Agenda - Council - 03/25/2025 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CC Regular Session Meeting Date: 03/25/2025 Primary Strategic Plan Initiative: Promote economic growth and development. Title: Adopt Ordinance #25-04 Northstar Truck & RV Parking - Rezoning and Site Plan Review - 15861 Jarvis St. NW Purpose/Background: The City Council introduced the rezoning ordinance on March H. The Elk River City Council approved the conditional use permit on March 17, 2025. Site Location The site is located along the east side of Jarvis Street, immediately north of the BNSF railroad. The property is split with the western portion located in Elk River and Sherburne County and the eastern portion in Ramsey and Anoka County. The east side is adjacent to the Links at Northfork golf course with single-family residential property to the north. Access to the site is on the Elk River side of the property. Property Use and Zoning The applicant's business is leasing out parking spaces for semi -tucks, trailers, RVs, boats, and some construction equipment. Many of his clients are independent truckers who cannot store their trucks at home. Generally, a client drives his or her personal vehicle to the site, parks, and then takes the truck out for work. At the end of the route, the truck driver returns, parks the truck, gets into the personal vehicle, and goes home. Several trucks are also owned by area businesses as overflow parking for their sites. There are no buildings on the site. Parking for recreational vehicles (RVs) and boats will also be allowed, though parking of these vehicles will likely be for longer periods or seasonally. This type of use would be considered somewhere between a storage yard and a parking lot. Ramsey City Code does not have a category to accurately describe this business use. Elk River does have a zoning district that allows for this type of use by conditional use permit. Ramsey staff were not comfortable bringing forward modifications to the existing I-1 Light Industrial district as that has implications for other I-1 properties. Instead, Ramsey staff are proposing solution to rezone the property to Planned Unit Development (PUD) to accommodate this use to match up with the applicable parts of Elk River's Zoning Code to have a uniform set of rules. A PUD offers custom-tailored regulations for unique sites that cannot otherwise be achieved by standard zoning while conforming to the Comprehensive Plan (which is guided Business Park). It should be noted that the business is currently operating without the necessary approvals. Staff from both cities have been working with the applicant on a path to bring the property into compliance with both Ramsey and Elk River Zoning and Maintenance Codes. Use of the property started over a year ago and was discovered via a code enforcement complaint. There are several damaged and inoperable vehicles on the site, some piles of debris, miscellaneous storage, all of which are not allowed by either City's Codes. Additionally, there are several vehicles that are being stored on the site that are owned by car dealers and salvagers. The applicant has been cleaning up the property, including working with the Fire Department by burning the old farmhouse and outbuildings. New problem vehicles have been appearing after others are removed from the site, so the business owners will need to monitor their site constantly. Site Plan The site plan shows a large bituminous -paved parking lot across the site. Along the city/county border, a concrete stripe will be set so that anything requiring a jurisdictional designation (i.e., prosecution of a vehicle theft) can be clearly determined. The parking lot will have concrete curb and gutter to direct storm water to management