06-4-14-PC - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

sides of the garage will be included. To avoid the use of fill in our yard, which is susceptible to erosion issues due to its significant slope, we will build a short ~2 ft. retaining wall against the west wall of the new garage which maintains the slope down to Fairview Avenue from our yard. The new garage will be tied into the existing contours of the yard, so the impact on the current drainage setup will be minimal (see attached Drainage/Stormwater Management Plan). Why not rebuild a conforming detached garage? Given that we want to change the footprint of our detached garage, we would ideally build a new garage that is in complete conformance with the Zoning Code. We have considered several conforming options and conclude that this is simply not practical given the unique topology of our lot and the positioning of our house. First, given the 26 ft. slope from the west to east property line, the garage cannot be pushed very far east of Fairview Avenue without requiring a large amount of fill to allow access from the road. Furthermore, on the west side of our property, the position of our house prevents us from moving the garage north due to the required 6 ft. spacing between the principal and any accessory structure. These two constraints substantially limit the possibilities for a detached garage location. To illustrate the issues with a conforming garage location, we identified two possible scenarios that satisfy the 10 ft. side and rear setback requirements (see the two corresponding attachments). We estimate that both options would require between 225-270 cubic ft. (25-30 cubic yds) of fill to accommodate the downward slope of the yard. Most critically, both of these options would place the garage within 6 ft. of our house and directly on the main drainage route for our yard, which would require significant regrading and potentially result in serious drainage and erosion issues. Both possibilities would also require an extra ~200 sq. ft. of driveway surface to connect the garage with our existing driveway for access to the street, and would essentially cover the only flat section of sideyard we have on the propert y. Thus, we conclude that these conforming options are impractical given the topology of our lot. Support from the neighbors The proposed garage reconstruction was discussed with 6 neighbors adjacent to our property, who all expressed their enthusiastic support for the plan (see attached supporting letters). In particular, the neighbor to the south of our property, toward whom our new garage structure will move slightly has approved of the project (see letter from Nyuget Ky, 3433 Lake Johanna Blvd). Several neighbors mentioned that they are anxious to see this major eyesore on our street replaced by an aesthetically pleasing garage that is consistent with the look and the quality of our house.