3A Public Hearing 2007 0904 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Excerpt of the Minutes of the Regular Meetingfor the City Of San Leandro Board of Zoning Adjustments January 18, 2007 Item 6: Public Hearing (a) Matter of PLN2006-00043; Proposed residential project with 24 modular- construction townhouses at 15101 Washington Avenue. Proposed amenities include a private roadway, an internal courtyard area, a two-car tandem garage for each unit in an underground structure, and 10 surface guest parking spaces on the rear portion of the site. The site is zoned RM-1800 Residential Multi-Family Zoning District. The applicant would be seeking a Variance for a reduced front setback (10 feet where 15 feet is required in the RM-1800 District), a Variance for reduced front setback (10 feet where 15 feet is required in the RM-1800 District); a Variance for the required rear landscape area (less than the required five-foot width planting area within the interior yards); a Parking Exception for the tandem garages; and a Site Plan Review for the design of the site and structures. Assessor's Parcel Number 80H-1515-008-02, 15101 Washington Avenue; 15101 Washington Ave, LLC (applicant and property owner). [Sally Barros] Planner Barros recalled that the BZA had received a much more detailed work session in November and she would summarize what had been presented. The work session minutes were included in the Board Members' packets. The project architect would show some internal views of the townhomes, because Board Members had expressed concerns about how natural light would enter each unit. The site had originally been occupied by a mobile home park (with illegal units that had exceeded the legal units) and a bar. The license for the mobile home park was revoked by the State in 2003 and the applicant had helped to relocate all of the residents and had started the site cleanup. Demolition was awaiting approval of the project. She displayed a vicinity map, site plan and photos that showed the proposed project and the surrounding neighborhood, which included the Greenhouse Market commercial area, a two-story, 3D-unit apartment building and single family homes. The project had been shifted within the site to reduce the amount of requested variances, which eliminated the variances for the side landscaping. The project would consist of 24 two-story units; each consisting of l,285 square feet of livable area; two bedrooms and two bathrooms per unit; partially submerged garage with individual tandem two-car garage spaces; private patio area; and elevated, common courtyard between the two rows of townhomes. Variances requested were for the ten-foot front yard, as 15 feet were required and the rear landscape area that ranged from three feet, eight inches to eight feet, as five feet was required. However, it would meet the spirit of the landscaping requirements. A parking exception was requested for the tandem parking. The property was, essentially, shaped like a parallelogram, which was the reason for siting the project slightly askew and the reason for the request for the variances. The driveway into the garage would provide two-way ingress and egress. Guest parking would be in the rear and emergency access would be on the other side of the garage. The garages would include storage areas for each unit. Front stairs would be parallel to the