Planning Report

Date:	May 15, 2001

Case:	SP 01 - 05 & NC 01 - 01

Subject:	Special Use Permit & Type 4 Non-Conforming Use Permit

Applicant:	Daniel Jankowski – All Wheels Sales & Service

Request

To hold a public hearing and consider requests for a Special Use Permit and a Type 4 Non-Conforming Use Permit to operate an used automobile sales and leasing service at 443 Old Highway 8. There is an existing three-story building with offices on the top floor, warehousing and manufacturing on the bottom two floors. "All Wheels Sales & Service" is an auto sales and leasing business; the applicant lives in New Brighton, wishes relocate his business in the City by leasing a 350 square foot office space at the subject site.

The special use permit is requested due to the fact that "Automobile sales, new or used" is listed in Special Uses Permitted in a B-3 district. There is a deficit of parking on the site, therefore a non-
conforming permit is required.

Findings

Section 8-110, Special Uses.

Section 8-410, Nonconforming Uses.

Section 11-010, Parking Standards

Past Action

Applicant applied for Special Use Permit April 27, 2001.

Site Characteristics

1.	Location:	443 Old Highway 8 NW

2.	Lot Size:	27,000 square feet

3.	Topography:	flat near Old Highway 8, slopes east toward rear of lot.

4.	Vegetation:	Some along berm on west side

5.	Sensitive Areas:	None

Site History

1.	Past Uses:	Kallestad property (Print Craft), Belair Builders

Departmental Considerations

Community Development

1.	Existing Use:	Top floor offices, bottom two floors warehouse & light manufacturing.

2.	Proposed Use:	addition of Auto Sales & Service office on top floor

3.	Surrounding Land Uses:

North:	Industrial (Micom Corporation)

South:	Retail (Dairy Queen)

East:	auto service (Bob's Auto)

West:	American Legion (across Old Hwy. 8)

4.	Density/FAR:	Building area: 27,000 square feet

Lot area:	30,565 square feet

Allowed: 100% Existing 88% Proposed: 88%

5.	Building Setbacks:

Front	Side	Rear
Required	40 feet	0 feet	30 feet
Existing	70 feet	0 feet	114 feet
Meets Code	Meets Code	Meets Code

6.	Parking Setbacks

Front	Side	Rear
Required	40 feet	5 feet	5 feet
Existing	14 feet	0	20 feet
26 foot encroachment	1 stall encroaches	meets code

The applicant is proposing to add a special use to a site where parking is non-conforming due to a parking stall deficit of 11.

7.	Stall Size:	Required: 9 x 18 feet / Existing: 9 x 18 feet

8.	Parking Spaces Required:	The building contains both office and warehouse uses.

Required: 1 stall per 200 square feet for office uses (9,000 square foot building minus 10%), therefore, 40.5 stalls are required.

Required: 1 stall per 1000 square feet of warehouse space (18,000 square foot building minus 10%), therefore, 16.2 stalls are required.

Auto Sales Use Requirement:	The Code requires 6 stalls + 1 for each employee for Auto Sales; this is added to the total for commercial/office

Total Required without Auto Sales Use: 57 stalls

Total Required with proposed Use: 64 stalls

Existing Parking: 53 Stalls

Even without the added auto sales use application, there is a four (4) parking stall deficit.

9.	Total Drives:	Primary access to the site is off of Old Highway 8. The survey shows 4th Street NW; this street really acts like a driveway for the site and Bob's Auto to the east of the building.

10.	Parking Area Surface:	The entire parking area is paved.

11.	Comp Plan Designation:	Business Park

12.	Zoning:	I-1, Light Industrial

Public Works

1.	Streets:	Old highway 8 NW. The road stub labeled as "4th Street" acts like an alley serving Bob's Auto and the east side of the site.

2.	Utilities:	Existing.

3.	Easements:	10-foot sewer easement runs north-south across rear parking area (eastern portion of site)

4.	Grading/Drainage:	No changes are proposed

5.	Rice Creek Watershed District:	No permit required

6.	Environmental Concerns:	none

7.	MPCA:	NA

8.	Other Considerations:	None

Staff Comments

The subject site was originally developed with an insufficient amount of parking. The proposed use requires more parking of the site.

