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REQUEST FOR ACTION <br />To Item Number <br />Plannin Commission 5.2 <br />Agenda Section Meeting Date Prepared by <br />Planning Items October 12, 2010 Jerem Barnhart, Plannin Manager <br />Item Description Reviewed by <br />Request by City of Elk River For Ordinance Amendment to add <br />Educational Uses in BP Zoning District, Reviewed by <br />Public Hearing -Case No. OA 10-06 <br />Action Requested <br />Staff does not support the ordinance change on the grounds that educational uses are not appropriate in <br />the Business Park zoning district an area predominantly industrial in intensity and character. <br />Background/Discussion <br />Spectrum High School approached the City Council in September, 2010 with a desire to locate their high <br />school in a building in the Business Park Zoning district. They require a building that can accommodate <br />their growth in time for June, 2011. Further, state requirements do not permit charter schools to own <br />property. In essence, the school must find available property and a willing property owner to lease the <br />parcel to them before June, 2011. <br />Based on direction by the City Council, staff prepared an ordinance amendment that would permit a <br />school in the Business Park Zoning district. To address concerns that Institutional uses is too broad of a <br />term, and would allow churches and other similar uses in the Business Park zone, staff has prepared an <br />amendment that both adds a definition of "educational institution" and permits the same in the business <br />park zoning district as a conditional use. <br />Staff does not support schools in the business park zoning districts. Business Park had been developed <br />with the intention "to encourage a planned, integrated environment for certain industrial, office, and <br />commercial uses which are compatible with and complement each other as well as surrounding land <br />uses. <br />What happens when a research laboratory (a permitted use in the BP zone) wants to expand to continue <br />research using potentiallyhazardous chemicals? Does this practice put school children in harms way <br />unnecessarily? Is truck traffic or production noise a distraction to school children? While schools are a <br />clear benefit to a community, it is staff's opinion that schools do not complement business park uses. <br />Attachments <br />• Ordinance No. 10- <br />• Memo to City Council dated September 13 Re: Spectrum High School <br />