PC Minutes 6-20-06
Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
Larson: I'll give it a shot. Planning Commission, staff. Okay is this what I'm supposed to read?
Planning Commission, the staff recommends that the Planning Commission adopt the following
motion. The Planning Commission denies the variance for a 22 foot yard setback for an existing
four stall garage and relief from the 1,000 square foot detached access structure restriction in a
single family residential district at 3 891 West 62nd Street based on the findings of fact in the staff
report and the following, 1 through 3. Planning Commission orders the applicant to demolish
and permanently remove three storage buildings. That's it? Okay.
McDonald: Do I have a second?
Keefe: Second.
Larson moved, Keefe seconded that the Planning Commission denies the variance for a 22
foot front yard setback for an existing four-stall garage and relief from the 1,000 square
foot detached accessory structure restriction in the Single Family Residential (RSF)
District at 3891 West 62nd Street, based on the findings of fact in the staff report and the
following:
1. The applicant has not demonstrated a hardship.
2. The applicant has reasonable use of the property.
3. The applicant will be able to continue the non-conforming agricultural use without the
three storage buildings which were constructed without building permits.
The Planning Commission orders the applicant to demolish and permanently remove the three
storage buildings.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to O.
McDonald: What I need to tell the applicant is that you have the ability to appeal. Please don't
forget this time... and good luck. Thank you.
PUBLIC HEARING:
LOREN VELTKAMP: VARIANCE REQUEST FOR RELIEF FROM 30 FOOT FRONT
YARD SETBACK REQUIREMENT FOR THE EXPANSION OF SECOND LEVEL OF
HOME WITH NON-CONFORMING SETBACKS. TWO SETBACK VARIANCES
WILL BE REQUIRED BECAUSE THE PROPERTY IS A CORNER LOT. THE SITE IS
LOCATED IN THE SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (RSF) DISTRICT AT 6724
LOTUS TRAIL. PLANNING CASE 06-25.
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
Public Present:
Name
Address
Sig & Don Sennes
Pat & Keith Gunderson
Jeff King
Bruce Johansson
Jim Boeshans
Mike Henderson
Shelly Berg
6680 Mohawk Drive
6661 Mohawk Drive
767 Carver Beach Road
6701 Mohawk Drive
6651 Pawnee Drive
6701 Mohawk Drive
6701 Mohawk Drive
Josh Metzer presented the staff report on this item.
McDonald: Before you go on there, I've got a question. If you're saying that he was renting,
what's the City's position on that? If this is rental property with apartments within it, what's the
code? Is he supposed to have a license?
Generous: He would need a rental license.
McDonald: And at this point he does not have one.
Metzer: Correct.
McDonald: And I take it that is in dispute between the City and the applicant as to whether or
not he was renting.
Metzer: Correct. Staff is however recommending approval of the request. We feel that by
recommending approval of this variance we'll be able to better enforce ordinances on the
property. And so we have some conditions of approval attached in the staff report and I'd be
happy to answer any questions you have.
McDonald: Dan.
Keefe: Can you explain how granting a variance will help to be able to enforce?
Metzer: It's mainly the condition that they'd be required to get a rental license. Kind of allow us
to restrict parking in the area. Things like that.
Keefe: And so, you can't do that without getting the variance?
Metzer: From what we've been told, no. It was just.
Keefe: It was just conditions of approval, conditions of approval for reconstruction? For
expansIOn.
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
Metzer: Of the second level.
Keefe: Would incorporate certain conditions which would restrict the use of the building.
Metzer: Right, and would not allow the kitchen on the second level. Restrict it to two kitchens
with the home.
Keefe: And the City cannot control the uses in the building without?
Metzer: Without that condition of approval, right.
Keefe: Okay.
Dillon: What's the status of the building today?
Metzer: They have received a permit to rebuild what they had, without the proposed addition.
So they're in the process ofre-building the roof right now.
Dillon: Is it inhabited?
