Minot, ND- Minot City Council met Monday August 5, 2024, for their first meeting of the month. Coming off the heels of last week's special budget meeting, there was much on the agenda to be discussed including an ordinance downtown and road grader buyouts. Kicking off the evening was a presentation on the Community Development Block Grant worth $331,580 and detailing the requirements set forth by HUD for the City to maintain the grant, most notably that the city must fund any future maintenance of these projects separately.
Following the unanimous passing of 25 consent items, which you can view here, the council turned discussion to the possibility of buying out their leases for 6 road graters used by the city for snow removal. The options presented include to buyout the leases outright, extending the current leases, or beginning to rent the vehicles. City Staff would recommend the first option which also doubles as the cheapest, and after going around the horn, Council would approve the recommended lease buyout with a vote of 5-2 with Councilmen Blessum and Fuller opposed.
The next agenda item asked City Council to provide directions to staff on how to proceed with the proposed quiet zone through downtown Minot. Inflation has caused prices to skyrocket, with projected costs having more than tripled from a proposed $1 million up to now over $3 million. City staff would propose the following 3 options, favoring the first:
Upon approval of the first option, the funds would go back to reserves to become available for another use, and the project would be brought up to the Council when available again. Voting to approve the item 4-3, conversation would then move to the remaining action items with the Council approving all 4.
For the longest discussed item of the evening, the Council was asked to bring instruction to city staff on how to proceed with contention over downtown Minot’s ornamental lighting ordinance. This matter largely has 2 sides, one being a local attorney living and operating downtown, and the other being the Downtown Business and Professional Association (DBPA).
The DBPA hangs ornamental LED lights on their buildings to “beautify” and “modernize” buildings in the downtown Minot area. If these lights are over 16feet high, they may be approved by the Community Development Director, Brian Billingsley. Upon receiving complaints from the resident, who stated “I have special interest in these lights because they’re aimed directly into my living room, my dining room, and my bedroom from less than 100 feet away.”
Along with the issues being dealt with inside, he would continue by questioning the safety of these lights, their lack of permits, and there being no “public notice”. Billingsley would then respond by issuing what he felt to be a fair compromise, allowing the lights but having them match city noise ordinance and shutting off at 11pm, saying “If noise is considered a nuisance after 11pm then I believe lights should be considered a nuisance as well at that time.”
The issue failing to be resolved, it was forced to be brought before the Council. They would go around the horn debating the clarity of the ordinance, if this was a property rights issue, if it could be a zoning issue, and finally who has jurisdiction on the matter. Finally, ending the night, the council would ask staff to bring them options on potential outcomes and what they would all entail for a future meeting. City Councilman Paul Pitner would finish by commenting “If I were the downtown, I would say you get more bees with honey than vinegar, so I would probably try to play by the rules until we work this out and we go through the process which is in front of us.”
