Alexandria Township
Alexandria, Minnesota 56308
Minutes of the meeting of November 18, 2013
A meeting of the Board of Adjustment of Alexandria Township was held on the 18th day of November, 2013 at the Alexandria Township Conference Room, 610 Fillmore Street.
ROLL CALL: Supervisors present were Bryon Alstead, Jul Feuling, Joel Dahlheimer, Lyle Hammerschmidt, and Russell Niskanen. Also present was Gregg Raisanen, Clerk. As said members formed a quorum and the meeting was called to order by Chairman Alstead at 6:30 p.m.
Hammerschmidt, seconded by Feuling, made a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. Motion carried unanimously.
Chairman Alstead reported that the one item on the agenda was to consider the variance application submitted by Tim Rock to subdivide land within the sanitary sewer district located at 1966 and 2044 Liberty Rd. NE that will be served with a private sewer system.
Mr. Rock addressed the board to consider his request to subdivide his existing two 10-acre parcels into three parcels; i.e. 6 acres, 2 acres, and 12 acres. He intends to sell the back 12 acre parcel. He reported that the closest sewer connection is 1600 feet away from his parcels, requiring the crossing of land belonging to two different owners to get to the connection. To reach existing public sewer (without crossing private parcels) is a mile away. Mr. Rock quoted ALASD policy which stated it does not require mandatory connection to existing buildings if the sewer line is greater than 300 feet away.
Dean Logan, who lives south of the proposed subdivision, spoke in opposition to the variance if the new lot is buildable; however, he is not against it if it is sold as farm land. He reported that the land was subdivided into10-acre parcels and he is not interested in having additional homes in the area.
Zoning Administrator Oleson reviewed the staff findings. The applicant has reasonable use of the property without the variance. The landowner did not create the existing 10-acre lots. A previous variance was granted to a proposed subdivision with 15-20 acre lots to be served by private sewer systems just west of this proposed subdivision. The primary reason for the variance request appears to be the prohibitive cost of extending the sewer lines approximately one mile.
Supervisor Niskanen spoke in support of proposed option 3 in the staff report for granting the variance if the 12-acre lot is considered an outlot, which would require town board approval before any future development occurs.
Niskanen, seconded by Dahlheimer, made a motion to grant the variance application submitted by Tim Rock which would allow the creation of subdivision without connecting to ALASD by splitting two 10-acre lots into a 6-acre, 2-acre, and 12-acre outlot, and any future development on the outlot would require approval by the town board. Supervisor Feuling made note that she could support this based on the 12-acre size of the outlot. For: Niskanen, Hammerschmidt, Feuling, Dahlheimer, Alstead. Against: none. Motion approved and variance granted.
Being no further business, Niskanen, seconded by Feuling, made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted….
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Gregg Raisanen, Clerk
Approved this ____ day of ________, 2013
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Bryon Alstead, Chairman