Have You Heard About the Positive Charge?
The Positive Charge, backed by Brainerd Rotary, will be hosting a photo-based community project.
This project can only be a success if we have help from many people throughout the community. People just like you.

Please take a second to check out the Facebook page for more information on how to get involved. Let’s put a GREAT face on the Brainerd Lakes Area and show the world just how awesome we really can be.

This is a way to show what the Brainerd Lakes Area means to you.. no business names, no brands, no logos; only you.

Proposed Land Use Changes Could have a Major Effect on Your Lakeshore Property

Proposal in Crow Wing County may Cause a Statewide Ripple Effect

February 18, 2011- Proposed changes to Crow Wing County’s Land Use Ordinance threaten property values for homeowners and may have significant impact on the tourism and real estate industries in the Brainerd Lakes Area of Minnesota. Proponents of the ordinance also view the Ordinance as a model for other counties to follow statewide.

The ordinance proposes significant changes in approved size, location and materials for structures along lakeshores in Crow Wing County. Existing lots and buildings that do not meet the proposed ordinance regulations are in danger of stricter regulations in the future regarding property improvements and expansions.

The Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS® President Kevin Goedker says, “The proposed ordinance will have a significant impact on uses, lots and structures that were created and built legally under prior zoning ordinances.”

The proposed ordinance is also too restrictive in how it would regulate impervious surfaces. Under the current proposal the definition of an “impervious area” is “[a] constructed hard surface that prevents or retards entry of water into the soil and causes water to run off the surface in greater quantities and at an increased rate of flow than prior to development, including rooftops; decks; sidewalks; patios; parking lots; storage areas; concrete, asphalt, or gravel driveways; and other similar surfaces”. Goedker says the county “should provide better scientific support for any change in the current regulations including an actual assessment of how impervious surfaces relate to the water quality of our lakes and streams.” The Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS® also believes dimension regulations on impervious surfaces need more clarification.

Owners of nonconforming lots would also be required to obtain variances for any expansion or development. “Homeowners and businesses have made substantial investments in their properties,” Goedker says. “They should be able to invest in and improve those properties without having to present a variance application and satisfy highly stringent standards.” Under the proposed Ordinance, lots that were previously legally nonconforming will require a variance for limited structural expansions. It will also require that these variances be submitted and approved before April 1, 2013.

Tourism and lake home residents have a significantly positive impact on the economy in the Brainerd Lakes Area – these proposals would hurt the industry, since fewer people may choose the area for tourism and lake home purchases.

The Crow Wing County Planning Commission will be holding a Public Hearing on February 22, 2011 at 5:00 pm in the County Board Room on the Third Floor of the Historic Courthouse at 326 Laurel Street Brainerd, MN 56401 to hear proposed revisions to the Zoning Ordinance.

The Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS® is located in Baxter, Minnesota. The Association is made up of REALTORS® and Affiliates who service Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Todd Counties and Wadena Counties.

The owner’s policy protects you from hidden hazards that can emerge after closing.

Some examples of hazards include: A forged signature on a deed, an unknown heir of a previous owner who is claiming ownership to the property, and mistakes in the public records.

Tile insurance offers financial protection against title hazards by defending the insured by either perfecting the title or by a monetary pay out. What is different about an owner’s policy than other insurance is that it is only a one time charge at closing. Please call your title company if you have any questions about title insurance.

Please find the response the GLAR REALTORS have provided to Crow Wing County in regards to the proposed ordinance.

“We encourage you to share this information with anyone you feel may be interested and suggest providing comments to the County prior to December 20, 2010.“

Crow Wing County – Ordinance Letter & Recommendations – 12/17/2010
Crow Wing County – Ordinance Letter 12/17/2010 – detailed explanation
Crow Wing County – Ordinance Letter – 12/17/2010 Appendix 1
Crow Wing County – Ordinance Letter – 12/17/2010 – Appendix 2

For more information on the ordinance revisions please see our official post on the 2010 Land Ordinance Revisions.

Foreclosures are something we need to talk about. Friends, family, and neighbors or someone you know quite possibly is faced with impending financial troubles. This video is a great way to educate others on the Foreclosure process in Minnesota and, if nothing more, be clear on what to expect. Because sometimes the not-knowing is unbearable.
MinnesotaFaceofForeclosure.com has an excellent video on Minnesota Foreclosures.

