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<br />Memo <br /> <br />From: <br /> <br />City Council Members <br />William Malinen, City Manager <br /> <br />Tam McGehee <br /> <br />To: <br /> <br />Date: <br /> <br />June 11,2007 <br /> <br />Re: <br /> <br />Written Statement of Information Presented <br />Public Hearing, June 11, 2007 <br /> <br />It sad and unfortunate that citizens making suggestions to their elected officials on the <br />City Council find staff contacting City Legal Counsel in an obvious attempt to discredit <br />citizen suggestions before they are presented at a public hearing. This action by staff <br />establishes an adversarial tone where none was intended or desired. <br /> <br />The ideas and recommendations put forward in the citizen-based Alternative Lot Split <br />Recommendations were formulated following the CAG public hearing and the sixty-nine <br />resident signatures were obtained in advance of May 14. <br /> <br />After reviewing the analysis document it appears that much time and money would have <br />been saved if the Citizen Lot Split Advisory Group (CAG) had been asked to study issues <br />that actually needed review and to provide a variety of different options for public and <br />City Counsel discussion. A greater sense of community could have been encouraged by <br />freely disseminating and discussing various recommendations. <br /> <br />The official Recommendations spend a great deal of time providing a complicated <br />solution to a non-existent problem of pre and post 1959 lots. It is clear in the existing <br />city code that non-conforming lot issues were already effectively handled in 1959 in <br />Section 10 12B of the code stating "a platted lot or parcel of land of record on May 21, <br />1959, which does not meet the requirements of this Code as to area, width or open space <br />may be utilized for single-family residential dwelling purposes provided the <br />measurements of such are, width or open space are within seventy percent of the <br />requirements of this code." Thus, non-conforming lots of 7,700 sfare legal, R-llots if <br />platted before 1959. <br /> <br />The existing code has also effectively handled any problems arising from excessively <br />narrow lots. Although the specter of mortgage and insurance problems was raised, it <br />appears unfounded as the existing code clarifies the legality of such entities. <br /> <br />Where two or more contiguous vacant lots are held in single ownership within a <br />subdivision which was duly recorded prior to May 21, 1959, which lots are <br />individually not of the required minimum area or width for the district in which <br />they are situated, no special exceptions shall be required for the issuance of <br />building permits provided that such lots shall be developed in groups or fractions <br />