01-27-1999 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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CIS Castle Inspection Service A Division of Castle Companies Inc. 2440 Linwood Court Maplewood, MN 55119 MEMORANDUM To: Joel Hanson, City Administrator FROM: Greg Schmit, Building Official DATE: November 18, 1998 SUBJECT: Clarification of cantilevers into the setback area First, a little history. This issue came to light when I received a permit application for a new home to be built on Schletty drive. Upon initial review, I noticed that the cantilevered portion of the structure extended 2 feet into the required 30 foot rear yard setback. My initial reaction was that this would indeed be an encroachment and would not be allowed. In checking the Little Canada Zoning Ordinance to verify this, I discovered that the ordinance section 902.010, 143, defines the setback as being "measured from the most outwardly extended portion of the structure at ground level ". After discussing the issue with Steve Grittman, we concurred that with this definition in the ordinance, the proposed building would be allowed. That, plus the discussions at the planning commission, gets us to where we are today. If we continue along the path of allowing cantilevered encroachments, we begin to raise other questions such as; how many floors with 2 foot cantilevers are allowed above the "main" floor, what is the definition of the main floor, what about the required side or front yards, how about commercial uses? Unless it is your desire to change or reduce the required setback distances, I would not recommend this course of action. In my experience, and as I currently enforce these issues for other municipalities, a cantilevered portion of the building is just that...a portion of the building. The setbacks are therefore measured from the lot lines to most outwardly portion of the building. Allowable encroachments are as stated in Ordinance section 903.030.C, such as stoops, decks, chimneys, eaves, etc. The solution, as I see it, is to simply delete the second sentence from the definition of setbacks. This would leave us to measure setbacks as the horizontal distance between the property lines etc. and the building ... no matter what the vertical elevation is. A wall that encloses floor area should define the building whether it is built directly on top of the foundation, cantilevered past it, or set in from the foundation. Phone: 651- 731 -7881 Fax: 651-702-9364 Page 28