Fridley Council Sends Garage Back to Drawing Board

The Fridley City Council gave a resident a 60-day extension on his request for variances for the attached, oversize garage he wants to build on his home at 177 Hartman Circle for storing tools, antique cars, a lawn tractor and his cars.

Wayne Dahl appeared before the council Monday night and said he wanted extra time to study possibilities for changing the size or location of the proposed garage so he wouldn’t need variances from the city code to build.

The garage proposal has been reviewed by the city’s community development staff and planners and was sent to the city’s appeals commission, which held a public hearing on the garage proposal. Both the staff and the commission are opposed to granting Dahl any variances for the structure.

Community Development Director Scott Hickok tried to convince Dahl and the council that the best route for Dahl would be to withdraw the current proposal and come in with a new one. That would mean a new application and a second $500 application fee.

Some council members seemed to want to give Dahl more time rather than have him pay a second fee.

Hickok said that if the project were to come back different enough from the current proposal, the staff might want it to go back to the appeals commission.

The council included language in the time extension vote that Dahl must come back to the city staff with any additional information or changes to the proposal by Nov. 21. Hickok said the staff could review it by Thanksgiving Day and have time to get it to an appeals commission meeting Dec. 7 and to the council by its Dec. 12 meeting.

State law gives automatic approval to variances if a city council does not act within 60 days or within the extended period of time. Hickok and the council made it clear they didn’t want an automatic approval to happen.

The council voted four to one to grant the extension. Council Member Jim Saefke voted against it.