Agenda - Planning Commission - 11/09/1995

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CASE #~' DISCUSSION REGARDING ENFORCEMENT OF CITY CODE PERTAINING TO STORAGEiOF COMMERCIAL VEHICLES IN RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS By: Zoning Administrator Sylvia Frolik Background: Section 9.11.10 of City Code states as follows: £ "No more than one (1) one-ton motor vehicle bearing a commercial license and no commerci~ly licensed trailer shall be parked or stored in a residential district except when loading, u~ loading or rendering a service. No commercial vehicle shall be parked or stored in a residei~tial district except for short-term (two hours or less) when unloading, loading or rendering Ia service." As a result of th{: code enforcement sweeps initiated this past Spring at the direction of City Council, numeroas violations of the above code were cited and numerous more were anticipated. The violators were instructed to either make other arrangements for storing their commercial vehicles and equiI~ment or apply for a conditional use permit to store these items on their residential properties. Given Council's action to deny a similar case in 1994 (with a one year grace period) and the Planning CommiSSion's recommendation for denial on two 1995 applicants resulting from the code sweep, Staff pose~l the following question to Council. If they are going to be consistent with their action in 1994,1their intent behind the order for a code enforcement sweep, and the recommendation~of the Planning Commission thus far, then it doesn't seem justifiable to instruct these current violators to spend $375 on a conditional use permit application just to find out how long of a grace pei'iod Council is going to give them to get into compliance. When this information was brought to Council on June 13, Staff was instructed to research what other communiti~is allow for the storage of commercial vehicles and equipment in residential districts. The following information was presented to Council on June 27, 1995: An0ovor residents are allowed to store only one truck with a gross capacity of 12,000 pounds or less at their residdl~ces. In the R-1 and R-2 single family districts, they can store a track-tractor in an accessory building if the lot is at least 3 acres in size. There is no storage of semi-trailers allowed on residential properties. Anoka residents are allowed to keep any size track on their property if it can be stored indoors. Brooklyn Park residents cannot store vehicles larger than 9,000 pounds gross weight at their residences. Coon Rapids residents are restricted from storing any vehicle larger than 9,000 pounds gross weight on their property. There is also no parking of mack-tractors, semi-trailers or special mobile equipment allowed except'one track over 9,000 lbs or one mack-tractor if the vehicle is owned and operated by the Property owner, is parked on a paved driveway or private parking lot on the property, and is ndt allowed to idle for more than 1 hour in any 6 hour period. Elk River residents cannot park vehicles larger than 7,000 pounds on public property in the residential district (i.e. they are permitted to park vehicles larger than 7,000 pounds on their private property). Truck-tractors and/or semi trailers may be parked in the rural residential district but not in the urban residential district.