4.1 PCSR 01-08-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2) The variance is consistent with the City of Elk River comprehensive plan The comprehensive plan shows the property in question as Highway Business and it has been zoned Highway Commercial. We are proposing a highway commercial business that needs highway visibility to be successful. The comprehensive plan doesn't guarantee the success of a business, but nor would it anticipate the failure of a business due a minor variation of the ordinances that are meant to implement that plan. The signage variance will give this business the highway visibility it needs. 3) The petitioner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted by the zoning ordinance Our proposed use of this building makes sense with the area and it has a clear sightline to the highway, it just needs slightly larger signage than permitted to be seen. Due to the large set back from Highway 10, which is the proposed business's traffic generator, it seems reasonable to have signage that is large enough to be read from this roadway. In addition, staff will probably view this building as one business,but both the car wash and the oil change facility need to be advertised to be successful. It could be argued that they should both be allowed 200 square feet of wall signage. 4) The plight of the petitioner is due to circumstances unique to the property not a consequence of the petitioner's own action or inaction We could add a freestanding sign, but does that make any more sense than placing the sign on the building. We could also remove the existing wall signage and replace it with a 200 square foot sign with both Oil Express & Car Wash on it,but it would be impossible to read from highway 10. In addition,the existing wall signs cost$16,000 when they were put up. In a time when we are all promoting recycling, it seems like an incredible waste to throw these signs out, which are unlikely to be reused by anyone. It would take the recycling of a lot of pop bottles to make up for these signs. 5) The variance, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the locality. The neighbor adjacent to the larger sign facing Highway 10 is our car lot and it doesn't bother us. The sign facing 171St, although it probably does have some advertising benefit, is mostly to let people know where to turn and it has been reduce in size. If granted, this building will have less wall signage per square foot of building wall than some of our neighbors with multiple tenant buildings. Granting this variance will not alter the essential character of the locality.