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City of Arden Hills City Council Meeting for April 23, 2018 P:\Planning\Planning Cases\2018\PC 18-001 - 3246 New Brighton Road - Preliminary & Final Plat, Comprehensive Plan Amendment, Variance, CUP\Memos_Reports_18-001 Page 2 of 10 Background Journey Home Minnesota is a non-profit organization with a mission to create affordable housing for disabled military veterans in safe cities served by high quality school systems. The organization has developed housing projects in surrounding communities, including Shoreview, New Brighton, and Mounds View. Journey Home purchased the Lake Johnna Fire Station No.1 property in September 2017 and is requesting approval to redevelop the property for four single- family residential homes. The existing fire station building, garage, and parking areas on the property would all be removed as part of the redevelopment. The applicant has provided a project narrative describing their goals for the development, including housing affordability and energy conservation (Attachment A). The existing property at 3246 New Brighton Road is approximately 2.8 acres in size and is comprised of the decommissioned Lake Johanna Fire Station No.1 building, a detached garage, and parking areas. The two existing structures are located along New Brighton Road and there are multiple curb cuts currently providing access to the property. The topography of the lot is relatively flat along New Brighton Road, but then slopes down significantly to a pond located on the easterly half of the property. The elevation change from New Brighton Road to the pond edge is roughly 15 feet. The pond occupies approximately 1.3 acres of the site leaving 1.5 acres of developable land. The applicant has proposed a subdivision of the existing property that would create four single- family residential lots. Each of the lots would have frontage on New Brighton Road and the property lines would extend to the eastern boundary of the site. The size of the lots would be 21,827 square feet, 28,140 square feet, 31,793 square feet, and 43,357 square feet. The applicant has provided building elevation drawings for the four dwellings and preliminary floor plans for one of the homes (Attachment E). The four dwellings are expected to have a similar design in terms of gross square footage, floor plans, and exterior design. Two driveways are proposed on New Brighton Road to provide access to the dwellings. A cross access easement would be required for the shared access driveways. The entire development is proposed to be put under an association that would address property maintenance and the shared use of energy generated by solar panels proposed to be installed on the dwellings. A Variance is requested in this case to allow the four proposed lots to have a width less than the minimum requirement for the R-2 District. Lots in the R-2 District are required to have a minimum width of 85 feet. Each of the four lots is proposed to have a width of 81.75 feet, or 3.25 feet less than the minimum requirement. A Comprehensive Plan Amendment is required to change the designation of the property to Very Low Density Residential from its current designation as Public and Institutional. The Very Low Density Residential classification allows for single-family residential development at a density of 1.5 to 3 units per acre.