2002-06-03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Session 1843 June 3,2002 Mayor Adams stated that the definition for nuisance is in the City ordinance. You can't define everything that may become a nuisance to the City Council. Mr. Williams stated that he was uncomfortable with the fact that the City Manager may grant approval or an extension. The word "may" is a discretionary term. Mayor Adams explained that moving the approval to the City Council does not eliminate the fact that the approval or extension will be granted. Mr. Munkel said that this bill was drafted after the first discussion we had about this so the project could go forward. We are on the second and third read on this and it sounds like Mr. Williams is in disagreement with it. We should probably defeat this bill. Mr. Williams responded that it was his understanding that changes could be made at this point. Mayor Adams said that this is true. Ms. Welsch asked why Mr. Williams felt the Council should make the initial determination. She felt that this was a staff duty and she would have some concerns about taking that away from them. Mr. Williams said that he felt that it would be better to model this after the Council's approval of liquor licenses. Mayor Adams said that he feels that the gist behind the ordinance was to give the owner the potential for having a 24 hour operation - not guaranteeing it. The potential needs to be limited, because he can see a variety of locations trying this and it would still be a major intrusion into a neighborhood. He would like the staff to have discretion. He assumes that Mr. Williams would like to have a checklist of objective criteria that, if met, will give them an extension. If the criteria aren't met, Mayor Adams wants to be able to deny an extension. Mr. Ollendorff said that every business in town requires a permit and 98% of those permits are issued by city staff. There are a few exceptions. Site plans and liquor licenses have to have Council approval. Mr. Ollendorff has no preference one way or the other - it is totally up to the City Council. Secondly, the Council can make amendments to the bill that was proposed. If the changes are major, like changing standards or who reviews the application, then the bill has to be held over to the next City Council meeting. The Council could approve the bill as written tonight or make a minor technical amendment tonight and still approve it. The changes that Mr. Williams is making are major and would require that the bill be held over a couple of weeks. Council could also defeat the bill and send it back to the drawing board. Mr. Wagner said that currently, on the books, we have an ordinance that requires Laundromats to close from midnight to 7 a.m. He thought that the sense of Council's discussion, two to four weeks ago, was that the ordinance was going to give the Council the ability to make an exception and be able to approve 24 hour Laundromats. He is surprised that the proposed ordinance says that the City Manager will be able to set the hours and not Council. He would prefer that the City Council do the initial permitting and setting of conditions. The extensions could then be up to the staff.