PL MINUTES 02191985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-5- • 1 Mr. Tjernlund told Commissioner -Bowerman the manner -in which his lot is designed 2 dictated the location of the garage on the south side and if that is done, no 3 further construction on the house would be possible since the City would not let 4 him build any closer to the street and the only way he could go would be to the 5 rear where there is a steep- slope. His existing house is only 750 square feet and 6 Mr. Tjernlund said a house that size would not be permitted to be built in the 7 City today. The only way to bring the home up to a competitive market value, 8 would be to make the requested addition, he said. 9 l0 The applicant agreed with Commissioner. Bowerman that a 890 square foot house 11 could not be considered to be a very substantial house by City standards, but 12 said it would be as far as the layout goes for the addition would provide a dining 13 room -and an entry closet on the side exit. He disputed Commissioner Bjorklund's 14 assumption that a -raise in market value was the primary reason for the addition, 15 which the Chair supported. - Commissioner� Bowerman indicated he -perceived a five 16 foot variance to be a major one which could set the precedent toward allowing 17 expansion of properties to non-conforming uses of land in the City. He suggested 18 the Commission should take a hard look at how the applicant answered the three 19 questions required to be answered affirmatively for granting a setback. variance. 20 21 Chair Franzese noted that the Manager, in his February 19th memorandum, had cited 22 the lot ' s topography as a justification for the variance and had mentioned the 23 City Ordinance appears to encourage two car garages. Commissioner Bowerman 24 responded by saying there are many one car garages in the same neighborhood. Speak- 25 ing personally, he indicated he would have no problem at all with permitting the \,-26 two car garage, which of course Mr. Tjernlund could construct without ,a 27 variance, but he was having a hard time with allowing a seven foot addition 28 which would put the' structure so close to the neighbor on the south. 29 30 Commissioner Hansen responded by saying there would be twelve feet between the 31 structures and many homes are built ten feet apart under the ordinance. As far as 32 emergency equipment getting between houses, that had almost been ruled out in the 33 past because of telephone poles, large trees, fences, etc. Commissioner Hansen 34 also indicated that he had not been convinved the neighbor to the south was really 35 opposed to the request. 36 37 Commissioner Madden agreed with Mr. Tjernlund that to make a meaningful addition to 38 his 750 square foot home, he would have to have at least a seven foot addition as 39 well as the garage at this time because once the garage is built, there is little 40 or no prospect for increasing the square footage. He agreed with the Manager that 41 this was a substandard size lot and perceived that 12 feet between structures 42 should be adequate considering some of the other variances recently granted in 43 the City. 44 45 Commissioner Bjorklund disagreed, saying the reason people originally settled in 46 St. Anthony is being compromised because they moved to the City to have "elbow 47 room" and "quality", which he perceives is being degraded with every variance like 48 this one. He indicated he believed the City had been developed with a minimum of 49 15 feet between houses and the Commissioner indicated he believes the addition in 50 question could be designed and built in another manner, even to the rear without a 51 variance. He did not perceive the dropoff in the back was so severe an addition, 52 perhaps a walkout basement, couldn't be built. To him, 12 feet, between homes was 53 "extreme" and he perceived a dangerous precedent was being set. 54 55 The Chair indicated she was not really "firm" on a decision, but did perceive there 56 was difficult topography involved.