CC MINUTES 12131983 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-4- Reverend Joseph O. - Valtinson, Jr: , pastor of Elmwood, was present and indicated he and Mr. Jones had assumed upon receiving the • neighbors ' September -12th letter, that further negotiation would probably be unproductive since one of the persons present at one of the hearings .had stated "even one foot more would be too much He concurred with Mr. Jones ' position that the .church had already made important concessions which should be matched . by .the neighbors . The pastor said he perceives the church is suffering its own devaluation in property values when they are forced to rent classrooms for $4 ,000 this year just because they are not permitted to -build on their own property. He said he doesn't perceive a 15 foot addition as dif- fering much from permitted decks -on homes. throughout the City. How- ever, Reverend Valtinson and Mr . Jones indicated they would be willing to, continue to negotiate with the neighbors . Mr. Weiberg reiterated that the September 12th letter had never been intended to be the final position of the neighbors .and indicated the church ' s October 25th proposal appeared .to be a reasonable one which the neighbors might come' to accept if they .could just have the opportunity of exploring with the .project architect the possibility of an inventive treatment of the proposed sanctuary addition, perhaps with curves and angles , which would not have such an adverse impact on the abutting properties . The owners of .the two homes directly behind the church, Mr. and Mrs . Donald Esau and Mr. and Mrs . Lawrence Antczak, 3505 and 3501 - 36th Avenue N.E. , were present and Mr. , Esau acknowledged there had been a "communication gap " in .the negotiations which he requested be resumed, with the architect present, because that 15 additional feet on the sanctuary "remains crucial to Larry and his property" . Mr. Esau recalled that during the hearings the' church officials had originally stated they could probably get by without making changes in the sanctuary as long as they got the needed classrooms . Mr. Childs agreed to serve as catalyst to get the parties together and to moderate the negotiations , "if both parties could accept him as an impartial party" . Those negotiations would have to be called well in advance of a Planning Commission meeting which would be rescheduled for January 3rd so the Commission' s recommendation on the new proposal could be presented to the Council at their -January 10th meeting. Councilman Marks indicated he- perceived from replies made by Reverend Valtinson and Mr. Weiberg to questions he had asked, that the "parties are not really that far apart" - on the .unresolved differences and it appeared to him that some accommodation was possible which would reduce the possibility of 'a win/lose Council -decision. However, he cautioned against writing anything down during the discussions so a hardening of positions could be avoided. The Councilman said he agreed with the Mayor that part of the blame for the communication failure might have been the Council ' s when they failed -to set a definite time frame for discussions between the parties . The Elmwood request was left on the table until January 10th. Mrs . • Makowske was urged to attend the Planning Commission -meeting even though her service on that body would have ceased with her assumption of a seat on the'`Council,JJanuary _.lst.