Breezy Point City Council to provide more guidance on short-term rentals

BREEZY POINT — In its regular meeting Monday, March 6, the Breezy Point City Council further discussed the city’s short-term rental policy.

The council voted to ask staff to bring the ordinance back before the council once 55 of the approved 60 rental licenses have been issued, as well as draft a “best practices” document that can be published on the city website and provided to license holders.

City Administrator David Chanski said rental applications have been “slowly coming in,” with roughly 30 applications received so far.

The decision was made to keep action items regarding the disc golf course expansion off the agenda until the council’s April meeting, as council members Rebecca Ball and Michael Moroni were not in attendance. Mayor Angel Zierden thought the matter should be decided by a full council.

Council member Brad Scott refused to second on approving the agenda at the start of the meeting, hoping to add an item accepting a petition from local property owners to halt construction on the expansion, but Zierden said that with barely a quorum at the meeting, now was “not the time” to decide the expansion’s fate.

“Items on the disc golf course are going to be on the April agenda,” council member Steve Jensen said. “There will be a full public discussion. The email that was received with the letter and the petition that was forwarded to council and can be read in the minutes will be heard and it will be part of public record. I agree that due to the fact we do not have a full council, it is not the appropriate meeting to do it. Your voices have been heard. Your requests for the meeting and being on the agenda will be honored.”

In other action Monday, the council:

• Accepted the resignation of police officer/paramedic Nate Peters, who accepted a position with the Brainerd Police Department. His last day with Breezy Point is Thursday, March 9.
• Agreed to purchase a Dodge Ram 3500 truck from Tanner Motors for $45,780, along with a Rugby aluminum dump body for $18,862.50 and a stainless steel electric drive sander for $10,457 from North Central Bus and Equipment in Mounds View. The city had budgeted $65,000 for a new one-ton truck and $10,000 for a sander, and this is less than 5% over budget.
• Voted to purchase new ear-worn microphones for the city hall chamber from Digital Horizons for $3,872.
• Agreed to change the city’s sewer billing cycle to be at the completion of each quarter rather than at the beginning of the quarter, beginning with the third quarter of this year. Chanski said this will simplify the process on the city’s side of things, as they would have to refund a prorated amount to those who sell their property in the middle of a billing cycle.

In February, the Breezy Point Police Department responded to 253 incidents, an increase of 94 from February 2022. Among the incidents were 151 traffic stops, six traffic arrests and three crashes.
Dan Determan, sports writer/staff writer, may be reached at 218-855-5879 or dan.determan@pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Dan.