Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
IRONWOOD – The Ironwood City Commission passed a resolution Monday updating the city’s Zoning Ordinance through a series of amendments.
Community Development Director Tom Bergman said the update was a longtime coming, something they had been working on for a number of years. He said the Planning Commission held public hearings in December 2021 and July 2022 on the matter.
“The City Commission and Planning Commission met multiple times to hold workshops on specific aspects, specifically the general provisions in regards to medical marijuana, not to be confused with Adult Recreation Use Law,” said Bergman. He said there will be some substantial changes, but reiterated this is separate from any discussion of the commercial marijuana uses. “That’s the Marijuana Establishment Ordinance and it’s a separate document from this.”
Bergman said there are a number of unique and exciting changes to the Zoning Ordinance that include allowing for accessory dwelling units, and allowing for smaller footprint homes for substandard lots. It has provisions for developing the downtown.
He said the document will be a lot easier for the public to navigate with lots of tables and graphs to help developers when they’re moving forward with projects.
Finally, he said the Zoning Ordinance remains an organic document and if there are things that need to be changed, there is a process for that.
City Manager Paul Anderson presented the commission with projected costs of $5,923 for the city to maintain an ice skating loop in the Downtown City Square over eight weeks — roughly January and February. As he reported at the last meeting, last year — the first winter for the new park — volunteers were overwhelmed by the amount of work it took. The commission asked him at that meeting to come back with some costs of employing people and using city equipment to move snow.
A motion to move forward with the $5,923 plan — made by David Andresen and seconded by Nancy Korpela — was defeated 3-2 with Mayor Kim Corcoran and members Jim Mildren and Rick Semo voting against.
Anderson said he had recently heard from a group wishing to put an ice rink in the Depot Park for broom ball or other activities, but didn’t know many details yet, but expected to learn more. He said he expected the city would provide the water.
The commission also:
—Approved applying for a grant through the Gogebic County Land Bank Authority for $110,250, along with committing $56,750 of budgeted matching funds with the goal of demolition of three residences and one commercial building.
—Approved the purchase of a new front axel for a Department of Public Works backhoe for $9,590. The installation will be done by city.
—Approved a $100 gratuity for each city employee for the holiday season. City Treasurer Paul Linn said there were approximately 40 employees and the money was already budgeted for this.
—Authorized calling for bids for boilers, roof top unit and controls for the Memorial Building.
—Authorized payments to Jake’s Excavating for $41,305 for the ongoing water and sewer project, and $11,716 for the ongoing drinking water asset management project.
—Authorized a work order with Coleman Engineering for engineering services not to exceed $390,750 for the future $3 million lead service line replacement project — a program that will be funded by state funds.