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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/21/1980 , , . . CITY OF APPLE VALLEY URBAN AFFAIRS COMI`�IIITTEE MINUTES February 21, 1980 PRESENT: McKay, Myers, Hein, and Deters. ABSENT: Schwartz. (Two vacancies on the Committee) OTHERS PRESENT: City Administrator Richard Asleson, Councilmember Savanick and ei�ht members of the public. Asleson advised that due to the resignation of Dick Edwards from the Committee, that the first appropriate order of business would be to elect a Committee chair, either on a temporary basis or a permanent basis. MOTION: of McKay, seconded by Deters, that Hank Myers be designated as the chair of the Urban Affairs Committee. Ayes - 4 - Nay - 0. The purpose of this meeting was for the committee to receive public input on the proposed firearms ordinance and Chair Myers requested Asleson to review the background material on this subject. Asleson then reviewed the ordinance draft now being considered and compared it to the ordinance currently in effect and offered the following summary comments: 1. The current ordinance was adopted in 1973 and has not been amended since. In the proposed draft, all references to handguns have been deleted, inasmuch as the 1975 State Legislature adopted comprehensive laws on handguns. 2. The current ordinance allows certain hunting within the City of Apple Valley while the proposed ordinance would not. He further noted that the primary reason for the firearms study now being done by the commit- tee related to a referral from the City Council to study the hunting issue and that other changes in the ordinance are essentially a by- product of the study. The committee chair then opened the meeting to comments from the public and either the committee members or Asleson attempted to respond to those com- ments as they were offered. Comments were offered on a wide variety of topics within the ordinance which will be highlighted below. The follo�zing persons offered comments: 1. Dale Palmer, 962 Redwood Drive 2. Erwin W. Ulrich, 12444 Pilot Knob Road 3. Michael McDonough, 14469 Guthrie . Avenue 4. Walter Haussner, 7229 Upper 139th Street 5. Lyndia Ardoyno, 13661 Cedar Avenue 6. Barbara Savanick, 154 Juniper Lane 7. S.M. Sanford, 7000 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis - Mr. Sanford indicated that he was associated in many ways with various hunting and gun organizations and that he was presently serving on the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association. � �Urban Affairs Comm�e Minutes . February 21, 1980 Page 2 8. Jack Ardoyno, 13661 Cedar Avenue Highlights of the comments were as follows: 1. A question -was asked if the purpose of the ordinance was to restrict ownership of guns? The response to that question was that the ordinance has no such purpose and in fact does not prohibit or restrict in any way the ownership of guns with the notation that purchase and ownership of handguns (pistols) is controlled by State law. 2. Mr. Ulrich expressed a concern that the prohibiting of the discharge of firearms within the City would prohibit homeowner control over predators related to gardens, etc. Mr. Ulrich was advised that zhe committee had attempted to cover that concern via Section I.A.S wherein a person could obtain a permit from the Council for a "predator/ game control program". 3. Mr. McDonough commented on the bow and arrow section of the draft ordinance, particularly as it relates to the possibility, as worded, of requiring property owners to make permanent alterations to their property before they could receive a bow and arrow permit at a private residence. The committee responded by stating that it is certainly not the intent to require any permanent alterations, but merely to make sure that the areas of discharge will not affect other persons and that by having the police chief inspect the site, the police chief could effectively perform an"educational function. 4. Mr, Haussner expressed concern about the somewhat open en�ed-def.inition of "assault weapon", he stated that the current definition of fireworks would prohibit the discharge of blank cartridges in starter pistols used for track and theatrical events and that it would prohibit the possession of blank cartridges as collector-type items. Further, he asked about the provision of the draft ordinance related to authorized ranges and asked how a range could be authorized. To this question, Asleson responded that an agplication for an authorized range would be evaluated under the Zoning ordinance and that to his knowledge, the Zoning ordinance cannot allow within any zoning:.districts a firearms range as a permitted use which thus means a request for such a range would have to be processed as a variance through both the Planning Commission and the Council. Mr. Haussner also commented on the masonry backstop provision, I.A.6, of the draft ordinance. 5. Lyndia Ardoyno spoke very briefly in favor of the ordinance as it stands without focusing on any specific provision. 6. Barbara Savanick commented related to the possession of fireworks pro- vision .of the ordinance and stated that neither current State law nor local ordinances are sufficient. She explained that presently, only the discharge of fireworks is unlawful which makes it very difficult to-enforce and felt that the addition of making possession of fireworks unlawful would significantly help the police department. She commented that Apple Valley needs the strongest possible laws related to possession and that the poli�e department must be trusted to enforce that law with common sense. ~ � . Urban Affairs Committee Minutes February 21, 1980 Page 3 7. S.M. Sanford commented for approximately 10 minutes on various aspects of the draft ordinance. He related that he understood what Apple Valley's purpose was at this time; that is, to prohibit hunting in the City. How- ever, he stated that the City, by using significant parts of our 1973 ordinance, means that we conflict in several instances with the compre- hensive State laws adopted in 1975 and that sometimes where we are not in conflict, we are not sufficiently clear or complete. He also stated that the National Rifle Association has technical standards available for both archery ranges and firearms ranges ranging from the most simple ranges to the most complex and suggested that the liability exposures • in using anything but accepted standards when permits are issued for such ranges would be significant. Asleson then commented that Mr. Sanford's testimony was very enlightening and that he felt it would be advisable to essentially discard the present draft of the ordinance and start over again, explaining that we used as a base for the draft ordinance, the current ordinance adopted in 1973 and that we were only trying to modify that ordinance so as to prohibit hunting within the City. Someone in the audience then suggested that we write a very simple ordinance that simply says "No Hunting". Jack Ardoyno then commented that the problem that was being addressed related both to hunting during the hunting season,:_.but also to the discharge of firearms in general. To these comments, Asleson stated that it was his intent to try to simplify the ordinance and to incorporate, by reference, as many features of the State law as possible. He stated that the difficulty in what we are trying to accomplish is that we do indeed recognize that there are valid circum- stances that need to be excepted from the blanket discharge of firearms provision. MOTION: of McKay, seconded by Deters, to approve the committee minutes of February 7, 1980. Ayes - 4 - Nays - 0. The committee then returned to discussing the firearms ordinance with Lyndia Ardoyno asking when the committee expected to have the product complete. Asleson responded by stating that he thought the completed product could be accomplished by the time warm weather arrives. Deters stated that when the current draft of the ordinance is re-drafted, she desires further research into the state law provisions related to the use of alcohol, drugs and a person's past record related to either the use of alcohol or drugs. MOTION: of McKay, seconded by Hein, to adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 9:02 p.m. Attached to these minutes is a copy af the draft ordinance that was the subject the cammittee meeting on this date. jf