(Okoboji)– Meeting in special session this (Tues.) morning, the Okoboji City Council approved the second consideration and granted final approval to a revision in the city’s Lakeshore Landscaping Ordinance. City Administrator Michael Meyers says it relaxes some administrative procedures but does NOT waive any technical requirements, such as engineering reviews…
“The ordinance allows for the city to designate specific lakeshores as emergency situations which would allow for the waiver of several administrative processes that are built into our existing ordinance. So the waiver of these processes, really the whole intent is that if we waive some of these processes we can reduce the time from when a property owner submits a permit application to approval, we feel like we can reduce that time by several weeks if not by an entire month so that property owner can focus on and get re-construction going on their lakeshore.”
Meyers says time was getting to be of the essence in getting the revision adopted…
“Property owners are doing what they can to stabilize and stop the immediate situation. However, now we’re at a phase where property owners are starting to look at the long term and look at the full project. So before these applications start coming into the city we wanted to make sure that we had our ordinance the way we wanted it so we would not create additional hurdles so that these folks can get these things re-built before winter.”
Meyers says the revisions will go into effect upon publication, which is expected to happen sometime next week.
Multiple bank collapses, a number of them severe, were reported in Okoboji during and immediately following last month’s heavy rain event.
