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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — APRIL 14, 2025 7 Councilmember Weber asked how many thrift applications the city received between the initial application for Goodwill in 2013 and the zoning code amendment in 2015. City Administrator Jagoe said zero. Councilmember Weber said there was one response to an email that he didn't see from Councilmember Holden that he was copied on. She stated that a bunch of thrift uses wanted to move into our city. So, looking into it, it appears there were none. Councilmember Holden said that's not true. Councilmember Weber said it is difficult to rebut that. He read the minutes from the 2015 case. There was no explanation, no valid reason, no statement that all of these thrift uses were going to move in. It was brought up as a potential concern but no actual applications were received. Arguing against a valid retail use in one of our retail zones is creating an issue that doesn't exist. Councilmember Holden asked if Councilmember Weber read the minutes where the Salvation Army came out, took Council on a tour of the building where they wanted to locate. Councilmember Weber said if it wasn't part of that specific planning case, he did not. He can't be expected to read minutes from every meeting since she took office. Councilmember Holden said apparently he should as she is expected to go through the minutes when she asks for a small easement on a piece of property, but the bottom line is there was no application because the City told them we weren't interested in changing all the rules for their business. Councilmember Monson thinks there are two issues. One is exclusionary zoning and if we should allow thrift in places where they can be successful within our zoning. Second we can legislate poor choices by the owner of Odds and Ends at a later date, if he so chooses to come forward, in the event we allow thrift stores. In her mind these are two different questions. For today's conversation she would like to focus on thrift store use. She has so many questions. What typeg of business does thrift store entail? What definitions should we be considering? Is that a pawn shop? She needs to know what the definitions are and what they do and do not include. She is open to restricting a stand-alone building. Maybe they can only be allowed in a strip mall. She has a lot of questions regarding thrift or pre -owned items. How can we thread the needle in a way that works for the community but also works for businesses? She thinks the business in question is a good one. It can be successful here because of the foot traffic. There is direct and indirect economic impact. Legislating the owner, today, probably isn't the right way to go. She wants the public to understand the process to change and amend the code. We are in the process of reviewing and cleaning up the zoning ordinance. That's a two year process to review requirements surrounding conditional use permits vs. permitted uses for residential and commercial zones. Council doesn't proactively go back to find problems. When someone comes in and says something doesn't fit there are two options. The first one, and the path 99% of businesses will take, is the business owner can come forward and say they would like a text amendment. That is the path of integrity and respecting the City's ordinances and codes, even if it's outdated. Option two is the Council chooses and actively decides to change the ordinance. In March the discussion was if we want to make this ordinance change because the business owner clearly has chosen he isn't taking the options laid out for him. Council has to decide if we are