A regular meeting of the Planning Commission of Alexandria Township was held on the 24th day of May, 2010 at the Alexandria Township Conference Room, 610 Fillmore Street.
Roll Call: Commission members present were Julie Haar, Russ Niskanen, Larry Steidl and Lyle Hammerschmidt. Also present was Bonnie Fulghum, Deputy Clerk, and Ben Oleson, Township Zoning Administrator. As said members formed a quorum and the meeting was called to order by Vice-Chairman Niskanen at 6:00 p.m.
Agenda: Hammerschmidt, seconded by Steidl, made a motion to approve the agenda as written. Motion carried unanimously.
Minutes: Steidl, seconded by Haar, made a motion to approve the minutes of the 04/26/10 meeting as written and to table the 04/20/10 site visit minutes for further review. Motion carried unanimously.
New Business: Tim Moore, representing Widseth, Smith & Nolting, and John/Marge Spinner, owners of the Broken Arrow resort, were present to informally discuss converting a portion of the Broken Arrow resort to a co-op form of ownership while maintaining a portion as a resort. The owners stated that they are looking to retire out of the business and are therefore proposing to have the cabins convert to cooperative ownership and the RV site to continue being operated as a resort with weekly or seasonal leasing of the sites.
Zoning Administrator Oleson stipulated that the main issue revolved around how to regulate the property; i.e. as a commercial PUD, a residential PUD or a combination of the two. The township ordinances identify cooperatives as a residential PUD. He also explained that a cooperative owns a “use” of the land, but does not in actuality have ownership of the land. Oleson stated the more important question is whether the “use” of the dwelling units within the cooperative are to be used in a transient or non-transient manner. He explained that a residential PUD is considered “non-transient”, more permanent in nature, versus a commercial PUD, which is considered “transitional”, involving temporary, short-term use; i.e. frequent turnover. Another issue is how the two portions of the property, the cooperative and the resort, could be bought and sold separately.
Vice-Chairman Niskanen asked the commission if they thought this matter was worth pursuing. Commissioners Hammerschmidt and Steidl had no issues with what was proposed and encouraged the residents to move forward with the concept of keeping the resort as commercial property, if possible. Commissioner Haar’s main concern was that all the governmental entities involved be in agreement. Vice-Chairman Niskanen agreed to have the residents continue researching.
Old Business: Tom Lynch of RE/MAX Lakes Area Realty was present on behalf of a client interested in purchasing property along T.H. 27 for the purpose of opening an automotive repair business. The property is currently zoned Urban Residential. The commission discussed the likelihood of issuing either a conditional use or interim use permit for the property and/or re-zoning the property to commercial.
The commission discussed the issue of home occupations/home-based businesses. Zoning Administrator Oleson stated that he felt it becomes a question of scale and proposed dividing home occupations into three categories: 1) Low Visibility, which would suggest no “people” traffic and any business activities would be entirely contained within a building. This category would require no regulation or over-the-counter permitting; 2) Moderate Visibility, where a few people come onto the property and it may involve limited exterior storage of goods or parking of customer or business vehicles outside of a building; and 3) High Visibility, where the business activity is visible from neighboring properties or from a public road right-of-way. The consensus of the commission was to utilize these three categories and stipulate that in order to be classified as a home occupation, the landowner/business owner must be living on the property.
Zoning Administrator’s Report: Update.
Adjournment: Being no further business Hammerschmidt, seconded by Steidl, made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 8:21 p.m.
Respectfully submitted…
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Bonnie Fulghum, Deputy Clerk
Approved this ____ day of ___________, 2010
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Russell Niskanen, Vice-Chairman