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Item No: 7B Meeting Date: January 23, 2012 Type of Business: Council Business Administrator Review: ________ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Heidi Heller, Planning Associate Item Title/Subject: Introduction and First Reading of Ordinance 867, Amending Chapter 1112.04 to Allow Outdoor Vending Kiosks at Retail and Restaurant Businesses as a Conditional Use Introduction: Video rental stores are almost no longer in existence due to technology and the internet. But another trend for renting movies and video games has appeared in the last few years – the “Redbox”. These are fully automated vending “kiosks” that are about the size of a food vending machine and dispense dvd movies and video games to rent. These “Redboxes” are located inside or outside, and so far are only located at specific businesses in the Twin Cities metro area – McDonalds, Walgreens, Cub Foods, Rainbow Foods, Festival Foods, Byerly’s and Holiday gas stations. Discussion: Over the last few years, McDonald’s and Walgreens have asked if they could place a Redbox outside their business in Mounds View. The City Code does not address this type of outdoor use, which means that it is not allowed. City staff has told both McDonald’s and Walgreens that they could not have one outside, but they would be allowed inside the business. McDonalds does have a Redbox inside the restaurant. Recently the Holiday gas station in Mounds View installed a Redbox outside of their store (they did not ask the City if it was allowed), and Walgreens has asked what they could do to be allowed an outdoor Redbox at their store. By doing a 55112 zip code search online for a Redbox location, it shows there are several in every city surrounding Mounds View. The current Mounds View Zoning Code does not address vending kiosks, or anything similar. Other cities deal with these kiosks differently. Some simply allow them with no permits and others require special use permits. Staff feels that these kiosks would likely not cause issues if they were allowed (there have been no problems with the Redbox at Holiday). The machines use 12 square feet of ground space, are placed on the sidewalk next to the building so they are not removing parking spaces, and customers are only parking for a few minutes. At the November 2, 2011 Planning Commission meeting, Staff asked the Commission to discuss how outdoor vending kiosks should be addressed. The Commission decided that the zoning code should be amended to allow these kiosks as a conditional use in commercial districts, including commercial Planned Unit Developments, but only at retail stores, gas stations and restaurants.