06-15-1998 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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William J. Yaegcr 310 Big Island Lot 64, Morse Island Park // ©aA Addendum "A” - DESCRIPTION OF HARDSHIP The Applicant is seeking a variance for the lot area and front setback restrictions. As to the lot area variance, the Applicant ’s property is one of six tax parcels constituting Record Lot Number 15 (the “Record Lot”). The record lot was established by ordinance on December 30,1982. Section 10.31, Subd. 6B of the Orono Code now prevents the Applicant from obtaining a Building Permit until the Applicant receives either a lot area variance or the Applicant achieves common ownership for each of the six tax parcels comprising The Record Lot. Unfortunately, the Applicant owns only one of the six tax parcels, the other five being owned by another party. Prior to December 1982, the six tax parcels had been owned commonly by Roy Ahern. Prior to the effective date of the ordinance establishing The Record Lot, Mr. Ahern sold each of the six parcels to separate Individuals not Including the Applicant. Presumably, this was done so that each of the six tax parcels would constitute a separate record lot upon adoption of the ordinance. However, the City retroactively applied the ordinance to November 1981. Following the adoption of the ordinance in December 1982, neither Mr. Ahern nor any of the other owners of the Individual tax parcels took action to establish that the individual parcels constituted Individual record lots. The Applicant purchased his tax parcel from Mr. Ahern with the understanding It was a buildable lot. The other five tax parcels have been resold and are currently ov/ned by a single other owner. The Applicant is now in a position of having to acquire the other five tax parcels or be prohibited from maintaining the pre-existing structures on his single tax parcel. The Applicant is not in any position to purchase the other five tax parcels. Because the intent of the 1982 ordinance was to limit the number of buildable lots on the Islands, an alternative to the Applicant acquiring all of the Record Lot parcels would be to reconfigure the ownership and use of various tax parcels to allow the Applicant to maintain or construct a structure on his tax parcel while not increasing the net number of buildable lots on the island. Any such alternative, however, requires the cooperation of the other property owners. Although the Applicant and other property owners have attempted to present a feasible alternative to the City, their efforts have been rejected. The Applicant, therefore, faces a hardship in that he cannot acquire the other five tax parcels in The Record Lot and cannot control the use of those tax parcels by the current owner. As a result, absent the lot area variance, the .. 1 -