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Home My WebLink AboutA4 A f ITEM # 2 DATE 1-8-14 CITY OF AMES DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND HOUSING REPORT TO THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT CASE FILE NO.: ZBA-13-12 DATE PREPARED: January 3, 2014 MEETING DATE: January 8, 2014 REQUEST: For a Variance to allow an increase in the maximum building height by 2' 9" in the West University Impacted Overlay District (O-UIW). PROPERTY West Street Lofts LLC OWNER: APPLICANT: Keith Arneson LOCATION: 2811, 2817, and 2823 West Street ZONING: High Density Residential (RH) and West University Impacted Overlay District (O-UIW) BACKGROUND: The applicant owns three properties at 2811, 2817, and 2823 West Street and plans to redevelop 2817 and 2823 West Street with an expansion of the existing apartment building located at 2811 West Street. According to City records, 2817 West Street is a converted single-family home housing two units and 2823 West Street is a converted single-family home housing six units. An 8-unit apartment building was constructed by the applicant at 2811 West Street in 2009. A location map is found in Attachment 1. The existing apartment building is 4-stories tall and has a portion of the parking under the building and surface parking in the rear. The existing apartment building was built within the 45-foot maximum height limit of the underlying zone. The topography of the area is such that 2811 West Street sits about 8 feet higher than the two lots to the west that are intended for redevelopment. The applicant seeks to demolish the two single-family home buildings, combine all three lots into a single parcel, and construct an addition to the existing building at 2811 West Street. The building expansion would be of the same form as the existing and share a 1 common entry. With the building addition, the overall height of the building, as calculated according to the City's definition of height, results in the existing portion of the building exceeding the 45' height limit because the average grade is lower for the west portion of the proposed consolidated site. The proposed addition to the building would meet the 45' height limit in relation to its average lower grade. A diagram of the building sections is found in Attachment 2. A south elevation is found in Attachment 3. The applicant, therefore, is seeking a variance to the height limit to allow the addition to the existing building, resulting in a total height of 47' 9" to the average grade of the site as measured under the City's calculation of maximum height of a structure. APPLICABLE LAWS: The height of a structure is calculated using the definition found in Section 29.201 of the Ames Zoning Ordinance. (93) Height means the vertical distance of a structure measured from the average elevation of the finished grade lying fifteen feet from the structure to: the highest point of the roof or parapet,for flat roofs; or, the mid point between the eaves and the ridge,for sloped roofs. The height limit in the High Density Residential District is 100 feet or 9 stories, whichever is lower. This standard can be found in Table 29.704(3). This standard is superseded by the more stringent requirements of the West University Impacted Overlay District in Section 29.1111. (2) Development Standards. (b) Maximum Building Height shall not exceed forty-five (45)feet in height. VARIANCE CRITERIA: Ames Municipal Code, Section 29.1504(4) states that "a variance shall be granted only if all of the following standards are satisfied:" (a) The granting of the variance shall not be contrary to the public interest. (b) That without granting of the variance, and due to special conditions, a literal enforcement of the ordinance will result in unnecessary hardship. Unnecessary hardship exists when: (i) The land in question cannot yield a reasonable return if used only for a purpose allowed in the zone. (ii) The plight of the owners is due to unique circumstances and not to the general conditions in the neighborhood. 2 (iii) The use to be authorized by the variance will not alter the essential character of the locality. (c) The spirit of the ordinance shall be observed even when the variance is granted. (d) Substantial justice shall be done as a result of granting the variance. BASIS OF APPEAL: The applicant has submitted responses to the variance criteria. See the attached "Supporting Information" prepared by the applicant, part of the "Variance Application Packet". FINDINGS OF FACTS & CONCLUSIONS: Staff makes the following findings of facts and conclusions for each of the six individual criteria "tests": (a) The granting of the variance shall not be contrary to the public interest. FINDING: The existing building meets the height limit. The proposed building, if constructed on the site separate from the existing building, would also meet the height limit. The height limit is exceeded by joining the existing building with the proposed addition as the grade drops nearly 8 feet from east to west. There would be no physical change in appearance of the existing building and its current 45-foot height. Allowing for the height variance will enable the site to redevelop consistent with the underlying high density residential zoning. CONCLUSION: The building will rise from west to east as the grade rises. The two portions of the combined building, separately, do not rise more than 45 feet above the adjacent grade. The building type and use are allowed within the underlying zoning district. Therefore the Board can conclude that this criterion is met. (b) That without granting of the variance, and due to special conditions, a literal enforcement of the ordinance will result in unnecessary hardship. Unnecessary hardship exists when: (i) The land in question cannot yield a reasonable return if used only for a purpose allowed in the zone. FINDING: The existing older buildings at 2817 and 2823 West Street are currently occupied. Based upon recent City rental housing inspections, the properties are due for retirement as documented in their reports. Both are operating under one-year temporary Letters of Compliance in recognition of their substandard overall condition. Each building has one less unit allowed due to code deficiencies which preclude it from being occupied Substantial work and reinvestment is needed to bring them up fully to compliance with the rental code and continue their viability as housing for the long term.. 3 As two separate lots, 2817 West Street at 6,000 square feet and 2823 West Street at 6,250 square feet, would not meet the minimum lot size requirements for even a single-family home (not allowed in the RH district) or a duplex (requires 7,000 square feet minimum lot size). If these two lots were combined into a single lot, the 12,250 square feet would allow the construction of seven units. The applicant states that only by combining these two lots with the existing lot and structure at 2811 West Street is