City Council Directs Amendment to Maple Grove Zoning Ordinance Regarding Variances

A change in Minnesota's variance statue has led Maple Grove to reexamine its ordinance on variances and appeals.

A Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in 2010 on a variance case put a limitation on cities statewide when ruling on a variance. According to a staff memo provided to the Maple Grove City Council at the meeting June 20, 2011, the ruling “severely limited the ability of all cities in the state to issue any variances based on how state law was written at the time.”

“The standard or test to which all variances were held after this was essentially if someone had ‘reasonable use’ of their property as-is, then a variance was not allowed,” the memo said.

Changes to the state law by the 2011 state Legislature gave cities more broad authority to issue variances, the memo stated, citing verbiage from the state statute. As a result of the court ruling and subsequent legislative action, city of Maple Grove staff reviewed and suggested amending the city’s ordinance the state code “to be in conformance with state law.”

The Minnesota League of Cities says the new state law “renames” the variance standards from “undue hardship” to “practical difficulties” and retains the “three-factor test of reasonableness, uniqueness, and essential character.”

Due to the changes at the state level, the Maple Grove Planning Commission as well as City Council reviewed whether to have the city’s zoning ordinance text amended relating to variances and appeals.

At its June 20 meeting, on the recommendation of the planning commission, the Maple Grove City Council unanimously voted to direct the city attorney to draft a zoning ordinance text amendment that amends the city’s ordinance regarding variances and appeals.

Much of the ordinance adjustments will look the same as before, but amended to align with the state statue updates. An additional modification was agreed to by the City Council in regards to the number of votes needed to approve a variance. The previous “four-fifths supermajority” needed for approval will be a  “two-third super majority” for approval.  The change, according to the memo to the City Council, is in case of a situation where one or two council members “had to abstain due to conflict of interest.”

The adoption of the new zoning ordinance language is expected to be brought before the Maple Grove City Council for adoption at the Monday, July 18 regular meeting.