The Polk County Commissioners met Tuesday morning at the Polk County Transfer Station in Crookston.
The commissioners approved a Pictometry purchase of $283,524. The work will be done with a seven-plane flyover in 2022 and will be used by several departments in the county. The Pictometry is similar to Google Earth. “You can drop down to view things in 3D. This company is a Minnesota-based company, and they do flyovers, and they have a patent, and they can do different features for different departments,” said Jake Snyder of Polk County Planning and Zoning. “The Assessors Office might use it to get a handle on how big a structure is. You can specify the height and formulate a game plan before you get on a site, so when you are on a site, you’re essentially there for 15 minutes instead of measuring everything up. It is to streamline the departments, and it gives benefit to communities. The aerial photos are a tool they can get on our web GIS programs, and that will be updated.”
Snyder added the new flyover Pictometry would show them what has changed in the past several years, including the state-mandated buffers. “We have been doing the buffer enforcement since 2017, and we have been pushing out enforcement letters and penalty fees for people that don’t have their buffers in place,” said Snyder. “We can get a handle on where we are with that. Is this section good? This landowner said he was going to put it in, and we can check if he put it in.”
Some of the funding will come from the buffer funds, and a handful of departments will team up to cover the cost.
The board approved two conditional use permits for septic systems in the lakes area. Ben Kuznia asked for permission to hook up a new septic system to a 40 by 60-foot garage/shed on a lot on Union Lake. David and Stephanie Vonesh asked for permission to hook up a new septic system to a 28 by 40-foot garage/shed on a lot in the Shalom Estates on Maple Lake. One of the requirements for Vonesh was planting four trees between the shed and the lake. “The intent is to have those go through the conditional use process because no guest house waivers get recorded to the property deeds, so they can’t use them as guest quarters and things like that,” said Jake Snyder of Polk County Planning and Zoning. “We have that mechanism to enforce if we need. We don’t really pick on people unless it becomes an issue. They aren’t allowed to have kitchens or full bedrooms. People like to have storage for the pontoon and boats, or they like to have a workshop in their shed and being on a backlot, you are 300 feet from the cabin, and you have to go to the bathroom, so they have bathrooms in them.”
