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LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 3, 1987 PAGE 8 would add to existing traffic congestion or create a problem that does not presently exist. Overby felt the site is non -conforming regardless of what use might apply there. He could not say what uses could go in there that would eliminate the non -conforming situation. Steve DeLapp, Chairman of the Planning Commission, stated that the building could be used for what the building was always used for before it was abandoned. City Attorney Knaak added that when you change the zoning laws you create non -conforming uses. It is designed to phase out certain kinds of uses. In a non -conforming use, once that use is destroyed or discontinued as a use, or actual destruction of the property occurs, that use is gone. You now have the property there for whatever it is zoned for. In this case it does. A grandfathered-in manufacturing business and zoning changes around it you cannot do anything to that property or change that business because you would be taking something from it. Dwight Peterson, 2234 Spruce Place, White Bear Lake, is the son --in-law of the owner of the building. The owner moved out of state a couple of months ago, but the buildings were not abandoned. She has been making an effort to sell the building through Merrill Lynch Realty. The buildings have been vacant since August or September of 1986. Mayor Christ closed the public hearing at 9:02 p.m. City Administrator Overby brought up the point that the code does allow a non -conforming use to substitute for another nonconforming use if the Council decides that the proposed new use will be no more detrimental to its neighborhood and surroundings than the use it Is to replace. This does not create an agruement for granting variances, but there is a provision in the code that allows substitution of non -conforming uses. Councilwoman Armstrong stated that in the beginning of the zoning ordinances the reasoning for having the ordinances states that it is proper for us to enforce the regulations for these specific purposes: to protect the character and maintain the stability of residential business in industrial areas within the community and prohibit uses, building or structures which are incompatible with the character of development in such areas; to be careful to limit the congestion of public streets; to provide for the gradual elimination of those uses of land, buildings and structures and of those buildings and structures which do not conform to the standards of the area in which they are located and which may adversely affect the development and value of the property in such areas. Armstrong added that there was a time when those buildings were more acceptable than they are now. We have had people put money into businesses along the mainstreet and she felt we should consider those people's needs for their businesses and what they are trying to achieve in the City.