01-17-2023 Planning Commission Packet

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Thursday, August 24, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 8 Walsh said technically they could almost say the same thing, if it’s one parcel and one PID (Property Identification Number) and the property owner could say they own everything underneath the water and it’s connected so it’s a similar thing. He said when it’s completely displaced by water it’s hard to make that mental connection. Printup said between Togo Road and Northern Avenue they ran lots going through a wetland, rather than making the wetland an outlot, so the properties were a little bit smaller. Instead what happened is the properties went right through. He asked how you would get to the other side, he doesn’t know. However, the properties sold and he thinks they are being built on to this day, noting it’s a very strange setup down there. Walsh said the Applicant is very close to having it all work and then they wouldn’t even need to be here before the Council. He said he asks himself the question, knowing that this has a couple of things that don’t quite meet what a subdivision would be without having a variance, what is the reason he would say OK to this and he wouldn’t say OK to anything else. What is creating that practical difficulty that would say this is the exception to the rule because it’s so unique, for example to say the Applicant has gotten 95% done but just can’t get the last 5%. Walsh said he doesn’t know if he has that answer yet as this is so unique. Crosby stated he thinks the land on the other side of the water is something he could not get past. He thinks of his own lot and he is on a lagoon, but it would be like him trying to own a piece on the other side, it just doesn’t make sense. There is no land to get there. Johnson said even if they take the lagoon out and someone comes to the Council and says they have a non-conforming lot and they’d like to subdivide it, they would say no because they will not allow a further intensification of something that is already non-conforming. He said this is a terrific piece of real estate and they have exceptional privilege for hardcover, noting he saw the hardcover calculations for one but not the other. He said if they run the calculation for just the South part, they are over 25% hardcover for the amount of area they have there. Johnson stated that it comes down to the fact that it’s non- conforming and if someone else came with a non-conforming and said they meet everything, but – Johnson said the “but” is what holds it up. Walsh said they had some recently were there was a non-conforming line and someone wanted to change the line to make it an even worse non-conforming and the Council said they do not do that, noting one can make it better, but not make it worse. Crosby stated they make it more conforming, not less conforming. Johnson said that is why it’s a hard thing for him to ever get behind approving something that is already non-conforming. Mr. Gamble stated that is exactly right, it is non-conforming the way it sits, and there is nothing that will make each lot conforming. The subdividing of the property is not worsening it at all that he sees, it’s just providing another buildable site on a piece of land and gives it some purpose. Otherwise, like they’ve mentioned, it’s like the island at Fletcher’s. In this case, he said it’s even a separate code and at some point, the City Council said this is different and at some point, the group looked at zoning and zoned this separately from the peninsula houses.