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a. Variance to the floor area ratio (FAR); and ' b. The extent to which new standards will apply to the development. The latter is related primarily to the handling of the curbing, landscaping, and sidewalks. 3. With respect to the floor area ratio, the I-1 District in which this land is zoned sets a maximum ratio of .3, building to land. In other words, if there is a 100,000 square foot parcel, the maximum building area for one story is 30,000 square feet. The Ordinance allows a ratio of .4 if the structure is two stories. This kind of development control was popular in the late 50s and 60s as a means to prevent "over development" of the land. It is, of course, an arbitrary ratio. In most cases, this is not a factor in the development since the amount of usable building on a parcel is generally controlled by the amount of land available to provide the parking needs. Therefore, a change in the floor area ratio on a particular development of .3 to .39 is not of great significance. For instance, when we did the planning and development consulting for the prime industrial land in and around the Radisson South in Edina, one of the first structures was the General Motors Parts Warehouse, which is a 10 acre building on a 20 acre site. Here, we received a floor area ratio variance from .25 to .5. This was substantiated by the lack of parking need for an automated warehouse requiring only a few employees to operate the building. 4. In this proposal, the structure consists of 88,160 square feet for warehouse and 6,000 square feet for office. Thus, the analysis of the parking need for these facilities is the more important factor in determining the appropriate floor area ratio. 5. With respect to the parking, the office space requires 5 spaces per 1,000 square feet and the warehouse space requires 1 space per 2,000 square feet. On this basis, the total amount of parking required is 44 spaces for the warehouse and 30 spaces for the office, totalling 74 spaces. The new site plan drawing indicates a total of 127 parking spaces which far exceeds that which is required by the Ordinance.