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5.2 Community Development staff is unwilling to support a variance to pave a driveway less than 2 feet from a side property line primarily because preventing or reducing rain water runoff becomes nearly impossible. Although Mr. Marks proposes to install a fence along the property line that would screen the encroaching pavement, the fence does not address the storm water control problem. 5.3 Section 1004.O1A(6) (Maximum Total Surface Area) of the City Code limits impervious coverage to 30% of a single-family residential property. On this lot, up to 3,765 square feet of impervious surface area would be allowed. Existing impervious surfaces cover about 26% of the lot, and the proposed 575-square-foot expansion of the driveway would bring the total impervious coverage to 31 %. 5.4 While 31 % may not be an unreasonable impervious surface area total, Community Development staff believes, as a result of the following logic, that a reasonable alternative exists that does not require a variance to the impervious coverage limit: a. The proposed 31 % coverage is only 75 square feet away from complying with the Code-required 30% limit. b. The proposal would add pavement to a distance of 1 foot from the side property line, but staff does not support a side yard setback of less than 2 feet. Removing 1 foot of pavement along the entire length of the proposed expansion would eliminate 47 square feet of the excess impervious coverage. c. By shortening the length of the proposed pavement by as little as 2 feet, an additional 28 square feet of impervious surface area can be eliminated, thereby achieving compliance with the Code. 5.5 The original application proposed considerably more impervious coverage in the form of a basketball court in the rear yard (in addition to the driveway expansion), but after conversations with Planning Division staff, that portion was removed from the request. Both of those earlier site plans (Attachment E is the version without the basketball court) also proposed a 2-foot side yard setback (i.e., a 3-foot encroachment) in contrast to the current request. Community Development staff supports the granting of a variance for a 3-foot encroachment into the required driveway setback, but for the above reasons does not support the variance as requested. 5.6 The neighbor immediately south of the proposal supports Mr. Marks' request, but one other nearby property owner contacted Community Development staff to express some general reservations with respect to what may be stored/parked on the proposed new pavement; this question is answered by other Code requirements and is not pertinent to the variance request. 5.7 Section 1013 of the Code states: "Where there are practical difficulties or unusual hardships in the way of carrying out the strict letter of the provisions of this code, the Variance Board shall have the power, in a specific case and after notice and public hearings, to vary any such provision in harmony u�ith the general purpose and intent thereof and may impose such additional conditions as it considers necessary so that the public health, safery, and general welfare may be secured and substantial justice done. � PF07-040 RVBA 080107 ^ ^ Page 2 of 4