Agenda - Council - 10/14/2025 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CC Regular Session Meeting Date: Primary Strategic Plan Initiative: 7. 2. 10/14/2025 Create a positive image for residential neighborhoods, business districts and key corridors. Title: Adopt Resolution 1t25 20/1 #25-203 Approving a Conditional Use Permit for an Off -Premises Digital Billboard Sign at 6111 Highway 10 NW (Kenjoh Outdoor Advertising) Purpose/Background: This case was continued from the September 9 City Council meeting pending the appeal of the variance to the separation distance requirement. Should the variance in the previous case be overturned, this case cannot go forward. Kenjoh Outdoor Advertising (the Applicant) has submitted a Land Use Application requesting a conditional use permit to construct and operate an off -premise digital billboard sign along with a variance to the distance separation requirements. The proposed site is at 6111 Highway 10 NW, a multi -tenant retail and self -storage building. The proposed sign would be placed near the driveway on the eastern side of the property. The sign base will take up one parking space with the sign face elevated well -above the adjacent spaces and drive aisle. The Applicant would lease the space from the property owner, 6111 Ramsey Properties LLC. The proposed 672 sq.ft./50-foot-tall sign meets the design requirements of Chapter 108. The sign structure includes a decorative base, as required by City Code, that matches the building. The loss of one parking space will not be decremental to the site. Clearance under the sign that extends over the drive aisle is well above the needs of a fire truck. This sign would be the third and final off -premise digital billboard in Ramsey. City Code limits the number to three within the community. In 2022 and 2023, iDigital received approvals and built the two existing signs --one near Riverdale Drive and Traprock Street and the other along Highway 10 opposite Alpine Drive. Also included in this review is the Community Benefit Agreement, as required by City Code. This agreement allows the City limited message time for important public announcements. Variance The one provision of City Code that the sign does not meet, however, is the two-mile spacing between signs. The distance between the proposed sign and the Riverdale iDigital sign is 1.85 miles, 811 feet short of meeting the requirement. There are other business properties to the east, but not with enough additional spacing to meet the 2.00-mile mark. That mark is within the City of Anoka in the Anoka Technical College parking lot. The Planning Commission granted the applicant's request for a variance and has outlined their practical difficulties in the narrative attached to this report, but was appealed by iDigital (addressed in a separate case on tonight's agenda). Landscaping The property was approved for a conditional use permit for the self -storage use in back as well as a setback variance for the rear -yard setback in 1999. With that review came a landscape plan (attached). It appears that everything was installed according to plan, but the shrubs have since disappeared and some of the ash trees appear to have been infected with Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). The applicant is willing to revise the landscaping to meet the intent of what was approved in 1999 with hardier, more durable selections in order to bring the property back into compliance with its initial approvals. Staff will work with the applicant and property owner on a suitable