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Home My WebLink About1980 08-15 Auto dealer can't build before trial THE REVIEW Auto dealer q can't build before trial • Once again a Maplewood property owner has failed in his attempt to be allowed to start construction of an auto • dealership on his land. On Friday,Judge James E.Marsden denied a preliminary injunction request that would have allowed Ron McDaniels of Bloomington to place fill on his 3.94 acres of land near Kohlman Lake in Maplewood. McDaniels had asked the Ramsey County District Court judge to issue the injunction,which would have restrained the state Department of Natural Resources(DNR)from enforcing a state law specifically governing the property, �' according to Bill Clapp, an assistant k' attorney general. ?' Marsden set Oct.8 as the date for a i- district court trial to hear McDaniels' :r-. petition challenging the constitutionality i"` of the state law that prevents the con- struction of the car dealership. McDaniels has been trying for two years to get permission from various government and conservation agencies to build a Toyota dealership. His latest obstacle is a six-line amend- ment to law passed in April by the state Legislature.It places his land under DNR jursidiction.It is this law that McDaniels wants declared unconstitutional. In order to build his dealership, McDaniels will now have to get a permit from the DNR to place fill material on his property,which the agency is classifying -as marginal wetlands.DNR regulations prohibit the placement of fill dirt on certain wetlands and this could per- manently block McDaniel's project. Members of the Kohlman-Gervais- Keller Lakes Improvement Association have been fighting the project.They fear runoff from the businessmight seep into nearby Kohlman Lake and pollute it. McDaniels has said repeatedly that he is anxious to get started on the con- struction of the dealership. If allowed to build, the McDaniels dealership may have another foreign car business in its neighborhood. On Aug.7,the Maplewood city council okayed a special exception permit for the construction of a Datsun dealership on 2.9 acres along the east side of Highway 61 between County Road C and Gervais Avenue. The McDaniels parcel of land is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Beam Avenue and Highway 61.