Welcome to the June 3rd, 2025 city council meeting. I hereby call the meeting to order. And for those who are watching online or watching a replay of this, just know that we had a little technical issue in getting YouTube going. So, this will be broadcast on YouTube sometime after the meeting tonight. So, members of the public may attend this city council meeting in person or may watch and listen remotely by viewing the meeting on channel 8 WCTV and at the city's website at www.wisetta.org/wc. org/wctv. Public comment during the public forum and/or public hearing portions of the meeting may be provided in person at the meeting in advance or by logging into the team's call and raising your hand during the public hearing. When your name is called in the meeting, you will be seen and heard in our council chambers and the cable channel. You will be asked to unmute and then you may begin your comment. All public comments must include your full name and address. The second item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. If I could ask everyone to stand and follow along. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The next item on the agenda is roll call. We have three of our council members here tonight. The other two I have excused absences. So, we'll have a short uh council here tonight. The next item is to approve the agenda. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as is or does anyone want to make any changes? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as outlined. And a second. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. Now we're in the public forum. The next item is the public forum. Just as a reminder for those members of the public in attendance tonight and are interested in speaking, please state your name, address, indicate if you are representing a group, and limit your comments to three minutes. If the item you wish to speak about is something that is on the agenda. For those that are in person, please fill out a form at the table and hand it to staff. For those that are watching via Teams, please send a note via chat to staff and let them know what agenda item you wish to speak about. We also require that your camera is turned on when you speak. So, do we have anything? Uh, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Prom, we do not. uh aside from the item uh under public form on the agenda which would be the next thing here. So first item in the public form is a Weisetta Sailing Center openhouse information presented by is it Ellie Ansari? Did I pronounce that right? Ellie Ansari. All right. Very good. City manager. Thank you uh Mayor Prom. So, Miss Ansari is going to um highlight and talk a little about bit about an exciting event that the sailing center is uh conducting soon. Uh Miss Ansari is a longtime uh community volunteer now board member in the sailing school and she's done a lot of other things over the years. So, we're happy to have her here tonight to um promote and uh talk about an open house. We're going to fix your m the mic over there. Sorry about that. And be sure to state your name and your address if you would mind, please. Thank you further. There we go. Hi, my name is Ellie. Sorry, and um I'm here with Harper Gordon, a student at Wisetta High School. And we just wanted to come first and foremost to say thank you uh to the council. it leadership that it's provided for the sailing center. And if you're not familiar with Weisetta Sailing, we're right across the railroad tracks from the Hotel Landing. Uh, and we provide community access uh as much as possible to as many different people as possible. uh the the c center's motto is uh sailing is for everybody and and so we really try to live uh to that with adaptive programs sailing for the blind uh relationships with the YOCP try to provide as much sailing and as much activity summer camps for the area as possible. So, we hope we're we feel like we're a treasured uh a treasure city asset, but we wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for the people that had provided the leadership to help us um have our space, take care of it um and live up to its aspirations. So, thank you very much for that. I'm going to turn it over to a second for uh to Harper. Um she's a student at Weisetta High School and a very valuable member of that sailing team. and of course representative of at the sailing center. And just a few words so you can feel the joy that that uh comes from that place. Good evening council members and staff. My name is Harper Gordon and I'm here on behalf of the Weisetta Sailing Center. I'm 17 years old and I just returned from competing as a part of Wisetta High School Sailing Team um from the Mallerie Cup National High School Double-Handed Championships in New London, Connecticut against 19 of the best high school sailing teams in the country. I'm also working as a member of staff this year for the sailing center and again reinstating what Ellie had said, none of this would be possible without the support of Wisetta City Council and community as a whole. I want to take a moment to thank you personally and for your continued support of our programs. I'd also like to extend an invitation to you and the rest of the Weisetta community to join us for an open house on Tuesday, June 10th from 5 to 7. All ages are welcome and we will have food and games as well as information about the different programs that we offer, including the Wisetta High School sailing team. I hope you will come. Thank you so much. Thanks. We're just really proud of all the kit, all ages, and um we we hope we bring in live in the community just as much as you created the platform for us to be here. And I guess I should state my address, 4680, uh County Road 19, Tonk Bay. Right. Well, we're really happy to have the wheel the sailing center here. We just one of