05-13-1981 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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r NORTHWEST ASSOCIATED CONSULTANTS INC. MEMORANDUM TO: little Canada Mayor and City Council FROM: Brad Nielsen DATE: 10 February 1981 RE: Demont, Richard - Lot Size Variance FILE NO: 758.09 (80.28) In our staff report dated 5 January 1981 we recommended that a variance be granted to Mr. Demont due to the uncertainty of Lake Street ever being developed. Since the applicant had not appeared before the Planning Commission on 8 January, the City Council referred the request back to the Planning Commission for a recommendation. At its 5 February meeting the Commission appeared to favor the variance, but recom- mended that a more comprehensive approach to the problem should be pursued. In this regard, we discussed the possibility of involvement by the City in resolving the problem through the use of what is called tax increment financing. We had intended to present tax increment financing to the City at a future date in conjunction with elderly housing, but feel that tax increment could possibly be used to address the issue of substandard lots in the Lake Street area now under consideration. Upon further discussing the Demont request within our office, we feel that while tax increment financing remains a potential solution, U should perhaps be considered as one of the last resorts, and that the City should first examine other, less complicated options. The purpose of this report is to outline the possible solutions to the problem at hand. 1. The City's first option may be to simply deny the variance. The applicant would then be forced to either buy surrounding lots to come up with adequate square footage or sell to surrounding land owners so they would meet the requirements. Since the possibility also exists that the property would become tax forfeited, this approach is not considered the best solution to the problem. 2. The City could approve the variance based on the reasons set forth in our 5 January staff report. While this solves the problem for Mr. Demont, R also prolongs the problem of the surrounding Tots. Further, it raises the question of precedence for future variance requests. 15 4820 minnetonka boulevard, suite420 minneapolis, mn 55416 612/925 -9420 ,1