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LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 4, 1986 Page 5 storage space business in this building, in the old barn and around the old barn in the back. The name of the business is Low Cost Storage which provides storage for boats, motors, trailers, RV's, trucks, cars and motorhomes. The Armstrongs have advertised in the Cimarron Newsletter and have advertisements in the white and yellow pages under Low Cost Storage, outside or inside, RV's, boats, etc. and has the Armstrong's address and phone number. The name Low Cost Storage has been registerd with the Secretary of State, State of MN, and the person that registered the name is Thomas Armstrong. On Monday, February 3rd, a meeting was held, on the request of Mr. Armstrong, to explain some of his points to the City Attorney, City Administrator, Building Inspector and myself. Mr. Armstrong brought up that because the storage space has existed on a farm for years that it is all right to go ahead and build a building, open up a business, advertise, and rent out ninety percent of the new building. Mr. Mazzara read the code that states what uses are permitted in Ag zone and felt that it was stretching it to run an actual for -profit business in an Ag zone. Mr. Armstrong had stated in the meeting that this was a common and customary practice in Lake Elmo in Ag zoning to rent space for people for this use, and he made reference to four farmers, Layhart Friedrich, Steve Raleigh, Gene Peltier and Pete Shiltgen. Mr. Friedrich, Peltier and Shiltgen do not advertise or rent out spaces at their farms, and anything that is stored in those farm buildings are personal belongings, according to Mr. Mazzara. At this point Mr. Armstrong objected to Mr. Mazzara for misquoting him. Mr. Armstrong stated that he would Like as much time as Mr. Mazzara to answer his inaccuracies. Mike Mazzara - If this is defined as a proper use in the Ag zone, my concern if this is allowed this way, we as a City risk that anyone who owns Ag land can go ahead and put up a building of any size and run a business out of there. The City loses control if we don't address the question of running the business out of there. At this point we don't have enough information to make any decisions, but should table this until we can make a decision regarding our code and if we want this to happen in other places. If this is allowed in an Ag zone, it should be qualified and quantified as to how much should be allowed. Tom Armstrong - I object to the procedure that was followed. Mr. Mazzara has had people taking pictures and had contacted the Building Inspector last Fall. I wrote the Building Inspector and answered his questions and heard nothing more. Mr. Mazzara, and other friends of his reported to the City other alleged violations which turned out to be a Soil and Water Conservation District project on my farm. Mr. Mazzara has been making some kind of a witch hunt out of this. Without ever talking to me, Mr. Mazzara put the issue on the Council agenda. The City Administrator contacted my wife to let her know that this issue was on the