Title
Clarifying the City Council's sole authority to review appeals from the Zoning Code.
Body
WHEREAS, pursuant to well established Minnesota case law, “municipalities have no inherent power to zone except as conferred by statute or implied as necessary in aid of those powers which are expressly conferred by statute,” Country Joe v. City of Eagan, 560 N.W.2d 681 (Minn. 1997); and
WHEREAS, the delegation of power for municipal zoning and planning arises from the Municipal Planning Act, codified at Minn. Stat. §§ 462.351-.365; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the Policy Statement in Minn. State. § 462.351, “[i]t is the purpose of sections 462.351 to 462.364 to provide municipalities in a single body of law, with the necessary powers and uniform procedures for adequately conducting and implementing municipal planning”; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 462.354, Subd. 2, Minnesota confers to a city the power to engage in zoning and planning, but to do so, the state also requires a city to “provide by ordinance” a “board of appeals and adjustments” to adjudicate disputes arising from the city’s zoning and planning; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 462.354, and 462.357 subdivision 6, and 462.359 subdivision 4, the purpose and power of this board is “[t]o hear and decide appeals” relating to a city’s enforcement of zoning ordinances, requests for variances, and land use or zoning permits; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Saint Paul Leg. Code § 61.702, the role of this board, empowered to hear zoning appeals, is held by the Saint Paul City Council, who “shall have the power to hear and decide appeals” and “shall render a decision on the appeal”; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 462.354, Minnesota law expressly states that the decisions of the “board of appeals and adjustments”, here the Saint Paul City Council, are “final subject to judicial review”; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Saint Paul Leg. Code § 61.704, in exercising its zoning appeals powers,...
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