We were told that you were out on water patrol. >> All right, we're going to call this to order, though. >> Let's work it. Let's do it. >> I love it. support. >> All right, I'll call the Crowing County Committee of the whole meeting for October 21st, 2025 to order.
>> First up, >> Mr. Pence. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> So, I have a couple items uh on the agenda for you this morning. Uh the first is I was asked to do a a planning and zoning 101 and just kind of do a
just a brief overview of just uh kind of how we do planning and zoning in the county. Uh what are some of the statutory requirements, some of the rule requirements that we're mandated to follow and uh um just to kind of give an overview of of that. And so um am I able to toggle myself here or
>> Okay, awesome. So, we're just going to um and then when I'm finished with that, um I have some uh Gary and I have some proposed uh ordinance updates we'd like to discuss with the board to see um kind of get some direction as far as that.
And so, we're going to go through and and just kind of start and if there's any questions, um I'm going to go through this um some areas maybe quicker than others. um try to get some spots I think are maybe more important, but just kind of trying to lay the the framework a little bit for how um planning and
zoning um how land use applies within the county. So, um if you look at our ordinance at the very beginning, there's always a purpose. Every ordinance has a reason for it. Uh and you've got some uh so our our ordinance purposes are to implement the comprehensive plan, orderly development, to create land use
districts. We're going to regulate the location, height, and size of structures. We're going to preserve economic and natural environment of shorelands, structure setbacks, the size of parcels, overcrowding of land, which is really impervious coverage limits. We want to see compatible development, um
maintain our natural resources, and upgrade non-compliance septic systems. That's really one of the the keys um to what um you know, we're trying to accompass or what the ordinance's purpose is. And you know what can I ask
question? So on the on that for example one thing that pops up is the impervious surface. A lot of that people are like what's this all about? That's actually in statute or that's a state. Can you just drill down on that just a little bit that isn't us? >> Yep. Absolutely. And uh and we'll I can
I'll go that a little bit further too into the presentation, but absolutely when we're dealing with the um within a thousand feet of a lake, there's definite requirements in Minnesota rule 6120 and they do have caps and pvious limits on those lots at 25%. And so um
that's a that's a rule that we have to there's a a minimum standard that we have to follow for um planning and zoning around uh destroying around lake streams and rivers. And one of those is that impervious coverage. And so that's the intent of one of the purposes is to prevent that. We want to prevent the
overcrowding of structures and those higher impervious because that's what causes detrimental impacts to water quality and and to uh you know groundwater and surface water. >> Okay. She's not moving. That always happens.
>> All right. Uh so then just some key objectives again you're going to hear, you know, as we go through this. There's health, safety, and general welfare. That's kind of a legal phrase that's often used when looking at um planning and zoning type activities. Again, we're here to protect, enhance our water quality. I
think that's a really important aspect of our county. It's a big driver of our tax base. Um there are certain uses in the county that we want to protect. There's agriculture, there's forestry, wildlife habitat, you know, where we have uh the shorland areas. And so, we have certain um requirements in those
areas to protect those from uh being overdeveloped. We want to make sure that from a development standpoint, we have proper lot sizes. We have performance standards. We want to reduce conflicts between neighbors and we want to reduce conflict between residential and commercial industrial uses. And so, as
we look at our land use map, you'll you'll see kind of the method as to how we're trying to accomplish that in the county. Uh just to give you an idea for permit numbers, uh last year we issued a total of,78 permits with 204 uh new construction and
443 uh septics residential and eight commercial. Just to give you an idea of where we're at this year. Um as of today, um year to date, we're at 1,032 permits. So that's a 2% increase over where we were last year. Um we've issued
um 186 permits for um for new homes. We're at 6% over where that was last year. Um residential septics, uh we've uh we're at 403 already this year. That's at 7% over last year. And then we've um see got uh some commercial
septics that we've installed, too. We have 11 this year compared to six last year. So, we're definitely um maintaining and seeing um the permits are staying steady as far as that. So, that's I think a good sign to see that there's still some um development happening within the county.
We'll go to the next slide. Uh so again as we as I mentioned earlier there are some um requirements that we have to follow. There are some enabling legislation which is 394. That's what gives us the ability to have planning and zoning activities in the county. And we have a different all these different
rules that we have that we're mandated to implement. 6120 is our shoreland the shoreland rules. 8420 is the wetland conservation act. 7080 is the septic system requirements. We have Minnesota rules 4410 which is environmental review which deal with like environmental
assessment worksheets and that and then we have other uh ordinances that we do that we're not mandated to do but we have chosen to do with the county like short-term rentals. Um we have like a solid waste junk nuisance those sorts of things. So there are some things that we have to do. There's some things that
we're choosing to do um in addition to those um requirements from the state. >> So a question on this one. So I see you say statute but then you say rule. Now when you say rule is it statute is it is it under the statute
>> correct >> or or and some agency has made this rule? >> Yeah. And so so the way that it comes from a statutory um uh standpoint is that there is um 103 the statutes 103 um
G is typically the statute that governs most of what happens for um water and um these requirements that you have as far as wetland conservation act the stron rules septic there's enabling legislation that that puts into place and then that says now and then it'll go
to like so for example the DNR is is responsible for the shorland rules and the board of water and soil resources responsible for the wetland conservation act. Uh and then the MPCA is responsible for the septic system requirements. And so you have a statute and then you have a rule that really implements that
statute. And depending on how the statute was put into place, that's what authority that those agencies have as far as updating the rules, >> rulemaking authority. >> Correct. And some are different than others. So if you look at like the Shron rules, those haven't been updated since 1989. Uh the wetland conservation act is
being updated just was recently updated within the last 12 months. Um Minnesota rule 780 the septic system rules those were updated back in 2013 was the last time those were up. No no 2008 was when those were last updated. >> So when somebody wants to put a an
addition onto their house and then we were requiring a uh septic inspection that's because of this. >> Correct. Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We have to have septic inspections when you're within the Shorland district. When you get a permit, you
have to have your septic inspected. Yep. So, we'll go to the next screen. So, again, Minnesota statute 384. This is the legislation that enables counties to actually do planning and zoning. It's all a very um uh dictated, prescriptive
process that the state has given the county permission to be able to do. If you were a city or a township, you would be under Minnesota statutes 462. that's their enabling legislation that allows them to do planning and zoning. Uh and so just to be we're not going to read through this, but just I just kind of clipped a couple pieces out of the
statute. Um again, so 394.21 gives us the authority to do planning and zoning. 23 says that we have to have a comprehensive plan is required as part of doing planning and zoning and having an ordinance. We'll go to that next one, Amber.
Uh and so then this allows us to have to once we have a comprehensive plan that we have official controls that is what puts into an that's meant to implement the comprehensive plan for the county. We can go to the next next slide. Uh and so um the way that it's set up is
that uh this the state says that we're supposed to set districts by basically set land use districts and zoning districts. That's what uh this um requires us to do. Have that put into place. We can go to the next one. Yep. And so this again basically tells
us uh the parameters as as far as what we're allowed to regulate. You can look in here. It talks about um I mean the the the location, height, width, bulk, type of foundation, number of stories, size of dwellings, buildings, and structures and other pieces that we can regulate. So, this is what we're allowed
to regulate is very is very called out clearly by the state and what we can and can't do from a county perspective. You can go to the next map. Uh again, Minnesota statute 394 um creates the board of adjustment. It creates the planning commission. It gives us rules
as far as how we're supposed to run public hearings, how we're supposed to handle conditional use permits, nonconformities, all of those. So it's so a lot of times I think people think that counties have a lot of discretion as far as what they do with some of their land use and and we don't. It's very prescriptive. The state basically
gives us the rules that we're supposed to follow as we're going through variances, conditional use permits, non-conformities and and the like. >> So why would you why why would the um just a curiosity question. So, why would the state want us to create like a board
of adjustment and a a planning and zoning commission rather than having the county board do that? We can't do all of that, >> right? >> By statute. >> That's a great question why they did that. I believe that the Thanks, Jim. I believe that artic uh like 394 was was
actually adopted back in the 50s. So, it's it's been quite a while that's been around. I think um you know what they're trying to get maybe is uniformity across the board and trying to make things to be consistent. And so I think there might have been at some point some counties were doing it in different ways
and the stat legislature said this is how it this is how we want to see it happen. Um, and so I I think this it's meant to try to get citizen input through the planning commission and the board of dust process. And but I I really can't tell you why they took that authority, you know, um, as far as cuz
like a variance, the the county board can't approve a variance even if it wanted to. You that's authority that's delegated directly to the board of adjustments. So you that's a city has that ability to actually approve variances if they so choose at a city level, but counties don't have that authority.
>> Were you going to say so? And then again, um, counties have the ability, county boards can approve a conditional use permit or an interim use permit if so chose. Um, you have delegated that to your planning commission and board of adjustment to make those decisions, but some counties um, have the the
recommendation coming from the final decisions made at the county board level. So, it's there is flexibility on conditional use and intermuse permits. There is no flexibility on plats and land use map amendments or zoning map that does reside with the county board to make those final decisions.
