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Mounds View Planning Commission December 16, 2009 Regular Meeting Page 2 ____________________________________________________________________________ 4. Citizens Requests and Comments on Items Not on the Agenda None. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5. Planning Cases A. VR2009-003; Variance Request to Allow a Zero-Foot Driveway Setback at “The Station’s” new Car Wash Planning Associate Heller stated the applicant Leon Theis, owner of The Station gas at 2280 County Road I, is requesting a variance to permit the entrance driveway at his new car wash to have a zero-foot setback from the west property line. She indicated the Planning Commission recommended approval of a development review for a new car wash at The Station earlier this year. When the architect brought in the site plan drawing for the car wash, staff reviewed it and noticed the entrance driveway only had a very small setback from the west property line. This is the property line that runs between the car wash and the neighbor, the Alano Society’s, garage. When staff brought the setback amount to the architect’s attention, he changed the setback amount to the required five feet on the site plan. Staff is guessing that the setback error was made due to inaccurate measurements, and that the change on the site plan was not communicated to the contractor, who just used all the space available for the driveway in order to make it function better. For the Planning Commission to act favorably toward this application, there must be a demonstrated hardship or practical difficulty associated with the property that makes a literal interpretation of the code overly burdensome or restrictive to a property owner. Chair Stevenson stated he wasn’t in favor of approving a project after it has already been done. Chair Stevenson opened the public hearing at 7:12 p.m. Leon Theis, applicant, indicated he is very surprised to be in front of the Planning Commission tonight. He indicated he had researched the car wash for over a year and he thought he had covered all issues. He was surprised about the property line issue. John Risgaard, member of the Alano Society at 2284 County Road I, indicated the driveway had originally been built five feet onto the Alano’s property. He talked with Mr. Theis who was very cooperative and removed five feet of the driveway so that it was only on his property. He discussed with Mr. Theis about adding the posts to protect the garage and Mr. Theis was very cooperative with this also. Mr. Risgaard expressed that the Alano Society Board is satisfied with the current driveway layout. He added he hoped the Planning Commission would approve the variance. Commissioner Lang questioned the site plan and the credibility of the architect that provided the information to the applicant.