those other features that make our our little town so special. And uh Harper, are you a senior? No, I'm a junior. All right. So, college plans are still a little bit over the horizon for you? Sadly not. I actually when we were just in Connecticut, I toured like four colleges while Oh, good. Take advantage of that time. Mhm. Anything of interest out there? Uh yeah, I'm looking at University of Rhode Island and uh Connecticut College. So, that's exciting. Yeah, very exciting. Okay, any questions on council comments? I don't have any questions per se, but I just wanted to reiterate to um you because we're so gracious and grateful and I just want to reiterate Mayor Prom's words that we are just as grateful to be um supporting the Wise Sailing Center and just have you your organization in the community and um glad you're working with the high school as well. That's really cool. Thank you. Really proud of um it's just one package all the awards and accolades that these kids have gone out and been ambassadors from one end of the country to the other. In fact, they just brought home last year an award that we haven't had for 10 years. I think it's the first time that it was brought back to and they were sailing out in the Pacific and waves and things and all kinds of um treacherous situations, but they they did it and they won. They're so brave. to be proud of. That's great. Thanks for letting us. Thank you very much. Thank you. City manager, has anybody joined us yet on teams? Mayor Prom, they have not. So, we're good. Item number six is new agenda items. So, council, does anyone have any new agenda items to bring up for future? No. Okay. Next item is the approval of the consent agenda. So, let me go through that here. Just a few things. We've got the approval of the check register, receipt of the 2025 first quarter financial report, and adoption of resolution 16-2025, approving the sideyard setback variance at 617 Park Street East. So, is there a mo is there anybody wants to pull anything? Mayor Prom, I just want to uh comment uh for item 7C, the staff or the recommendation on the staff report, it says staff and the planning commission recommended approval at the last meeting. Of course, it should have alluded to the council that that's what they uh recommended approval. The staff actually had a different recommendation. Just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Thank you for that. Is there a hearing? No changes or polling. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? I would uh make the motion to approve the consent agenda as presented and second. Second. Okay. Approved by council member Sorenson and seconded by council member McDonald. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Uh we have no items in public hearing. I I assume at this point that's correct. Okay. Next item is 9A to consider adoption of resolution 17-2025 approving a variance for a building coverage and a variance for imperous surface at 323 Wake Cliff North. City Manager. Thank you, Mayor Proam and community development director Alex Sharp is going to walk us through this presentation. Thank you, city manager Dah. As stated, this is a uh impervious surface and building coverage variance at 323 Waycliffe North. The site is located in the eastern quadrant of the city north of Highway 12. Prominent features surrounding the site include Gleason Lake to the west, a private storm water pond directly to the I'm sorry, Gleason Lake to the east, private storm water pond directly to the west, Highway 12 to the south. The site is uh guided for medium density residential which it is in compliance with and zoned R4 medium density multiple residential district. The site was developed in the early 1990s or I should say the uh association was developed in the early 1990s and the existing home has a canal levered deck over the proposed area. This is common within this development. Several of the homes have decks. Many of these have been cons converted into porch features as well. Uh the these are twin homes. The home does share a uh wall with 313 Wakeliff immediately next door. Of principal note uh for this application, the required lot coverage and impervious surface coverages within this district are 35% for lot coverage and 45% for imperous surface. and the existing conditions for this lot as it was approved before the new regulations went into place are already in excess of those requirements. Uh within the table you can see the exact amounts. The owners are proposing to construct an addition over their existing uh or in the location of their existing deck structure finishing the area beneath and adding building coverage by doing so as well as impervious surface coverage for the roof line. One item of additional note is that this uh proposed addition will have approximately about a three-foot extension beyond the deck. That is largely due to the angle of the deck versus the squaring off of the porch. But we do want to make sure that it is noted that it is getting slightly closer to the storm water pond to the west. The conditions that are proposed are a 38.5% building coverage and a 52.1 impervious surface coverage. There are other properties within this Wake Cliff area that are uh close to these impervious surface coverages and the owner has proposed to install a private storm water management system if the application were approved that will help treat the excess storm water before it enters the private storm water system to the west. Additional information uh they are looking to utilize the space as a private retreat, yoga studio, things of that nature. it would be fully finished in four season. Um, previously there are not many variances in this area because there was actually PUD amendments to do several of these in the past. The PUD was amended in 200 uh five for 218 Wcliffe specifically