Chris, uh, in some counties, the board of adjustment is actually separate from the P planning commission and has actually a separate Yep. >> different people on it. Some of them I've seen have actually commissioners that actually sit on one or the other. >> Yep. Yep. >> Board of adjustment. >> The planning commission can some
counties will have a planning commission member will be a member of the county board will sit on the planning commission. And >> planning commission or board of adjustment? >> Planning commission. Yeah, board of adjustment is separate from the county board. So that that doesn't there's a member on the planning commission but it wouldn't be a member on the board of adjustment
>> in ours. We have it put together. >> We have a com we have a com >> and that's allowed for in statute. >> Yep. It sure is. Yep. >> And John it used to be or commissioner Lubkey. It used to be separated. I actually was for a while I was Jim Hill
Commissioner Jim Hill's appointee on the uh um board of adjustment. At that time we were they were separate. >> Yep. and a lot of other counties have followed suit. We made that change back in 2009 and other counties have followed suit and made a combined their planning
commission and board of adjustment into one entity. So, no go. Uh so, just to give you just a real quick summary, um we have the county is separated into land use districts. So the shorland district which I had
mentioned is 1,000 ft around lakes. It's 300 feet around streams and rivers and then it's 500 feet um around the Mississippi River. We have uh three lake classifications, general development, recreational development and natural environment. Then we also have uh river
classifications that are separate from that. And then once you get um out of the Shorland district and we have what's called the non-shorland or the rural residential districts where you have uh depending on the location, you have the R1, the RR 2.5, R5 and R10. That's
basically um lot sizes. So if you're in the R2.5, it's a minimum 2.5 acre lot size with a with 165 ft wide. R5, same R10. It's just the more of a density. We have our agricultural forestry zoning
that's a 35 acre minimum. And so a lot of times you'll see land use mapap amendments come in where people will be zoned agricultural forestry and they want to change the zoning to an R5 and R10 so they could subdivide some of that property. The intent for that 35 acre was to preserve um those larger tracks
in those areas that was deemed to be agricultural you know forested land within the county. A lot of it on the north side of the county is forested. On the south side of the county a lot of that is the agricultural. We have our commercial zoning. We have our waterfront commercial zoning which is our riparian lots for those resorts and
campgrounds. And then we have the commercial industrial where there's more of our high intense uses. For example, cloud stamping up north of Marfield would meet that category. >> We'll go to the next slide. >> Chris, before you go on before you move on to that side, these are defined by
the county. These are created by the county and laid out from that. There's no statutory requirements that says you have to have these certain types of districts. >> Correct. So the the 394 lists out if you're going to do zoning in the
nonshoreland what those typical categories generally speaking would look like. Yep. >> But I thought at some point we we had more categories and we kind of condensed it down at some point, didn't we? >> We did. Okay. >> Yeah. We combined our commercial one, commercial two
>> into one district. our commercial, light industrial, commercial, heavy industrial into one. And >> Sure. >> Yep. So, we did consolidate some of our zoning districts down. >> So, this is just to give you an idea of what they might look like on the map. Um, this is Lake Edward um up in Lake Edward Township. The area that you see
in in the yellow is a 2.5 acre zoning. The area that you see in blue is the shoreland district around the around the different lakes. This purple or this pink color would be the uh um would be the commercial district. And the red that you'd see here would be the
waterfront commercial district. This would be cloud stamping here. This the gray color. Um that would be the commercial industrial. So um you know there's a it's a kind of a checkerboard um type of zoning depending on the on where you're located in the county. But the idea is to try to get um similar
uses within the area. Trying to avoid conflicts with neighboring properties and orderly development is really the intent of what we're looking for. We'll go to the next page. Did you say the shoreline district is actually u the rules and statute that comes actually from state statute for shoreline?
>> It does. It does. Okay. >> Yeah. Minnesota rule 6120 right >> defines 1,000 ft around the lake, 300 ft around the stream and then we have the Mississippi headarters board which is separate from that which is 500 ft for the river. >> But do we have some latitude then in that shoreline district to do some
different things or is it pretty much just spelled out in statute? Uh it's we have some li we can be more restrictive than what the rule says, but we can't be less restrictive unless we get um there's a there's a process with the DNR that you can go through to get if there's a reason why you think something
that would be less restrictive would actually accomplish the rule. There are some things that you can do to to be less restrictive, but typically it's it's uh meeting the minimum standard is the requirement. So when you look at the different land uses in the county, we have uh we have
allowed uses, permitted uses, conditional, interim, and then those that are not allowed. You know, an allowed use is uh is somebody, you know, who wants to farm their property, somebody who wants to raise cattle. There are some uses that you just get to use your property for and it's an
allowed use. Um some uses are permitted where you have to come to the county and and apply for a permit and receive a permit. Then you have your conditional and your interim uses. Those uh require public hearings and neighborhood notification and review and approval by the planning commission board of adjustment. And then depending on the
location of where you're at in the county, some uses simply aren't allowed. And if we go to the next uh slide, we can look at that. So this comes out of article 10, excuse me. And it gives you an idea of uh um the uses are on the left side and
then across the top you see um where the land use districts are. And then in the columns it tells you what type of a permit would be required for that type of a activity. So for example single family dwellings if you um that across the board is a permitted activity unless
you're in the commercial industrial that would require a conditional use permit. Um, if you want to build a duplex, that is a permit activity. Uh, unless, uh, on the Shoreland district, there's some requirements that DNR has to be able to build a duplex in the Shorland, but the nonshorland, we have it's a permanent
activity. Uh, when you get into the three family triplex, depending on its location, it's a permit or a conditional use permit. So, uh, there are different and like mentioned before, farmland, crop growing and and harvesting that is, uh, um, an allowed use in all the
districts. Um same as far as livestock, poultry that we have some restrictions where we don't want to see some things happening in the waterfront, commercial or commercial industrial as far as livestock. But um those are you kind of get an idea of the allowed permit. And if there's a blank where there's no
letter in it, that means it's not an allowed use within that district. We go to that next slide. Uh this is just to give you some idea of what we have for our commercial uses. Um, if you wanted to say do a an adult use, um, that's an interim use permit in
our agricultural forest district. Everybody might say, "Well, that might be an interesting um location for a type of an adult use." Uh, if you look at the way the county zoning map is laid out, um, there isn't any agricultural force of land on a major road. And so, if you want to have an adult use, that's fine.
It's just going to be out in the middle of a cornfield somewhere. Um, and so we are not allowed to prohibit uses outright anywhere in the county. We have to have an area where they're allowed to be done, but the county does get to dictate where those uses happen. So, same thing for, you know, gravel pits.
We have a lot of folks who think they don't want a gravel pit because it's they concerned about how it might affect their property. We do have um we have gravel pits. They're called an extractive use. They're an intermuse across. You can see they're allowed in the agricultural forest district, rural
residential 2.5, five or 10 uh and and commercial industrial or the airport district. So, but we're not going to allow those um in the shoreland district and uh and that. So, it this kind of gives you an idea of where we allow certain types of um commercial
activities and what type of permits would be needed to accomplish those. >> Chris, you ready for a hypothetical? >> Go for it. >> Okay. So, let's say you're you're out at somebody's place out. Let's say it's agricultural forested or or no, let's
just say um okay, I'm not going to go down that road, but let's say it's 40 acres and you're standing there and this guy is probably 6'7 and you're looking up at him and you're uh he's got like 150 cars there and he doesn't have a junkyard
permit or anything. and um you're telling him, "Hey, you can't do that here." And he says, "Why? This is my land." >> Mhm. >> What would you tell him? >> Well, I would tell him that uh the county has adopted ordinances that
regulate how land is used within the county. We have a we have a I would explain that we have a a junk um a junk um yard ordinance that he could try to apply to get that to allow him to use to have that on the property. Otherwise, I would focus on we have a solid waste
ordinance that limits the amount of unlicensed vehicles you can have on your property and and that um I'd offer ways to find compliance and timelines that would work for him to try to choose whatever option it is that he thought made the most sense on his property and and if if all of those options didn't
make any sense to him, then I would refer over to the county attorney's office and >> and uh and ask them to to intervene and and see if they thought that this was something that would require that they would step in and and help get gain compliance on the property. >> Mhm. I guess if I was out there with
you, I would say to them that >> yeah, this is your property, but you're in essence, you're kind of leasing it. Well, what do you mean? Well, you're not going to live forever, >> right? >> And then you make a mess here and you got oil and you got cars and then when
you're gone, somebody else has to go through the process of cleaning that up. A lot of people don't understand that. they ruin their property or they, you know, and I used to be a one like Dewey Tales, Commissioner Tales when he was here. He was um just like me, you know,
I'm a property rights guy. But I've I think I've kind of evolved of understanding that yes, this person has property rights, but what about the person that's right next to them, >> right? that don't they have any property
rights when what you're doing on your property is having an effect next door? >> Absolutely. And I I think our role from a county level is to try to find that balance of making sure that people do get to use their property and they do pay taxes and and it it is property they
own. But we want to ensure that they're not doing things that are detrimental to the neighboring property or I mean the last thing we want to have happen is something that somebody would have some sort of a spill in their property would contaminate the groundwater aquifer, >> right? >> Well, that's that's a big problem not just for you because because the you
know we always say that the groundwater and surface water doesn't really pay much attention to property lines and and that it it it is where it is. And so we want to make sure that those aren't contaminated and polluted and and so those are some of the there's there's reasons behind uh you know what we're trying to accomplish with these not just
being the the heavy hand of government. We're trying to you know make sure that we're you know you go back to that slide at the very beginning. We're out to really protect the the health, safety and the general welfare of the county, >> right? >> And I think those are some of the things that we can do that would make I think a big difference in making sure that you know for future generations people can
drill well and feel confident they can drink the water that comes out of it. Exactly. Thanks for that. >> Yeah, >> Chris, if we went around this county, what is it? 990 some square miles or whatever it is. We went around the county and we said, "Boy, we need to look at every piece of property to see
what it's what it's listed as and make sure they're doing everything right on that piece of property." You know, that would be a tremendous chore and it would be just a little bit sticking your nose really where it doesn't belong. So most of the stuff comes to us if we have to
address it comes to us as complaint driven. >> Correct. >> If all the neighbors around don't have a problem that you got 50 cars in your backyard. Is it is it is it our problem? >> Unless there's a complaint otherwise complaint that's the >> we couldn't we couldn't hire enough
