Morse plan impact could be felt by property owners looking to subdivide

It was the only the first draft but the new Morse land use plan generated some intense response at a public meeting Thursday night.With over two dozen in attendance, Rudy Schoolderman of ARDC ran through the basics of the plan, which was originally completed in 1979 and updated in 1982, 1984 and 1988.A Morse Township steering committee has been working on the plan for over 18 months. The plan deals with zoning and more specifically lot sizes. The problem at this point is that the plan is difficult to read and finding out the impact on a specific parcel requires one-on-one discussion.The plan does not indicate what was in place before, only what the new zoning changes would be. There are multiple zoning levels on some lakes, making it difficult to determine what would or would not be allowed. For example, some of the land around Shagawa Lake would change from a half-acre minimum lot size to one acre. But on the west end of the lake, the minimum lot sizes are much bigger, which has a drastic impact on property owners looking to subdivide down the road.Gary Klun and Charlie Kidd protested the changes on Shagawa Lake, specifically an increase to 4.5 acres for minimum lot size in the Olson Bay area. Schoolderman said the west end of Shagawa is the least developed and contains either public land or ownership of large parcels. “It looks like an opportunity to maintain an undeveloped area,” said Schoolderman.“But your discriminating against those owners,” said Kris Kidd.“It only affects two owners, Charlie and myself,” said Gary Klun.“It’s not all government land,” said Charlie Kidd. “Your making a preservation statement at the expense of private landowners.” Task force member Geraldine Floyd pointed out that part of Shagawa was at a four acre minimum before.Kidd said that was land south of what he was discussing.“Thank you for your comment and we’ll take a look at it,” said School-derman. Charlie Chernak of Bear Island Realty and Bear Island Surveying questioned a number of the recommendations in the plan.He suggested getting input from realtors on emerging land use trends in Morse Township.Floyd said the committee was relying on an information gathered from a survey on landowners.Charlie Kidd pointed out the survey results may be skewed since an owner of a half-acre lot has the same vote as someone who owns hundreds of acres. “The guy with a half-acre lot may look across the lake at a large parcel and say he doesn’t want that developed but that’s isn’t fair to the large property owner,” said Kidd.There were four real estate offices represented at the meeting and several realtors spoke out against or questioned the plan as it was presented.Schoolderman did say there were a number of errors in the plan and that further public hearings would be held. Chernak warned that people may not be aware of the impact the plan could have on their property values.“You people are controlling the financial future of landowners and you can have a big impact on the values of property in the township,” said Chernak. “To take something away so that it can’t be subdivided - if I were a landowner I’d be pretty upset.” Schoolderman said that Ely was unique because there are still large tracts of land that have not been subdivided. “How do we determine how to manage growth? It’s a tough balancing act,” said Schoolderman. The growth in Morse Township is easy to see in the report given at the meeting, including an average of 36 new homes a year being built in the township from 1997 to 2002. The number of households in Morse Township has grown by 24 percent from 1990 to 2000. Mark Larson of Kangas Realty pointed out that in the Ely area, 75 percent of the land is publicly owned and developing the private land is difficult already. Local mushers Peter McClelland and Kelly Murphy spoke out against the plan’s proposals for dog kennels.McClelland said the plan does not contain the recommendations of the sled dog task force that came out of the township planning process.One of the plan’s recommendations includes requiring a kennel owner to get a conditional use permit every three years.McClelland said the language should be changed to allow for the revocation of a permit to penalize the problem kennels instead of requiring those who are doing a good job to go through the process and cost of getting a new permit every three years.Supervisor Jack Willis agreed that the three year requirement was “unrealistic” and provided a copy of the findings of the sled dog task force.Murphy questioned the changes to having six or more dogs requiring a permit and language that could penalize current kennel owners who have more than 50 dogs. Schoolderman repeated that the input was taken down and will be discussed by the steering committee.Willis advised people to provide input to the steering committee and to become involved in the process.Copies of the plan are available at St. Louis County Commissioner Mike Forsman’s office in the JFK Building. Written comments on the plan can be sent to: Rudy Schoolderman, ARDC, 221 West First St., Duluth, MN 55802.The plan has to be finalized by the steering committee and then approved by the town board, county planning commission and county board. Public hearings will be held by each group as the plan progresses.