City, owner must resolve utility connection cost
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
Contingent on a sewer connection agreement and some financial conditions, the City of Burlington Plan Commission approved conditional use permit and site plan application for a new marine store.
The conditional use and site plan requests were withdrawn about two years ago, when property owner Mike Lewandowski learned of complex and costly issues involving the site at 996 Pine St., just to the north of the Kwik Trip store.
The issues arose after engineers discovered the east side of the street, previously part of the Town of Burlington, did not have city infrastructure installed when the neighborhood was annexed nearly four decades ago.
Noting the size of the proposed building, estimated at 40,000-square-feet, the property and four others were required to have sewer hook-ups, noting the existing septic and well system could fail.
To resolve the infrastructure problem, Lewandowski and four other property owners learned the project could cost about $18,000 per property owner.
Current City of Burlington ordinance states each property has less than six months to come up with the $18,000, which drew some ire at a public hearing held last month, when other owners sought relief from the financial obligation.
Since then, City Administrator Carina Walters met with the property owners on two occasions to seek a resolution to the dispute.
“Preliminarily, through the conversations we had, perhaps we have come to an agreement,” Walters said after Tuesday’s commission meeting.
Pending Common Council review, the preliminary agreement calls for the City of Burlington to waive some costs, and extend the 10-year special assessment payback to 20 years.
Additionally, instead of months, homeowners are allowed to connect to the city infrastructure over a period of two years.
While the terms have not been finalized, pending council review, Lewandowski acknowledged it is a process.
“We can wait until all gets resolved, obviously, I am not going to be building in the next two months. I guess it is just a process,” said Lewandowski.
Walters said the Common Council could review the plan within the next two months.
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