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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVA200900004 Legacy Document 2009-07-16 (4)STAFF PERSON: Ron Higgins, AICP PUBLIC HEARING: July 7, 2009 STAFF REPORT VA -2009-004 OWNER/APPLICANT: Avon Court Holdings, LLC TAX MAP/PARCEL: 77/86 ZONING: Light Industry - LI and Airport Impact Area — AIA, with Flood Hazard Overlay on portion. ACREAGE: 6.780 LOCATION: 2095 Avon Court TECHNICAL REQUEST AND EXPLANATION: The applicant requests a variance from Section 26.10.a. which requires a front yard setback of 50 feet in industrial zoning districts. The request is to reduce the setback from 50 feet to 10 feet, the same as the parking setback. The variance is believed to be necessary to allow construction of a small industrial park with a new public road through the center that could result in ten (10) new light industrial parcels. This is a variance of 40 feet. Applicant's Description of Request: "To reduce the amount of the front building setback in a Light Industrial (LI) zoning district on parcel 77-813 from 50 feet to 10 feet to allow construction to occur at a greater distance from the floodplain of Moore's Creek which surrounds the property on three sides and to remove constraints to development that were not disclosed by the previous owner or an environmental report at the time of purchase." RELEVANT HISTORY: There are no active zoning violations on this property. The site had previously been used as a salvage yard and still contains several large piles (20 feet -25 feet high) of broken concrete. There were also several residences and other buildings on the site which have been demolished. The applicant has been in the process of obtaining approval for a subdivision plat and road plans since 2007. The new road has been approved by VDOT for the use of Industrial Access Road funds. The optimum location of the road would result in parcels along both sides of the new road at varying depths, ranging from 120 feet to over 300 feet, front to back. PROPERTY DESCRIPTION AND QUALIFYING CONDITIONS: This 6.780 -acre parcel is a site near the end of Avon Court off of Avon Street, just outside of the Charlottesville city limits. The owner may be able to enjoy light industrial use of the property without the variance. It is staff opinion that this request does not meet the strict criteria required for a finding of hardship and that the granting of the request would be a convenience to the applicant. However, there are additional factors the Board may choose to consider in the analysis of hardship for this request. C:IRonHiggins_0ocsIVA-2009-4 Avon Court Holdings. doc The subject parcel, which is zoned LI, is adjacent to another larger parcel which is also zoned LI. The adjacent parcel abuts three sides of the subject property and is almost entirely within the Moore's Creek 100 year floodplain. There are also critical slopes which could further constrain the future development parcels on the subject property. Section 26.10.a. states, "No portion of any structure, excluding signs, shall be erected closer than fifty (50) feet to any public street right-of-way. No off-street parking or loading space shall be located closer than ten (10) feet to any public street right-of- way." The proposed road will be a public street. It should also be noted that, due to the property being entirely adjacent to LI zoning, there are no rear or side minimum setbacks required. The prior use of the property as a "salvage yard" may have resulted in some fill unsuitable for building sites in various areas of the property. The large piles of broken concrete will be removed as part of the development of the industrial park. All but two of the new parcel frontages will be on the new street and across from newly created parcels in the industrial park. The other two parcels would front on the newly built street across from existing LI parcels on Avon Court. Those two parcels are further constrained by critical slopes in the rear half of the lots and by the need to locate storm water pipes and easements at the rear and above critical slopes. With regards to authorization of a variance, Section 34.2 of the Zoning Ordinance states: When a property owner can show that his property was acquired in good faith and where, by reason of the exceptional narrowness, shallowness, size or shape of a specific piece of property at the time of the effective date of this ordinance, or where, by reason of exceptional topographic conditions or other extraordinary situation or condition of such piece of property, or of the use or development of property immediately adjacent thereto, the strict application of the terms of this ordinance would effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict the use of the property or where the board is satisfied, upon the evidence heard by it, that the granting of such variance will alleviate a clearly demonstrable hardship approaching confiscation, as distinguished from a special privilege or convenience sought by the applicant, provided that all variances shall be in harmony with the intended spirit and purpose of this ordinance. This section of the County code is provided in order to point out that the words in bold are no longer a required standard in the state legislation by which you are to measure a variance request. The words were removed from the enabling legislation this year by the General Assembly. This is important since the staff report does talk about the ability of the applicant to get industrial use of the property, but the standard has changed somewhat. It is important to note that you are still looking at whether this is a "clearly demonstrable hardship". CARonHiggins_DocsWA-2009-4 Avon Court Holdings.doc 3 APPLICANT'S JUSTIFICATION AND STAFF COMMENT: A review of the variance criteria provided by the applicant and comments by staff follows: Hardship The applicant states that: "Strict application of section 18-26.10 (a) pushes the front building setback line and therefore the construction sites closer to Moore's Creek and poorly suited building areas. Some of the building areas are poorly suited for construction due to the placement of concrete spoils near the rear property line. Strict application would also force companies to located (sic) parking in the front of the buildings generally deemed undesirable in Albemarle County. Strict application of the 50' front building setback is less meaningful on Avon Court that is located on the end of a short cul-de-sac." It is staff opinion that, while the proposed location of the building sites are the result of the applicant's design, the "design" was done in such a way that placed the proposed public street in a location that could be approved and accepted by VDOT Furthermore, there are a number of physical constraints that make building locations difficult to achieve. However, as stated above, the applicant can have light industrial use of the property and there are locations available on the site for proposed buildings. 1. The applicant has not provided evidence that the strict application of the ordinance would produce undue hardship. Uniqueness of Hardship The applicant notes: "The property is surrounded on 3 sides by Moore's Creek and its floodplain. An irregular shaped parcel that contains the floodplain is not owned by Avon Court Holdings. The stream and floodplain buffer provides adequate buffer, screening and vegetation so that no adjoining properties are visible from parcel 77-86. Approval of this request would not change the rear setback. As for other properties in the LI zoning district, there is little LI property in the County, especially those surrounded by water features." Staff acknowledges that the site's configuration and adjacency to floodplain on three sides is somewhat unique and acknowledges the relative scarcity of industrial zoning in the county. However, since we believe there is no finding of hardship, there can be no finding that the hardship is unique. 2. The applicant has not provided evidence that such hardship is not shared generally by other properties in the same zoning district and the same vicinity. CARoWggins_DocsWA-2009-4 Avon Court Holdings.doc Impact on Character of the Area The applicant offers: "The previous use on the property was a salvage yard. Currently this brownfield property is sought to be redeveloped into small industrial park under an Industrial Access Road grant that has been approved by VDOT. The industrial park is accepted as a better development by adjoining owners and other businesses located on Avon Court." Staff, agrees with the Applicant's analysis. It is the opinion of the staff that the reduced setback, as described in the application, will not adversely impact the adjoining property and the character of the district will remain as intended. 3. The applicant has provided evidence that the authorization of such variance will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property and that the granting of the variance will not change the character of the district. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Staff finds that only one of the three criteria for the granting of a variance is met for this request and therefore must recommend denial of the request. Attachment: County GIS map of TM77-8B and surrounding area CARonHiggins_DocsIVA-2009-4 Avon Court Holdings.doc I 352,/t 77-7 tw Legend (Nae: soles mns onrney not y rIn legene) %/2A � - ^6. t' 1 GlSw.o Go,r.,. D. SeMces apm de. og 0 (4M)2W Z Map Is br Ci W, purposes only • Fanal Imagery n— Commoveealrh o/ Virginia Jure k 2W9