4B - Ordinance Amendment to ALlow NOn-Commercial Use in the LI Zone

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Planning Commission Direction: The Planning Commission can recommend that the City Council approve the amendment. The Planning Commission can also choose to not recommend the amendment or the discussion can be tabled. Due to the fact that this amendment is being considered at the request of an applicant(it is not initiated by the Planning Commission), the Planning Commission must eventually make a recommendation. The applicant has a right to a decision by the City Council. Staff Recommendation: Subsequent to the March meeting, Staff prepared a memo outlining options that the School District should consider when looking for a site for this facility.The following quotes from that memo,which is also attached to this report. Looking at the proposal through the narrow prism of the City's interest, the best location for a new maintenance building is the existing site. Reconstructing the existing building and improving the existing site would not have any financial ramifications for the City. I believe this would be very easy to approve. The second-best location would be on property already owned by the School District. The District is a major property owner in the City and finding room within the existing land holdings for storing and maintaining buses would be preferred.Again, I believe it would be easy for the City to approve such a facility on existing school property. The Business/Industrial Park would be an undesirable location for the proposed facility. The City has invested, and is obligated to maintain, millions of dollars in infrastructure in the Business Park. The objectives of these investments are to grow the overall tax base and create jobs. We suffer today from hasty decisions made in the past to sell (give away) property when the park was not developing as fast as anticipated. I understand that we have a depressed market today, but the City has learned from past mistakes and is rightly hesitant to undertake proposals that will remove properties from the tax base, especially when no appreciable level of new jobs will be created. An amendment to the Ordinance is required to site a bus maintenance and storage facility in the City of Pequot Lakes. It is my opinion that accommodating such a use can happen, with the following general locations being viable options(from most favorable to least): 1. Rehabilitation of the existing site. 2. Other existing,School District-owned property 3. Highway Commercial property without utilities 4. Babinski Industrial property 5. Well-buffered Agricultural or Forestry property The proposed amendment to the Code is a general, non-site-specific action. The amendment would apply to all property zoned Light Industrial. We have prepared Ordinance Amendments for both "Public Uses" and "School Bus Storage & Maintenance Facilities" in the Light Industrial Zone. The final decision on Pequot Lakes Staff Report 4(b)-2 May 19,2011