##VIDEO ID:_DpYBDH1FpY## good morning everyone I'll call the Crowing County Committee of the whole meeting for January 21st 2025 to order Jesse if you'll call the role please commissioner Corin here commissioner luy here commissioner baros here commissioner franzine here commissioner Lee here all members are present thank you very much our first item of business today is the County Recreation an update Tom and Chris you'll walk us through it appreciate it good morning good morning good morning everyone Tom has an update on some of the of our 2024 Parks day he's going to share with us today yeah good morning so annually we like to come before the board and talk about um our County Parks our County o trails and then some of our non-motorized trails so for 2024 we had our car counters out again this year at our now um well our four main County parks that we can get to Via vehicle so that is Milford little Emily which is new this year uh South Long Lake and the fire tower and so as somebody drives into our park we count them with a it's a basically a little metal detector that we bury in the ground and then as they leave they get counted again so we have to divide the numbers in half which we've done up here on the screen but we're happy and excited this year that we broke over 100,000 at our four parks and we should note that we did add little Emily which was about 20,000 and that we started putting that out about August so um it's just really cool to see that people are out using the parks that we've invested in um used our Timber resources to build and and it's it's just really cool and and the feedback that we've gotten has been nothing but exceptional and and uh hopefully you've heard that as well but we just wanted to share that uh it's a very good year um one thing I will point out is we do uh use volunteer counts out at the big island the Raleigh Johnson big island and so this year they did indicate that it was a down year they were at about 380 um for dayuse people and so it doesn't really show up on the on our graphs up here but but it is getting used still people are out camping and enjoying and um it'll be interesting to see how that works out just because of the storm that they had this year with the tornado that went over the island we'll see what that user count does um that group is currently working on figuring out the trails on the island and getting most of those reopened so Tom I have a quick question for you on little Emily yes how much of that green is you walking back and forth inspecting that hopefully not too much okay we and we will see that that certainly could be a few counts um we tried to put that counter out once the once they were done with most of the construction so that way we weren't getting you know five people that were working on the park um um counted every single time but in in truth some of these are from staff that go in there we we have no way of of limiting that but still it's it's still a fairly good number of people that are coming and using our Parks I think it's amazing you know and I think it shows the attractiveness of our parks and I think it's only going to get better with the Milford development over there so appreciate it very much we agree so we if you want to move on to the next slide please OHV Trails yes so we also place a couple car counters um remember these were repurposed from our AIS program from um these are probably 2014 I think they are um we've invested in a few new ones over the years um the unfortunate part is is this year we did have one that got stolen um they're only they're not very big you know but uh somebody decided to walk off with it um so we did lose a little bit of data there and we also um inadvertently destroyed one ourselves when we were doing some trail work uh and a dozer caught it so um we try to be careful but sometimes accidents do happen but we just wanted to present this data as well um when you total everything up we're at about 90,000 for ATVs that Traverse through our ATV Trails um by far you know we have some some really popular ones like the Emily blind Lake um the Emily outing Trails the Mississippi River Northwoods Trails um and then we also see some some increases in the um M Miller black bird Trails just uh just based on the new construction that we opened this year out there as well so Tom is the kind of light blue color is that 2024 data yeah it got cut off on the attachment so yeah so the green is 2022 um and then and then so the the dark blue is 2023 and then the light blu's 2024 we can move on to um nonmotorized DRS let has any questions I just curious because you didn't do one that analyze puts all the data together yep by year um or did you maybe uh no we didn't we did not and that's something we could add for future years if if you'd like um but just just for this year we it was at about 93,000 after we total it up that was um one question that came out of our natural resource advisory committee meeting was how many total is it so just did some quick math and that's what it comes up to so this is Land Services Math versus this is my math oh your math yeah right okay I did use a calculator so all right thank you are you seeing any shifts in which ones are getting used more or less or generally we're just seeing an increase with the populara of side by sides y let me ask you a question cuz I one of the discussion I think with darl Palmer was the side by sides are getting wider much larger is that creating a problem on any of the Trails um some of the first ones yeah we had some we had some trails that were specific to class one only but a lot of those have been reworked remodified to accommodate those larger side by sides um State Statute has been pretty pretty consistent throughout the years and that it's uh 72 in and less so technically they can't be any any wider than that um so you know I I would think the biggest thing that we see is they're heavier you know they're more powerful nowadays