Park Rapids Planning Commission OKs Turnquist paving plan - Park Rapids Enterprise

The Park Rapids Planning Commission on July 20 recommended for the second time that the city council approve a conditional use permit (CUP) requested by Nathan Turnquist.

The request, which the council sent back to the planning commission on June 28, was tabled at the planning commission’s July 11 meeting after Turnquist abruptly left the meeting.

Turnquist later said he was frustrated by a proposal at that time to postpone action on the CUP for a month, to allow commission members to review a diagram of his phased paving plan. However, the planning commission set a special meeting for this week in the hope of resolving the issue, and Turnquist and the commission did hammer out an agreement.

Discussion on July 11 had circled around the amount and timetable of paving Turnquist would agree to on the proposed auto, boat, RV, trailer, shed, golf cart, ORV, ATV, shipping container sales, detailing and online auction lot, with a combined single family residential and commercial building (a.k.a. “shouse”), at 18164 169th Ave., adjacent to State Hwy. 34.

These issues dated back to June 28, when city council members felt the lot should be paved, rather than surfaced with crushed asphalt as city code would allow in a highway business (B1) zoning district with no curb and gutter. Council member Erika Randall then stressed that she hoped to see a plan to pave the sales lot in phases.

072322.WEB.PRE.TurnquistMap.jpg — Nathan Turnquist provided this diagram of his paving plan for 18164 169th Ave. on July 20, 2022 for members of the Park Rapids Planning Commission to review, after they recommended approval of his conditional use permit to develop a combined commercial and residential use on the property.

Turnquist now brought a proposal to pave a 50-by-200-foot area toward the north end of the lot, where he said used cars would be parked, with room on the crushed asphalt surrounding the pad to allow customers to drive around and look. This “Phase 1” paving would be done before the business opens.

Turnquist compared this to the 25-by-100-foot paved auto sales area on the neighboring commercial property across 169th Avenue

For “Phase 2,” Turnquist agreed to pave a 20-by-96-foot parking area in front of the shouse within 14 months after opening the business. Meanwhile, he said, the northern part of the lot from the 169th Ave. access to Hwy. 34 would be surfaced with crushed asphalt.

Turnquist said he did not want to commit to a timeline for “Phase 3,” to replace the remaining crushed asphalt with pavement. He added that he did not have immediate plans to develop the southern portion of the property and wasn’t sure he wanted to do consignments.

Commission member Scott Hocking suggested taking the consignments off the application, so that the city council doesn’t use that as a reason to send the request back again. “Maybe put that as a Phase 3 that you’ll add that in later on, and just let them worry about where you’re sitting now with the car lot,” he said.

Turnquist said he needed it on the CUP because customers do bring him cars on consignment, and they will get mixed in with the cars at the front of the lot. He said the state requires him to have the consignment business on his permit.

Commission members asked Turnquist to send them a diagram showing the phases of his pavement plan, with the different surfaces labeled, to ensure everyone was on the same page.

After lengthy discussion, commission members agreed with the findings of fact supporting approval of the CUP. They also reworked the language of one of the six staff-recommended commissions, stipulating Phases 1 and 2 of the paving timeline as Turnquist described.

Commission members voted unanimously, absent chairman Robb Swanson, to recommend council approval of the CUP with the conditions as amended.

A diagram of his paving plan that Turnquist sent out for commission members’ review after the meeting shows a “Phase 3” to replace the crushed asphalt with pavement within five years, including much of the area south of the approach, designated for “trailer, boat sales and consignments.”

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