Posted 6/6/01
Council tables rezone request
By Jason Sileo
The North Branch City Council agreed to table a proposal to rezone a large rural residential zone to R-1 single family residential zone on the southeast corner of the city at its meeting Tuesday night, May 28.
John Bogart of Bogart, Pederson and Associates, Becker, approached the board to request approval of a preliminary plat and the rezoning for the proposed Woodduck Pond subdivision ó a four-phase, 136-lot housing subdivision off Hemingway Avenue at 381st Street. Twenty-five of the projectís 98 acres were to be maintained as wetlands.
Several in the public audience questioned the safety of the proposed development, citing an Enron natural gas pipeline which runs across a handful of properties within the plat. Mayor John Pinsonneault said as much.
ìMy first concern is public safety,î Pinsonneault said.
Bogart said the Enron line in question runs through a number of other North Branch housing subdivisions and did not constitute a public safety risk.
Concerns will also aired about the increased population associated with 136 new homes located nearly adjacent to schools which are already bulging at the seams. Traffic flow in and around the proposed subdivision also was raised as a point of concern.
The council voted to table the re-zoning proposal until more is known about the integrity of the underground natural gas line. Questions surrounding the subdivisionís ingress and egress to County Road 14.
Subcommittee requested
Planning and Development Director Alan Cottingham addressed the council and requested the formation of a roughly 15-person subcommittee to focus on re-working the cityís comprehensive plan.
The comprehensive plan task force would contain members of the city council, the planning commission, the park commission and a handful of citizens at large, among others. Cottingham said the comp plan had not received serious attention since sometime in 1995 and suggested perhaps it was time the document was re-vamped.
The council approved the formation of the task force unanimously.
Fence issue arises
A wooden screening fence behind the North Branch McDonaldís restaurant drew the ire of a number of local business persons also located in the Gateway South development zone adjacent to McDonaldís.
ìI understand weíve got a little hustle and bustle going on,î Mayor Pinsonneault said of the fence in question and the reaction of local business owners.
Fencing had originally been placed in the area to screen the business district from residential areas there ó the area has since been rezoned to a business district and the former residences have been removed.
Representatives from the AmericInn, Dairy Queen and Dominoís Pizza, among others, were on-hand to call for a stop work order on the construction of the roughly seven-foot-tall fence. Several business owners effectively accused McDonaldís management of erecting the fence primarily as a means of blocking the view of businesses other than McDonaldís from incoming motorists ó effectively keeping them from seeing other food and restaurant options in the area.
There was some question as to whether the fence would benefit the greater public safety by limiting pedestrian traffic across parking lots in the area, but the notion was harshly rebuffed by the business owners present.
Planning director Cottingham said there is evidence the fence is actually encroaching on Dairy Queen property.
The council agreed to put the stop work order on the fence and turned the issue back over to the planning commission for further review. The commission will be tasked with deciding, among other things, whether or not the fence is to be considered ëarchitecturally harmonious.î