Five Things To Know About City Government This Week

The city has officially gotten tough on

The Minnetonka City Council unanimously approved a new animal waste ordinance Monday. Minnetonka pet owners must now clean up after their pets, not only in city parks but also on private property. The new city ordinance also mandates local pet owners to carry something, like a plastic bag, while walking their animal. 

Once the ordinance takes effect in early July, a pet owner who is caught letting their animal defecate without picking up the waste, or who is caught simply without a means to pick up the waste, could face a maximum fine of $200. 

Minnetonka could soon be home to a new microbrewery.

The permit to open a new microbrewery was approved unanimously by the Minnetonka City Council Monday. The new microbrewery and distribution center, Lucid Brewing will be located at 6020 Culligan Way in Minnetonka.

While no alcohol would be sold for on-site consumption, according to a staff report from city planners, future brewery tours have not been ruled out.

“Anecdotally, many microbreweries have tours and events, particularly if their brews become popular,” that report says.

As it stands, the city has no standard classification for this kind of business, so the Minnetonka City Council approved a “condition use permit” so that the business can move forward.

Currently, there are no breweries within Minnetonka’s city limits. 

Minnetonka will no longer restrict how big campaign signs can be during state election years. 

An ordinance regarding that changes the time period during which campaign signs may be displayed and the time period during which the size of campaign signs is restricted, was passed by the city council Monday.  They say that this change is necessary to ensure city ordinance is consistent with state statute regarding the display of campaign signs during statewide elections years. The sign ordinance regulates the display of all signs within the community, including campaign signs, the actions of the legislature, charter commission and the city council.

Before this new ordinance, a Minnetonka resident/business could display a campaign sign starting 30 days before an election, or on August 1 of an election year, whichever is earlier, until 10 days after an election day. But now that this ordinance has passed, temporary political campaign signs are allowed:

• Between 46 days before the state primary until ten days following the state general election in even numbered years.
• Between 46 days before August 1 until ten days after the city general election in odd numbered years.
• Between 30 days before until ten days after a special election. 

Also, before Monday's city council vote, no signs with more than a 5 square foot maximum sign area, except on designated collector or arterial streets, were allowed during odd numbered years and between August 1 through 10 days after the state general election day in even numbered years. But this ordinance removes the city’s ability to restrict the size of campaign signs during even numbered, or state election, years.

According to the city, officials often receive complaints about campaign signs. To address these complaints and to reduce what is sometimes perceived to be sign clutter, it has been suggested to them that different standards – time period, size restrictions, location regulations – be applied to different types of elections. For instance, a shorter allowable display period for elections held without a primary.

But city staff say differing standards for differing election types would be very confusing, if not altogether unworkable.

An ordinance regarding noise permits was introduced.

The Minnetonka School District says their maintenance staff is having a hard time complying with the city’s current noise ordinance, which prohibits maintenance activities such as parking lot sweeping after 10:00 at night and before 7:00 in the morning.

A facility like the school district, they say, is in use from early in the morning until late at night, and they cannot sweep the parking lots when cars are there. As a result, they need to occasionally do maintenance work during nighttime hours, which is prohibited by the ordinance. 

To solve the problem, city staff have suggested that applicanst, like the schools, be permitted to apply for an administrative permit instead of a variance from the city council, when they wish to perform maintenance work after 10:00 at night and before 7:00 in the morning.

The applicant would have to provide notice to the neighborhood potentially affected, as determined by the community development director. Either the applicant or a neighbor could appeal to the city council.

An ordinance must be considered by the city council at two regular meetings before adoption. At the first meeting, the ordinance is introduced by the council. The city council may discuss and/or refer the ordinance to an advisory board for review and public comment. The ordinance will be placed on a second city council meeting agenda for adoption.

Local pawnbrokers, precious metal dealers, and secondhand dealers may soon face new regulations. 

City staff has is proposed modifications to the current ordinance that regulates pawnbrokers and precious metal dealers in Minnetonka, which include:

1. Secondhand dealers of consumer electronics and jewelry are added to the regulations. These two categories are the most common kinds of stolen items. Tracking these items that are purchased by secondhand dealers may increase the likelihood of recovering stolen property and apprehending suspects. There is an exception for people who purchase fewer than 25 items in a 12-month period.

2. Dealers of coins would no longer be exempt under the ordinance. Coins are also an item that is easily stolen.

3. An applicant is allowed to submit a financial certification rather than financial documents in the background investigation, in the same manner as allowed under the liquor license ordinance.

4. The applicant is no longer required to submit records of civil and criminal judgments. This was also previously deleted from the liquor license ordinance.

5. Manual reporting of transactions would no longer be allowed. The electronic reporting system is very easy to use, and manual reporting requires city staff to do the data entry into the system.