Metzer: I don't believe so. It shouldn't be.
McDonald: Debbie. Kurt.
Papke: Yeah, I've got a couple. On page 3 of the staff report, you mentioned that in the building
permit history here there were two building permits issued and that they were issued in error.
Could you shed some light on that? What was?
Metzer: It was basically, there must have been confusion on the setback to the north, that paper
street. Requires a 30 foot setback. My only guess is that, whichever staff members approved the
permits were under the impression that it was a 10 foot setback to that.
Papke: Okay. The other question was, we're attaching a couple conditions here and I just want
to make sure I'm clear how they line up with city code. So the hard surface coverage is clear.
Four vehicles parked outdoors at all times. Where does that, is this part of city code for rental
property? For single family residential. Where does that, how does that line up with city code.
Metzer: It was my understanding that you know it's the intention but not to allow the property to
become you know a humongous rental property. And it was thought that by limiting the number
of vehicles you park in the driveway.
Papke: Is there a limit for residential single family?
Metzer: There's not.
Papke: Okay. And how about, the same question about the two licensed dogs.
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
Metzer: It's just to make sure that.
Papke: Is there a restriction for residential single family for how many dogs you can have
without a kennel permit?
Metzer: Yes.
Papke: What is it?
Generous: If you have more than 2.
Papke: More than 2, okay. So this one is basically in keeping with city code whereas the
number of parked cars there we're actually restricting the applicant to something tighter than
existing city code for residential single family. With sort of the tacit assumption that it's rental
property and okay. Got it.
McDonald: I have a question for you. Okay, this is a non-conforming use and to approve this
we're going to intensify a non-conforming use. And the reason we want to do that is that we're
able to put some restrictions on his use.
Papke: Correct.
McDonald: Whereas if we denied this and said that what he's allowed to do by law is to replace
what was currently there, then he doesn't get the second story addition. And then we're back to
okay, no rental license but can't city code enforce that if he is renting without a license?
Metzer: Well part of it was the.
McDonald: You'll get your opportunity sir. We're just asking questions.
Metzer: Part of it was the sheriff s report that was taken when the home was burnt down.
Tenants... stating that they were renting. Sheriff s report said that there was at least three family
units living there.
McDonald: Three kitchens, that would make sense.
Metzer: So, and as we were going with, by doing this we can disallow a third kitchen. We can
restrict parking space, or number of parked vehicles. Which in turn would I believe restrict
number of renters.
Papke: How are we normally, kind of a follow up question. How would we, if in normal
circumstance we found that someone was renting out, you know most of their house to, as rental
units. How would we normally get compliance for a rental license? How would we normally
enforce that under those circumstances?
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
Metzer: I'm not totally familiar with it.
Generous: It's through the building department. They have a rental license inspection
requirement and licensing requirement, so they would go in and determine that the units
complied with all building and safety code.
Papke: And how would we determine that indeed this was a rental property?
Generous: Through investigation. Either the applicant admits that they're renting the property
or the tenant admits that they're renting the property. Or you know we see an advertisement in
the paper, things like that. If someone can say no, I don't. These are my roommates and, then
the issue becomes how do you disprove that because the burden of proof is on the city.
Papke: Okay.
Larson: Is it, the gentleman that was here before when they had the rental for the care keeper
for his daughter. I somehow remember there was something that there is a restriction on how
many people can rent in a certain.
Metzer: That was for use of a single family home as a two family home.
Larson: Okay. So this is a completely different?
Generous: Right.
Larson: It's a single family home rented by several family units...
Metzer: Rent is allowed as long as a rental license is you know in place and is applied for.
Larson: Okay. So there's no restriction on the amount of family units that can be within a single
building?
Generous: Theoretically.
Larson: Okay.
