Loading...
PC Minutes 10-15-19CHANHASSEN PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2019 Chairman Weick called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Weick, Mark Undestad, John Tietz, and Doug Reeder MEMBERS ABSENT: Mark Randall, Michael McGonagill, and Laura Skistad STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Community Development Director; and MacKenzie Walters, Associate Planner PUBLIC HEARING: CONSIDER A REQUEST FOR A REAR YARD SETBACK VARIANCE TO CONSTRUCT A COVERED PORCH AND WALKWAY AT 832 WOODHILL DRIVE. Weick: This is Planning Case 2019-16 and it will be in front of City Council November 12, 2019. Walters: If appealed. Weick: If appealed. Thank you. MacKenzie I will let you begin, thank you. Walters: Thank you. So as mentioned this is Planning Case 2019-16. It is a request for a 6 foot rear setback variance for a property located at 832 Woodhill Drive and it’s for the construction of a screened porch and walkway. The property is located in the RSF, Residential Single Family zoning district. This district has a minimum required lot size of 15,000 square feet, has 30 foot front and rear setbacks, 10 foot side yard setbacks, allows 30 percent lot cover, with a maximum of 25 percent being impervious coverage. The site, oops I did not change…from last time. My apologies but the picture is right. So this is 832 Woodhill. Not 690 Carver Beach Road. The area for this site is 22,000 square feet. It has 100 foot lot depth. 120 foot lot width. Staff estimated it at about 13.2 percent lot cover so well under the 25 percent impervious limit. The property currently meets all setbacks. The rear yard setback is shown here in red and the applicant’s proposed screen porch and walkway is in blue and open walkway is in green. The open walkway would be allowed under the zoning code and about half of the screen porch and a couple feet of the screened walkway would be subject to the variance. So the applicant is proposing adding a screen porch and walkway off the rear of the home. Again the red line is the 30 foot rear setback so you can see in blue where it would be encroaching into the required setback. The applicant’s justification for the variance request is that they did not choose the configuration of the home or the placement on the lot. That the lot does not meet the required 125 foot lot depth for the residential single family district. The proposed location would be screened from neighboring properties by existing trees and landscaping. They have noted that Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 2 alternative configurations and placements are unviable due to the husband’s limited mobility and the location of living room windows and other grading on the site. When staff looked over the request staff believes there are alternative locations that a very similar or identical structure could be placed that meets city code. Open decks for example would be permitted as proposed without any variance. In terms of some of some of the alternatives, Alternative A here comes off of a door they showed here. This could be an entirely enclosed and screened porch again without a variance being required. An open walkway could be utilized here to access a 12 by 12 screen porch without requiring a variance. Similar to the one in red. If the commission were to feel that a screen walkway is needed that can be accommodated with a 2 ½ foot rear yard variance if they use a different positioning for the screen porch. Staff does agree that the lot is under the district’s minimum lot depth. However we feel that the oversized lot width accommodates that and provides a sufficient building pad to meet code. Because staff believes there is an ability to construct a proposed improvement or a similar feature without a variance staff must recommend denial of the requested variance. If you have any questions I’d be happy to take them at this time. Weick: Anyone have questions for MacKenzie? Reeder: The two lots behind this house, do you have that? Yeah. Walters: I think that’s the best picture I have in here of them. Reeder: Is that a house that you’re pointing at or is that a garage? Walters: I believe this is the garage. This is the garage. This would be the house on the property to the northeast and this would be the residence on the property to the northwest. Reeder: Okay. And those houses appear to be very much up to the street level as opposed to, they have a huge back yard is that accurate? Walters: Yeah looking at the houses on the block it looks like non-conforming front yard setbacks are much more typical than non-conforming rear yard setbacks. Things tend to be placed forward on the lot rather than pushed back. Reeder: Okay. Weick: MacKenzie I do have a question for you. Is the covered, and I can’t remember if you mentioned this or not but is the covered walkway and deck considered open or closed? Walters: They are considered closed. If there’s a rough in screen it’s not considered to be an open deck or porch so then it’s not entitled to the 5 foot encroachment into the rear yard. Weick: Okay. Even if it’s not screened? A roof would be. Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 3 Walters: Yeah if there’s a roof we’d have to consider it a closed. Weick: Okay. That’s all I had. Any questions to my left? Thank you MacKenzie. At this time I would invite the applicant to make a presentation. Noreen Hoft: Thank you very much Steve. Weick: You bet, Noreen Hoft: And hello John, Mark, Doug, Kate and MacKenzie, thank you very much. So my name is Noreen Hoft. I’m the homeowner. Weick: Can you speak into the microphone because it gets recorded. Noreen Hoft: …so I’m new at this. I’m not used to making presentations in conference rooms not to be recorded for public record. So I’m Noreen Hoft, the homeowner at 832 Woodhill Drive and I’m here to kind of embellish a little bit some of the items that I included in our written justification for the variance and to offer some background information and detail about why we really want this. So let me just suggest that the intent for this presentation is to really further address those key criteria, harmony and adverse impact. Practical difficulty and economics. Kindly enough Bob Generous in my pre-meeting with him pointed out that those are the ones I should really focus when I presented to this commission tonight. So what I want to do is first introduce the stakeholders who are in the room who are the public who are attending this evening. I’ll address those key criteria and then answer any final questions that you any of the commission members might have. Does that sound okay? Weick: Yes. Noreen Hoft: Okay. So hopefully by the end of our time together tonight you’ll feel strongly that the project and it’s associated variances or variance request not only meet the criteria but also enhances a Chan vision which I see was in the beginning of your presentation as well. That Chanhassen is a community for life. Providing for today and planning for tomorrow and in our case it’s the life that my husband and I have been living for almost 20 years now in Chanhassen and hope to have for at least another 10 to 15 depending upon the progression of his disease. So that’s what I’m hoping for. We’ll see if I get there. Now did anybody notice this year that there were more insects than usual? Anybody? Mosquitoes. Gnats. Bees. Yes, yes people on Woodhill Drive did in this wet year so you know certainly that recent condition has sparked the interest of having a screened area and I just say that because I thought I might have a little audience engagement and they did. So let’s talk about the adverse impact. Stakeholders in the room are two adjacent property owners. Doug you asked about the family behind us. In the room we have Shelby Manion. Kevin and Shelby have been living in that home since 1990. It’s 825 Lone Eagle and we share together 140 feet of our back lot line so they have 70 percent. The Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 4 other neighbor up the hill has 30 percent. Also represented tonight is a stakeholder is Brigid Klaysmat. Steve and Brigid have been living on Woodhill Drive since 1994. Is that when you moved in? Can’t remember. Yes ’94 but have been in their current home since 2003. They’re at 800 Woodhill Drive and they share 100 feet of our side lot line and that’s 100 percent of that based on the way that area of Carver Beach was plotted and the property line we share runs south to north. So when the public called for by the Chair then Brigid and Shelby can answer questions and/or address the group. Also in the room as a stakeholder is the contractor that we have chosen. Jay Aos. Aos Construction is in Burnsville, Minnesota. He’s a general contractor who has over 15 years experience. Two full time master carpenters in addition to him and he has outside expert resources that he can tap into when needed like a structural engineer but what I really like most about Jay is his values. Integrity. Quality. Communications. He has a strong Christian background that I think that helps those of us who deal with him in a customer basis to feel good about the work that he will do and that they will work together. So those are the stakeholders in the room. So MacKenzie very kindly talked about the proposed placement that we have submitted and what Bob Generous had originally estimated was a 6 foot variance and a 5 foot variance but MacKenzie I think has given a much clearer detail when he said the actual 30 foot setback line through the diagrams but wondering if there was any questions about that. Weick: And we’ll, the way we would normally is we’ll let you make a presentation. We’ll make notes of our questions and we’ll ask them at that time. It just, it will make it flow a little. Noreen Hoft: Little easier for you guys? Weick: Yep. Noreen Hoft: Okay great, thanks. So MacKenzie already showed you this picture. What you can’t see very well are the pencil marks that I did at the top of this particular diagram with Shelby’s home and her garage and then the garage and the home next door which Doug was referring to. It’s like where are those houses placed and that’s our best rough, rough estimate. No measurements. No yeah, no survey. That’s just about where they are. Okay so that was