07-10-08 Planning Comm. Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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June 17, 2008 City of Little Canada Mayor Council Members Planning Commission Re: I 1 Zoning variances Dear Sirs and Madams, We are respectfully requesting two variance's with regard to the newly required Conditional Use Permits for our properties located at 95 Woodlynn Ave and 53 Woodlynn Ave in the II Zone within the City of Little Canada. Item I, is for a Variance at 95 Woodlynn Ave., to leave a fence line as it currently is along Woodlynn Ave This fence would not conform to the new code which states that the fence line cannot extend beyond the front of the main building. The new code does not take into consideration the fact that this property was originally developed in 1966 and was not laid out in a traditional front to back configuration. Currently this six foot chain link fence with slotted vinyl privacy screen is set back in order to accommodate a grass boulevard that is maintained. We have been working with a landscape company on plans (included with application) to put plantings in on this boulevard. It is very important that we not lose any additional yard space or outdoor storage capacity. It is vital for our company On Site Sanitation that we maintain turning radius space for trucks and trailers that can be up to 40' in length. Limiting this space would create a safety hazard for our driving and yard personnel. The denial of this request would also be a significant fmancial hardship in the fact that we would incur substantial expense in moving the fence line but more importantly we would lose a significant portion of our current outdoor storage capacity as well as truck movement areas. Item 2, is for a variance at 53 Woodlynn Ave. to allow far more than 4 outdoor storage containers We currently have 8 storage containers on the 2 acre site that have been there for many years. These containers are all on the back part of the property, there is only one container that is visible from Woodlynn Ave. This property is bordered by Woodlynn Ave. on the South, rail road tracks on the North, water utility easement on the East and our property, 95 Woodlynn Ave. on the West. Woodlynn Ave. dead ends at this property so there is absolutely no through traffic. This property does not lend itself to being able to be secured with a fence nor can we add on to this building, it is at maximum capacity and size. We would be willing to paint the storage containers a color that would closely match the color of the building as to not draw undue attention to them. The denial of this variance would mean that we would be storing a lot of small equipment in the yard outside of containers. This would be more unsightly than having this equipment inside of containers. We would like to propose that we be allowed a maximum of 5% of the total square footage of the property be used for storage containers as was originally proposed by the City Council but changed in the closing moments of the City Council meeting to be a maximum of 4 storage containers. At this City Council meeting it was also stated that the number of 4 storage containers would be open for negotiation and at this point was not to be set in concrete.