02-13-2023 City Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,February 13,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. house,we dropped to 25.6 percent.We just want the historical use;that was always as a guest house for our property--it was divided off in 1978. I'm not sure how that happened but we're trying to put it back and then benefit another property at the same time,because then they'll own to the road and drop their driveway easement. Johnson moved, Seals seconded, to direct staff to prepare a resolution to approve LA22-000065, 2967 Casco Point Rd. Variances.VOTE: Ayes 3,Nays 1 (Benson). 17. LA22-000060,JOHN GRZYBEK O/B/O WARD EDWARDS,2474 CARMAN STREET, SKETCH PLAN Community Development Director Laura Oakden presented a sketch plan proposal and said Council was being asked for some informal feedback to the applicant regarding their proposed plan. 2474 Carman has a street frontage on Shoreline Drive and the lot is long and narrow with a lagoon that divides the land right in the middle.It also has an identified wetland on the property. The parcel as it sits today has about 1.6 acres of land above the ordinary high-water level.The lot is improved with a single-family home on the southern portion of that lagoon, and the property is relatively unique with a split zoning with the south side of the inlet being our LR1B which is a one-acre minimum and north of that inlet or lagoon area being half-acre minimum or LR1C1. The applicant is proposing to split the lot into two parcels right down the lagoon or the inlet area to facilitate a new building site north of the inlet. The north side is heavily wooded and includes that wetland and some grading area that drops off of Shoreline Drive. An application in 2020,which included this parcel and the parcel to the east at 2480, contemplated a subdivision of those two lots going from two lots to four lots.At that time Planning Commission and Council were not in favor of creating any new non-conforming parcels. With that analysis from 2020. today the existing parcel as it sits is non-conforming as relates to lot width. As proposed that northern parcel would meet the LR1C1 requirements of the half acre and the 100 foot while the southern parcel would require a lot area variance as proposed.It's .68 acres where one acre is required, and a lot with variance at 125 feet and with where 140 is required.For this application to move forward two variances would be needed. Commissioners discussed requiring a shared access between this parcel and the parcel to the east at 2480 Carman to limit access on Shoreline Drive and to work with that neighboring parcel. Overall, some of the Commissioners did support allowing the creation of a new single-family lot on that northern parcel. Commissioner Ressler noted he did not support creating a new substandard parcel with variances. Commissioners also discussed the potential for rezoning the area to be consistent with the neighborhood as this is unique with a split zoning to see if that resolves any concerns. Council should discuss if they are comfortable as proposed with the necessary variances for this application.You also should discuss concerns regarding the buildability with that area,based on the wetlands as shown.. Planning staff request feedback to the applicant identifying those issues brought up. Scott W Edwards,2474 Carmen Street, stated we've presented this before, and I guess nothing really substantially changed except for we had tried a number of other configurations. We feel the simplest way to do this and the most natural way is to split it in the middle of the lagoon. That's historical going back. These lots and the one at 2480 have always been thought of as two lots. Going back there was even,I think,two different tax ID parcels numbers, before the lagoon was dredged in the '60s,I believe. I would like to note that the wetland that is designated is a technical term. It's really just a peat bog. There's no standing water historically on that area,but we did have it surveyed,I think three or four years ago,and Page 6 of 16