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<br />Page 10 of17 <br /> <br />A. "Detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, comfort or general welfare" <br /> <br />The CPED Report found that on the basis of the shadow study submitted by Plaintiff, limitations oflight and air <br />"could be detrimental to the comfort and general welfare of [the surrounding] properties, especially those located to the <br />north and northeast of the proposed tower." The Zoning and Planning Committee findings, without providing any basis <br />for doing so, went even further to say that, "[t]he proposed project would be detrimental to the public comfort and <br />general welfare because of shadowing of adjacent property." <br />The problem is that the CPED report and the findings of the Zoning and Planning Committee both cite the effects <br /> <br />upon "surrounding" or "adjacent" property. This section of the ordinance, however, deals in generalities: public health, <br />public safety, public comfort, and general welfare. Nowhere, in either the CPED Report or the fmdings of the Zoning <br />and Planning Committee, are such general findings made. The plain meaning ofthe Municipal Code prohibits a limited <br />analysis of surrounding properties as the sole basis for general welfare finding. Additionally, to allow such limitation <br />would make moot the need for the second section of the ordinance which specifically requires analysis of the effect, of <br /> <br />granting a CUP, upon surrounding properties. Therefore, the construction adopted in the CPED report and the Zoning <br /> <br />and Planning Committee violates the basic rule of statutory interpretation that "[ e ]very law shall be construed, if <br /> <br />possible, to give effect to all of its provisions." Minn. Stat. ~645.16. <br /> <br />B. "Injurious to the use and enjoyment of property in the vicinity" and "impeding the orderly <br />development and improvement of surrounding property" <br /> <br />As discussed above, the shadowing arguments made by the City are better made as part of this analysis. CPED <br />found that "increasing the height ofthe building could be injurious to the use and enjoyment of the surrounding property <br />and could impede the normal development of the surrounding area." <br />First, the claims that shadowing impacts would be injurious and impede normal development are without merit. <br />There is no finding in the record that the temporary daily shadows cast on the surrounding properties would be truly <br />injurious. That shadows exist is not enough, without more, to justifY this decision. Moreover, even had the shadow <br />analysis contained concrete findings of injury, the owners of properties (to the north and northeast) which would have <br />been most significantly impacted by the shadowing were actually in support of the project, and other nearby, affected <br />properties were owned by the Plaintiff, a fact that was known by the City at the time of their analysis. <br />Second, while the finding that the tower was not within the scale and character of the neighborhood was <br />reasonable, the finding that the failure to so conform was injurious to surrounding properties and an impediment to <br />normal development was without any factual support. Contrary to the assertions of the CPED report or the findings of <br />the Zoning and Planning' Committee, it does not necessarily follow that a deviation in scale and character in a <br />neighborhood which is, by the City's own admission, "varied" in scale and character would result in the type of injury or <br /> <br />htlp:/ /www.minnlawyer.comluserfiles/pdf/Order%20(Final).htm <br /> <br />9/17/2009 <br />