Talking Points:

* Foreclosure Process

* Resources & Who to Turn To

* Foreclosure Counseling

* Additional Tools

SEMAR Presentation Minnesota Foreclosure Slideshow

Minnesota Foreclosure Overview

Brainerd’s current Housing Affordability Index score is a promising 168. While this is good news for the area, the rest of September’s data was nothing to get excited about. Twelve new listings went on the market during this September, as compared to twenty-seven during last September. Eleven sales were closed during the month, while twenty-six sales were closed during this month in 2009. The average sales price for this September was $87,930, which was down seventeen percent from last September’s average of $105,878.

While new listings and closed sales were down over fifty percent for the month from last September, looking at the year to date statistics for the Brainerd housing market paints a much less gloomy picture. While new listings are down from 274 in 2009 to 265 in 2010, this is only a 3.3% decrease. Although closed sales are down 12.9% from last year, the average sales price for the Brainerd market is only down 5.6%. The average sales price in 2009 was $92,235, while it’s currently $87,086 for 2010. And on a truly positive note, the percent of original list price received at sale is up 1.3% from 2009.

Crow Wing County Zoning Ordinance Revisions

To: All Interested Parties
From: Chris Pence, Land Services Supervisor
Date: November 17, 2010
Re: Public Information Meetings – Zoning Ordinance Revisions

You are invited to attend a Public Information Meeting being held on Tuesday November 23, 2010 in Meeting Rooms 1 and 2 in the Land Services Building at 322 Laurel Street Brainerd, MN 56401.

A morning session will be held from 9:00 am to 11:00 am and an afternoon session from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. It is requested that you RSVP to Vickie Sullivan at (218) 824-1298 or vickie.sullivan@co.crow-wing.mn.us by Monday November 22, 2010.

The intent of the Public Hearing Meetings will be to make clear to the public the proposed Zoning Ordinance revisions. These meetings will provide the public the necessary information to submit comments to the county regarding the proposed ordinance revision. These meetings are not intended to discuss why certain ordinance revisions are being proposed but to explain the Zoning Ordinance revisions. All comments regarding the ordinance revision will be reserved for the comment period and the public hearings before the Planning Commission and County Board of Commissioners.

Written comments on the proposed changes will be accepted until December 20th, and may be submitted to the Land Services Department at: environmental.services@co.crow‐wing.mn.us or 322 Laurel Street, Suite 14, Brainerd, MN 56401.

The ordinance revisions, which are part of the County’s Future Land Use Map Project, can be viewed on the County website at www.co.crow‐wing.mn.us. All submitted comments will become part of the official file and will be forwarded to policy-makers. After the comment period deadline, county staff will compile and analyze the public comments over a 30- to 60-day period. A public hearing then will be held before the Crow Wing County Planning Commission. Following any action or recommendation by the Planning Commission, the Crow Wing County Board then would host a final public hearing before taking action on proposed revisions.

Please contact the Land Services Department at (218) 824-1125 to discuss any questions or concerns about the Zoning Ordinance revision process.

If stunning sunsets through a canopy of towering pines sound like something you’d be interested in, then you’re in luck!

We just listed a fantastic lot on Lake Margaret, part of the highly sought after Gull Chain of Lakes.

The lot is about an acre in size, and has 132+ feet of frontage on the quiet south end of Lake Margaret.

The lot is mostly cleared and ready to be built on; there’s even a complete set of architectural plans designed around this piece of property that can be purchased.

You will enjoy easy access to the entire Gull Chain, and a convenient location close to world class golf courses, great restaurants, and everything else that comes with living in the Brainerd Lakes Area.

If this sounds like something that you’d be interested in, please call us today at (218) 829-6233 or send an email to info@lakehome.com.

I attended a meeting at the Greater Lakes association of Realtors building on Tuesday this week to hear the proposed Crow Wing County Land Use Ordinance revisions.

