FINAL ORDINANCE NO. 08-026 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF LAKE ELMO COUNTY OF WASHINGTON STATE OF MINNESOTA ORDINANCE NO.08-026 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF "WAYSIDE STAND" FINDINGS 1. At its Staff report to the City Council in advance of its December 1, 2009 City Council meeting, City staff recommended that the Planning Commission and City Council add to the 2010 Planning Commission Work Plan the evaluation of certain types of commercial/agricultural uses or practices. As that staff report explained, this would allow the Commission and Council to accomplish several things, including studying options for regulating these uses as a commercial activity and reviewing the differences between wayside stands and seasonal sales; specifically whether or not the sale of produce grown off -site should be allowed. 2. At the December 1 Council meeting, the Council unanimously directed the inclusion of Staffs recommendations in the Planning Department's 2010 Workplan. 3. As a result, in the intervening period, City staff has been researching these issues, reviewing other community ordinances, seeking input from potentially affected stakeholders and other interested parties, and considering alternatives, with the expectation that concrete recommendations would be made by mid-2010. 4. As the next step of City staffs performance of the responsibilities that the Council directed it to perform at the December 1 meeting, City staff and the Planning Commission have recommended that City Council begin by amending the definition of "Wayside Stand." 5. Most of the words in the current definition of Wayside Stand (as a "temporary structure or vehicle used for the seasonal retail sale of agricultural goods, floriculture, and horticulture produced by the operator of the Wayside Stand on site or on other property in Lake Elmo") have been in place for over ten years, during which the definition has been changed only by adding the word "temporary" and the phrase "or vehicle" to this sentence. 6. In the interim, the City has modified its Zoning Code to increase the types of zoning districts in which a Wayside Stand is a permitted use or structure. Most recently (in 2008) the City added "Wayside Stands" to the list of permitted uses and structures in the Rural Residential (RR) category of zoning districts. 7. Research has shown that a "produced on the premises" limitation on retail sales in an agricultural or rural district is quite common. Such a limitation reflects that commercial districts (such as the Lake Ehno's General Business district) are a more compatible place for ORDINANCE NO. 08-026 -- page (