Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By CHARITY SMITH
Bessemer — The Bessemer City Council debated Monday night over granting a variance request to allow Charles and Julie Kopecko permission to expand their storage unit business on U.S. 2.
“We provide a very vital service to the area,” Charles Kopecko told the council. “When people have a need to relocate possessions because they are remodeling their house, or have fire damage, or snow damage caving in their garages, we can supply storage for people for temporary use.”
The Kopeckos have been operating the storage business at 900 West Lead St. since 2000, but due to rezoning in 2011, the property has been legally nonconforming, according to city manager Charly Loper.
The Kopeckos said they requested a variance in order to expand their business by converting their office and garage space into more storage units. Charles Kopecko’s office and garage spaces were rented for just five of the last 20 years.
He said he has had to turn away potential storage unit renters as he simply doesn’t have any available units. The business only makes about $500 profit each year after taxes and fees are met, according to Kopecko, adding the ability to expand his business would allow them to gain revenue.
“It’s two separate issues that we are addressing here from the way I look at it,” said council member Terry Kryshak. “Part of it is adding self storage to the current building, to expand inside that building to have more slots for storage. That to me would be one variance. The second potential variance would be if he wanted to add another structure. To me, that would be something we’d address down the road. You know it’s been used for storage all along. I mean if he has vacancies and he has use, it’s not changing the character of what’s there already. It would just allow him to get more storage spaces inside and maybe pick up a little bit more funds. Personally, I don’t see any issue with that.”
Loper warned the council that if they granted the variance request they would be “essentially allowing self storage anywhere in that district.” She said that if somebody else requests a variance in the same district and it is denied, they could appeal it and the city would have a very poor case because they had expanded legally nonconforming property in this instance.
“I’d like to see the Kopeckos succeed in this, but I personally need a little bit more time to think about this, because we could conceivably have storage units up and down U.S. 2,” said member Linda Nelson. “I’m a little nervous if we have them up and down U.S. 2.”
Mayor Adam Zak pointed out to Nelson that “storage units would collect more tax dollars then a log yard,” as Nelson supported a log yard being erected in an unrelated council action.
“I don’t know how allowing someone to remodel an existing building is basically allowing someone to put up a new storage unit. I don’t know how that is setting a precedent,” he said. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m okay with taking that risk,” he said pointing out that it has been a storage unit “forever,” and they even have a sign in front of it.
The variance passed with only Nelson voting against it. However, the council stipulated that the variance was only to allow them to modify their existing structure. If the Kopeckos wish to build another structure, they would have to come back to the council with a site plan and ask for another variance.
Kryshak thanked the Kopeckos for their honesty in requesting the variance. “They could have just done the remodeling and we’d never known it, because I assumed it was all storage already,” he said.
The council also debated whether or not to allow Deon Corullo of Corullo’s Logging to purchase city lots adjoining his property. Corullo asked the council about purchasing the lots in June and at the time offered the city $5,000 per lot. However, the city council requested that he wait to purchase pending the results of the lot survey the city had in process to evaluate what part of the land was buildable.
Having received the results, Corullo decreased his offer to $3,000 for Lot 6 and only $1,000 for Lot 7, as most of the land has been deemed to be wetlands, and is therefore unbuildable.
Kryshak pointed out that the council was hesitant in part because of the “pretty big” reduction in the offer.
“For $4,000, why would we give up the only lot we have left to put a building on?” Zak asked.
The council tabled Corullo’s purchase request.
The council also:
—Voted to sell all non-commercial lots the city has available, including the old Johnson building at 508 S. Moore St., for $1 with the condition that it be built on within one year. Otherwise sell them for $100 if the purchaser does not wish to build on the land.
—Voted to not have a garbage clean up event this year and instead, voted to not increase the garbage collection price of 31 cents per month for next year. Residents had paid an increased rate of 40 cents per month to help pay for the event. Monies raised via last year’s increase to pay for this year’s event, will be put aside to pay for a garbage cleanup event at a later time.
—Approved selling Xcel two easements for $500 each.
—Congratulated city clerk/treasurer Jim Trudgeon on his pending retirement and approved posting his position for a replacement..
—Approved posting for members of a civil service committee.
