03-08-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Tuesday, February 16, 2021 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ 9. LA21-000012 CLAIRMONT DESIGN BUILD, 1260 SPRUCE PLACE, VARIANCES (STAFF: LAURA OAKDEN) Rick Severson of Clairmont Design Build, Applicant, was present. Staff presented a summary packet of information. The Applicant is looking to construct a second story addition to an existing home which is located on a substandard lot. The footprint of the home is not proposed to change; the existing home encroaches in the side yard setback, 75-foot lake yard setback, and the average lakeshore setback. The proposed improvements are all vertical and the property is currently over in hardcover and there are no proposed changes to the existing footprint or the setbacks to the property. The red shown on screen is the footprint of the existing home, so the white is identified as that proposed second story. The Applicant identified the substandard lot and existing home location as the practical difficulty for supporting the request. Staff finds there are a number of property characteristics making improvements to this lot challenging. The substandard lot is 50 feet wide and ¼ of an acre, where 1 acre and 140 wide are the standard, leaving little area for modest expansions. The existing home footprint currently has a 6.5-foot side yard setback in the northeast; she noted the setback on screen where the current home sit 6.5 feet and 7.5 feet is required. The existing house footprint is also roughly a foot into the 75-foot lake yard setback at 74.3 feet, and the property abuts an unimproved right-of-way to the north. The average lakeshore setback (ALS) is established solely by the house to the south which is set 83 feet back from the ordinary high-water level (OHL), making the existing house footprint encroach approximately 11 feet into that ALS. She said the proposed second story addition encroaches in those three ways, and are all vertical encroachments. These are practical difficulties to support the requested variances. The southern neighbor at 1270 Spruce submitted a letter of support included in the packet. Staff is recommending approval. Gettman asked if Staff has any picture of the neighboring houses and how they sit on the lots. Oakden showed an aerial photo with some neighbors, but does not have any street views. Libby is not seeing in any dimensions or illustrations what the maximum two peak roof height is with the added addition. Oakden believes she did an analysis on height and they were not proposing to be above the 30 feet. Ressler noted there was a change in the last few years as to how they measure that 30 feet and asked if that is true. Oakden stated they clarified the building height definition and they now measure from the midpoint of a gabled roof. They used to take into account some windows on the second story and do a midpoint from there. Rick Severson with Clairmont Design Build approached the podium. He noted it is not on the drawing but the height at the maximum is 23 feet 4 inches. Going back to the aerial photo, the lay of the land is the lot to the south is the highest, 1260 is midway, and then it drops again. The roofline on the south lot is substantially higher than the 23 feet 4 inches at the highest point, and it is from the main floor not from grade. However, grade in this house is very close to the main floor.