VA 23-02 Lisa Lambrecht vacation

A petition has been filed requesting the vacation of an unbuilt section of NE Lauren Ave. at the western terminus of the existing street. The City is expanding the request to include unbuilt sections of NE Mary Kay Ave. as well. If approved, the vacation will eliminate an existing covenant of deed that was required by a condition of approval for a partition.  

In 2013 the City of Millersburg approved a partition for Lisa Lambrecht that created 3 parcels, two of which were located near the end of NE Lauren Ave.  At the time, NE Lauren Ave. came to a dead end at the property line of the partition. The street was intended to continue west to serve future development west of the Morningstar Subdivision (located adjacent to the petitioner’s property on the east) and further to the west of Ms. Lambrecht’s partition. Actual dedication of the street right-of-way was not required by the City at the time Ms. Lambrecht’s partition was approved. The partition included an easement that assured no structures would be placed in the area that could have been required for a possible future extension of NE Lauren Ave. A condition of approval on the partition required the applicant to enter into a covenant, prior to the map recording, that would allow the City to accept Right-Of-Way (ROW) for NE Lauren Ave should any development west of the partition require such (see attached Planning Commission minutes for July 9, 2013, condition of approval # 4).  The rights afforded to the City in the covenant are equal to dedications of ROW, which is why a vacation is being used to eliminate the covenant.

Though the petition is just for the portion of the covenant that impacts the petitioner’s property, the City is electing to expand the request and vacate all ROW specified in the covenant (see attached draft ordinance with covenant as an exhibit).   The covenant includes requirements for two streets- NE Lauren Ave. and NE Mary Kay Ave.  The covenant required the ROW for both streets to be provided to the City at the time such ROW was needed.  The City has determined that the covenant is no longer required by the City for either street because:

1. For NE Lauren Ave. the development west of the petitioner’s property has already developed and did not need to use NE Lauren Ave. for access.  It is not anticipated that the access from NE Lauren Ave. will be needed for any other properties west of the petitioner’s property due to other constraints, including wetlands and flood plains.  Additionally, the Morningstar Subdivision has two required points of emergency access and does not require NE Lauren Ave. to connect to anything in order to comply with City access requirements. 
2. NE Mary Kay Ave. is different. The West Valley subdivision located to the west of the petitioner’s property included a future connection for NE Mary Kay Ave.  Likewise, the Morningstar Subdivision also included a stub connection for NE Mary Kay Ave. to continue west, someday.  The City would like to see those eventually connect to each other.  The covenant requires the ROW for NE Mary Kay Ave. to be provided to the City when required (similar to NE Lauren Ave.); however, the current Development Code also requires the streets to connect at the time the petitioner’s property is further developed. There is no need or benefit for redundancy between the covenant and the requirements of the Code.   

For these reasons, the petitioner’s request for vacation of a portion of the covenant has been expanded to vacate the entire covenant.