04-09-07 Item 7B, AUAR Relating to TCAAP

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL - OCTOBER 10, 2006 5 He indicated he had received an email from Paul and Mary Crosby, 1385 Arden Place, in support of the variance. Councilmember Holden asked what was in the plan Mr. Lis submitted. Mr. Lehnhoff stated that the building plan provided by Mr. Lis showed the driveway as being a crushed rock driveway, which was marked as approved by the building department. He noted the plan did not include the two access driveway however. Councilmember Holden asked when the building permit had been closed out. Mr. Lehnhoff responded the building permit has not been closed out. Brad Lis, 1548 Arden Place, stated they believed the crushed gravel had been approved by the City. He stated they had changed the configuration of the driveway along the way with the thought that they were doing it with the approval of the City. He stated the first time they knew they had an issue about this was a few weeks ago. He believed the driveway fit nicely into the neighborhood. He noted the driveway had been there for over three years. He believed this would constitute a hardship because of the loss of trees. He noted there were other instances of the two driveway access and he believed it added a nice feature to the neighborhood. He asked Council to grant this variance request. Councilmember Holden asked how many two access driveways were in the neighborhood. Mr. Lehnhoff responded there were at least two driveways in the neighborhood that had dual accesses. Sarah Lis, 1548 Arden Place, stated there were six residences in this area that had double access driveways. She mted this was a large percentage of driveways in the neighborhood. She indicated there were other double accesses outside of this neighborhood also. Councilmember Grant asked if the City had not done the Siems Court road project, if it was quite likely this would not have been discovered and the driveway would have existed for years. Mr. Lehnhoff responded he believed this would have been caught at some point because the building inspector has been catching up with the building permits, but it was the road project that brought this to the City's attention. Councilmember Grant asked if the City stamped this as approved, wouldn't that be considered a variance. Mr. Lehnhoff responded legally it was not a variance. Councilmember Grant stated he was familiar with this neighborhood and a number of those residents did have dual access driveways, including the residents across the street from the applicant. Mayor Aplikowski stated this was a difficult one because they were balancing this with the letter of the law and their own practicalities. With respect to the double driveway, she saw no reason for it not to be allowed at this point. She stated to go back now and remove the double driveway would not make sense. She indicated this did not impact any of the neighbors and did not affect the neighborhood. She noted they had received support from the neighbors in support of this variance also.