| The Chair also expressed concern about the sentence that says, "the owner |
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| may amend the covenants herein only by written approval of the City of |
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| Rochester Hills and its Planning Commission." He would encourage |
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| adding language so that it states, "the owner and future owners of the |
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| herein described property, only by written approval...." He suggested |
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| replacing the words, "the City of Rochester Hills," with either "the Mayor of |
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| Rochester Hills" or "the City Council of Rochester Hills and/or the Planning |
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| Commission" or something more specific than just the City of Rochester |
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| The Chair said there seems to be some contradiction with the request for |
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| Conditional Land Use Approval for the property to be used as a cemetery |
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| and at the same time they are creating documents that state, "not to be |
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| used as cemetery." He said part of that problem may or may not relate to |
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| the assessment of taxes on that property that's being reserved for wildlife |
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| habitat. He asked Ms. Goodwin if she would comment on the research she |
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| did regarding the conversation with Kurt Dawson, the City Assessor. |
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| Ms. Goodwin said she asked Kurt Dawson if the land use for the wildlife |
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| habitat area was designated for cemetery, would that determine whether |
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| that 23-acre parcel is taxable or could he base his decision on other factors |
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| such as the requirement that the parcel can not be used as cemetery. He |
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| said that, conditioned upon concurrence with the city attorney, if the wildlife |
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| habitat is designated as a part of the cemetery, and is owned, occupied, |
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| and used like a common area or park similar to an open space area that |
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| would be platted with a subdivision that is not intended as a buildable site, |
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| and that it were further restricted by a special land use approval, that this |
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| would be a factor in his determination that the parcel would be exempt from |
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| assessment. He indicated further that some of the other factors that would |
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| be involved in that decision would be the natural features of the site. He is |
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| aware that this particular site has a substantial amount of regulated |
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| wetlands and would therefore limit the development potential for the |
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| property. The main thing that he would base his consideration of an |
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| exemption on would be the restriction by the Planning Commission and/or |
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| the City Council through the Special Land Use approval and pursuant to a |
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| site plan approval by the Planning Commission. |
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