Planning Commission Minutes 2016 04 14

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes April 14, 2016 Page 17 of 19 Trice says it does hurt the people who are following the rules. Brauneis says it gives them the opportunity to move it because they are not on a permanent foundation anyway. Moline asks how did Staff come up with the 3'. Trice says 3' would allow for the separation between two buildings. If there were two sheds on adjacent properties, it would allow for the building separation that is required in the building code. Public Comment: Tom Davinroy, 518 W. Sycamore Circle, Louisville, CO I live on a property that is on the northwest corner of the Warembourg Open Space. I am strongly opposed to changing the ordinance. It might make sense in the more tightly packed residential area or here in Old Town where there are smaller properties. The generating event that brought this to my attention was someone put a shed up along the Warembourg Open Space. It is within their property but it is clearly within 3' of their property line. It makes for a tremendous visual impact and obstruction to open space and parks properties in the City if people are allowed to do that. 120 square feet does not account for any height or length. 120 square feet could be 30' long and 4' wide and 16' tall. This is not addressed by the City Code. I think that if the setbacks do need to be addressed, then it has to be done in much more thoughtful manner with location of where it might be applied, the height of the shed, and protecting view sheds of the neighbors, whether that be for in a residential area, parks, open space, playgrounds, and school properties. Existing view sheds are pretty important for home values and people's quality of life. Another thing is this violates a visual amenity in that a 10' shed only 3' from a property line has a very steep visual angle from up on the property line. If you maintain a 10' setback with a 10' tall average shed, that is about a 45 degree angle. That is what our mountains are typically. It is a natural angle and it appeals to the eye. Many of my neighbors along Sycamore Circle are also vigorously opposed to changing the setback and would like to have our neighbors adhere to the current setback rules. Michael Menaker, 1827 West Choke Cherry Drive, Louisville, CO I too am strongly opposed to this change. This violates the "one man's ceiling is another man's floor" school of good neighbors. A 120 square foot shed which is 50% bigger than we allow in my HOA with no height restrictions is a pretty big structure when it is in your face. It is intrusive. It is unfair. The intent of this ordinance change seems to reward bad behavior. In terms of the question, has anybody ever complained and has anything ever been done, in our subdivision we had a guy who actually poured a concrete pad in the dark. I was on the Architectural Review Committee at the time and the neighbor called me and asked, "what can we do?" I called City Hall and talked to the Building Department and they said, "Let's see if they pulled a permit." They did not pull a permit. The City came out and the guy had to jackhammer out the concrete and the neighbor's privacy was preserved. When you put a 120 square foot shed which is a big Tuff shed that close to somebody else's property, it is no longer about the property rights of the guy with the shed. It is about the property rights of the neighbor. This is bad policy. What I would encourage instead is an informational flyer that went out and encouraged people that if they had a problem, let the City know and ask for help. To institutionalize bad behavior and guerilla warfare of neighbors, hoping that they are going to mau-mau somebody and not going to complain because they don't want to go to that step, I think this is wrong. I see no reason to change it and think it is a bad idea. All of those comments are multiplied when it's a jungle gym or a play set, one of those things that has lots of screaming little kids 3' from someone else's property line. We had one clearly pop in the back of my neighbor's back yard so we talked about it before they put it up. I was glad to see that kid get off the jungle gym and into a car. If it was 3' from my property line, we would have had another conversation. Think about the rights of the neighbors in these cases. My view is this really infringes on good neighborly behavior and institutionalizes bad behavior.