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I I I Council Meeting Minutes November 28, 1995 Page 5 Council Business Dick Houck, applicant, feels the permit application was denied because there was a structure on the property which needed to be removed, and the billboard location was closer than 150 ft. from a structure. He feels the application was unfairly denied, and that Mattila had told him it was a legal site. The City intends to conduct hearings to consider provisions relating to buffering of billboards, and this action may be difficult for Houck but is workable if the moratorium expires in December. He was able to extend the option to the first of January, but is unsure whether it can be renegotiated. Mattila stated he did not issue a sign permit to Houck because it did not comply with the current conditions of the sign ordinance. If the situation complied with the ordinance, then the permit would have been approved and issued by Mattila. Bell said there is no point to debating whether the permit was valid. Motion by Williams, seconded by Samuelson, to WAIVE THE FIRST AND SECOND READING ORDERING THE PUBLICATION, AND ADOPT THE ORDINANCE ESTABLISlDNG A MORATORIUM ON NEW BILLBOARDS IN THE CITY UNTIL MARCH 31, 1996. 4 Ayes - 0 Nayes, Motion Carried. Mattila presented the request to initiate rezoning at 366 Cleveland Avenue SE. The applicant, Tom Houck, has a purchase agreement for the Wooddale Builder's site and the single family home at 366 Cleveland Ave. Houck would like to combine these parcels and construct an office building for his sign business, and place a billboard on the Wooddale site. Since structures cannot be closer than 150 ft. to a billboard, Houck would need to rezone the 366 Cleveland site to B-1 in order to construct the building. The rezoning would assist Houck in placing a billboard on the site because the residential property line would be moved further than 200 ft. from the billboard location. Currently billboards cannot be located closer than 200 ft to residential property lines. In 1993, the owners of 366 Cleveland did not want their property rezoned from R-2 to B-1 because they did not want it to become a nonconforming use, however, the owners are now willing to sell their house to Houck and are in favor of the rezoning. A person can petition for rezoning if signed by 50% of the owners living within 200 ft., or any individual may require Council to initiate consideration, Houck has chosen the latter. Houck does want to place a billboard on the Wooddale site and rezoning the property to the north and moving of the property line further from the billboard location would make it an acceptable site for a billboard. Samuelson asked if the rezoning is being performed so that an office building can be constructed or that a billboard can be installed. Mattila said Wooddale had originally proposed the oftlce building, but at that time the single family homeowners wanted the property to remain at the R-2 designation. Larson recalls the original discussions with Wooddale, however, it appears now the homeowners wish to sell their property which will then relieve the spot zoning problem. Council Business Moratorium Ordinance for Billboards Report 95-225 Ordinance 618 Rezoning of 366 Cleveland Avenue SE Report 95-226