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It City Council City of Orono reo Conditional Use Permit July ;, 1980 Dear Council Members, At your meeting of June '30, 1980, you tabled the request for a special use permit for the property at 1205 Arbor Street until further information could be gathered for your decision. We felt it would be appropriate to address some of the concerns raised by the council at that meeting. Questions have been raised about the size of the greenhouse being proposed. We have proposed a 52.5 ft.. x 48 ft. greenhouse and a future addition to its north side for a garage, storage and non growing activities. The greenhouse itself would be divided into three separate growing areas, each with different climatic conditions. We are concerned that there may be some confusion about the size and the implication which size may have or. traffic. We currently have approximately 600 square feet of growing area. The arrangement is very crowded and layered four tiers in some areas. One of the reasons fc,r a larger facility is to avoid having plants over other plants. Good light and air circulation are very important and our current conditions have passed a critical point. :he proposed area would provide approximately 4 times as much growing area as we now have. During the first six months of this year we have had 98 ;gales in 182 days or approximately one sale every other day. if .tour times as much growing area translated into four times as mane sales, that would still only produce two sales per day. We would also; like to clarify our method of doing husinessi By Appointments We have come to the conclusiun that having regular tusiness hours would be a waste of our time. We do intend to have 2 to 4 open houses each year to accomodate those who chose not to make an appointment. We would ha.e no objection to the council stipulating such a method as a condition of granting the special use hermit. Wholesale vs. retail: We have sold to several retail establishments on a wholesale basis. Orchids have generally proven to be an unsatisfactory product for these vendors. We do not beleive that a wholesale business is viable and in any event we do not beleive it would change the traffic density of our proposed use. Products Orchids are our primary interest. The only other type of plants which we have carried for sale are bromiliads, some tropical ferns and 3 few other exotic plants which are compatitle with orchids. We have not sold more than. 50 of these combined genera in over 7 ,years. We beleive that this business is compatible with a residential neighborhood. �'-;reasonable traffic levels are unlikely. We intend to provide off street parking and comply with screening ordinances. We would intend to provide natural screening where practical. We recognize a responsibility to maintain the quality of the neighborhood. We would also like to point out that this location is only 1 block from County Road 146 using Lakeview Avenue, which is the most convenient access to the property.