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Joint meeting: Planning Commission/City Council May 29, 1991 Page3 Lake Elmo seems to be getting sued more often than some other cities, but consider staffing, size of city, development pressure. The city has not insisted on developers submitting sufficient data, consiquently, we have made decisions that have not been as good as they could have been. Maybe we don't know how to say no. The City Council has been making decisions based on incomplete information, and partially because of that some of the decisions were not correct, and because of that some developers think that sueing Lake Elmo is a winner. Mr. Filla handed out an outline in order for the Planning Commission, City Council and City Staff to understand what standards the City is being held to. One point made is the council and commission minutes are not accurate, - except for motions, are not complete, and will always be used against the City in litigation. Minutes take a lot of time, create a lot of anxiety, and do not turn out to be as accurate as anyone wants them to be. Mr. Filla would prefer to see more brevity in the council minutes. From a legal stand point all that's'necessary is the motions and reasons to support the action taken. Special Use Permits: allows something that is consistent with the code. Special Use Permits run with the land, think of it as a special covenant or as an easement. If someone follows the conditions of their CUP, they can continue using their property in that way forever. If someone does not follwo the conditions then to City must revoke the CUP. Variances: unlike CUP's, allow something that is contrary to the code. A person wanting a variance has a higher standard of proof than someone wanting a CUP. It is very hard to be consistent. If you follow the standards in your code and the state statutes, there would be very few variances granted by anybody because the way hardship is defined. Self created hardship is not a valid reason for granting a variance. Just because you've granted a varine to one person does not justify granting the same kind of variance for another person. Each variance as it's submitted stands alone on its own merits. It's easier for the City to say it will not grant any variances rather than pick and choose. Once you start granting variances to people you may know or whatever, you must grant them fo everybody to be fair. You must understand your standards and codes and apply the standards for variances contained in your code, and you will not be granting very many variances. Councilman Johnson stated our code is not easily understandable. You have to decide as a City what kinds of regulations you want. Then you have to decide as a City that you are going to insist on those regulations being enforced by everybody involved in the process. Some '( of this becomes what are your resources and how do you want to alocate them. You have to realize that as a slow growth community you are not going to have as many resources as other communities as soon as other communities do. YOU HAVE TO PUT THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE.