01-24-1990 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Annette Freeman November 22, 1989 Page Two Under this statutory authority, the City of Little Canada could enact an ordinance defining its "trade area" and limiting expenditures of net profits to lawful purposes conducted or located within the City's trade area. The City Attorney for North St. Paul has informed us that North St. Paul recently passed an ordinance requiring sixty percent of net profits from bingo and charitable gambling be spent for lawful purposes in the "North St. Paul Trade Area." The trade area under that ordinance includes the cities of Maplewood, North St. Paul and Oakdale. In addition, the City of Cloquet recently passed an ordinance, effective October 1, 1989, requiring that seventy percent of net profits from charitable gambling be expended within the corporate limits of the City of Cloquet. John Williams of the House Research Department informs us that the City Council of Cloquet defined its trade area as the city itself despite objections raised that this definition was too restrictive. Through our discussions with Senate and House counsel, as well as the author of the bill, Richard Kostohryz, we learned that there was very little discussion in the legislative history of this bill as to what constitutes a city's "trade area." It does appear, however, that the intention of the legislators was to give cities a large amount of discretion in determining their trade area. As you will note, cities are allowed to define their trade areas without specific direction from the statute. We have confirmed that Section 44 of Chapter 334 was proposed and inserted into the bill by Representative William Schreiber. According to Schreiber, the intent of this section was to allow cities the greatest possible flexibility in determining their "trade-area." Apparently, in adopting the measure, legislators anticipated that rural and suburban communities would share certain services with other communities, including fire departments, hospitals, park and recreation boards, and school systems. Retail or commercial activity was not considered relevant to this determination. Schreiber's intention and the apparent intention of other legislators was to allow cities to draft ordinances uniquely tailored to their situation. Since the meaning of this new provision is not immediately apparent, it is subject to challenge. In our opinion, however, the definition of trade area as the City of Little Canada and all or a portion of neighboring communities would likely be upheld. A definition of trade area as the corporate limits of Page 88