03-09-06 Planning Comm. Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 14, 2005 Blesener asked the City Planner for the rational behind limiting single- familyproperties to one curb cut. The City Planner indicated that one reason is traffic control. The addition of a second curb cut for properties makes things more confusing for drivers. The second reason is for snow storage. Additional curb cuts decrease the amount of snow storage area and results in more and higher snow piles, thus impacting visibility. LaValle felt that the impact of backing out onto a busy street outweighed Che reasons for the limitation outlined by the Planner. Blesener asked if Little Canada's ordinance was out-of-line with those of other cities. The Planner did not think so, and noted that the solution to having to back out onto a busy street is to have a T-driveway arrangement. Blesener stated that he did not have a problem with horseshoe driveways, but felt there was no basis to granting a Variance. Keis agreed and felt the City's option was to amend the Code. Keis suggested that the Code could allow horseshoe driveways by Conditional Use Permit, establishing conditions that must be met such as the property abuts a busy street and there is a minimum amount of road frontage. Keis noted that not everyone will want a horseshoe driveway, but felt that there must be some control in place to regulate the situation where they will be allowed. Allan noted that under this scenario, the City will be faced with a lot of requests from property owners living on busy roads. The City Planner suggested that some conditions can be tied to traffic volumes, road widths, visibility issues, and physical concerns with the property. Heidi Murphy indicated that the City of Bloomington allows horseshoe driveways by conditional use permit and has conditions established in its ordinance. Murphy noted that they had started to install the horseshoe driveway this fall, and felt that iC was allowed given there were other properties in the City with horseshoe drives. Once they were contacted by the City and informed that horseshoe drives were not allowed, they stopped work. Murphy noted that the horseshoe drive is graveled in, but the curb has not been cut for the second driveway access. Blesener suggested that action on the Variance be tabled at this point to give the City some time to research the text amendment issue. It was noted that the Murphy's would not be doing any additional work on the driveway during the winter months. It was also noted that it will take four votes of the Council to approve a Text Amendment, and there were four members of the Council willing to consider a Text Amendment. Blesener 4