people to go around like and drive by every place and see if there's violations. I don't I don't think we could afford that. I mean nor would I ever support that. I I think if you look at anybody with any, you know, maybe in town it might be a little different, but you get any town where you any area
where you got two and a half or five acres. I bet you you could go almost every one of them find something that could be a violation if you wanted to. >> I'm sure. >> But it should be complaint driven. We shouldn't be running around like the the like the land cops unless unless you know Eric needs something else to do
back there. Well, he doesn't >> immediately. >> Thank you for >> We be We'd be thrilled for him. >> We'd be We'd be thrilled if the sheriff wants to chase all the junk calls that we get. But, uh, we we take those calls when we get them and we go out and and
respond and and try to help land owners, you know, navigate that process. And, um, the thing I always advise people to know, especially those that are making the complaints, is that, you know, somebody didn't accumulate a bunch of cars in, you know, a couple days. And so, it takes more than a couple days to get rid of them. And so as long as we
have people are willing to work with us and over time can you know if they can start getting a few cars off you know you know even per month um it's a definite improvement over what was there in the past and sometimes it might take uh a little bit of time but at the end um having that patience and and willing
to work with land owners to meet them where they are and and to assist with that I think is much more beneficial than trying to come in real heavy-handed and and trying to you know >> but after saying after saying that when we run into open sewer health issues, immediate health threats, those are
those are addressed. >> That's a different situation. >> That's a whole different situation. >> If we have a situation where somebody's uh septic system is surfacing and it's on the ground, um we are going to have response once we're aware of it. We'll be we have there will be expectations of things have to happen within 24 hours by
the landowner to to correct and seal and if not, then we will invoke public health and come back to you guys for permission to to get in there and do it ourselves. So there are some things that we have some patience with and some things that we have to respond more quickly just because of the severity of
the of what is happening. >> Thank you. >> Uh let's go to the next slide please. Again just and just again just just to show the different uses and just the different tables. I won't go into any more detail on this but it just it gives you an idea of of you know every time
you see us the CU or the IU that's going to be something before the planning commission board of adjustment. Uh and so there's quite a few things that uh comes to that board to make some decisions on how people use their property. And uh and so just wanted to make sure everybody understood how and why we determine when somebody has to
apply for certain types of permits. We can go to the next slide. >> Have we been using interimm uses uh a lot or is that becoming more and more? >> Uh that's relatively new for Crowing County >> for Crowing County. I know others have used it. >> Yep. So we adopt we uh when we uh couple
you know as we've made some ordinance updates lately some of the changes as far as what's required intermuse would be gravel pits um the event centers are now an intermuse permit any sort of cannabis um commercial cannabis use is an intermuse permit so uh those are
pretty much the big three that require an interuse permit the rest are typically conditional use permits >> can you see in the future using more and more I use >> I can it depends on the situation um interse permits are really a conditional use permit where you can put a timing perspective on it to say it either
applies to a certain land owner or say this is valid for you know a 5year time frame. I think there are some permit requests that um make sense that we would want to have that requirement on there and there are some that I think a conditional use permit where it's it's a use that's granted for the property I
think makes sense and so I I feel pretty comfortable where we at where we're at now with with how we've got those spelled out but definitely open to discussion you know into the future if we think there's you know a need or a reason to make some updates as far as as far as that. What is the timeline on
conditional use permit if if it was let's say to be for a I'll just use a car lot and it was and it was a conditional use permit and it's no longer a car lot. It hasn't been a car lot for so long. What is that timeline? Is there a timeline there? >> Our ordinance our ordinance is does not
limit um conditional use permit expirations. Some some counties do have norms that says if you if your uh condition isn't hasn't been implemented or used for say a year that it then expires. Um we have that's not something that we have in our >> course county. I know in cities they
they you know it looks a lot more in a city where that was a beauty shop and now it's no longer been a beauty shop and and so it's it's kind of if you want >> some it's it's it would really be at the discretion of the board if that was something that uh was wanted to be implemented as far as the you know what
the board wanted to do. >> Yeah. But otherwise it stays with the property for the life of the property. for the life of the property. Yep. >> Y >> and and an IU does not >> an intermuse permit is is we would issue. So if let's say that you were to come in Commissioner Coring and apply
for an interuse permit because you wanted to have an event center maybe at your property >> and then down the road you sold that to you know Commissioner Lupkey he would have to come in and reapply for that permit. >> Okay. It would it it would typically inter use permits either will transfer at um we'll will will cease their their
approval when property transfers or if there was a time frame that said this is valid you know like we might issue gravel pit permit and say you can you can uh take gravel out of that pit for two years and then you know and after that you need to come back in and apply for another interuse permit. >> Well that makes sense.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean it gives it gives a little bit of flexibility for some of those types of uses where timing might really be imperative to what's in the >> is not still has to go before the planning commission. >> Absolutely. Goes to the planning commission. They have final approval. It gets recorded on the deed
>> and the county board doesn't have final approval on it. >> County board does not. >> Okay. >> It's not a land use change. Is it is a >> an intermuse? >> Yeah. Intermuse. >> No. So, the the land use map amendment is when you actually update the zoning map. The inner use permit is the same as
a conditional use permit. Same process, the same neighborhood notification except for the ability to put um ownership for, you know, to to limit the the length of the permit through ownership and or through just a timing perspective that you could put in.
>> And conditional use permits don't come to the county board either. >> No, neither one come to the county board. And those are perpetual. They they do not come to the county board. >> Only land use change. >> Yep. Only the land and then and plats. Yep. you guys >> land use map amendment. >> Yep. And plats come to the county board.
Yep. >> And then if somebody doesn't like the conditional use permit, the appeal process is not the county board. It is not >> district court actually. So if somebody were to come in and want to dispute a
variance, they have 30 days to appeal that to district court. Okay. If somebody wanted to come in and dispute and appeal a conditional use permit or an interim use permit, that goes to the court of appeals. >> And you have 60 days to file that appeal for that one.
>> Okay. >> So, we'll go. So, again, this is Minnesota rule 6120. This is the shoreline rules. This is the one that drives um most of the activities within our office as far as permitting. Um, and so again, we're not going to go into these details here, but if we go to the
next slide, um, uh, this is where you you you'll hear we have a shor alteration permit that people can apply for. And these are the items that really tie back to what's in the shoreline rules and article 11 of our ordinance. Social alterations are things like u
water like sheds done by the water, sand blankets, ice ridge removals, stairways, patios, dirt moving vegetation, bluffs and steep slopes. Those are really the activities that um would really resolve revolve around the 6120 and then article
11 of our ordinance. Go to the next slide. So just as a reminder, the setback on a general development lake is 75 ft and that gets split in half. So we have shore impact zone one and shore impact zone 2. Depends where you're located depending on what type of activities would be a permitted use or a
use that's not allowed. And so for uh for general development lake is 37 1/2 ft and 75 is short impact zone 2 you can do a recreational development lake that is uh the first half of that would be a 50ft set back and the second would be then back to 100 ft. Natural environment
lakes are 150 foot setback and then we have a natural environment special shallow and that is a 180 foot setback on those and each one of those setbacks is divided in half. So as we go into the next few slides you're going to hear shore and peg zone one and shore peg zone two kind of give you an idea of what part of the what part of the
setback we're talking about. >> Chris can you is there any way you can just explain to me I mean it's just kind of more of a curiosity questions. What is a general development lake and who says it's a general development lake? Who says it's a recreational development
lake? Who designates that? And can you just explain what >> the the DNR sets the classification of lakes? The DNR classifies the lakes. And so a general development lake is going to be a gull lake. It's going to be a pelican. It's going to be a north long lake, a round lake. Our larger lakes,
our more developed lakes. Um, some of our recreational development lakes would be more of the midsize lakes like say some of the bass lakes by Marfield are recreational development. Um, so it's lakes that are are still um relatively a larger size but not as big
as as those other lakes. And then when you get to the natural environment lakes, those ones I call those a glorified duck pond. Those are just those small lakes. They're typically 100 acres or so and typically pretty shallow. And then we have a a special uh setback on the um the DNR has set these
natural environment special shallow lakes and so those are just a little bit more shallow than your natural environment and so those have a little bit more protection on that. So the DNR has classified every lake in the state and and then they based on 6120 they that tells us what lakes we have to
regulate and which ones we don't have to regulate. So if you're in a if you are in a city, you've got to regulate every lake that's 10 acres in size or more in a city. In the county, it's any lake that's 25 acres in size or more we were required to regulate. And then so we've
got uh a protected water inventory that's not in the ordinance. It's a separate standalone document that lists all the lakes, all the rivers, and it tells you what the ordinary high water marks setback elevation is. It'll tell you what if there's if it's a flood issue, if it what its base flood
elevation is, what its regatory flood protection elevation is, the lake classification, and then every lake in the state's got a a division of waters number to it. Crowing County is 18- so every so if you're in Aken County, it's 01- basically alphabetical. Uh, so
all of our lakes start with an 18 and then there's a dash and then there's a number that the the DNR has classified when they set their public waters inventory. The DNR doesn't change that at all, do they? >> We've talked about it and I was told that they made a really good choice when they did that inventory back in the 60s
and 70s and they don't really want to change it. So, uh, I've always we've always we've had discussions about Bay Lake. Bay Lake is a recreational development lake and RD Lake. It's a general development lake and it should be classified as a general development lake and you'll see most of our variances are on Bay Lake. We have a lot
of them just because of the setback being 100 feet instead of 75 ft. And so we've I've had that conversation with the DNR and they said when they classified it the first time, they got it right. >> So even though the rules are there and the lake is classified, somebody can still come in and get a
variance to do something that doesn't meet those rules. >> Correct. Yep. Absolutely. So that takes you back to 394 with the creation of the board of adjustment with recognition that not every u lake lot, not every situation is going to be able to meet the standards of today's ordinance. And
so they put in their parameters for uh for what you would how you would get a how to apply for a variance and what the standards are. It's a practical difficulty is what the standards are for a variance. And that's across the board uh statewide for counties, cities or townships that they do their own zoning
>> and that board makes that decision. They do and they're for the counties this the board of adjustment when they're when the planning commission board of adjustment when they're doing when they're um in the role of the board of adjustment they are the decision-m authority on variances.
