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Narrative from Applicant Construction o Real Estate o Development 2195 Silver Lake Road o New Brighton, Minnesota 55112 Office (651) 636-9991 a Fax (651) 636-3422 May 21, 2010 Planning Cotmnission City of Mounds View 2401 County Road 10 Mounds View, MN 55112 Re: Lot Width Variance Request for Longview Estates, 'Mounds View To Whom It May Concern: This variance request is for an approximately seven acre parcel of undeveloped land between Silver Lake Road and Longview Drive, south of County Road H2. The land is zoned R-1 and has a narrow wetland running north -south which separates the "upland" on both sides. My father bought the land in the early 1970s with the intent of building houses on it in conformance with city code and zoning. When he purchased the land, there were already ten sewer and water services installed ill the street along Longview Drive. The property was assessed by the City for the installation of these services. Consequently we paid assessments on this land for approximately 25 years. They are now paid oft' in their entirety. Even thought the land is undeveloped, it has a fairly lengthy history regarding land use applications. We have submitted an application to the City of Mounds View for development on more than one occasion. One submittal was in 2001 for an 11 -lot development, with all lots fronting Longview Drive. This proposal was denied by the City Council in 2002, specifically because the lot widths did not comply with city ordinances in a Wetland District: the minimum lot width in a wetland district is 125 feet. It is only 75 feet for subdivisions located outside a Wetland District. Another submittal was in 2004 for a 15 -lot subdivision. Ironically, this submittal was approved by the City Council, because it met all subdivision ordinances, including lot width, since eight of the lots fronted Longview Drive and seven fronted Silver Lake Road. Due to the economic slowdown and other matters, this development was never built. Now we are asking that the City of Mounds View grant a variance for ten lots fronting Longview Drive (and no lots fronting Silver Lake Road). The narrowest lot width is 90 feet, which is compatible with other lots in the neighborhood. All of our proposed lots will meet the Wetland District lot size criteria of a minimum of 20,000 square feet. (The average lot size will be more than 30,000 square feet.) Even though we end up with fewer lots than were previously approved, we believe this modified layout meets the intent or the City's Zoning Code, which is: