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Orono City Mayor Dennis Walsh <br /> Orono City Council Members <br /> October 26, 2020 <br /> Page 8 <br /> The City should not allow any cul-de-sac. The cul-de-sac is being used to try to create a high <br /> density development, rather than a simple subdivision. The City should reject this effort by the <br /> Jacobs family/trust. <br /> Traffic <br /> The Jacobs subdivision will access Shoreline Drive along a stretch of the road that is already a <br /> safety concern. The City Council's approval of the proposed subdivision would create a larger <br /> safety hazard to an already hazardous stretch of road. The City, therefore, should deny the <br /> proposed application. <br /> Visibility along the road is compromised by vegetation and road curvature. Road speeds are not <br /> always honored. Recent accidents have already occurred. Under the Jacobs Family Trust plan, <br /> six or seven new homes will now be funneled through the same stretch of road for ingress and <br /> egress, bringing with these new residents all the additional traffic incidental to home use—multiple <br /> cars within a family, service providers such as garbage disposal, repairman, mail delivery, <br /> overnight package delivery, and guest traffic. The Burwell home access is also nearby. While <br /> deference has been given to the County over road control and access,this should be a City concern <br /> as well. <br /> Variance <br /> We respectfully submit that variances must be applied for/granted contemporaneously with the <br /> plat approval. The City's action in arbitrarily adjusting or assuming new ALS lines to facilitate <br /> subdivision approval effectively grants numerous variances to the Jacobs Family Trust without <br /> requiring the Jacobs Family Trust to meet the variance criteria. In the present case, lots 1, 2, 3 <br /> and 6 do not meet the criteria for a variance and should not be approved for variances. <br /> Variance Criteria <br /> Variances may be granted only under specific circumstances. "The council upon application may <br /> grant variances from the strict application of the provisions of this chapter and impose conditions <br /> and safeguards in the variances so granted, in cases where there are practical difficulties in the <br /> way of carrying out the strict letter of the regulations of this chapter and where the variance does <br /> not adversely affect the purpose and intent of this chapter nor the health or we/fare of the public." <br /> (Sec. 78-121) (Emphasis Ours.) The Jacobs Family Trust does not satisfy these requirements. <br /> First, they do not meet the practical difficulties requirement. Sec. 78-123 of the Orono Code of <br /> Ordinances lays out the "parameters within which a variance may be granted." One of those <br /> parameters is that "[t]he plight of the landowner is due to circumstances unique to his property <br /> not created by the landowner." (Sec. 78-123(a)(2)). This plainly does not apply to the Jacobs <br /> Family Trust; their problem with the ALS is not unique to the property, and it is one of their own <br /> making by attempting to subdivide a single property into seven different lots. The Ordinances <br /> further specify that "[e]conomic considerations alone do not constitute practical difficulties" <br /> meriting a variance. (Sec. 78-123(a)(4)). And the Jacobs Family Trust's pursuit of variances in <br /> order to establish and develop this proposed subdivision is purely economical in nature. <br /> 8 <br /> 6573570v1 <br />