This is a variance request at 5401 Londereerry Road uh for a 10.6 ft variance to allow a 64.4 ft setback from the front lot line for an expansion of the second floor where a 75 ft setback is required.

because it was pushed back 30 ft, um that made the existing structure at 5401 non-conforming.

we live at 5405 London Derry Road which is directly next to 5401 and the previous house had a pitched lower roof and with the uh variance it's going to be it's taller and then it's also forward. So it is incredibly imposing on our property

I appreciate um the remodeling of the existing home and I appreciate kind of um keeping the existing foundation and kind of adding to it. Um, this lot is half the size of some of the other lots and so I think it it's appropriate use of this lot.

The property owners are at 50 6520 Gleon Road. They're requesting a 3.8 ft variance to allow a 21.2 two foot setback from the rear lot line where the required rear setback is 25 ft.

I guess my opinion is I could go either way. defer to staff's recommendation, but I we have seen other variance requests that we have denied because we felt that when the homeowner sort of acquired the property, um, however, it was renovated on the inside was sort of it that's what they that's what they purchased.

I think this is a purpose of a variance. is do we let someone creep over, you know, the laws? And I think this is an appropriate uh addition, creates functional space. Could they get by with smaller? Yeah. But um it's one of those on the line, but in general, I support it.

For me, what's persuasive about this is that the house was built where the house was built. And uh if you're committed to an addition on the back in this situation, well, you could tear the house down and rebuild it a little bit closer to the front and do what you want to do.

The applicant is requesting a 19.8 8 foot west setback variance and a 19 ft setback variance from the ordinary high water elevation of Minihaha Creek with the required setback of 50 ft from the creek.

All of the church, the original portion of the church as well as the additions predate our current code. Um they also predate the flood plane study that was done in 1979. So um yes it's very non-conforming.

according to the FEMA regulations, that's why we have the zero foot. We cannot increase the footprint, but we can move it. And in this case, we're bettering the creek health by taking structure out of the flood plane.

what you guys are doing and what I want to acknowledge and like elevate is the removal of structure in the floodway and flood plane. And just some context for what that means is in terms of the goals of the watershed district and neighbors along the creek is when the the creek floods, every cubic yard or whatever you take out of the floodway or flood plane is allowing extra flood storage.

I'm so delighted to learn that St. Stevens has the both the will and the capacity to maintain and even improve this beautiful old building because I know it costs a lot of money.

What the applicant is would like to do is subdivide the property. They didn't draw lot lines on the sketch plan, but they would like to subdivide to create four lots. So each individual financial inst each each one of these three new buildings is a financial institution. So they would be on their own site. Each building would be 5,000 square feet.

My understanding is um drive-throughs are only allowed in a PUD process.

The South Dale comp plan um expresses a dire desire to break down larger parcels into correct. Okay. and to create more of a a friendly street grid.

just fundamentally like if if the goal is to do stuff that, you know, is making improvements to the property that comply, there's not much we can do and I'd encourage you to do that. But I've, you know, I've also seen, you know, the name that's behind, you know, the ownership group here. you know, there's people involved that have done some pretty bold redevelopments in the city, you know, and this seems like a safe, you know, steady moneym um decision, but I urge just a more bold creative eye to like help reinvision this whole area.

I guess my main struggle is that I have a hard time reacting to a picture that's not really what you want to do and I I I think we'd have a better conversation if we were talking about a project that looked like what you say your objectives were as far as trying to get through a project with no variances.

The proposal is a larger footprint. It's still seven stories uh in height. The the number of units increases to 138. Uh the retail space is slightly larger, just over 7,000 square feet. And there's they've eliminated the office element. So the expansion essentially accommodates a larger housing. This would be a 55 plus uh development.

The building is growing um slightly larger north to south um for a couple reasons. One of which was um in our opinion candidly the original building was underparked... The other reason is that um the demographic we're talking about the age restricted demographic are those folks 55 and older um typically are coming oftent times from a house that they've been in for potentially many years. They're predominantly looking for and interested in larger units.

I would argue that you might go have gone from underparked to overparked. Now, we have 1.8, if I did the math right, stalls per unit and 40 public in that building. We could give positive feedback here, but I guess I'm looking at you, Carrie, because they've shifted the buildings, they've also shifted where parking opportunities are for other people.

If that podium remains the same or grows a level, um it'd be nice to see the building step back there. So then it becomes more at that pedestrian scale, which is kind of the cornerstone of the design experience guidelines.

I think the orthogonality of this and especially this is a third space. This is a place where people can gather. It's 60 ft wide. There's no cars on it except for right in the middle. Um, so it is a place for people to be other than in their work spaces or in their home spaces, a place for them to kind of gather outside. And for those because the exterior of the lot is the big lot is irregular with the streets.