they're able to displace more dirt which means more maintenance for the clubs but but as far as real issues no they have a robust Trail program um and they they have Trail ambassadors that are out there every weekend looking at Trails informing users making sure they're safe so um as far as like safety issues no just more maintenance okay and and all of our trails are maintained by clubs all of our ATV trails yes yep y we do some maintenance on our non-motorized Trails Land Services does mow them um we do sign them the the ski trails uh those are maintained by a club ATV trails and snowball trails are all maintained by local volunteers and then uh like just mentioned we have one more slide here um of some of our non-motorized Trails um these ones can be a little bit more interesting just because of uh some are really heavily used and some are not very heavily used they're used uh like the ones up in the northern part of the county um they're used specifically mostly for hunting some people use them for horseback riding so we see lots of activity October November um not m not much activity in the um spring summer months um but uh for example Like the Wolf Wolf Lake ski Trail just located in uh in Irondale Township very heavily used by skiers horseback Riders and that this this data is just during the the um spring summer and fall months is not winter data any other questions from the board I'm pretty impressed with the amount of users using these Trails whether they're locals or whether they're not from our local area but they they're getting used and I certainly appreciated it I think it's shows us where our revenues come from with that many people coming into our area utilizing the parks and the trails and so Recreation has to carry a heavy consideration when we're looking at budgets and that so you know one thing that I I found interesting too that I don't think a lot of people realize is that utilizing the uh ATV trails a person can actually ride from Emily to Michigan on ATV trails really yep cool I'd rather have them ride from Michigan to Emily and increase our population yep spend their money here it goes both ways they got to get back somehow Tom and Chris how much in ly dollars is spent on parks and trails none zero just want to make sure that we're recognizing that all of this appreciate that clarification because we can give it all the weight we want in our budget process and it still is zero so correct correct we appreciate that thank you for pointing that out that's that's all I have unless there's any other questions any other questions I have n Mr coring any questions Mr chairman all powerful I have no questions I uh had kind of we kind of had the uh presentation at the the wonderful um I was going to say Health and Human Services committee but it's no it's the uh uh natural resources natural resources no we are natural resources we already had the Commissioners that were there kind of had this pointed out to them but I sure appreciate Tom and Chris you guys are doing an excellent job like I said I've never been at first I was never a big par guy but um I've I've Come Along come a long ways so I'm just thankful for my little tiny park down in South Long Lake because the people in my community enjoy it very much during the summer thanks that's all I have Mr chair thanks commissioner so with that Tom we'll move on to number two on our list the forest resources Plan update yes thank you so we're here um to talk about our our forest resource plan this is a plan that guides all of our forest management activity on our 105,000 Acres um the plan was first implemented in about 2000 and then it's been updated a few times since then um last time it was updated was 2015 and this is meant to be a 10-year plan for us um a 10-year working plan it does go out 100 years in the plan but it's a 10-year working plan so uh for 2025 we did a complete wipe of the old plan just because we had so many updates um that we were working on with policies land ownership changes um updated Department structures and uh and so we have the plan here before you today one one thing I'd like to point out is that that we did redo our forest modeling um so that we took all our forest inventory data all the information we have about our cover types our stands the ages and we did a analysis on that to find out what we can sustainably Harvest year-over-year for the next 100 years um we try to maintain an even age class balance throughout the county of all the different species so that way we have an even flow of wood to the markets we have hopefully um even revenues coming into the county and uh sustainable levels of wood for our loggers to harvest and so that is included in here as well um and uh we did present this to the natural resource advisory committee meeting members back in January January 8th and uh we did ask them for any comments they have and I did not receive any so wondering if uh anybody has any questions or comments or concerns going through the plan Mr chair go ahead commissioner yeah you know what I just had just a question curiosity question I know that we spend uh a majority of this these dollars that come in from our forest man our forest program but how much do we set aside because we do maintain many many many miles of uh in essence logging roads how much money is set aside to maintain those roads out of that money we we do budget about I think it's about 30 30,000 a year for for our forest road maintenance efforts um and so the the management of our tax for lands is interesting in that we can't keep any of this any of these dollars um year-over-year so they all have to be a portioned out some of that does get a portioned to the general fund um some goes to the townships cities and schools um so we can't keep any money unless the County Board um uh sets aside a uh a budget amendment specifically for those but uh but we do budget about 30,000 a year does that answer your question yes it does thank