>> Okay. >> So, so Chris, another question. So, I I know I uh talked to somebody one time when they were they had a cabin on North Long Lake and they were going to tear it down. they were going to build a house and they um it was designated like a
flood plane but that isn't that's like somebody in Washington looking at drawing the line isn't it or how does that work or >> kind of so so you're talking about so um when you look at 6120 that's the shoreline/ floodplane regulations for
the state and so what the what the federal government has has basically you know it's all top down everything kind of seems to trickle its way So the federal government has delegated to the DNR to the state to manage um flood planes within the state. And so then the state um works and puts into effect
these flood plane maps. And so our flood plane maps were updated in 2015 and they're on our county website through GIS. And when I mentioned earlier that base flood elevation that is the elevation that the that basically is set from a federal level that this that the state puts into place that the counties
have to implement and cities and townships where um you have the base the BF or the base flood elevation is where there's the um they say there's a 1% chance for the 100red-year flood event of there being a flood there. And so if you're in that area you have to build a foot above that which is called your
regatory flood protection elevation. I tell you this is so exciting guys. It just I mean it's really close. >> Renee, we're getting educated. That's what this is for. >> So, and we have a lot of we have a lot of that flood plane. It's called the flood fringe. Um and uh that's a whole
another conversation we could have that would take some time to chat through all >> but then this person had to buy some wetland credits too, I believe. And then >> that's a different that's two different processes. Okay. So, um >> that would go through the wetland
conservation act. And so, uh, just building in the flood fringe doesn't always mean you're building in a wetland at the same time. Sometimes you do, but typic, but but generally speaking, it's not how but the the the situation on North Long is a different animal because if you go
up to say start by BIR and come around the south side of North Long, um, that was all filled swamp from back before there were any regulations at all. And um unfortunately fortunately depending on how you look at it, some of the um filling wasn't done effectively. And so
people still want when they build down there um it still has wetland characteristics. And so there's a process to go through to impact that to build and do development for driveways and that. >> Okay, >> we can go to the next slide. So I'm just going to try to go through these
quickly. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Uh, we allow a water or accessory structure on on residential properties to be 120 ft in size, 12 ft in height. It's got to be a 20 foot setback. If you're commercial, you get 250 ft and 15 ft in height. You can't
live in it. It can't be a house. It's meant for storage of your toys and fishing rods and and that. >> So, it's a 20ft setback. I thought the sideyard set back was always 10 ft. >> No, this is 20 ft from the lake. >> Oh, 20 ft from the lake. >> Still have to meet that 10 foot. >> 10 foot side addition. Yep. And that
doesn't doesn't matter what lake you're on, whether you're on a natural environment, recreational, or general. It does not. They're all the same. >> That does not. Correct. The state would allow you to to have a um 250 foot building down by the lake, 10 ft away is
what the state rule allows. And so we've adopted 120 ft 20 ft back is what the county's adopted. >> The 20ft setback is measured from the OW. >> Correct. Fro Exactly. for an ordinary high water mark. Yep. >> And those are all laid out really well
for everybody. And so you know what that is on every lake. >> We require >> every piece of property, the ordinary high water mark. >> So if you remember back in 2024, you changed the ordinance to require surveys for repairarian parcels, >> right? >> And so we do require surveys for
repairarian parcels. Situations like this, we wouldn't maybe require a survey as much as we require a surveyor to go out and put a stake where the OW is so we can verify that setback. Um, but yeah, we're getting surveys now to verify where structures are being located so that they're being put in the right spot. >> Yeah.
>> Because that isn't really a delineated mark by the DNR that they didn't go. >> It is it's it's a set. It's every most especially more of our developed lakes have a set elevation. They have a set elevation that they use. Um, but um there's not anything there. There's not
like marks around the lake that say here's where the O it's just what they do is they'll they'll go to like say a boat landing or and they'll set a benchmark and that'll be used to set the elevation for the OW and um and so we just we have land owners contact a
surveyor to be able to go out and set that ordinary high water mark because we're not surveyors you know from a from land services staff and u we don't want to have that liability that if we go out and set an OW and we're wrong that all a sudden it's on us because now they have a a potential >> I think that's what happened in 2024. We
you know there was some issues there where >> we tried to help somebody locate the OW on Horseshoe Lake and and uh there was some miscommunication there and that and and um and at the end of the day it's on the the ordinance is very clear that is it is the responsibility of the
applicant to be in compliance with the ordinance and to locate you know their structures in the right spot. But when we help out and we're there, you know, people will want, you know, they'll use what we say, too. So, it's it's kind of a balancing act of that.
We can go to the next slide. Uh patios. So, we allow patios um uh up to 250 square foot and all up to actually up to 400 ft um in Shorepack zone 2, the second half of the setback with a storm water management plan. um
needs to be uh we count that towards your total impervious limits on the lot. Um and uh and so that's one of the things that we permit quite a bit is uh people enjoy having their patios so you can have a little fire pit in that area down to enjoy the enjoy the lake. You
want the next slide. >> So if you don't have 120 foot or 120 foot little house down there or a little storage shed down there, can you have a 120T patio there? >> Yes. Yep. So that's done by >> Can you have both?
>> Nope. You get one of the You get one water accessory structure. So you can either have a patio or you can have a little shed. >> Okay. >> Yeah. One of the other >> in in zone one or what do you call it? >> Yeah. Correct. >> Short impact zone one. >> Correct. Yep. Uh we also required to
permit um stairways uh and lifts and landings and boardwalks. And so the maximum width of a stairway is 4T for residential. It's 8t for commercial. Um, and then landings. So, if you've got a a big bluff you're going down, sometimes people want to have a have break up the
steps so they don't have to go down a 100 steps at one time. So, a landing is limited to a 4x8 um size, 32 ft. It's 64 ft on the commercial. And then we also regulate boardwalks. So, those areas, we have those riparian lots that have wetlands that you have to get out to the
lake. And so, we um allow those to be up to 6 ft wide. And uh and so that's something else that we would permit. That's and the boardwalks aren't listed um in 6120. That's a that is a higher standard that Crowing County has than what the showing rules would allow for boardwalks.
>> I kind find it interesting. No restriction on construction material. So you could literally do a concrete steps right down and you know four feet wide right down to wherever you wanted it. Yep. >> Yep. >> Next slide. And it didn't matter what kind of lake.
>> No >> matter if it's a natural environmental lake or whatever. You can go right down. >> There's no the only the only thing that really matters for lakes as far as performance standards would be the setbacks and the lake and the lot size for when you're creating new lots. Those are the those are performance standards
for the different lake classifications. But when you're looking at these different activities, it doesn't matter what lake you're on as far as if you can have steps to the lake, if you can have a patio, if those sorts of things. those aren't um something that the lay classification has an impact on. >> Thank you.
>> Uh decks um are allowed. Um you got to meet setbacks unless you have a structure that was built prior to 1970. Then you can um there's a a 15% allowance that allows you to build a deck that would not need a variance. Um and then there's always we have the
ordinance a 4ft walkway. So, uh, some there's situations where people will build right up to their 75 ft setback and then they'll have a sliding patio door. They can build a a 4ft walkway out to get access out of that. And a lot of times they'll build a deck off to the side or there'll be steps to get down to the lawn and and that.
>> So 15% of what >> of the that of that of the current setback deck where so let's say somebody is 50 ft away from the lake. You take 15% of that and that's the actual width that you get, the depth towards the lake. And then the maximum square footage is 250 square feet and it can't
be any closer than 30 ft to the lake. >> But that's so that's only for those structures that were built before um zoning regulations. Uh for us it would have been 1972 is when we started officially zoning would have been in 1972. >> You go to that next slide.
Retaining walls are allowed as a way to control erosion. The maximum height is 4 feet and if it goes up if you need to go higher than four feet then they get they're required to be a tiered. Um and uh and then we that we we want to make sure we understand the dirt moving
amounts that are associated with that because that limits that. And then we only regulate briang and shore pack zone uh one and two. We don't regulate those in the um back in the uh we're meeting the setback. We don't regulate them back there. Just in the just in the building
setback. You can go to the next one. Uh so Charlotte vegetation removal right now um we have two we have requirements for general development and recreational development lakes which basically says you cannot have intensive vegetation removal along uh the lake except allow
for an access path steps and lifts and landings a strong recreation recreational use area which I'll talk about in the next slide and then to ensure that there's screening from the lake and from the river. We currently have standards right now for natural environment lakes that requires a permit for vegetation removal and a 25 foot
buffer except to allow for your wreck area stairways and landings and the and the water or accessory structure. We can go to the next slide please. Um oh I guess I thought I had I have them out of order. thought uh lakes that don't have a a public landing are
allowed to have their own watercraft access ramp 15 ft wide can't be um have any asphalt patuminous can't be located in the wetlands and they may require a separate DNR permit to do that as well next slide please so the shrine
recreation use area what this is is we're saying and this is something we put in place back in 2010 is that uh if you want to put in say like a sand blanket or um that sort of activity, you can do that for 30% of your shoreline. So, if you've got a 100 foot wide lot,
you can take 30% of that shoreline and you can come back 25 ft and that's where you can put in a sand blanket if you don't have a beach on your property. Um and so this is something that we we see quite a bit where people want to have little beach areas for kids, grandkids, etc. And uh we we permit a fair amount
of these. We can go to the next slide. >> And they can just put that sand blanket right over whatever vegetation is there. >> Uh well, they can't put it can't be located in a wetland. And so, um it's it'll have it have to be on an upland area. Typically, they would most people
will kill the vegetation, put down, um like a a liner so prevent weed growth from coming up and that. So, typically what they'll what they'll have like a weed prevent cloth that allow the water to go through but won't allow the weeds to come up. So again, as we talked about sand
blankets, um these need to be above the earn high water mark because if you dump sand in the lake, then you get go there's a DNR has a process for that. Again, it follows the same parameter I just mentioned with the shoring ruck area 30%. With the lot width, you go 25
ft back and then um can't be on slopes that are greater than 10%. So if it's a very steep slope, you can't do it because we don't want to have happens every time it rains that sand just keeps washing off into the lake. So, it's got to be a relatively flat area to be allowed to have that.
