In a split vote Tuesday, the Sherburne County Board re-appointed three members to the Sherburne County Board of Adjustment.
It was the first split vote of the new year, and it came after the planning and zoning report when Commissioner Ewald Petersen questioned whether members of the planning commission should also serve on the board of adjustment.
Zoning Administrator Nancy Riddle was requesting the re-appointment of three members to the board of adjustment as part of Tuesday’s agenda. All three are also members of the planning commission.
Petersen said he felt there should be more individuals to choose from. He said the people who applied all got their information from a posting on the county website.
“There was no other information out to anybody else in the county except for what was on that website,” said Petersen. “It provided a very limited audience and I think that needs to be changed.”
Petersen said he wasn’t going to vote for anyone to be on both the planning commission and the board of adjustment.
“I think we’ve got enough capable people in this county that we should be able to function very nicely without having the same people on these committees term after term after term,” he said.
Petersen said he was also frustrated, partly because of litigation between the county and the board of adjustment on an action that was made in April 2013. The county filed an appeal to overturn a decision by the board of adjustment to approve five variances for Chris Perkins on a 1.85-acre property on 42nd Street near Briggs Creek in Palmer Twp.
Commissioner Bruce Anderson asked Riddle what the process was for advertising the positions.
Riddle said they just put the information on the website.
“We used to put in the paper as an ad, but we didn’t get a whole lot of response,” she said. “We certainly can go back to that.”
Commissioner Felix Schmiesing asked if delaying the decision a week would affect anything. Riddle said the members’ terms expired at the end of 2014. But there was no meeting of the board of adjustment scheduled until February.
“What do we gain by waiting a week?” asked Anderson.
“I just wanted to get a timeline on it,” said Schmiesing. “I’m trying to work with Commissioner Petersen on the idea that maybe we shouldn’t have all planning commission members on there. Maybe we should try to broaden the search.”
Anderson said he thought it was a good idea, but it should wait until next year. He made the motion to appoint the members as proposed - Jeff Schlingmann and Bryan Lawrence as primary members and Marlene Nelson as an alternate.
“I can’t support that - the people that have been proposed,” said Petersen. “I’ll vote no.”
The final vote was 4-1.
As part of the consent agenda earlier in the meeting, the board had appointed the following individuals to the Sherburne County Planning Advisory Commission for three-year terms: Bryan Lawrence (Baldwin Twp.) and Jay Swanson as alternate; Jeff Schlingmann (Haven Twp.) and Michael Pesch as alternate; Dave Jehoich (Santiago Twp.) and Jeff Pappenfus as alternate; Stephen Demeules (Palmer Twp.) and Mike Ganz as alternate.
Other Business
In other action in planning and zoning, the board:
•Approved a request by Mike Haus to amend the county land use map to rezone a parcel at 3909 32nd Street SE in Haven Twp. from industrial to agricultural, then approved the simple residential plat of “Haus Addition” on the same property;
•Approved a request by Wat Lao Xayabhoummaram for a conditional use permit (CUP) for a church on 10.83 acres on 112th Street in Livonia Twp. The property is currently used as a residence for Buddhist monks;
• Amended a CUP for Bruce Bell for a business selling vehicles, boats or farm equipment on a 6.16-acre property on 124th Street in Baldwin Twp. The amendment will increase the number of vehicles allowed for sale on-site from 30 to 50.
