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60-day construction moratorium in placeBy Barbara Brown The Stacy City Council approved a 60-day no-construction order at its meeting last week to ěstudy issues to determine what regulatory controlsî the city needs regarding development. The moratorium states that any project that has not applied for preliminary plat approval or a building permit would not be allowed to do so. The city will not accept permit applications until the six-month moratorium is over. The city has never really been in the kind of situation it finds itself now. Several housing and commercial projects are occurring at the same time and the council and planning commissions are scrambling to make sure city codes and regulations are being followed. An emergency meeting with Mayor Michael Carlson, attorney Pete Grundhoefer and city engineer Chuck Schwartz last Tuesday brought some planning issues to the forefront. Alan Kretman, who is the developer on three projects in the city, wanted to put rowhouses on a small parcel of land just north of the Post Office along CR 30. The cityís planning commission nixed that idea when it was discovered that the land sits directly against land zoned general business district. The parcel also has a proposed plan to install a couple roads through the property that would eventually help the city build a plan for development of a field behind Forest Blvd. near the 312th Street area, where the small parcel in question is located. The city needs to reassess that ghost plat to make sure it meets county standards, Carlson said. Kretman also is the developer on a project to build an office building with a design for a small indoor mall. That plan, Stacy Commons, would be built near the corner of CR 19 and CR 30. Carlson said the way that project has come along is another force behind the councilís decision to place the 60-day moratorium on building. ěThere have been several construction violations at Stacy Commons,î Carlson said in a Tuesday, Nov. 4, morning interview. Carlson said the site had a lack of silt fencing and the construction crew was working from the wrong blueprint, issues that caused several problems. For example, the crew installed the wrong plumbing and water works on the site because they were using the wrong plans. ěThat plan last appeared in February when the planning commission made some changes then approved it,î Carlson said. ěThose changes apparently were never passed on to the contractor. Another condition of construction was violated just a few weeks ago. Council member Barb Otterson said she drove by the property recently and saw a crew cutting down and grinding two of the trees. Otterson said she told the crew to stop destroying the trees and called Kretman. She said he assured her that the remaining two trees would not be removed. After the crew left the scene, Otterson said she left but as she was driving north on CR 30, she said she saw the crew return and resume work on the trees. All four oaks now are gone. Not only will the city examine the lot close to the Post Office and the Stacy Commons area, but the planning commission also has been asked to look at a neighborhood across from the Post Office on Forest Blvd. Carlson said that area is zoned R-3, or high-density residential, and does not mesh with the plans for the surrounding areas. He said the council ordered the planning commission to examine why the city has practiced what he called ěhopscotchî zoning and what can be done to stop it. The council met with a comprehensive planning expert last week and she introduced them to the philosophy behind comprehensive planning for 20 years of growth for the city as well as immediate planning. ěWeíre not really sure what we want to do,î Carlson said regarding the cityís long-term planning goals. ěWe just thought we better look at it and see whatís going on and what the city could get itself into with our current way of doing things.î ©ECM Post Review |