Agenda Packets - 1994/07/05 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment A CITY OF MOUNDS VIEW PLANNING APPLICATION Request for Building Expansion Wolf and Associates, Inc. seeks to expand its present production facility at 4860 Mustang Circle, Mounds View, MN 55112. The company designs, engineers and manufactures bulk material handling systems, large conveyor systems, for industries such as pulp and paper, resource recovery, power generation and mining. Presently, the company does about 25% of its fabrication at the Mounds View facility. The remainder of the fabrication is subcontracted to fab shops throughout the metro area and the United States. A primary objective of the expansion is to increase the level of in-house fabrication to 50%. Two years ago, a 50 foot expansion of the facility was approved by the city. Because of economic constraints, Wolf and Associates put that expansion program on hold. We now seek to move ahead with this objective. At issue in this proposal are noise considerations as they may affect the residents in the neighboring trailer court. Currently, Wolf does receive complaints of noise, especially during its second shift, because of the proximity of this residential area to an industrial zoned facility. Although noise from the facility has been found not to violate city statutes, Wolf does seek to be a good neighbor and is interested in helping to alleviate this problem. The expansion proposed takes the noise issue into consideration by pushing the building out 100 feet rather than 50 feet. This would accommodate a truck drive through lane inside the building and eliminate doors on the north side of the building. The solid wall of the building adjacent to the trailer court would then serve as a noise barrier between production and the residential area. In addition, loading trucks inside the building rather than outside would help to reduce noise significantly. Such a building design would necessitate truck travel on the Fast side of our building. Currently this area is used for parking and steel storage. To make this design feasible, Wolf seeks to acquire the parcel of land on which the city water tower formerly stood. This would give us additional space for inventory and vehicle storage and accommodate truck traffic and additional parking requirements for the expanded facility. Wolf has discussed obtaining the water tower plot of land in the past. In those discussions the City has also expressed interest in obtaining an easement on the west end of the property to establish an emergency access to the trailer home park. We feel both of these objectives could be accommodated in conjunction with the building expansion. The expansion under consideration would create new jobs and promote economic development in the City of Mounds View. Accordingly, the project meets the guidelines for an economic development grant through the State of Minnesota. Wolf and Associates has retained the services of a consultant specializing in this area to work with state and local officials for the purpose of writing the grant request and obtaining the funds. The effect of these efforts would be the establishment of a permanent revolving economic development fund for the City of Mounds View. The fund would enable Mounds View to help other local businesses expand in the future.