08-28-2002 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Nl'alI' 1 /ULT A4S3QcilialtE4 N UJ TlAt4 l,, 5775 Wayzata Boulevard, Suite 555, St. Louis Park, MN 55416 Telephone: 952.595.9636 Facsimile: 952.595.9837 planners @nacplanning.com MEMORANDUM TO: Little Canada Planning Commission FROM: Stephen Grittman DATE: August 6, 2002 RE: FILE NO: Little Canada — Text Amendment and Conditional Use Permit for Retail Automobile Sales Lot 758.09 - 02 29 Background and Analysis Allegiance Financial Group has applied for an amendment to the text of the Zoning Ordinance relating to the allowance for motor vehicle sales lots. The applicant provides sales and leasing of equipment and requires a dealer's license from the State of Minnesota. That license requires that the licensee has an office and adequate display area for 5 vehicles. The applicant proposes to lease office space in the office - warehouse building at 2925 Country Drive. He would then occupy 5 parking spaces as his display area. There are two aspects to this request that require special attention. The zoning ordinance has a provision that allows the City to issue no more than 4 motor vehicle sales lot permits at any one time. Moreover, the same ordinance requires that the sales lot be associated with a principal building of at least 1,000 square feet of floor area. At the current time, all four eligible permits are in effect in the City, and the applicant would be leasing less than 1,000 square feet of space. As such, he is requesting an amendment to the Conditional Use Permit provisions to waive these clauses. The applicant notes that he would not actually occupy the permitted spaces since he maintains other storage or sales lot locations outside of the City of Little Canada. Essentially, he would lease the space to meet the requirements of the state, but the outdoor spaces would remain empty. To accommodate this request, the zoning ordinance would need to be amended to read as follows: