Council Meeting 4/24/19

The Grand Marais City Council met tonight for their final meeting of April. The video of the meeting can be found HERE.

The meeting was called to order right at 6:30 with all councilors present except for Councilor Schulte, who had a schedule conflict and was out of town.

The Open Forum was opened at this point; no public were present to speak so the Open Forum was closed.

The Consent Agenda had the typical three items on it (Approval of Agenda, Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes, and Payment of Bills). The Council had a few adjustments to the minutes to make sure that the minutes reflected the record of the meeting and/or to clarify intent of the statements made. It is very handy to have the recorded video of past meetings to compare against and make sure that the minutes accurately reflect the meetings.

With those modifications, the Consent Agenda was approved unanimously.

The next item on the Agenda was a request from the Art Colony for a temporary liquor license to be effective for their annual Artful Evening meal on the harbor. The application was exactly the same as last year's application. The Council asked the representative from the Art Colony, Kathi Polley, about challenges that they had last year at the event and if they had any concerns. Ms. Polley reported that there were some items of concern last year that they were able to overcome and have learned from that for this year and feel very comfortable providing a safe and law-abiding environment for the event. With those considerations, the Council approved the license unanimously.

Moving right along, the next item on the Agenda was a request for a right-of-way license for the property known as Buck's Hardware Hank to continue to have their fuel tanks in their current location, which is located in the City right-of-way on 1st St. The owner of the property, Buck Benson, reported that one of the tanks was installed in 1988 and the other in 1994. At that time there were no requests made for right-of-way access and that it was not made aware to him until the Hwy 61 redesign process identified it as an issue, which prompted this request.

As is, the tanks in the ground have been lined (reinforced) and have a voltage monitoring system installed to show when and where any corrosion is beginning to appear in the tanks, both of which are industry approved methods of monitoring and ensuring safety of the tanks.

The license at question is for 15 years, which should be seen as a period of time for the property owner to make a plan to replace/relocate the tanks out of the right of way. Mr. Benson acknowledged this and agreed to the language of the license.

A question was brought up as to whether or not the license went with the property or was assigned to Buck Benson himself. It was clarified that the license can be transferred to another owner with the written agreement of the City. This was an acceptable safeguard as viewed by the City.

Also, the license identifies that the City has no responsibility for the tanks or their maintenance and that if the City has need of the right of way in question, the City has the right to use it or change it.

With all of these considerations, the Council moved to approve the license and it passed unanimously.

The next item on the Agenda was an update on the City's Climate Action Plan input period, which is open right now. You can take the survey to give your two cents HERE.

CAP Coordinator Shane Steele prepared a presentation to take the Council through the history of the development of the Climate Action Plan, some of the work that went into it, and the feedback process planned/the schedule for the Council to continue considering the plan for a final draft.

The public comment period will be open until May 10th at which point the City staff and Shane Steele will process the input, suggest changes to the plan, and prepare a final draft for the Council to consider by May 22nd. If there is an overwhelming amount of feedback to process, they may request more time for processing. There is a chance that this more-or-less final draft will be on the Council Agenda for the May 29th Council meeting.

There was then a robust conversation about the implications of the plan and the timeline. I would encourage you to watch the conversation on the video as I can't capture the details as well as the video can. Suffice to say that there were many good points made that would make the project more successful in the future.

I am open to having a conversation on this with anyone who wants to have one.

Moving on in the Agenda, the Council considered a revised proposal from HKGI, the organization that the Council hired at the last meeting to perform the Planning and Zoning Commission's housing study. As per the City Administration, HKGI increased the estimated hours to be invested in the project by 20 hours and that action increased the not to exceed cost of the project to $14,550 from $12,660. The Council reflected that this was an understandable increase and that the interest of both the Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission is to make sure that the project is thorough and identifies ALL possible ways that the City can work to make housing development more accessible within the City while maintaining the village feel that is unique to Grand Marais.
After some conversation on the bid a motion was made and it passed unanimously.

The last item on the Agenda was a final plat reference for a development within the City limits called the Winterstone. It will be located between the Gunflint Trail and 9th St. N. This development identifies 8 building sites and a through road. The developer of the project, Taiga Design + Build, is owned by Councilor Moody, so for this conversation he took off his Councilor hat and put on his contractor/developer hat and was not a voting member of the Council and could not participate in conversation regarding the project as a Councilor.

*As a procedure, the only thing that was needed tonight was for the Council to refer the final plat to the Planning and Zoning Commission for consideration and assessment. It is then the P&Z's responsibility to assess the plan for suitability and compliance with the development rules of the City. During the process of passing the preliminary plat there were a few items acknowledged, such as odd lot shapes and sizes, but the preliminary plat was approved at that time. Now the final plat needs to go through a more rigorous process to make sure that it is designed in line with the City's rules.

There were a number of questions about how Councilor Moody's abstention from this process will effect the process overall, which can be boiled down to this:

Councilor Moody cannot vote on this. The remaining Councilors, due to the conflict of interest shown by Mr. Moody's multiple roles, must decide unanimously to approve the final plat. This is a state rule to ensure that there is complete confidence in the Council that the process was followed and that the decision being made is in line with the City's rules, not just of development, but of conduct.

After this conversation the Council moved to refer the Winterstone plat to the P&Z Commission and it passed unanimously with Councilor Moody abstaining.


Then it was time for the Council/Staff Reports:

Councilor Moody had no report

Councilor Kennedy had no report

Councilor Swearingen had no report

I reported on a meeting that I attended with representatives of Visit Cook County and the Cook County/Grand Marais Chamber in reference to planning about communication for he Hwy 61 redesign happening in 2020. The consensus was that communication about what is going to happen has to start this year and continue through next year. There needs to be a great deal of partnership between the City, local businesses, and other advertising agencies located/aimed at our area.

I also reported that I attended a candlelight vigil held by the Violence Prevention Center on Tuesday night to remember and support the victims of sexual violence as it is Sexual Violence Awareness Month this month. On top of that, today is Denim Day, a day to speak out about sexual violence. If you are not aware of this, please take the time to learn about it HERE.

I will be attending the Emergency Management Conference this weekend. Thank you for all of your work EMS workers!

Administrator Roth reported that North House Executive Director Greg Wright will be attending the next Council meeting to give the annual update of the organization and that the developer that provided a proposal for the City Hall/Liquor Store site will be in attendance as well to answer the Council's questions about their proposal and interest in the property.

He also reported that this week was Audit week for the City, which means that people from our auditing agency were in present at City Hall from Monday to Wednesday and they made a great deal of requests for information, but left today and will be providing the Council with an in person summary when it is finished. Thank you to Finance Director Dunsmoor for her work all year long and during the Audit process.

Councilor Swearingen asked for an update about the MN DOT property lease that the City asked for additional information back a few months ago. Administrator Roth reported that he has not received substantive information to answer the Council's questions, so that item will return to a future agenda when information is collected.

Having no further business, the Council adjourned at 7:55pm.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!