Iron County Zoning Committee considers ordinance

By ZACHARY MARANO

zmarano@yourdailyglobe.com

Hurley — The Iron County Comprehensive Planning/Land and Zoning Committee considered a request from Wayne Riebe, of Mercer, to change the definition of a lot in Iron County’s shoreland ordinance at its meeting Tuesday.

Riebe wants to expand his property, the Gateway Lodge and Resort, past a public right-of-way in Mercer. However, the county defines a lot as a continuous parcel of land not divided by a public right-of-way.

Land and Zoning Administrator Erika Roeder said that if Riebe makes this expansion, it will divide his parcel in two. She said that if the committee approves his request to change the lot definitions, they would have to go through the ordinance revision process. She said that the committee does not have the authority to grant variances from their adopted ordinances and allow this expansion, so they would have to change the definition of a lot.

“It’s looked at from two standpoints. It’s looked at as, in this case, being a conflict in expanding a resort or someone’s home or someone adding a garage. From the other standpoint, every part of the improvements being on one side of the lot close to the lake,” Roeder said.

Roeder said that language in the shoreline ordinance prohibits development and impervious surface. She said that she is not certain because the ordinance was adopted while her predecessor was there, but this may be to prevent runoff from the construction site into any adjacent bodies of water.

Riebe and his lawyer, Fritz Schellgell, attended the meeting to answer any of the committee’s question. Schellgell said that this language in the ordinance was not necessarily chosen specifically for Iron County.

“I don’t know if it was that in depth of an analysis to say, ‘We’re looking at impervious surfaces and this is why we’re segregating.’ I think it was something that was adopted from a model,” Schellgell said. “It creates a hardship and it’s not just unique to Wayne Riebe — there are other people who are affected by these calculations of square footage.”

The committee authorized Roeder to see if other comparable counties have made similar ordinance changes and to move forward after she completes her research.

Roeder said that the committee also received a blight notice on a property in Mercer. She said they were not given an exact reason why this property was blighted and while the building was unused and “does have some unsightly parts to it,” she wasn’t convinced that it was in violation.

Roeder said that she asked Iron County Health Department officer Denise Lotzer for her opinion and she agreed the property was not in violation. Lotzer also said since there were no people on the property, they cannot go there to confirm the reports of blight without being invited by the owner.

Since the committee recently went to court with the owner of this property on a separate matter, Roeder said they should send “a letter as a representative of the zoning office so that it does not appear to (the owner) that we are piling on him after our court proceedings this past year and it doesn’t appear to any public entity, township or whoever turned him in for this, that we’re ignoring it because of the court proceedings we had with him last year.”

The committee also allowed:

—The operation of a tourist rooming house owned by Ronald and Angela Releford on 5175N Kimberly Lane in Mercer and a tourist rooming house owned by Jeremy and Courtney Newell on 2050W Bidwell Road in Oma.

—The expansion of an existing accessory building owned by Timothy and Bonnie Parker on 4196W Branch Road in Sherman.

—The construction of a 1,920-square-foot accessory building owned by Thomas Beschta on 5700N Arrowhead Drive in Mercer and the construction of a 1,280-square-foot accessory building owned by Michael and Laura Buss on 7461N Lake Six Road in Oma.

—A rezone from an A-1 district to an RR-1 district for a site owned by Randall Klein on 4894N Thompson Trail Road in Mercer.