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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeasonal Sales City of Columbia Heights Memo To: Planning Commission From: Jeff Sargent, City Planner Date: Re: Seasonal Outdoor Sales PROPOSITION Staff proposes the Planning Commission discuss amending the Zoning Code regarding the elimination of the requirement for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for all future Seasonal Outdoor Sales activities. PROBLEM The Planning Commission and the City Council’s time are not put to the best use while processing a request for Seasonal Outdoor Sales proposals. The Seasonal Outdoor Sales applications that are received by the City are proposed by companies that have been conducting the same business in the same location for a considerable amount of time. In the 2006 season, 3 of the 9 Conditional Use Permits that were processed by the Planning Commission and the City Council were proposals for greenhouses throughout the city. Those three companies requesting the CUP have conducted 31 combined years of business in the City of Columbia Heights. The Linder’s Greenhouse, which locates in the Rainbow Grocery Store parking lot, has conducted business in Columbia Heights for the past 17 years. Each year, the application is identical to the previous year’s application, and each year the CUP gets approved. This redundancy of applying for and receiving a CUP for this type of use throughout the city wastes the Planning Commission and City Council’s time. POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE A possible solution to this problem is to eliminate the requirement for a CUP for Seasonal Outdoor Sales. To implement this solution, the City would have to amend the Zoning Code to move the Seasonal Outdoor Sales use from a Conditional Use to a Permitted Use. It is also suggested that a definition of Seasonal Outdoor Sales be 1 added to the Zoning Code in order to specify the types of businesses that the ordinance amendment would pertain to. City Staff would process the proposals of all future Seasonal Outdoor Sales. Staff proposes the requirement of a license to sell merchandise in a temporary structure during these occurrences. All other previous requirements of a Seasonal Outdoor Sales use would be enforced. Implementing the removal of the requirement for a CUP for Seasonal Outdoor Sales would discontinue the redundancy for the City Council’s need of approving these uses.  Page 2