We go to the next slide. So, dirt moving amounts, the state shown rules require that any anytime anybody wants to move dirt, which is either bring it in or manipulate dirt on site, there's a 10 yard um allowance without having to get a permit. And anything over 10 yards
requires a permit. What we have done is said that um our ordinance is more restrictive. If you want to do any dirt moving on the lake, you've got to come get a permit from us. And so in shore impact zone one, you're limited to 30 cubic yards. In shore impact zone two, you're limited to 50. In shore impact and then the rear lot zone, or which is
the area beyond the building setback, you're limited to 100 cubic yards. If you want to exceed those amounts, it's a conditional use permit. So if you need to move 50 cubic yards in shore zone one, you have to get a you have to get approval from the planning commission
board of adjustment to do that. uh ice ridges. Uh this is one that uh um is I think one of the more important things that we that we that we regulate. So an ice ridge is that area where over the years um wind and ice have pushed up a a the lake bed materials up on the
shore. A historic ice ridge is what you exactly see there. You've got trees growing out of it, very well established vegetation. Um we want to keep that on the landscape because it's a it does a great job for managing storm water runoff. that keeps the storm water runoff from going into the lake. And so
if you wanted to uh um have any sort of manipulation of that, it's a 15 foot wide cut into that bank. And then um and then you have to have a diversion up top so that it's not you're not creating a direct um slope into the water into the lake for storm water runoff. So um
that's a historic ice ridge. If we go to the next slide, it should be our annual ice ridge. This is the ones that come up every sometimes every year. And we don't require a permit for that. If uh within the year that it happens, you can regrade that back to its previous uh previous elevation. They would need to
make sure that they get some vegetation growing on that as soon as possible so that they can get that stabilized. Um but the reason if this picture I think really tells the story. If you look at the top of the picture, you see a lot of vegetation growing there. And if you go
beyond that picture, you don't see any ice push coming up in this area here. This would have been a mow lawn where they mowed it right down to the water's edge. The ice pushed up because there's no vegetation and the deep roots of native vegetation hold that shoreline in more than people maybe want to give it
credit for. And this is an example and I think a great picture of showing the difference of of that. So >> what's that stick or whatever it is sticking out of the water? >> It actually is that's a that's a gauge that the DNR uses for elevate water for lake elevation. >> Back to uh packet page 30. Um, when you
said the amount of yard uh yards of dirt that can be moved with permit, who makes sure that that's the number of yards they do? If we have a permit, just because they got a permit, does that mean they're everybody abides by their permit right to the letter or do they take some people maybe take some
liberties with that? Well, and so one of the things that we require if you want to come in and get a STR alteration permit for dirt moving, you're going to have to show us, you're going to have to do some math. So, you're going to have to show us, you know, so if you want to figure out a cubic yard is, you know, um, basically a foot, a foot by a foot
by a foot divide by 27, that'll tell you how many cubic yards. And so, um, we're going to have them, so when they want to do excavation, we're having them show us the geometry of, you know, we're going to make this triangle cut here so we can do this. And and so we're we're we're very specific on how many cubic yards of
dirt that they're allowed to to, you know, to get approved for. And then I want to say thank you to the board because um we have inspectors and we have staff that can go out and do and look at these properties and um and verify. And so we have staff that are going out, they're out every day
inspecting properties. And so, for example, um the goal for staff is that I want each one of the field staff, there's there's five of them. I want 100 inspections per month per person. And so, if you take that over to over over a construction season, you know, um we're
looking to get anywhere between 3,500 of, you know, inspections per summer. And that's out making sure that these permits are being done right and do we have silt fence up and did they build in the proper location. And we're in the process right now of following up on every riparian permit that was issued
this year and follow up from ones last year that weren't completed to make sure that they were done right. So every permit gets an inspection. We So every time we issue a permit, we're out in the field looking at it before we issue the permit, we're following up during the season while it's being done and then we follow at the end to make sure that it
was done the way it was supposed to. So um and I'm I'm I just want to say thank you because we have the staff to do that. Not all counties have that. I was on a call the other day with some counties who were talking with DNR about maybe some rip wrap standards and I heard every county who are late counties similar to us say I'd love to get out
and do more inspections. I just don't have the staff >> and I just kept my mouth shut in >> because we do have the staff and I and so I'm just grateful for it. So, I want you to know from a staff perspective, I appreciate that's an investment. I think in in what we do and the program and the
value is there when we're out doing these inspections and working with land owners and contractors, you know, to help them do the right thing. >> And I've been called out or asked either by the property owner or by the person doing the work to come out and just stand there. But I'm not an expert in that area. I might just stand there to
see how it's done. And and it's done. Um, you know, maybe the guys aren't all 6'5 that own the property, but you know, most of the time I think it's it's an amanable working out the problem. >> We're there to solve problems. That's that's that's our goal. Implement the ordinance, help people solve problems,
and to to try to, you know, get things to work. There are times that we have to say no, but um, our goal is to try to find options and and solutions to the problems that people have so they can accomplish what they want on their property. That's our that's our priority. but have also been out on the ones which have taken the permits and
stuff and kind of either I won't say maybe maybe took a little more leeway with what they felt they had for a permit. >> We have people make bad choices and um >> that's a good way of putting it. >> And so when they make bad choices unfortunately we have to step in sometimes and and you know strive for
voluntary compliance. If that doesn't work we work with the county attorney's office. I mean, we have one in Commissioner Corin's district right now that was a variance approved back during COVID and they built and it was not done right and it's been in their office for a couple years and we're finally getting
a court date set up in December just it the stuff just some of when it just takes time in some of those issues and unfortunately it just it's it's just the way that it works sometimes. So, um, >> and that's what you that's what I run into up in at least the area I serve, you know, because we have so many lakes
is, you know, well, they let them do it over here. Why can't I do it on my property? >> Well, my the response I always have is, well, who who got to do what, where, I want to go take what and then we'll go figure that out and then we'll talk about that and then we'll come back and have a conversation. >> We have tightened up some of our
ordinances. >> Yep. Exactly. Can we go to the next slide? Next couple maybe get up to. So again, bluffs, this is one of the bigger things that we deal with. Uh there's a lot of them on the up in the north part of the county. Um basically,
it's a it's a steep slope that's 25 ft in height and has a 30% slope and it drains towards the public water. That's that's really what a bluff is. Um and so there's definite bluff regulations. Uh there's a 30-ft set back from the top of a bluff and vegetation and dirt moving
are very much regulated in those areas because they're highly erodable. When you get those bluff areas and once you get vegetation removed, they tend to um erode very easily and very quickly as you can see, you know, from this picture here. Go to the next slide.
The Mississippi River, just real quick, um Crowing County is a part of the Mississippi Headarters Board, which is an 8count joint powers board that regulates and manages the first 400 miles of the Mississippi River. Commissioner Barrows is a member of the MHB if I remember correctly um is the
voting member for Crow Wing and so for us that's why it's 500 ft from both sides of the river is what we regulate. The setback is 150 ft. Dirt moving limits are much more restrictive. You can only do 10 yards with a permit and then anything after that um requires a
special approvals. Uh everything is governed by the Mississippi headarters board and Tim Terrell who is the executive director. It has its own set of regulations that we have to follow that are separate from the county ordinance. And so, um, we definitely have, um, conversation with folks about what they can and cannot do on the
Mississippi River. Next slide. Again, we're just going to jump into just a couple more rules. As I mentioned earlier, this is 8420, the Wetland Conservation Act. Um, this is, uh, basically a rule intended to manage wetlands across the state of Minnesota.
The goal is to achieve a no net loss in the quantity, quality, and biological diversity of Minnesota's existing wetlands. We go to the next page. Um, we are they basically categorize the state in how many pre-existing existing presettlement wetlands we have. We are
considered an 80% county. So that means 80% of our we still have 80% of our presettlement wetlands. You head south like into Morrison County, there are 50 to 80%. and that just based on that it it uh it it has limitations on how much wetland activities can happen without
without having to go through certain different types of permit processes. This is something that we're we're mandated to do. Some counties um have delegated that authority to their soil and water conservation district. Some have decided to keep it uh for the county staff to do. It's all at the discretion of the board as far as how
that gets um implemented. We go to the next slide. Is that why maybe you see some of the planning commissions or board of adjustments have sitting people sitting on it that are actually from soil and water. >> Correct. So anytime that we have so once a month we have what's called the
technical evaluation panel and that is made up of count of a of county staff staff from the board of water and solar resources and the soil and water conservation district. And if it's from the Shorland district, the DNR is invited as well. And then they make a recommendation to the county as far as
um different applications to approve or deny. You've delegated to me the I am the the wetland conservative uh administrator for the county. And so you've delegated to me the authority to make the final decisions on any of those wetland applications that come in. Um but we typically u will run those
through the technical evaluation panel to get feedback and then we we'll go through that process after that. Minnesota rule 7080 is where we manage septic systems across the state or across the county. Um this is a little bit different than when you look at the
Shron rules. The Shan rules um every city and county and township that has its own P&Z is has to meet the minimum standards. And so the county board the our county ordinance does not set the standard for Niswah or for Cross Lake. They get to have their own ordinance. It just has to meet the minimum
requirements of 6120. 78 is a little bit different in that the county does set the bar for u when you for the septic ordinance. So when we adopt an ordinance, all the cities and townships that implement their own um uh septic system ordinance has to meet the minimum standards of the county ordinance as
well. Um and if a city chooses to not um do its own septic program, we are required by by rule that we have to implement the that ordinance in their municipality for them. So if uh we help we work with like say Brainard, we do their septic systems because they don't have very many just on the fringe parts
of of Brainard where they have septic systems in that. But um so that's something that uh um that we're required to do and and to manage and uh you know septic system. If you look even like this year already we've already installed 403 septic systems. We had 186
new houses and so a lot of those septics that got implemented this year are upgrades and replacements for systems that are failing and old and that needed to be upgraded. So, >> and is there any city in Crowing County right now that's administrating their own 7080 rules?
>> Niswah does um most of the cities actually do do their own their own septic system. >> We hire I mean I know in Jenkins we hired somebody to come in do our own >> Yeah. How would they handle it? They they'll typically hire a consultant if you know to to review something.
