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the eastern border of the development property. As part of the office building development, the applicant will be constructing a parking lot. Along 140~' Avenue, the parking lot will be as close as 10 feet to the edge of the right-of-way. Code requires that only green space can occupy the first twenty feet into the development property when along a public road. The applicant has attempted to fit the required parking so it would not encroach into the required green space, but has been unable to meet both the parking requirements and the green space requirement. The applicant states that the fact that the lot is surrounded on three sides by public streets and the size of the lot does not give them many options and thus causes a hardship. The parking lot will be no closer than 24 feet to the back of curb of 140t~ Avenue. The developer also is unable to meet 40-foot landscape buffer requirement on the eastern property line. Once again, the fact that the property is surrounded on three sides by public roads limits where parking can located. Therefore, the only place to locate the majority of the parking on the development property is on the eastern portion where the 40-foot buffer is required. In an effort to mitigate the lack of the 40 -foot buffer, the applicant is placing landscaping along the western 20 feet of his property. The nearest residential unit on the adjacent eastern property is over 100 feet from the property line of the proposed office building lot. This area between the eastern property line of the commercial lot and the residential unit is held in common ownership by the Mallard Ponds Homeowners Association and will not be developed with any residential units. In addition, the applicant has been in contact with the Homeowners Association of Mallard Ponds regarding the installation of additional landscaping on the townhome portion of the Mallard Ponds development. It is City Staff's understanding that the Mallard Ponds Homeowners Association has indicated that they wish to choose the landscaping type and quantity that will be installed at the applicant's expense to serve as the landscaped buffer area. The applicant has revised the site plan several times as a result of staff input regarding the best layout given the constraints of the site. Staff feels that it is important to provide enough parking for the proposed office building. Staff also feels that given the fact that the lot is surrounded on three sides by public roads causes a hardship in meeting all of the requirements under City Code and recommends that a variance to the 20-foot greenspace requirement and 40-foot landscape buffer be granted. City Staff recommends approval of the variance application. Principal Planner Trudgeon stated that the City has received a letter from Randy Backous outlining problems with the first Mallard Ponds subdivision and requesting that the variance not be granted until these issues are resolved. Chairperson Nixt asked why they would be approving this if there were additional conditions that needed to be met with the first plat. Principal Planner Trudgeon stated City Engineer Jankowski could discuss this. City Engineer Jankowski stated the items mentioned in the letter were not in the final approved plans and that there were a lot of different options considered at the time of Mallard Ponds approval. Board of Adjustment/October 10, 2002 Page 2 of 6