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r <br />I <br />b <br />City of Orono - Variance Application <br />Description of Request: <br />n }>. <br />:D <br />We recently became the parents of quadruplets (two boys, two girls, 7 months old), in <br />addition to our three year old son. Our house has enough “ <br />family room/kitchen, a space now much more imperative. We would like to add f 7 <br />room adjacent to the kitchen. Our proposal entails converting the present g^ge into the <br />family room and adding a new garage at the end of the driveway. We would also like to <br />repla« a current deck on the back of the house. We want to minimize the addition of <br />building and deck because our actual yard space is small in companson to the lot size ( <br />unusual hardship is described below). <br />Hardship/Description of Unusual Property Conditions; <br />We live at the end of a cul-de-sac. Our house is set on a pie shaped lot. Thehouseisat <br />the tip of the lot (front facing west), close to the street. As the lot begins to spread out <br />past *e house, the terrain drops down. Ihe house is situated such t^t the front “fry <br />fevel with the front yard and the back of the house basement is level wi* the backyard so <br />that between the front and the back of the house, the land drops down 10 to 12 feet The <br />back yard is level for between 25 to 40 feet from the house and then drops s^y down <br />about 30 feet. Out backyard is a strip of yard about 100 feet by 15 to 40 feet <br />backyard appears to be fill from the building of the house. Several contractore have told <br />us that it can be very expensive to build on fill and the building process entmls the use of <br />pilings to support any structure built in the backyard. The north side of the lot ap^ars to <br />have tile most gradual decline and therefore, the most attractive budding site. As for he <br />remaining portion of Ihe lot. it is unusable for building because a large percentage of the <br />land is locate^d at the bottom of the sharp drop-off. <br />The kitchen is located at the back of the house (the north east comer). The current gwap <br />is located adjacent .0 the kitchen (north side of lot) and within 25 feet of the north side lot <br />line. The driveway runs parallel to the property line. Converting the current g^ge into <br />the family room and adding the new garage requires the new garage to approach the side <br />lot line within 5 feet. <br />1