09-28-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Corporate Office 1200 Highway 13 East, Burnsville, MN 55337 952-894-0894 August 26, 2016 City Planner Little Canada, MN Re: Application for Conditional Use Permit or Planned Unit Development Tri-State Bobcat is seeking approval to make major improvements to the site at 71 Minnesota Avenue in Little Canada in order to relocate its current operation from 3101 Spruce Street in Little Canada. We have done similar improvements in relocating our facilities in Burnsville and Hudson, WI. Our goal in making these moves is to develop a beautiful, state of the art facility which improves the appeal and economic vitality of the area where there used to be an eyesore. We completely upgrade the facility inside and out, add fencing and landscaping and install attractive lighting and signage in order to blend in with the surrounding area. We sell, rent and service compact construction equipment and as a result we have a significant number of machines on site but we will do everything possible to create barriers so the equipment is not visible from the surrounding area. Our customer base is mostly business to business but we also cater to residential customers but the traffic is far less than a typical retail business and we are not open evenings and open only Saturday morning on the weekend. Highlights of our development plan 1. Complete remodel of interior with 20% of the area being showroom, 35% will be shop (service), 12% will be parts, 13% offices and restrooms and 20% backroom storage. 2. Improvements to the exterior will be major. We will add significant brick and glass to the south and west sides of the building. Entries will be highlighted with stone walls, decorative lighting and new entry canopies. The rest of the building will be painted grey to blend in better with the environment. Decorative landscaping will be installed along the front of the building. 3. Metal screen fencing between brick piers will be installed to hide the entire outdoor storage area. Landscaping and trees will be planted at the two property entrances on Minnesota Avenue and on the island in the parking lot seperating customer parking from the equipment delivery and return area. We propose adding to the existing buffer on the east side of the property by planting more trees. 4. Our hours of operation will be 7:30 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, and 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday. Since we won’t have extended hours and we are not primarily a retail operation, traffic to and from our facility will be much less than previous users of this property. The west entry to the site accesses a parking lot for customers visiting our showroom and parts department. The east entry accesses a separate lot for equipment delivery and return and will have more limited use.