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Council denies apartment zoningBy Barbara Brown The North Branch City Council Monday night denied a request to rezone single family residential land on the east side of Casselberry Ponds. Christopher Hanson, of Pine City, had asked the city to rezone the five acres at 38473 Hemingway Avenue, near the intersection of Hemingway Avenue and Lincoln Trail, to high-density residential. Hanson told the council if the rezoning were approved, he planned to seek out building permits for a proposed 32- unit apartment complex and possibly add senior citizen villa-style housing. Residents along the property line and other residents of Casselberry Ponds opposed the request through a petition. Fire hall update Jay Kennedy, with WSB Associates, told the council the project is moving along as expected. He told the council that the cityís bid package for construction had misprinted the number of trees that needed to be removed from the site. The council agreed to correct the original six trees number to 45 trees. Kennedy assured the council that the engineers had originally planned to remove 45 trees, but that only six had been listed on the bid. The council was told through a memorandum from city engineer Julie Dresel that the fire hall utilities are in place and testing is underway. The memo stated that the construction of the street and pathway will begin when testing is successfully completed. Dreselís memo addressed two other projects as well. The Grand Avenue south service area project has utilities in place and the contractor is building the water main and sanitary sewer force mains. Lift station construction near Hemingway Avenue will begin soon. Regarding the lift station, the council also approved the purchase of a radio emergency alarm system that would allow all the cityís lift stations to communicate nd alert public works employees in the event of a leak or other problem. The Grand Avenue sewer project is expected to be substantially complete before the school year begins, Dreselís memo said. The council also denied a request to divide one 3.62 acre lot into two 1.8-acre lots. Todd Waxberg had asked for the variance for his land that abuts Country View Estates on three sizes. The cityís zoning law does not allow that type of split because the land would not be served by city sewer and water and therefore divided lots must be at least 10 acres, according to Al Cottingham. The council approved a request from Petersonís North Branch Mill to decrease the required setback from 15 feet to five feet for an expansion the owners are planning for their store at 38964 Branch Avenue. The council agreed to the five-foot setback with the stipulations that Petersonís owners remove a driveway onto the site and that there be no outdoor storage on the site. Finally, the council approved the closure of the 38300 block of Coventry Drive on July 27 from 4 p.m. to midnight for a neighborhood block party. ©ECM Post Review |