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<br />3.2 Mr. Battis contends the area interpreted by staff is far to generous, allowing unusable land <br />area to be calculated in the total. Mr. Battis further contends this allowance provides <br />additional land area in the calculation giving property owners an advantage to meet or exceed <br />the 25% lot coverage requirement. He suggests it would be more prudent to use the tax <br />parcel figures provided by Ramsey County to calculate the total land area because their <br />number excludes unusable road right-of-way. In essence, the parcel indicated on the County <br />half section map and our address/zoning map would be used to determine lot coverage (in <br />the case ofHar Mar Mall such inclusions would increase building coverage to approximately <br />28%). <br /> <br />3.3 Another issue is what buildings on a site are used in the floor area calculation. Staff utilizes <br />the definition of a shopping center (a contiguous building or set of buildings) and does not <br />include other accessory/principal structures that may be on separate parcels within the <br />shopping center district. In the case of Har Mar Mall, staff calculated lot coverage both <br />ways, with all structures (25.17%) and without Ground Round and Firestone (24.93). <br />Attached are two tables indicating our calculations for Har Mar Mall, as well as a GIS <br />calculation for all Shopping Center Districts. Attached, staff has provided two charts <br />representing the three methods of calculating lot coverage. <br /> <br />3.4 Staff feels it is reasonable to use its method in calculating land area and building square <br />footage. However, there are many ways to determine lot area and building square footage. <br />Given the newly adopted ordinance it may be difficult to find a universal interpretation <br />unless certain exceptions are made. <br /> <br />3.5 In the future the City Attorney and staff could revise the definition to be more consistent and <br />more understandable. <br /> <br />4.0 CITY COUNCIL ACTION <br /> <br />4.1 Provide direction on how the Council wishes the code to be interpreted. <br /> <br />Prepared by: Thomas Paschke (490-2236) <br /> <br />Q:\Planning Files\3183 _ Har Mar Utility Vacation\RCA - Lot Coverage (012400).doc <br /> <br />2 <br />