you I appreciate that Mr chair go ahead um in the case where we have a lot of the woods um you know just thinking of the wildfires they had in Los Angeles do we have a lot of material laying down is there anything I know it's been talked about before I know we be doing Hazard uh plan tomorrow um any way of cleaning up any of that stuff in the woods because if we have a dry year you know we're worried about the logging and and taking out the you know productive Timber is there anything about you know because we have a lot of uh cons burbles out in the woods right now I know on my property I have quite a bit and is there anything in the plan at all for maintaining that because that'll also maintain the Forest Health yeah so some of that is inherently um accomplished in our management um we do have some that talks about you know if we have large natural disasters like a tornado that comes through and all a sudden we have large amounts of wood on the ground um we we work uh very hard to figure out where those areas are and we try to clean them up and that's where a lot of our efforts and our accomplishments can come from that Forest management activity itself so we're in there salvaging that wood and then with the way our our trees grow is everything greens up very quickly in the spring so even if a fire does start it it's very hard for that that fire to carry because everything is so green and growing and Lush we don't have you know months on end where we have long dry spells we we get that in the fall time but generally we still have lots of leaves and and things growing on the ground and our our our types of trees they they they decompose relatively quickly they get soft and and it's it's hard for a fire to carry um we have seen some fires on tax offer to land in the past in um slash piles we had one a couple years ago where somebody went up and they wanted to light one on fire in the middle of the woods um and we cooperate with the DNR and the DNR puts those out for us but just the inherent nature of us we want to grow we want to get those trees established very quickly so either out there planting very quickly um or we have we have regulations that talk about our slash management and keeping it low to the ground so just a lot of our management really helps us there um and we have very uh vigorous growing Forest versus some out west okay thank you I have no other questions one one question for you Tom when a logger goes in logs it off and we go back in and replant what what determines the ratio of what type you're going to replant in that area sure so most of our sites actually naturally reforest themselves we don't have to go in and spend money to replant them we don't we go in and we'll check to make sure that the trees are growing and are suitable for the site there are areas that um we do plant and that's all based off the soils data and the um what's the native plant Community what's supposed to be there so so and that's and then we're going in and making a a judgment call based off that native plant Community should be planting Red Pine White Pine Jack Pine Spruce a variety of each um but mostly just the soils we try to match the soils so what what's the most uh sought after by the loggers which type of log uh that depends it we have a strong Aspen Market here you know in the state we Harvest a lot of Aspen but we also have good markets for Pine Oak bolts um even Basswood you know there's a plan Cohasset that takes just Basswood so we grow a lot of different varieties of tree species which is good for us and diversity and biodiversity um you know so it's it's it's hard to say what they're specifically looking for one logger might be looking for Aspen one day and pine the next um I just find it curious because Aspen we do sell a lot of that looking at the grid here but it's a very aggressive growing plant too so it would be easy to overtake some of these other species that are out there and diminish sort of the quality of those Forest portions of the forest yep and that's where our management comes in we have some um unique management tools cuz Aspen can grow like a weed sometimes it can be you know not the ideal tree species we want we might be trying to grow oak and so that's when we um shift our management from more of a final Harvest to a staged Harvest and that some of that shade some of that repeated entry will will eliminate that Aspen and let the oak come okay any other questions yeah Mr chair one more um do we have much in Ash you know because of the emerald ash B do we have much in our in our inventory for ash trees at all we we do we have some we have some ash in the county a lot of our low-lying areas will have Ash um we've known about EAB for the last 10 years and one of the we've we've tried to manage some of it but one of the problems we have is is we have two types of Ash really Ash stands in Minnesota the type that you can walk in with just your normal boots and the second type that you have to walk in with almost hip waiters we have a lot of the hip waiter type and so when we try to harvest those even in a winter like this we it's we just can't the equipment sinks we do more sight damage than anything so we've tried to be proactive and and harvest along the edges of some of those Ash swamps um in combination with other Harvest to try to get some some younger trees growing and some Aspen or other species to creep into that Ash Swamp but um it it can be very hard for us and to manage Ash and a lot of these um will probably revert to some sort of open Marsh or a cattail swamp Okay over time thank you anything else So the plan is to bring this back to the board on next next week next week for final approval for the for the forest resource plan okay would you like that on consent or regular calendar consent consent consent sounds commission coring you okay with consent consent sounds perfect okay with that we'll move on to number three which is the Planning Commission hang Board