E-3 C15-2022-0047 PRESENTATION — original pdf

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Presentation First, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to present my case to you today In October 2018, My wife and I purchased the property located at 4522 Caswell with the expectations that when I retired, we would move to Austin. I needed an office where I could continue to wrap up my practice. The obvious choice was to transform the garage into a space that would be comfortable, away from the house, with good internet. We hired Christian Gutierrez and his company to act as General Contractor for the project. Our proposed plans to renovate the existing garage into a secondary dwelling have been denied permit approval due to a hardship created by two conflicting code restrictions, those specific code sections are referenced in our variance request application. On one side we were told that we could not move the structure closer to the existing protected trees because doing so would affect them and thus would deny our permit request. Its worth mentioning that leaving the structure where it is would grant us Tree Ordinance approval as it has been stated by the city Arborist upon inspection. On the other side we were told that we are encroaching over the rear yard setback restrictions and would have to move the structure outside the setback restriction to comply so we can be granted our permit request. As you can see, these two code regulations conflict with each other. So we move one way, we are denied a permit from Tree Ordinance. If we move the other direction, we are denied approval from Zoning Department. We are not here to change the complexion of Hyde Park nor the character of our neighborhood. On the contrary, the proposed structure is designed in a way to preserve its architectural historic features an values consistent with our house and with the houses in the area. Our house is a beautiful old 1930s Craftsman Home and we would love to preserve that as much as possible. We are asking this Board for a variance to the regulations that have created a hardship due to the conflicting set of rules. We ask that we be issued a permit that allows us build 3 feet into the setoff restriction zone. Thank you for your time E-3/1-PRESENTATION