Minutes - Planning Commission - 08/07/2001

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neighbors would oppose the building. Twelve hands were shown in the audience. Commissioner Sweet stated this would set a precedent. Motion Carried. Voting Yes: Vice Chair Kociscak, Commissioners Sweet, Reeve, and Watson. Voting No: Commissioner Johnson. Absent: Chairperson Nixt. Case #9: Request for a Conditional Use Permit to Operate a Warehouse; Case of North Suburban Steel Supply Vice Chair Kociscak closed the regular portion of the Planning Commission meeting at 10:28 p.m. in order to call the public hearing to order. Commissioner Sweet left the meeting at 10:29 p.m. Public Hearing Vice Chair Kociscak called the public hearing to order at 10:30 p.m. Community Development Assistant Wald stated that the City received an application from Scott and Patti Jarmoluk of North Suburban Steel Supply, Inc., to operate a steel warehouse business in the accessory structure on the property located at 8900 181st Avenue. As you may recall, in May of 2000 Mr. Barrett applied for a conditional use permit to operate a woodworking business on the property in the non-conforming accessory structure. Mr. Barrett was proposing a 6,000 square foot expansion, employee and customer parking, daily deliveries, and future plans for self-storage units. The City Council denied the conditional use permit on May 23, 2000 due in large part to the Applicants desire for a large expansion. North Suburban Steel Supply, Inc. currently operates in the City of Elk River. They have a total of three employees with operating hours of 8:00am - 5:30pm Monday thru Friday. North Suburban Steel would like to utilize the existing 5,000 square foot accessory building in Ramsey for warehousing of steel products. The Applicant has stated that there would not be any employees stationed on the subject property. The purpose of the accessory structure would be solely for storing steel products until a customer is in need of a product. The Applicant has stated that truck traffic to the site will vary from day to day depending on customer demand; on an average there would be a maximum of two trucks on the subject property per day. The trucks are proposing to access the property through an existing Class 5 driveway. Since 1990, it has been the City's policy to not accept applications for businesses that would operate out of garages and accessory buildings in residential districts. However, when the City Council reviewed the conditional use permit request from Mr. Barrett in May of 2000, they expressed a willingness to review a request for a commercial business on the property in order to gain control of a non-conforming building that was established in a residential district absent of a residential dwelling on the lot. The direction that came from the City Council review of the conditional use permit at that time was that the best case scenario would be for a residential dwelling to be constructed on the property and the accessory building utilized for personal storage. In the event that this was not possible, the Council would consider reviewing a conditional use permit request to operate a small business on the property that would Planning Commission/August 7, 2001 Page 22 of 25