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Select Senior Living Staff Report August 6, 2008 Page 6 Code Requirement Proposed Parking Covered Parking 32 47 Uncovered Parking 80 38 Total 112 85 The proposed parking would provide 27 fewer spaces than the total number required, however it would provide 15 spaces more than the requirement for covered parking. The applicant states that the required amount of parking is unnecessary for their type of housing since many of the residents do not have vehicles. Select Senior Living owns other senior housing facilities in the area and told staff that from their experience, much of the parking that is built is not used. 2 Foot Roof Overhang Encroachment and 4-6 foot Reduced Building Setback – the city code allows up to a two foot encroachment into the setback for things like bay windows, fire escapes, front stoop and roof overhangs. Due to the residential hipped roof design on the proposal, in order for the scale of the roof lines to be in line with the size of the building, the roof overhang on the east and west sides of the north wing of the building would encroach an additional two feet into the required building setback. The overhang will be on all sides of the building, but it will only go beyond the setbacks on these two sides. A 40 foot section of the building on the west side of the north wing also encroaches four and six feet into the building setback. Variance Considerations: For the city to approve a variance, the applicant must demonstrate a hardship or practical difficulty associated with the property that makes a literal interpretation of the Code overly burdensome or restrictive. Minnesota statutes require that the governing body (the Planning Commission, in this case) 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. The Code states that a hardship exists when all of the criteria are met. The criteria are as follows: a. Exceptional or extraordinary circumstances apply to the property which do not apply generally to other properties in the same zone or vicinity and result from lot size or shape, topography or other circumstances over which the owners of the property since the effective date hereof have had no control. The exceptional circumstances for this proposal are the unique lot size and shape and the type of housing. The city code does not clearly accommodate the proposed housing. The city recognizes these issues and is proposing additions to the code that will deal with density, unit size and parking requirements for these types of senior housing developments. Had the city code addressed these issues, the applicant would not have needed to apply for as many variances. The additional two foot overhang encroachment is unique in that most buildings of this size are not designed with hipped roofs and overhangs. The applicant wants the building to have a residential look, having the four foot overhang fits the scale of the building and helps give the building the characteristics to better fit into a residential neighborhood.