of adjustment Gary are you going to join us up here or is it just all on Chris now let's see here I do have a hand out so Gary asked me to put together a report about the activities with the Planning Commission Board of adjustment over the last couple years um and so uh the one document that you've got the front is more of a narrative that really maybe more explains and then the second uh page is more of the of just maybe some numbers and and uh and then just the type of applications and the process that we see so I just want to go through that one first with you um just as a reminder of the application types that we see and so uh um the the items where the where you as the board are the final decision maker are the first three on the list one is for plats so anytime maybody wants to Plat property um that does require the County Board to be a final decision maker and as a reminder all the plats we're seeing an increase in those because of the uh the number of U repairing Lots now that require a plat uh the second item that takes County board approval is the land use map Amendment or maybe a zoning change might be a different term to look at for that and then the final is any um changes or amendments to the landy's ordinance the board has final um say over that the planning commission's role in in those applications are to review hold public hearings and make recommendations to the board um with with the board again me and the final decision maker uh you have delegated um decision-making Authority on conditional and Inter use permits to the Planning Commission uh State Statute um requires that all variances have to be considered by the by the board of adjustment and their role as in the pcbaa for that and then any appeal of a staff decision um goes to the Planning Commission and they're the final decision maker to affirm or to deny of staff made a correct uh decision so uh it's just important to know what the different roles are for the as the different applications that come in um and uh and so any of those decisions that are made um by the Planning Commission where they're the final decision maker um if people are unhappy about a decision either for or against a request there's always opportunity to um to appeal that to either District coure the court of appeals in the case of a conditional use permit or a interim use permit Mr chair if I could just interject quick Chris I had an opportunity to go to the Planning Commission Board of adjustment meeting last Thursday evening and one of the things I had communicated to them ahead of time is I'd like to do that on an annual basis just to kind of review again what are the responsibilities of the County Board what are the responsibilities of the pcbaa so that both sides are clear on what their roles and responsibilities are and for the public as well so that they know what their Avenues and opportunities are where those processes land as well so I did Cover basically what Chris is talking about here we talked about that at the pcbaa meeting last Thursday as well excellent I think that's a great idea to remind them of where that division of responsibility is yeah I I think it it was great to have have Debbie there and I think it's just nice just another resource for the planning commiss Board of judgments to know that they have that as well so I really um was appreciated Debbie showing up at the meeting last Thursday we had a longer meeting we had a couple of some interesting applications and she made it through uh um the two tough ones so that was I was I was pretty uh pretty impressed uh with that so that was uh last week had some um everyone we have those meetings with interesting applications so um but again just to remind everybody what the process is if somebody wants to come in and make an application through to the county the first step is a development riew team we meet those on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 9:00 a.m. uh and those are um I'll get into a little more detail on that here in a second uh then the application deadlines is typically the second or the third week of the month depending on how many weeks are in the month to actually make the application um we do an on-site visit with the Planning Commission which is the first Thursday of the following month so that's two weeks before the meeting take the Planning Commission out on site to review the property and then finally the PCB meeting itself is the third Thursday of the month it's up here in the board boardroom uh meeting starts at 5:00 and so we do that well every so we do that 12 times a year right it's we I always tell staff it's like we have a a Sprint we do a we Sprint 12 times a year to get from App DRT to the actual PCB meeting on the third Thursday of the month so those are that's really kind of the short process of how we get there of you know just kind of that summary um this the second page here if we can go to that this is just looking at some of the numbers to give you an idea of what we see as far as um applications and um I think it should be the second should be the other document I think the second page of the other document maybe yep should be the second paper there we go yep um just just real quick um we um between 2024 and 23 we averaged about 226 DRT applications that would be nine meeting that would be approximately 18 per month uh so we looking at about we do nine or 10 of those every other Monday through around every 30 minutes so it gets you know it it uh takes up a day approximately most days to go through uh to DRT um just to give you an idea if you compare like the 2024 and 2023 um we had a total of um 94 variance applications submitted and then for conditional use permits we had 21 and and these were in 2024 land use map amendments were eight we had 17 plat between preliminary and final while it doesn't require it doesn't go to the Planning Commission Board of adjustment staff um that do work in this area also um work through