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July 13, 2011 Project: New Detached Garage for Tom and Lindsay Wernimont 2609 Pahl Ave. St. Anthony, MN 55418 Legal Description: Lot 33, Block 5, Murray Heights Addition to Minneapolis Hennepin County, Minnesota Attached materials: • Site Plan showing the existing garage and the outline of the new proposed 24' x 24' double car garage. • Design and construction documents showing the style, look, and construction details for the proposed new garage. • Photos of the existing garage to be demolished, the existing house, and the existing surrounding garages and neighborhood. • Colored renderings indicating the proposed style and look of the new garage. Statement of Request: According to the current City of St. Anthony zoning ordinance, new detached garages are required to be set back at least 3'-0"from all property lines. The ordinance also states that if a setback permit is issued allowing for the construction of the garage within the required setback, that the garage shall be no larger than 528 sf with no dimension greater than 24 feet. Tom and Lindsay Wernimont are asking for two requests, one is to allow them to build a new detached garage at the same location as the existing garage which is 1.6'from the north property line and 1.8'from the west property line as shown in the site plan survey. The second request is to build a 24' x 24' (576 sf) garage which is 48 sf larger than the 528 sf currently allowed under the ordinance if a setback permit was granted. Statement of Circumstances: Tom and Lindsay Wernimont moved into their new house located at 2609 Pahl Ave. in late 2008. They bought the house knowing that the existing garage was in a state of disrepair. The garage is structurally unsound and moves with the time of season. Much of the time during winter and early spring the garage door and service door will not open due to movement of the building and concrete slab through the freeze/thaw process. The current concrete slab is broken into a thousand pieces because of the lack of structural reinforcement within the slab and the movement of the slab through the seasons of Minnesota. Water also flows into the building making the garage a pool of water during rain storms and the winter water run-off. Thus the garage is unusable for their cars for much of the year. As shown in one of the photographs of their yard, Tom and Lindsay would like to save, if possible, their only tree in the backyard. In order for that to happen, the new garage would have to be constructed at the same setbacks as the existing garage. As you can tell from the attached photos, the majority of the garages along their alley are at similar setbacks. Constructing the new garage at the existing setback would not in any manner detract from the existing look or characteristic of the neighborhood. They would still maintain the approximately