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March 2, 1995 ( Lake Elmo City Council 3800 Laverne Avenue North Lake Elmo, Minnesota 55042 Dear Council Members: At the February 27, 1995, Lake Elmo Planning Commission meeting the commission members voted to recommend to the Lake Elmo City Council that a Planning Commission member and a City Council member be appointed to act as liaisons, and work with Armstrong Farm on a possible alternative to Armstrong Farm's current status as a legal non -conforming use under its existing CUP. Since the Planning Commission voted to deny Armstrong Farm's request to reinstate the Alternative Uses portion of the Municipal Code, it was suggested that a possible solution would be the addition of a storage business classification to Lake Elmo Ordinance 301.070 D. b. (Uses Permitted by Conditional Use Permit). This would resolve Armstrong Farm's legal non -conforming use status and allow for future amendments to its CUP to increase its storage operation. If the City Council chooses to add a storage business classification to the "Uses Permitted by Conditional Use Permit" section of the Municipal Code, the City Council should carefully construct the ordinance to not only allow Lake Elmo agricultural farm owners a mechanism to preserve their agricultural lands, but in doing so, protect the interests of the adjacent property owners, and most importantly, eliminate future controversies and disputes that may arise with this additional type of Conditional Use Permit. It seems appropriate to use the Metropolitan Agricultural Preserves section of the Minnesota Statutes (473H.17 Land Use) as a guide in the construction of a Storage Business Conditional Use Permit provision in our Lake Elmo Municipal Code. Subdivision 1a. (Allowed Commercial and Industrial Operations) of this Minnesota statute (Exhibit 1), which allows non-agricultural uses to preserve agricultural lands, requires "storage use of existing farm buildings that does not disrupt the integrity of the agricultural preserve". This statute implies that any storage use be inside a building and limits the number of buildings used for storage to those buildings that existed on August 1, 1987. The incorporation of these requirements into Lake Elmo Ordinance 301.070 D. b. would be very beneficial. First, it would provide Lake Elmo agricultural land owners an alternate source of revenue to preserve their agricultural lands. Second, it would assure adjacent property owners that the "commercial" storage use would not be expanded by construction of more storage buildings and the storage would be "inside" the existing buildings as to not disrupt the aesthetics of the neighborhood with "unsightly" outside storage. Third, by limiting the number of storage buildings to those that existed as of a given date and eliminating outside storage, Lake Elmo would have an ordinance that would prevent the "commercialization" of agricultural lands and preserve the rural nature of the City of Lake Elmo. Fourth, the adoption of these provisions would create a Storage Business Conditional Use Permit that would alleviate future amendments, variances, disputes