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Item No: 5A Meeting Date: February 3, 2016 Type of Business: Planning Case City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Mounds View Planning Commission From: James Ericson, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Public Hearing - Consideration of a Variance for a Reduced Driveway Setback at 2200 Hillview Road; Planning Case VR2016-001 Introduction: The applicant, Jim Cigelski, representing property owners Joe and Gina Diekman, is requesting approval of a variance for a reduced driveway setback at 2200 Hillview Road. The applicant replaced the Diekman’s driveway in 2015 and was told after the work had been completed that the driveway was too close to the property line by a foot and a half. (Required setback is five feet.) Mr. Cigelski contends that the driveway was replaced in the same place as the original driveway. A review of historical aerial overlays would seem to support this statement. Rather than remove part of the driveway, the applicant and the owners are requesting a variance to allow the driveway to remain in place as is. The previous driveway appears to have been located with a 3.5-foot setback. The adjoining property at 2192 Hillview Road also has a driveway with a 3.5- foot setback. Discussion: The Zoning Code states that the Planning Commission may issue a variance to provide relief to the property owner in those cases where the Code imposes “practical difficulties” to the property owner in the use of the property owner’s land. This is true for all variance requests. State statutes require that the governing body review a set of specified criteria for each application and make its decision in accordance with these criteria. These criteria are set forth in Section 1125.02, Subdivision 2, of the City Code. A variance may be granted only in the event that all of the following circumstances exist: a. The variance is in harmony with the general purposes and intent of these regulations. The zoning code requires minimum building setbacks for aesthetics and to provide separation and some sense of privacy between neighbors. There are many older driveways in the community that do not satisfy the current setback requirements. When these driveways are reconstructed, our policy is that the new driveway be brought into compliance with the City Code. In some cases, compliance is not easily achieved. While compliance is possible in this case, a reduced setback would certainly not be inharmonious with the regulations, given that the adjoining driveway is also set back 3.5 feet from the property line.