Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

recording in progress.

Everybody ready down here? Okay. Good evening everybody. Um call them call this uh February meeting of the board of zoning of appeals for Leewood to order. Can I have roll call please? Members Penn here. Dirkson here. Dunn here. Hawk here. Busing here. We have a quorum. That's great. First order of business is approval of the minutes from our last meeting. Move approval of minutes as submitted. Second. Have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I.

Opposed. Okay. Um, we have no old business. We have three new cases on the agenda. They are all exceptions. So, u for whatever that's worth. Um if there's nothing else, I'm going to call the first case. We all ready? Hey, I call case um 07-2026 3904 West 128th Street. Request for an exception for the placement of a fence on a through lot. Does staff have a report? The applicant would like to install a 6-ft wood privacy fence 12 feet from the rear property line. This will require an exception of 18 ft to build the fence as proposed.

And what are we seeing on this picture here? The dark line at the top is where the proposed fence is and there's a lighter line behind it that is the property line that backs up to 127th Street. Is there a fence located back there? Now, currently there is no fence. What are the dark lines on the other sides of the house? Is that a fence that's going to be going in? Yeah, the dark line is the proposed fence in its entirety.

I see. Okay. Any other questions from up here for staff? All right. Is the applicant here? If you'd come on up, give your name and address and present your case. I'd appreciate it. Hello. Cara Sherwood, 3904 West 128th Street in Leewood. Welcome. Thank you. You may present your case.

Um, so this one's for the setback, correct? Um, we bought this house last October, mainly for the lot. Beautiful lot, but it does back to 127th. We have a little dog who does not respond well to the invisible fencing. Um, but we also plan on putting a pool at some point, so we're going to have to get a fence anyway. Um, and we just want to get be able to um take advantage of the lot as much as we can and putting the fence where the setback is now kind of takes away from that. And also it would be like behind all the lands or in front of all this landscaping that we have back there too. So it' be hard to take care of that and maintain it as well. Do we have a picture, Ron, that shows where placement within the build line would cause require the fence to be?

Uh the 12T would be just the house side of that burm where all the landscaping and trees are currently. Yeah. It would be like almost right in front of Yeah. Like a little bit. Yeah. So it would cut off all your landscaping and put that on the outside and Yeah. Yeah. Okay. A lot of green space. Okay. All right. Anything else? Okay. Do you all have uh questions for the applicant?

Well, with this it's an exception, not a variance. So, we have to answer the questions of whether this the the do we believe the effect on adjoining property is minimal? Um, do we believe that it it it fits with the uses and physical characteristics of the adjoining property? We have to assess the proximity to our arterial streets. And as we can see from that picture we had up, this backs up to 127th Street, which is pretty busy these days, I think, isn't it? Yes.

It's kind of a through through street in that location. Um, and the existing topography and landscaping of the subject property. That's what we were looking at before with the trees that would either have to be gone through or gone outside of. So, um, any comments on any of those criteria before I we entertain a motion? Mr. Chairman, I I walk by this property every morning. Uh, it's beautifully landscaped. Doesn't look so great right now, but whoever does your landscaping is just a magician. It's phenomenal.

Beautiful. The only reason I would vote against this is I'd hate to see us block out the rest of the city from seeing it. I I move for approval of a case 07-2026. Mr. Chairman, if you could ask if there's anyone who wants to speak for Oh, thank you so much, Kelsey. I appreciate that. Is there anyone out here who wants to speak on this topic before we take a vote? Thanks for the reminder. Please keep doing that. Okay. Um, so I have a motion and and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Nay. Pass. You'll be notified in writing. Thanks for coming in. Thank you.

Our next case is case 08-2026 3904 West 128th Street. Request for a fence height exception in accordance with the LDO. Um, the staff have a report. The applicant would like to install a six-foot wood privacy fence along the perimeter of the property. And the familiarity of the address is because this is the same property. Is that correct? Same fence. Yes. So, we're first we're approving the location and now we're being asked to approve the height. Correct.

Okay. Does anybody else have questions for staff before we ask the applicant to come back up? Come on up. I doubt you have a whole lot to add, but let's keep it official. So, give me your name and address. Cara Sherwood, 3904 West 28th Street in Lewood. Welcome. Do you have anything to add?

