Sauk Rapids Passes Beefed Up Rental Property Limits

(KNSI) – The Sauk Rapids City Council on Monday night passed a beefed up ordinance to limit the number of rental properties in the city.

Community Development Director Todd Schultz says staff wanted to make sure that there wouldn’t be a cluster of rental properties in parts of the city that have larger than normal blocks. “Cities typically are laid out in a grid pattern, and ours is no different than that, except for we have a lot of wetlands over here in Sauk Rapids, and so those wetlands dictate, ultimately, where people can build houses, and it creates, in some cases, some very long, irregular shaped blocks.”

Where the city resembles a traditional grid, there might be 10 houses per block. In the irregular blocks, that number could grow to 60 or 70 houses. The prior limit was 15 percent of a block could be rental properties. The new motion adds that rental properties have to be 250 feet apart from each other.

Schultz says this was a case where the city was being proactive. The first limit on rental properties was passed in December. The new restriction is not based on trends the city had seen since then. “I don’t think anybody thought that there was, in a six-month or one-year, or even a two- or three-year period of time, that there was going to be this huge issue to rent a whole bunch of properties in a very small area. But I think the thought was more over a longer period of time, that that could ultimately happen.”

Sauk Rapids requires single-family home lots to be at least 75 feet wide. The new ordinance would mean rentals would be two to three lots apart at a minimum. The vote was 3-0 with one member not absent. Two realtors spoke against the measure during the public hearing.

In other action, the council approved a second cannabis business. Cultivating Knowledge would be located in the same industrial park as Uncle Hippie’s Cannabis. Both are focused on wholesale operations. They grow and develop their own cannabis before selling the stock to retailers, who would then deal with consumers.

A cannabis related moratorium was passed as part of the consent agenda. In addition to the two businesses approved, a third has an application making its way through the system. Staff want time to see if additional controls related to odor or other issues are needed before more applications come up for a vote.

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