It would be best to locate this garage next to the existing garage. It will be near the rear

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of the property. This will enhance the architecture and fit in with it and not be so bold if it was out front. If you look at the site plan, the lot has a very irregular shape and it is difficult to put anything on. We would be almost 16 feet from the addition to the street. We are asking to go 6 feet beyond the existing building line. There is also a rear encroachment because the existing house encroaches on the rear yard. We also notice that there are many other homes in the neighborhood, I have photos, and I don’t know the technical dimensions, I’m just observing where there are huge walls really close to the street in the neighborhood and other additions which seem close so we felt it would not be out of character with other parts of the neighborhood. We understand there have been other variances approved in the neighborhood so we feel this is the right approach overall in terms of placing the garage and how it would fit with the house and enhance the style and architecture of the home. It would also allow us to maintain the circle drive. We would have to shift it over but we could still have a nice little circle drive with a flag.

CHAIRMAN SOULE – Anything else for right now?

WC – Not right now from me.

CHAIRMAN SOULE – Any Board members with questions for Mr. Cover?

RICK BLISS – There are 10 photographs on this sheet but its not 10 separate houses, how many houses are shown here?

KA – There are three houses ten photos.

RICK BLISS – What is your address, when I pulled in off of Hanley 747 is not listed. Then there is a sign in your yard that says 528 and I’m not sure what the legal description is but if any kind of decision is going to be made here I think we may want to make sure it applies to the proper property.

KA – When we bought the house 7-8 years ago, our house faces Middle Polo Drive but it had an address of 528 West Polo and our mail was getting confused with different people and so I went to the post office and the Public Works Department at the City and we had the address officially changed to 747 Middle Polo. We have a sign in the front yard, you saw one West Polo but there is one next to it that says 747. So it has been legally changed.

RICK BLISS – This is a question for Staff, On page two of this packet, in the top left corner it says wood fence is 6 feet into the right of way. And I’m wondering… is this a problem?

SUSAN ISTENES – Yes it is but not for this Board. We are figuring that perhaps when it was a private subdivision, encroachments were not considered when people built fences and what not.

RICK BLISS – Would you say that it is ‘grandfathered’ in?

SUSAN ISTENES – No, I wouldn’t look at it that way…

RICK BLISS – Would you say that it is ‘grandfathered’ in? SUSAN ISTENES – No, I wouldn’t look at it that way…

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RICK BLISS – Ok, I know one of the things we look at and wrestle with on a regular basis is that we are going to try and move towards conformity with zoning and setbacks and things like that when new construction is being done and there is no provision that I can see that this fence is going to be moved or anything like that.

SUSAN ISTENES – Right, the City could do a variety of things. They could request the fence be moved, they could enter into an easement to allow the fence to remain. It normally doesn’t become an issue unless the City is going to be doing some work in their right-of-way and these fences/structures are discovered to be in the right-of-way where the City is potentially going to do some work. I don’t think anything is planned for this subdivision, so really until then I don’t see the City initiating any type of action to clean these sort of things up.

RICK BLISS – I like your suggestion, because the house is already violating the setback line, already right now, lets throw that into the discussion at this meeting.

SUSAN ISTENES – It does make sense, however, we didn’t advertise for it. We only advertised for the garage. It’s not uncommon in older homes where existing structures don’t meet the current setback requirements.

KA – The fence was there when we bought the home 8 years ago and within the last few months we obtained permits from the City where we had the fence redone.

RICK BLISS – Sounds like it was approved administratively and didn’t go through the Architectural Review Board.

KA – No we didn’t go to ARB.

RICK BLISS – Congratulations.

SUSAN ISTENES – Generally fences that are replacements of the same material, it doesn’t need to go to ARB.

CHAIRMAN SOULE – You followed what you understood to be the City permitting requirements. And that wasn’t a requirement.

RICK BLISS – My last question – on the packet we have here in front of us the appeal to the BAJ, on page 5 the applicant states there is no impact on neighboring properties. The variance request is approved by Polo Trustees and also approved by adjoining neighbors that will see the addition. Do we ask for the trustees to send to the City for the file their approval or do we take the applicants word on it?

SUSAN ISTENES – We inform the applicants that they need to check with their trustee’s we don’t enforce any of the subdivision indentures, that is not our role. We try to make sure an applicant is not coming in and applying for a building permit that might be in violation of their indentures. It’s a courtesy notice to say please check.