Interim use permit
An interim use permit allows a temporary use of property. It is defined in Minn. Stat. 462.3597, and it is one of the more distinctive tools in Minnesota land use law.
What temporary means here#
The statute is specific. An interim use is a temporary use of property until a particular date, until the occurrence of a particular event, or until zoning regulations no longer permit it.
All three endings are real. An IUP tied to an event ends when the event happens, whether or not the operator is ready.
Why the instrument exists#
For uses that are acceptable now and inconsistent with where the area is going.
Land on the edge of a growing city, planned for residential development in fifteen years, being used meanwhile for something that would not be permitted in the eventual district. A use with a naturally limited lifecycle — extraction, temporary storage, a seasonal operation.
A conditional use permit would be wrong, because a CUP generally runs indefinitely with the land. The community does not want the use permanently; it is willing to allow it for now.
What the governing body must find#
Among the statutory conditions, two matter most in practice.
That permitting the use will not impose additional costs on the public if it later becomes necessary for the public to take the property. That is aimed squarely at investment the public would otherwise have to compensate — improvements that raise the acquisition cost of land the city expects to need.
That the user agrees to the conditions the governing body deems appropriate.
A public hearing is held, the zoning ordinance must provide for interim uses, and the landowner generally enters an agreement with the jurisdiction.
The commercial consequence#
Financing and investment are the difficulty.
A use that ends on a known date, or on an event outside the operator's control, supports far less capital investment than a permanent one. Lenders price for the horizon, and improvements have to pay back inside it.
Anyone planning a project on an IUP should model the whole return inside the permit's life and assume no extension.
Where it appears#
Extraction — gravel, aggregate — with reclamation conditions.
Temporary storage, staging and contractor yards.
Uses on land in a growth corridor pending development.
Occasionally, seasonal and recreational uses in agricultural districts where the county prefers a defined end to an indefinite CUP.
Ask which one you are being offered#
An applicant who requested a conditional use permit and is offered an interim use permit has been offered something materially different.
The conditions may look similar. The duration does not, and the duration is what determines whether the project is financeable.