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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes`Meridian City Council -December 16, 1997 Page 22 Corrie: Motion is made and seconded to have the attorney prepare the annexation ordinance, aU those in favor? Opposed? MOTION CARRIED: All Yea ITEM #13: PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR A VARIANCE FQR BEDFORD PLACE SUBDIVISION NO. 4 BY BRIGHTON CORPORATION - N. OF BEDFORD PLACE SUBDIVISION N0. 3: Corrie: At this time I will open the public hearing and invite. David or his representative to come forward. David Turnbull, 12426 W. Explorer Drive, Boise, was sworn by the City Attorney. Turnbull: Mr. Mayor and members of the Council 1 sure I hope don't do anything to disrupt the good speed with which you are moving through the agenda tonight. 1 just ran into former Councilman Bert Meyer he was in my office building as I was leaving for this meeting as a matter of fact. He said to remind them that he always moved to adjourn at 10:00. The variance we have before you tonight stems from a situation regarding Mrs. Davis from whom we purchased the property and who still lives in her house out there. She has a life estate in the property as long as she chooses to live there she may do so. After we had the preliminary plat for the project approved Mrs. Davis there is an detached garage and it is a cinder block structure with a corrugated metal roof one which vue had always antiapated relocating closer to her. home and building a garage structure that was more in harmony with her home and the other housing out in the area. Between the time when we had the preliminary plat approved and well after we had the preliminary plat approved Mrs. Davis built an addition onto her house to attach her house to her existing garage. I am going to hand out a little schematic that shows that situation. You will note that the existing garage is in what is planned for the right of way for the street section going through, it is on Edgar Street. We had vwrked out the details with Mrs. Davis what we were planning to do is relocate that garage back to the east side of her home. You can see that the garage se# back from the proposed right of way is actually 54 feet. The problem is that the sunrooms that she constructed to attach to her current garage would encroach in the front setback required of 20 feet it would be about a 10 foot setback. What we are here tonight for is to ask for a variance from that setback requirement for her sunroom. Come: Any questions from Council? Morrow: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Turnbull if the variance is not granted basically what you are asking is for a ten foot encroachment into the existing front yard setback. If the variance is not granted how does Mrs. Davis handle that? Turnbull: How does Mrs. Davis handle that? She would probably be upset or we would be in trouble with Mrs. Davis. She is 85 or 87 years old somewhere in that .Meridian City Council December 16, 1997 Page 23 neighbofiood. She recently had a stroke this winter you can see on this plan we are proposing to build some ramps up to her home to her front. door and some of those things to accommodate her. I think the addition she made to her home is actually a lovely addition, it provides' her a nice sun room and obviously I think something she would like to have maintained. Morrow. If I may step back here, the property is annexed into the City it is a City lot. Was there a building permit obtained? Turnbull: This is not a platted lot yet, it is a part of what is the proposed Bedford Place Subdivision No. 4 which is the next item on the agenda. It was not in the City when she built her home it is an older home. Morrow. And when the sunroom was built it was not in the City? Turnbull: I believe, I don't know if the annexation ordinance was final at that time. Morrow. I guess the point that I am after here is what process did this go through that allowed the setback to be violated? Tumbull: Well there was no lot there at the time so there was no violation of any setbacks since there wasn't a lot. Morrow: So there was no building permit required either. Turnbull: I couldn't tell you whether she obtained a building permit or not. Morrow. So Mrs. Davis handled all of this affair on her own and you are left trying to clean this up is that what we are really doing here? Tumbull: Yes, I don't think Mrs. Davis, I assume she went ahead and got her permits and everything and did everything according to the Hales. It is just a conflict between the final plat that is proposed which is in accordance with the preliminary plat, but after the preliminary plat was approved I think she had a little extra money after we bought the land so she built herself a nice sunroom. Morrow. I can certainly understand that and that at 85 years old you write your own rules. Having said that, that doesn't help us a lot with not very far in the distant future when this particular property is. Let me ask the question in this matter, Mrs. Davis has a life estate, at that point in time when she is deceased where does the property go? Turnbull: Brighton Corporation currently owns the property and then Brighton Corporation would take control of the property. Meridian City Council December 16, 1997 Page 24 Morrow. Would you be agreeable at that point in time to correct the variance to the setback if your variance is approved conditionally that at the point in time that Brighton takes control of the property or sells the property that a condition be that the sunroom be removed and the 20 foot setback be honored? Turnbull: Mr. Mayor and Councilman Mon-ow we could certainly do that if it was required, I would have to say that given the fact that the garage is setback, there is actually more than sufficient area for off site parking with that garage and given the fact that the sunroom is a valuable improvement and