Council again fails to OK changes to outbuilding law

The long-awaited revision of the ordinance regulating accessory building and fences is going to be longer-awaited.

During Monday night’s City Council meeting, aldermen rejected a series of modifications proposed by alderman John Flynn.

Alderman Frank Anderson said he’s tired of seeing pieces and revisions, but never what anyone thinks is a complete ordinance.

“I hate to say it, but we need to work on it for a period of time,” Anderson said.

“This is frustrating,” alderwoman Becky Morgan said later in the discussion. “This has gone on for over eight months. We need to bring this to closure.”

Flynn, who’s been the principal writer of the revisions, said he kept hearing the word “We.”

“What do you mean ‘we,’” he said. “I’ve been working on it. Everyone else has been mission in action.”

Anderson said he would get with Flynn to set a meeting and notify the press. Morgan said she would attend, too.

The aldermen are working on revisions that regulate placement and size of buildings other than primary residences, as well

as fences.

During the public comment period, Roger Norbeck noted that things worked fine in the village until the Property Owners Association and Architectural Control Committee stopped enforcing the covenants.

George Holmes said the ACC’s job is to review aesthetics, but the homeowners association (the POA and ACC) should control that.

“I built my (accessory building) to be identical — the doors, the lights, the paint job, the windows — those are identical (to my house),” he said. “That’s what I looked at when I was on the ACC. I’m not sure you can get there with Buddy (Vernetti,

the ACC administrator).” Holmes suggested getting John Cooper III, president of Cooper Communities Inc., the village developer that also controls the ACC, “and get this resolved through the association.”

Morgan, later in the meeting, echoed the comments about aesthetics.

“The man who said ACC has not controlled aesthetics is right,” she said. “If they’d step up and enforce we’d be better off.” She then noted that not all property in the city falls under the ACC’s jurisdiction, so the city has to do something.

When it came time to vote on Flynn’s amendments, the motion died tied 3-3, with Mayor Peter Christie declining to cast a tie-breaking vote.

After a bit more discussion, a motion to table the ordinance received unanimous approval.