Lawsuit challenges Lake Elmo local produce law
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A national advocacy group is challenging Lake Elmo's ban on farmers selling produce that's not grown in the city.
The libertarian Institute for Justice contends in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the St. Paul suburb's 30-year-old ban is a projectionist law wrapped inside of a zoning code.
Richard Bergmann, owner of Country Sun Farm and Greenhouse, alleges it's an improper restraint on trade. He is joined by farmers in Nebraska and North Carolina who supplied him with pumpkins and Christmas trees.
Lake Elmo City Administrator Bruce Messelt says the farm wants to be treated as a farm but still have all the benefits of being a commercial store, even though it's not zoned or taxed as commercial property.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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