FAQ

The petition will be presented to the City Council at its next regular meeting, when the City Council will decide whether to repeal the ordinance or to reaffirm it. If it is reaffirmed, a referendum vote on the ordinance will be scheduled for a future special or regular election. The City Council meeting is at 7:00 pm on November 15 and will be held in the council chambers at Crystal City Hall, 4141 Douglas Drive N.

The full text of the ordinance is available online and in person for public inspection in the office of the City Clerk during the City's regular business hours. Each canvassing petitioner will have a copy of the ordinance and can answer any questions that you may have or get you further information as needed.

Some reasons to repeal this ordinance are:

• Decisions for fundamental and consequential changes belong to the VOTERS

• The Planning Commission unanimously recommended the denial of the UDC amendments, with the exception of allowing vehicle sales by Premier Auto.

• Public safety, health, and welfare are compromised. These changes hinder emergency (e.g. fire, ambulance) response and create on-scene difficulties, costing precious LIFE SAVING MINUTES.

• The ordinance allows 12-foot alleys to be treated similar to 30-foot improved public streets, creating issues of safety, nuisance, and community impact. Alleys are not streets and should not be used as if they were.

• Power is being removed from THE PEOPLE, giving Zoning Administrator more authority for potentially adverse decisions.

• At residents' expense, and for the sake of development, some changes expand and empower developers' ability to more readily construct undesirable projects.

• Reduces level of review, allowing open-ended zoning certificates, site plan approvals, and conditional use permits. If a project cannot proceed in a timely manner, it is probably a bad project.

• Conformity and lot requirements are lowered to promote undesirable development.

• Access and alleys are redefined in an adverse and consequential way with respect to safety and community impact.

• Allows for substandard garages, shortened lot dimensions, and adjacent houses to face different directions.

• City Staff is misrepresenting the need for and denying the negative impact of many of these UDC changes.

• Allows property ownership split without normal review or approval (i.e. "condominiumizing")

This case is Court File No. 27-CV-21-11918 of the Hennepin County District Court. We have posted the court's decision here. You can also find the case online by following these steps:

1. Navigate to https://publicaccess.courts.state.mn.us/CaseSearch.

2. Select "Case Number".

3. In the "Enter Case Number" field, enter 27-CV-21-11918.

4. Click on "View Case Details".

5. To view the judgement, find "Order Granting Motion #24", dated 04/28/2022 and click the "View Document" button.

Certain powers are reserved by THE PEOPLE in Crystal's City Charter.

Section 5.01 Powers Reserved by the People:

“The people of the city reserve to themselves the power, in accordance with the provisions of this charter (a) to initiate and adopt ordinances, except ordinances appropriating money or authorizing the levy of taxes, and (b) to require ordinances, except ordinances appropriating money or authorizing the levy of taxes, enacted by the council to be referred to the voters of the city for approval. These powers are the initiative and referendum, respectively.”

When the referendum petition with residents’ signatures is filed with the City Clerk, the City Council must either repeal the ordinance or submit the ordinance to the voters.

Any registered voter who resides in Crystal can sign the petition.

You can go to https://mnvotes.sos.state.mn.us/VoterStatus.aspx to determine whether you are a registered voter.