Centerville Tidbits
B & R Building Addition To Go Forward
On March 28, the Centerville City Council unanimously approved an addition for the B & R Properties building located at 6805 - 20th Ave. S.
While there was little debate about whether the building addition should go forward, the council held a lengthy discussion on how the addition would affect the parking situation at the property.
Centerville's parking ordinance stipulates that the amount of parking spaces businesses offer must be in proportion to building size. Hence, since B & R is expanding their building, by ordinance they must also increase the amount of parking spots available.
B & R, however, uses the building for industrial purposes and by all accounts has too many parking spaces as it is.
City Attorney Kurt Glaser told the council that "this property will have way too much parking" unless the owners apply for a variance or conditional use permit, either of which could allow them to expand the building without abiding by city ordinance.
Glaser said that since a "variance would run with the land forever" regardless of whether or not B & R sells the property to an owner who puts the building to different use, a conditional use permit would be the most prudent way to depart from city ordinance in this instance.
A conditional use permit, however, needs to be applied for by the owners of the property. Since nobody from B & R was in attendance at the council meeting, the council approved the building addition under the terms of city ordinance.
If B & R wishes to apply for a variance or conditional use permit before the addition is completed, they may bring the issue before the council at a future meeting.
City To Fund Sorel St. Improvements
The council also moved to dedicate money to restoration work on Sorel St. properties damaged during the installation of municipal water lines last year. The utility work was associated with the city's downtown development project.
The motion dedicated $5,500 for resodding in the yard of St. Genevieve's Catholic Church.
"[The city] did some work where we ran water lines and tore up the churchyard, so this is a motion directing staff to bring in someone to lay sod in the places where we wrecked the yard," said Mayor Mary Capra.
In addition to resodding the churchyard, the motion also dedicated $5,000 to have land leveled and seed sprayed on property the city owns on Sorel St.
The downtown project aims to "bring the former public works site to a condition where people can walk on it, and we also want to prevent further erosion" on the property, Capra said.
"We received a community development block grant to do the improvements downtown, but the city is now sending funds that weren't included with the grant to restore properties damaged during the improvements," Capra said.
HUD Funds To Come From County
The council approved a motion keeping Centerville in the pool of Anoka County municipalities that receive Housing and Urban Development funds from the county.
Staying in this pool disqualifies the city from applying for certain HUD grants individually, but City Administrator Dallas Larson told the council that "it's in our interest to stay in this pool of Anoka County funds."
Capra said that staying in the county pool "streamlines the process" of receiving HUD funds, which include Community Development Block Grants and the HOME Investment Partnership Program.
In other action, the council:
. Approved a permit allowing the Centerville Lions Club to hold a raffl e during the 2007 Fête des Lacs celebration coming up this summer.
. Approved the Lions usage of Laurie LaMotte Park for the 2007 Easter Egg Hunt, which will be held on Saturday, April 7 from 11 a.m. to noon.