Agenda - Planning Commission - 01/05/2017

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Vistas at North Commons The property is u shaped and has road frontage on all sides. It was originally proposed as multi story condominiums which would be more facing traditional single family homes. The lots are shallow and backyards space is minimal and is facing roadways. Our proposal is to design and build one story homes that would utilize the property to continue a single family home neighborhood. The homes would be of a "rambler" design and would incorporate walk out basements, look out basements and one level with no basements. All the homes would have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room and laundry on one level. The homes will have an attached two car garage and a front porch to comply with the existing neighborhood and the architectural requirements of the area. Our overall design goal is to produce a product that is essential today to meet the changing residential real estate needs. The property, Outlot A Ramsey Town Center 81h Addn. as part of the prior city approvals and approved construction plans for 147th Terrace,this street right-of-way was platted and constructed with a 50' right-of-way section. The existing street was offset from the center line with a sidewalk planned for the north side only.The original layout for condo buildings did not have a front sidewalk. The reaulting separation from back of curb to the right-of-way on the south side is less than 5', which does not leave enough room to provide a side walk within the right-of-way. Placement of a sidewalk outside of the right-of-way and within the private lot areas is not a viable alternative, as there wouldn't be sufficient room for driveway parking without blocking the sidewalk, and conflicts would arise with the in-place small utilities. Given the existing shallow lot depths,there is no viable option for providing a sidewalk in the front yard without rendering the home sites being unbuildable. It has been suggested looking into stairs from the rear walking trail to try to comply with the sidewalk approach, however that is not feasible or desirable from our perspective. The rear of the homes will be full walkouts and lookouts. Any rear stairs would be leading directly to the basement levels of the walkout homes. Pedestrians would have to enter to the home's main levels via stairs to a deck,which is awkward. We feel there are significant security and privacy with having direct pedestrian from a private home to a public trail. As such, no sidewalk connections are planned out to the public trail. Bill Gleason