>> Otherwise, the county would do that. >> We have we're obligated to do it on their behalf. If if they don't, then we have to. >> Yep. >> Uh we can go to the next slide. Municipal rules 4410. This is the um section on environmental review. So there are certain certain requirements
certain projects that are required to have environmental assessment worksheet or if it's if it's such a large project it jumps right into what's called an environmental impact statement. Uh there's mandated um requirements in the rule for that. Um there's also the opportunity where a county can require
an environmental assessment worksheet if it so if it so desires that rests with the authority with the county board to make that decision. There's also a petition authority where if neighbors think that a certain project has potential environmental effects, they have to get a petition with 100 signatures submitted to the
environmental quality board that gets submitted to the county board. Then you decide if you think the EAW is required or not to do. So it's all all the um discretionary um environmental assessment worksheets are at the discretion of the county board. when it's mandatory um then we go through the
process of developing the environmental assessment worksheet and then it comes back to the county board and then you have the decision to making to does it require an environmental impact statement or not. So uh so that's the kind of the role and depending on the process there's there's um um EW
requirements for um large developments um a lot of different types of projects have requirements for this. So it's another um piece that if we're the they call it a regulated uh government unit. So depends certain activities the county
might be the RGU certain activities the DNR is certain activities the MPCA is depends on the project who the actually regatory government unit is responsible for development of that environmental assessment worksheet. We can go to the next slide um yep we'll go to the next one too
environmental impact statement. What is that? >> Environmental impact statement is where a typically it's where an environmental assessment worksheet was done and the governing board said we don't think we have enough information about these topics. So then you get a you know you
get into you get more specific about we have concerns about this issue. Then an environmental impact statement is basically a report that talks about what would be if this report if this project goes through what would be the impact based on these certain issues or concerns that we have. Uh environmental
impact statements are typically written for um building target field or for expansions to airports, big huge projects, big big projects. It's not going to be a seven lot development on a lake or those sorts of things. Um
>> I mean I've heard people say, well, you know what they should do? They should do an environmental impact statement on this development. it doesn't meet those qualifications or those >> best case scenario would be an environmental assessment worksheet would be would be the the step because you wouldn't jump right to an EIS unless it was mandated in the rule but uh yeah so
depending on and that's when they have to get that petition process in place and submit that to environmental quality board and they have to determine if it's a valid petition then it comes to the board to decide if you want to require that EAW or not >> is an environmental assessment kind of
similar to like a phase one or phase two is that kind of >> that's typically part of the process of phase one is part of an EAW but it really it's it's a it's basically they call it a worksheet but it used to be a worksheet but now it's it really become a a much bigger document looking at
different things like traffic and groundwater surface waterlife habitat endangered species um you got to look at the soil types and so it really just it's it's it's really meant to inform the decision-m process I think a lot of people think that an EW is meant to stop
a development process. That's not the intent. It's meant to inform the process so that decision makers have better information to make when deciding to approve or deny a request. So, just as a reminder, we're we're getting to the end of our slides here. Um, the PCBA for the county is a
combined board. It's five members. Each member is appointed by the county board. Terms last two years. We'll go to the next slide. Uh the planning commission and their role they recommend to you platt landing map amendments ordinance text amendments and comprehensive plan development. You
have delegated final decision authority for conditional use permits and intermuse permits to that board. Go to the next slide. >> And then just another one other thing is we're passing the ordinances here and they're carrying out that.
>> Absolutely. That's what their job is. Their job is to implement the ordinances that you have put into into action. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Uh the board of adjustment again is the final decision authority for variances and appeals. So anytime staff make a decision. So staff says I'm going to
we're going to approve a permit for you know for commissioner cing and commissioner barrels thinks it's a horrible idea. You have 30 days to appeal that decision to the board of adjustment and then the board of adjustment would decide did staff make the right decision to approve or deny that permit or not. So any decision that
staff makes um anybody they called the grief party can make a an appeal to the board of adjustment and that's a $500 fee and then they go to the board of adjustment and the board decides if they would affirm or not. >> Would he do that to me? The chairman he
would I I don't know if he lives in Long Beach Township. But I think you're probably safe. But uh >> you have to start a savings account >> and then any decision any decision that the board of adjustment makes as far as a variance that gets appealed to district court. That's a 30-day window. And so if the board and if you go back
to the board of adjustment with that staff appeal, whatever decision that they make is then appealable to district court as well. So it's a process of appeals depending on where you're at in that process. Go to the next slide. Um yeah, I I just went over this a
second ago. So the tops would be district court would be for variances, plats, language map amendments, ordinance amendments, staff decisions, and then conditional use permits and interviews permits. Those get appealed to 60 days. Um and then any district court decisions, so somebody takes a variance to district court, they don't
like it, they can take it to the court of appeals, and if they want to, they can try to work their way up to the Supreme Court if they're not getting what they want. So it it can work the way up the the chain of going through the judicial process. Go to the next slide. The townships. So um what's their role
in this? We always have that question. I wanted to cover that again today real quick. So they're they're always invited to attend our development review team meetings which are the second and fourth Monday of each month. They're in the land services building. They start at 9:00 a.m. for 30 minutes. If we go to the next slide. So how can the townships
participate in the process? One is that they can submit written comments on an application. They can submit written comments for DRT. They can come in person DRT. We have a county form we provided and make it easier for them to fill out. They don't have to use that, but it makes it easier. We think they
can um discuss it with the land owner at a township meeting. So the so the the land owner who's applying can come to the township meeting and talk directly to the township. They can provide us facts that would support or deny. Uh we ask that they provide that before the meeting. um they can attend the planning commission meeting, oral testament, they
can talk right at the meeting itself, they can contact staff with questions, and so there's a lot of touch points and opportunities for the townships to be involved and have a say um in the process. But at the end of the day, when they've delegated their planning and
zoning authority to the county and they're not doing it on their own, we're the planning commission is going by the county ordinance >> every time. every time. >> If the township has a different >> um comprehensive plan,
>> they should they would they would then need to draft an ordinance to implement their comprehensive plan. And that's I've had that conversation with townships in the past >> that a comprehensive plan is only as valid as the ordinance that you have in place to implement it. >> Yeah. >> They can use I mean they can provide that to the county as supplemental information, but the county
comprehensive plan always trumps the township plan. >> Yes. >> It always trumps. But and then but I've I've always said this to the townships that I represent. If you don't like the way the county is doing your planning and zoning in your township, do it
yourself. >> I think that's always an option, but I think it's important to remember that what we want to try to to commit to is uniformity across the county. >> And I think if if a lot of townships decide to start to take over their own zoning, I think you start getting a lot of calls about lack of uniformity and
consistency and and that. And so I would encourage townships to get involved in the process, be part of what we're working on and, >> you know, um, and and maybe, you know, be part of the solution versus maybe thinking that going on their own might
be the right solution because I unless unless you've got a township that's very organized and understands the cost and the time and the effort it takes to do it the right way, um, I think you'll have a citizenry that are disappointed and upset and you'll probably get calls about that, too. So, I think either way, you're probably going to get calls. At
least if it's called while it's under county jurisdiction, at least you have the say over how to make some potential changes to affect what that might look like. >> If a township adopts their own ordinance and wants to do their own planning and zoning, does their ordinance have to be at least as restrictive as the county's ordinance? >> That's a great question. The answer is
yes. So, 34 does require a township that they have to be as restrictive as the county if they want to do their own zoning. >> Pretty much the same way with cities, correct? >> No. >> No. Cities can actually be less restrictive. >> Cities have to follow the rules that we talked about before. So they have to meet the minimum requirements of 6120.
And so you know um they once they meet if they meet those min requirements they don't have to follow the county minimum standards that we would set as far as more restrictive standards unless you're in the septic system world then you do have to meet them. >> Different areas that enter into that. I know in the city of Jenkins we did have smaller lot sizes than the county.
>> Mhm. >> You know because we had our own planning because we were a city and did that. >> Right. Um, >> and typically that's appropriate in an urban setting, >> highly densed area, >> highly density of >> I would I would come back to the fact that that have we had enough, you know,
a lot of townships, you know, by the time they find out what somebody's doing, unless they're really engaged, they find out kind of like they're already after a little bit after the fact and they maybe react. >> They should have known about it ahead of time. They they get they get notice of
development review team meetings a week before the meeting and there's so that we haven't even had an application come in yet. That's just a pre discussion. Let's just chat about what you want to do and then once DRT is completed then the application process starts and then it can then the timeline becomes much more close because we have to do things
within certain time frames to get to the meeting date. And so when townships don't participate in the developer routine process, they feel like it's a short process because they weren't at the beginning when when >> they didn't follow it. >> And unfortunately the the reality is we have a handful of townships that are very active coming to the development
review team process. Um and there are the townships that are more developed. I mean where they see more applications. So I I can understand that. Um, but sometimes, you know, there are certain applications that happen in other townships and sometimes they'll be disgruntled and and uh and it's like we wish you'd have been at the beginning,
you know, we could have helped set the stage a little bit so they could have had a little more impact and influence on the decision. >> And believe it or not, not all county boards agree or township boards agree with each other. >> That's another piece of piece of the puzzle. >> Can't believe it. So, another question.
So, let's just say um this isn't kind of a hypothetical, but what if what if a city let's just say for example, Niswah, let's say they I don't know that let's say they're frustrated with doing their own planning and zoning and they say we
we just don't want to do it anymore. What happens then? Do they have to contract with somebody or contract with the county? We don't just automatically take over kind of like we're doing with the townships. I would think it'd be kind of a difference. >> So that's a good that's a really good
point. And so a 394 allows counties and cities to work together on planning and zoning if they so choose. >> Okay. >> Um and so a city that has a lake in it that's bigger than 10 acres in size is obligated to have a zoning ordinance that regulates a shoreland district. They are not required to have any other
zoning in their in their city outside of that. Just like the county is, we only regulated we only required to regulate around the around the lakes. outside the lakes are where we have the egg forest sited where if we didn't want to regulate that we would not be required to do that. We are also not obligated because if a city chooses to not do its
own zoning we are not obligated to go into that city and do their zoning for them. We are not required to do that except for septic systems. we do have to do it for that but for so if a city doesn't want to do it that's between them and the state of Minnesota as far as
>> then who would step in if they defaulted on >> the DNR the so so the DNR is responsible in and rule to make sure that all municipalities that have any sort of a shoreland you have lakes rivers or streams that they have an ordinance that
they're meeting minimum requirements that they're implementing that ordinance. So that's a that's a state requirement to make sure that that's happening. >> So that the so then when we were helping Cross Lake with their um planning and zoning, but we contracted
>> we had you had there was an agreement between the county board and city council for the city for the county to provide services to the city to implement their ordinance. Yep. That was not something that we had >> their ordinances or our ordinances >> that was theirs >> because didn't they have their own ordinances in Cross Lake? It was theirs,
but they adopted basically ours verbatim for the most except for a few changes in some certain areas, but for the 95% of it was probably considered, you know, um would be very comparable and it's still very similar today. Even after we've been gone for 5 years up there, it's still very similar to what the county
ordinances, which is great. I mean, you want uniformity. It'd be great if the city and the counties could all try to work out some of these things and have similar standards on the lakes. But >> thank you. We can just keep going. I know we're running out of We're way past
time, so um we can go to the next um I think we'll just skip this. Um if anybody has questions when you get, you know, any of your constituents, 8241010, just have them give us a call. We're happy to to answer questions. Um
happy to meet people on site. and we're happy to give you an update afterwards if you want to know kind of what we discussed and what was talked about, but feel free to please send people our way. We're happy to to help with that. I can't help Stephen Baxter. I don't know. You're just going to you're just stuck with the city. But for those of you at
the townships, we're happy to we're happy to help. So, >> thanks for this. I think it's helpful. Helpful. >> Is anybody in the back still awake? Are they all >> I don't know. >> Good thing we had >> I'm sure they're at the edge of their seats.
