By Lori Ehde
Fledgling Field once again found its way on the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting agenda.
Dan Dingmann of Dingmann Funeral Home appeared on behalf of Cornerstone Construction Tuesday to request the property on Highway 75 be rezoned from R1 to R2.
After a lengthy and controversial public debate over the past year, the City Council denied Cornerstone's request for a conditional use permit for construction of a funeral home in the R1 zone.
What opened the door to so much discussion was confusion over whether a funeral home should be considered a home or a business. Ultimately, it was decided funeral homes will not be allowed in R1 (residential areas) even with a conditional use permit.
Having purchased the property with intent to build a funeral home for Dingmann, Gary Verkinnes of Cornerstone Construction, St. Cloud, is headed back to the drawing board.
He had stated earlier that he will develop the property, whether it's a funeral home or residential housing. But their next step will be to request the property be rezoned to R2, which allows funeral homes as a conditional use.
Dingmann wants to move his operation to the new location because he needs more space, and he would rather not ruin the historic appeal of the original Holm house on West Main Street.
As it turns out, there was little discussion on Dingmann's request Tuesday, because by law, the Planning Commission can formally consider requests made only by the property owner.
Dingmann said he thought Verkinnes had already notified the commission in writing, but he would return at a future meeting.
Before the commission moved to the next item on the agenda, council member Dave Hauge, who attended the meeting, attempted to prevent the zoning request from appearing on a future agenda.
"The council has already acted on this, and it would be a great waste of time to go down this road again," Hauge said, saying that was also the consensus of the council.
"The end decision has been made. I think we should respect the work of all these people."
New Planning and Zoning member Dan Serie told Hauge that it's not the place of the commission to decide which requests it will or will not hear.
"I'm fairly new, but as I understand, we can't deny anybody the right to come before us with a zoning request," Serie said.
Once Verkinnes formally requests rezoning, the process will begin for public hearings, and the Planning and Zoning Commission will either deny the request or recommend it to the City Council for approval.
Back yard boulders
What generated far more discussion at Tuesday's Planning and Zoning meeting was a conditional use application by Burdell and Julia Kruse to store granite boulders in their backyard.
The Kruses, who live at 609 N. Cottage Grove, recently purchased the 7.5 acre grassy waterway on the west of town.
They operate a business that collects large boulders from area farmers who want them removed from their fields, and they sell them primarily to out-of-state clients for landscape decorations or other uses.
Their business is set up on Walnut Street near Mary Jane Brown Good Samaritan Center, but they need temporary storage for the boulders, and they want to use their expanded backyard for that purpose.
The area in question borders the south side of Dodge Street (west of the school bus garages) and the backyards of residents on Cottage Grove.
When residents received notice of Tuesday's meeting, the agenda mentioned the conditional use was requested for sand, gravel and other materials. That's because that's the closest zoning category the commission could find to describe the boulders.
When they found out it wasn't a construction operation going on in their backyards, many felt more comfortable about the Kruses' request, but they still were uneasy about their views being altered by the rows of large rocks in the grass.
After hearing residents' concerns, the commission decided to explore several conditions that would be agreeable to both the Kruses and their neighbors.
The conditions likely to be placed on the permit are that it include boulders only (not construction materials), hours of operation may be restricted to normal business hours, the amount of space may be restricted to the northern third of the property, and the permit be set to expire after a given number of years.
The commission tabled action on the request Tuesday, so these restrictions could be explored.
The Kruses asked the commission act quickly, because with farmers in the field for harvest, now is the time they'd like to build their inventory.