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INTERIM ORDINANCE NO. 10 -17 • CITY OF ELK RIVER AN INTERIM ORDINANCE PLACING A MORATORIUM ON THE ACCEPTANCE OF NEW APPLICATIONS OR THE APPROVAL OF PENDING APPLICATIONS FOR CONDITIONAL USE PERMITS OR AMENDMENTS TO EXISTING CONDITIONAL USE PERMITS FOR MINERAL EXCAVATION ACTIVITIES Findings of Fact The City Council of the City of Elk River makes the following Findings of Fact: 1. The City of Elk River, following the preparation of a mining area land use study and the preparation of an environmental impact statement covering the mining area of the City of Elk River, adopted, in 1982, ordinance amendments regulating mineral excavation activities (now codified as Chapter 42, Article II of the Elk River City Code of Ordinances) and creating a mineral excavation overlay zoning district (now codified at Section 30 -1835 of the Code of Ordinances). 2. One of the purposes of the environmental impact statement for the gravel mining area was to ensure that mining in this area of the City was conducted in a manner that would allow for future development of this area of the City for other uses. 3. One of the purposes of the mineral excavation overlay zoning district is to protect • the public health, safety and general welfare by providing a specific zoning district. 4. In order to ensure that mineral excavation activities are conducted in such a way that protects the public health, safety and general welfare, and provides for future development of the mining area, mineral excavation operations are made a conditional use in the mineral excavation overlay zoning district. 5. The purposes of the gravel mining area environmental impact statement and the mining and mineral excavation overlay district cannot be met unless mineral excavation activities are subject to appropriate regulation, including requiring conditional use permits for mining activities and the imposition of appropriate conditions on the issuance of conditional use permits. 6. A representative of a mineral excavation business has recently taken the position that: • the mere fact that land is located within the mineral excavation overlay zoning district means that mining is a permitted use; • denial of a conditional use permit, or denial of an amendment to an existing conditional use permit, is, therefore, "arbitrary as a matter of law"; • it is unreasonably vague and subjective for the City to rely on potential future development of property located within the mineral excavation overlay zoning district when acting on applications to amend a conditional • use permit for mineral excavation activities; and