Agenda Packet Cc - regular meeting 9/12/1988

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Zoning File #990 May 29, 1987 Page 2 of 4 C) 1925 West Farm Road - This is a single building lot containing 2.1 acres of which about 0.27 acre is contained within a drainage easement for a creek (the same creek that traverses 900 North Brown Road), leaving 1..83 acres dry buildable. The septic system is not as shown on the site plan submitted by Ferrell, but is a mound system located southeast of the house, set substantially back from and at a much higher elevation than the creek. This case is not at all similar to Ferrell's. The fact is, the City has not issued a building permit or granted a lot area variance for any substandard, commonly owned lots in an unsewered zone since that 1974-75 rezoning. Mr. Ferrell's request, if approved, would set a precedent that would suggest at least 22 other substandard lots in unsewered zones could be requesting similar consideration. It is staff's opinion that allowing substandard, unsewered lots to be built on will not be advantageous to the City in its quest to keep sewer out of the rural areas. II. Ferrell's ownership and 1958 subdivision in relation to codes throughout the years. Please review the memos of March 3, 1986 and Noveml-er 13, 1985 for a summary of how Ferrell's current situation came about and how changes in codes have affected his properties. The lots Ferrell created in 1958-59 appear to have met or nearly met the standards in effect at that time. On October 12, 1959, the Council adopted Ordinance #22 which allowed Council to grant variances for substandard lots in single separate ownership, inferring that commonly owned lots would not be automatically granted variances, and inferred that in the case of common -ownership lots, enforcement of that ordinance with respect to lots held in common ownership would not arbitrarily deprive the property owner of a valuable right. (See Exhibit Z-3 of last meeting's packet.) The 1967 Code said substantially the s��me thing, i.e. by stating that it would be appropriate to consider variances for substandard size separate ownership lots where health, safety and welfare concerns were satisfied, it inferred that such variances were not appropriate for sub- standard common -ownership lots. The 1974 Ccde rezoned the property to 2-acre, 200' minimum width, and set up standards for the granting of variances for unsewered single separate ownership lots, i.e. 1 acre, 100' width, septic OK, meets all other zoning standards; again implying (but not saying) that common - ownership lots could not be granted variances. In 1961, the City Council effectively denied a similar application for common -ownership unsewered substandard lot buildability, establishinu k-.ity policy clearly.