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Mr.. Rick Jopke October 19, 1999 • Page 5 increase in noise, traffic, and potential odorous emissions have a direct and substantial negative effect on the value of abutting properties. Here, the connection is tenuous, but even if the connection did exist, one would question the degree such an effect would have on property values. To constitute spot zoning, the effect must be total and substantial. Under these circumstances, spot zoning would be difficult to prove. Another way to prove spot zoning is to show the rezoning created an island of nonconforming use. Allowing the billboard for only one property--the golf course--may create an island of nonconforming use sufficient to prove spot zoning. If other properties within the district are allowed to have billboards, or if other zoning districts, such as public facilities districts, are • allowed-to have billboards, such as Brough a conditional use permit process, then spot zoning • may be harder to prove, especially if those properties are located near the golf course property. III. Statutory Restrictions3 The placement of advertising devices or billboards along a state trunk highway, such as Highway 10, also must be consistent with Minnesota statutes. Minnesota Statutes § 173.08 provides in part that no advertising device except those expressly permitted by exception shall be erected or maintained in an area adjacent to a state trunk highway. One such exception for the placement of an advertising device adjacent to a trunk highway provides that placement is permitted for • "advertising devices which are located, or which are to be located, in business areas and which comply, or will comply when erected, with the provisions of§ 173.01 to 173.27." Minn. Stat. § 173.08, subd. 1(h). A "business area" as used in the statute is defined to be "any part of an adjacent area which is (a) zoned for business, industrial or commercial activities under the authority of any law of this state or any political subdivision thereof, or (b) not so zoned, but which constitutes an unzoned commercial or industrial area as herein defined." Minn. Stat. § 173.02, subd. 9 (emphasis added). Thus, it would appear that if the zoning for The Bridges Golf Course under the City's zoning code is that of business, industrial or commercial, placement of billboards would be permitted . adjacent to State Trunk Highway No. 10. If The Bridges Golf Course is not.zoned business, industrial or commercial, placement of advertising devices or billboards would not appear to be permitted along State Trunk Highway No. 10. I have enclosed a copy of Chapter 173 regarding advertising devices for your reference. 3 Minnesota Statutes Chapter 173 also has provisions requiring the issuance of permits in certain • situations. The Placement of billboards would also be subject to any such permitting requirements. SJR-168870 MU210-1