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Staff Report Star Environmental Page 2 Relationship with the Comprehensive Plan: The Comprehensive Plan encourages the expansion of existing businesses and introduction of new businesses within Mounds View. 4889 Old Highway 8 and all the surrounding properties are designated as industrial on the Future Land Use Map and the proposed processing center would not be inconsistent with the Comp Plan. Depreciation: The proposed processing center would be a new, attractive, well built facility that would be an improvement over the existing building on the site. The applicant will have invested over $5 million into this project when completed. This site is in an industrial area and the proposed use may be more in line for the area than the current use of a motel. The motel has generated over 100 police calls in the past two years, so the removal of this use would improve the safety of the entire area, including the residential neighborhood that is located north of this site. With this new business, the value of the property is projected to significantly increase. Consequently, depreciation of the subject property or the surrounding properties is not a concern. The motel has been identified on the City's target acquisition list for redevelopment properties. The Character of the Surrounding Area: The proposed business would be located on Old Highway 8 on the edge of the Mounds View Industrial Park. The Townsedge Terrace Manufactured Home Park is located north of the site, separated by a narrow buffer of vegetation and wetlands. The proposed processing center would not necessarily be out of place for this industrial area, and the size and particularly the shape of the property would accommodate the proposal. However, the proximity of the residential neighborhood to the north should be kept in mind. All other properties to the south and west of the subject property are zoned industrial. There is nothing to the east across the street since 35W/Highway 10 run next to Old Highway 8 in this area. Traffic: The applicant expects up to 3-4 trucks per hour from 7am — 7pm, Monday through Friday, and from 8am-3pm on Saturday (36-48 trucks per weekday, 21-28 trucks on Saturday) coming in to the processing center. October is the busiest month for emptying septic tanks, so at this time the applicant estimates that the truck traffic could increase during October to about 7 trucks per hour (84 trucks per day). The applicant plans to encourage his truck drivers to work with customers to help eliminate the large rush during one month every year. Traffic counts on Old Highway 8 are 6,800 vehicles per day, so even at the peak traffic time in October this business would increase traffic on Old Highway 8 by approximately 2.4 percent (this includes 2 trlpS per truck - a trip in and a trip out). The trucks that come to this business would drive completely into the building to unload and the property would be set up for truck staging on -site. Each truck takes 10-12 minutes to discharge, so there would not be trucks waiting for long periods of time outside. This area already has high truck traffic due to the existing businesses in the industrial park. Adequate utilities and access roads are available: The Metropolitan Council and Mounds View Public Works department has determined the water and sewer lines that currently serve the property has adequate capacity to provide for this improvement. The site has good access to nearby highways and freeways.