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Item No: 5 Meeting Date: July 16, 2003 Type of Business: Public Hearing City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Mounds View Planning Commission From: James Ericson, Interim City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Public Hearing and Consideration of a Variance to Allow a Reduced Front Yard Setback for a Building Addition 2229 County Road H2. Introduction: Joan Bosard, property owner of 2229 County Road H2, has requested a variance to construct an expansion to her home which would be six feet closer to the street than the existing building. All of the homes fronting County Road H2 on this block are set back the same distance—approximately 75 feet from the curb or approximately 50 feet from the property line. 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 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').” The home at 2229 County Road H2 is set back approximately 50 feet from the front property line, as are all the other homes on this block, which means the prevailing setback is 50 feet. No home or part thereof shall encroach into the prevailing setback except by variance. Variance Considerations: For a variance to be approved, the applicant needs to 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 clearly states that a hardship exists when all of the criteria are met. The criteria are as follows: