By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sitka Planning Commission unanimously passed a conditional use permit and a variance at their meeting Wednesday evening.
Both the conditional use permit and the variance were issued for a property at 3407 Halibut Point Road. The lot is in the R-1 MH single-family, duplex, and manufactured home district.
A single-family home currently is on the lot, but applicants Todd and Julie White plan to demolish the existing structure and build a single-family home with an accessory dwelling unit.
The conditional use permit will allow the Whites to build the accessory dwelling on the property, and the variance will decrease the property’s front and rear setbacks to 1 and 0 feet.
Planning Director Amy Ainslie said the decrease in setbacks – originally 14 and 8 feet at the front and back – should not have negative effects on other uses. The decrease in rear setback would allow for a porch to be built onto the back of the home, which will face the waterfront.
The Whites said they want to keep space at the back of the property so that heavy equipment can access and maintain drainage infrastructure and the existing seawall.
The front setback will then allow the Whites to build nearer to Halibut Point Road.
Ainslie said the reduction in the front setback will still leave space between the front of the structure and Halibut Point Road’s drivable surface, which doesn’t take up the entirety of the 45 feet of the highway right-of-way between their property line and the center line of the highway.