Key point:

The massive overhaul of this document, 245 of 265 (92%) of the pages in the Ordinance have revisions with many of the pages entirely re-written. This will be put into place at the end of 2010 unless we do something.  There are some major changes. We were told with these changes being made that Crow Wing County will be the most restrictive county in the state. November 19th is the last day for the public to comment.

Examples of what the changes could effect:

1. This will put a large number of existing  homes in Crow Wing County in Non-Compliance. This would require a variance for something as simple adding on to your deck or building a patio.
2. Under Proposed Changes

100 x 300 Lakeshore Lot in Crow Wing County = 30,000 sq ft. X the proposed 15% impervious= 4500 sqft of usable coverage

After you put a driveway in and a 3 car garage there would be room for a 1236 sqft house.

The summary of these changes are on Page 3 of the Crow Wing County News Letter – Link Below.

http://www.co.crow-wing.mn.us/planning___zoning/docs/Public_Comment_on_Zoning_Ordinance_Revisions.pdf

From GLAR president Kevin Geodker:

We had a very informative meeting Tuesday with Chris Pence from Crow Wing County regarding the proposed Land Ordinance revisions. It is my thought, and I felt the majority or attendees, that the 265 proposed ordinance revision requires further review than the limit of November 19, 2010, http://www.co.crow-wing.mn.us/planning___zoning/docs/Crow_Wing_County__Ordinance_Working_Draft__10_11_10_Version.pdf.

Therefore, look for a “Call to Action” from the Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS, requesting that you provide your request, whether to extend the timeframe or not, very soon. I would also expect the Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS Board of Directors to take a position regarding whether we need more time or not. Our responsibility is to inform our members and clients and to do what is in their best interest.

Also, the session was recorded by video (approximately 1 hour) and we hope to have that available to share as soon as possible.

I have attached an e-mail received from Brent Gunsbury, regarding his thoughts on yesterday’s meeting. I appreciate the Builders Association’s participation and feel we need to partner with them on this effort.

I have prepared a rough draft of a possible letter that can be sent to our elected officials, (see below).

This is in regards to a meeting I attended this last Tuesday. We are trying to spread the word to the people of Crow County so they know what changes are going to be made and how it will impact them and there property values.

————

Key points taken from Brent Gunsbery on the recap of the meeting:

As I indicated the presentation from Chris Pence (majority of talking was
done by him) and John Sumption yesterday at GLAR was interesting to say the
least.

Key points:

1. Meeting lasted 1 hour. Approx. 30 people attended with Kevin Goedker, Pres. of GLAR, giving the opening and closing remarks. Majority of it was Chris skimming over their 1-page Summary of Changes.

2. Overall Land Services Dept./County goals per Chris are:
a. Resource protection.
b. Proper planning/lot size … reasonable development.

3. Overall reasons for Ordinance changes given were:
a. Fix the ambiguities.
b. Move towards a performance-based model with balance.

4. No statistical evidence was presented to support the reasons for any of these changes. At last week’s Regional Business Council Chris did reference a study done 24 years ago in Maine for the proposed stormwater changes.

5. No meaningful studies or data that is Crow Wing County-specific has been presented to support dropping the impervious coverage from 25% to 15%, pushing back septic systems another 25 feet off the lake when they already have to be 50 feet off the lake, or any other proposed changes.

6. When asked, “What would it take to extend the deadline out for public comment?” Chris answered that the powers that be, Mark Liedl and Tim Houle, don’t want to change the Nov. 19th date in part because they haven’t heard from enough people asking for this.

7. One question asked was, “Has the economic impact of these changes been looked at yet?” Answer was “no, it hasn’t.”

8. Another question was, “Why can’t we have the impervious be put at 20% and allow 5% more with a storm water plan similar to the way other municipalities do it?” Answer was…Chris isn’t the one who’ll make these
final decisions so he really didn’t answer it.

9. Virtually all in the audience supported extending the timeline for when comments will be taken.

Personal Perspective:

1. The views of the Land Services Department, DNR and PCA to some extent, and environmentalists appear to be represented well with this document.

2. The views of landowners, builders, Realtors, and everyone impacted by these changes have not been taken into account.. and it’s these groups who are affected the most.

3. The massive overhaul of this document, 245 of 265 (92%) of the pages in the Ordinance have revisions with many of the pages entirely re-written, were done in a vacuum which is sad to see but consistent with many of Mark Liedl’s initiatives.

