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River to be the governing width as it is the limiting factor. I would compare it to what the <br />state is going through with replacing culverts for fish passage. Many of the culverts <br />being replaced are upstream culverts, which are nonfunctional until the downstream <br />culverts are replaced. If the downstream culverts (standard width and grade) cannot be <br />(in our case), or are not replaced, upgrading the upstream culverts (width and grade) <br />does not accomplish when the downstream limiting factors remain. <br />We are requesting the variance because the driveway has Limiting factors that don't <br />meet the minimum width and maximum grade standards, and those limiting factors - <br />the bridge and the steep portions of the DNR constructed road on the original easement <br />across DNR lands cannot practically be mitigated bythe landowner -as stated earlier, <br />rebuilding a DNR road on DNR property and particularly building a new wider bridge <br />over the West Fork Teanaway River and widening the remainder of the road crossing <br />DNR property from the bridge would be extremely difficult, combined with widening the <br />remainder of the 3/4 mile driveway across multiple property owners in some heavily <br />wooded area is not practical or useful given the "downstream" limiting factors. <br />4. Proposed Mitigation for requested variance <br />We have already taken two mitigation efforts to mitigate fire risk and access. First, we <br />have completed two rounds of Firewising fuel reductions on the properties, completing <br />approximately 35 - 37 acres of the total 40 acres of our property- with strong support of <br />DNR given that the Teanaway Community Forest is adjacent to our property on two <br />sides). Specific to the second round, I specified as a priority to target the uphill side of <br />the Last stretch of road leading to the building site. It is relatively steep on the uphill side <br />(the first round had firewised up to the road on the downhill side) and more difficult and <br />expensive terrain to firewise, but I felt it was important to mitigate the risk on both sides <br />of the road to allow reduced fire risk on our exit road. <br />Second, as mentioned earlier, those last 150' or so of driveway (previously used as a <br />logging road as evidenced by lidar data) leading up to the building site is "stairstepped". <br />The second "step" was steep enough that, when we cleared it and after we laid the first <br />Layers of gravel, I instructed the dirt contractor to "shave" the top step and push the dirt <br />to the base of the "step", thus lessening the grade. Nonetheless, prior to lessening the <br />grade a fully loaded 8 yd dump truck had made the grade to deliver several full loads of <br />gravel to the site. <br />3 <br />