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<br />City Council Study <br />Monday, April 16, 2007 <br />Page 5 <br /> <br />expanding it to include additional issues made apparent during the <br />study, with City Attorney Squires opining that the City didn't appear <br />to meet any of the three possible circumstances outlined by State <br />Statue as applicable; the complexity of the issue, including issues out- <br />side the lot split issue related to zoning, which would be included in <br />the Study Group's report to the City Council as future policy discus- <br />sion issues; and how current zoning regulations fit into the community <br />regarding prevailing lot widths and sizes. <br /> <br />Ms. Bakelnan noted that the group hadn't looked at ordinances from <br />other cities, but had been concentrating on the City's own ordinances <br />related to actual lot size square footage and neighborhood characteris- <br />tics. <br /> <br />Mr. Doherty advised that the groups' final report would include six to <br />ten policy-related questions that had been identified; some including <br />recommendations of the group and some requiring ongoing analysis. <br /> <br />Councilmember Ihlan opined that the moratorium needed to be ex- <br />tended and expanded with additional issues that had been identified by <br />the study group, via a different study group, to allow the City Council <br />adequate time to make policy decisions without land use applications <br />before them; and expressed concern regarding "Monster Houses" or <br />"McMansions," and provided several recent newspaper articles as <br />Bench Handouts. Councilmember Ihlan also encouraged a thorough <br />review of ordinances from the Cities of Bloomington, Edina and Min- <br />netonka; review of tree preservation ordinances; in addition to more <br />public comment opportunities; and determining minimum lot sizes by <br />taking into consideration the median size of lots within a 500 foot ra- <br />dius, defining a neighborhood, and calculating minimum lot sizes and <br />dimensions and houses relative to the lots. <br /> <br />Councilmember Pust congratulated members of the community for <br />their participation; and sought further comment from staff regarding <br />the four different actual lot split scenarios used and specifics of the <br />questions asked and measurements of neighbors before, during and af- <br />ter the projects, and if their opinions had changed during the devel- <br />opment process. <br />