08-14-08 Planning Comm. Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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NORTHWEST ASSOCCATEd CONSULTANTS, INC. 4800 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 202, Golden Valley. MN 55422 Telephone: 763.231.2555 Facsimile: 763.231.2561 planners@nacpla nning.com MEMORANDUM TO: Little Canada Planning Commission FROM: Stephen Grittman DATE: August 8, 2008 RE: Little Canada -Zoning Ordinance Amendment -Storage and Shipping Containers in the I-1 District FILE NO: 758.10 - 08.06 Backaround and Analysis As a part of the update to the Zoning Ordinance, the City accelerated consideration of the I-1 Zoning District (Section 914) to accommodate a moratorium that had been established regulating outdoor storage facilities. Upon adoption of the new Section 914, the moratorium was lifted, and property owners brought new Conditional Use Permit requests to the City for outdoor storage under the revised regulations. One of these requests was from On-Site Air Temp, a facility on Woodlyn Avenue that provides compressed air equipment. On-Site, along with their tenant, has been maintaining eight storage/shipping containers on their property. Their outdoor storage CUP request is to accommodate these containers. The ordinance that was adopted allows outdoor storage to consume up to 60% of a lot (depending on many factors), and established a maximum limit of four such containers as a component of a property's outdoor storage allotment. At the Planning Commission meeting in July, the Planning Commission recommended approval of a variance to allow On-Site to utilize up to eleven containers, estimated to occupy about 5% of the site. The City Council tabled action on the variance due to concerns about hardship, but agreed to consider an amendment to the I-1 District that would evaluate the allowance for storage/shipping containers in a different way. The current language limits any industrial property to a maximum of 4 containers. An alternative suggested by On-Site was to use a percentage, such as 5%, as a threshold. Staff has been reluctant to create a percentage just over issues related to enforcement.