the administrative subdivision process and boundary line adjustments you can see those numbers there as well um and if you jump down to 2023 you'll see we only we ended up with 69 um variance applications in uh in 2023 13 conditional use permits uh we had 19 land use map amendments and then 21 combination of plats uh preliminary and Final in 2023 um and so I think what's what's important to note here I think is one um is that there's a lot of app there's a lot of uh um work associated with this where we're really working very closely with uh with customers and constituents on on different requests and different sorts of uh um you know things that pop up and and different applications uh again um when you look at that DRT just as a reminder that is an that's that pre-application meeting that we have with um applicants or you know potential developers or contractors about projects and the idea is for um them to come to an opportunity to come to a meeting where um County staff are there the D is invited if it's uh in the Shoreland District um if it's on a highway road um the highway department is invited if it's on a state road mot's invited uh if it's in the township is always invited to attend um for that too and so it gets everybody into the room um gives us an opportunity to um work with the applicant figure out what they want to do and then provide some feedback and um it's nice I think it's been very helpful we to to vet these applications because it helps to improve and enhance that request it really gives them I think more information um to be able to process through what types of things that they want to ask for um most of the applications that come through are typically modified um based on the feedback that they either receive from staff at county level possibly from DNR at the state level from the Transportation representation there or from the you know from the township um and and to be honest most of the applicants um are very grateful um we're very honest with them we'll never tell somebody that they shouldn't apply for an application because they can always apply but um we're we're very honest and letting them know kind of what has been the track record of the Planning Commission and the board of adjustment was similar applications over the years and and to kind of give them idea of of things that they might want to consider the first step we always look at is can we do what they want to do without of variance I mean that is always our first question that we want to ask is can we can we handle that um and a lot of those I think if you look at that number that for example you had 225 applications this year and we had 94 R variances and you know 20 conditional use permits um that leaves you approximately in that 80 to 90 number that didn't apply and those folks that apply I think for a couple reasons one is that um we found a way for that to get a permit for a different way of of doing what they wanted to do without having to get a variance uh the other one is that some folks didn't realize the cost of what would take to apply for variance just to getting a survey done and and that and then some um just didn't feel like maybe their um application um had a great chance and so they they chose to not apply for it it's also very clear too just be it's not a requirement that say if you went to DRT in 24 you have to apply in 24 so somebody could go through the DRT process in 24 and make an application in 25 there's no requirement that you have to do within that 12-month window but um I just I know that there's a lot of you we hear a lot of Crowing County you know um approves all of its variances and um I would say that that um when by the time it comes to the board and time for decision- making process um that is pretty accurate for the reason of develop review team for the reason of the staff working behind the scenes of helping these applications become more um more more mature and more ready to be brought to the Planning Commission and board of for their consideration um you know the ones that you'll see here that were typically denied um in in 24 and in 23 were more of the after theact variances we were're um since I started with the county a couple back with here a couple years ago um there was seems to be a proliferation of a lot of stra activities happening with particularly um patios being built more than what's Allowed by the ordinance size number and that um and the board of adjustment in their role with the Planning Commission has been very clear that they're not supporting those types of requests so that when um when people are coming in and making these applications um you know we're not just looking at what they want to do as far as maybe adding on to the property we're also looking at the rest of property to verify you know hey when was this we had a situation um down in commissioner Coran's District um two meetings ago where they wanted to get a variance to um rebuild a garage up closer to the road that would be allowed because of the setback and we went down to the lak shore and there was a nice 300 foot patio and I said well where did that come from and the Builder was not part of that process but um that ended up being part of the variance they wanted to try for an after Thea variance and it was denied for the patio but it was allowed you know for them to rebuild that garage up by the road um and so the board has been very clear about addressing these issues um as far as these after the fact variances you know especially in situations where somebody might have a a boat house and they want a patio and the typical the response we're giving is which would you prefer would you like to keep your existing boat house or would you like to build a patio unfortunately you can't have both and um the board has been very clear on that and so it's been helpful for staff to be able to provide that feedback at these DRT meetings to say you can always apply for your variants but I don't