3(e) Amend Conditional Use Permit for Exterior Storage

Home Browse Search

MINUTES PEQUOT LAKES PLANNING COMMISSION/ BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT REGULAR MEETING April �8, 20�9 NEW BUSINESS: a. Brandon Andersen — Conditional Use Permit Discussion Mr. Burslie explained the Staff Report. Mr.Andersen was present. Vice-Chair Birch asked if there was a process to amend a Conditional Use Permit. Mr. Burslie stated it is the same process as approving a CUP. It would require the application, application fee, notification, and the Public Hearing, but yes,you can certainly amend a CUP. Mr. Andersen read from a prepared statement to stay on task: "My overall objective is to work with the City to get more businesses and customers into Pequot Lakes to support my business which ultimately financially supports the families of my employees and supporting vendors in the area. A little background just to give you conte�ct what was going on i2 years ago. It's all pretty much new faces, but Mark, I think you were here back then. (Planning Commission Hallan acknowledged that he was on the Planning Commission.) A lot has changed since we decided to build our new production facility in July, 200�. There was no plan at that time to have a bypass. There was talk and different things going on on the side,but there was no plan to have a bypass at that point. That all changed very quickly in the coming months right after that. The Industrial Park had not yet been rebranded a Business Park. It was preferable to have our type of business in the Industrial Park. Commercial real estate values in Pequot Lakes were 2 to 3 times higher than their current levels, as they are right now. In August, 200�while in the middle of my construction project, we realized that a CUP was required due to the height of the dust collection system that we were purchasing. The project had already been started and any delays would have been extremely expensive. Certain members of the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission took this opportunity to put in stipulations on this project that are not consistent, in my opinion, with the way other land owners in our community are treated. There is a whole back-story that I will steer clear of for the greater good of the community in general. Fast forward to the present day. Customer traffic counts in our showroom and the immediate surrounding businesses are down 25 to 6o percent with the loss of highway traffic. There is no way to screen my log yard without cutting off visibility of our production facility and signage directing people to our factory outlet showroom in downtown Pequot Lakes. Northbound traffic would not be able to see through the trees to our production facility. On a personal note, I have lost between i.2 and i.�million dollars in commercial property investments and additional debt service costs on my commercial properties in Pequot Lakes over the past i2 years. The only positive that my