mr. and Mrs. Mentes, noted the recommendation of the City Attorney and his support of the Council's prior action. Kingstad stated that he takes exception to that action because the compromise the Council approved was a denial of the Mentes' request without any Findings of fact. Kingstad stated that the Council's action did not address the public health, safety, or welfare. The Mentes' are requesting a reconsideration based on those issues. Kingstad indicated his position that his clients' request met public health, safety, and welfare standards. The Council's action, however, was subjective and based on aesthetics. Kingstad took exception to that and pointed out that the City's ordinance allows by CUP garages ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 square feet in size. The Council has the ability to impose conditions on garages that fall within that range. However, there is no basis under the ordinance for denying these garages other than based on issues related to public health, safety, or welfare. Kingstad requested that the Council reconsider the Mentes' CUP request and approve it, while imposing conditions to protect the public health, safety, and welfare, but not imposing conditions related to scale and character of the neighborhood.