Everything got done that needed to be done
by Bill Knowles
TRINIDAD — The shortest city council meeting of the year, lasting just 18 minutes and 21 seconds, showed the Trinidad City Council does indeed know what brevity is. Even with two council members, Anthony Mattie and Liz Torres, absent, voting on action items and approval items such as the approval of the minutes from the Oct. 6, 2015 meeting moved quickly.
The longest portion of the meeting came when City Administrator Gabriel Engeland read a letter from businessman Sean Sheridan.
In the letter, Sheridan argued his “pot mini mall” business should be allowed to proceed, because he received his Conditional Use Permit (CUP) last July. At the time, city code permitted the establishment of multiple retail outlets (mini mall) in a single building. It was not until the passage of Ordinance 1900 in September 2015 that the pot mini-mall model became illegal. Because he received approval for multiple outlets prior to the passage of Ordinance 1900, his business and properties should be “grandfathered” in under a legal non-conforming status, in according to city code.
Section 14-04 of the code states: “Certain uses of land and buildings may be found to be in existence at the time of passage of the Zoning Ordinance which do not meet the requirements as set forth herein. It is the intent of this Section to allow the continuance of such nonconforming use…”
Accordingly, this would allow for Sheridan’s properties to be “grandfathered” in. Under city definition, “grandfathered” is legal non-conformance, or a property that at one time conformed to city codes but currently doesn’t because of rule change or regulation change. The rule change that brought Sheridan’s buildings into non-conformity was Ordinance 1900.
The city passed an ordinance, 5-0, on second reading, to change the zoning of a business at 1133 N. Linden Avenue, in Trinidad from established-low density residential to established neighborhood services.
The city also renewed, with a 5-0 vote, the city’s health insurance coverage for 2016.
The city voted 5-0 to go into executive session at 7:17 pm. It adjourned shortly after they came out of the session with no action taken by the city council.