McDonald: Okay, I guess the problem I'm having with all of this is that, we've got a non-
conforming use. We just had a non-conforming use case. We turned that down because of the
way the code and everything is written. Now you're coming before us, you're asking us to
approve something that we just turned down and I'm at a loss to see what the advantage is
because again, you know we just went through all this with Mr. Carlson about what he's offering
to do and the compromises, back and forth. I don't see yet why I should do this. I haven't heard
anything actually from staff that would convince me, and that's what I'm looking for. Why are
you in favor of this?
Metzer: It's like we said, the requirement of the rental license.
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
McDonald: Okay but again you have city code to do that. You can enforce that. I understand
the problem of yes, the burden of proof is upon the city but I mean at some point it would seem
pretty easy to prove that if you have so many people going in and out, they all can't be living
there for free. I'm just, I'm at a loss. You've got to help me here to show where we're really
getting an advantage here.
Dillon: Yeah, if you take the rental thing off the table, would you say to approve this? Given
your recommendation on the previous two variances.
Metzer: Just allowing the kitchen on the third level and restrict the number of parking spaces.
The number of parked vehicles outside. And that was part of the reason that the driveway
became so large we believe is to allow for parking spaces.
Larson: So you'd allow two kitchens, but not three?
Metzer: Right.
McDonald: Well ifhe rebuilds though, does he get to go back to three kitchens and the wide
driveway? I mean if we don't approve this. He is allowed to rebuild the non-conforming
because of the fire. Does he get the three kitchens back and the driveway if we were to disallow
this?
Metzer: Well he doesn't get the driveway, no. I mean he doesn't get the 25%. He has to reduce
25%. Part of that was the reason the driveway became so big we believe is because of the
parking spaces. They need parking spaces.
McDonald: Okay, and again the third kitchen was built without permits, so wouldn't he have to
get permits to build a kitchen if he wanted to, even if it's non-conforming, it was there before, it
was there illegally.
Metzer: Right.
Generous: It depends.
McDonald: Okay, so he would still be limited to two kitchens.
Metzer: Right.
McDonald: Okay. I'm having trouble seeing where if we disallow it, we're gaining anything
but, are you the applicant sir?
Loren Veltkamp : Yes I am.
McDonald: Why don't you come forward and you can, I'll give you your turn and then we'll ask
you questions.
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
Loren Veltkamp: I can clarify a lot of this very quickly. These issues came up about 5 years ago
when I started to work on this house and we did spend a lot of time. Oh, my name is Loren
Veltkamp. 6724 Lotus Trail. I've lived there for about 15 years and during the time I've added
a lot to the house. And I did this all without a variance and after my divorce I was deemed
handicapped by the court and I was not able to make a regular living due to certain problems.
But anyway I resorted to renting my home out and we got into this with the city over a long
period of time and it, this was before Josh was hired by the City, and we went through it with a
number of people and it went all the way up to the city attorney and I eventually got a letter from
the city attorney saying that I did not have rental units. And this is what I said from the
beginning, you know I have a single family home. It's a very nice home, and I don't want rental
units. I don't want to have apartments or a triplex or a duplex or anything like that. I've never
set out to do this, and the problem we got into was that the code defining what an apartment is, is
a little vague. You know it says if you have 5 particular amenities, like cooking. A place to eat,
sleeping, a bathroom and a living space, those 5 things, then you have an apartment. Okay, but it
also says you have to have a separate unit, okay, and that's where it was determined that I did not
have apartments because they were not separate okay, and that there was no door between them.
