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1-26-96 <br />? 7 <br />MS8cR e <br />Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. <br />Architecture, Interior Design <br />and Urban Design <br />119 North and Street <br />Minneapolis MN 55401.142.0 <br />612 375.0336 phone <br />612342.2216 lax <br />Dear City Of O/on'"-: <br />Our clients Robert and Joan Dayton are applying for a Shoreland setback variance for <br />their residence at One French Lake Road. Orono. <br />The purpose of this letter is to provide a history of the property and to establish a case <br />for hardship that will allow the City to grant their request. <br />The home was built in 1984. At that time the structure conformed to the 75’ wetland <br />setback- In 1992 French Lake was reclassified as a “Natural Environment Lake* which <br />increased the setback to 150*. This adjustment placed the entire home within the 150’ <br />setback. The entire home is now a nonconforming structure. Also due to the peninsula <br />shape of the Dayton's property less than 5% of the original 5.2 acres is now buildable as <br />a result of the zoning reclassification. <br />The expansion planned by the Dayton’s is quite modest. They would like to change the <br />existing screen porch to a year round room (no floor area added) , add a new screen <br />porch along the south side of the existing garage (140 sf of new area) and to expand their <br />family room (100 jf of new area). None of these changes push the house closer to the <br />lake. No hard cover is added to the site, because the expanded rooms are replacing <br />decks, patios or planted gardens with plastic liners. <br />The Dayton’s feel this request is very reasonable and causes no additional burden to the <br />environment. The case for hard ship is in fact the ordinance itself. The reclassification <br />has deemed the property virtually unbuildable and allows the Daytons no expansion <br />opportunities without a variance. Ordinances traditionally work best when they pre­ <br />date construction and when the geography is very predictable and regular. Ordinances <br />are problematic when they post-date construction and the land shapes are highly <br />irregular. As we all know the Dayton predicament is a classic case when a well <br />intended mandated ordinance cannot account for all the nuances encountered in the <br />real world, thus we entrust our city governments to provide a common sense <br />resolution. <br />Sincerely <br />Garth Rockcastle <br />EjujI Opportunity Employer