SUBDIVISION ORDINANCE SHOT DOWN
Thursday, July 24th, 2008 -- 11:54 AM
Clark County's subdivision ordinance won't be updated anytime soon.The standing room only crowd at last night's board meeting broke into applause when an ordinance to repeal and recreate the existing ordinance was shot down on a vote of 11-17.
A product of the Planning and Zoning Committee, the proposed rewrite had the stated goal of cleaning up property lines, but citizens like Art Luedtke?who said he moved here from Minnesota to get away from this sort of law--said the "vague" wording of the ordinance left much to interpretation.
"We need to sit down and make sure this ordinance states exactly what it's going to be and does exactly what you want it to do," Luedtke encouraged, "I couldn't live (in Minnesota). The town decided what I could do with my land, so I sold it. I just want you to know what could happen."
Planning and Zoning administrator Steve Kunze explained there were no ulterior motives.
He said the main change to the existing ordinance was a survey requirement for lot sizes under 20 acres, though it was amended to 10 acres before it was defeated.
"Instead of going to the Register of Deeds with a meets and bounds survey that may or not be correct, or even close, they're measured off a true corner. You're insured any future lots, smaller than a certain size, are going to be accurate," Kunze said.
He also flipped the argument, claiming the improvements protected property rights.
"If I mow 30-feet over my lot, obviously, I'm impacting someone's property rights right next to me."
The proposed update also included minimum road standards for subdivisions.
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