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To: The City of Arden Hills Board of Zoning Appeals From: Robert Shaffer, AIA, CID Date: 10/30/07 J -14E Ff3iJNDA11ON Re: Variance for the Wessberg Residence,1455 Skiles Lane, Arden Hills, MN Archirecrs/Consudtailts PA. We have looked into alternatives to expand the existing undersized garage and feel that the proposed option minimizes the impact to the neighborhood, reduces variance 212 Third Ave N requests and is the most pleasing. Suite 460 The following hardships and site conditions are present on this site: Minneapolis, MN 1. The existing garage ceiling height is very low with an interior height dimension of 6'-2" 55401 at the door. The existing garage door does not meet current State of Minnesota Building Codes, which is a minimum of 6'-8". This low door height is also a concern for people's safety. Many cars cannot even fit into this garage, including the homeowner's vehicle. An Ph 612.340.5430 unusable existing garage with code issues is a hardship. By adding a new, building Fax 612.340.5431 code -compliant garage addition, the reasonable use of this property has been maintained. 2. The street presence and the impact to the neighborhood will be negligible. The design is intended to extend the existing garage mostly below grade so that it will look as though it is just landscaping terraces in the yard with a slightly raised deck attached to the home. The deck then extends outward wrapping around the tree. The addition and the deck will match the character of the existing home and maintain the scale and proportion of the neighborhood. 3. The house sits on an unusual lot due to its three "front yards". The lot has frontages on Old Snelling and a wrap-around frontage on two sides by Skiles Lane. This presents difficulties to adding an addition while maintaining the reasonable use of the property. 4. The existing house on the unusually shaped lot already protrudes into the two front setbacks on Skiles lane to what appears to be a historic thirty foot setback. The house was built on the site to align with a north -south axis, rather than align with the curve of the street. The original house design steps back with the curve of Skiles Lane and the proposed garage/deck/sunroom addition design would repeat the stepping, staying well within the historic thirty foot setback, thus creating a similar rhythm to the design already in place. The goal of the design is to make it appear as though the addition was original to the home. 5. The existing garage also creates issues with the existing mechanical systems of the home. The mechanical system is uninsulated in the garage creating cold pipes and ductwork in the kitchen and dining room directly above. The existing mechanical system in the garage will be difficult to insulate properly because of the low ceiling height of the garage. 6. To be environmentally conscious, the large tree at the southeast corner of the house would ideally be spared by locating the addition to the south of the house.