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MERRIAM PARK COMMUNITY COUNCIL, INC. v. McDONOUGH Minn. 417 Cite as 210 1A\' 2d 416 Kenneth J. Fitzpatrick, City Atty., Paul low the required setback of the building F. -McCloskey, Jr., Asst. City Atty., St. from Iglehart Avenue to be reduced from Paul, for City of St. Paul. 35 feet to 16 feet; to permit the construc- tion of 32 living units instead of the 30 - Heard before KNUTSON, C. J., and unit maximum allowed on the tract under OTIS, KELLY, and GILLESPIE, JJ. "C" Residence zoning; to permit an in- crease in ground area covered by the build - PER CURIAM. ing from the 35 percent maximum permit- ted under "C"• Residence zoning to 39.7 This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court upholding .the actions of the St. Paul City Council in granting zon- ing code variances to defendant Michael J. McDonough to permit the construction of a 32 -unit apartment building. Plaintiffs, a neighborhood nonprofit corporation and in- dividuals who own property in the immedi- ate vicinity of the proposed site, brought a declaratory judgment action praying that the action of the city council in granting the variances be declared arbitrary, capri- cious, and contrary to law. The district court found in favor of de- fendants. On appeal, plaintiffs contend that defendant McDonough did not make a sufficient showing that "undue hardship," as used in Minn. St. 462.357, would result from the denial of the requested variances. In February 1969, defendant Michael J. ;McDonough had acquired a tract of ground at the southeast corner of Prior and Iglehart Avenues in the city of St. Paul in order to demolish the four existing dwellings thereon and erect a 32 -unit apartment building. The tract had a front- age of 225.2 feet on Iglehart and a depth of 141.52 feet south to the alley. The tract was zoned "B" Residence. McDonough applied for, and in March 1969, was grant- ed rezoning to "C" Residence, a classifica- tion permitting the location of a 30: unit apartment building. However, the tract was not large enough to construct a 32 -unit apartment building and leave enough room to conform with setback, buffer area, den- sity, and building coverage requirements prescribed by the St. Paul Zoning Code for a "C" Residence District. Defendant -McDonough applied in February 1969 for variances from the zoning code so as to al - 210 N.w.2d-27 percent; and to permit a reduction of re- quired side -yard clearance from 8 feet to 5 feet for the parking lot at the rear of the building. More than a year subsequent to Mc- Donough's application for variances, the city council adopted an amendment to its offstreet parking ordinance, changing the requirement for offstreet parking for mul- tiple residential dwellings from a ratio of 1 offstreet parking space for each residential unit to 1/2 offstreet parking spaces for each. Mr. McDonough then amended his application for variances to seek authoriza- tion for carrying out his original plan of furnishing only 32 offstreet parking spaces. For various reasons, none of which is chargeable to McDonough, the zoning board delayed acting upon his appli- cation for variances for another year, but in July 1971, upon the zoning board's fa- vorable recommendation, the city council granted all the variances requested, finding with respect to the setback variance that if all of the block in which the property is lo- cated had been zoned "C" Residence, the setback requirement would have been slightly over 14 feet, whereas the 35 -foot setback requirement applicable to the sub- ject tract was the result of complying with the ordinance provision which required taking the average setbacks of the homes in the block in existence at the time of the adoption of the zoning code. At the public hearings held on the question of the vari- ances, all parties participated and offered evidence. At the trial of plaintiffs' action, evidence was offered to show that defendant Mc- Donough's cost of land acquisition was ap- proximately $87,000; that without the var-