Members of the Brandenburg City Council heard the first reading of two new ordinances during their regular meeting Monday(2/9) evening.
Ordinance 657 addresses the rezoning of a section of property owned by Riverbran LLC changing a section of the River Ridge Plaza from Industrial to Commercial zoning in order to match zoning of the other parcels of property in the shopping center.
Ordinance 658 amends the city sign ordinance to allow translucent window signage. The amendment would allow window coverings that reverses to the brighter lighting condition based upon daylight. The update comes after several business had installed new window coverings and didn’t realize that the current sign ordinance requires up to 70 percent of the windows to be covered with instead of the entire window. The council will discuss and hear the second reading during their March regular meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, resident union members of Maple Grove Apartments asked to restart the process with city leaders in an attempt to get the city to investigate alleged building code violations. The group has been at several recent meetings, but has yet to provide the requested information by city leaders. Monday night, Mayor David Pace and Police Chief Brian Haag explained that the group needed to provide a list of issues that include the unit numbers in order for the city to able to move forward with efforts toward investigating the complaints. A representative of the resident union, said that the over 100 email had been sent to city leaders. Mayor David Pace said that he had reviewed emails which were a form letter with different names. He said that he had spoke to a some residents at Maple Grove and was told they had been asked to sign a petition. The Resident Union leaders was again instructed to provide the city a list of issues with the specific apartment numbers in order to move the issue forward.
In other business, the council was presented a report of finances which showed the city budget is operating at the expected projections. Councilmember Donna Brown questioned the construction of a new maintenance shed at a cost of $30,000. Mayor Pace said that the funds were used from three different funds in the current budget based upon the equipment that the would use the new shed. Brown stated that the council should have been involved in the decision, but Councilmember David Woodward stated and confirmed with the City Clerk and Mayor that the funds could be spent at the discretion of the Mayor as long as they were under the state bid laws. Some council members asked for more notice on such purchases or projects in the future.
Mayor Pace complimented the entire city staff for their efforts during the past couple of weeks during the winter storm. He said the crews repaired 4 water line breaks during the winter weather along with clearing streets for 7 days. City leaders said potholes will be a major issue as the melting process continues.
Mayor Pace told the council that a work session will be held in order them to review hard figures of income related to the recent occupational tax and to hear an update from the committee. He said the discussion could also include looking at updates to ordinances that some council members have questions about. The work session will be open to the public but there will not be any official action or discussion between the public and the city council. The works session is tentatively scheduled to be held on Tuesday, February 24 at 5 PM at city hall.
The next regular meeting of the Brandenburg City Council will be held on Monday, March 9 at 7PM. You can watch the entire meeting in our “On Demand” section.