03-01-2004 CCM - Laserfiche WebLink

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LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES MARCH 1, 2004 4 Attorney Filla asked, to be clear, the direction is for staff not to suspend fence height violations until the 16th, and we are going to wait until both parties involved in Carriage Station are notified. Staff will proceed and issue letters to property owners with nonconforming fences. M/S/P Johnston/Siedow – to place the question of code enforcement on fence height city wide, including Carriage Station, on the March 16 Council agenda. (Motion passed 5-0.) Council member Johnston said it seemed reasonable to him that the Building Official would go out and look at the fences in Carriage Station and determine which ones are nonconforming and advise those property owners this will be a discussion topic at the March 16 meeting. Mayor Hunt suggested holding an enforcement workshop with the Building Official, Acting City Administrator, Washington County Deputy and Attorney Filla to talk about how the Council want items investigated and the code enforced. This could possibly be discussed at the Marilyn Condon workshop. D. Role of the Council: Oversight and Preventing Problems in the Future: Council member Johnston explained in his opinion the problem facing the council is balancing micromanaging versus its responsibility for oversight. He said one of the reasons this fence issue has become a problem is the homeowner, whose fence is in question, maintains he had consulted with the city and told by city staff that the fence was okay to build. This is not the first time that those kinds of claims were made to the City. Johnston raised the questions if these claims get documented, followed up on, investigated, and if they are accumulated for performance reviews? He asked what happens when we get this kind of problem and how do we keep it from happening again. Mayor Hunt stated we could bring these questions up to the City Administrator. Johnston added based on what the homeowner has provided the Council in writing, a City official was on the site at least three different times and is a good example for troubleshooting the process. Mayor Hunt responded that now we have a fence permit process, and we will not have problems any more. Council member DeLapp stated we should go back and get code compliance enforcement. He pointed out the city has a strict code on driveways, and there are driveways put in without permits and totally outside of city specs. This item would be placed on the agenda for the code enforcement workshop. E. Council Direction to Planning Commission Regarding Solid Fences: Council member Johnston said the current code talks about no solid fences that are over 4’ high. He read the Planning Commission minutes where they are now considering 6’ opaque fences. He asked if the Council wanted opaque fences 6 feet high and if so pass this along to the Commission. Council member Siedow said we should not have a one size fence fits all…a 2.5 acre lot could have a larger fence and a three-quarter of an acre