doesn't otherwise create a negative, in my mind it is not a negative to the subdivision. It would not be my preference to remove that room. It is a bit counter productive is what I am saying. Morrow. And I understand your concern, but my perspective is that we are trying very hard to maintain certain setbacks so there is a consistency and certainly present owners in Bedford Place and future owners in Bedford No. 4 have some reasonable expectation of everybody having the 20 foot front yard setback. So it seems to me to make a certain amount of sense to keep that. Coupled with the fact from a selfish standpoint if the City grants a variance such as this then all of a sudden everybody needs a sunroom. So that makes a tremendous amount of work for our staff already and future Council's and Mayor's. So that is my concern about (inaudible) Turnbull: Mr. Mayor and Councilman Morrow I can understand your point and we are not trying to set some kind of a particular precedent that the City will have trouble dealing with in the future. But I think everyone would have to admit this is an odd set of circumstances. Morrow. I agree Tolsma: I have a question, is the access to Ustick Road off this property going to be (inaudible) access both directions? Turnbull: It will access off of Edgar Street. Tolsma: So they will close the access that goes back out to Ustick? Turnbull: Yes, that was an ACRD requirement. Morrow. I have no further questions Mr. Mayor. Rountree: I tend to agree 1 think we need to be consistent with the setback. Corrie: Any further questions of David? David is that Lot 5, Block 6 or Lot 4? Turnbull: Lot 5, block 6 Mr. Mayor, it is the wider lot 79 feet wide. .Meridian City Council December 16, 1997 Page 25 Morrow. I think Mr. Smith has a point he would like to make. Smith: Mr. Mayor I just had a question, if you proceed along the lines of allowing the variance for an indeterminate period of time while a life estate is still in existence how we will keep track of when it is not in existence? Somebody is going to have to look out for when it is no longer a life estate and it belongs to Brighton Corporation. Morrow: If I might respond to that, I think if we opted to leave it in position while Mrs. Davis is exercising the life estate, certainly upon her death then the life estate terminates and either the City would have to be aware of when that event occurred or Brighton would have to inform the City of when that event occurred. Then is when it would activate the other issues. Smith: I understand that but I really don't know how that happens. Morrow. What you could do to ensure it happens is you could have a deed restriction so that it can't transfer until those things those conditions would be met. Come: You own the house David? Turnbull: Yes we own the house (End of Tape) it is not as old as Mrs. Davis but I would guess it is probably 40 years old. Tolsma: I would say 50 years old, because I was just a little tad when I went into that house for the first time. Cowie: Thank you David is there anyone else from the public that would like to enter testimony at this time? Hearing none I will close the public hearing for a variance. Discussion by Council? Morrow. Mr. Mayor, I guess I have discussed my points, the thing of it is if we are going to grant the variance I would like to see it be conditional where it is tied to a life estate at the point that the life estate is no longer in effect and that the setback be honored. I think that it makes good sense to do it in that manner. Rountree: I think as opposed to monitoring it and tracking that, that it be done as a deed restriction. Cowie: Who wants to take a crack at it then? Morrow: Well Mr. Mayor I think the appropriate motion then would be to instruct the City Attorney to prepare findings of fact and conclusions for the variance reflecting the comments of the .Council with respect to the conditional variance and the deed restrictions. "Meridian City Council December 16, 1997 Page 26 Rountree: Second Corrie: Motion made by Mr. Morrow, second by Mr. Rountree to have the attorney draw up the findings of fact and conclusions of law and the deed restriction, all those in favor? Opposed? MOTION CARRIED: All Yea ITEM #14: FINAL PLAT -BEDFORD PLACE SUBDIVISION NO. 4, 39 LOTS BY BRIGHTON CORPORATION - N. OF BEDFORD PLACE SUBDIVISION N0. 3: Turnbull: Mr. Mayor and members of the Council I have gone over the packet that we received today from the City. The general and site specific comments from Bruce Freckleton and Shari Stiles, I don't think there was anything we had to take issue with there I think we are in concurrence. I would just point out that this is the is last phase of the project so you won't see me again on this one. Corrie: Council questions? I will entertain a motion then. Morrow. Mr. Mayor I would move that we approve the final plat for Bedford Place Subdivision No. 4 by Brighton Corporation. Bentley: Second Come: Motion made and seconded we approve the final plat of Bedford Place Subdivision No. 4 by Brighton Corporation, any further discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? MOTION CARRIED: All Yea Bentley: Mr. Mayor I move we take a break. FIVE MINUTE BREAK ITEM #15: ECONO LUBE SUBDIVISION, 4 LOTS BY ECONO LUBE N'TUNE INC. - EAST OF LOCUST GROVE, S. SIDE OF FAIRVIEW: Corrie: Council what is your wish on this one, is there anyone here from Econo Lube? McKeegan: Patrick McKeegan, I am the architect for Econo Lube, Basically I was just going to respond to a couple of the specific comments in the Clerk's report concerning the conditions of approval unless you wanted an overview of the project. I think we have talked about it a lot. We havF• received the report issued on December 10 and as indicated in Mr. Joe Canning's reply who is here tonight the engineer on the property to the City that we are in agreement with the conditions of approval accept as I am going