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City of Falcon Heights Memorandum DATE: 24 February 1995 TO: Planning Commissioners FROM: Susan Hoyt, City Administrato RE: Discussion on zoning for stores that sell firearms Introduction. The city currently has a commercial development moratorium on stores that sell firearms. The moratorium restricts the city from issuing a business license to any store that sells firearms until the moratorium expires on September 30, 1995. The purpose of the moratorium is to allow the planning commission and city council time to determine the most appropriate way for the city to zone for stores that sell firearms prior to permitting such a use to locate in the city, possibly in what may later be determined as an undesirable location. Although the city council approved an extension of the commercial development moratorium until September 30, 1995, its legal limit, to deal with this issue, the council encouraged the planning commission to make its recommendation to the city council by May of this year. Background Over the past two years, the planning commission studied and made recommendations to the city council on how to handle a variety of uses that were not included in the city's zoning code. These included adult uses, secondhand stores, pawn shops and precious metal dealers. The planning commission asked the staff to continue to study alternatives for how to deal with the use -stores that sell firearms. Attorney's comments. Most municipal regulation of firearms is specifically preempted by Minnesota Statute S 4471.633. In 1993 the Minnesota Legislature passed Minnesota Statute S 471.635 which provides in relevant part: Notwithstanding Section 471.633, a governmental subdivision may regulate by reasonable, nondiscriminatory and nonarbitrary zoning ordinances, the location of businesses where firearms are sold by a firearms dealer. For the purposes of this section, a firearms dealer is a person who is federally licensed to sell 1