02-10-1997 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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separated by a public roadway from the dock, a storage space, mooring space, floor space, or ramp they are designed to serve. In 1989 the City Council upon advice from the City Attorney chose to not oppose the LMCD in this increase of slips, and allowed the property owner to increase the size of the parking lot on the east side of Shoreline Drive to accommodate the additional slips on the west side of Shoreline Drive at the City required ratio of 6 stalls per 10 slips. A variance was granted at that time to allow those stalls to be across Shoreline Drive from the slips they serve. It is the City Council's finding that the need for parking area on the west side of Shoreline Drive is a self-created hardship, created by the property owner increasing the number of slips on the Tanager Lake side of the road where parking was not available and is not allowed under the zoning code. 12. Council finds that creating an additional access point on Shoreline Drive at the proposed new parking lot driveway access location will not necessarily enhance the safety of Shoreline Drive. The additional traffic ingress/egress will add one more potential problem point along that road. Further, Council finds that establishing parking area nearer the Tanager Lake bridge than the current parking area has the potential to increase the amount of trespassing and pedestrian traffic in the area of the channel, and the applicants have noted that trespass and the safety of trespassers on the property continues to be a problem especially near the bridge. 13. The Orono Police Department has provided an eight year history of incidents on Shoreline Drive from the Tanager Lake bridge to just north of Windward Marina adjacent to the property. The number of recorded incidents involving pedestrian slip users crossing Shoreline Drive is indiscernible. While the City Council does not dispute that lack of parking on the west side of Shoreline Drive is inconvenient for users of the site and e.xposes them to a potential unsafe pedestrian crossing, this again is largely a result of a hardship self-imposed by the applicants. 14. The City Council finds that in granting a variance in 1989 to allow an increase in parking on the east side cf Shoreline Drive to accommodate new slips on the west side of Shoreline Drive per Resolution No. 2638, and by granting in 1997 a number of v ariances to allow establishment of a retail boat sales use on the east side of Shoreline Drive and allowing additional parking to support such use, the City has sent a clear message to the property owner that while the City will support continued Page 5 of 9