07/16/2012 Planning Commission Minutes

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. MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Monday,July 16,2012 . 6:30 o'clock p.m. percent hardcover currently exists. As part of the project,the tennis court will be removed and the driveway will be reconfigured. . The lot does not meet the required width of 140 or 80 percent of that to be granted administrative ' approval per City Code. The property currently includes a home,a long driveway, a detached garage and a tennis court. The existing hardcover within the 75-250 foot zone is 50.5 percent. The applicant has proposed 38.5,which would reduce the hardcover by 2,000 square feet. The applicant is also proposing to remove the tennis court from the 250-500 foot zone,which would reduce the hardcover from 50 . percent to 16.5 percent. There is a small boathouse that will remain at the lakeshore and comprises 1.7 : percent hardcover. As the Planning Commission is aware,the City is contemplating a major amendment to the hardcover regulations. The applicant's proposed plan results in 27.4 percent hardcover in the first 250 feet of the property. If one is to compare the proposal to the draft regulations as they are currently drafted,a 2.4 percent reduction would be necessary to conform to the potential code requirement for Tier 1 lots at a 25 percent limit. The proposal would result in 22.4 percent total hardcover for the entire site. The applicant did design the site as a whole to be under the 25 percent with the hopes that the City Council would have adopted the new ordinance by the time this applicant was before the Planning Commission. At this time it is uncertain when the new hardcover ordinance will be adopted so the applicant is pursuing a hardcover variance. Although the applicant's proposal results in a total reduction of the site's hardcover by 4,600 square feet, the 75-250 foot zone variance is still requested. The proposed home is under the 15 percent structural coverage limit. The hardcover does not appear to alter the essential character of the neighborhood. The Planning Commission was provided with an exhibit showing statistics for variances granted on. . lakeshore lot rebuilds within the 75-250 foot zone areas consistent with this lot. It appears that during the nine year period analyzed,very few hardcover variances were granted on properties with similarly sized 75-250 foot zones. The Planning Department would recommend approval of the lot width variance and Staff would recommend that the public hearing be held tonight,that the Planning Commission review the conditions outlined in Staff's report,and make a recommendation to the Council regarding the request. Landgraver asked if Staff could explain how they should be processing the analysis completed. Curtis stated there are a number of different sized lakeshore lots throughout the City and that historically it has been helpful in the past for Staff to look back on how the variances were granted. If you look at lots that are 40 and 50 feet wide and have a smaller depth in the 75-250 foot zone,you will see hardcover variances being granted in the high 30s and 40s. With this size of a 75-250 foot zone,you will find one or two properties that are similar to this lot. The analysis is a historical reference from 1999 to 2007. Curtis indicated Staff has not had time to update the document to bring it current to 2012 statistics,but that it is a tool that the Planning Commission can reference. Gaffron stated the two columns the Planning Commission should be looking at are the 75-250 approved percentage column and the 75-250 foot area column. When you look dbwn the list of 75-250 foot areas, you will see areas between 15,000 and 20,000 square feet. The approved percentage shows that there were four actual applications out of the approximate 15 applications that were granted a variance in the Page 8