08-12-2004 Planning Comm. Agenda

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lZouncl 1_,aTce 'Frail T'ownltom~ ~4ssoeiation August 26, 2004 Little Canada Planning Commission 515 East Little Canada Road Little Canada, MN 55117 Re: Variance Request -Shoreland District, Ordinance No. 917 Dear Sirs: The association for the Round Lake Trail Townhomes seeks your approval and recommendation to the City Council of Little Canada for a variance relating to shoreline setback. We seek a variance of the Code to enhance the safety of those who live, visit and work on the property, to maintain the integrity of the shoreline, to prevent further erosion of the soil on our lakeside, and to replace rotting timber currently in place with more permanent and natural boulders. We request that you put this on your agenda for the August 12, 2004 Planning Commission meeting. For your review and consideration, we have enclosed the required Application Form for variance, copies (one 8 '/ x 11 and one 22 x 35) of the recent survey of the town homes' lakeside property, which was prepared by Advance Surveying & Engineering Co. and certified by James Parker, two (2) sets of photographs labeled A through Q, a signed and notarized Agreement Between Owner/Applicant and the City of Little Canada as to Costs, and a check in the amount of $350 to absorb the costs of services relating to our application. Tn addition, we provide the following explanation for our request for a variance of Ordinance 917: Currently, there are timber retaining walls behind (on the lake side) units 1-] 5 and 21-29 of Round Lake Trail ("existing walls"). These walls were constructed in 1985-86, and they are rotting and coming away from the ground which they were built to restrain. (See photos A-C, G-J) Because of the steep terrain between the town homes and the Lakeshore and the proximity of the town homes to the Lakeshore, it is imperative that we have retaining walls in order to prevent ground erosion. Therefore, we need to replace the existing walls. Since timber walls typically rot away after a period of years and need to be replaced, we would like to replace them with boulders, which would never require replacement. Installing a permanent boulder retaining wall now would save our lake and iakeshore area from undergoing future assault and pollution from construction equipment, erosion, etc. It is our understanding that even though these would be replacements for the existing walls, because we would be tearing down the existing walls and using a different material for the new walls, the new walls would not be grandfathered in. Therefore, we are requesting a variance of the Shoreland Ordinance.