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Mounds View City Council March 14, 2005 <br />Regular Meeting Page 12 <br /> <br />people won’t have to get out of their cars anymore to open and close the garage doors. He stated 1 <br />they would exceed the Code for outdoor parking by having 325 spaces. He explained how if they 2 <br />were to rent garages out for storage space to outside parties, they end up spending in excess of 3 <br />$1,300 for court costs and dumping charges to get rid of it when the parties don’t pay, so it 4 <br />doesn’t make economic sense. He stated that most young people today who rent apartments 5 <br />don’t want to rent a garage, and they want to park in the parking lot close to the apartment doors. 6 <br />He added that as part of this improvement they will be regarding and resurfacing the parking lot. 7 <br /> 8 <br />Director Ericson suggested perhaps a compromise would be to approve the Resolution with the 9 <br />addition that if all 100 garages were to become rented out, that would trigger a requirement to 10 <br />build 25 more. 11 <br /> 12 <br />Council Member Flaherty stated a concern regarding this being a common garage because of 13 <br />storage of paint thinners and other hazardous waste products. He stated he agreed with the 14 <br />concept of building less garages because of the low percentage of rental of the existing garages. 15 <br /> 16 <br />Council Member Gunn stated she would like to approve this variance. 17 <br /> 18 <br />Council Member Stigney stated he could not see a hardship, and the City Council is bound by 19 <br />following the same Code that the Planning Commission is bound by. 20 <br /> 21 <br />Mayor Marty stated that possibly a code change is warranted, but he couldn’t vote against a 22 <br />city ordinance without a hardship being demonstrated. 23 <br /> 24 <br />Council Member Flaherty stated he would like to go ahead and grant the variance with the 25 <br />stipulation that Director Ericson had mentioned previously regarding the extra 25 garages. 26 <br /> 27 <br />There was a discussion regarding the length of time it would take to make the necessary 28 <br />code amendments. 29 <br /> 30 <br />Mayor Marty stated if a hardship existed, he wouldn’t have a problem granting the variance, but 31 <br />if they granted a variance in this situation, they would be setting a precedent. 32 <br /> 33 <br />Mr. Menning stated the hardship is that he can’t rent 125 garages. 34 <br /> 35 <br />Director Ericson suggested upholding the Planning Commission’s denial of the variance request, 36 <br />and that the applicant could then come back with a plan in the future to build 100 garages, and 37 <br />if those all became rented out, to build another 25,and that plan could be brought forward to the 38 <br />Planning Commission. 39 <br /> 40 <br />Council Member Thomas stated that in the meantime they could take a look at the Code as it 41 <br />relates to covered parking. 42 <br /> 43 <br />Mayor Marty closed the public hearing. 44 <br /> 45