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Larkin Hoffman ATTORNEYS April 25, 2007 Mayor and City Council City of Little Canada 515 Little Canada Road E. Little Canada, Minnesota 55117 -1633 Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren Ltd. 1500 Wells Fargo Plaza 7900 Xerxes Avenue South Minneapolis, Minnesota 55431 -1194 GENERAL: 952 - 835 -3800 FAX: 952- 896 -3333 WEB: www.larkinhoffman.com Re: Requests for Approval of Text Amendment and Conditional Use Permits for Valor Enterprises Located at 3167 Spruce Street, Little Canada, Minnesota ( "Property ") Our File #31,576 -00 Dear Mayor and City Council Members: This letter is written on behalf of our client, Valor Enterprises ( "Valor ") in support of the above request. Without going into the long history of use of this Property, Valor has operated an automobile repair and sales business on the Property since April, 2000. In this letter, I will set out the clear legal basis for approval of the above applications. Since last September, when the City Council revoked Valor's Conditional Use Permit(s) ( "CUP ") for outdoor storage and retail auto sales on the Property, the owner of the Property has removed and relocated a number of automobiles to come into compliance with the prior conditions of the CUP. In addition, more recently, the owner has addressed numerous code requirements to allow use and occupancy of the building. He has done so with the understanding that at the conclusion of this process he would have reasonable use of this Property for automobile repair and sales. Under the City's zoning ordinance, "automobile major repair" is listed as a permitted use in the I -1 Light Industrial District. Section 914.020.C. A permitted use is allowed as a matter of right under zoning law. This means that the City cannot condition use of the Property for automobile major repair. It follows that a necessary and accessory use to automobile repair is the parking and storage of automobiles which are scheduled to be repaired, or recently repaired and awaiting pick -up by the automobile's owner. Consequently this permitted use cannot function without parking and storage. Further, auto sales often accompany automobile repair. As a use, automobile sales strengthen the business enterprise allowed as a matter of right in the I -1 District. It is important to note that the following uses are allowed as permitted accessory uses in the I -1 District without need for a CUP: • Parking for company trucks and trailers, limited to 10% of the rear yard; • Off - street truck and trailer loading, as allowed in Section 918.030.D of the I -P District; and • Off - street parking as regulated by Section 903.050 of this Ordinance, and off - street loading is regulated by Section 903.060 of this Ordinance. (See Section 913.030 and Section 910.030.) - 2 0 -