The Dickinson City Commission met Tuesday, Sept. 21, at City Hall during its regularly scheduled meeting to approve four ordinances that would amend the city code. Planning Director Walter Hadley and city attorney Christina Wenko presented the four ordinances — 1726 through 1729 — to the commission during the public hearing.

The commission unanimously approved the first reading of Ordinance 1726 of Chapter 39, which allows for wireless telecommunication facilities in the public right-of-way.

“It’s kind of a new option for the cell companies to provide that service. It’s regulated by the FCC — a lot of it,” Hadley said. “And so we’ve had a couple of workshops and then also public hearings for the Planning Commission. No general public input on it. The Planning Commission did recommend approval of this… It does allow (for) installations within our public right-of-way, which right now we don’t currently allow.”

Wenko added that Ordinance 1726 is necessary for the City of Dickinson moving forward.

“There is a major push for this. We get requests all the time from the North Dakota Department of Transportation to sign agreements with regard to these facilities,” Wenko said, explaining, “We are in the technology era, so we’re going to see more of these and I think it’s very important that the city has something on the books that we’re able to regulate these to some degree.”

The Planning Commission hosted several workshops on adult entertainment ordinances, including public hearings Hadley said, adding that there was no opposition from the public.

“This is an amendment to clean up our existing code. You can see there’s amendments to Chapter 3 and Chapter 39… what it does is any adult entertainment as defined would be allowed in the limited industrial and industrial zones, with a special use permit granted by the Planning Commission and yourselves (city commission),” Hadley said during the commission meeting.

Ordinance 1727 would specifically allows for adult entertainment in those zoning districts, Wenko added.

The commission also unanimously approved a task order with KLJ Engineering, LLC., for the professional services consisting of preliminary engineering, design, bidding and construction administration with the Dickinson 2022 Mill and Overlay project. This task order is set to not exceed $175,000, which is “a conservative amount based on last year’s budget,” city documents attest.

According to city documents, this project will follow a similar process as in 2020 with a presentation to the commission on potential areas to include. These areas would be based upon need, future work cited for areas and budget.

“Additionally, we intend to create a Special Improvement District for assessments pertaining to needed concrete work, following similar guidelines as the last two mill and overlay projects,” city documents outlined.

City attorney Christina Wenko addresses the public and Dickinson City Commission during its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021, at City Hall, discussing a few different ordinances that would allow for more adult entertainment establishments within certain zoning districts in the city. (Jackie Jahfetson / The Dickinson Press)

The next Dickinson City Commission is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5. The City of Dickinson announced that it will have a special commission meeting, or a joint zoning transitional meeting, beginning at 7:10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6, at City Hall, where a quorum of the Dickinson City Commission could be in attendance to discuss the 2-mile City of Dickinson ETZ Expansion. As stated on the city’s website, “it is not expected that any City of Dickinson business will be discussed collectively by the Board of City Commissioners.”