FINAL ORDINANCE NO. 08-026 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

grocery stores and other retail -oriented businesses, but that the sale of a particular piece of produce is often an incidental part of its production. 8. Courts and communities have used "produced on the premises" distinctions to differentiate between agricultural and commercial uses in a way that helps to ensure that, if this type of retail sales occurs outside of a commercial district, it remains just an incidental part of the core agricultural purpose of the district. 9. The City's current definition of "Wayside Stand" differentiates between agricultural goods, floriculture, and horticulture produced "on site or on other property in Lake Elmo." That language is more generous to the operator of a wayside stand than a "produced on the premises" distinction. However, it is a less -common way of distinguishing between agricultural and commercial uses. Wayside or roadside stand definitions are more often limited to produce grown on the premises. 10. The presence of the "or on other property in Lake Elmo" distinction in the definition reflects the City's understanding that there are often better locations for wayside stands than on the very property where the produce is grown. Although it was not intended to allow a Wayside Stand to sell produce that the operator has purchased from someone else, the language is sufficiently ambiguous to lead someone to read it that way. 11. A removal of the "on other property in Lake Elmo" will help clarify the overall structure of the City's agricultural sales regulations. 12. The City's willingness to be more permissive in allowing sales from Wayside Stands of produce grown elsewhere in Lake Elmo has been misunderstood by one set of local growers and several actual or potential suppliers, as reflecting an intention to protect local economic interests and to discriminate against out-of-state economic interests. That was not, and is not, the City's intent. Paradoxically, Country Sun Farms, the Lake Elmo business that has used that phrase to claim that the City has created of an unconstitutional "Lake Elmo Only Sales Policy," has opposed the deletion of "or on other property in Lake Elmo" from the "Wayside Stand" definition, because (in the words of one of its owners) "this does not help our city's fanners." 13. hi response to an inquiry from a member of the Planning Commission, the Assistant City Attorney has opined that, with or without this change, the "Wayside Stand" definition does not depend on whether the operator of the stand is owning, renting, or leasing the stand or the property where the produce for sale is grown. 14. The Council is cognizant of the desire of the community to continue to allow reasonable local access to fresh produce through such wayside stands. It also recognizes past efforts by the City Council, its Community Improvement Commission, and other community entities to facilitate a farmers' market or similar temporary seasonal sales area. 15. For that reason, in conjunction with this change in the City's zoning regulations, the City Council is endorsing the establishment of at least one farmers market in one of Lake ORDINANCE NO. 08-026 -- na«e' -- 1111u