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City Council Minutes March 19, 1990 Page 11 e moratorium area. He indicated that his company would be impacted negatively by his vote. 7.12 Shade Tree Representative Steve Rohlf, Building and Zoning Administrator, stated that the County has a Board to deal with shade tree information. He indicated that he would like to research some of the possibilities regarding City representation on this Board. He suggested that new employee, Gary Schmitz, Recycling Coordinator, be appointed to the Board. I t was the consensus attend the Shade Tree Council at a later appointment. of the Council that Mr. Schmitz be allowed to Board meetings and that staff recommend to the date whether this would be an appropriate 7.8 Variance Request Re~ardin~ Si~na~e by Elk River Americlnn Motel Mayor Tralle indicated that Elk River Americlnn Motel, represented by Rob VanValkenburg and Mike Leary, is requesting a variance to the sign ordinance to construct a free standing sign with faces in a triangular configuration with each face being 290 square feet in size and approximately 75 feet in height. He indicated that the request is for a 226 square foot variance over the allowable 64 square foot maximum size limit and also a 55 foot variance to the allowable 20 foot maximum ~ height limitation. Jerry Schroeder, Planning Commission representative, stated that the Planning Commission voted against the request by a 4-2 vote. He indicated that he voted in favor of the sign variance, but that he did not necessarily agree with the size that they were asking for. He indicated that he felt it was a difficult situation and that there may be some room for compromise. He indicated that Planning Commission representative, Al Nadeau, felt the same way he did. Peter Kimball, Planning Commission representative, stated that the State dictates the variance stipulations and, therefore, there should be no compromise. He indicated that there is a hardship, but it is not a unique hardship; it is an economic hardship. He stated that 90 percent of the reason for the variance request was of an economic nature. Mr. Kimball further indicated that Commissioner Fuchs was unable to be present at the Planning Commission meeting, however, he did submit a memo to the Planning Commission stating his views on the request. He indicated that he would be against the request, therefore, if Mr. Fuchs would have been there, the vote would have been 5-2. e Mike Leary stated that he felt they have a unique situation. He stated that they were under the impression that they would be able to have signage on Highway 101 which would allow traffic coming north to see the sign. However, there is a moratorium on signs on Highway 101. Mr. Leary stated that 65 to 70 percent of all the residency through the motel will come from transient traffic and without a sign as they are asking for, people will not be able to recognize that there is a motel in that location. He indicated that reason for the height variance