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Boardwalk: HARDSHIP STATEMENT 1265 Bracketts Point Road The Applicant intends to replace the sodded lawn currently lying within the 75 foot shoreline set back area with a meadow consisting of native floodplain slm.1bs and grasses. The restoration of the shoreland setback area from sod to native floodplain shrubs and grasses will provide a buffer borde1ing Lake Mi1metonka that will help protect water quality, stabilize the lakeshore bank, prevent erosion, and also assist in filtering out nutrients, sediments and other pollutants from entering the lake. The Applicant also seeks to maintain access to the lakeshore from his home. For that purpose, the Applicant proposes to constrnct a slatted wood boardwalk. The boardwalk will be suspended above the ground surface. The ground surface beneath the boardwalk will be stabilized with erosion control fabric to prevent erosion in those areas where vegetation is not expected to survive. For most of its extent, the boardwalk will be no greater than six feet in width. Near the lake, the width of the boardwalk will be increased up to 15 feet, to help facilitate transition to a dock, which is to be constructed in the future, and further protect the restored natural vegetation from "staging" activities near the lakeshore. If the variance were not granted, the Applicant would be unable to access the lakeshore without damaging the native floodplain grasses to be planted in the shoreline set back area. The variance is necessary to preserve the enjoyment of a substantial prope1iy right of the Applicant, i.e., access to and enjoyment of Lake Minnetonka, while encouraging the voluntary restoration of the lakeshore area to native floodplain grasses and shrubs. Given the substantial benefit that Lake Miimetonka will enjoy by this voluntary restoration, granting the proposed variance will not impair the public health and safety, but rather will serve to encourage such values. Fencing The Applicant proposes to construct a wire mesh fence along the p01tions of the property that fronts Bracketts Point Road and County Road 15. The purpose of the fence is to provide the Applicant with security for his property, privacy and safety for Applicant's grandchildren who will play on the prope1iy. Only that portion of the fence that parallels Bracketts Point Road will encroach into the shoreline set back area. This area is at the southerly end of the prope1iy and runs for a distance of approximately 56 feet. At the property lines that are "perpendicular" to the lakeshore at both the north and the south ends of the property, any necessary screening from adjacent roads and prope1iies would be achieved through relatively dense plantings of native shrnbs and trees, rather . than with a fence. The requested variance is made necessary only as a result of the unusual configuration of Bracketts Point Road. To the south of the Applicant's prope1ty, Bracketts Point Road encroaches into the shoreline setback area and closely follows the lake shore. To be effective, the fence should not stop arbitrarily, but rather should be allowed to follow the entire length of the property as it follows Bracketts Point Road. Granting of the variance application is necessary