REGIONAL — St. Louis County planning officials are facing some unexpected pushback over a proposed change to the county’s land use ordinance they say they designed to loosen the regulation of inoperable, or “junk,” vehicles on rural properties.
The proposed change, which goes to a public hearing before the full county board on Tuesday, April 14, eliminates a 2.5-acre minimum lot size for shoreland properties that include more than five inoperable vehicles. The change, however, also sets a limit of five operable vehicles stored on “riparian property.” That limit of five assumes the vehicles are screened from ordinary public view and meet all required setbacks.
For non-riparian property, the ordinance remains unchanged. Landowners can continue to store any number of inoperable vehicles as long they meet setbacks, MPCA standards for long-term vehicle storage, and are screened from ordinary public view. That language has been part of the county ordinance for more than 25 years.
St. Louis County Planning Director Ryan Logan said opposition to the change came as a surprise, particularly coming from residents who see the new language as overly restrictive. Logan said planning officials drafted the change to make the language less restrictive by eliminating a minimum lot-size requirement within shoreland areas.
“I really didn’t expect this to become an issue. Everything we’ve done, we’ve tried to make it easier for people to develop their properties. That was one of our goals in revising this ordinance,” he said.
But Jim Hofsommer, who is spearheading the brewing revolt against the change, said he’s concerned about the language pertaining to riparian parcels, arguing that it could apply to much of St. Louis County, a significant portion of which is wetland.
Logan said the term riparian refers to areas that abut a lake or stream, and that wetlands would not be considered riparian on their own.
Hofsommer said initial concern over the existing ordinance language, drafted and approved in the late 1990s, has died down and he sees no need for a change now. Hofsommer, who serves as a supervisor on the Colvin Town Board, was involved in the ordinance debate back in the 1990s, and he’s not happy to see the issue dredged up again.
While his concerns focus on the definition of riparian, he said he’s concerned as well by the requirement that those who don’t meet the new rules for inoperable vehicles will need to apply for a conditional use permit as a junkyard, a process that costs hundreds of dollars.
Logan said the change is simply codifying in the ordinance the practice that has been implemented by the county for years. He said those who want to have more inoperable vehicles in public view than the five allowed in the ordinance are already required to obtain CUPs to operate as a junkyard.
“We’re just putting that requirement in the plain language of the ordinance,” he said.
It’s unclear how big of a controversy this really is. Hofsommer was the only speaker who addressed the language at a February public hearing on that and other changes to the ordinance. According to Logan, the county has received a letter from Colvin Township along with a couple of emails from residents with concerns. A petition has also been making the rounds, but the number of signatures likely won’t be known until the public hearing. Logan said the issue has been generating some discussion on social media, with multiple perspectives on the issue.
“I would say there are people on both sides of the issue,” he added.
Hofsommer has questioned the process that the county used to move the ordinance change forward, suggesting that there hasn’t been much public notice. He found out a few months ago when the county sent a letter about the planned ordinance changes to cities and townships within its jurisdiction. Logan said all the public hearings scheduled to date have been properly noticed as required by law.
The public hearing on the change is set for 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 14 at the White Town Hall, located at 3816 Cty. Rd. 100.