my original version of the design diagram. And you might be wondering why didn’t I actually have an architectural rendering or the design from Jay, the builder and that’s because until I get your approval, hopefully we’ll do that today, then I didn’t want him to invest his time nor did I want to invest any of our funds beyond this actual hearing and our request for the variance. Okay so there’s my house. I don’t know if any of you have had a chance to be on the property. This is a downhill view so we’re looking from the east to the west and you can see how the, there’s a setback of sorts with the sliding glass doors in our dining room that really was put there by the original family who designed this home and began to build it for the purposes of having a deck. And then the side of the house you can see where I think what proposal was that MacKenzie? Was it letter, it was red. Walters: I believe it was Alternative C. Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 5 Noreen Hoft: Alternative C so you can see what that would look like on the side of the house so just an idea of what the home looks like in it’s current condition. So here’s again a series of pictures for you. So the view on the left is, if you’re standing looking at my kitchen window and then you just stay in place and turn 180 degrees and look at Shelby’s property, the Manion’s property…that’s the view you see. So from my kitchen window I see their garage. From the sliding glass doors I still see their garage. And then from the other end, it’s hard to see. That makes me go cross eyed but you’ll see that we’re beginning to have a view from that far wall, which is the east, northeast wall to the space between the garage and the house. So I offer those pictures to say that in your proposed placement of this porch that is screened and roofed, it’s all facing a garage and an open space on their lot. That’s just kind of a FYI. So my request is for the north placement and I didn’t know about the placement by the garage which is in green I believe and that was A, B or C? Walters: That was A. Noreen Hoft: A okay so I didn’t know that one. So this is, give me a letter please MacKenzie. Walters: This would be B. Noreen Hoft: B, okay. Alright. From B you can see that we have, see the two trees on the right. I would have to take those down to be able to do the actual deck off of the face of the house that is east. That’s another view of it and downhill there from the little bridge, and as you can see the sunshine in the distance that’s the Klaysmat’s house. Okay so just some pictures. Any of those you want to see again or have a need to take a look at? Does it give you a picture? At least in your mind of what we’re talking about. Okay, great. Alright so let’s move onto the criteria. So practical difficulties. In complying with the zoning ordinance that means that the property owner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted by this chapter so in my effort to submit the application to present I’m trying to be reasonable. We did, and already MacKenzie did a great job of presenting that you know we want an outdoor space that’s accessible to my disabled spouse and enjoyable for both of us and my little joke about the bugs that fell flat was really that I want to be outside in a screened in area. The older I get the more I hate the bugs. The slope of our property is also an issue. The further downhill you go you know the more water runoff. The more soil erosion. The closer we get to the sewer line. All those good things and MacKenzie again very well presented it. We didn’t build the house. We bought it when it was finished but we are the first occupants so we didn’t choose it’s shape, it’s location or anything of that nature. So Huntington’s Disease which is the condition that my husband has. You know you might be wondering is this appeal for us to have easier access for him which would be, he’s now using a walker. A wheeled walker when he’s out. He can get around a little bit in the house but he’s going to be wheelchair bound and so to get onto the deck, the one that we’ve proposed, he would be able to wheel himself or I would wheel him out the sliding glass door to that walkway. Our hope is that it would be screened and roofed so that there’s not a lot of bugs. We need the door open as long as it takes to get the wheelchair out and turn him around. So you also might be wondering you know why would we approve this for you when the next resident or Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 6 homeowner might not have physical difficulty and I think that that’s a you know 50/50 shot. We don’t know who will own the house next so if you approve the screened porch areas then it would be accessible for them. So I would remiss if I didn’t take 5 minutes and ask you to bear with me for 5 minutes to have you see a short video on You Tube and the neurologist who’s presenting is Dr. Martha Nance and she is my husband’s Neurologist. She heads the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. She is a physician who runs the Huntington’s Disease Center of Excellence at HCMC and she very easily and quickly