02-12-2024 CC Agenda Packet - work session

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Item No.:Date: February 12, 2024 Presenter: Laura Oakden Presenter: Community Development Director Section:Work Session Item Title: Average Lakeshore Setback Discussion - Part 3 1.Purpose: Review the current Average Lakeshore Setback (ALS) regulations and consider changes. 2.Background: The Council directed staff to bring the average lakeshore setback (ALS) regulations to the Council at a work session to explore potential amendments. The ALS is a sight line setback applied to protect views of the lake from neighboring homes across property lines. The ALS is currently determined by finding the most lakeward point of the homes on abutting lakeshore properties and drawing a line that across the subject property. The City also requires a 75-foot lakeshore setback which is a measured distance from the Ordinary High Water Line (OHWL) to protect water quality. Both the 75-foot lakeshore setback and the ALS apply to lakeshore properties; the more restrictive setback applies. 3.Summary: The ALS is unique to each property and each specific building at time of development. A curved lakeshore, an extreme neighbor setback, a peninsula, or a parcel that abuts a channel create a variety of challenges for implementing the ALS regulation. In theory, when the lakeshore is straight and when properties are uniform in shape and size, the ALS achieves the goal of protecting views of the lake from each of the neighboring homes along the shoreline. The City receives many requests for variances to the ALS setback annually. As long as the proposed project does not negatively impact the neighbors’ views of the lake, the majority of the ALS variances are granted. In 2023, 43% of the variance applications included a request for an ALS variance. On November 13th, Staff provided a range of options to the Council at a work session. Council directed staff to complete an analysis on recently granted variances to determine if recalculating the average lakeshore setback to a measured average distance based on the abutting neighbors would alleviate the variance requests being requested under the current regulation. Through this analysis, staff found that out of the five most recent ALS variance requests only one would no longer need a variance. 4.Staff Recommendation: After conducting the analysis and reviewing the recent variances, staff finds that adjusting the current ALS regulation would not significantly reduce the number of ALS variances requested each year. It is staff's opinion changing the ALS regulation (from a straight line based on neighboring homes to a calculated average of the neighboring home setbacks) would not result in fewer variance requests and in some situations would result in a larger setback placing a greater setback burden on the property. Staff also finds that adding more exceptions to the existing rule (such as excluding the "extreme AGENDA ITEM 2