02-25-1991 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Hardcover Standards August 9, 1990 Page 2 of 2 Exhibit A is a synopsis of the hardcover ordinances of 22 which surround or abut Lake Minnetonka » White Bear Lake» or other significant lakes in the metro area. Exhibits B are a •eries of diagrams showing the relationship between Orono s hardcover-allowances on a given size/shape property, compared to the DNR standard and the standard adopted by some other cities. Maps 1 through show the variability based on lot width. Maps 4 through 6 show the differences in allowed hardcover related to lot depth and lot shape. It is clear from comparing Maps 1 and 3 that most other lake communities allow almost twice as much hardcover as Orono, on typical rectangular lakeshore lots. Maps 4 through 6 indicate that as the proportion of lot area in the 0-75' zone increases, the differences between Orono s limits and those of most other lake communities are even more disproportionate. This also holds true for pie shaped lots. The point of this memo is to document the significant differences between Orono's code and virtually all other area municipalities' codes. In light of the fact that a high proportion of building permit requests in our lakeshore areas require hardcover variances, Orono's staff spend a <Siaproportionate amount of time on hardcover issues, and there is no question that much private time and money is spent in planning for property improvements only to be held up or denied ultimately because of hardcover issues. In most cases, a home owner or contractor who has not previously dealt with Orono's hardcover codes would not "in their wildest dreams" think that they ® hardcover problem, based on their experiences in most other cities. The concept of hardcover zones, rather than just a percentage of the entire lot area, is most often the point at which homeowners and contractors throw up their arms in disbelief. That is also one of the reasons why staff has to spend significant amounts of time reviewing hardcover calculations - quite often they are not done correctly, due to the cooq>lexity of multiple zones. Lacking clear documentation that Orono's position is definitely correct and other ci-les are definitely wrong, I would hope that we could move towards taking some of the complexity out of our hardcover ordinance, and work toward a total lot area denominator concept while still not allowing hardcover in the 0- 75* sons. (That raises another issue - our 75' setback vs. the OHR's 50* setback for Lake Minnetonka - but that is an issue for a future date.) k