Cordova Planning Commission grants 3-foot setback variance for downtown rebuild

Applicant Cecilia Stack may rebuild a single-family home 3 feet from the front lot line, with no off-street parking, after the Cordova Planning Commission granted a variance Monday.

The commission approved the request without opposition. It covers the east 25 feet of the west half of Lot 17, Block 15, in the original townsite. Along with the reduced front yard setback, the variance waives the off-street parking requirement and allows stairs at a zero-lot-line setback on the front and west side lot lines. The motion also adopted the findings and conditions in the staff report.

City code otherwise requires two off-street parking spaces for each residential dwelling unit. Cordova defines a variance as a waiver of a setback or height limit that lets an owner build closer to a property line than the code allows.

A commissioner moved for approval. He said the new house would stand where the old building stands now. He said the lot does not meet the minimum building size for its residential zoning, so any owner there would need relief. He said the commission had granted variances on the lots to the east and to the west during his service.

"I agree. I just think it's a good use of the existing space with the new, new structures," Commissioner Mark Hall said.

The chair called the parcel one of the historic substandard lots downtown. "So we're stuck with it. Well, this is the best use of it," he said.

No one testified at the public hearing held before the vote. The commission recessed several minutes to wait for comment and found no one present or online.

Anchorage's Downtown Comprehensive Plan, prepared by that city's planning department and its consultants, calls for buildings to keep a close relationship to the street with "setbacks no wider than necessary to accommodate sidewalk widths." That guidance points toward zoning changes rather than case-by-case relief where constraints such as Cordova's substandard downtown lots recur.

Under city rules, all work tied to an approved variance must be finished within six months. Any extension requires the commission's approval.