09-28-1988 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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This area contains many incompatible land uses by virtue of aesthetics. Many of the industrial uses found here include attractive buildings on landscaped sites, but appear out of place in comparison to uses that include pole type buildings on sites that are not maintained. ZONING The area west of the natural barrier created by the Soo Line railroad tracks could be rezoned to "B -3" General Business District, due to its proximity of Rice Street. Commercial uses may benefit from the large volume of traffic traveling Rice Street more so than industrial uses because industrial uses generate specific trip traffic while commercial uses generate traffic that generally consists of quick stop, convenience traffic. Rezoning this area to B -3 may promote more suitable development in the Rice Street area. The study area east of the railroad tracks appears appropriately zoned for industrial. However, rezoning this area to allow the City to command higher quality development is a viable option. This area could benefit from a rezoning to I -P, Industrial Park. This zoning classification requires a higher quality development, in regard to aesthetics, to be provided by the developer. If this rezoning took place, the existing substandard land uses would become legally existing nonconforming uses that would not be allowed to expand unless the site and structures were brought into conformance with I -P District requirements. The single family residential uses would remain legal non- conforming uses under the zoning change. Although these are incompatible uses, we believe that eventually market forces will come into play. The land these homes are located on would become more valuable as industrial or commercial land and therefore the homeowners will be bought out by new developers or existing uses adjacent to the property wishing to expand. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AND ALLOWED USES Setbacks in both industrial districts are the same. The I -P District requires larger lot size and width than the I -1 District. All but seven lots in the study area meet the lot size requirements. (Lots A, E, G, H, I, K, T) (Please see attachments) Also, the I -P District has landscaping and building lot coverage requirements not found in the I -1 District. The number of existing lots that do not meet this requirement has not been determined at this time. The major difference in district performance standards are the building requirements. The only building requirement in the I -1 District is a maximum building height of 40 feet. The I -P Page 48