The wet heavy snow in March caused many buildings to collapse throughout the area. Many of those buildings were pole buildings, which Polk County Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jake Snyder said is a concern because heavy snow puts a lot of stress on long trusses spanned to maximize space. “It’s been a concern of a lot of people around Fertile and even around Crookston that the heavy snow event in March pushed down some pole buildings,” said Snyder. “The thing with the snow loads and these pole buildings is they span the trusses so far and are so queued to maximize the space in the structure I just hope that they are having people look at the snow loads further. Not spanning trusses so far and making sure that the snow loads are in accordance. A big storm brought in a lot of heavy snow and it brings a lot of load onto a structure when it sits up on the roof. Hiring people that do good work, that follow state building code is of utmost importance. You’re building a structure and want it to last you have to take those things into account.”
Oak Cove Resort on Maple Lake was one of the businesses that had a storage building collapse this winter. They have filed with Polk County for a conditional use permit to replace the building with one located on Cable. The new building will be 50 x 108 feet of boat storage. The conditional use permit has several conditions related to being visually appearing with trees to screen the building from the neighbors to not create an eyesore.
Snyder said the public comments often are not against structures as long as they stay tidy and don’t have a lot of things around them. Such was the case for the Oak Cove permit with the hopes there wouldn’t be boats, lifts or docking parked outside the building. “We addressed some things that were brought up in the public hearing about visual nuisances,” said Snyder. “Things parked on people’s properties do affect other properties with obstructed views and visual nuisances. It’s a concern for property owners all through Polk County. We all know the sites that aren’t tidy and aren’t well kept. We know where they are out there. The best thing to do would be to screen it. Fencing works and/or planting with trees and those things. Visually appealing structures and having trees and making it so it’s not a visual eyesore is important. We work every year on how we’ll address buffering and visual aspects off lake properties. We continue to have screening be a part of our ordinances and work on addressing those.”
The permit also is conditional upon a vegetative buffer area on Oak Cover Marina satisfying the Snyder’s discretion as to meeting the previous specifications for a variance on that parcel. A second conditional use permit was granted to John and Marion Beger to hook a septic system to a new accessory structure on Union Lake. “These larger lots are a new development on Hideaway Cove on Union Lake and has been the topic of several conditional use permits over the last year and a half,” said Snyder. “The conditional use comes into play whenever you want to tie a shed into a septic system. The major thing with that is the no guest house waiver that gets recorded with the property stating there is no habitable space in that structure. Habitable space is defined by the Zoning Ordinance as sleeping, eating or any of those quarters that you’d normally do in a dwelling.”
The permit was approved on the condition that a small amount of fill laid last fall for a driveway be moved out of an identified delineated wetland, which Snyder will verify as he said the property owner has already informed him the condition had been addressed.
