County Planning Director Tim Nelson went before the county board Tuesday, April 14, 2010 to request that property owners whose cabins had been destroyed in the 2007 Ham Lake fire be given another year to rebuild under non-conforming status.
An April 6 memo from Nelson to the board states, “The state rules in effect at the time provided that any of the destroyed structures that were non-conforming at the time of the fire could be rebuilt in their exact dimensions and setback distances without having to secure a variance, so long as the land use permit were applied for within 180 days of the date that the structures were destroyed. The Board of Commissioners resolved to extend the effective duration of the land use permits issued to properties within the Ham Lake fire area from the existing one-year timeframe to a three-year period.”
The property owners were given more time in order to allow them to keep their grandfathered nonconforming status while also evaluating their lots “to determine a more suitable building site at more conforming setback distances,” Nelson wrote.
Some lots have not been rebuilt and are for sale. Some have no place where a cabin could be built without a variance. Thirtyfour of the 53 properties that lost structures were issued three-year land use permit extensions. Twenty-eight of those have been rebuilt; four have RVs on them and two remain bare.
Of the 19 properties not issued permits within 180 days, 11 remain undeveloped. One obtained a permit in 2009, two have conforming structures under 160 square feet and thus not requiring a building permit, and four have unpermitted structures over 160 square feet.
Nelson recommended that the board allow the extensions for one more year and that the board require the four not in compliance to come into compliance. Theboard unanimously passed a motion to that effect.
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