4. The longer we wait to mobilize the worse off we’ll be.

———

Please check out the link to the Crow Wing County website noted above to show what changes are proposed. We have till November 19th.

—

Kevin Geodker passed this on to me so we know who to contact to ask for more time for the public to review the changes, see below.

In order to be allowed more time for review, Chris Pence (chris.pence@co.crow-wing.mn.us) stated that we need to convince the “Powers that Be”, which he stated as Mark Liedl – Land Services Director (mark.liedl@co.crow-wing.mn.us) and Tim Houle – Crow Wing County Administrator (tim.houle@co.crow-wing.mn.us).

I believe it would behoove us to also contact the Planning Commission members and the Crow Wing County Commissioners.  The fact is, the Crow Wing County Commissioners have the ultimate and final say, as they are our elected officials.  This shouldn’t be staff driven.

We will provide all of our information to all of our members, to also share with their clients, with a “Call to Action” as soon as possible.

Crow Wing County Commissioners:

Phil Trusty – phil.trusty@co.crow-wing.mn.us

Paul Thiede – paul.thiede@co.crow-wing.mn.us

Rachel Nystrom – Rachel.nystrom@co.crow-wing.mn.us

Rosemary Franzen – rosemary.franzen@co.crow-wing.mn.us

Doug Houge – doug.houge@co.crow-wing.mn.us

Planning Commission / Board of Adjustment members: (unable to find e-mail addresses)

Caren Bedard                                    Michael Dubay

108 Belle Rae Circle                           34115 Birch Trail

Brainerd MN 56401                           Pequot Lakes MN 56472

James Belfiori                                     Mark Haglin

24050 Hwy 6 North                             14952 Three Mile Rd

Crosby MN 56441                              Brainerd MN 56401

Rock Yliniemi                                      Don Hales

5052 White Sand Rd                          15596 Woodland Beach Ln

Baxter MN 56425                               Deerwood MN 56444

This article was brought to us by the MN Association of Realtors President, Russ Portele. I think this presents an accurate picture of what is really happening in many of our communities.

It is not all doom and gloom as much of the media portrays, however, he does acknowledge the fact that we are still experiencing challenges. The key takeaways I garnered from this piece is that many markets appear to have stabilized (no longer declining), home prices are extremely affordable and interest rates are at a 50 year low, key factors that indicate we will trend in a positive direction in 2011.

September housing activity finished the 3rd quarter with some sluggish yet promising numbers. Most housing statistics remain level with either small increases or modest growth being more likely than losses.

This is a typical model for most market recoveries where prices move slightly up or down until the recovery is fully underway. it is also a promising sign for an industry which has weathered almost 4 years of declining activity.

“Although we’re not moving up in all markets, we are seeing an increasing number of communities maintaining values or moving up slightly,” said Russ Portele, President of the Minnesota Association of REALTORS®. “

After a string of consecutive property losses, residential values have been stabilizing and showing positive movement as we approach 2011. Affordability is the most positive indicator for the upcoming 2011 residential marketplace. Historically low interest rates, moderated home values and improving wages make home ownership a very affordable option.

“Minnesota homes have not been this affordable since the Housing Affordability Index (HAI) was created in 1971,” said Portele. “Low interest rates and stabilizing home prices have given qualified buyers more opportunities to own real estate than at any time during the past 50 years.”

HAI measures the amount of household income necessary to qualify for a median priced home. In most Minnesota markets, households have more than twice the annual income required to purchase a median priced home. Median priced home means the mid-point with as many homes selling above as below that price point.

Economists consider an HAI of 120 – meaning a household has 120% of the income necessary to qualify for a median priced home – an affordable housing market. In Minnesota’s largest housing markets, the HAI is above 200, meaning that household income is twice as high as it needs to be to qualify for a median priced home.

“Home prices are once again in line with household incomes. Historically low interest rates are making housing opportunities very affordable for many who thought home ownership was not possible,” said Portele. “For those interested in buying a home for their family, we now appear to be at the bottom of this housing cycle and future increases to the interest rate will make housing opportunities much more difficult in the future.”