02-16-2021 Planning Commission Packet

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Narrative Explanation of Variance Request I am the owner of the property at 1825 Lakeside Trail, Orono. I am looking to construct a home for my family on the property. For most other properties on Long Lake, this would not be a problem. However, there are several distinctive characteristics affecting my property that preclude building a home without a variance. Specifically, the character of the lake shoreline, the distance of the neighboring home (770 Brown Rd.) from the lake, the vacancy of the other neighboring property (1875 Lakeside Trail), and the creek that runs long the North side of my property, all combine to create practical difficulties in building a home on my property. During the approval of the Willow Bay Sanctuary development, there was discussion of setting an average lakeshore setback (ALS) line for my property and for 1875 Lakeside Trail, because these properties would not be buildable under a literal interpretation of the ALS rule. For some reason, this proposed ALS line (labeled on the attached survey as Expected ALS line as shown on the preliminary plat), was omitted from the final development agreement. This omission was only recently discovered, which necessitates my application for a variance. In the meantime, an addition has been added to the home at 770 Brown Rd.There is a line included on the attached survey label Expected ALS line per recent deck at 770, which illustrates how the addition at 770 Brown Rd affects the Expected ALS line from the preliminary plat.The location of my proposed home is conforming to this ALS line. The ALS requirement is intended to prevent any one property owner from building much closer to the lake than the adjacent homes, and thus negatively impacting the other property owners' ability to enjoy the use of their property and the lake. For most properties on Long Lake this results in a reasonable setback. In this specific case, the ALS for my property is based solely on the adjacent home at 770 Brown Rd., which is 343 feet from the lake at its nearest point.The lake shoreline then curves in on the other adjacent property at the currently vacant 1875 Lakeside Trail. Thus, a verbatim interpretation of the average setback rule results in a line that cuts diagonally across my property.This ALS line renders the vast majority of my lot unbuildable when combined with the 75 foot setback from the creek that winds through the woods between my proposed home and 770 Brown Rd.