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Item No : 5 Meeting Date : April 2, 2003 Type of Business: Public Hearing City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Mounds View Planning Commission From: James Ericson, Acting City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Public Hearing and Consideration of a Request for a Variance to Allow Encroachment of a New Home into the Prevailing Front Setback at 7741 Long Lake Road. Introduction: In January of 2002, the City Council approved the final Plat for Gustafsons Fifth Addition, a replatting of land located at the northeast corner of County Road I and Long Lake Road. The subdivision was complicated due to ownership issues, variances and utility work, which was not initiated until the last months of 2002. After all of the legal and utility issues had been resolved, the City issued a building permit for a new home on Lot 1, Block 1 of the subdivision, the northernmost lot on Long Lake Road. The permit was issued on January 27, 2003. The survey attached to the permit application indicated a building s etback of 30.3 feet from the property line abutting Long Lake Road. Such a setback complies with the City’s “typical” requirements. Discussion: On February 28, 2003, one of the City Council members contacted me questioning the setback of the new home u nder construction at 7741 Long Lake Road, in that it was significantly closer to the street than other homes on the block. Staff inspected the property and verified that the home was indeed closer to the street than the other homes along that side of Long Lake Road. The survey for the property indicated the building would be set back thirty feet (30.3) from the Long Lake Road right of way. The inspection revealed that the home was being constructed according to the survey-specified set back. 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 setbacks are as follows: Front, 30 feet; Side, 10 feet; and Rear, 30 feet. It is footnoted in the Code that sheds and garages, attached or detached, can have side and rear setbacks of 5 feet. (No accessory building can be located in a front yard unless it is attached to the principal structure, and even then the minimum set back is thirty feet.) The front yard setback is further footnoted to address the issue of “prevailing setbacks”, articulated as follows: “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').”