PL MINUTES 11171981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-2- Mrs . Makowske requested staff make reservations for her to attend the Planning and Zoning Institute to be held in Bloomington , December 10th and 11th. Mr. Enrooth . and Mr. Peterson will contact Mr. Berg before November 24th- to indicate their interest in attending, if there is funding available. At 7 : 47 P.M. , the Chairman Pro Tem opened the public hearing on the variance petition from Sid Johnson for the St . Anthony Court. He had delayed the hearing in anticipation of the arrival of the petitioner, who failed to appear during the- .meeting. Mr. Jones -read the notice of the hearing which had gone out to all property owners within 200 feet of the site., between 3909. and 4017 Silver Lake Road, for which the variance of 238 square feet per unit is requested. No one present reported failure to receive the notice nor objected to its contents . Mr. Berg reported the application fee of $25 had been paid and reiterated the problems with density which had arisen in connection With the townhome development and now necessitates a variance to the zoning ordinance requirements to be presented at a public hearing, as reported in his October 23rd .and November 13th memorandums . In his notices to the Council and the Commission, the Administrative Assistant had indicated that during the title search connected with the final platting of the Johnson site, the City Attorney had discovered a 10 foot easement along Silver Lake Road had been dedicated to Ramsey County by Gordon Hedlund in 1978 , with the dedication recorded on neither of the plats held by the City or the County. As an indica- tion of this , he pointed out that Ramsey County had, in 1981, requested such an easement be dedicated, which the City had denied because Mr. Johnson had, at that time , indicated in writing he foresaw a density problem for his proposed development with such an easement. The county has since confirmed they'. have no plans for use of the easement and. don ' t anticipate a need for it for expansion purposes in the future, according to Mr. Berg who recommends the requested variance be granted Mr. Johnson so he .can complete his construction of 25 units as proposed. When the question was raised whether Mr. Johnson knew of the easement held by the county, Mr. Berg said he was certain the developer had discovered its existence at approximately the same time as the City Attorney. He also confirmed that, with the variance, the St. Anthony Court will have a 31 foot front yard setback; there will need to be no change in the plans for driveways , and the 600 feet along Silver Lake Road will, in all likelihood, remain open space. Any effort to get the easement back from the county will be a lengthy process , Mr. Berg warned, andwould certainly interfere with the construction timetable for the project, since five units are partially up, with Council approval. Mr. Bjorklund arrived at 8 :01 P.M. Mrs . Makowske questioned whether the easement might be needed for cable T.V. installation but none have been scheduled to date , as far as Mr. Berg knows , and he also told her the reason the City might not have noted the 600 feet had been removed from the tax rolls was because Ramsey County does the City assessing in that area. He will • check to see if Mr. Hedlund might have also dedicated a similar ease- ment in front of the property to the south utilized by Craig and Co.