It isn’t surprising that Wright County’s planning commission has full agendas at every meeting. With property values in Wright County skyrocketing, any available space where a home can be built makes even marginal property valuable.
But, despite all the growth in the county, one home won’t be going up any time soon, as the board denied a request to rezone a property near French Lake at its Tuesday, Oct. 9, meeting over the objection of a couple of planning commission members and an attorney who said the county’s current zoning system is a joke.
Attorney Tim Young spoke on behalf of landowner Tom Wymer, who was denied by the planning commission to construct a home on a four-acre parcel of land that already contains a 5,000 square foot storage building.
Young said the law shouldn’t be allowed to be made foolish and the 5-2 decision of the planning commissioner did just that, adding that the county’s role in planning and zoning is an exercise in absolute power.
“Zoning is a form of government tyranny,” Young said. “It loses its legitimacy if you get absurd results.”
The results to which Young spoke centered on the property in question. Purchased in 1986, the parcel was restricted and couldn’t be used for residential use. Since then, however, every property around it contains homes, forming a neighborhood that makes the ruling 15 years ago somewhat outdated, according to Young, and creates an unlevel field for his client.
“It’s a neighborhood and right in the middle like a hole in a donut is the Wymer property,” Young said.
“There are homes all around it and, in a bizarre way, it’s like spot zoning in reverse.”
Commissioner Jack Russek, who serves on the planning commission, defended the vote. He stated that Wymer attempted to get a rezoning in 1996 and was denied. After that, he constructed the 5,000-square foot building which, under the zoning laws, was allowable. However, he was warned at the time that such a building would make it virtually impossible to ever get zoning for a home on the property.
“(Wymer) wants the best of both worlds,” Russek said. “The building was put on there after the rezoning was denied. It was pretty clear no house would be put on there. Now he has the building he got (under one zoning) and wants to put a house on too.”
Russek added that, if this rezoning was approved, there could technically be hundreds if not thousands of other township landowners looking for similar results and board meetings could get bogged down with dozens of appeals and requests at each meeting and that the sanctity of the county’s zoning ordinance needs to be followed.
In the end, the board agreed with Russek, denying the request by a 4-1 vote. Board chair Ken Jude voted in favor of the request, citing that the planning commission was not unanimous in its decision and Young had made a persuasive argument.
In other items on the agenda, the board:
– Approved an agreement with the City of Buffalo to handle the city’s prosecution services through the county attorney’s office. Under the agreement, the city will pay the county $175,000 over the next three years to cover the cost of hiring another assistant county attorney, as well as administrative and clerical services for the city. The item had been expected to be negotiated during the budget process, so the board unanimously approved the contract.
– Authorized signatures on a cash match for the Office of Drug Policy and Violence Prevention grant program. The county received a grant award of $54,578 for operating costs of the Wright County Drug Task Force.
– Rescheduled a ways and means committee meeting Oct. 24 to discuss the county’s tobacco ordinance enforcement policy. In light of several appeals to fines and the process under which compliance checks for tobacco licenses were handled, the county is reviewing the process to eliminate some of the problems that were associated with the last round of compliance checks.
– Approved a one-week extension for Horizons Inc. for delivery of county aerial photos, as well as waiving a potential $100-a-day penalty if the original deadline was not met. In addition, five section maps in and around the City of Albertville were not photographed completely and the board authorized the company to do a reflight this fall.
– Acknowledged the reappointment of Wright County Coordinator Dick Norman to the Minnesota Association of County Administrators as its representative on the Minnesota County Insurance Trusts Board of Directors to a two-year term.
– Approved sending a letter to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to continue monitoring air quality at Metro Dairy, Wright County’s largest feedlot.
– Set a bid letting date for the French Lake Township bridge replacement for 10 a.m. at the Nov. 13 board meeting.