So, the next um part just wanted to >> Jamie has a question. >> Oh, >> go ahead Jamie. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were done. I was going to make a comment, but finish what you were saying. >> No, I was just going to jump into the ordinance, but then the the ordinance
update. >> Okay. I I'll just make my observation and you can continue on. Um, I guess the the observation I had is that, you know, it's the way we have things set up right now,
it's okay for a lake homeowner to remove a portion of vegetation for their yard down to the water's edge. Um, they can do 120 uh up to 120 square ft of any material.
So they could uh for a patio or a shed or um a a paved asphalt paved uh boat landing or they could do milling tailings uh or asphalt millings for depth down at
the water dudge. Um vegetation um uh mats that uh stop any vegetation from growing. Um, you got fertilizers, weed killers, bug
sprays, all that runoff that goes into the the lake from those, but yet the farmer with the 40 cars out in his field is the problem. I just it's an observation. I we've talked about it before. I don't I don't care for that um
viewpoint on it. I just want to make it, you know, knowing that there's a lot more going on there than just a farmer, poor farmer out there because he's got antique cars sitting out in this field. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but each one of those lake homes that
has a paved driveway going into their yard has more oil on the ground than that farmer does. So, that's all I got. Thanks. >> Go ahead. Okay, thank you uh for that comment, Jamie. Appreciate that. And uh
um the next thing we have would be uh just to go over we have some proposed land use ordinance updates at your at your spots there. You'll see I've got a fun colorcoded little memo for you. The areas that you would see in green would be just some housekeeping items. The
areas that are in yellow would be some more significant policy items. The areas that are in blue are related to the septic system ordinance that the MPCA has reached out to us and said we need to make you need to make some updates to your ordinance. Uh and so that's kind of
what those colors are. Um I'm going to just kind of go through these uh and just kind of go over them. Uh and if there's any questions, let me know. Um article 2.1, we just have a carryover of RR20 that needs to be deleted. Um,
article 8.7, as you I mentioned earlier, when when we have an appeal of a staff decision, um, right now our ordinance says that we have to hear that appeal within 30 days. It depends on when that appeal application happens. I can't get 30 days
to the meeting because of how it's because there's just not enough time to make it fit. And so, um, I'd like to amend that to give us a 60-day window to hear that. So, we have time to make the proper notifications, publications, and that and and we just we don't have
enough time sometimes depending on when um when the application comes in and and when somebody wants to file that appeal. So, um, article 9.5, right now, if you look at our subdivision ordinance, we have administrative subdivisions where
you're allowed, um, if you're basically non-reparing lots. If you remember, all repairing lots need to have a plat non-reparing lots. You can create, if you're in the first assessment district, three lots every five years. And if you're out of the first assessment, it's five lots every three years. Unless
you're in Mission Township, then it's three every five years. So, Mission Township's kind of our outlier, but um what we wanted to clarify is that when we talk about these lots, we just need to clarify that we're talking about lots that are less than 10 acres in size because anything that's over 10 acres is exempt from having to get approval from the county.
>> I mean, you can land divide. If you had 40 acres, you could do a land buy and you don't have to abide by any of this, right? >> You don't Yep. Yep. As long as it's 10 acres in size, 300 ft wide, then you don't have to come get approval from us. you're able to basically record a deed with the with the recorder's office with
with a recording team in our office. Um so if we get into um our article um the the yellow part here um there's a couple things I'd like to just chat with the board about a little bit and maybe we could go down go back to the ordinance and go to article 11.20 20.
What right now we have um so just to maybe take a step back when we talked earlier about performance standards. The state has put performance standards in place for um different lake classifications and that's based on lot size, lot width and uh lake setbacks.
There aren't any specifications in the rule that say are there different vegetation requirements for different lakes? Are there different storm water requirements for different lakes? Those are pretty pretty standard across the board. There really is a performance standard for those based on your lake classification.
And um right now we have standards for um general development and recreational development lakes. Then we have a separate standard for natural environment lakes. And what I'm proposing is that we would take all of the standards that we have and make of the standards for one lake for all of our lakes and of our rivers would have
would uh would be on 11.20A. The big difference is that um 11.20b 20B for natural environment lakes. It says that any um any vegetation removal requires a permit. That just I can just be honest and say that really isn't
happening um as far as that from people getting permits for that type of thing. And then it requires there to be a 25- ft um buffer on on those on those lakes. Otherwise, everything else is the same. And what I'd like to do is combine all that up into 11.20 where we have the
same standard for the same lakes. We're not trying to look at different standard for different lakes. But when we go down to 11.20C, our shore rec area, if we go to the next page, um, so if somebody were to come in the office today and they were to have a 100 foot wide lot and they were to say, I
want to put a I want to put a sand blanket in and they've mowled their grass right down to the water's edge. We would permit them to put in a 30 foot wide by 25 ft deep and they could put their sand blanket into there and then everything else stays the same. What I would like to do, and Gary and I have,
we've talked about this, would be to say, "Yep, you can have that sand blanket. You can have that recreational use area, but what we want to do is get that area that that outside of that within that 25 ft, just don't mow that. We want that to be more of a native vegetated buffer." And um and so that's
really replaces that 25 foot standard that we had for natural environment. Instead of having it for a natural environment lake, I'd like to have it for all of our lakes. And I I think um Debbie sent out in her recent update to you guys a study that was put out by the DNR that said that it's called losing
Minnesota shorelines or vanishing shorelines and we're losing dramatic amounts of natural shoreline across the state of Minnesota. It's happening statewide. Um and I think this is an opportunity for Crowing County to kind of show some leadership opportunity to
say, "Hey, we think we have a way where we can help people still use their shoreline. They still get the beach. they still get what they want to use. We want to see the rest of that area out there be left into that more native buffer to help with some of those issues that Dee was bringing up, storm water runoff, buffers. Um, and that would help
stop erosion issues on shorelines that we're seeing. Um, and that and so that is a that's a significant um policy change and um I'd like to bring that up for discussion >> and then to expand on that. So you're saying 100 foot lot. If I wanted a sand
bed, I could have that >> 30 ft wide, >> right? But then you're saying all of it left natural. How far back? >> 25 ft. So it would match that same distance. It would it would match that same distance as your sand blanket. >> I don't agree with that.
>> Yeah. in the in the um recreational and general development lakes. I can see that as helping the water in looking at it doing in the natural environment lakes. You're actually to me just looking at what it is and what we talked
about, you're actually lowering the standard. You're not keeping that. The natural environment already has that. I know we're not managing it and I know we're not going there and checking every natural environment lake to make sure they're mowing it, but the standard is there to hold them to right now. And by
what you're looking at, I can see going for the general development to try to get the recreational lakes in general development to try to mediate that storm water to get that vegetation to grow on the shoreline, which not only helps just the water quality. It also, as we've seen on that one slide, when we have
these lately, we've seem to have some pretty big ice ridges coming in, some spring ice ridges, and those lakes that have the vegetation on the shoreline manage it well a lot better than one that's been rip wrapped. and and mowed down to the lake. So, that's the only
question I have is are we lowering the standard to the natural environment lakes? >> I don't think we're lowering it. I we still have the standard as far as you know, limited vegetation removal and shore impact zone one regardless. And um and so I don't think we're losing
anything. I think what we're we're we're trading I mean not when you say trading but uh vegetation we don't have we don't see a lot of vegetation removal issues on natural environment lakes because people buy to live on a natural environment lake because they want to live on a natural environment lake
>> um and so I do think that in increasing the you know the the vegetation on our general development and recreational level links I think would be would be important. Now, maybe 25 ft is is not the right number. Is there a number that might make more sense? Would it, you
know, is the right number 10t? Is it 15 feet? I'm not, you know, I'm curious if there's if there's a number there because I just that's something that's been pointed out from a state perspective of helps with water quality, helps with um um wildlife habitat is to
have that, you know, to not be mowing your grass right down to the water's edge. And so, um, just curious if there's a a potential, um, number that might make sense. >> I mean, it's definitely changing it for the people that that that have a recreational or general development lake that want to see this, you know,
pristine 100, see their shoreline, see grass right up there, nice rip wrap, an area for the sand blanket for the patio thing. >> Um, you're saying now, you know, that, you know, we really want you to have some vegetation growing over here, >> correct? That's that's the goal.
>> Then that's the goal. So that's clawing it back a little bit from what what's been happening where the natural environment like you're saying, you know, um maybe you can you can you can clear a little more down here than you have been able to in the past by putting that in there.
