06-25-2007 CC - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No: 7A Meeting Date: June 25, 2007 Type of Business: PH & CB Administrator Review: _____ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, Community Development Director Item Title/Subject: Public Hearing, First Reading and Introduction of Ordinance 793, an Ordinance Amending the Mounds View Zoning Code Relating to the Former Public Facilities Zoning District Introduction: In October of 2003, in response to a recommendation from the City Attorney’s office, the City adopted Ordinance 720 which eliminated the Public Facilities (PF) zoning district from the City’s zoning map. All properties which had been zoned PF (including all City parks) were rezoned to be included in another appropriate district. In the case of City parks, the parcels were rezoned to be within the R-1, Single Family Residential district. An unintended consequence of the rezoning of the parks was that telecommunication towers and antenna, which had been a conditional use in the PF district, were no longer permitted. Background: In July of 2003, the City Attorney prepared an opinion to the City Council which recommended that the City re-evaluate the PF zoning district. The following is an excerpt from the 2003 attorney’s opinion: “In light of the recent MN Supreme Court decision in the case of In the Matter of Denial of Eller Media Company’s Applications for Outdoor Advertising Device Permits in the City of Mounds View, Minnesota and the reasoning set forth in that case, an issue that has been discussed by the City in the past regarding the City of Mounds View Zoning Code and the districts contained therein now appears to warrant additional review by the City of Mounds View. Specifically, the issue is the existence of a public facilities (PF) district in the zoning code that covers a range of uses from public parks through wastewater treatment facilities. The PF district distinction is based solely on ownership of a parcel of land, which has to be by the City of Mounds View, and does not deal with the type of land use actually being made of a given parcel of land. As the MN Supreme Court points out in its opinion, zoning deals with land uses and the City’s authority to regulate such land uses. In the case of the PF district designation in the City of Mounds View’s City Code, the designation exists solely for the purpose of convenience for categorizing land owned by the City and not because of the actual use being made or the intended use to be made of a parcel of land, which should actually be the establishing or guiding factor of a zoning district designation. Thus, consistent with the MN Supreme Court’s reasoning in the Eller case, it may be best to revise or entirely delete the PF district designation existing in the City’s Code (which only applies to City-owned parcels) and to revise such districts to guide the uses made of those parcels, e.g.: parks-residential; wastewater treatment plants-industrial; city offices-business/commercial/industrial; golf courses-business/industrial (golf courses are a permitted use in a business district as presently defined by the Mounds View City Code).”