There was certainly no locking door, so it never became a definable, rentable space. And it's
confusing, I was very confused about this for a long time, and I ended up writing an 8 page letter
to City Council about this, which I believe they still have and you can look at it. I call these,
instead of a rental unit, I called it a mila which stood for mother-in-law apartment. And that's
what I thought I was building was just mother-in-law apartments that extended families could
use in the future, and roommates can use today. And so that's what I set out to build and the
kitchen for example, I did get, I didn't exactly get a permit to build a kitchen but I included the
kitchen on my plan and because I put a bathroom up there, the kitchen was included under the
plumbing permit. And the kitchen was thoroughly inspected and approved and my house was
visited 5 times on 5 separate occasions by city inspectors. Five different times now they went
through my house from top to bottom to determine that there were not apartments in this
building. And that's exactly what I wanted from the beginning. I don't want apartments, but I
needed to have people live with me in order to afford the house because I just, there's just no
way I can stay there. So I think maybe they cut me some slack you know because of the
handicap thing. I'm thinking that's what they might have done. And I did have trouble you
know when I built the house writing in the plans you know, I changed the plans as I went. They
started off just building a garage and then I got up on top of the garage and I said this is really
nice living space so I built a room up there. And then I extended it into the house and then I put
in a bathroom and it was all done kind of piecemeal, and I changed the windows three times and
I did this over a number of years, which is why the records and I submitted hand drawings on
some of the stuff and I believe some of it was lost. You know some of it was just misplaced, but
in the end everything I did was you know rigorously inspected and I had all the paperwork for
that. I pulled all the necessary permits and even the city attorney spent a great deal of time
looking into this. And it is a complicated issue. You know the difference between an apartment
and having roommates, and especially when you have the five amenities but you don't have
significant separation of the units. So I was totally confused about it, and I don't blame other
people for being confused about it too. But I didn't do anything without a permit, and I didn't do
anything without a permit and you know the work is not all perfect and all that stuff. I did a lot
of it myself but I was thoroughly inspected and we had this all set. I did have roommates in my
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house and you know we went on this way for 5 years you know and it's been fine. And I'd like
to continue it just the way it was. With a couple little alterations but I think that the city after
some time made the right decision you know. And everything I think has been pretty good, and I
would just like to continue it. This variance request is not really born out of hardship. You
know what actually happened here is that the roof burned off and I had some builders come over
and say you know, what do I do you know, and they said why are you building out over the
garage when you should be building out over your house, you know. Because then you can stack
the bathrooms and you can put the storage over the garage and everything is much cleaner and
neater and you know more economical. So for purely practical reasons I said well, maybe I
should apply for this variance you know. I'm not going to get another chance to do it so. This is
probably the right thing to do for a house. I'll give it a shot. And in terms of hardship, you
know I'm not going to exaggerate hardship here. There's a certain amount of hardship in having
a poorly designed house and paying more utilities because things are spread out more and this
kind of thing, and I suppose over the life of the house that probably goes into the tens of
thousands of dollars. There is some hardship here with having a poorly designed house, that
kind of thing but it's nothing that we can't understand. It's pretty clear. So there is some
hardship here and there is some opportunity here and I basically just want to build the house a
little differently. I don't want to add square feet or anything like that. I don't want to add
anything to bother anybody here. By just cleaning up the design of the house a little bit, and
make it a little more livable and get things where they belong and put in a different heat system
and things like that, then you know I'm good to go.
McDonald: Okay. Any questions? Kurt?
Keefe: I've got a question in regards to, you know locating the kitchen on the second level, if
you were to grant this variance, you're okay with that?
