Title
Approving an emergency ordinance pursuant to City Charter 6.06 temporarily suspending T2 Zoning for City-owned property at 296 Seventh Street West, the site of former fire station 51 and now known as “Freedom House,” to allow temporary reuse as a facility to provide services to the City’s unsheltered population due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Statement of legislative intent and findings of the City Council.
WHEREAS, the Council of the City of Saint Paul hereby finds that the Covid 19 emergency, as declared under Governor Walz’s Executive Order 20-10 dated March 13, 2020 and Mayor Carter’s Emergency Declaration dated March 15, 2020, continues; and
WHEREAS, the Council finds, with the approaching winter weather season, that the City’s unsheltered population will lack reasonable access to facilities in which basic services can be provided and in which the unsheltered can find safety from winter weather conditions when some overnight shelters are not accessible or available; and
WHEREAS, the Council finds, upon the advice of the Director of the department of safety and inspections, the Director of the department of planning and economic development and the Fire Chief, that former Fire Station 51, now known as “Freedom House,” is an underutilized City-owned facility which can be reasonably reconfigured to provide the unsheltered with basic services and safety from winter weather conditions; and
WHEREAS, the Council is informed that the Directors of the departments of safety and inspections and planning and economic development, in consultation with the Ramsey County Interim Manager of Housing Stability, have identified a non-profit organization that could operate Freedom House during the day as a site where basic services and weather safety can be provided to the City’s unsheltered population; and
WHEREAS, the Council finds, upon the advice of the City’s Zoning and Planning Administrators, that current zoning regulations under Leg. Code §...
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