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5. Staff Report-ScandiaPC Ordinance items 8 5 14 Memorandum To: Scandia Planning Commission Reference: Ordinance Items—Requests from July PC meeting Copies To: Kristina Handt, City Administrator Brenda Eklund, Clerk Project No.: 15486.000 From: Sherri Buss, RLA AICP, Planner Routing: Date: July 28, 2014 The Planning Commission requested information or ideas from the Planner on several topics at the July Planning Commission meeting. The items and suggested options for discussion at the August Planning Commission meeting included the following: 1) Language for an “administrative exception” for lots that are close to, but do not meet, the ordinance requirements for some approvals. Stillwater Township’s attorney created a section that was added to the Stillwater Township ordinance to allow for “administrative deviations,” in response to some similar issues in the Township. Such exceptions are allowed by many municipalities. I have attached a copy of the section that was added to the Stillwater Ordinance. It was placed in the Administrative chapter of the zoning ordinance. In Stillwater Township, the Board requested this because we occasionally have requests from owners with parcels that are slightly under 5 acres in size who want to have a horse, or some other livestock, and the ordinance requires a minimum five-acre lot for this purpose. The Stillwater ordinance allows the administrative deviations through approval of an administrative permit. We have used it only about once per year since it was adopted. Scandia Planning Commission Ordinance items from July 1 Meeting Page 2 August 5, 2014 2) Language to add an exception for preservation of historic structures in the accessory structures section of the ordinance. The question before the Commission was an application that needed a variance to construct an accessory building closer to the roadway than the primary structure, so I am assuming that the Commission’s request is to permit historic structures or structures with a historically-appropriate design in locations closer to the roadway than the primary structure without a variance, to make this process easier for the applicants. The following language in item 3, below, could be added to the Accessory Structure section of the ordinance to accomplish that purpose (Chapter 2, Section 3.2): (2) All Accessory Structures. The following standards apply to all accessory structures. (A) No accessory structure shall be constructed on a lot prior to construction of the principal structure on the lot. (B) No detached accessory structure, including storage sheds, shall be located closer to the road right-of-way than the principal building on a lot without a variance unless all of the following conditions, or the conditions identified in item (2) (C), are met: 1. The accessory structure is at least 200 feet from the road right-of-way on lots of five (5) acres or more; and 2. All setbacks are met. (C) A detached accessory structure, including storage sheds, may be located closer to the road right-of way than the principal building on a lot without a variance if the following conditions are met: 1. The design of the structure (for example, design of the roof and openings, massing, color, materials, and/or location) of the accessory structure are consistent with the traditional architectural design elements identified with Scandia’s rural landscape in Scandia’s Architectural Design Guidelines. The City’s Zoning Administrator shall review the plans that show the location and design of the proposed structure, and may issue an administrative permit to allow a location closer to the road right-of-way than the principal building in lieu of a variance. The Zoning Administrator may require screening of the structure as necessary to meet the intent of the ordinance. 2. All setbacks are met. Scandia Planning Commission Ordinance items from July 1 Meeting Page 3 August 5, 2014 3) Information on how the area of accessory structures with more than one story has been calculated on applications The Commission asked if we have calculated the area of accessory structures based on the structure footprint, or the total area of all floors. The Planner reviewed variances granted for accessory structures over the past several years, and found that we have consistently used the footprint area only to calculate the area of the structure. Variance examples reviewed included the Chisholm, Holmgren, Howe, Hume, Mattox, Lenz, Olson, Roberts, and Varhalla variances. Most of these are in the Shoreland District, and until recently in that district, we have restricted the buildings to one story plus a storage area. 4) Change to the lot size chart categories for the accessory structure section of the ordinance The Commission asked about whether the table in the Accessory Structures section should have categories that begin with the exact acreage, rather than “more than __ acres.” I reviewed past Scandia codes, and found that the current format has been used in past codes such as the table in the 2007 ordinance: Lot Size Total Square Footage Parcels less than 1 acres 720 sq. ft. 1 acre to 3.00 acres 1,000 sq. ft. More than 3.00 acres to 5.00 acres 2,000 sq. ft. More than 5.00 acres to 10.00 acres 2,500 sq. ft. More than 10.00 acres to 20.00 acres 3,500 sq. ft. More than 20.00 acres to 30.00 acres 4,500 sq. ft. More than 30.00 acres to 40.00 acres 5,500 sq. ft. More than 40.00 acres to 60.00 acres 6,000 sq. ft. More than 60.00 acres to 80.00 acres 7,000 sq. ft. More than 80.00 acres 8,000 sq. ft. Agricultural buildings on parcels 80.00 acres or greater Unlimited However, many codes do