Loren Veltkamp: Actually I can't survive in the house with that because the roommates that I
had used the kitchen, and I used it too. The kitchens were a common area as the City
determined. When you have roommates the City, you know they. . . hard and fast ordinance was
the City wrote me a letter saying that bedrooms in this situation are private, okay. You can't
have people walking into other people's bedrooms. So they're considered private. All of the
areas are common. Are held in common. So anybody can walk into anybody's kitchen or you
know into any of the living areas or decks or you know, I had everything in the house. I mean
hot tub and spa and everything, and everybody, exercise room. You know just everything that
anybody would want almost. We had large screen TV's and entertainment rooms and it was
wonderful. And people loved it and all the people that lived there as part of the fire losing stuff,
they all want to come back you know. They all signed six month sub leases and they all want to
come back in August. And I said I'll do whatever I can to get you back you know. So it's a
happy family. It's more like an extended family than a bunch of you know rental units. I mean I
don't even like rental dwellings. I wouldn't even have a rental if it was up to me. Roommates is
the only way to go. But that's the state of things today. But I want to emphasize that we went
through a great deal of trouble talking about this 5 years ago and it was all agreed and
determined in writing and cleared up finally. And now, since the fire, this whole issue has just
exploded again. You know and it's because we got new people working the city and the reason
they told us very little and you know the people before that didn't read them that literally. And
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
there's another issue here that I need to bring up and this is even weirder. I've been in this house
for 15 years you know working on it and I've had I think 5 surveys done on this house in the
time that I've lived there. After the fire my survey was done again by the same guy for I think
maybe the eighth time, and it was rejected 4 times because he couldn't get it right. You know I
agreed with staff that it wasn't really done right. It's crazy but in spite of all this, I still don't
even know which way my house is facing. I've been there 15 years and I don't know which way
my house is facing. It used to face south and the driveway went south and the front door went
south and there was a paper road out there that's going to be developed, which was the fastest
way out of the, you know away from the lake there. And also the guy that owned by lot owns
another lot which was on this road you know going out so the house originally had defined
setbacks. You know it was 30 feet, 10 and 10, which was the way that they did things back then.
But now the city decides Lotus is the main road, and they have new setbacks you know. 30 and
30 and 15 and 15 on the sides. This just kills me you know. If my house had burned, it's a very
serious problem. If my house had burned for another 10 minutes, I would have been past the
50% destruction level, and I would have lost everything. This scared the bejeebies out of me you
know. I totaled up what my loses would have been, and I would have lost a half a million
dollars. That's what I would have lost after I got all my insurance and everything else. Just
because of that one code. I had no idea that code existed. So I think the city's got to look at this
a little more carefully because people don't have insurance for their house and the lot in case
they can't ever rebuild it. You know I certainly can't. So that's a side issue but getting back to
this more important issue of which way we're facing. I talked to some lawyers about this and
they felt, both lawyers felt that the city really shouldn't be imposing these setbacks on me
because they're the ones who changed the street, okay. If! had built it wrong, it'd be another
issue but since the City changed the street there and then changed the setback in such a way that
I no longer have a buildable lot. I've got literally a 10 foot strip down the middle of my lot that
is buildable. Which is of course not buildable. So they said that this is land grabbing.. . You
know not intentional land grabbing but land grabbing just the same because you know the city
can change the streets any time and then change the variances any time and people like me,
completely unaware have a calamity in their lives and we end up losing everything. So I think if
this went to court, I think a jury of my peers might have a little trouble with that you know. I
think this needs to be researched. I don't know what the answer is but it doesn't seem right to
me you know that a person can lose their lot just because the city changes which road is you
know going to service their land. So that's a very basic issue in this case, which is still
unresolved. And the lawyers want is the $300 an hour to research it, and I thought well maybe
they just want my money you know. I don't know. But that's an issue and hope we can look at
that further. And I would specifically request, you know I say it all the time but I'm very pro
roommates for the city. I don't like apartments. I like roommates and I think it's a good thing. I
put this in my letter to the City Council. I think it's a good thing for people to have roommates
because if you fall ill or you know the kids need more of a house, or you have some other
calamity, roommates can come in and give you the extra money to keep your house, which is
what happened in my case. I was able to keep the house and finish the house and develop the
house and I think that's a good thing for me and the roommates seem to like it too, and we were
able to do it with, you know right in front of the eyes of the city and work this out, you know.
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Undestad: I've just got one question for you. He keeps going back to the rental thing and rental
units. What issue are there that, I mean if you want to put the three kitchens and things in there,
what issues do you have with the city and...
Loren Veltkamp: ... you know there's the 5 amenities that make an apartment. Obviously they
don't like having tenants in my house. They've never, you know they never liked that. They
think it's apartments you know.
