PL MINUTES 09151987 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

1 than the one caretaker residence already allowed in this particular 2 mini-warehouse, which is the only facility of this type in St. 3 Anthony. He indicated it was therefore hard for him to conceive 4 how this would open the City to a deluge of similar requests for 5 other types of buildings. Commissioner Werenicz responded that he 6 agreed with the Chair that the precedent would be established for 7 other types of businesses to ask for similar treatment which would 8 favor their own business. 9 Commissioner Madden pointed out that this particular Ordinance had 10 apparently been on the books for at least nine years. Mr. Childs 11 had confirmed that, in the six years he had been with the City, no 12 business had come in to him to ask for a caretaker residence in 13 their own building because the precedent for doing that had been 14 established with the mini-warehouse facility. 15 The Manager reported he was aware of instances where the code had 16 been enforced and the property owners had not asked to have the 17 Ordinance changed. One of these had been when the proprietor of 18 Craig & Company had rented space in his basement but made the 19 family leave after the City had told him the Ordinance. didn' t 20 permit that. Mr. Childs said staff had also been keeping a close 21 eye on the Northgate Office Park to see unit owners didn' t try to 22 use the space above their offices, which have water and plumbing 23 fixtures. None of these owners had yet asked for an Ordinance •24 change, he added. 25 Commissioner Werenicz quoted the suggestion Mr. Childs had made in 26 his memorandum that "the major question the Commissioner had to 27 address with the mini-warehouse request was whether a facility this 28 small really needs two on-site resident caretakers" and reiterated 29 that it was his own position that the applicant had failed to 30 demonstrate there was "a real need" for the second residence in 31 this building. 32 Mr. Solie conceded that the caretaker would not normally let 33 tenants into their units after hours, but persisted in. saying this 34 is a 7 day, 16 hour operation, which demanded the presence of 35 someone on the site at all times. He told Commissioner London 36 there is plenty of work to keep that person occupied because with 37 about a 5% turnover every week, the caretaker keeps busy showing 38 the units to new tenants, signing leases and performing other 39 general duties like maintaining the units and collecting the rents 40 and locking and unlocking the units each day. The Chair told him 41 she found those duties to be analogous to the responsibilities of 42 an apartment caretaker. 43 Mr. Childs drew the Commission' s attention to the fact that, 44 although the caretaker unit in the mini-warehouse was a condition- 45 ally permitted use in the current Ordinance, in the event the 46 facility was burned down or otherwise destroyed, the owners would 8