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PDC LANNINGIVISIONOMMENTS 41 In review of the Zoning Ordinance, the City Planner has determined that the following 42 landscaping requirements apply to the Pizza Lucé redevelopment project: landscaping a new site, 43 parking lot landscaping, and tree replacement for removal of trees. The City Planner has also 44 determined that the Code offers no credit or limited credit for preserving trees regardless of the 45 benefits of a redevelopment project that would improve a site. Further, although not many such 46 wooded lots exist in Roseville, the Code does not provide Pizza Lucé relief in the required 47 number of replacement trees when the site they seek to redevelop cannot accommodate the 48 number required. 49 Although the City Planner has not encountered this situation with any other development or 50 redevelopment in Roseville since the adoption of the Zoning Ordinance in 2010, he has 51 concluded that the cumulative impact of the landscaping requirements listed above is a 52 significant hardship for this applicant. 53 Once the situation became evident, the City Planner was in contact with representatives for Pizza 54 Lucé about potential options, which include preserving a large grouping trees in the north central 55 portion of the property, elimination of additional parking spaces, and establishment of joint 56 parking agreements with neighboring properties. While these are all options, few are viable 57 remedies for the applicant. Additionally, the uniqueness of this parcel and the Design Standards 58 required create a difficult situation for this particular development. 59 After the City Planner determined that tree preservation and replacement would be difficult to 60 fully achieve, communication was sent to Pizza Lucé representatives to revise the proposed site 61 plan to preserve the heritage and significant trees in the north central portion of the proposed 62 parking lot. Having recently received comments from City Council Members that preservation 63 of heritage trees was essential on all development sites, the City Planner analyzed the tree 64 inventory to determine whether it was feasible to preserve the lone heritage tree and small the 65 grouping of significant trees. The City Planner concluded that such a design was possible, but 66 would require a creative parking lot design and, most likely, a couple of variances. 67 The Planning staff met with Pizza Lucé and their representatives to review the situation and 68 discuss options including parking lot setback, parking lot islands, and tree replacement 69 variances that could be supported if measures were taken to preserve the heritage tree and a 70 few significant trees. On December 11, 2014, the City Planner received the proposed parking lot 71 plan, which included a large island design preserving the heritage tree and 3 significant trees in 72 the north central portion of the lot. The design also proposed eliminating 4 parking lot islands to 73 replace the parking spaces lost to the tree preservation island. The City Planner also noted that 74 existing conditions on the property confirm that it is not possible to plant trees along the 75 southern portion of the property due to existing utility services and limited ability to plant 76 adjacent to Snelling Avenue for the same and due to roadway and Light Rail Transit easements. 77 VA ARIANCENALYSIS 78 RV: Section 1009.04C of the City Code establishes 79 EVIEW OF ARIANCE APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS a mandate that the Variance Board make five specific findings about a variance request as a 80 prerequisite for approving the variance. In the case of Pizza Lucé, the proposal requires 81 variances from §1011.03.C.1 and 1011.04.G.1 and 2a of the Roseville Zoning Ordinance. 82 Specifically the Code requires the site to include 9 islands in the parking lot and the applicant 83 seeks approval to install 5 islands. The applicant also seeks approval to install 25 3-inch 84 PF15-001_RVBA_010715 Page 3 of 6