Minutes-9/22/1999

Mr. Schott responded to Mr. Sewell’s point by saying that the submitted plan showed a retaining wall at 3 ½ feet from the boundary line. A retaining wall can be located at this distance. The problem began when Mr. Sewell decided to place garages that were not shown in the submitted plan on the new retaining walls. Mr. Schott explained that he told Mr. Sewell about this problem immediately when noted and by his next visit to the site Mr. Sewell had completed roofs on the garages. Mr. Sewell said he had believed the retaining wall was at five feet from the line, and he knew that parking could begin at five feet from boundary. Had he thought that he could not park here, Mr. Sewell said he would have placed the retaining wall on the line. Mr. Schott indicated that the problem lie in Mr. Sewell not following his original submitted plan. MMS consultant was present and showed original plan with retaining wall at five feet off the line. Mr. Sewell’s daughter indicated that there was no attempt at any time to encroach on Mr. Rummelhart’s property. Mr. Rummelhart asked if the Building Inspector or any city personnel had been informed of garage building. Board Member Huedepohl asked Mr. Sewell why he had built garages when his submitted plan was for parking spaces. Why hadn’t he included these on the original plan? Mr. Sewell responded that these units were upscale apartments. These have top of the line carpeting and refrigerators. “I always thought we would put garages.” And a garage is a parking space, that is the definition of a garage. These are parking spaces. The problem was 9’ X 18’ made too small a garage area and even difficulty with a 10’ X 20’ space. Mr. Sewell interrupted his daughter and asked her to Shut Up. Board Member Madden asked, “Why are we talking about refrigerators and carpet, just answer her question.” Mr. Sewell responded that people want a condo that has a garage, and because this is an asset for the community. Mr. Sewell’s daughter added that her family was trying to improve the city, especially parking problems. The garages are only off a couple feet, the pins had disappeared making measurement difficult, it was a simple measuring mistake on a million-dollar project. Board Member Huedepohl asked if the pins were placed by MMS and then disappeared, where were measurements taken from for placing stakes. Mr. Sewell said this mistake was not intentional, his people were trying to do a nice job. Mr. Schott said he had asked Mr. Sewell to measure from his lot pin.. Clarence had assured him that this had been done. John Rummelhart had talked to Engineer Hart regarding were pins were located. Mr. Sewell’s daughter said that MMS did not measure from the pin three lots to the north. There was no mistake made by MMS. But the pins place were gone by construction and utility time. This is not uncommon.