01-22-2013 Planning Commission Packet

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L l Zoning Code Amendments January 17,2013 Page 6 3) Adequate area for the horses to be exercised. > 4) Sufficient separation from neighboring homes and properties. Not everyone wants to be near horses. 5) The long-esta.blished code which has created an expectation and/or assurance that horses cannot be kept on a property less than 3 acres in area; this protects our many neighborhoods developed with 2-acre lots. There is no question that with correct site management horses can physically be kept on small lots. Perhaps the greater question is, within a City where fully 1/3 of its properties abut a lake or stream, whether we want to encourage situations where mismanagement can lead to runoff pollution. Staff believes that the answer is clearly "no" as evidenced by long-existing requirements in the code requiring minimum pasture acreage and requiring a CUP for horses in the Lakeshore Residential zoning districts. Requests to the City for reductions in pasture acreage for horses are rare,perhaps one every 10 years. In order to provide Council with direction as to how to use its discretion in determining when it's appropriate to allow a reduction in pasture acreage, a CUP process may be appropriate. Staff would offer the following as a starting point for discussion: - Make it a conditional use requiring a CUP (in any district where horses are allowed) to � keep horses with less than the required acreage of pasture, with the requirement that such a CUP can only be issued if the Council finds that: a) The applicant has demonstrated that controls are in place to minimize or intercept and treat runoff from the site consistent with recommendations of the University of Minnesota Extension Service. b) The applicant submits and shall adhere to an acceptable manure management plan consistent with recommendations of the University of Minnesota Extension Service. c) The gross site area meets the minimum acreage requirement (3 acres for lst horses, one additional acre for each additional horse) even though the area actually devoted to pasture might not meet these requirements. d) Structures for housing the horses are located to meet zoning code requirements. e) All paddock and/or pasture areas where horses are kept, are separated by fencing from wetlands and wetland buffers (including existing established buffers and potential future buffers based on Code requirements). As this new conditional use would be an amendment to the zoning code, existing situations would be grandfathered in. Absent a formal inventory, we don't have a sense of how many, if any, properties don't meet these requirements.