Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

Everybody will please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everybody. Uh next item business is a forum [snorts] and we have the full board here tonight. So that's taken care of. Next item is to approve the minutes from last uh month's meeting from 917B. Uh has everybody had a chance to review the minutes as presented? Yes. Are there any changes? At this time, I'd entertain a motion to approve as presented.

So moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you very much. [snorts] Uh next item of business is to uh swear in anybody that plans on speaking at tonight's meeting. plan on speaking at tonight's meeting. Would you please stand? Soul man, you raise your right hand, please. You swear that the testimony you give here this evening is the whole truth. So, help you go. I do. Thank you. You [snorts] may be seated.

We have uh two two items of business tonight. The first one is a public hearing a development interference to allow driveway with 28 ft at the rideway not including the apron section 4.04. 04 point D.1 point C driveway standard for resident uses the planned unit develop zoning district are proper located at 179 at road.

Uh yes as you stated this is for a development standards variance. Uh they are asking for 28 foot wide uh driveway. Uh the previous ordinance allowed 24 feet. Uh the uh UDO that we adopted a year ago uh has limited it to 20 feet. Petitioner is in the audience. Um if you'd like for him to come up and explain his reasoning for the request. Okay. You come forward, please.

Good evening. First of all, I've never done anything like this before, so extremely nervous. Um you'll be fine. Second, I want to thank uh Lisa for helping me go through all this whole process because like I said, I don't I have no idea what I was doing and she walked me through this whole process. So, um I guess you guys were just wanting to know why we're requesting this variance. Um my uh mother-in-law uh is in a wheelchair and she only has one leg. And the purpose of us buying this home was to um make it easier living for her uh compared to our previous home. Um the driveway currently uh the driveways over there have a curvature on the inside portion of the driveway and that curvature goes towards the sidewalk that leads into uh the front door. Um, when we first moved in there, we were told by Dr. Horton that there wouldn't be no problem for us extending the driveway to the third drive, our third garage. Um, that would make it easier for her to get in and out, especially throughout the winter. Um, the issue that we have currently is in order for her to get in and out, have the door swing wide enough without her going into the grass or into the vehicle next to us. is it has to be at an angle um on that curvature and that makes it so we can't have as much parking in our driveway. So if we have any kind of events or anything like my son's birthday party this past weekend um the vehicles that all are trying to park there have to park on the road. Um that's not very convenient for a lot of the other people that don't want to walk as far or emergency vehicles that have

to drive through. It just clutters the whole entire road. We're only asking for like the driveway is 16 feet. We're just asking for the extension to that third uh where that curvature starts just all the way straight down to the right way, which is the street. Um this will definitely make it easier for us to get her in and out. All right. So, that's our house here. Uh, unfortunately, uh, you know, when we bought this house, there was nobody in these. There are two houses that were built there now. So, um, you know, when we had people around this edge, uh, you know, that wasn't that bad. Um, but now that we've got homes here, they park on the streets sometimes, but this particular uh driveway, we just want to extend this portion out uh straight to the street. Um, then we can technically fit three cars on our driveway. We could even go two deep at that point um to fit six really. And then we'd have less cars on the street. Um, all of her family, my wife's family is all from out of town. So, anytime we have some kind of special event, they're all staying there. Um, so I think that's about it in a nutshell.

So, you want to come straight out and eliminate the curve and then go back to the apron will also be extended. Right. Yeah. So, the whole thing will be like three cars wide coming straight out. Correct. Okay.

According to the the current rules and regulations, we could actually drive do the driveway out to the sidewalk, but then you're going to have about four or five feet of grass. So, like when you drive up then it's going to get, you know, all muddy and we just realistically if you include the apron, it's about the the width of the apron. If that could just be extended out straight to the road, we it cover the the rest of that drive. Um, if you go back, there was there's it actually showed the uh I'm going to move over here if you don't mind. I'm shaking too shaky for that laser. But

so you're just come this driveway. This is where the curvature is and it would just come straight out. And then this is the sidewalk and [laughter] it's going to come straight out. Then you just have this little triangle for the apron which would match the same width of the apron here. And like I said, then we would just be able to have three vehicles on the driveway and probably even have uh some other vehicles behind them because we can push them all the way up. Right now she we have to angle this in order to be able to get her in and out of the vehicle and then around the sidewalk to the porch. So that's that's all we we're asking to do.