Settlement Agreement of 1997

In 1997, New Brighton was named as Cross-Claim Defendant for approving the construction of a building without showing adequate parking. A settlement agreement was reached October 1997 in the Second Judicial Court (Court Case File CO-96-6374). The former owner of the building (Robert Kallestad) entered into an agreement with the City of New Brighton and Bob's Auto (Owner of the building to the east behind subject site) regarding permission to access to an area for nine (9) parking stalls (see parking area in Exhibit E attached). This action addressed and reduced the parking deficit, but did not satisfy code requirements. For the uses allowed in the building, a parking deficit continues to exist.

The Agreement also limited the use of the building to reduce the amount of parking demand generated. Under the terms, the owner of the building agree that the first two floors of the building shall be used solely for warehousing and manufacturing purposes and the top floor may be used for office uses until the property is in full compliance with the then existing Parking requirements.

Parking is located in front, back, and in easement area.. Owner of the building has an easement agreement to access the lot outlined in Exhibit E (attached). This contains nine parking spaces.

Special Use Permit

The business will occupy 350 square feet of office space on the third floor; auto sales requires a Special Use Permit for the zone. The standards for issuance of a Special Use Permit are:

(1) That the establishment, maintenance, or operations of the special use will not be detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, morals, comfort or general welfare.

(2) That the special use will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity for the purposes already permitted, nor substantially diminish and impair property values within the neighborhood.

(3) That the establishment of the special use will not impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of the surrounding property for uses permitted in the district.

(4) That adequate utilities, access roads, drainage and/or necessary facilities have been or are being provided.

(5) That the special use shall in all other respects conform to the applicable regulations of the district in which it is located.

It seems inappropriate to approve a Special Use Permit for this use since the site is in non-conformance with the applicable district regulations. Specifically, there is inadequate parking on the site today by City standards and auto sales places a higher demand for parking on a per square foot basis that the uses currently allowed on the site.

Nonconforming Use Permit

Type 4 non-conformities exist on the subject site. Permission of a non-conformity may be granted only if one or more of the following conditions are met:

A. The total number of nonconformities is reduced.

B. The impact of any nonconformity upon adjacent premises is reduced

to the greatest practical extent.

C. The extent of any nonconformity is reduced where practical.

The nonconformities that exist on the subject site include the following:

•	Front yard parking setback violation

•	The existing setbacks for the parking area and drive aisles do not meet the required five (5) foot side yard setback.

•	The Zoning Code calls for a total of 57 parking stalls; the lot survey shows 53.

The proposed use adds parking stall demand above the office requirements. Office parking requirements call for 1 space per 200 square feet. The minimum number of off-street parking for "Auto Sales" is six + one per each employee or seven (7) minimum.

The lot survey show 53 parking spaces. The applicant is requesting to add a use to a site that presently in deficit of four (4) parking stalls; if approved, this would increase the number of required parking stalls from 57 to 64 to accommodate Zoning Code requirements for "Auto Sales."

The applicant has not outlined a proposal to address the parking nonconformities on site.

Comment:

Staff has spoken several times with the applicant and the property owner, and staff visited the site six times. There were empty parking spaces in the rear of the building and the 9-stall parking area adjacent to Bob's Auto was also empty (see Exhibit E "Parking Diagram" attached). Neither the owner nor the applicant have plans to enlarge parking; the applicant believes that existing parking on site is not fully utilized and therefore should be granted the permit. Data from the MCPE - Industrial Property Report states that 443 Old Highway 8 NW has a current vacancy of 2,500 square feet. Once leased, the businesses would use the available parking.

Zoning Code analysis shows a deficit of parking for the site. Staff believes that even though there appear to be unused parking stalls, vacant offices may be leased and thereby increase demand for parking.

Recommendation

Staff Recommendation

The applicant has not shown how adding auto sales as an additional use to the site addresses the parking deficit issue. The nature of "Auto Sales" results in the storage of inventory (autos) which actively removes parking spaces that are already in short supply.

Because there is not adequate parking on the site to serve existing uses based on City Standards, Staff must recommend denial of the special use and nonconforming use permit.

Denial

Motion to waive the reading recommending denial of SP 01 - 05 and NC 01 - 01 as proposed, due to the fact that there are nonconformities on the site as it exists today; the addition of the proposed special use will exacerbate the present parking deficit condition.

Patrick Boylan, City Planner