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CD Brian Kerber RECENEC. 740 Orchard Park Rd. ��` 0 9 2005 Orono, Mn. 55356 December 8, 2005 ^,TY OF °RC* To the City of Orono, I ask that you please stop making me feel guilty about fixing up my property. When I purchased it, this place was a dump site. I removed 12 dump trucks full of junk, including 9 rusty old appliances and 10 dog houses, and list could go on. I have cleaned this place up, landscaped it very nicely, planted over 50 trees and have kept it very well maintained. Before I bought this property there were 2 different landscape companies running their businesses out of here on a lease from the previous owner,who themselves ran a commercial vegetable stand here. (The Ponderosa.) Before I made an offer to purchase this property five years ago, I went to City Hall to see if 1.) I could run a small landscape business out of here, and I was told I could. (This is a small husband & wife Lawn & prairie seeding business that is only open for 45 days in the spring and 45 days in the fall, in a good year. With the rain this year it was only 65 days total) We leave in the morning and return in the evening.(just like anyone else.) 2.) I also inquired as to how many square feet of out buildings I could have. I was told I could have up to 4000 sq. ft. I then purchased this property. I asked for a permit to build a 24' x 32'(768 sq. ft.) hobby shop, as I was going to destroy a 22' x 24'(528 sq. ft.) building that existed on the property, because the location did not work for me. I also asked to put up a 60' x 40' building (2,400 sq. ft.) Your own rules say that I could have put up 2-2,000 sq. ft. buildings, but that is not what I wanted. I wanted one alittle larger and one a lot smaller. I was denied both buildings. I applied for a variance, and after much time in meetings & money, finally you agreed to allow me to put up a 60' x 36' (only 160 sq. ft. over your 2,000 sq. ft. per bldg. limit) and said I could only rebuild the same size building I was taking down 22' x 24'. That was a mockery of your own rules. If you have a problem with your own 4,000 sq. ft. rules then change them. I bought this property based on those rules. On 5/10/05 you granted me a permit to build a deck and a 12' x 12' shed. It states that the shed must be 26' from the wetland. Because of this permit I have already purchased all of the materials for the shed. And I have added a number of additional tools to my hobby shop, anticipating that I would have a 12' x 12' shed to hold the items that would have to be moved to make room for my new tools, (band saw, table saw,jointer, router table and several others). I was temporarily storing things between my shop and the fence behind the shop under tarps. If you would have denied the 12'x 12' shed from the start this would not have been such a problem. But is would still have been a mockery of your own rules of the 4,000 sq. ft. total. But it is now too late to change the series of events that this permit started. In May of this year I went to City Hall to get a permit for some fences I wanted to put up. I was shocked to find out I did not need a permit, but learned that there were height restrictions on Cty. Rd. 6 (42") and Orchard Park Rd (6 ft). I rented a post hole digger in June and dug all my holes, and in early July (when my business is slow, as it is too hot to seed) I put up my fences. Including the one behind my hobby shop. A