just kind of describes what this disease is about. A short video was shown at this point in the meeting. Noreen Hoft: Thank you MacKenzie and thank you for listening. Sorry that the buffering didn’t allow you to see her actually speaking. So my husband is between Stages 3 and 4. His symptoms first showed up in 2009 so we’re about 10 years into the symptoms and she said 15 to 20 years is the usual cycle. With our eldercare attorney we have decided we’re going out feet first in Chanhassen. That’s where we’re going to be. We’re going to be in that house as long as we possibly can and I’m prepared to be the caregiver at home for my husband as long as I possibly can. So having this screened porch area will be for us something that will help us when we’re homebound to give us some outdoor space where he can go and I can go. I can get away. My little get away in the back yard as well. So I know MacKenzie had said some people might exaggerate, he mentioned to me when we had a brief conversation, some people might try to really stretch the truth of the disease or condition and that’s why I wanted to just have that 5 minutes of You Tube for you to hear from the expert about what it’s about. So practical difficulties. So either the garage placement or downhill on the east side, you know I mentioned the slope of our property. We have several trees we’d have to remove. We’re concerned about erosion. If they do a free standing construction Jay will speak to the expense of that and then we’re getting down into the storm sewer area. You know it used to be a creek back there. Jerry Johnson is our neighbor to the west. He was 2 months old when he moved to that property 83 years ago. Do you know Jerry? He’s a good guy. He’s a good guy. So you know he’ll tell us all kinds of history. There was a pond up here. There was a stream over here and you know so knows every, probably every inch of our immediate neighborhood. So we even have addressed that with a dry creek bed on our property as well to try to move that water along. So there are both practical difficulties and economic impact from those items I have on this supplemental information about the slope of our property. So here is a picture of the sewer. Do you see the sewer cap? Or what you call a manhole that’s in our back yard and to the left of it you can see our dry stream bed. And it would be almost encroaching on that with something on the east side. Now this is more from a harmony and adverse impact perspective. And this is really an opinion, not a matter of fact but I think that that screened porch out there in the middle of the woods will stick out like a sore thumb. If it’s tucked behind on the north side you know it’s tucked away. It will encroach on the wooded environment enjoyed by both the Manion’s as well as the Klaysmat’s and us. It also may block the Manion’s view of the wooded environment so I think that the north placement is much better than the east and the garage placement is not good for my husband. So this is a picture from the Manion’s deck to our property and you can see it’s pretty Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 7 wooded and so if we place that as proposed then that would be their view. Those trees of course will grow up but there’s plenty of them to make it private for us and you know for Shelby and Kevin, private for them. Okay so again harmony and adverse impact. For the neighbors who are here, 800 Woodhill and 825 Lone Eagle, others in the immediate surroundings I did not ask to come tonight but they would have been willing. The neighbor who is west of Shelby who is 855 Lone Eagle, Jerry at 6941 Nez Perce. 843 Woodhill Drive which has a member of the sheriff’s department, Don Ennenga and 829 Woodhill Drive which is the Mason’s former house, now occupied by a young family. So I didn’t get emails as MacKenzie had suggested but those folks are all in favor and the other neighbors are also here who can confirm and validate that that’s what those people have said to them verbally but if you need additional things in writing we’ll be happy to provide that. Okay so, that’s basically the supplemental information and my appeal to you for the variance to get approved and I just want to open it up for questions from the commission to me and we’ll go from there. Weick: Well thank you and I, sometimes I say I don’t speak on behalf of all the commissioners but I think I do speak on behalf of all the commissioners. I appreciate the work you’ve put into this. From all the angles and certainly you know taking a look at how it would affect your neighbors, your property and then also the needs that you have. The personal needs you have. Noreen Hoft: Thank you Steve. Weick: In order to want to do something like this so I think we all appreciate that. But we also you know have other things to consider as well so just from a question standpoint, you mentioned the tree removal. With your proposed location of the walkway and the screened porch, and we could certainly ask your contractor as well but would you have to remove any trees of significance to do that? Noreen Hoft: They would be maybe an inch and a half in diameter that I could actually take you know a hand saw to myself. Weick: Okay. Noreen Hoft: But the other side, east side has full sized trees. Weick: Okay. And the east side is the alternative C correct and a little bit of B? That’s the east right? Reeder: Yeah, that’s the east. Noreen Hoft: That would be helpful. Thanks very much MacKenzie. Yeah so C is the east side. Weick: C and then B is kind of sticking out there on the east. Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 8 Noreen Hoft: Yes that’s the sore thumb. Weick: Okay. And then you mentioned that you didn’t really have a chance, or you did to look at Option A. Noreen Hoft: Yeah I didn’t know that Option A was being considered. All things considered in terms of my husband’s disability, you know and again Jay can probably speak to this more than I can. We have a rather narrow kitchen door that his wheelchair may not go out as well as it will a sliding glass door. Weick: Okay. Those were kind of some of the things I wanted to clarify but I certainly would open it up, commissioners just jump in and speak up if you have questions. Tietz: No, well done. Noreen Hoft: Thank you. Weick: Mr. Reeder, anything? Reeder: Well you haven’t seen A before? What’s your thought about A? Noreen Hoft: Well that was the one to which I referred that the egress from my kitchen to behind the garage would have just a single narrow door through which a wheelchair would not move. You know so I wouldn’t be able to get a wheelchair out there. I can get a wheelchair out the sliding glass door and also I think Doug since this is the first time I’ve seen it, again it’s more opinion than having to do with code because by code it works right. So in terms of my interest for the aesthetics and you know with going to the option that we proposed you’re kind of in a treehouse. You know you’re up one level. We’ll have a view over the top of the Klaysmat’s house. You know we’ll actually be able to see over their house. Watch the leaves change. It would be a whole different experience behind the garage so aesthetics wise it doesn’t appeal to me at all. Weick: Any follow up on that or? No, okay thank you. Noreen Hoft: You’re welcomed. Thank you for your time and attention. I appreciate it. Weick: Appreciate it. At this time we will open the public hearing portion and invite anyone to come forward who would like to offer an opinion on this item. Just do state your name and address for the record and microphone when you come up. Jay Aos: I’m Jay Aos, owner of AOS Construction. Noreen has proposed hiring to me to do this project for her. So I have a number of thoughts, some of them have developed as we have discussed and things and seen the presentation through the evening. The primary concern I Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 9 would have with the proposed red Alternative C location, the grading on the end of the house there is fairly steep and there’s already a lot of erosion from water coming across the back yard and running right through that area that I’d be concerned about putting footings on that slope and the fact that there is a slope there, earth tends to travel downhill slowly over time and shift and settle and so with those footings I’d be concerned about them moving minutely inches over the years to where the posts would get out of plum and the addition could sag. Plus the concern of the erosion of water around those footings. Up on the back yard where we would like to build the screened porch we have a more level surface and water has been diverted away from that area by landscaping specifically to create a space that would work well for that in the past so. That’s my primary concern about Alternative C. Secondly my concern about Alternative A in blue behind the garage, the design of that space doesn’t allow it to really be usable for a screened porch especially with access for Noreen’s husband to get down there. The reason I say that is the kitchen door comes out at a floor level that is a couple feet off of the ground and the garage soffit across the back there is only about 8 or 9 feet off the ground as it is so we would be trying to build a screened porch with a soffit coming out at about 6 1/2 to 7 feet above the floor of the screen porch in order to keep that floor level so we didn’t have stairs or a ramp to transverse with a wheelchair which ramps are doable but not ideal. So it makes it very hard, especially in light of the fact that that door is narrow there. If they did go out the patio door where the green walkway is they’d have to go quite a ways around an unscreened area through the bugs to get to a screened porch in the back yard behind the garage. So there’s that design consideration. It just makes it very, very hard to have a useable space there that really functions well for them. In fact if it were my home personally I would not want to use that space because it’d be so far to get to it and the wheelchair would present such a difficulty to get there. Those would be my main concerns about those two alternatives. I do believe that the proposed location that we would like to build, which would require