Just point of clarification that [clears throat] width um that minimum is or or maximum is at the right of way. So anything on their property they can make as wide as they want but the the concern is they they need it to go out into the right and right away back at the sidewalk. Correct. That's correct. Are you okay if someone makes a motion with the conditions that the town is still in about the constructibility at the bottom of it? Um, can you explain what you mean? U Lisa, would you want to cover? Yeah, I can explain.

Lisa put at the bottom of recommendations there's four items about constructing this. Is that concerning the depth and everything? Yeah. Um we were told that we'd have to match the depth of the sidewalk and and all that and we're we'll cover whatever the costs are for doing that. Um we actually the people we applied for the permit for or I mean I'm sorry um the quote for specified that in in their quote. So you have questions?

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. At this time I'll open up to public for any public comments. Is there any public members here for any discussion? I do have a question for Lisa where it says all joints must be movement. What is that? So at where where there's a joint they need it needs to be pinned. Usually they have that uh little fabric or whatever it is the seam. Yeah,

right. Yeah. To keep it for the expansion during cold weather. Does the sidewalk have to be if there if he's adding onto the sidewalk? Yes, that would he is. So yes, that would apply to that. So it was where the new sidewalk meets up to the old sidewalk that you want to do.

Yes. And just one other thing, we will probably be bringing this or taking this um to the plan commission for an amendment to the ordinance to change that that 20 foot rule because it really doesn't accommodate driveways that are for three car garages. So, we will be increasing it.

Any other questions? I move that [music] we approve um excuse me the development standard variance for the property at 179 avail with the following conditions. that any portion of the driveway within the rightway must be constructed with a minimum six in of concrete. Number two, all pull joints must be [snorts] prevent. Number three, the existing sidewalk must be cut at the nearest control joint to connection for sidewalk. Number four, the sidewalk and driveway subra must consist of compacted number 53 stone or self compacting granular film compacted to 95%. [snorts] [snorts] This petition has satisfy the requirements for variances under state law for the following reasons. The approval will not be injurious to the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the community for the reasons stated in the staff report. The use and value of the area adjacent to the property included in the variance will not be affected in a substantially adverse manner for the reasons stated in the staff report and [snorts] the strict application of the terms of the zoning ordinance will result in practical difficulties in the use of the property for the reasons stated in the staff report.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. If you would please I I It is therefore the decision of this body that this variance petition was approved subject to condition made part of the adopted motion as presented. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Can I say something before we go to the next case? And this seems like the second meeting we've had where the developer has told property owners that they can do things that are not allowed. And uh there in looking at this one, there was seven driveways out there that have already been done in one of these sections out there what they requested. And it seems like can we can a town write a letter to these developers that they need to specify what's allowed and not allowed because this is a second person used second case we've had the property owner tell us they've been told they can do stuff that we have not been able to do. So that kind of bothers me.

Okay. I'm going to I'll say something and then you can check. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So these subdivisions are planned developments and they have their own set of standards. Now, if there is a standard that they are not addressing in their PUD ordinance, they generally will say that it falls back on the town's ordinance. And I'm very positive that there was nothing in the PUD that said they were limited to 24 feet or at the time that those driveways were built, we were probably under another under the the previous zoning ordinance. I don't know that there's any reason that we cannot contact them and just forgive them.

