Hugo Council Revokes Lowell SUP
Centerville P&Z Close To Addressing Variance Issue
To hear the neighbors tell it, the property located at 14069 Finale Avenue North has been a problem since the spring of 1998, two months after its owner received a Special Use Permit from the Hugo City Council.
The SUP permitted the establishment of an auto repair and auto body business and allowed limited outdoor storage within a fenced yard. Located south of the Oneka Estates development just west of Hwy. 61, the property borders the new Kidzplace child care center on three sides.
Photo courtesy of Jason Nelson
Twenty property owners signed a letter dated January 25, 2007 citing no improvement since the city's October 2004 inspection and urging officials to take action on what the letter describes as a growing neighborhood "safety concern."
"We believe that [the] city of Hugo needs to be working for and representing all of its citizens, existing and new residents, to maintain the integrity of the entire city rather than only focusing on new development," the letter said.
At the Council meeting of February 5, it seemed that the city's patience had, indeed, finally run out: council members unanimously revoked the SUP in spite of repeated requests by the owner's attorney, Jim Hamilton, to allow the property owner two weeks "to find some common ground."
Even at the time the original SUP was issued, the paperwork was accumulating: the owner had been ordered by a judge to apply for the permit after the city pursued its claim in 1997 that the property was in violation of the city's zoning ordinances.
According to city staff, over two dozen letters have been sent over the years to the attention of the property's owner, Charles W. Lowell of White Bear Lake, who has leased the building to a string of different businesses, including cabinetry, motor sports, and equipment sales companies.
The letters have highlighted numerous permit violations ranging from the storage of asphalt paving equipment and as many as 22 unlicensed vehicles at once to uncut grass and dogs running at large on the premises.
A letter from the city dated November 28, 2006 identified a 500-gallon propane storage tank and numerous gas pumps on the property, allegedly stockpiled for "refurbishing." According to the residents' letter, an employee of the business had advised them that "there [was] still gasoline in the pumps."
And on September 12, 2004, the Washington County Sheriff's Department and the Hugo Fire Department responded to a call from the owner of the auto repair shop on the property. A methamphetamine lab was found within a trailer parked inside the shop.
Although the permit specifically limits outdoor storage to "limited building materials, one bobcat, one bobcat trailer, and two touring trailers," currently the 2-acre site sports piles of garbage, tires, and building materials, old gas pumps, unlicensed vehicles, scrap wood and metal, barrels, an asphalt roller, and propane tanks.
Hamilton urged the city to recognize that the "offending use is going to be gone by March 1st," and that Lowell "broke the lease" with the current tenant as a result of recent complaints.
"Should you commence litigation," he said, "the only folks that are going to win are the lawyers."
"It appears that litigation is the route that this property owner chooses to use to address these issues," said Mayor Fran Miron. "I believe our problem is with the property owner, not the tenant."
A call to owner Charles Lowell was not returned by press time.