07-15-2002 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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7, The granting of such variance is necessary to alleviate a demonstrable hardship. The identifiable hardships to our site are: a) Reasonable and safe access to our home; and b) Available dwelling hardcover in light of the large amount of site area that is not covered. The current driveway is only eight feet wide and has a small apron that is partially in the 0-75’ zone. The proposed home includes a small circular drive that would be moved entirely within the 75-250’zone. We believe that the circular drive is important for access and safety reasons. The drive would allow for off street parking by visiting vehicles to the property. The neighborhood is currently served by the fire hydrant at the entrance to 2800 Pheasant. This area of the street also serves as parking for approximately six summer docks. Currently, dock owners and visiting vehicles tend to park in the cul-de-sac and on the street, limiting access and emergency vehicle parking and turn around in the area of the hydrant. In addition to the parking issue, the existing driveway style is hazardous and un^e, forcing guests to back out a considerable distance. In our plan, we have minimized dwelling hardcover in order to do the right thing in terms of safety for our family and neighborhood by allocating one-third of our requested hardcover for a safer turnaround access. This has been a challenge but we think we have achieved a safe and positive balance without increasing hardcover. It is preferable and important for vehicles to drive out rather than back out from the property. The proposed turn around effectively eliminates the safety concerns while using approximately the same iiardcover as the existing driveway, provides much better traffic flow and is aesthetically more attractive. Another hardship is the relatively small size of the build able zone for a two-acre site. Neighboring properties of approximately one acre achieve about 10,000 feet in the build able zone without variance At 25% hardcover, our site would be allowed just 5,500 of hardcover. As noted above, if a normal side yard set back applied, our site would qualify for over 10,000 feet of hardcover and a variance would not be required. With this limitation, we have attempted to present a plan that improves upon the site with no change in overall hardcover. In addition, *he instructions to the variance application require a hardship to be; a. Uncommon; b. Run with the land; And further the instructions provide examples of such hardships including; a. Lakes; b. Existing structure locations; and c. Unusually shaped property without adjacent vacant land. The above instructions are directly on po'mt with 2800 Pheasant. *5- . \