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Mr. Bill Malinen <br />Monday, April 26, 2010 <br />4 <br />Even our neighboring community Falcon Heights touches upon the "communiTy garden" activity <br />in its "suburban agriculture" definition: <br />Falcon Heights § 113.3 <br />Farm, suburban (agriculture) means a suburban farm is a <br />noncommercial food-producing use primarily intended for the use <br />of the residents, and usually on less than ten contiguous acres. <br />Suburban agricultural uses may include production of crops such <br />as fruit trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, vegetables, and domestic <br />pets. <br />NCPC's intended use of its land is quite simply agricultural in its scope and character.10 <br />This conclusion cannot be avoided by narrowly placing a nebulous "garden" label on NCPC's <br />land use plans. Furthermore, as will be seen infra, NCPC's proposed activity qualifies as a <br />moderate impact c�uasi-public use, which requires a conditional use permit under the residential <br />zoning ordinance. � <br />NCPC's Proposed Land Use Violates The Residential Zoning Ordinances. <br />NCPC, despite being a church, sits on land zoned R-1.12 In fact, NCPC's land use as a <br />church was a permitted use in an R-1 district at the time of its inception. Thus, the R-1 zoning <br />ordinances are presently applicable to the NCPC property. In addition to being a church, NCPC <br />also engages in the assorted occupations of being a pre-school and a State Fair Parking facility. <br />These additional occupations require a conditional use permit in R-1 zoning districts. Ord. § <br />1004.015. <br />Under the residential zoning ordinance "home occupation" is defined as: "[a]ny <br />occupation or profession engaged in by the occupant of a residential dwelling unit, which is <br />clearly incidental and secondary to the residential use of the premises and does not change the <br />character of said premises." Ord. § 1002.02.13 NCPC's planned land use as a"community <br />10 See Farmington Township v. High Plains Co-op., 460 N.W.2d 56, 57-59 (Minn. App. 1990)(examining the <br />substance of the land use and holding that because a lease arrangement involving a petroleum tank was more <br />analogous to agricultural supply, the land use was not related to agriculture itself.) <br />""Moderate impact public or quasi-public uses include activities with more than ten (10) employees on site far any <br />one activity, requiring more than fifteen (IS) parking spaces for any one activity.... A quasi-public use is any use <br />which is essentially public as in its services rendered, although it is under private control or ownership." Ord. § <br />1002.02. <br />12 However, the comprehensive plan shows the NCPC property as"institutional." Roseville Comp. Plan at 4-31. <br />Institutional land uses include civic, school, library, church, cemetery, and correctional facilities. Id. at 4-10. "The <br />Comprehensive Plan seeks to support the existing mix of land uses by... [m]aintaining the integrity of existing <br />single-family neighborhoods that constitute the majority of land use in this district." Id; see also Minn. Stat. § <br />473.858, subd. 1(2008)(providing that "the zoning ordinance shall be brought into conformance with the <br />[comprehensive municipal] plan" if there is a conflict.). <br />13 One can get hung up on whether the NCPC is a technically a"residential dwelling" or not. But, clearly, the fact <br />that the property is zoned R-1 does not obscure the reality that (1) NCPC obtained its status in the R-1 district due to <br />being a"house of God," (2) it is presently trying to benefit from its R-1 status by claiming that "gardens" aren't <br />regulated in R-1 districts, and (3) the city has previously enforced R-1 conditional use permit requirements on <br />� ^ <br />