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Hunters Park Homeowner's Association In the early 1970s, the City approved a Planned Unit Development (PUD) to create the Hunters Park neighborhood and homeowner's associations. The single family portion of Hunters Park is built on approximately 29 acres of which seven acres are shared green space, almost three acres are used for shared driveways, and the remaining 19 acres are divided into 84 single-family residential homes. A PUD can permit a great amount of flexibility for developments from the underlying zoning regulations. The Arden Hills Town Homes on Hamline Avenue, the Edgewater Estates near the southeastern corner of Round Lake, and the Town Homes of Lake Valentine on County Road E2 are residential Planned Unit Developments. The Hunters Park PUD used the flexibility permitted in the PUD process, and the neighborhood was designed with varying lot sizes, structure setbacks, and lot coverages. Lots in the neighborhood range in size from 4,356 square feet to 32,670 square feet with a median lot size of 7,187 square feet (half the lots are above and half the lots are below this size). A number of the lots were permitted to have structures that did not meet the underlying zoning requirements, which is a legitimate use of the PUD process. Because the lot sizes and building locations were approved as part of the PUD process, they are not considered nonconforming even if they do not meet the underlying R-3 zoning requirements. In flexible PUD developments like the Hunters Park neighborhood, it is not uncommon for the PUD to include an alternative set of regulations that supersede the underlying zoning regulations. For example, the recently approved Traverse Business Center had a specific set of design standards that replaced most of the regular Gateway Business (GB) zoning regulations. In the case of the Hunters Park, alternative lot layout standards were not created, which means that the underling R-3 regulations were left in place. Since most of the structures and lots do not meet the R-3 Zoning regulations, virtually any change to the structures in Hunters Park required a variance and a PUD amendment. Furthermore, it can be difficult to apply the R-3 regulations to lot sizes that do not meet the minimum R-3 lot size. The City Council considered approving an alternative set of regulations for the Hunters Park neighborhood in 1985 (Planning Case 85-010). However, it was determined that an alternative set of regulations for Hunters Park should not be created because the lots and structure layouts were so varied in the original PUD that it would be very difficult to create a standard that is less complicated than the existing process. The City Council did, however, approve a process for evaluating future changes to structures in Hunters Park: 1. If additions or alterations to the homes do not require setback or coverage variances from the R-3 Zone, only a building permit issued administratively by the City shall be required. This removed the need for a PUD amendment with every change. 2. If additions or alterations to cluster homes do require additional variances of any kind from the R-3 Zone, the standard variance procedure set by the City shall apply. 3. In both cases, the Architectural and Environmental Committee of the Hunter's Park Homeowners Association shall review and approve the proposed addition or City of Arden Hills Planning Commission Meetingfor September 5,2007 \\Metro.inet.uslardenhil/sIPlanningiP/anning Cases\2007\07-020 Bacig Variancel090507 - PC Report - Bacig Variance.doc Page3of9