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Mounds View Staff Report January 5, 2009 . Page 2 Businesses posing a higher fire hazard (such as those with combustible metals and businesses with high pile storage) and licensed facilities shall submit information about their operation (such as operations that would require a fire permit or change of ownership, see the attached Occupancy Certificate form).to the City every year, while ordinary occupancies (such as retail sales) shall update their business and contact information every three years. This timeline coincides with annual fire inspections for high hazard and licensed businesses and the other businesses on a three year rotation. New businesses in the City would need to apply for the registration before operating the business at which time their plan would be reviewed. The inspections would take place when they are operational, similar to a final building inspection that takes place after the building is being built, if the plan is approved, and ultimately approve the business registration upon compliance with the applicable codes. Business owners and operators would be responsible for keeping their contact information current with the City rather than having each department independently collect this as now happens. The registration program will not only consume fewer staff hours, the businesses will only have to be bothered to supply this information once a term, rather than two or more times annually. The City will require the following information (in addition to the information collected in the Occupancy Certificate application) (attached): • • Verify the proposed business fits the zoning of the site and would meet the zoning district standards. • Business owner's date of birth. • Building owner's contact information and date of birth if it is a rental building. • Hours of operation. • Business and building insurance information including the amount of insurance carried and insurance carrier information. The business license/ registration program would be more complete and mandated than the existing occupancy certificate program. As envisioned by staff, the new registration program could merge with the existing City occupancy certificate program. For more information, please refer to the attached documentation from nearby cities that currently have business licensing / registration programs. While these programs vary significantly, every one has a fee involved. This fee would help to sustain the program. It will take some administrative staff hours to set up and maintain the database, but in the end it will save inspectors' staff hours in researching business and building owner information. To help the City Council understand some of what occurs with businesses, various contacts and City staff, I have prepared the following examples: 111