2A, Discussion with Senator Barb Goodwin & State Rep Kate Knuth

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Bill to Restore City Variance Authority Has First Hearing Page 1 of 2 Bill to Restore City Variance Authority Has First Hearing Legislative fix needed to respond to state Supreme Court ruling. (Published Jan 12, 2011) The House Government Operations and Elections (Link to: http: /www.house. leg. state.mn.us /comm /committee.asp? comm 87009) committee held an initial hearing on HF 52 (Link to: htt s: /www.revisor.mn. ov /revisor a es /search status /status detail. h ?b= House& =HF52 &ssn =0& 2011 Rep. O ce Pe In J y Peppin to: (Link R— Rogers) on Jan. 11, the day after the bill was introduced. The legislation proposes changes to state law to restore municipal variance authority in response to a court decision from last year. A committee vote on the bill could occur as soon as next week, once interested parties have had an opportunity to evaluate the bill's language. In July of 2010, the Minnesota Supreme Court made a ruling in Krummenacher vs. City of Minnetonka related to municipal authority to grant variances to zoning ordinances. That opinion narrowly interpreted the definition of "undue hardship" and held that the "reasonable use" prong of the "undue hardship" test is not whether the proposed use is reasonable, but rather whether there is reasonable use in the absence of the variance. This is a much stricter standard and considerably limits variance opportunities. Read more about the ruling (Link to: http://www.lmc.org/page/1/variancerulingjsp) LEAGUE OF MINNESOTA CITIES The League coordinated the development of this legislative proposal over the interim and in the first days of the legislative session with a broad group of stakeholders including city attorneys, staff from other city associations, counties, townships, builders, realtors, chambers of commerce, land use attorneys, and many others. It has received broad and bi- partisan support, as many types of residential and business development, remodeling and redevelopment projects are unable to proceed until cities can consider variances in cases where the circumstances warrant them being granted. The bill has also been introduced in the Senate (SF 13 (Link to: https: www. revisor .mn.gov /revisor /pages /search_ status /status_detailphp ?b= Senate &f= SF0013 &ssn =0 &y =2011) Sen. Gen Olson (Link to: http /www.senate.leg.state.mn.us /members /member bio.php ?leg id= 10483) R— Minnestrista). Hearings are expected in the Senate early this session as well. Read the current issue of the Cities Bulletin (Link to: http: /www.lmc.org /page /1 /cities- bulletin- newsletterjsp) Your LMC Resource Contact Tom Grundhoefer General Counsel (651) 281 -1266 or (800) 925 -1122 tgrundho @lmc.org (Link to: mailto: tgrundho @lmc.org) http://www.lmc.org/page/l/variancepolicy.j sp 1/12/2011