Zoning violation concerns from a St. Ignace citizen regarding two of his neighbors may turn into a full-scale investigation of other city residents who may be in violation of the same ordinance.

Alan Stark of Graham Avenue appeared at the Monday, August 1 City Council meeting to discuss with Council a letter he and his wife, Donna, had written to the city and the response from City Manager Gary Heckman. His complaints were that one neighbor had built a garage higher than the 28-foot limit for land zoned single-family residential, and another neighbor had created a city road to her property that doesn’t meet requirements, and that a third neighbor has been using a motorhome for a seasonal residence on the parcel where she had yet to build a home.

Answering the first complaint, Building Inspector Paul Sved said the actual measurement of the garage was 24 feet, two inches, and that the 28-foot limit is actually part of a deed restriction for residents in that area that’s outside of city enforcement anyway. As for the so-called city road, Mr. Heckman said that while the city does own that land, it is currently “simply a driveway and not a dedicated street. Before the city will accept it as a public road, it would have to be brought up to city standards.”

Mr. Heckman first said the seasonal residence scenario fell into a “gray area, as far as using it while there’s construction.” The neighbor has applied for a building permit, but none has been issued and construction has not begun, and a man is reputedly staying at the motorhome on weekends.

“I’ve told him he can’t stay there, that we don’t have an ordinance allowing it,” said Mr. Heckman. “We don’t allow using a motorhome as a residence because it doesn’t meet the specifications of a residence, even if they’re building a home.”

When Mayor Bruce Dodson and council members discovered they could come up with several similar instances of residents living in motorhomes that may be in violation, the board directed Mr. Sved to inventory of the city for similar violations to make sure the city isn’t engaged in selective enforcement.

“Unless we’re planning to add an ordinance, we’re going to have to notify these people and issue them violation notices,” said Mr. Heckman. “But it’s possible that when the Planning Commission meets, they may come up with something where individuals will be able to occupy a motor home as a temporary shelter during construction.”

The Planning Commission will meet August 17.

Council also considered a petition, signed by nine residents, asking for the city to close the ingress and egress entry of the Michigan Department of Transportation maintenance garage on South State Street. The entry is obscured from view coming from the south on that street, the petition states, and presents a traffic hazard. The closure would reduce a four-way entry to three and reduce traffic density, it continued, and an alternative entry for MDOT could be on the highway portion of Dock No. 3.

Mr. Heckman said he would submit a request to MDOT, but he didn’t doesn’t think it would be changed, though he added that MDOT may brush out part of the area to improve vision. Police Officer Merlin Doran said he wasn’t aware of any accidents in the area the last 10 years.

Another issue near the dock concerns the process by which citizens may dispose of brush, leaves, and other yard waste, now that the city is complying with no-burning laws.

“We’re converting that drop-off area from burning site to composting/mulching site,” said Mr. Heckman.” People can still drop off yard waste through arrangement with the city. The whole idea is that this is for residential use. The problem has been commercial use. It’s been abused.”

The city is also investigating whether it can borrow a wood chipper owned by the state near the city property at Dock No. 3. Mr. Heckman emphasized that citizens are allowed to burn their own brush if they have a burning permit and there currently are no restrictions owing to dry weather conditions.

Mr. Heckman reported on his required submission of documents to the Michigan Department of the Treasury, Local Audit and Finance Division, to verify the city’s deficit elimination plan after the shortfalls that occurred during 2004 in its sewer and marina funds.

The certified documents included a copy of the May 16 ordinance that raised the sewer rates by 75¢ per 1,000 gallons of usage, and documentation of the justification thereof, the city’s 2005 budget, and a balance sheet, and income and expense statement for the marina as of July 31, 2005, showing a positive cash balance of $38,441.50.

An update was also given on the bus station, with Mr. Heckman noting that bids will be advertised soon for the architectural and engineering work for the facility that will be built at the corner of Church St. and US-2. The facility will be city-owned, subject to a 15-year agreement with Indian Trails, but MDOT will pay for the design and construction.

“We’ll have to narrow it down to four firms to interview,” he said, “then submit them to MDOT and make the final selection. A committee to perform application reviews and conduct interviews has not been determined. Whichever firm is selected will hire the contractor for the construction.

“The biggest thing is cash flow,” he added, “where we don’t subsidize this, even temporarily. We have to have the cash in hand first.”

Council and city officials also discussed updating the city charter later in the fall. Councilwoman Susan Tamlyn-Massaway and City Clerk Renée Vonderworth recently attended a Michigan Municipal League-sponsored training session on charter revisions and amendments. It was determined in the discussion that it would probably be sufficient to make some amendments to the charter instead of actually revising it, the latter of which would require public election of a charter commission, as opposed to an appointed committee. Still, amendments or revisions would take a vote of the people.

Another project that was touched on for the fall months is selection of a task force for Little Bear East for the purpose of developing marketing strategies for better use of the facility. Mr. Heckman said that, ideally, the committee would consist of representatives from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the St. Ignace Visitors Bureau, the City, the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Development Authority, and the city’s recreation board.