Odd Zoning on Foreclosure - Townhouse?

[Grant Hollingsworth]

Hello all, 

First post here. I am looking at a foreclosure property for purchase. The entire neighborhood is zoned as a Townhouse district but as you can see in the photos below, there is a mixture of single-family dwelling properties (regular houses) and townhouses in this neighborhood. Even more interesting is the "connector" between the property I am interested in and the neighboring dwelling. 

What is the purpose of this connector? My initial thought was this could be a compromise on the builder's part so that it may be classified as a multi-family dwelling. But now that I am seeing free-standing structures in the same neighborhood, I am not so convinced. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the plat for this property is split between the two structures, so they ARE considered separate lots of land.

Any thoughts as to why this connector is present? Thanks in advance.

-Grant H.

Photo showing small gap between dwellings

Photo showing the "connector" inside this small gap between the dwellings

Blue outline: Townhomes/condo style dwellings.

Orange outline: Completely separate single-family dwellings

Red outline: Two properties pictured in the first photo above