02-08-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Tuesday, January 19, 2021 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 5 of 6 Kirchner said if they are looking at the practical difficulty side of this from a lack of adequate sunlight, whichever two panels it is he finds it hard to say the practical difficulty had been met for those two panels because apparently it has not been met for the other panels. Those two panels somehow then do not have adequate access to sunlight and yet the rest of the roof does; he does not believe that would then meet the practical difficulty. Mr. O’Connell commented that they can pick any two panels they want; if he was to build it with 28 panels, the design would remove those “donut hole” ones. In the big roof plane that Barnhart pointed out to the lower right, it is shaded in the summer and he could take two panels and find a roof plane more northerly, but he personally believes that would be terrible aesthetically because it would be seen from the lake or from the neighbor’s backyard. All the other roofs are lower and he wanted to put those two panels on that same roof plane as the other ones and butted up against the 70% challenge. The maximum number of panels that can go on that roof is 30 and he could put two somewhere else but it will be difficult to wire them to that array and have it not be visible from the lake or the neighbor’s house. Chair Ressler noted with Mayor Walsh and Councilmember Seals present, they can speak to the issue. Mayor Dennis Walsh, 1354 West Point Circle, approached the podium and said this is a great opportunity as they see things like this at the City Council. When the last one came before them the first question, he asked Barnhart and the City Attorney is “why do we have 70%?” He needs to understand that before he can assess what is going on. The answer was “we have no idea why we have 70%.” Mayor Walsh noted they just had a boat discussion at the last City Council meeting and asked where did they come up with a 30-foot boat rule…someone remembered 25 years ago they made it 30 feet because there was a Councilmember who had a 30-foot boat and he wanted to be able to put it in his yard so they changed it to 30 feet. He appreciates Bollis saying he does not see a practical difficulty for 70%; however, the problem is why the City even has 70% and nobody knows. Is it a fire code requirement? No. He asked what is the real issue? Then as Mr. O’Connell said he could move the panels somewhere else and then there are practical difficulties of connecting it in and what if they eventually have to replace the roof; nothing else really faces south that is anywhere close. Mayor Walsh noted they can always come up with a good practical difficulty but it begs the question of “why do we have it?” He said at the City Council they look at what ordinances they should try and attack or change because there are 20 of them and they only have so much time to rewrite with the Attorney, go through them, and bring it through the public process. He noted it gets them thinking. When they start to get to those “why” questions and they do not get answered, that is when the Planning Commission and City Council starts saying they recommend approving or disapproving but they also recommend that the ordinance needs to be looked at and changed to reflect the real issue of why there is a percentage and what it should be. There needs to be a rationale so the City can explain it to an Applicant; when they cannot explain it that becomes a bigger issue. Mayor Walsh said over time they try and fix as many of these as they can but sometimes, they do not know they have them until situations like this come up. Then after talking about them they say “why is this here?” Gettman said to the Mayor, the way Gettman was looking at this was perhaps completely backwards, but looking at the 70% it is obviously applicable for each roof face. So, the practical difficulty is the fact that the Applicant is trying not to use all of these other faces and is stuck with just using one of these ten faces. The practical difficulty is then trying to utilize that one space. Mayor Walsh answered that is absolutely a practical difficulty as well.