Special Exception - 1750 Willis Avenue

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Board of Zoning Appeals -January 18, 2007 for single family on a public right-of--way to 0' with access allowed over an ingress and egress easement on Parcel I to Willis Avenue; Parcel l: from the G' side yard setback to 0' along the north property line for pavement, from the 25' rear yard setback to 0' along the east property line for pavement, from the 4,000 s. f. lot size for MFI and b,000 s.f. for single family to 5,859 s. f., from the required perimeter landscape deciduous trees al ~l 1111nImUm SpaClllg of 40' On-Centel' along the north and G~lst property 11neS t0 no trees, fl'om the 50' frontage for MFl and CO' for single fanllly on a public right-of--way to 57' on Willis Avenue; and for an accessory visitor parking lot without a prnnary use, on property located at 1750 Willis Avenue. This property is zoned MFI. MR. MICHAEL DANCH: Danch, Aarner & Associates, 1643 Commerce Drive, South Bend representing then petitioners Willis Sheet Townhomes, LLC. Also here with me today is one of the member of the LLC is Mr. Mark Carney and also he brought Mr. Steve Snyder the attorney who put together all of the documents for the homeowners association. As you can see, what We're really asking for, and I'll get down to the basics, there's an existing residential development that we had approved and we had it brought into the City of South Bend. This property was originally in St..1oe County under the R residential. Last year we came through an annexation and a rezoning procedure and rezoned it to the MF1 district for single family attached villas. At the time Oul' petltlOllel' W1S Mr. John Roy. Mr. Joht1 Roy has since sold that property to Willis Street Townhomes LLC. When Mr. Carney decided to this particular development instead of doing rental units on this property they would like to sell the units fee simple to their contingent purchasers. What they have found from a marketing standpoint is that by selling fee simple on a piece of property it is easier for a client to obtain a mortgage than going through the condominium through the state of Indiana. So the reason that We're asking for a lot of the variances you see here this afternoon is the ability to basically split property lines down party walls between the single family attached Townhomes units. The petitioner has had a lot of experience doing this. We did a similar project for them in the Town of Roseland which is called Dublin Village. And that particular one we had a several acre tract of grotuld and we had approximately I believe 55 to 60 units. We went through the Town of Roseland and did exactly the same thing you see here Where they split off each of the units and sold them as a fee simple on a legal lot of record. Because of the way the Town of Roseland was set up we did not need several variances that you see here. Basically we were able to get approval with the zoning and then go back and do a subdivision plat. So it was a little simpler there. But because of the way the ordinance is written for the City of South Bend though, even though I'm going to be doing single family and are under the MFl district in order to have a single family unit in the MF1 district I'm required to come before this Board for a recommendation for obviously favorable approval to have a single family dwelling unit under the MF 1 district. That's one of the Special Exceptions that we're asking this Board to grant us. The other Special Exception is because of the way the development was done we provided additional parking on the site for visitor parking, obviously for the townhome development. Again because the way the ordinance is described I have to ask for a Special Exception for off site par(<ing. We Will be putting that parking on what you see as Parcel I on this c}evelopment. The units themselves will be the Parcel A through H. The wrap around parcel to the north and to the east of the buildings will be outlot A. Homeowners association is a very detailed anti Don had received a copy from the petitioners attorney on how that will specifically be }aid out to basically address Don's concerns on the conunoll ownership areas. The documents, or the homeowners association will continue to have ownership of the visitor parking area. Access into this particular site and they will also own that outlot A which is that perimeter landscape area along the north and east boundary of the property. Area Plan had a concern that because those particular parcels were not going to Ue attached to the single family units that they could potentially come up for a tax sale and they would be removed from this and the county would get them back through a tax sale. Because of the way the documents are written and obviously for parcel I because it has the direct access to Willis Street that will not happen. outlot A because it 16