the 6 foot variance, is by far the most comfortable, enjoyable scenario. One of the reasons I say that, I know that Noreen’s husband has been a hunter throughout his life and an outdoorsman. Avid outdoorsman. I’m a hunter myself. I love the woods and for, I can only imagine if I were in a stage of Huntington’s Disease like he’s in, he would want as much time outside in his back yard in those trees and woods as he could get because that’s a place that he loves. Off the end of house in the red zone you’d have a lot of view of the yard and the street. Back in the green where we would like to build it you’re very much secluded from that and you’re really in the woods. I think it makes a very ideal spot for him, highly preferable than either other location as well. Any questions for me? Noreen Hoft: Jay could you make a comment that B in the green is a free standing 12 by 12 off the side the house. It’s like, there’s no wall. Jay Aos: I see. Okay. So the free standing idea, that would add a significant cost to the project because we would have to add structural bracing to a free standing structure as well as additional footings and posts. That would make this project quite a bit more expensive for the Hoft’s than what we are proposing to do. Weick: Okay. Any questions? Thank you. Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 10 Jay Aos: Okay. Weick: Appreciate it. Jay Aos: Yep. Weick: Hello and welcome. Brigid Klaysmat: Hello. I’m Brigid Klaysmat at 800 Woodhill Drive. Weick: Welcome. Brigid Klaysmat: So I think that, I mean watching Mike go through this process of this illness and seeing all the things taken away from him I ditto what Jay said that having that screened porch would be very important for him to be outside and having the ease of getting through is super important and I think that it would be a great addition for his life and to make her life better and I think that you guys should give her the variance. Weick: Thank you. Brigid Klaysmat: My occupation is a physical therapist so I have some experience with people with neurological diseases and see how they affect families and mobility and I think like I said it would be a really good addition. Really help them out. Thanks. Weick: Thank you. Shelby Manion: Hi. Weick: Hello and welcome. Shelby Manion: Thank you. My name is Shelby Manion and I live at 825 Lone Eagle and I don’t know how many of you are even aware of the Carver Beach area and stuff and so, and if you are you then you know the history that all of our lots were camp sites so that’s why all of our lots are 20 feet wide by 100 to 125 feet deep. Those are camp sites. So yes we’ve lived there for going on 30 years and the proposed suggestions I personally feel just do not fly. Do not fly at all. Especially the one on the west side because the whole idea is to be, to be able to experience the nature and if you put that on the west side off behind the garage there are no trees there. That is a more open area. That would be completely in the sun. You would see the street. Everything. So right away when I saw that I saw that I went, no way. The other side I could see but there again the point is of the grade. Now Noreen and Mike have put a lot into their yard in the last 2 years but a lot this year to help with the runoff that has, the natural river that ran through there from the day we moved in we would watch the river run down the hill and so to, Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 11 with that and they put in that dry river bed. That would then go into the, all the work that they’ve done to try to preserve the land and the neighbor’s property so they don’t get water in their basements. Behind where they’re proposing to do this work there, it’s wooded and you have all different size trees and everything and we as neighbors take care of those trees. We spent one weekend pruning and taking out dead trees and taking down little trees so that it would give the chance for the other trees to grow. So I feel that we as a community on our two blocks and our back doors take care of each other and my husband and I are saying give them the variance. It’s a go. Thank you. Weick: Thank you. And seeing no one else coming forward I will close the public portion of the hear and now turn to the commissioners for comment, consideration, thoughts, motions. Tietz: Well comments Steve. Weick: Yeah. Tietz: This is truly a unique neighborhood. I don’t think you will ever see one like it again. It dates back to what, 1927 I think and I think it was the Star and Tribune that used to sell, sold those lots to get people out of the city. Reeder: Is that right? Tietz: Yeah. And it, I mean we have a little bit of everything and I think dealing with a little bit of everything we have to be a little bit more lenient because everything is an odd shape and you know we just can’t apply today’s standards very well in an environment such as that. You know the site is, I’ve looked at it. It’s wooded. There’s a lot of privacy there. I really don’t think that this has an encumbrance upon anybody. I think it’s an appropriate addition to their home given what their needs are