Checks and balances are important at all levels of government, and that’s clearly evident in Ely, where a city commission had badly overstepped its bounds.
Last month, the planning and zoning commission catered to the not in my backyard crowd and attached far too many strings to a conditional use permit request.
The request was routine, and frankly, it’s hard to fathom why it needed commission approval at all.
A Shagawa Lake property owner asked for a permit to build a storage shed on their rental property.
We question why the matter needed city approval at all but that’s an argument for another day.
The commission, after hearing from several opponents of the request, did grant approval with a slew of conditions, including one that takes the cake.
Get this: the commission, from their collective high horses, decreed that the property owner would not be allowed to store motorized equipment in the shed.
Mind you, Shagawa Lake is not within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Boats with motors, pontoon boats and (the horror!) jet skis are clearly permitted. Heck, we’ve seen ATVs and side-by-sides along Pioneer Road and, of course, snowmobiles zip across the frozen Shagawa Lake every winter.
But for some reason, the commission decided this taxpaying property owner and business owner couldn’t even store a lawn mower in this shed.
The commission’s “ruling” is comical and farcical, even threatening the property owner with periodic inspections to make sure there aren’t any of those evil motorized pieces of equipment in the shed.
Sadly, this is the result of commissions that are either drunk on power or too happy to cater to the people aptly known as CAVE - Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
We’ve seen it far too much in these parts in recent years, whether the topic is a new RV park, an expanded resort, or heaven forbid a new mine.
They gather. They protest. They make noise until they get their way.
It’s long past time to put a stop to this nonsense and a good start would be an abject reversal of the planning and zoning commission’s edict.
Planning and zoning commission members serve at the pleasure of the elected members of the city council - not the other way around.
It’s time that both the commission and the council remember that.
