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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes January 26, 2021 Page 10 1 planning and zoning customarily are governed by the principle to avoid conflicts of use. Here 2 there is about as intense commercial use as could be imagined. A high velocity car wash with 3 high vehicle traffic counts immediately contiguous to a multi -family residential condominium 4 building and a single-family neighborhood. He stated with all respect to Planner Grittman, it is 5 not the burden of the City to establish the compliance with the finding, it is the burden of the 6 applicant. The statement by Mr. Grittman that it is very difficult to deny a Conditional Use 7 Permit completely flies in the face of Minnesota Land Use Law. The decision of the City 8 Council must be based on the facts in the record and the facts are measured against the required 9 findings in the City Code. There has been ample testimony from residents contiguous to the 10 property regarding adverse noise impacts. There has been testimony regarding air quality 11 impacts and concerns, there are concerns with regard to light pollution and impacts directly on 12 nearby residents. There are multiple statements of adverse impacts on nearby residential 13 property values. A property owner is competent to testify as to impacts to their own property. 14 There are also the opinions of real estate professionals and most notably a real estate professional 15 that has represented hundreds of clients within the Kenzington Condominium community. 16 Given the intensity of the car wash impacts, of vehicle trips, noise and air pollution, and safety 17 concerns, this use is simply incompatible with the existing surrounding neighborhood residential 18 uses. He stated there are many compatible uses that this property can be reasonably put to 19 without imposing the conflicts of land use and can satisfy the requirements of the Conditional 20 Use Permit. He respectfully requests, based on the facts and the record and the City's Code that 21 the Conditional Use Permit must be denied. 22 23 Mr. Casey Scott, 2501 Paul Avenue, St. Anthony, explained he has known Tom Archambault 24 and his family for many years, and they have been great neighbors. This particular decision to 25 put a car wash so close to the neighbors on 27`x' seems to be very much in contrary to past 26 decisions that he and the prior owner have made. He found it kind of strange that the owner 27 talked about running the operation from 8am to 5pm and then the City expanded that from lam 28 to I Opm., especially when this is right near so many houses and residential areas. He thought the 29 hours of operation should be explored, especially on the weekend. Right now, Mr. 30 Archambault's business does not operate on the weekend so he wondered if there was a need to 31 have this business operate on a weekend. The big difference he sees between the other car 32 washes mentioned during this meeting and this car wash is that this one is extremely close in 33 proximity to the residential neighbors. He appreciated that City staff recommended there be a 34 number of changes to try to mitigate some of this impact, but he also noticed that there has been 35 nothing done to measure the current noise, air pollution, current water runoff, etc. so that there 36 can be some comparisons to other car washes in the neighborhood that were mentioned to see 37 what the difference would be. He thought there are some of those steps that Mr. Keane 38 mentioned and others that should be taken before a decision is made. He would recommend that 39 at a minimum the decision should be tabled until further study is done to be able to understand 40 the impact on the residents in the community. 41 42 Mr. Scott asked how big the trees will be because if small trees are planted those trees will not be 43 able to mitigate for several years. If large trees are planted there is a risk of them dying in a few 44 years and whose responsibility will it be to replant the trees. He thought there were some 45 specific details that needed to be worked out about all of these mitigation steps to make sure that