Well, the height is actually a little different. It's mainly for um we do plan on putting a pool like within the next year or two. So, we didn't want to put a fence in now 4 foot and then have to just replace it again in a year. And also for um privacy obviously from the 127th Street and uh safety for our little kid so no one's ever, you know, like peeking in and whatnot. Um and

yeah, I think that was it actually. Is this the proposed fence? Correct. Yeah, that's the idea. We're going to do something really nice. Okay. Sleek looking. But yeah, that was either a horizontal cedar fence. And just for everybody who's listening, what what you're saying is that under our ordinances, if you put a pool in, you can get a sixoot fence without an exception, basically. So you're saying that you're planning to put a pool on later, and you'd have to tear your 4ft fence out, put a six foot fence back in. Do we want the fence now because of our dog? Basically, he's always back there in that landscaping by the street. Have Have you applied for a pool permit yet?

No, not yet. We're doing one other first. Sure. Well, the criteria we need to examine on this are the effects on adjoining property, the uses and physical characteristics of the adjoining property, and the proximity to arterial streets, which I feel like we've all talked about a little bit. Are there any comments from up here on the criteria? Is there anyone here who wishes to speak on this application for or against? No. All right. Any discussion from up here or do I have a motion?

Mr. Chairman, I'll move to approve case 08 2026 3904 West 128th Street. Request for a fence height exception in accordance with the LDO section 16-4-9.5 parent a parent in an R1 district. Second. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. Oppos? Nay. It's passed. You'll be notified in writing. Thank you for coming in. Thank you.

And if you're the next case, too. I be No, you're not. So good. All right. Our next case is 09-2026 3705 West 119th Terrace request for an exception to the maximum allowable square footage. The staff have a report. The applicant is proposing an addition of 230 ft that will bring the total square footage of the home to 5,93. The maximum square footage allowed by ordinance on this lot is 4514. An exception of 579 feet, which is 12.8% above the maximum, is needed for the proposed addition.

Okay. And and just since this always comes up, have have letters gone out, have you received any feedback on this proposal?

No calls or concerns. Um, and I for for everyone's understanding of this, this is an exception because under our ordinances, um, if you're proposing less than a 20% increase in the square footage, then it's it's an exception rather than a variance. Not quite as hard to to prove. Generally, that's based on the fact that you can get a you can get a close to 20% exception by just finishing off attic space or space that isn't typically used for for uh housing. So, anyway, just to put it in context, are there any questions for staff before we have the applicant come up? Is the applicant here? You come on up. Hi. Name and address, please.

Um, Allison Candler. My address is 3705 West 119th Terrace in Leewood. Okay. Would you like to present your case? Um, well, you mentioned um finishing out an attic space and that's what we would like to do. There's um the attic space, you know, there's a couple bedroom doors down the hallway. It's a bedroom, a bedroom, and another door that looks just like a bedroom door. and you open it, but it's a little unfinished attic space. And we would just like to add a window and a closet so that we can use that as a a finished bedroom. So, this isn't going to change the exterior of the house in any way.

It will just it will add a window like a little dormer and a window onto the roof line in the picture that you showed. It's the right hand window. So, it'll Yeah, it would be that um Yes, it would be that space right there would be added on to the house so that we could safely have a child stay in there and have an exit in case of fire.

Very good. Any questions for the applicant from the board? The criteria we have to use to assess this is first is this less than 20% of the maximum allowable square footage which we know it is and the does the proposed size of the rebuild or remodeled dwelling reflect the character of the other surrounding dwellings in the neighborhood. I'll let you address that if you want, but I will point out once again this is not significantly changing the exterior of the house. So, shouldn't be changing the character of the neighborhood, but any questions for the applicant? No. Okay. All right. Well, um, if there's no questions from up here, then do I have a motion?

Mr. Chairman, in case 09, Mr. Chairman, can you ask Oh, sorry. Once again, is there anybody here who wants to speak for or against this? Thanks. Thank you again, Council. Okay. So, I have a motion from you, Mel. Sorry, Mr. Chairman. In case 09-2026 3705 West 119th Terrace, a quest for an exception to the maximum allowable square footage on a lot accordance in the LDO 16-2-5.3F in a R1 district. I move approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I.

Oppos? A then it is passed. You'll be notified in writing. Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you. That's all I have on the agenda. I do want to note that I will be gone next month and we're uh welcoming two new members next month. Um and Katherine Dirkson has uh kindly agreed to run the meeting next time. I think we've got a little procedure we need to go through for that. But thank you very much for doing that. We've lost our former co-chair to the planning commission, so we're shuffling chairs around here at the moment. Um, anything else before we close? All right. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? We're done. Thank you, Chuck.