07-22-2002 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING • Monday, July 22, 2002 6:30 o'clock p.m. ( #7) #02 -2791 DAVE AND JODI RAHN,1385 REST POINT ROAD - VARIANCES - Continued Barrett stated that he was unfamiliar with the application, but guessed there might have been some mitigating factors that allowed those variances. Mayor Peterson asked, with regard to consistency, whether at some point couldn't everyone in the City come back and say you let my neighbor do this twenty years ago. Weinberger noted that he had looked at approximately six neighboring properties, and noticed that in most cases there were mitigating factors. Rahn stated that although the Council was aware of the neighboring properties, the question remains whether the City will allow 15% structural coverage when you have minimal hardcover. He stated that he could have drawn the application with excessive hardcover in order to allow them to have something to remove, but he didn't do that. He felt that he drew the plan based on the bare minimum, which was where the struggle was, there isn't really anything for the City to remove other than structural coverage, which goes back to his argument that it is the structural coverage that he believed he is short on. The footprint on the house is barely 10,000 s.f., whereas the neighbor's home is towering above him right off the property line on a smaller lot than his. Originally he was approved to do some remodeling and realized that the work required much more, Weinberger questioned what impact the floodplain had on his decisions. Had he known the floodplain did not exist, and he needed to move the home further from the lake, would that have been a consideration for him. It would have reduced hardcover to do that. Rahn stated that had they known this, even though it met the average lakeshore setback, they would have likely moved the home 20' back, so as not to be crowding the lakeshore, and had an attached garage. Rahn stated that to not consider the floodplain debate an issue would be unfair, since it is obvious that the floodplain impacted the whole design. Murphy stated that he struggled with the value of tearing down the shed, although he found the hardcover issue compelling. In exchange for leaving the existing shed, from his position, Murphy was inclined to leave the shed and invite Rahn to come back with a reconfigured shed, unusable as a garage, but still valuable storage area, with the overhead door and hardcover around it removed. Sansevere asked how this would impact hardcover. • Rahn suggested removing the apron, a mere 100 s.f. PAGE 19 of 35