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Clifford L. Otten <br />2265 W. Wayzata Blvd <br />Long Lake, MN 55356 <br />April 10, 1989 <br />Orono City Council <br />City of Orono <br />P. 0. Box 66 <br />Crystal Bay, MN 55323 <br />Dear Councilpersons; <br />As you know, my application presently pending before the Orono <br />City Council for my new garden center requests that you rezone <br />the land from its present residential classification to business <br />classification B- ?. The Planning Commission recommended that <br />you approve the project under unspecified planned unit <br />development standards so as to retain total control over the <br />project, I told them that that was not appropriate in these <br />circumstances. Let me explain my position. <br />Presently, with single family residential zoning of the site, <br />everyone appreciates that no residential use is appropriate. <br />Therefore in all events it is generally understood that some <br />commercial use of this land is necessary and appropriate. <br />Therefore, as a starting point the property needs to be rezoned <br />from its residential use category to some form of commercial use <br />category. Such rezoning is critical such that whatever <br />commercial improvements are made to the property can be built an <br />rebuilt in the case of fire, other destruction, condemnation or <br />the like, so as to meet the requirements of mortgage lenders, <br />insurers, initial users, tenants, and future buyers, all of whom <br />are critically interested in what can be done to the property <br />over lengthy periods of time. Once one understands that the <br />property must be rczoned from residential to some form of <br />commercial, then the question arises as to what appropriate <br />control procedures are available to the city. <br />With regard to permitted uses, I suggest that a garden center, <br />being such a desirable use, should be a permitted use in this <br />commercial zone. There need to be other appropriate permitted <br />uses within this commercial zone as well so that other uses ot <br />the site may be made in the future for the protection of a <br />mortgagee who might obtain title through foreclosure, an insurer <br />who has an interest with regard to reconstruction obligations <br />(and in that I am referring not only to my own insurer, but that