have each category start with the exact acreage, and this may fit better with other criteria in the code that use the exact acreage numbers. If we made the change in the code, the “lot size” column in the table could be revised as follows: Scandia Planning Commission Ordinance items from July 1 Meeting Page 4 August 5, 2014 Residential Accessory Structures (non- agricultural) * Agricultural and Rural Buildings Lot Size Number of Structures** Total Square Footage Number of Structures Total Square Footage Parcels less than 1 acre 1 720 sq. ft. None None 1.0 to 2.99 acres 1 1,000 sq. ft. 3.0 to 4.99 acres 2 2,500 sq. ft. 5.00 to 9.99 acres 2 3,000 sq. ft. 1 rural use building*** (3 total) 4,000 sq. ft. including non- agricultural buildings 10.00 to 19.99 acres 2 3,500 sq. ft. 2 agricultural buildings (4 total) 6,000 sq. ft. including non- agricultural buildings. 20.00 to 29.99 acres 2 4,500 sq. ft. No limit provided structures are agricultural buildings. No limit provided structures are agricultural buildings 30.00 to 39.99 acres 2 5,500 sq. ft. 40.00 acres to 59.99 acres 2 6,000 sq. ft. 60.00 to 79.99 acres 2 7,000 sq. ft. 80.00 acres and larger 2 8,000 sq. ft. Scandia Planning Commission Ordinance items from July 1 Meeting Page 5 August 5, 2014 5) Potential change to the definition of “outlots” in the Subdivision Ordinance At the July Planning Commission meeting, members discussed the definition of “unbuildable lots” and “outlots,” and indicated a desire to review the definitions. Commissioners expressed concerns that if the definitions are not clear, a landowner could try to avoid paying taxes by declaring a buildable parcel to be an “outlot” or unbuildable lot.  The current definition of a Buildable Lot in the Zoning Ordinance is “A lot that meets or exceeds all requirements of the City of Scandia Development Code without necessity of variances.”  The current definition of “outlot” is in the Subdivision Ordinance. The definition of Outlot is: “A lot remnant or any parcel of land included in a plat that is not buildable at the time of platting. Such outlot may be a large tract that could be subdivided in the future; or a lot which may be too small to comply with the minimum size requirements of zoning and subdivision ordinances; or a lot otherwise unsuitable for development and therefore not usable as a building site.” The Planner obtained some background information regarding the assessment of outlots for tax purposes with the City Assessor, Frank Langer. Frank provided the following information:  Outlots are created for two reasons on plats: 1) to hold land for a future phase of development, or 2) to designate land that is not developable. If an owner determines in the future that he/she wants to develop an area designated as an “outlot,” they will need to create a new plat of the area.  Land in an outlot that is being held for a future phase of development is taxed as “developable” land. The taxes are not as high as those for lots that have been split and prepared for building, so developers need this option to be able to phase larger developments over multiple years.  Land that is in an outlot because is not developable is taxed as such. Frequently outlots are held by cities or associations as storm water ponds or other types of open space, and taxed as open space. Discussion Scandia’s situation regarding the potential creation of smaller lots that may exceed the density requirements of the ordinance is unusual among rural communities. Most communities in the “rural” parts of the region as designated by the Metro Council have minimum lot sizes of 10 acres. So there are few examples of ordinances that address the Commission’s concern about the potential to create “outlots” that may later be buildable. It is probably desirable to continue to allow developers of larger tracts to designate outlots so that development can be phased appropriately based on infrastructure availability and market needs (such as Tii Gavo). The City probably also needs to maintain the option to allow the creation of outlots for land that is not suitable for Scandia Planning Commission Ordinance items from July 1 Meeting Page 6 August 5, 2014 development due to physical characteristics, or to create open space or conservation areas. The Commission’s desire is to prevent the use of outlots to create buildable parcels that could later be approved for development that would exceed the density requirements of the ordinance. A change to the definition may not be needed, since the outlot definition states that outlots must be lots that are not buildable, and with the recent change in the ordinance, only 4 buildable lots can be created in any quarter-quarter section. If the Planning Commission wants to provide more direction regarding outlots in the definition, the Planner suggests the following modification of the outlot definition to address the commission’s concerns:  “A lot remnant or any parcel of land included in a plat that is not buildable at the time of platting due to the following: . Such outlot may It is be a large tract that could beis intended to be subdivided in the a future development phase; or or it is a lot which may beis too small to comply with the minimum size requirements or buildable area requirements of zoning and subdivision ordinances; it is a lot that is unsuitable for development due to its physical characteristics such as the presence of wetlands, stormwater facilities or steep slopes; or it is a parcel that is dedicated as public or private open space, or held within a perpetual conservation easement. or a lot otherwise unsuitable for development and therefore not usable as a building site.”