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Item No: 5A Meeting Date: June 5, 2013 Type of Business: Action City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Mounds View Planning Commission From: Heidi Heller, Planning Associate Item Title/Subject: Variance Extension Requests for reduced driveway setbacks at 5338-5340, 5372-5374 and 5380-5382 Raymond Avenue; Planning Cases VR2011-002, VR2011-004, VR2011-005 Introduction: In June 2011, property owner, Michael Kinyon, was granted variances to permit the new driveways at five of his side-by-side duplexes to have one and three foot setbacks from the north and south property lines. Mr. Kinyon will be adding attached garages to the rest of his duplexes, one on each end of the building, along with new driveways to replace the existing gravel. The lots are all 100 feet wide so only a single car garage will fit, but the owner is installing new driveways that are wide enough for two cars to park next to each other. Many of the tenants have more than one vehicle, and with the current narrow driveways, they either park or drive off the driveway, or they have to move cars around when someone is leaving. Since there is no overnight parking on the streets in Mounds View, all vehicles must be in the driveways. The east side of Raymond Avenue has 14 side-by-side duplexes on identical 100 foot wide lots which causes issues when owners want to add additional space or more than a one car wide driveway to these properties. Mr. Kinyon owns ten of the duplexes on Raymond Avenue and received variances in 1995 and 2008 for reduced driveway setbacks when he added garages to those duplexes on the same block. Discussion: Mr. Kinyon applied for all five property’s driveway variances in 2011 because the City was reconstructing Raymond Avenue that year, which included installing new curbs and driveway aprons. Mr. Kinyon knew he would not have all five garages and remodels completed for approximately five years, but wanted to have the wider driveway aprons installed during the street project rather than tearing up the new curbs later to widen the curb cut. The City Code states that a variance approval becomes void if the work is not complete within one year, but the applicant may request an extension from the Planning Commission. Mr. Kinyon was granted a 1-year extension in 2012 and is now asking for the variances to be extended for another year. The Planning Commission was supportive of granting the extensions as long as Mr. Kinyon continues to make progress on installing the driveways. He fully remodeled one of the buildings (including new driveways) and installed driveways on a second property in 2012. He intends to remodel another one of the duplexes this year and install driveways on another property in 2013. That would leave only one of the five properties without the new driveways for 2014.