2007-02-06 P & Z Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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January 6, 2007 To Members of the City Council RE: Variance for lot six of Jeff and Laura Hansel's property Placing a house only 25 feet from the street is too close (includes the boulevard). Our house is 50 feet from the road including the boulevard. That leaves very little space for sidewalk and landscaping. Our sidewalk extends more than 5 feet from the house. If a two -story house is placed on the lot; it would look over-powering and appear closer to the street than it actually is. It definitely would be out of place in relations to the other homes in the area. Now that the lot is an R2, the owner can put in a two-car garage. Everyone else has a three-car garage. Everyone has at least two vehicles. The third garage is filled with a snow blower, lawn mower among other things and a number of residents have run out of room and built storage buildings. Where will the people put a storage building on that lot? We are not aUowed to put structures within 100 feet of the aeek middle. Will the cars have to park in the driveway? Where will the cars park if there are more than 2 adults or teenagers with cars? How high will the retaining wall be? A retaining wall would have to be on the south side and west side of the house. The driveway would need to have fill and it would sit 22 feet from the bottom of the hill. The area floods with snow melt and heavy rains. I have seen Jeff's back yard under water almost to his back door. We have 24 steps going down the hill and the water comes up to the second step. When we first moved in our house. we intended putting rocks on the bank to avoid erosion. We had bids sent to the watershed district We were told the rocks would have to go up 7 feet That was the level of the flood zone. When we built, we did not put in retaining walls or add fill. We had to build within the code requirements. The 100-foot setback from the aeek center wasn't in place when we built. We had three different house plans. The first two didn't fit the lot We had to work until we had a plan that fit the lot without variances and within codes. Attached are pictures of the area. You can see how the creek cuts into the property. With a 100 It setback, I don't see how there will be room for a structure. The second picture shows the front parcel. The tree line is where Jeff plans to have the front of the house. There is a wrve in the road at that point and cars come down that road speeding. It would be a dangerous situation. (.- / . ... . , l.L 7?f..,e-:L.-- (~./> ,d':L~l.:-L./ ,...., . '" l.r :'.'uj'" ...,.~ ,~ i .' ,'~_