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Background 1. History for the Sale of the City Owned Parcel At the August 16, 2021 Work Session, the Arden Hills City Council first discussed selling the city -owned parcel at 3588 Ridgewood Road —now the Subject Property of this planning case. At the subsequent meeting, the Planning Commission reviewed the interest in selling the parcel for consistency with the City's Comprehensive Plan. The City has verified that the parcel is not dedicated for a public purpose that would prohibit the sale (i.e. park land or public improvements) or as a site for future development to meet the needs of city infrastructure or operational activities, and it was found that the sale of the Subject Property would be in compliance with the City's Comprehensive Plan. During the discussions, the City was evaluating the parcel size based off of Ramsey County Property Records and GIS mapping as there was no certificate of survey on record for the Subject Property. Ramsey County Property Records have the deeded acreage as 0.31 acres (approx. 13,500 square feet). The Subject Property came from the State through the County as part of the turn back of the Old Snelling Avenue (now referred to as Snelling Avenue North) corridor ROW to the City. Based on the best information available from Ramsey County, city staff initially identified that the total lot area of the parcel would be nonconforming since the minimum lot area requirement in the R-1 District is 14,000 square feet. A preliminary analysis of lot dimensions was completed as part of the Planning Commission review utilized the County's GIS mapping in order to garner the approximate lot width and lot depth. Over the next year, city staff worked through the process to facilitate the sale of the Subject Property. On August 8, 2022, the City Council approved the purchase agreement for the Subject Property from Ahmed Ali and Nawal Hirsi. The purchase agreement included an acknowledgement of the Applicant's responsibility for all costs associated with due diligence which includes the variance review due to the nonconforming lot size. As part of the due diligence via a survey, it was determined that the lot measured approximately 14,472 square feet, and would not require a variance for lot area but would require a variance for lot depth. The Applicants requested feedback on the variance request at the City Council Work Session meeting on October 17th ahead of the Planning Commission review. The discussion amongst the City Council was generally supportive of the driveway access off of Snelling Avenue N., but there was consensus that the Applicants should consider moving the house placement slightly north in order to gain more room from the adjacent parcels. The Applicants did shift the house location slightly to the north for the full submission. Since the concept review, the proposed setback from Ridgewood Road has been modified from 12 feet to 16.3 feet, and from 10 feet to 14.1 feet adjacent to the south side yard property line. At their November 9, 2022 meeting, the Planning Commission reviewed the variance request on the Subject Property. After discussion, the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of the non -conforming lot depth variance by a 7-0 vote. The Planning Commission also recommended denial of the parcel setbacks and driveway access variance by a 4-3 vote. The Planning Commission cited the following reasons for this denial: The degree of the setback variance requested is too significant. The site is to be accessed from Ridgewood Road and access off of Snelling is not recommended for safety reasons. Page 2 of 11