Undestad: But getting a rental license, you wouldn't do that?
Loren Veltkamp: I got a rental license. That's another funny thing. I applied for a rental license
and then they determined that I didn't need a rental license because I don't have apartments you
see. So I put my, I gave my money and I never got my money back. You know they still have
my money but I don't have a license because I don't need one. I said screw it okay. I'm happy.
And I don't have more than 2 dogs either. I don't know why that comes up you know. And the
driveway, you know staff implied that the driveway was built to accommodate renters but the
driveway was built before I was even divorced and the fact is we had two snowmobiles. A large
boat. A motorcycle and two cars and we needed the driveway just to turn the boat around
because there was no parking on Lotus Trail so.
Undestad: You mentioned you might you know, this might need more research or might need
more time. That may very. . .
Loren Veltkamp: The code's about rent, you know apartments versus roommates. They need to
be re-written because I've been through this twice now. And it's gone on for, I think this is the
sixth year now that this has been an issue, and we had it quiet for 2 years.
Dillon: We're not going to do that here tonight though.
Loren Veltkamp: I know. I know but it's vague you know and it's just a little too vague. And to
me the key issue with an apartment is a locking door, you know. If you've got a locking door
and the people are renting that space and controlling that space, that's an apartment regardless of
whether it has 2 toilets or 3 toilets and whatever.
McDonald: Well I guess we're getting a little bit off par here but I do have a question for staff
but I, the purpose of all this is so you can bring roommates back in.
Loren Veltkamp: No, not at all. I can bring the roommates back anyway, and they all, they do
want to come back and the only reason I have applied for a variance is to make the house more
livable and it's cleaner. It's a better design and it's cheaper to build per square footage, and it's
just more practical for me to do it that way. It's really just a matter of practicality. Now whether
impracticality equals a hardship, you know a certain amount of screwed up design. For example,
in the old house the storage was through a person's bedroom. Okay, but under the city code you
know that bedroom was a private bedroom so I couldn't go into my storage you know without
getting written consent you know, so this is an impracticality. So I said.
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
McDonald: Well, before you go on with that, I mean that brings up a question and I don't think
we have an answer for it but I do have a question for staff. I know in the City of Minneapolis in
a situation such as this, this is viewed as a boarding house. You take a residence and you let
people have the bedrooms and you have the common areas and those things. Do we have a
comparable ordinance that would deal with boarding houses? I mean it seems as though he's
being treated as an apartment. Yeah, maybe he's not an apartment house but it's definitely a
boarding house.
Metzer: I think that's been part of the problem in the past years is the definition of what's what.
I don't know if it' s finding ways around the definitions or what but.
McDonald: Well I guess I'd like to see something there because I'm sorry, I'm still having a
problem with all of this. It all comes down to the fact that you're asking for a variance and I'm
just not sure why I'm doing this and I need to know something there. After telling two other
gentlemen that sorry, you have to tear it down or pull it up and you know, both of them are
saying a great financial hardships. Understanding you've got one too but I would just like to
know what's going on so I would like staff to do something. I'd like to know what's, if all we
have is an ordinance for rental, for apartments, then he's probably got a point. Ifwe view this as
a boarding house, which is different, then is there something else that he falls under?
Loren Veltkamp: The staff has repeatedly told me that they like roommates. They want to
encourage roommates. Roommates are fine but you've got to stay within the line.
McDonald: Well I understand that and that's perfectly fine. That's why I say, what you've got
is a boarding house. That's the rules of a boarding house. It's not apartments. You've got the
common areas. I've seen a lot of these in Minneapolis.
Loren Veltkamp: I don't know what a boarding house is so I can't.
McDonald: Well you've got one. Yeah, you meet the definition and that's what I want to find
out is you know, does the City address a boarding house differently than it does an apartment.