>> And and if we and and if the desire was you could leave the you could still we could leave the natural environment standards as they are in there today and and still have this other piece maybe for general development and for the um recreation development lakes. I mean that's definitely an option too. So,
>> so question for you, Chris. The ones that currently have the whole 100 ft there, mow it right to the lake. >> Yep. >> They still would keep that. This would be going forward or would we go back and try? >> This would be for people who came through for a permit. So, if they came
in for a permit to say, "I'd like to put a sand blanket in. I'd like to do this recreational use area." That's when that's when this would kick in. But if they didn't, but if they didn't want to and they they didn't want to have a sand blanket, this not this is not something that we would would be able to come in cuz that's considered a legal non-conformity the way they've got with
the vegetation now. It's been that way for you know for for a long time and we can't come back now and and make them change that. We can work with the new lots that you know and that but the older lots this is an opportunity for us to kind of try to retrofit if you need a permit. If you want to come in it's kind of like a little bit of a trade-off. If
you want to come in and and maybe get some sand blanket, we'd like to get some vegetation growing, you know, reestablished along your shoreline. >> So, if a house sells, it's still going to stay the way it is. They're correct. Purchasing it >> the way it is. >> Yep. Okay. >> If it's already been done, it's already
there. I mean, if we put our standards in place that we have today and went out there and said everybody has to go back to those standards, this room would be full because you you you would have you would have places that aren't able to do what has already been done.
>> And we only and we only regulate the vegetation removal in shore impact zone one. So, the first half of that setback once you get into shore zone 2, that's where you can have your lawn and you can mow that and you know, so that's that would be for today. We have a we had a situation up in um you know, Commissioner Lupkey's district where
they um really massacred and really took out a lot of vegetation on a lot and we made them do a um a a vegetation restoration plan. They had to um we had them give financial assurance of $50,000 to make sure that it got done right and and we're working on that because they violated our ordinance as far as
vegetation removal. Um, and so this is just an opportunity to go back and and try to work with some folks to um try to encourage them to get some vegetation along that shoreline. >> How are you going to enforce this? I mean, are you going to what about, you
know, they do this and then 3 years down the road, are you going to send a staff person out there to see if are they mowing it? Are you going to send a tape measure with them? And you're going to make sure and then what's the penalty going to be? How much is the penalty going to be if they're not abiding by it? Well, I mean, if if if if they got a
permit and we're required to have that, you know, to have that buffer on the shoreline, we have staff that go out and do inspections and we're we're verifying that. And if it turned out that we, you know, went out, let's say, you know, for the next two years, and we did our inspections, everything was fine, we wouldn't go back out again unless we got
a complaint from somebody. So, I just think this would be just another ordinance that we're just just like the problem I'm having now. I didn't know we had a surface water ordinance. And when the guy emailed me, he says, "Well, why aren't you enforcing your you have an
ordinance, you're not enforcing it, and I don't even know if it's going to be enforced, you know?" So, no, I don't I don't think this is a good idea. Maybe environmentally, it's probably a good idea, but I I don't I'm not going to
support this. I'll just vote no. If the rest want it, fine. the the only thing that triggers this is is that they're coming in for a permit. If you don't come in for a permit, nothing changes for what you have, how you're using your shoreline, how it's been. Yep.
>> Where it's at. I mean, we see people right now on on some of the watershed plans that I serve on and some of the uh a lot of the lake association, some of the other stuff where they're looking at saying, "How can we put that buffer in on this lake property we bought?" and
they're doing areas where they're building whether it be pollinator gardens or they're building areas that they're allowing to let those those come back in a lot that they bought 15 20 years ago that was right rip wrap right to the lake and they're spending money
doing that. I know soil and water is working with a lot of property owners to try to get some of that back because they see the long range benefit of it. So if nobody's going to do nobody's changing anything, they're not coming in for a permit, this isn't really going to affect them, correct? Whatever we have in our ordinance, correct? You know,
that of trying to tighten it up. But if somebody is going to be coming in to do that, then it'll help them to to where we can buffer some more of that, keep that storm water out of there. I did not realize until I got involved in this how much of that runoff impacts the water
quality of our lakes. and and and in Crowing County, we run on water. you know, our our whole our whole um tax structure. We are a lake centric county and uh if if like somebody said, you know, if you got rid of all the lakes in Crowing County or somebody said that
about the state, you get all the rid of northern Minnesota and all the lakes, all we have is Kansas, you know, and and I think that's really important that we really protect those because they are a life blood to this county as far as our resources that we have to run our
county. So >> I guess I'm going to just one more thing on this. I guess I look at it more of education of us u at the county possibly trying to invite ourselves to these lake association meetings and stress the
importance of this and have that be optional. For example, the lake that I live on, the lake association has the program called a lake stewardship program where they have to fill out and it's it's with some other groups uh and
you fill out this form and that and there's a couple uh lake association members that come out and do an assessment and if they pass this assessment then voila, they have this beautiful sign that they can put out and
say, "I'm a Lake Stewart. I'm I've I've I'm I'm trying to buffer down by the lake. I I guess I'd rather just see it be more of an educational and voluntary thing rather than, you know, uh oh, you you you mowed instead of 25 ft, you've
mowed, there's 20 only 20 ft. Now there's going to be a fine. Who's going to We can't even get all the stuff done that we want now. The county attorney's office is so busy. So, this would just be another ordinance that I don't know
that we'd be enforcing it. And like I said, I don't I don't think you need this in there. >> Well, as a reminder, we have an ordinance now that requires shoreline buffers if you have impervious over 20% on your lot. And so, we we already have a provision that requires buffers for certain permits. So, this wouldn't be
anything new. It would just be a different um opportunity depending on the type of permit requested. And once once they file the permit, the the whole thing, the followup on the permit and stuff is all on us, no matter what we're doing down there. >> Correct. >> Um, so I don't I I anything we can do to
to uh to enhance our water quality because we have so much pressure on our lakes, I think, is is something that's positive. >> So, I'll just jump down to a couple other items to hit since we're really I'm way past time and I apologize for that. Um, we need we have just there's a
couple we have some dirt moving permit limits and when the permit is. So, we want to line those permits up from 3 years to two years for dirt moving. Right now, it says you can move dirt every 3 years, but the permit is good for two years. So, we're just we need to line that up. So, it's it's more in line
with when the permit would be issued. Um the area that's in blue are all areas that um basically the MPCA we adopted um our most recent ordinance back about 2013 or so and we used the model orders that
PCA had at that time and well they found a few holes in the model ordinance and so they've followed back up with us and said these are some changes that we would be required to make and that's what you see here in blue and so that really is just more um housekeeping. It doesn't um really have a a big impact on
on on our on business, but it does u the states says there are certain requirements that we have to um include and clarify and modify. And so that's where those areas that you see in blue. The area that's in yellow is is another at the very bottom for 37.26 B4. Um that
um is uh a bigger a bigger change that the PC is requiring us to make. So, right now, if it's the winter time and somebody wants to come in and say they want to get a permit to build a a deck and they have to get a compliance inspection, they can uh sign what's
called a winter window and they can say, "I'll get that compliance inspection completed by June 1st of the following year." We've been allowing that as well for septic designs for new houses. And the PCA said we can't keep doing that. We have to we cannot issue a permit for a new house without having a design for
that as well. And so, um, we won't be able to do those winter windows for that going forward into the future. Uh, going to jump down into, um, article 46 definitions. Uh, could you go to the
definition section, Amber, and look under it, it'll be towards the end. >> Perfect. Um, right now, if we go Yeah, let's just stay here. So, right now we have a definition for what's called a shared capital resort, which basically means
that we regulate and allow personal use of resorts to be limited to 42 days per year. Uh, and so we have some resorts in the county that basically sell shares of of these resorts. Um, and we've had a request to to eliminate the shared
capital and not limit it to 42 days. But we also then uh if you go back to page the next page up well it's going to be kind of I guess right in between the two is to basically when we talk about resort traditional is to make sure we define that as making
sure that it has to be provided for rental more than 50% of the time during their operational season. So that would allow this would allow a resort for example Ruckers to be able to sell shares which is what their business model is built off of be similar to what
you see up at Clamshell Beach up in Commissioner Lupkey's district. And um and so right now the 42-day limit was put in place back around 2006. Um there was a committee at that point about how to better maybe regulate and protect
resorts I think in the area. Um, and this was a a carryover from from that. And so, um, part of the request for the ordinance update is to delete the shared capital resort definition and to modify the resort traditional definition.
I >> think we're good. Uh just real quick from a timeline, um our goal would be to start the comment period today and would go through November 21st and then um we would have a planning commission board of adjustment work session before their
meeting on November 20th. We would hold a public hearing before the planning commission at December 18th at the regular meeting there. We would circle back and have a discussion with the board on the 23rd of December for committee the whole and then we would
then um eventually come back and um come back to the board on December 30th at the last meeting of the year for final review of the ordinance proposal. Has the planning commission been reviewed any of this stuff at this point yet or is this >> they've been provided the the summary
and they've been told about today's meeting and encouraged them to watch the meeting and participate, but that's why we're having the working session with them at the meeting coming up next month and then we'll proceed with the planning with the public hearing the following month in December. >> Thank you.
>> Any thoughts, direction where you want me to head on this? The only thing is is I guess I I'm I'm in favor of everything else except the that um what number was it? >> Oh, um sorry. >> 11.2.
>> Yep. 11.20C. Can you check the tea leaves on that or >> I would suggest you go forward with the public hearing process of where it's at and then you're going to have opportunity for feedback from that as well so we can take it to that step to
see what the feedback is and then the rest of you can kind of weigh in on in that area. >> Yep. >> No, this is our first time looking at it. So, I mean, it wouldn't hurt to have other eyes and and people involved get back to us with >> it's going to come back to you twice before you have to finally make final decision on it. So, if you start the
public hearing process, you get the public comment that'll come back to you after that. You can have the opportunity to kind of form a decision for the rest of you who haven't looked through that at this point given this is the first time you're hearing of it. >> Okay.
>> Okay. >> Work for you? >> Good. Thank you. Okay. All right. >> Do you want a break? Because this next piece is going to be long, too. >> Well, take a break. We need to >> move into close session anyway. So, if we want to take a couple take a couple
seconds of a break here while we move into close session. And we are moving into close session pursuant to statute 13 DO5 subdivision 3D for security updates. And we'll convene again in five minutes. 3 minutes. Five minutes
>> before >> Deb, before you go, is this my link still going to be active or do I need to link in somewhere else? >> No, Jamie, you're good. Just stay on the line.