09-08-1982 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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NORTHWEST ASSOCIATED CONSULTANTS INC. MEMORANDUM TO: Little Canada Mayor and City Council FROM: Brad Nielsen DATE: 10 May 1982 RE: Rice Street Signs FILE NO: 758.09 (82.07) Recent calls from businessmen whose signs are affected by the Rice Street Improvement Project have indicated that the State has advised them to remove their signs by 20 May 1982. We contacted the Minnesota Department of Trans- portation to verify the deadline for vacation of the right -of -way. We were informed that the State will take title to the right -of -way on 24 May 1982. Affected property owners then have 30 days to vacate the property. The State will send out notices to this effect in the near future. Although the Council stated that all variances necessitated by the Rice Street Improvement Project would be handled on a case by case basis, there seems to be a feeling that the property owners on Rice Street should not have to go through formal variance procedures. If the Council is inclined to take all the variances in a group, the following comments and suggestions should be con- sidered regarding freestanding signs. The sign regulations in the Zoning Ordinance primarily control three aspects of signs - size and height, location and number of signs. When we inspected the signs on Rice Street, it was noted that most, if not all, of the affected signs on Rice Street will require some sort of variance to be relocated. For the most part, the variances involve location of the sign. The sign regula- tions currently require a setback of 15 feet from the property line and five feet from any parking area. These requirements have proven to be somewhat unworkable, not only for the Rice Street area, but for the entire City. As mentioned in the past, we are suggesting an amendment to the Ordinance to allow freestanding signs within five feet of a property line. Signs could also be located in or near parking areas as long as the sign did not take up required parking space. A draft of this amendment has been attached to this report for your review. Size of signs on Rice Street is not viewed as being a critical issue. While we could not determine the exact sizes of the signs during our inspection, most appear to be within the area requirements of the Ordinance. As such, the reloca- tion of existing signs is not considered a problem. If new signs are to be erected in place of existing, the new signs should conform to the area require- ments of the Ordinance. 4820 minnetonka boulevard, e 1 2 mn 55416 612/925 -9420