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"My overall objective is to work with the City to get more businesses and customers into <br /> Pequot Lakes to support my business which ultimately financially supports the families <br /> of my employees and supporting vendors in the area. A little background just to give <br /> you context what was going on i2 years ago. It's all pretty much new faces,but Mark, I <br /> think you were here back then. (Planning Commission Hallan acknowledged that he <br /> was on the Planning Commission.) A lot has changed since we decided to build our new <br /> production facility in July, 200�. There was no plan at that time to have a bypass. <br /> There was talk and different things going on on the side,but there was no plan to have a <br /> bypass at that point. That all changed very quickly in the coming months right after <br /> that. The Industrial Park had not yet been rebranded a Business Park. It was preferable <br /> to have our type of business in the Industrial Park. Commercial real estate values in <br /> Pequot Lakes were 2 to 3 times higher than their current levels, as they are right now. <br /> In August, 200�while in the middle of my construction project,we realized that a CUP <br /> was required due to the height of the dust collection system that we were purchasing. <br /> The project had already been started and any delays would have been extremely <br /> expensive. Certain members of the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission <br /> took this opportunity to put in stipulations on this project that are not consistent, in my <br /> opinion, with the way other land owners in our community are treated. There is a whole <br /> back-story that I will steer clear of for the greater good of the community in general. <br /> Fast forward to the present day. Customer traffic counts in our showroom and the <br /> immediate surrounding businesses are down 25 to 6o percent with the loss of highway <br /> traffic. There is no way to screen my log yard without cutting off visibility of our <br /> production facility and signage directing people to our factory outlet showroom in <br /> downtown Pequot Lakes. Northbound traffic would not be able to see through the trees <br /> to our production facility. On a personal note, I have lost between i.2 and i.�million <br /> dollars in commercial property investments and additional debt service costs on my <br /> commercial properties in Pequot Lakes over the past i2 years. The only positive that my <br /> business has experienced from the bypass is people were introduced to our production <br /> facility and realized that we are not building furniture in a garage behind our showroom, <br /> but instead are a large operation. The activity in our production facility and yard creates <br /> curiosity and drives people into our showroom. The commercial properry value <br /> declined in Pequot Lakes in the past 12 years has shifted properry tax burden over to <br /> residential properry owners. We must do whatever we can to revive commercial <br /> property values, in addition to supporting projects like Mr. Helbling just brought <br /> forward. We need to grow our tax base in our town. I've got a few questions. Most of <br /> these are rhetorical by nature,but I want you to consider them as we address this. <br /> #i. Why would the City require that Lonesome Cottage comply with point number 3 of <br /> the Conditional Use Permit and require us to plant i00% screening of the exterior <br /> storage area as viewed from the highway when it will cause irreparable harm to my <br /> business. Side note: The bypass has a significantly higher elevation to my log yard so <br /> planting trees is not going to hide my log piles that are on the west side of the log yard. <br /> MINUTES i9 <br /> Pequot Lakes Planning Commission <br /> April i8, 2oi9 <br />