Thursday, June 03, 2010

City Council Notes-June 1, 2010

A part of the OACCT's Public Policy efforts for 2010 is for volunteers from the Public Policy committee attend both City and County meetings and report back on items that are of interest/concern to business.

The June 1st meeting would have been pretty quick and standard except for our newest business addition to the area. First off, the new interim police chief was sworn in. We did a first reading of a proposed ordinance change with regard to real property sale/purchase. This was followed by the hearing on some curb and gutter assessments. Tucker Carlson from Charter Communications discussed some improvements in service.

Then came the issue of the evening, The Lion's Den. There was a lengthy public comment on the business. Council was presented with a petition to do whatever is necessary to remove this business from the city, the petition had 600-700 signatures. There are 2 issues that have been presented, the first being the poorly placed sign in front of the Owatonna Family Restaurant and the second being the actual business itself and the image it gives the city. The city and council feels we would have been unable to prevent this business from locating in Owatonna, the city can use zoning to dictate where they may be, but cannot simply ban their existence. The sign issue is essentially a civil matter between two property owners sharing a sign pole.

It appears that Jay Clark (the lion's den property owner) has violated the agreement with the restaurant property owners and the city has no control of how they resolve the issue at this point.

Consent agenda contained the usual committe reports and minutes and some permits. The resolutions all passed as well, including approval of the plat for the new Kwik Trip store on Mineral Springs Road.

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