think you'll get it and your best bet would be probably to start working on how to gain compliance versus trying to go through that process so I think that has been um a big Improvement that that we've made over the over the last couple years is is working through that um I think it's also really important to note that um well again going back we had another situation um this has been over in um commissioner Lee's District where um these folks wanted to apply for variance to build a um to build an a newer home and they had got a permit to to build a 700 squ foot um gas cabin a couple years before that but when we went out to do the the site visit all a sudden we saw there's a shed there and well there's a shed and well there's they ended up having four sheds in the property that were by the water and so we were able to work with them even before they got to the meeting itself which would been two weeks after that that they had agreed that they would we going to keep the one gazebo and everything else is going to be removed or put into a conforming location on the lot um and so it's it's those are the types of things from a staff perspective that we're heading off at the pass ahead of time so that when these applications do come in they really are ready for that review um by the Planning Commission and the board of adjustment um it's I think it's really been um very productive and helping people to get um you know improvements on their property but we're also very um you know very concerned about wanting to make sure that we're not um letting some of these uh after Thea type situations proliferate because I think you the more you allow them the more it seems to be maybe encouraged in the area and we and I think that's something that we're really um working hard to um reduce that um couple of the things that we're working on in 25 that I think are going to be helpful one is that um um the board allowed us to um hire Environ senior environmental service specialist positions have two of them now or we be able to have the opportunity to have two of them um in the office and they're going to become the lead for the public ing program and so they'll be the ones that'll be working through staff at DRT or working with um be the lead staff at DRT coming to the planing commission meetings and heading that up it's something that I'll have the opportunity to to train and to coach those staff into those positions so that um they can um be learn how to do that as well couple things that the board has been um doing a great job of lately is putting on some very clear conditions as far as what do they want as far as you know we approve a variance but now we want to see stor water management and Shoreline buffers um one of the things they've been requiring on lots that have impervious that is kind of starting to get close to that 25% is to require an as built survey after the work is completed that we get the survey updated to show that they met the ordin requirements um and that's going to be very helpful for staff to be able to verify that um when that work's been done and another thing just from a staff perspective is that um we're putting in place much better process and procedures for how to track our variances conditionally use per and these different flood plane permits that we have for Effective followup to make sure that um things that were approved and conditions implemented did it actually get accomplished or not and so we're we're uh we're doing um getting some better um methods for tracking those things in 25 going forward so that we can now verify that all these different conditions and have been required and have been followed through on as part of the permit so um I'd be happy to answer any questions but that is really uh kind of the the short um report on what we've been doing the last couple years the thing I'd like to close with would just be to I just want to say thank you to the board for the support that you've given to our department in this area um I appreciate um the questions that come when you have different um calls from your constituents I appreciate the opportunity that I'm um given to be able to provide the feedback and maybe some of the backstory on some of the different requests um and I also really appreciate um how um when you come in you're very you're always looking asking questions and trying to get more information I know I've got some colleagues that I work with in other counties where some of the boards come in are very um say I you need to approve this for these certain things and um I just appreciate how you um come in and work so with our department and and work with uh with Gary and myself and the team as we go forward I think we've got a great process I think it works and I think um I think it serves our our you know our customers that we serve well your constituents I think at the end of the day um you know the work that's being done is helping to you know to keep that water quality in the county um clean making this Minnesota's favorite place as well as you know trying to um you know buffer between neighbors and and helping to you know deal with some of those situations where um you know certain improvements might some neighbors don't always appreciate certain things that are happening on their neighbors property and helping us to navigate that well so I just want to say thank you for that as well we happy to answer any question any questions yes I have some Mr chair um I did have the opportunity to do some on-site survey with with the DRT team which is if you have a haven't had a chance as a commissioner go do that you should do that just to see the amount of work and the time they spend making sure that it all that it all fits together um to me the DRT seem the DRT committee meeting seems like it's kind of a filter you know you have all these applications coming in and then there's some of them that'll just go right on to if they do whatever they want to do can go