and I think it looks like that back side would be for the contractor to build onto that, getting roof lines tied in is going to be a lot easier than trying to do it, you know roof lines are always difficult to try to match up and there’s a high wall in that, it appears to be a high wall in that side of the home which would make it not easy but adaptable so those are my comments. Weick: And you know clearly we have agreement amongst neighbors about how this would look. The other thing we have to consider is you know in the future different people move in and behind and just to make sure that we’re considering you know future homeowners. Not in this house but in neighboring houses as well. Not that this is, you know I’m not implying that this is a significant encroachment on the, onto the property but it is a variance and so those are the things we do need to consider as we consider variances. And again just for clarification, if we look at the actual, for you guys I’m on page 2 of 7. We’re just talking about the blue section that juts out. The green part is open as I understand it. So we’re really talking about the blue. The blue that stands out. And I didn’t think about shape but you would know about costs more than I would. I assume that there’s cost ramifications if you change the shape, right? Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 12 Jay Aos: Yep. Undestad: And I think I would agree with Commissioner Tietz on that too that you know we’ve seen a number of variances coming through in the Carver Beach and everything down there is kind of a mix and match so, you know then again I think the neighbors have all communicated well with each other in there, that they’re all kind of in agreement with it and. Weick: Okay. Undestad: And I think the other fact that they’ve done what they could to take care of that water runoff and stuff I don’t think we want to add to that running out the back and down the hill and anything they do back there to get equipment or anything to build that deck out the back is going to turn up that ground and there could be more issues. Weick: Okay. Reeder: I agree. I think because of the way the lot is shaped they have an unusually small back yard to deal with to put a porch which is where you want to put a porch so I think the 6 foot encroachment is not very drastic, especially considering where the houses behind area. I mean this is facing their garages and I think it’s, no matter who lives in any of the houses I don’t think that we’re putting something real close to somebody else and they’ve got to deal with the way the lots are laid out and you know so I’m okay. I think the justification is the shape of the lot that they’re on and where the house is and I’m okay. Tietz: Well should I make a motion? Weick: The floor is your’s. Tietz: Okay. The Chanhassen Board of Appeals and Adjustments approves, oh a double approves here. Approves and approves. We’re approving and approving the 6 foot rear yard setback variance for the construction of a screened porch and walkway subject to the conditions of approval and adopt the attached Findings of Fact and Decision. Weick: We have a valid motion. Do we have a second? Undestad: Second. Weick: We also have a second. I will pause for any comment. Thoughts? Hearing none. Tietz moved, Undestad seconded that the Chanhassen Board of Appeals and Adjustments approves a 6 foot rear setback variance for the construction of a screened porch subject to the following conditions, and adopts the attached Findings of Fact and Decision: Chanhassen Planning Commission – October 15, 2019 13 1. The applicant must apply for and receive a building permit. 2. Provide an updated survey with permit submittals that illustrates all existing utilities on site and is in accordance with City Code of Ordinances Sec. 7-19. 3. A 10 foot wide utility easement shall be recorded in perpetuity with the property for the maintenance and repair of the storm sewer pipe and manhole located on the subject property. This easement shall extend to the southern property line in order to access the storm sewer pipe. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Weick: The variance is approved 4 to 0. Thank you for coming in. Noreen Hoft: Thank you. Weick: And your presentation. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. Commissioner Undestad noted the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Planning Commission meeting dated October 1, 2019 as presented. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. Aanenson: I have a couple updates if I may. Weick: Yes. Aanenson: So our next meeting we have the extra week so our next meeting would be November 5th but because that’s an election day we will not be meeting so we actually have 4 weeks off. We do have items coming on your next meeting which would be November 19th so at that meeting we’re going to do some code amendments. Walters: Eleven. Aanenson: Eleven code amendments. Those were presented to the City Council last night to get their feedback so there’s some random ones all over and just give you an update of some other stuff that’s going on around town. Weick: Yes.