PC 071316 - Laserfiche WebLink

Guy Houston, Applicant described the scope, layout, and key elements of the application. Commissioner Balch: Are you comfortable with the well being abandoned as presented in the modified conditions? Houston: No, this is a surprise. These lawns are so big —in particular, Lot 3 where that well would be housed, it's about 1.5 acres. The vision for this is planting a lot of fruit trees so having that well makes all the sense in the world. We don't see the reason of why it should go away and it would certainly be a benefit to the property. I've checked with Zone 7, it could only be used for that site, for that property and it can't be exported anywhere else. They don't want you to get into the water business which makes sense. We would like to keep that well. The only other question I had was on the limitation with the FAR. The FAR is so low but are you talking about additions on to the house? Not if somebody wants to build a garage or an ancillary structure separate? Hagen: In this case, any garages over 600 square feet do count and you're already at your 600 square feet. Yes, in this case, anything above what you have does count. Houston: Okay, so you have about 700 feet left. Hagen: There was a table that was included in the staff report on Page 10 that shows for Lots 1 and 2 it's between 600 and 700 square feet that they could add on for Lots 1 and 2. And, Lot 3 is maxed out for the most part. It would only be permitted 80 square feet. The difference in the three lots is that Lot 3 does have an additional garage /workshop which is already included so that's where the square footage difference comes from. Houston: So I think we agree with the proposed conditions, but the well is something that we think .... I don't understand the reason for it and we'd like to keep the well. Commissioner Nagler: Would you mind discussing the well for a moment and why the recommendation to cause the well to be abandoned? Hagen: It was a concern that we received from one of the Commissioners as well as from neighbor concern just due to ground water and the drought and the like; just wanted to reduce the taking from the City's aquifer which has already been depleted. It was just a concern that was heard in other projects and it was something we decided to include as a condition for you to consider. Commissioner Allen: Is the purpose of the well is for the landscaping primarily? Houston: Yes, landscaping. I know everybody loves Crepe Myrtles but we also like fruit trees as well so this area in here, these are planned to be various fruit trees. There may be more in some other areas. Since it is such a large parcel and we're going from five to three, it's 1.5 acres, so having that well, it's off -line from the City's system formally and it'd be much easier to keep up that property with a well versus going in and getting a permit and drilling one anyway. It's there, it's existing, and the church used it for some years. It's still operating; we'd like to keep it. PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, July 13, 2016 Page 5 of 38