request for council action re lot combination

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Blue Hill Special Lot Combination November 20, 1998 Page 2 Item 8 on page 3 notes that the "terms and conditions of this indenture may be modified, amended or extinguished...". The applicant is requesting a minor modification of the Agreement to allow far temporary vehicle parking on Outlot A. Why Limit Parking? Earlier this year I reviewed the staff inemos and Council meeting minutes pertinent to the Agreement. I found no documented specific discussion to clarify the reasoning behind including the condition that 'Outlot A shall not serve as an accessory parking area'. Similar conditions have been established for similar special lot combinations in Orono, where a small lakeshore parcel is separated by a road from the residence parcel to which it is accessory. In one case on Bayside Road, where such a lakeshore parcel was visually very 'open' with perhaps only 20-30' of land between the road and the lakeshore, it was clearly intended and stated that no temporary or permanent vehicular parking would be allowed. Two obvious justifications for such a requirement were that a) parking within 75' of the lake would not be in keeping with the hardcover ordinances; and b) any vehicles parked on the parcel would be a visual detriment to views of the lake from the road. A third justification for such a condition is that property security cannot be as easily maintained by the resident when the residence is separated from the outlot by not only a roadway but by a significant distance. The first two justifications noted above may be less applicable in the case of Blue Hill Outlot A given that a significant portion of the Outlot is further than 75' from the lake, and given that a vehicle might potentially be screened from view of the general public by existing vegetation and topography. However, the third justification is very applicable given the distance between the residence parcel and the Outlot, and the nature of the busy roadway separating them. Zoning Code Parking Standards The zoning code provides some direction regarding standards for parking areas that may be pertinent to this discussion. Section 10.61 Subd. SA indicates that "vehicles normally owned or kept by the occupants on the premises must have a garage stall or open parking space on the same lot as the principal use served"; since Outlot A and Lot 1 have been legally combined into a single tax parcel, an argument can be made that parking on Outlot A would not be in conflict with this section. Subd. SA also states that "open parking spaces on lots must have a location other than a required yard except that such parking may be located in a rear yard to within ten feet of an interior side lot line and to within ten feet of a rear lot line". Since a lakeshore lot has by definition a lakeshore yard and a rear yard, one can infer that open parking on a lakeshore lot would normally have to occur at least 10' back from the street lot line.