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right of the applicant. <br />Response: We wish to expand the patio for two reasons: 1) to resolve a safety concern while walking down the deck stairs <br />onto the patio, and 2) to create an improved outdoor patio living area that enhances our enjoyment of our property. <br />11. The granting of the proposed variance will not in any way impair health, safety, comfort, morals, or in any <br />other respect be contrary to the intent of the Zoning Code. <br />Response: Granting a variance resolves a safety concern. <br />12. The granting of such variance will not merely serve as a convenience to the applicant but is necessary to <br />alleviate demonstrable difficulty. <br />Response: We ask for approval to expand the patio in order to create an improved outdoor patio living area that enhances our <br />enjoyment of our property. Also, one of the reasons why we ask for approval is to resolve a safety concern. <br />The safety concern is a result of the steep slope from the house to the lake. We believe the original patio configuration could be <br />unsafe for some (especially children and elderly) when descending the deck stairs. While the original patio creates a landing at <br />the end of the deck stairs, continuing down the patio steps onto the main patio area required an abrupt >90 degree turn. The <br />safety concern is that the person’s momentum might continue in the same direction as the deck stairs. They might not be able <br />to stop the momentum to make the turn required to continue down the patio stairs. Instead, they could find themselves <br />stepping onto the hillside and continuing downhill. <br />The patio expansion resolves this by continuing the patio, after the landing, for a few feet in the same direction as the <br />momentum gained from descending the deck stairs. This requires a variance from the city as the new portion of the patio <br />converges slightly closer to the property boundary (while not encroaching the boundary). As the site plan depicts, the patio <br />would only extend enough to allow the person descending the stairs to make a more gradual turn onto the patio area. <br />128