because there had been a couple of uh projects before that where the PUD had needed to be amended to allow specific properties to add this on. In 2005, the POD was amended to make it a variance for future applications. Engineering Department does not have any additional comments other than the fact that that maintenance agreement will need to be put into place and then recorded against the property. Um, and then the neighborhood uh has not received, and I changed that earlier, apologies. As of June 3rd, we've not received any additional comments from the neighborhood. Uh the town home association did approve the expansion via a letter to their uh association development manager. The board was not required to review this was what was reported to us. Ultimately the city is not responsible for association uh rule enforcement and so therefore while we do check on that as a best practice, it was not an item of great discussion with the planning commission. The planning commission re uh reviews variances based upon the criteria on the screen. These are consistent with comprehensive plan. Is the variance uh reasonable? Is it unique to the property and does it alter the essential character of the locality? At this time, planning commission did not find any reason why it would not and unanimously recommended approval of the variance. their attached report of finding and recommendation is included within the report materials. With that, uh, the proposed motion before the city council this evening is to approve resolutions 17-2025 and I stand for any questions. Council, are there any questions of staff? Uh, Director Sharp, when when the planning commission reviewed this, it to me it seemed a little unclear that if below was going to be enclosed or not and if that affected I saw this picture and thought, okay, maybe this is been added to clear clear that up. Um, u, mayor, council member McDonald, it was included within the planning commission report. Um, where I think some of the confusion came in is that the underside of the deck had been finished already with a concrete patio and so it was already contributing towards the overall maximum impervious surface. So then that that concrete pad then I'm assuming is getting that extra 3 ft to square off to to make the upstairs livable. Mayor Prom and Council Member McDonald. I'm not sure of the construction practices with that. We were mainly looking at the impervious surface coverage and what needed to be calculated. Decks don't count towards imperous surface coverage, but the patio does. Um, where planning commission had wanted to ask some questions was why those numbers were relatively close together, and it's largely because of that patio already being present. But the numbers of the number the percentage of impervious surface prior to this work includes a concrete patio. Correct. The existing conditions includes the concrete patio. Thank you. Well said. Council member Sorenson, do you have any questions of staff? Uh no I don't. I have just a couple. I just added a question based on uh council member McDonald's query. Um first off, I'd like to comment that I think the planning commission once again did a masterful job. They they did they do yman's work on asking the right questions and going into all the details. It makes our jobs a little bit easier. Uh but on the patio portion, is the structure that's going to be built going to increase the size of the patio at all? What was the patio? I guess yes, because of the three-foot extension out. Okay. It will increase the overall impervious surface. Okay. So, that's correct. But I'm not sure that it will be patio anymore because it will be right closed space. Yeah. I was envisioning them putting something on top of the existing patio and not expanding the patio, but what is the patio will be expanded to increase the to Okay, got that. The other question I had is u you mentioned that there were PODS for things like this in the past. Are you aware that any of the POD amendments that were presented in the past were ever denied? Mayor Prom, we have not found any evidence that they were now. There are some that are approved without PUD amendments uh likely at the time of initial construction when we started really diving in based upon planning commission comments and uh questions, but specific cases like the PUD amendment in 2005 were some of the best that we found and then a variance past that. Okay. Any other questions? Well, I know that the owners of the property are here, so I'll offer to them. Would you like to come to the podium and and address the council at all? You don't have to, but I'm giving you that option. It might be your 15 seconds of fame. I don't know. We I You don't need to. So, I'll uh if you don't want to go up, that's fine. I'll just bring it back to council then. So, what are your thoughts? Uh I agree that the planning commission really examined this um closely, carefully, and thoroughly. So, I um I don't see any issues with this. I think the planning commission did a great job and I agre agree with their their findings and I plan to support um this resolution. Yeah, I would I would agree with all that. Um again, I think the plan commission did do a very nice job and ask a lot of pertinent information. I did drive out and take a look at the property. It's a very nice little It's a very nice area actually with a really nice homes. Um I think it's interesting that your 313 neighbor um must be okay with this. He's really the only neighbor that has any visibility, especially in the summer anyway when I was there to your uh site here. Um and you you're non-conforming use now. So you're over the criteria that we set for uh coverage and impervious and your increases are going to be very uh minor also. So um you look at the criteria we're given in terms of consistent with a comprehensive