the lot size large enough to accommodate the required number of units and parking spaces to make the project feasible for tearing down the existing substandard non-conforming structures and rebuilding with a new apartment building. To make this feasible on the constrained site, it needs the efficiency of sharing the central stair tower in the existing building. CONCLUSION: The current non-conforming rental homes do generate rental income that needs to be accounted for in planning to redevelop the site and its financing feasibility. The applicant notes that if the two structures were demolished and a new detached building were constructed, the setbacks (two front setbacks of 25 feet and two rear setbacks of 25 feet) as applied to the newly combined lot would be problematic in making the project financially feasible and meet all building code and zoning code requirements for parking and building requirements. As a combined parcel, the developable area (total lot size minus the required setbacks) allows a reasonable return on the reinvestment costs, but does require the existing and proposed portions to share a stair tower creating the need for the height variance for the existing building. Therefore the Board can conclude that this criterion is met. (ii) The plight of the owners is due to unique circumstances and not to the general conditions in the neighborhood. FINDINGS: The grade drops along the length of West Street about 8 feet from east to west. If this building were to be built along the nearby Campus Avenue or Hyland Avenue frontages, the change in grade would not be so abrupt as to be a problem. Google Street View images are found in Attachments 4 and 5. CONCLUSION: This grade drop is problematic for any multi-story high-density structure that wishes to be built on this lot. It appears to be less problematic along the more level frontages of Campus Avenue and Hyland Avenue. Therefore the Board can conclude that this criterion is met. (iii) The use to be authorized by the variance will not alter the essential character of the locality. FINDING: The neighborhood has experienced the demolition of older homes, the consolidation of lots, and the construction of several apartment buildings in the past few decades. This is especially pronounced on Hyland Avenue and Campus Avenue. The City has adopted zoning to allow for modest apartment buildings to 4 be developed in this area in support of student needs in close proximity to the campus. CONCLUSION: The proposed apartment will be similar in scale with the other newer apartments to the north and south. Some commercial uses remain in this neighborhood but recent changes have mostly been to remove older housing and replace it with more efficient, safer newer apartments. Therefore the Board can conclude that this criterion is met. (c) The spirit of the Ordinance shall be observed even when the variance is granted. FINDING: The existing building meets the height limit. The proposed addition, if built separately, would meet the height limit. The addition, however, is constructed on a grade about 8' lower than the existing construction. Since it is attached to the existing structure, the baseline from which the height is calculated changes. Because of the grade change from east to west, any addition to the existing building, regardless of its own height, would raise the calculated height of the overall building as the average grade would be lowered with the combined lot, resulting in a non-conformity. CONCLUSION: The Ordinance limits the height of buildings to 45'. The method of calculating that height limit requires measurement of the existing grade around the entire perimeter of the building. Thus, if a building sits on a slope, the lowest adjacent grade to the highest point of the building determines the height. In this instance, the increase in height is caused not by adding verticality to the existing structure but by lowering the grade adjacent to the addition. The actual height does not change—only the calgilated height. Therefore the Board can conclude that this criterion is Xt met. (d) Substantial justice shall be done as a result of granting the variance. FINDING: The proposed addition would, itself, meet the height limit. The proposed addition adds no height to the existing building which, also, meets the height limit as it stands. Combining the addition with the existing building changes the baseline upon which the height limit is measured. This causes the existing building to now exceed the height limit by 2' 9". CONCLUSION: This variance, if granted in this particular instance, would allow the addition to the existing building. It would not result in an increase in the actual elevation of the existing building—only in the calculated height of the building. The existing building and new addition would not exceed the height limit if calculated separately. Therefore the Board can conclude that this criterion is met. 5 ALTERNATIVES: 1. The Zoning Board of Adjustment may approve this request for a variance to allow an increase in the calculated height to allow a building of 47' 9" as shown on the attached elevation for the properties located at 2811, 2817, and 2823 West Street, based upon the above findings and conclusions. 2. The Zoning Board of Adjustment may deny this request for a variance to allow an increase in the calculated height to allow a building of 47' 9" as shown on the attached elevation for the properties located at 2811, 2817, and 2823 West Street, if it finds that the criteria have 3. The Zoning Board of Adjustment may table this variance and seek further information from the applicant or from staff. DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION: The Planning and Housing Department concludes that the criteria for a variance required by Ames Municipal Code Section 29.1504(4) have all been met. Therefore, it is the Department's recommendation that the Board should act in accordance with Alternative #1, which is to approve the requested variance to allow a building of 47' 9" as shown on the attached elevation for the properties located at 2811, 2817, and 2823 West Street. Alternately, if the Board finds and concludes that all of the criteria have not been met, then the Board should act in accordance with Alternative #2. 6 ATTACHMENT 1: LOCATION MAP 03 Il�lli i k ( t q 5 kl a 3 F< d., ✓a � Proposed Proposed Existing :F � � . demolition "C�eemolition Bwldin�g. D 2$23 y 2817 2811 1 ' 1 y � �� :�•YVEST ST 2 �;. a Ne 0 20 40 Ames, N Feet 7 ATTACHMENT 2: BU LD NG SECTIONS � § � ...... , \ . . . � } : 9 , g a , : u . :... �� z; hill" u y y. . � . §\\(®w LU j . �\ «w \\\} \\ co ® � �ƒ/ \d�\i C §% � ^ � I . .............. . � . . \ . S ATTACHMENT 3: BUILDING ELEVATIONS W I � � I � j I w I J W J Q Lu o < II N I � J �I I III lil I �I i 9 ATTACHMENT 4: 2817 AND 2823 WEST STREET(LOOKING NORTHWEST) Y'vaa g. f r � / k 10 ATTACHMENT 5 2811 WEST STREET (LOOKING NORTHWEST) ;9 trrst�, 9i f 3�s �1. s f 4 l a {� web. a � (CYS y F � V �I 11