07-28-2004 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Neighboring communities were surveyed to understand how these uses are treated in their zoning regulations. There are three basic ways that firearms sales are treated, The most common treatment is to allow firearms sales as an accessory use to other retail sales, similar to Little Canada's practice. In some of these communities, the accessory use was subject to a separate Conditional Use Permit, while in others, the accessory use was permitted without additional zoning review. For other communities, firearms sales are allowed as a principal use of property, usually in a specific zoning district, rather that generally throughout the Cities' commercial areas. The most common allowance for principal uses is by Conditional Use Permit, although a few allow gun stores as permitted uses. Finally, one community (Falcon Heights) reported allowing gun stores in a manner similar to the regulation of sexually oriented businesses. In Falcon Heights, gun stores must be located only in areas that meet a specific separation distance from sensitive uses, such as residential areas, parks, schools, or churches. The City of Minneapolis, which has had extensive issues related to gun sales, also uses the separation concept in its ordinance. Additional information related to Minneapolis' experience is attached. 2. Sheriff's Department Recommendations. The Sheriff has several recommendations for any firearms retail store, but did not offer an opinion as to whether the City should or should not consider this use. The recommendations relate to security of the store itself, security of goods inside the store, and reporting of sales and other information. Zoning regulations. Cities regulate gun sales in several different ways, as discussed above. It appears to be an open question as to whether a City may prohibit gun sales altogether. As noted, Little Canada does not prohibit gun sales, but rather, regulates such sales by requiring that they are only an accessory use of a commercial property, rather than a principal use. The City can restrict various uses to specific zoning districts, and it can impose reasonable restrictions on the locations of such uses, such as the separation distances required by the Falcon Heights and Minneapolis ordinances. Minneapolis' ordinance is currently subject to litigation, based primarily on the position that the ordinance's separation requirements leave little or no opportunity area for gun store locations. We have attached a newspaper article about that lawsuit. It is also noted that used gun sales requires a second hand goods dealer's license in Little Canada. If the City wishes, it may further codify the current practice, which is to allow gun sales as an accessory use. If this track is chosen, any of several regulatory requirements could be added. These could include the security and reporting recommendations of the Sheriff, and more explicit definition of what it would mean to be an accessory use. The other options would be to require a Conditional Use Permit for the accessory use, or add the use