03-18-2002 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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lot. Following a property combination it is assumed the common property line effectively disappears. A building could be constructed over the previous property line and no setbacks to the property line arc required. The remaining parcel functions as one lot. A subdivision to separate combined parcels is required in all cases where lots, siavc been combined. Section 11.03, Subdivision 2.66 of the Subdivision Ordinance defines the separation of lots previously combined as a “Class 1” Subdivision, which means that they arc exempt from platting, but still require approval via the subdivision process, and arc still subject to minimum lot standards. Histon of Creating New Building Sites Not Meeting Minimum Lot Area Requirements Staff has been able to identify only two occasions when a subdi\ ision was approved that created lots less than the required lot area for the respective zoning district since the rezoning of the City in 1975. 1. Plat of Bavside Beach - 1980 The Plat of Bayside Beach was a 3 lot plat that created three residential lots and a common outlot that is used as a shared driveway and also contained a shared septic system until the Stubbs Bay area was sewered. The total area of the property prior to subdivision was 2 acres. Three-'/: acre building sites were created with one-'/: acre common outlot. The ow ners of the property requested the City change the zoning from B-2 (Commercial - Marina Use) to residential. The property was rezoned to LR-1A which is a 2 acre residential district. Effectively the property was “down zoned" from commercial to residential. Rather than rezoning the property a'/: acre residential district, the City chose to rezone the property the 2 acre LR-IA district, and grant lot area and lot width variance as a’.l the surrounding properties were zoned 2 acre. 1980 was the final year the marina operated, before the re/oning to residential. The 1980 approval allowed a total of 55 boats on the property and within the individual slips. 2. Plat of Blue Hill - 1994 The Plat of Blue Hill resulted in a two-lot plat of a 3.24 acre property in the 2-acre residential district. The basis for the approval of the lot area variance to allow one lot less than two acres in size dated back to a 1980 Council resolution which was adopted during the process of assigning sewer units to the Minnetonka Bluffs sewer project, that resolution appears to anticipate that the City would either grant a future lot area variance as part of the future subdivision ofthe property, or to rezone the individual lot to a 1-acre district. Following the 1980 sewer project the property owner did pay a sewer assessment assuming future use of one of the two tots as a sevvered building site. Rezoning the property to 1-acre was inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan. Other properties in the area are all zoned 2-acre. The Council approved one lot to be less than 2 acres based on the “agreement ” that had been made by the 1980 resolution between the City and the propert) owner, t he MUSA separated the propertv to allow one lot to have sewer access and tlic second, larger property was outside die MUSA.