And that's something to look at because what you're defining and what you're saying is going on
is the same thing that goes on in downtown Minneapolis, around the University. A lot of people
take their homes, the old homes down there. They convert them into boarding houses. They rent
them out to students. They rent them out to individuals. They have the common areas the City
of Minneapolis, also because of the fire 3 or 4 years ago where a couple students were killed,
started cracking down on boarding houses. That they do fall under an ordinance. There are
requirements.
Loren Veltkamp: Are the owners living in these houses with the students?
McDonald: Huh?
Loren Veltkamp: Are the owners living in the houses?
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McDonald: In some cases they were. In some cases they weren't, and that's what creates the
problem, and that's why I'd like to know what it is you've got. Maybe at that point it does
justify the variance. But if staff can't answer that right now, one of the things I would ask him to
do is come up with something.
Papke: Would you accept a motion to table this?
McDonald: I would accept a motion to table this.
Papke: Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion that we table this application until we can come back with
something that clearly delineates the legal ramifications here and doesn't attempt to enforce
something that seems to be ill defined by granting a variance.
Dillon: Second.
Loren Veltkamp: Can I make one small request?
McDonald: Well first of all let us vote on the motion.
Papke moved, Dillon seconded that the Planning Commission table the variance request for
6724 Lotus Trail, Planning Case 06-25, until staff can come back with something that
clearly delineates the legal ramifications and doesn't attempt to enforce something that
seems to be ill defined by granting a variance. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 6 to o.
McDonald: Did you wish to add something?
Loren Veltkamp: I would like to just put a rush on it because my house is getting rained on
every day. I don't have a roof you know.
McDonald: I understand that and staff is under certain constraints. It will be dealt with in an
expeditious fashion. I'm sure that they will contact you about, we will, what is the time? Can
we come back on the calendar at our next?
Generous: Yeah, the next one unfortunately, our next scheduled meeting will be the 4th.
Loren Veltkamp: I just can't wait that long. I, you know, I'm under a certain time limits on the
insurance company. They only pay for me to be out of the house for a certain period of time,
you know. I mean it's a hardship for me to drag this out. I've got people lined up to work on the
house. I've got a roof.
Papke: Can you proceed with reconstructing under your current?
Loren Veltkamp: I can do what I can. Put the roof over the garage and did some second story
decking. You know we've got tarps up. Our tarps have ripped off again with this last you know
deluge we had and. I would just like to rush it.
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Planning Commission Meeting - June 20, 2006
McDonald: Yeah, well we'll have it back by the 18th. And that's about 3 weeks away. In the
meantime, if this goes up before us for a vote, I'm afraid you'll be turned down and you're still
looking at going before City Council. Nothing is going to happen before then anyway so at least
by doing this, I think we're only throwing maybe a 2 week delay into anything. It's just, this
doesn't make sense and I cannot in good faith vote for it after denial of two other variances.
Unless there is a compelling reason to do so, and I just haven't heard it tonight. Okay, with that
then we will move on to the next agenda item.
Resident: Excuse me. Will we get notification of the July 18th meeting because we're all
waiting to see?
Generous: I can send out a notice.
McDonald: Yep. Notices will be sent out again. I apologize for everybody coming in but I'm
afraid at this point we just don't have enough information. And that's part of what we're going
to try to do is unconfuse all of this so that everybody understands what's going on and we do
finally make a recommendation that makes sense to everybody. So I appreciate everyone
coming in. I understand the late hour and everything, but thanks very much and thank you for
your patience and I'm sorry if this is going to cause any kind of a hardship but again, as I said to
the gentlemen, two before, financial burden is not something that we can look at. We have
certain rules to follow and without this making sense within those rules, we can't vote. So we
will adjourn with that.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Larson noted the verbatim and summary
minutes of the Planning Commission meeting dated June 6, 2006 as presented.
Chairman McDonald adjourned the Planning Commission meeting at 11:10 p.m.
Submitted by Kate Aanenson
Community Development Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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