ELY- The battle continues next week over the proposed reopening and expansion of the former Miners Lake RV Park and Campground.
The new owners of the property, Dean and Lee Ann Peterson of AOK Outdoors, applied for a conditional use permit, or CUP, on Aug. 14 but faced stiff opposition in a Sept. 20 public hearing from dozens of residents in the neighborhood. The couple withdrew their application before the continuation of the public hearing on Oct. 11, stating that they wished to redesign their proposal. The couple reapplied with the Planning and Zoning Commission on Oct. 19 and the required public hearing on the new application is now set for Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 5 p.m., before the Ely Board of Adjustment at Ely City Hall.
The public hearing will also consider a zoning variance request by AOK to allow an RV pad on the site of a now-removed mobile home, intended only for the campground host. The site is within the 75-foot setback along the shoreline and the Petersons have requested a variance for a 60-foot setback instead.
History
The former Miners Lake RV Park and Campground is located at 1759 N. Pioneer Rd in the Spaulding neighborhood of Ely, sandwiched between the far east end of Miners Lake on the south and and Pioneer Road to the north. The site previously housed a small campground but was more recently used for a commercial woodworking operation.
The property was zoned commercial but was converted to Shoreline Mixed-Use (SMU) in 1994, according to city records. The Miners Lake RV Park developed eight RV pads with water and electric utilities parallel to Pioneer Road. According to AOK’s Dean Peterson, the original owners designed the RV pads as pull-through sites but the creation of the Trezona Trail turned them into back-in sites. A pull-through site is where an RV enters from one end and exits out the other, eliminating the need to back a large travel trailer or self-contained motorhome into the site.
SMU zoning in Ely requires a CUP for any campground or RV park.
Opposition
The complaints from the residents of the Spaulding neighborhood reflect the concerns of homeowners everywhere in the U.S. when faced with nearby new developments: increased noise, crime, traffic, and unwanted people, all contributing to a decrease in their quality of life and property values.
Since the Sept. 20 board of adjustment meeting, the opposition has kept the pressure on city officials, attending both planning zoning and city council meetings ever since. Some of the opponents have met to talk strategy and signs against the proposal have cropped up around Ely, in the back windows of SUVs, and on the corner of Pioneer and 18th Ave.
Old versus new
The major differences between the September and current applications are the number of RV spaces, the location of RV spaces, and the addition of the vegetation screen between the RV Park and the Trezona Trail.
The number of RV spaces dropped from 35 to 31. The original application showed 18 back-in RV spaces between the Trezona Trail and the north side of the northern interior road of the RV Park, which runs parallel to the Trezona. Four more back-in RV spaces were shown on the south side of the northern interior road.
The new application retains the original eight RV spaces along the Trezona Trail, next to the former Dry Building for the Sibley Mine. The ten additional spaces between the Trezona Trail and the interior road have been removed. Instead, the new application shows 10 back-in RV spaces on the south side of the northern interior road.
The other 13 RV spaces are on either side of the southern interior road of the RV park, which is parallel to the shoreline of Miners Lake. These RV spots are divided between five pull-through and seven back-in spaces. This cluster of 13 spaces is the same on both applications.
The vegetation screen will occupy the space between the northern interior road and the Trezona Trail. The timeline provided with the new CUP indicates that the original eight RV spaces next to the Sibley Mine Dry Building will not be available for use for three years after the park opens for business, to give the vegetation screen time to grow.
Responding to comments
Some items in the new application appear to address comments made during the Sept. 20 public hearing or by those opposing the RV Park in the area’s two weekly newspapers or on social media. The application also discusses why the proposed RV park is exempt from Minnesota administrative rule 4410.4300 subparts 20 and 20a.
The relevant portion of the rule for the proposed RV park requires an environmental assessment worksheet (EAW) if the proposed new construction exceeds 50 new units or sites in a nonsensitive shoreline area where 50 percent or more of the property is open space. The AOK application proposes 23 new RV sites, five new cabins, and nine tent sites. The current proposed layout of the RV park uses less than 50 percent of the property.
Miners Lake, a waterbody created by the collapse of Ely’s abandoned iron mines, is not classified as a sensitive shoreline area according to the list maintained by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which is responsible for shoreline regulations (Minn. rules 6120.2500-6120.3900).
Some comments from the public hearing and afterward showed concern over the potential degradation of the shoreline of Miners Lake. The new CUP appears to target these comments by adding more detailed sections on managing stormwater with the RV park and mitigating erosion along the steep shoreline. Neither the old nor the new CUP proposed development of the north shore other than a picnic area and a dock for canoes.
To address comments regarding potential noise and nuisance, the new CUP includes the campground’s rules, including quiet hours, limits on the number of people and pets, and permitted activities. It also includes a three-year, three-phase schedule of where and when the expansion of the park will happen. In general, the new RV sites will be built first in phase one, followed by the cabins and tent sites in phase two, and by the rebooting of the original eight RV spaces in phase three.
What’s next
Under Ely’s city ordinances, CUP applications are approved or denied by the board of adjustment, which is a committee of the whole of the planning and zoning commission. The board of adjustment is the last word on a CUP unless it denies the application, in which case the applicant may appeal to the Ely City Council.
Dean Peterson did not respond to a Timberjay inquiry for more information.