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Item No: 6 Meeting Date: December 3, 2003 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 Variance to Allow a Driveway to Exceed the Maximum Curb Cut Width at 2817 Laport Drive; Planning Case VR03-012 Introduction: The applicant, Jim Thompson, is requesting a variance to allow an already constructed driveway to remain as built at his property located at 2817 Laport Drive. The driveway was constructed without a permit and exceeds the maximum curb cut width allowed in an R-1 district. Mounds View Zoning Code requires that the curb cut is no more than twenty- four (24) feet at the right-of-way. The expansion of the driveway created a thirty-two (32) foot curb cut. The requested variance is for eight (8) feet. Discussion: Driveway and curb cut requirements are addressed in Section 1121.09 of the Zoning Code. The property is zoned R-1, Single Family Residential. In an R-1 district, the maximum curb cut width is twenty-four (24) feet. As built, the driveway has a curb cut of thirty-two (32) feet, eight (8) feet in excess of the permitted amount. Section 1121.09 allows a maximum driveway width of thirty-five (35) feet or the width of the garage plus twelve (12) feet, whichever is greater. The applicant’s driveway is less than 35 feet at its widest point. Section 1104.1 states that driveways must be setback five (5) feet, unless permission is obtained from the owners of the abutting lots, in which case, the driveway is permitted to be setback one (1) foot. The expansion has caused the driveway to be only one and a half (1.5) feet from the lot line. The applicant has obtained his neighbor’s written permission. Blacktop Driveway Company constructed the driveway addition. Blacktop Driveway Company is licensed with the City of Mounds View and has performed work in Mounds View for many years, however, the company failed to obtain a permit for the addition. Had a permit been obtained, the curb cut would not have been permitted to be wider than twenty-four (24) feet. The contractor falsely informed the applicant that the company had obtained a permit. Staff spoke with the homeowners regarding this variance request. The homeowners feel that their hardship stems from the fact that they were led to believe by the contractor that a permit had been obtained for the driveway expansion. In addition, the homeowners informed staff that the reason that they needed to expand the driveway was because the driveway was causing damage to their vehicle and their recreational vehicle (RV). The Thompson’s recently purchased a new truck and RV and the slope of the driveway before the expansion was causing the truck and RV to scrape and dent one another when reversing into the RV parking area. Staff observed the damage to the truck and RV.