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PLANNING REPORT DATE: January 16, 2015 CASE: LP2014-005, SP2014-005, ZA2014-002 SUBJECT: Site Plan, Special Use Permit, and Zoning Code Amendment Facilitating a 17 Acre Expansion of an Outdoor Aggregate Crushing/Recycling and Equipment Storage Land Use at 2200 Old Highway 8 NW APPLICANT: Murlowski Properties Inc. REQUEST & BACKGROUND Murlowski Properties Inc. (MPI), requests the following land use actions to facilitate an expansion of their current operation at 2200 Old Highway 8 NW, known as Belair Excavating:  Zoning Code Amendment – the existing and proposed land uses are permitted through Article 7 of Chapter 6 of the Zoning Code, titled Environmental Constraint Overlay Area. In order to process an expansion of MPI’s operations (Belair Excavating), this ordinance must be amended to ensure the preservation of certain planning principals affected by this industrial use. While the request has been made by the applicant, mostly due to it benefiting only their business, City staff and the City Attorney have drafted the amendment and proposed conditions in a manner that aims to protect adjacent and surrounding land uses and the general public.  Special Use Permit – the applicant intends to use a portion of the expansion land for aggregate crushing and recycling and associated equipment storage, which is a specially permitted use under the Environmental Constraint Overlay Area Ordinance. As such, a special use permit request must be processed to ensure the conditions noted (and proposed to be amended) are met.  Site Plan – the proposed Site Plan is necessary as it illustrates how the applicant intends to use the additional property, how the existing property is impacted, and where certain functions of the operation will be located. The proposed requests consist of a 17 acre expansion of Belair Excavating’s operations. Of those 17 acres, certain portions are slated for storage of piled material, storage of equipment, and infiltration features required by the Rice Creek Watershed District (see proposed Site Plan). This 17 acre expansion of the current 20 acre site, results in a 37 acre operation by Belair Excavating. Previous plans illustrated more property to be included in the expansion. Over the course of several months it was determined that MPI didn’t own one parcel (rather Ramsey County Parks does) and the other parcel is via easement and not fee title. Staff is concerned that the easement, as written, doesn’t provide them legal ability to expand operations, thus, that parcel has been removed from the expansion plans as well. The applicant always has the ability to come back to the City at a later date when the ownership situation changes, but for now this parcel (the most southerly 100’) has not been included in the expansion request. Also worthy to note, the applicant’s plans include a major grading effort on the expansion land and construction of four infiltration basins. Much of the land acquired by MPI for their expansion was used as a landfill and the applicant is being required by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to remediate the environmental issues by installing a clean cover cap. The applicant has devised a grading plan, which has already been reviewed and approved by the Rice Creek Watershed District. Prior to the applicant moving their operations onto the expansion land, the landfill cap/grading project will take place. In fact, the applicant has already begun this