The City of Crookston Planning Commission met Tuesday night inside City Hall to discuss a variance request made by Our Lady of Sorrows Church to expand their church on the property of 596 East Robert Street. Outside of approving the July 20 meeting minutes, this was the only item on the agenda.
The board approved the variance request, and the expansion plans will continue to move forward unless City Council decides to deny the request at the next City Council meeting. The expansion will be focused on the worship sanctuary and needed approval from the commission due to certain residential restrictions that weren’t in place when the building was built. City of Crookston Zoning Administrator Greg Hefta spoke more on the details of the project and why it’s such a unique property. “The regulations that are in place now weren’t in place when this building was built,” said Hefta. “It was a Highway/Business district back then, so essentially the setbacks that are in place now weren’t there when the building was built, making this property already outside of regulations.”
Because the property is already outside of the regulations currently in place, a special 25-foot setback will be used to expand the property. The proposed 25-foot setback line will only be used for this parcel and ensure no one’s property near the church is interfered with.
There is no timeline for when the project will be complete, but the next steps for the church will be to continue their feasible study.
A few homeowners in the area attended the meeting and showed their concern about the expansion. Only one concern was about the parcel on hand, and Hefta was able to address the concern. “A garage was previously moved and is now off of that property, so it ended up not being a problem with this variance,” said Hefta. “Other than that, the other concerns raised didn’t really have much to do with this particular variance.”
Another concern from people that attended was if they would need to re-write their deeds. No one will need to re-write their deeds as that is not something deemed necessary in the case of a variance.
The accepted variance by the board will be recommended before City Council at their next meeting Monday night, August 23. The next Planning Commission meeting will take place in September unless there aren’t enough agenda items.