plan. Is it reasonable? Does it alter the character of of the neighborhood? I think you I think uh I'm very much okay uh with this variance and especially knowing that the the HOA is okay with it also. be voting to approve this. And uh I basically agree with my fellow council members here. The planning commission did a masterful job and the only concern that would have possibly even been here is if any of my neighbors objected to this and they don't. So, uh I think this is just fine. So, uh I'll be voting in favor. May I have a motion to adopt resolution 17-2025 approving a variance for a building coverage and a variance for imperous service surface at 323 Wake Cliff North. So moved Mayor Prom and a second. Second. Hearing a motion by council member McDonald and a second by council member Sorenson. May I ask for all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Congratulations. Okay, here. So, the next item is 9B and that's to consider adoption of resolution 18-2025 approving a fence height and opacity variance at 1407 Holddridge Lane. City Manager. Thank you, Mayor Prom. Uh, Director Sharp is going to walk us through this item as well. And prior to the meeting, he promised to keep it under 45 minutes. So, we're going to hold him to that. You said 4.5 minutes. Need to talk slowly. We were talking about slide rules earlier. Yeah, the del. That's right. Thank you, mayor, for the introduction. As stated, this is for a fence variance for 1407 Holdridge Lane. Uh, the site is also located in the eastern quadrant of the city. Uh but I would say kind of northeastern uh more than the other actually slightly southeast sorry. uh site is located just south of Highway 12, just across Highway 12 from some major car dealerships which are a key aspect of this site and what west of the uh Unitarian Universalist Church if I can say that site is guided for uh 1acre single family and zoned for R1 lowdensity single family which it is compliant for both. The existing conditions of the site are on the screen before you. the uh brown line to the north of the site. It is an is an existing privacy fence. Uh it's a cedar privacy fence that the owner has installed uh to negate light and sound impacts from the nearby Highway 12. The dash line on the survey is the extension being sought that requires a variance. The reason for the variance is because in the uh front yard, which is the plane in front of the home, you must uh have shorter fences, maximum of 4 foot in height, and an opacity of more than 50%. The applicant is seeking to have a 100% opaque fence and a six-foot maximum height. for an aerial perspective because I think it helps provide a little bit more context to Weisetta Boulevard Highway 12. Uh the proposed fence is approximately 100 ft long and would extend to the front yard and would not directly impact uh views of any neighbors. The applicant has taken some uh photos of the site to show the impact without the fence. Uh with the left being during the day looking across Highway 12, Weisetta Boulevard to the north and the east being during the night when those car dealerships are lit up. staff uh reviewed this and the planning commission discussed particularly the impacts of seeing a significant fence along a major roadway with a uh up to 12 foot wall tapering down towards the sidewalk. Their determination was there would be uh less impact as you can see in the right location or the right photo there's the fence location noted. If you want additional context I do have some more photos but in the interest of time I've put them towards uh the end of the presentation to bring up as needed. The applicant's narrative really goes into a fair amount of detail on the impacts of the car dealerships, the road noise, um, and the impacts that they are seeking seeking to mitigate by installing this fence. They have spoken with neighbors and we have, uh, received two public comments that were actually in favor of the development moving forward. Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval with Commissioner Elg abstaining as this is his property. Planning Commission utilized uh the criteria on the screen uh consistency with the comprehensive plan. Is it a reasonable variance? Uh is it unique to the property and does it alter the essential character of the locality? And uh their report and findings of recommendation are attached as a supplemental material to the report. And apparently there is a missing slide. So I don't get to impress you with this one unless No. Your action slide is now missing. I apologize council. We are seeking for you to approve uh a resolution 18-2025 approving a uh fence height and opacity variance for 1407 Holddridge Lane. All right. So, uh council, are there any questions of staff? Yeah, I I just have one general question. Um if you're in a corner lot both sides then became become front yard is that or like this like the house is angled. So as long as the side of the house not the back of the house therefore it's quote front yard. Mayor Prom, the way and council member Sorenson, the way the code reads is if you are in a corner lot, uh, any street fronting side becomes a front yard for its maximum height and opacity requirements. In the instance of this property, I believe that due to the drop off, a significant grade change in the rear yard, it was not deemed to be significantly next to a street, whereas in front of the house, I believe it was because that fence permit was issued for the rear yard without a variance. There are not notes to that, but looking at the case, I it's right where the wall really starts to taper at the uh I would say eastern rear of the home. And so I think that was the finding of staff when they issued that permit at the time several years ago. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Um I don't really have any questions, but I'll comment on that is you know sometimes these zoning codes are written not being able to anticipate every little twist and turn of what happens. And I'm actually familiar with that property uh having walked the street back when I was campaigning. And I can I didn't know that you lived there frankly, but maybe you didn't at that time. But uh but I remember thinking at the time, boy, wouldn't it be if I were living there, I'd want to have an extension on that fence. And I think not only would it um improve the property, I think it improves the neighborhood because it shields some of the the noise and who wants to look at traffic on the highway. So, um that's probably an indication of where I'm going to vote on this. Uh but uh with that, I'll just offer up to the uh the homeowner here. If you'd like to step to the podium and make any comments at all, you're welcome to. Yeah. Well, we'll with no other discussion, I'll bring it back to council for discussion. Council member McDonald. Sure. got us kick us off. Um, this seems perfectly reasonable. I I agree with you. Um, I think this is going to improve the the homeowners uh property and the properties um that have that view of the, you know, of the highway. So, this um planning commission did a great job reviewing this one and I support um this variance. Council member Sorson, I very much agree with all all those comments and again I think the plan commission did a good job. I think they even tried hard to find something to to talk about, maybe object to, but um it's just um it's pretty clear that um this is uh worthy of a variance. I think the unique conditions especially like we talked about with a being a corner lot being so high above the road um come into play and I think the same criteria you mentioned in the last uh issue we dealt with um it's reasonable it's the same notes that I think it's uh a good thing not just for this property but for the entire neighborhood for light for sound for visibility and everything so um I'm very supportive of this variance And I I really don't have anything to add. Very simple. I think it it's something that I would support, too. So, with that, is there a motion to adopt resolution 18-2025 approving a fence height and opacity variance at 1407 Holdridge Lane? I would make that motion. Mayor Prom, and I'll second. The resolution has been moved with council member Sorenson and seconded by council member McDonald. All in f favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. So uh next item is city manager report and discussion items. Uh so city manager uh mayor prom. Uh, one item I just want to uh give a recogni uh recognition tonight. Um, we are going to have going to have more of a formal uh press release open house swearing in for our new police chief Jamie Baker, but I want to acknowledge her presence tonight. Uh, June 1st was the first day of uh, Chief Baker as officially the chief and not the interim chief. I know we all thought that tag was kind of awkward. It did serve a purpose because similar to uh Chief Schultz, um there was an interim period of time where we really were able to u kind of assess uh Chief Baker's performance uh as the chief. Um and then more recently we uh conducted a pretty uh thorough evaluation uh talking to the council getting more of a formal kind of review of community members, department heads, as well as probably the most important perspective, the police officers. And over the past six or so months, uh she had glowing reviews. Uh, and really I think what sets Chief Baker for success in this position is just her strengths dealing with individuals. She served a long time in Roseville uh, advocating for victims and really has developed, you know, just through her communication style and her personality, this really uh, humble servant style of leadership. And law enforcement is a tough industry. Recruitment is extremely hard right now, not for W, not just for Wisetta, but all over the country. And I think we have a comp competitive advantage with uh Chief Baker leading our department and our community for Long Lake and Weisetta because she just really is good with people and people want to work in a good culture. Money's important. And there's a lot of other things that are important, but knowing that you're when you come into the into the office or to the department that you're going to be supported, people care, and you've got that uh sense of um uh collaboration and just togetherness within uh the department. She brings that she brings a lot of other things, and we're going to talk about those in the future, but I just want to acknowledge her and uh say welcome to Chief Baker. Yay. So, so city city manager Dah, I don't know if you have any more in your report. So, be okay. Then I I'll just go ahead and interject. I will tell you that it's been a real privilege to get to know Chief Baker over the time that she's been serving. Uh, and I agree, you know, it's a great testament to know that the the police officers that serve under you, uh, think highly of you. Uh, this is a great great community to be a cop. We love our cops in this town. We love our new chief as well. Welcome, Just real briefly, welcome. Congratulations. It's so welld deserved and um the the city of Voisetta is very lucky to have you. So, appreciate it. Yeah, I think we'll get we'll get a chance later to to talk a bit more about it, but I'm really excited for you and for the community to have you as our chief, and I know it's welld deserved and um we look forward to um working with you closely. Okay. Uh the last thing is there any anybody that's joined us on teams any more public form? Uh mayor prom? No they have not. Okay with that then I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move mayor prom. Second. Second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Thank you.