County to help East Gull Lake

BACKUS - The Cass County Board voted Tuesday for Environmental Services Department staff to provide, on a fee basis to the city of East Gull Lake, planning and zoning inspection and consultation services.

The city council and planning commission approved the agreement earlier.

The plan calls for a county resource specialist to conduct zoning inspections for the city and for the county planner to provide consultations on ordinance revisions and amendments and provide research and development findings for conditional uses and variances, which the planning commission will use in making determinations at hearings.

The county will charge $40 per hour for site visits and $60 per hour with a three-hour minimum for attendance at meetings. Additionally, the county will charge $42 per round trip from Walker for mileage or 35 cents per mile for deviation for East Gull Lake purposes from a trip to that area for county business.

County zoning staff also will train East Gull Lake city staff to eventually take over most permitting functions, including inspections.

Zoning fees East Gull Lake charges its zoning customers are expected to cover the costs the city pays to the county. The agreement is expected to be reviewed annually. The county's approval is contingent upon an insurance indemnification for the county being put in place.

John Ringle, ESD director, reported the number of land zoning permits for new construction the county issued the first quarter this year increased to 113, compared with 90 last year and 97 in 2008.

The largest number of new land use permits issued were 15 in Woodrow Township between Hackensack and Longville, 10 in Crooked Lake Township near Outing and eight each in Powers Township near Backus and Shingobee Township near Walker.

Countywide variances also were up, but applications for conditional uses and shoreland alterations were down. There were no requests for new minor subdivisions and only one for a new plat the first quarter this year.