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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report STAFF REPORT REQUEST: Appeal to Section K(2)(c) of the Driveway Access Location and Design Policy stating that one curb cut shall be allowed to single family and duplex residential tracts. APPLICANT: Mike and Pat Smith, 3501 Old Oaks, Bryan, TX 77802 LOCATION: Lot 7, Block A of the Devonshire Subdivision ZONING AND LAND USE Subject Tract: North: East: South: West: R-l, Single Family Developing R -1, Single Family Developing R-l, Single FamilyDeveloping R-l, Vacant R-l, Vacant POLICY STATEMENT K(2) Location of Driveway Access. (c) One curb cutshall be allowed for access to single family and duplex tracts. More than one curb cut may be allowed upon approval by the City Engineer or is designee. STAFF COMMENTS The applicants are in the process of building a house on a lot in the Devonshire Subdivision which has double frontage. The home will front on Shire Drive and their back yard, the rear of the property, will front on N. Graham Road. The primary access to their. garage will be from Shire Drive. The applicants are requesting a secondary access off ofN. Graham Road to their back yard. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends denial of the request due to the following considerations: 1. Setting a precedent. While one residential drivdway on to N. Graham will obviously not create a traffic problem, by approving this request the City is in effect approving curb cuts for the other 26 potential single family lots on the Edelweiss Master Development Plan that will have rear or side yard frontage on to N. Graham Road. If the City approves this request, it has set a precedent and in order to apply the ordinance consistently and equitably would have to approve any future requests for access on to N. Graham Road. 2. Not the intended function of N. Graham Road. Despite the plan to close off N. Graham Road from Wellbom Road, it will still serve as a collector street as per the Master Development Plan for Edelweiss Estates. It is standard planning practice for residential access to betaken from the lesser street, in this case Shire Drive. Under the worst case scenario, if all of the 27 residential lots did take access from N. Graham, it would not serve its intended function as a collector street. 3. No unnecessary hardship. By ordinance, the P&Z may authorize a variance to the driveway ordinance when...it will not be contrary to the public interest...and, a strict enforcement of the ordinance would result in an unnecessary hardship. It is staff's contention that denying a secondary access would not result in an unnecessary hardship and tllat approving the variance could be contrary to public interest due to the potential for numerous other curb cuts on to N.Graham Road.