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Item No: 5 Meeting Date: June 1, 2005 Type of Business: Public Hearing City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Mounds View Planning Commission From: Kristin Prososki, Planning Associate Item Title/Subject: Public Hearing and Consideration of a Request for a Variance to Reduce the Front Yard Setback to Nineteen Feet for the Construction of a Garage Addition at 5131 Greenwood Drive; Planning Case VR2005-005 Introduction: The applicant, Keith Vasilakes, is proposing to construct an addition to his existing attached garage at 5131 Greenwood Drive. The proposed garage addition would be located in front (east) of the existing attached garage and would be located nineteen (19) feet from the front property line. The applicant is requesting to encroach sixteen (16) feet into the prevailing setback of thirty-five (35) feet. The Mounds View Zoning Code requires a minimum front setback of thirty (30) feet for buildings, however, there is also a provision in the Code that requires that buildings not encroach into the prevailing setback for the block on which the property is located. The prevailing setback for this particular block of Greenwood Drive is thirty-five (35) feet. Discussion: Setback requirements are addressed in Section 1104.01 of the Zoning Code. Each zoning district is listed with the corresponding front, side and rear setbacks. In an R-1, Single Family Residential district, the typical building setbacks are as follows: Front, thirty (30) feet; Side, ten (10) feet; and Rear, thirty (30) feet. It is noted that sheds and garages, attached or detached, can have side and rear setbacks of five (5) feet. The Code also addresses the issue of “prevailing setbacks,” which is the case on the east lot line of this property. The Code states that, “Where principal buildings in existence on lots within the same block on the same side of the street have front yard setbacks different from those required, the minimum front yard setback for any new principal buildings shall be the minimum front yard setback in existence for any one lot. In no case shall the front yard setback be less than thirty feet (30').” The prevailing setback on the east lot line, which parallels Greenwood Drive, has been determined to be thirty-five (35) feet. The bigger issue in this case is that the proposed addition would not only encroach into the prevailing setback, but also into the minimum front yard setback of thirty (30) feet.