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• When the auto mall was proposed before the Planning Commission and City <br /> Council the project consisted of one parcel. Elk River Auto Mall LLC is now <br /> requesting to divide .85 acres off the south end of the project allowing the <br /> southerly free standing building along with its required parking to be sold <br /> separately. A variance of.15 acres from the minimum lot size of one acre is <br /> necessary in order to accomplish the proposed subdivision and transfer of the <br /> southerly portion of the existing auto mall. <br /> Minimum Lot Size <br /> As mentioned above the minimum lot size in the C3 (Highway Commercial) <br /> zoning district is one acre in lot area and 100 feet in width. The existing auto <br /> mall has a lot area of 3.76 acres at the present time. The proposed <br /> administrative subdivision would divide this acreage into a 2.91 acre site and <br /> a .85 acre site. Given the amount of total acreage, it is obvious that two <br /> parcels which meet the city's one acre minimum could be accomplished. <br /> However, each parcel also has to be able to stand on its own by providing its <br /> required parking on the given parcel. Therefore, due to the distribution of <br /> parking on the auto mall complex, in order to subdivide off the southerly <br /> building and allow each parcel to have enough required parking on each <br /> • parcel, the maximum size of the southerly parcel turns out to be .85 acres. <br /> It is also worth mentioning that because Carson Street is a private road, <br /> none of the businesses along this street meet the minimum lot width <br /> requirements. The ordinance states that the 100 foot lot width requirement <br /> must front onto a public street, which the auto mall does not meet. However, <br /> the City Council has approved a private roadway agreement for all the <br /> businesses along Carson Street which has allowed the subdivision of these <br /> lots to occur in the past avoiding the need to meet lot frontage requirements. <br /> Variance <br /> Subdivisions of this nature have occurred in other commercial and office <br /> building developments. The common characteristic in all of those <br /> subdivisions is that each of the lots have been a part of either a commercial <br /> PUD or a common development such as the Freeport Financial Center. The <br /> requested variance by the Elk River Auto Mall LLC fits within these <br /> perimeters in that it is a unified auto mall development and the subdivision <br /> is merely necessary to convey separate ownership of a portion of the auto <br /> mall. <br /> • <br />