08-13-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Monday, June 15, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 11 of 12 Curtis stated there is not a current standard. City Staff provided feedback for that application based on those pieces. She said Barnhart is suggesting to create a standard and it may be bigger than 18 feet. Oakden added that if someone wants to create a new lot and it is a lake lot and asks how wide they need to be at the road, right now they don’t know because there is not a standard. Bollis asked, if this was only going to apply for the lake lots, could there be exempt zoning district areas, where 18 feet could be the right width for the lots. Barnhart stated that could be the language; however, he would not feel comfortable with that other than for the RS zoning district because there is no road. He would apply it to all zoning districts where there is a road situation. Curtis said that on a lakeshore lot the City does not allow flag lots, so she does not know how the City would get there, creating a new lot that has the narrow corridor on the road, if that is the only access point. Bollis noted it could have a pie shape of 10-16 feet. Barnhart stated City Staff would recommend to not approve that. That would likely require some waiver because, to get to the setback, it would be an irregular pie-shaped lot. Bollis said it would be a standard pie-shaped lot that fell under the 18 feet. Barnhart stated, from a Staff perspective, 18 feet is the minimum. Bollis noted it is currently allowed. Barnhart agreed that it is currently allowed and that is why they want to put a regulation in place. Bollis said that is why he is not in favor of the additional language, because he does not think it is causing a problem right now. He would not be in favor of making it harder and doing 18 feet, especially if the City is really only concerned about the lake lots with this, because he understands the width could be 50 feet at the lake and taper down to less at the street. He added that it does not make sense to him. Barnhart commented that he could have his notes reflect that Bollis does not support 1746. Ressler stated he thinks the 18-foot minimum is reasonable for the calculations and numbers that have been put in place. If there are situations such as Bollis mentioned and Staff recommends approval, it would allow the Planning Commission to entertain that as a variance to allow that to be placed. His understanding of the City Code is to capture as much but not everything as far as situations. If everything was captured, there would not be a need for a Planning Commission. Barnhart noted there are processes for variances. It is different from the process for variances through the zoning code.