County tackles shoreland ordinance changes

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal…Published Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Residents from throughout Otter Tail County packed the Otter Tail County Commissioners’ Room Tuesday afternoon to wade through two-thirds of proposed changes to the Shoreland Management Ordinance. After nearly three hours of discussing individual topics, the board agree to reconvene the gathering at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15.   The State of Minnesota requires all counties to have a Shoreland Management Ordinance. A public hearing also is required when changes to the ordinance are proposed. Final changes will later be adopted by the county commission.  One of the hot topics Tuesday afternoon concerned designated sewage treatment areas for parcels of land near shorelines.

“We need to have areas designated in order for owners to install adequate sewer systems — with a lesser chance of failure,” Land & Resource Director Bill Kalar said. “Otter Tail County must adhere to state sanitation requirements, and we have to address new rules as they come along.”

“Water protection and assisting new development is a balancing act,” county Commission Chairman Sydney Nelson said. That sentiment was echoed by the other four commissioners.

Three other main topics of discussion were provisions related to resorts (specifically, a 30-day restriction clause), platting of subdivisions near shorelines and conditional use permits.

Resort owners, and others at the gathering, took issue with a provision stating that owners — in order to qualify as a resort — allow no residential dwelling units for more than 30 days within a calendar year. The exemption would be for the service providers themselves.

The county ordinance further states that “these establishments (resorts) must be primarily service-oriented for transient lodging of guests.”

Arguments for and against platting of subdivisions near shorelines were expressed by many of those in attendance Tuesday. Previous wording said that nonresidential backlots of no less than 5,000 square feet may be created if they are legally joined to a lakeshore parcel within 200 feet of the backlot.

Also previously stated — and now open to review by county commissioners — is the provision that “such nonresidential backlots must be created by subdivision plat in such a manner as to allow for orderly attachment to lakeshore parcels.”

As for the subject of conditional use permits, attendees and commissioners discussed the role of the county Planning Commission to possibly require preliminary scale drawings of sketches of proposed buildings. That would be done in order to ascertain that such buildings will not be unsightly or undesirable — while at the same time not hindering the orderly development of the county.

After close to three hours of discussion of two thirds of the proposed changes, a majority of those in attendance agreed that taking a week off before addressing the final one-third of the document was in order. The Jan. 15 gathering will again be held in the County Commissioners’ Room.