8. Redeemed Farm request to amend IUPI�
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REDEEMED
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To Scandia City Officials,
RECEIVED
"Ay 15 2020
CITY OF SCANDIA
Redeemed Farm is a rural event venue located at 12680 ScandiaTrail, Scandia, MN. We currently are
operating with an IUP and an AOP adopted on 10. 18.16 and modified in August 2018. We have been authorized
to have up to 75 events with no more than one event per day.
Up until Covid-19, these limitations were acceptable to us and provided a viable return for the investment we
made in our venue. Over our first 3 years we've brought in excess of 10,000 people to Scandia each year.
Through our events, many people who would otherwise might never come to Scandia came and many spent dollars
at local stores, gas stations, lodging, florists and restaurants. Redeemed Farm brings more tourism into Scandia
than any other single business each year.
We have consistently run our venue with integrity and within the guidelines and parameters of our IUP and AOP
and believe we have been both a good neighbor to our neighbors and also to the community at large.
With the onset of Covid-19, we have been forced to cancel or postpone all of our weddings in May, June and many
in July -Oct. Covid-19 has upset the viability of our venue and has caused us to look at other ways to keep
Redeemed Farm in business. We believe Covid-19 will change the landscape of weddings for the foreseeable
future and cause weddings to become smaller in size. With the smaller size, couples are no longer be willing to pay
a venue fee that would keep Redeemed Farm viable.
We have looked at other venues that do ceremony only options such as PanolaValley Gardens in Lindstrom and
Trellis in Sti I lwater. These venues offer 4 ceremonies per day, Friday through Sunday.
In addition to our current full day wedding parameters covered under the current IUP and AOR, we are requesting
an amendment to our Interim use permit and Annual Operating permit increasing the maximum number of events
permitted on a weekly and annual basis. and a text amendment as follows:
• Up to 4 mini ceremonies per day. Each ceremony would consist of a ceremony with options for photo time,
short social hour with light appetizers, 2-4 hours max each.
• Elimination of the maximum number of events currently in the code (No more that I per day/365)
so that we could do enough mini ceremonies to make Redeemed Farm viable.
Our goal is to continue to operate seasonally, May through October but we might half to go year round
if we cannot book enough mini ceremonies to offset our operating costs. We would continue to operate within
our current hours 9am- I I pm. We would continue to operate within our occupancy permit of 200.
We are grateful for the consideration and look forward to continuing to be part of the Scandia community
S icerely,
Jeffrey Gacek
REDEEMED FARM 1 21325 Meadow Brook Ave N I Scandia, MN 55073 1 612.757.3597 1 Julie@RedeemedFarm.or-g