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t f STAFF REPORT To: Planning Commission Report No.: VII.1 From: Kim Moore-Sykes, Assistant City Manager . op Date: May 17,2005 Subject: Petition of Variance for Lot Coverage;3217- 31St Avenue NE Property Address: 3217 -31St Avenue NE; Volna Addition, Lot 1, Block 1 Zoning District: R-1 Single Family Residential; legal non-conforming Requested Action: Staff is asking the Planning Commission to review the Petition of Variance for Lot Coverage submitted by Patrick J. Palan and Patricia J. Le Febvre, owners of 3217-31St Avenue NE. The owners are proposing to construct a 12' x 10' (120 SF) deck on the backside of their house. Based on the Findings of Fact from the public hearing on this request, staff recommends that the Planning Commission consider recommending approval of the variance to lot coverage to the City Council. Background: Mr. Palan met with staff to review his plans to construct a deck on the back of the house. At that point, it was discovered that the structures on the site exceeded the allowable lot coverage percentage as stipulated by the City's Zoning Ordinance. Their lot is 68' x 134.6' (9,153 SF) and at 35% lot coverage, they would be allow 3,203 SF of lot coverage. Currently, the house, the detached garage,the driveway and the sidewalk and patio exceed the allowable lot coverage by 230 SF. These structures represent 3,433 SF in lot coverage. According to the documentation from Hennepin County and the City's address file, the house and garage were built in 1955. Staff assumes that a driveway was also constructed at the same time but the file does not indicate the materials used in its original construction. But in 1991, the current owners pulled a building permit from the City to replace the original driveway with asphalt. In their application for a variance to the lot coverage restriction, Palan and Le Febvre stated that the undue hardship that they have with this property is the length of the driveway required to access their detached garage, which is located deep into the lot. In order to build their proposed deck and comply with the City's lot coverage requirements, they would have to move their garage forward by about 10 feet. This would put the garage up against the house and seems a bit unreasonable. The extraordinary circumstance that they feel that this variance would help to alleviate is that because this property had already exceeds the allowable lot coverage they are not able to improve their property. Staff review of the documents in the property file shows that the difficulty or hardship was not created by the property owners but rather as the result of the original codification of the City's Zoning Ordinance, which occurred in 1976. HAPlanning\Staff Reports\2005\3217 31st lot cov variance Staff Report.doc