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MINUTES OF THE <br /> ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING <br /> Monday,March 16,2015 <br /> 6:30 o'clock p.m. <br /> The Planning Commission should consider some factors for development of this property. The property <br /> is 4.59 acres in gross area of which 0.57 acres is delineated as wetland, leaving a net dry buildable area of <br /> 4.02 acres. A flowage and conservation easement exists on the property, which encompasses the <br /> delineated wetland area, adjacent areas not within the delineated wetland, and a portion of the steep slopes <br /> on the property. This easement contains an approximate total of 1.6 acres, nearly three times the area of <br /> the wetland, which places further development encumbrances upon the site. The easement was created at <br /> a time before there were formal delineation processes in place. <br /> The applicants will likely be requesting a revision of that existing easement boundaries based on the <br /> current delineation. As it stands today,the proposal is for eight dwelling units on three developable acres <br /> if it is assumed that the area of the existing easement is not buildable. The conditions of that easement <br /> currently do not allow the developer to do very much within that area. At such time that the easement is <br /> reduced in area,this density would decrease slightly but it is still at a density with the eight units of 2.7 <br /> units per acre,which is within the range of two to three units per acre that the site is guided for. <br /> The property is currently guided for two to three acres in the 2008-2030 Community Management Plan <br /> for residential uses and is zoned LR-1B, one-family lakeshore residential district,which is a district that <br /> requires one acre and 140 feet of width. The City Attorney has indicated that a Comprehensive Plan <br /> Amendment is not necessary because the guide plan merely establishes an allowable density range for this <br /> portion of the Navarre area an does not specify the requirement that the development be limited to single- <br /> family uses. <br /> An analysis of the potential zoning options for development of this site was conducted just prior to the <br /> September 15 meeting. The conclusion at that time was that there is a need for rezoning to residential <br /> planned unit development. Exhibit F describes the process that was undertaken in analyzing the <br /> development. The RPUD district is available for properties with a minimum of five acres of dry <br /> buildable. There are a number of criteria that the Council would have to find exist prior to allowing a <br /> change. <br /> The four criteria for an RPUD are as follows: <br /> 1. Unusual physical features of the property itself or of the surrounding neighborhood such that <br /> development as an RPUD will conserve a physical or topographic feature of importance to the <br /> neighborhood or community. <br /> 2. The property is directly adjacent to or across a public street from property which has been <br /> developed previously as an RPUD or planned residential development and will be perceived as <br /> and will function as an extension of that previously approved development. Gaffron noted that is <br /> not the case in this application. <br /> 3. The property is located in an area where the proposed development provides a transition between <br /> a commercial or industrial area and an existing residential area or on an intermediate or principal <br /> arterial as defined in the Comprehensive Plan. <br /> 4. The property contains steep slopes or a substantial number of significant trees that could be <br /> preserved through the clustering of buildings or other design techniques not generally allowed by <br /> the existing zoning district. <br /> Page 2 of 30 <br />