I mean, I'm asking if it needs to be done. You know what I'm saying? Because this just bothers me. This is twice that we've had property owners come before us and said that they've been told they can do something and they got in trouble. But I think there's a difference between the two that have come in front of me. I think today's was more of a timing issue because you had a former UDO that had a wider um allowance for driveways which when the PUD was put into place that developer probably write that UDO and say okay yes this is allowable for you to go a little bit larger. The one that we had last time was an issue because it's clear within the PUD itself it said that there will be no fences in that easement that drainage line. Yeah, the guy who put the PUB in place and said there wouldn't be fences was the one telling everybody, "Oh yeah, you can go ahead and put fences in there." So,

but in this case out there, even at the old 24T, these are 26 to 28 ft. So, they they even went beyond what was previously allowed. In the end, it's the homeowner's responsibility to check out the ordinances and make sure what they're doing is allowed. Okay. Well, I just feel bad for these property owners. Yeah. And there's nothing that would prevent us from reaching out and doing something. Um, you know, and I think it's something that we stress whenever somebody comes in for a community on a new development that they're going to take, you know, x number of acres and turn it into subdivision and say, "Okay, that's your PUD, but make sure that everything else implies it."

Well, I appreciate it. I just do what he thinks best. I It's just that it lasts, you know, back to back just kind of bothered me a little bit. Well, understood. So, that was I didn't talk about board members. I don't know what the other board members opinions are and stuff like that. That's just my personal opinion. I would anybody else on the board like to make any comments? I agree with you. It can be frustrating. It's frustrating for homeowners also because I mean they're the ones that's having to deal with going back and forth. So, I I understand. If you don't mind, I'd like to share what my experience was with this whole process. Um, sorry.

So, when we when we purchased this home, you know, this is a fast fast process. You know, this is not something we have a whole lot of time to figure a lot of things out. You know, they they took, you know, this is a you're getting an awesome deal. You got to hurry up and take action and you're trying to sell your house. You're trying to figure out how you're going to move everything. It's a very fast process. So you're relying on salesperson to be the knowledgeable people on what these neighborhoods can and can't do and the sales people are probably trying to just get their sale. Um so in our situation too unfortunately ours had co um I still have yet to meet my salesperson uh on that whole process. So I'm relying on my realer to tell me what I can and can't do and then they talk to the HOA. So I I'm in agreeance with you that maybe somebody needs to say something to them, but the people when we apply, we apply to the HOA for the first like before we even get the permit. We got to make sure the HOA even approves it. So the HOA also needs to be knowledgeable because we actually got approved to do this by the HOA and then went and got a quote and then had to get the permit as part of that. So, I'm I'm in an agreeance with you that maybe someone needs to tell them we've got probably six homes over there that have these third driveways already built. I'm probably the only one who tried to do it the right way. You know, everybody else just didn't get a permit and just did it. Um, so,

well, maybe it's not the builder as much as homeowners association that needs to be advised. That that's that's kind of what I was saying. Maybe that's part of that. Well, it seems like that the HOAs should make that their rules align with your rules. I I agree that they don't. That No, they don't have no

Well, I I agree, Kevin. If I was in the process of building a house, wanted to do a change order for this type of work to be done, how would I know that I would have to get a variance and so forth? So there's a definitely a lack of communication between the builder and and the purchaser. We can definitely send them notice. Whatever whatever the town thinks best. I just We can do that, but I still fall back on my same comment. It it truly is the owner's responsibility because,

you know, I could go buy a house and move in there and find out I can't do something and that's not anybody's fault but my own for not doing my due diligence. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate going out of order here. We second item of business tonight is a special exception to allow homebased business and accessory building section 3.06. Homebased business and accessory building section 3.06 06 homebased business and table two permitted in special exception uses in the residential urban RU zoning district for property located at 448 South Wayne Street. Don Hawkins, I'm sorry that you had to go through and read all of that. [laughter]

They actually sent me an email withdrawing this uh this request and they may be back at a later date, but they're just not ready at this time. So, they have withdrawn. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. [laughter] [snorts] Okay. Is there any other business, Lisa? We have a meeting next month. Um, we our application deadline, I think, is this Friday. So, I don't I have not talked to anyone at this point in time. I would say no. Is there anything else for us? Nope. That's it. At this time, I entertain a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. So, move. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. Thank you very much everybody.