Minutes - Council Work Session - 12/10/2024

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Councilmember Olson also thanked City Engineer/Public Works Director Westby and Parks and Assistant Public Works Director Riverblood for all of the work they put into these policies. He said there was a lot of work that went into this and it was able to produce a great result. The consensus of the Council was to move forward with the stormwater management facility maintenance and the trail and sidewalk maintenance policies on this evening’s Consent Agenda at the Regular Council Meeting. 2.02: Green Valley Greenhouse Building Permit Discussion City Administrator Hagen reviewed the Staff report concerning the Green Valley Greenhouse building permit. He noted that the building code does provide an exemption to the requirements when the structure is an agricultural use. State statute does determine what an agricultural use is, and after reviewing statute staff did not feel this met the definitions. Statute specifically states offices to support the agricultural use are not exempt from the building code requirements. City Administrator Hagen further noted that the floor plan from the prior building to the new building is substantially different, with the new building housing a typical office setting. Representatives from Green Valley Greenhouse reviewed the changes made to their plans. They emphasized that the new structure would house the same uses as the previous even though the floor plan was different. They disagreed with staff’s interpretation of statute, and further stated they feared what that would bring for future improvements on their property. They questioned weather a future green house that housed a single work station and a computer would be subject to a building permit. Councilmember Woestehoff shared that one of his struggles with this is how the building is structured related to the building code. He said he is not going to argue that what Green Valley does is not agricultural, because it is; however, this building looks like an office building that will also be used for storage. He stated he would want this to go through the building permit process in an effort to protect the people who will be working there. He added that he would be open to an exception to the permitting process because of the agricultural component and due to how much of the project has already been completed. He said he would not want to forgo any building inspections through this process. Mayor Kuzma asked what the options are for this situation. City Attorney Knaak said they could also just do nothing, and the building will continue to go up and hope that everything works out. He noted that this would set a precedent that they are allowing an office building in the agricultural zone, they could also require Green Valley to get a building permit, or they could direct Staff to work with Green Valley as an exception due to the project growing from just being an agricultural building to now having an expanding use. Councilmember Specht asked how long this would push the project back if they did require it to go through the building permitting process. City Council Work Session / December 10, 2024 Page 2 of 5