Minutes - Planning Commission - 05/04/2006

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Assistant Community Development Director Frolik advised several factors must be considered regarding this request. First, while the site of the RVs and travel trailers is more secluded than in past instances, the property is zoned R-1 Residential. Off-street parking regulations pertaining to motor vehicles and/or equipment on residentially zoned parcels prohibit parking them on a parcel unless they are owned or leased by a person residing on the property or owned or leased by the employer of a person residing on the property. Neither of which is occurring with this request. Ms. Frolik stated secondly, interim use permits, by definition, are limited to a maximum timeframe of five years. While this is the first interim use permit request by RV Worid, Inc., as well as the first request for this particular property, the interim use permits issued to B & A Cylinder were, for all intents and purposes, obtained for RV World. This raises the question of how the five year time limit is applied, and whether it is only applicable to an applicant, to the subject property of a request, or for the intended use of a permit. Assistant Community Development Director Frolik indicated staff has been attempting to work with several of the RV dealerships along Highway I0 to address the issue of surplus merchandise being displayed and/or stored on unimproved surfaces. The goal is to get the properties to comply with current zoning regulations that require merchandise to be stored on an improved surface with curbing. Staff believes that a request of this type may be reasonable if the intent were to provide the applicant additional time to make certain on-site improvements necessary to comply with City Code. However, this is the third attempt at a temporary fix without any apparent plans for needed improvements or expansion of RV World's existing site. Ms. Frolik advised if the Planning Commission is inclined to recommend approval of this request, Staff would encourage a lesser timeframe than the five year term requested. Citizen Input Cory Moiner, General Manager of RV World, stated this is a temporary fix until RV World is able to secure a bigger lot, which is getting harder and harder to do in this area. At this time they need a location to store surplus merchandise. He thought he did a good job of finding the most secluded spot in Ramsey to hide the trailers, but apparently there was someone that didn't like it. The permit was applied for after the fact. From his understanding the storage location is zoned residential. Zoning Coordinator Chris Anderson also informed him there is no longer agricultural zoning in Ramsey. This piece of land where RV Worid is storing their surplus merchandise is on a 160 ace piece that is owned by Joe Nathe, in which the storage consumes a little spot on Mr. Nathe's land. The closest two houses to the east are over ¼ mile away, and the trailers are blocked by Mr. Nathe's greenhouse. The only road the trailers can be seen from is Riverdale Boulevard, and you need to look past everyone else's inventory and through a row of trees to see the trailers. Mr. Moiner stated RV World has outgrown their facility. They support 24 employees. If they are not able to utilize this storage area until they are able to expand they will need to cut inventory in half, cut staff in half, and will not be able to service the general public as well as they have been. RV World is in the process of trying to find a spot to relocate. Chairperson Nixt noted the staff summary indicates that this site is used for storage and display. He asked if sales are being done at this site. Planning Commission/May 4, 2006 Page 7 of 15