Garage sale that started big fight gets day in court

As Minnetonka worked on revising its suddenly controversial garage sale ordinance Thursday night, the fight that started the controversy got its day in court that afternoon.

Last fall police came onto 72-year-old Laura Soelberg's property and broke up her garage sale, alleging she was violating a previous city order not to hold such events.

Among the arguments the city has used against Soelberg is that she lives in Deephaven and does not live at the Minnetonka home, which violates the city's ordinance against nonresidents holding garage sales. The city has also said her sales constitute a commercial business in a residential area.

On Thursday, her lawyer. Alan M. Albrecht, argued that the case should be dismissed before Hennepin County Judge Warren Sagstuen, claiming that the ordinance is unconstitutional because it is vague and does not offer equal protection under the law.

"No one should be criminally sanctioned for having a garage sale," Albrecht said in court. "If her neighbors can have a garage sale, then so can she."

Sagstuen did not issue a ruling and took it under advisement. The court did not indicate when a decision would be reached.

Rolf Sponheim, an associate city attorney for Minnetonka, argued that Soelberg has not been cited for violating the garage sale ordinance but for violating the city's zoning ordinance by conducting business in a residential area.

In support of Soelberg's case, Albrecht cited Minnetonka Community Development Director Ron Rankin's comments this week that his city does not have special rules regarding garage sales.

Garage sale logic

Some city officials proposed that Minnetonka set up rules to require property sold at a garage sale belong to the homeowner or friends of the homeowner and not be purchased for resale or received on consignment. It was up for discussion at a city Planning Commission meeting Thursday night.

Albrecht said the proposed change was prompted by Soelberg's situation.

For the past 19 years, Soelberg has been having a fall and spring sale. On Oct. 24, about a half-hour after it began, police shut her down.

Soelberg looks upon her twice-a-year sales as a tradition she started with her mother in the 1980s and merely continued at her mother's home after her death in the late '90s.

Before each sale, which runs about four days, Soelberg sends out reminders to those who request them and gives the neighbors a heads-up. Neighbors have written letters to the city on her behalf.

But the city draws a legal distinction between a garage sale and a commercial venture, in this case what the city calls an antique business run by Soelberg at her second home.

Soelberg declined to say how much money her sales take in. "I don't really talk about that," she said. "I make enough to make it worthwhile."

But she denies that what she's operating is a business. She holds the sales infrequently, sells second-hand goods that come mostly from family, does no advertising, collects no taxes and has no employees.

Soelberg said after agreeing to go to City Court, she was never called in. That's why, when fall came around, she decided to hold the sale that landed her in court.