City Variance #1218 – 2252 George Street – Lot Coverage - A variance from 27-308 requiring a maximum lot coverage of 30% to allow a maximum lot coverage of 39% for the construction of a new 864 square foot detached garage in a Residential 7,000 (R-70) zoning district on Lot 4, Valley View Acres Subdivision, a 7,922 square foot parcel of land. Tax ID: C09350.
 

Staff recommends conditional approval of the variance.     
 

OWNER: Daniel and Georgia Naasz
AGENT: None
LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Lot 4, Valley View Acres Subdivision
ADDRESS: 2252 George Street
CURRENT ZONING: Residential 7000
EXISTING LAND USE: Single Family Residential
PROPOSED USE: Single Family Residential
SIZE OF PARCEL: 7,922 square feet

None

Surrounding Property
City Variance #734 – 2227 George Street – Conditionally Approved June-04-1996 - A variance to allow construction of a duplex in an R-70 Zone on Lots 12-17, Block 5, Briggs Subdivision.
 
City Variance #1015 – 230 South Santa Fe – Conditionally Approved September 5, 2007 - A variance from Section 27-308 requiring a maximum lot coverage of 30% to allow a maximum lot coverage of 34%, Section 27-308 requiring a minimum 20 foot rear yard setback to allow a 1 foot rear yard setback and Section 27-308 requiring a minimum 5 foot side yard setback to allow a 3.5 foot side yard setback for an addition to an existing home.  On a 7,480 square foot parcel of land zoned Residential 7,000 (R-70) on Lot 23, Block 8 of Central Heights Subdivision, 4^th Filing.
 
City Variance #1015 – 2215 Monad Road – Conditionally Approved August 3, 2011 –
A variance from Section 27-308 requiring a minimum lot area of 10,000 square feet for an existing 4-plex to allow a lot area of 7,422 square feet in a Residential Multi-family-Restricted (RMF-R) zone on Lot 22, Block 14, Central Heights Subdivision 5^th Filing.
 
City Variance #1157 – 2215 George Street - Conditionally Approved July 10, 2013 - A variance from 27-308 requiring a maximum lot coverage of 30% to allow a maximum lot coverage of 38% for the purpose of constructing a new detached garage (400 sf) and a new attached sunroom (337 sf) in an R-7000 zone on a 7,688 square foot parcel of land. The property is described as Lot 24A, Block 5, Briggs Subdivision 2^nd Filing.
 

NORTH:	Zoning: Residential Multi-Family Restricted Land Use: Multi-family dwellings
SOUTH:	Zoning: Residential 7000 (R-70) Land Use: Single Family Residential
EAST:	Zoning: R-70 Land Use: Single Family / Multi-Family
WEST:	Zoning: R-70 Land Use: Multi-Family dwellings

This area of Billings has a variety of housing types including single family, duplexes, and multi-family structures. The property is also close to the 24^th Street West business corridor, and the King Avenue West business area.  It is close to roads with high traffic use, Monad, 19^th Street West and South 24^th Street West. This part of the neighborhood has quite a few multi-family buildings and some of them have a very high lot coverage allowance.  There are other single family properties in the area that have detached garages off the alley as do several of the apartment buildings.  After a drive through the neighborhood to see what types of attached and detached structures there are on surrounding properties, it was observed that several homes have detached garages, covered patios, and sheds in the back yard.  In some cases, the property had all of the above amenities in the backyard.  Although planning has only one variance on record on George Street requesting lot coverage increases, it appears that several neighboring properties may have exceeded lot coverage requirements without receiving variances.
 
Planning staff has reviewed this application and is forwarding a recommendation of conditional approval for the variance based on the determinations for review provided within this report. 
 

Staff recommends Conditional Approval.