right onto a permit without even going through the variance process or anything which I think is really saves a lot of time for the for the amount of work that the Planning Commission the board of adjustment do because they do a lot of they do a lot of work and if you watch their meetings and as as you attended it um they're very methodical and exactly how they they process their meetings so I think they do a very nice job there one question I have here is you got boundary line adjustments what does that mean does that mean you just decide you're going to move the line for somebody or how does that work so a boundary line adjustment is something that's it's found in our ordinance where um sometimes frankly people have um constructed things in their property where they thought that's where the line was and next thing you know they might have built their garage and it's sticking three feet over under their neighbor's property so a boundary line adjustment is a process where you hire a surveyor to go out and just remove remove those lines around the property the reason why the reason why we need to be involved in that a is to make sure that they're not creating substandard Lots by moving boundary lines around um two is to make sure if they are moving around is it um creating the right buffer setback around that structure and three is anytime you move a boundary and you change that legal description you need to new record new deeds and so we want to make sure that because people have done surveys to move boundaries but they never got the deed recorded to show that that was actually what was done and what's a survey is great but what matters is the deed and was recorded in the prop has been recorded yeah I ran into and so that's why we that's why we have some oversight on those boundary line adjustments and this typically more Shoreland than anything so yeah but does that go does the cost of that go to the applicant who's applying for the uh thing the you know because there's there's a surveying cost there's some other cost involved that all part of the application yep so boundary L adjustment required to to um hire a registered surveyor in the state of Minnesota to go out and do the boundary L adjustment redraw the lines redo the legal description and then that's submitted to our office for review it's a $100 fee um for that the fee for us to review it and then once that gets approved then they've got a 12-month window to either work with an attorney or a title company to draft the deeds and get that recorded okay and you do a good job of followup I mean you know because I know they make requirements conditions on these permits somebody goes and does that followup to make sure that those are what one of the nice one of the nice Parts about our department is that we have a recorder right in right in the office with us so they will be they if they see the things coming in they're going to want they they will check with our environmental services staff to see did did they get a a bond adjustment for this or was there an administrative subdivision they they want they will want to see what was the what was the um result the process that now generated these new Deeds to be recorded and stuff so it's it's actually very nice to have recorders sitting right next to us um so we can actually have those get that answered much easier and get that figured out so yeah we do follow up unfortunately what happens if if you've done a boundary line adjustment or an administrative sub division um or even a final plat if you haven't recorded in the time frame you have to start over SE that happen once already unfortunately but as far as you're you're doing um uh storm water abatement that type of stuff are those followed up on because they're all part of conditions of the permit yeah and so every what we do every year is and starting in 25 we're going to be ramping it up even more but um we do have a pretty robust uh program for folling of our repairing permits the water that right on the lakes to make sure that all those condition are met starting in 2025 we're going to be doing that much more um intentional about doing those inspections through the construction process and so we're going to be out doing in inspections during the summer months as things are being built to verify that is the silt fence up in place and and as a you know as all the bmps that they would need to protect the water up for that and so we have a much we we have a a plan in the uh process for a much more robust inspection process starting in 2025 so I just will make a couple remarks first of all I know a few years ago and and I think it's at least Gary's well aware that after the fact variances are a bur under my saddle I like it when people follow the the rules and I noticed that they've come down I noticed that the pcbaa is a lot stronger in whether they all accept some of those or not I think they're doing a great job in there so I'm glad to see and you made the comment in the in the uh narrative that you have that you've seen a lot fewer of those come through and and as I've watched the agendas I've seen a lot fewer of them also so I appreciate that and that's making a fair field for everybody to right to play in so then the other thing is I just want to say that the whole process I think is is providing a great customer service because we're not letting them get out of line and we're working with them to try to make it work as best we can on whatever piece of property they are because we always hear that statement you know it's my property I should be able to do what I want well that's not exactly true and having said that I think the DRT and the pcbaa work very hard to accommodate almost everyone they can and I think that's great customer service so thank you very much for all the work that both of those groups do in the staff so I appreciate that thank you any other questions I think with that we're done for the day at this meeting that's