by Dennis Dalman
Three requests were approved by the Sartell City Council at its Aug. 15 meeting after three public hearings. The three requests involved a pylon sign, a housing development and a garage/studio in a front yard.
Pylon sign
A pylon-size variance was approved for Sartell River Crossings LLC, which is developing businesses on a site by Hwy. 15 and CR 1 near the Mississippi River.
That area is partly residential, but last year several residents sold their lots to Sartell River Crossings LLC. Construction of various kinds is now underway at the site, which is known as “River Crossings.”
A pylon sign is a tall structure that contains panels featuring the names of the businesses in a commercial area or mall. The developer of River Crossings requested a variance in the square-footage of the pylon in order to add two more panels to the pylon sign. That is because the developer purchased about another acre of land in the River Crossings area on which will be constructed two more businesses, for a total of eight eventually on the entire development.
The city’s ordinance for square-footage of a pylon sign is 200 square feet maximum. Sartell River Crossing LLC, of Eden Prairie, requested 240 square feet. The structure will be 35 feet high and 17 feet wide and its panels will be illuminated from within by LED lighting.
Mill Town Cove
A housing development named Mill Town Cove requested a rezoning for Residential-2 so that it can build multiple-family and two-family living units, as well as single-family units. The applicant for the rezoning request is C & F Investment of Elk River.
There are 76 lots on that site.
The city council had previously granted a Residential-1 designation for that project. Before that the land was zoned Agricultural.
Mill Town Cove is located near the intersection of CR 133 and 19th Avenue S. in west Sartell.
The council granted the request, which had also been approved by the Sartell Planning Commission.
Garage/Studio
A Sartell resident, John Mahowald, who lives at 1106 Riverside Ave. N., requested a variance in order to build a garage/studio structure in his front yard.
He was compelled to plan the structure for the front yard near his house because the backyard near the edge of the Mississippi River is filled with very old oak trees and their root systems can prevent erosion into the river – something the Department of Natural Resources protects. The DNR has already studied and approved a variance for Mahowald’s garage/studio, which will not be a living space.
The garage/studio will be 38 x 46 feet in size. BCI Construction of Sauk Rapids will build the structure.
