Single Lot with Two Houses Subdivision Ordinance Variance Request

[Kevin Grasse]

Hello and thanks for giving my long and weird question a look, any thoughts or experiences would be much appreciated!

About:

So, I've found an interesting property for sale that has some special issues regarding subdivision ordinances. The seller's listing says that there are two single family homes on one "tax key" (property?) and that the city will NOT allow for separation of the lot into two separate properties. After researching a bit into local subdivision ordinances, I've found that the likely reason the city will not allow the separation is due to either minimum lot size and/or minimum frontage distance on a public street. In both cases, the subdividing will create properties less than the minimum requirements. However, the city has a "Subdivision Ordinance Variance Request", that in my understanding, may allow for the property to be subdivided into two. 

Main Question: How would you recommend asking the property owner if they've gone through the "Subdivision Ordinance Variance Request"?

Additional Questions: Has anyone had success with requesting this type of variance? This situation seems a lot more of in the favor of the property owner rather than a situation where a property owner is trying to apply for multifamily zoning on a single family zoned property.

Thanks again if you made it all the way through. This is my first post and I'm excited to become more involved in the community

Best,

Kevin

[Geordy Rostad]

@Kevin Grasse

How far below minimum-sized lots would be created? In my experience, cities are very unlikely to approve a variance like this.

Around here, if you petition for such a variance, they will have you post a sign in the yard stating what you're trying to do for 3-6 months. They will invite all the neighbors to a hearing about it and if there are any objections, they will deny your variance.

An alternative to this that I have commonly seen is condominiumization where the land the home on is declared common to the association you create and then each house is deeded separately. It's a bit of work but probably MUCH less than the variance you are considering.