Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

This is the Monday, 04/13/2026 meeting of the board of zoning appeals for the city Of Waukesha, and we are ready to have a call to order. Kevin Riley, present.

Eric Dunn's present.

Tim Reddick, present.

Do you guys have your mics on?

Do now.

Tim Reddick, present.

Eric Dunn's present.

Okay. Do we have any public comment not concerning the appeal that's on the record for today? Seeing none, we can move on to the approval of minutes for February 16. Proof. We have a first. Do we have a second? Second. First by Tim Reddick, second by Eric. Kevin Riley votes aye. Eric Dunn says aye.

Tim Redick votes aye. The minutes

are approved. On to new business.

All right. So we have an appeal from Wisconsin historic Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corporation to allow solar panels in the what is defined by the code as the side yard of their property. So this is 801 Northeast Avenue. It's at the intersection of it's on East Avenue at the intersection of East And South Street, just kind of on the eastern edge of downtown. This is the East Terrace Apartments.

It's a large nine story high rise apartment building. And as you can see, it extends all the way from East Avenue to Pleasant Street on the East side of the property. And it has parking lots surrounding it in the areas where the apartment building isn't. So basically, the full property is either the apartments or the parking. And the applicants would like to install solar arrays.

So the primary array will be on the top of the building. As you can see, that's all these blue lines here in this overhead. And then the secondary one will be in the parking lot to the south of the building in two separate sections, which will also be utilized to shape the parking spaces in the parking lot. So here are the here's a view of the parking lot from the entrance and then also from the other side. As you can see, the building to the south is, I believe, that's Catholic Charities.

It's the single storey commercial building with very limited visibility in terms of windows on that side. The arrays, again, that will be two sections, one over the row of parking immediately adjacent to East Avenue and then the other one over the two rows in the center of the parking lot. And they'll be arranged as a carport with supports in between the parking spaces. This is the larger of the two arrays. So it will be 49 feet wide.

I believe it was 60 feet long. And then at least 14 feet clearance above the parking spaces with metal supports and then concrete base that will extend on our ground. And it will be angled so that the rear side is a little higher than the front. And then this is the other the smaller section, which will be about 22 feet wide. And again, that will extend over a single parking space.

And again, we'll have the 14 foot clearance. Again, those will be mounted on metal brackets, which will then be mounted into concrete bases in the ground. And this is the code's definition from the code's definitions for a street yard and a rear yard. The street yard is the entire space in front of the front closer to the front of the building and then on a double frontage lot, both sides are considered to be street yards. So on this right side here, you can see the street yard is both the yard in front of the building and behind when it faces the street.

The side yard is obviously the sections that are not the street yard. So for this building, the street yard is both the orange here adjacent to East Avenue and then adjacent to Pleasant Street. And then the side yard is this portion on either side, including the parking lot to the south, and there is not a rear yard. So the code requires any accessory structure to be in rear yard only, not in the street yard or side yard. There really isn't a space on this property for an accessory structure.

So the again, this is the where the array will be located. It will be a minimum of five feet setback from the property of the South, 40 feet from East Avenue, 30 feet from the property boundary roughly in those two sections in the parking lot. And here's the other street yard facing Pleasant Street. So the applicants have argued that basically every other property in the area has a rear yard where they can locate accessory structures, but theirs does not have any space that would meet this code requirement. So this is the regulation that they're requesting a variance from, which states that accessory uses and detached accessory structures shall be permitted in the rear yard only, not in a street yard or side yard.

Is that your full report, Charlie? I have one question. Do we have any specific regulations concerning solar panels or the only reason the solar panels are coming up is because they need to be mounted on an accessory structure?

Right. Yes. We don't the current code does not have anything specific to solar panels. So there are this general regulation applies to any accessory structure at all, but there aren't anything any regulations specific to solar panels.

And my second question would be, if this property were to have a, what would be designated a rear yard, would these structures then be compliant or still need an appeal?

They would be yeah. They would be permitted in the rear yard. They would have to go to the plan commission. And and if this is approved, if you approve a variance, they will still have to go to the plan commission for a site plan and architectural review. But assuming that the Planning Commission approved it, they would be permitted.

Do we have any other questions for Charlie before we move on?

Yeah. This may be a question that's just based off of not knowing. With it being commercial real estate and apartment building and everything, do they not get an exception because of that because it's not residential and it's not, considered having a real yard? Does that matter?

Not as far as this regulation is where there are some that apply only to some of the specific requirements for accessory structures apply only to residential, but this one is just general to any property in any yard. Okay.

And just to be sure, we're just talking about the Carport one. So one in the roof that's approved no matter what basically.

Yep. That's from yeah. They could they wouldn't even need to get Planning Commissioner Actually, for

you know, I apologize. I do have one more question. With the solar panels and everything, is this a typical solar panel where like the community around it would also be able to tap into the excess energy

I guess you'd have to the applicant has has some representatives here, so they might be able

to answer that for you. Okay. Any other questions or discussion before we move on to the to the applicants? Would the applicants like to come up and explain their position?

My name is Darius. I'm the one that Oh, nice.

Yeah. Or

you could go up to the Good.

There we go. Hello. My name is Darius. I'm the one that applied for the variance. I'm the preconstruction project manager for this project. For introductions, this is Mark. He's representative of WHPC, the owners group. And then Andrew, who is the developer for the project.

And I'm sorry. What was your last name again?

My last name? Darius White.

Thank you. Ed, briefly make a case for why we should accept your appeal.

Yeah. So, I mean, listed out in the the variance responses because this property is a double frontage lot and it's not allowed to have a rear yard rear yard, an accessory structure should should be allowed because they're not able to follow code compliance in that respect. All other than that, the carport is following all municipal code, and it's an opportunity to both provide a shaded structure for the apartment, parking, as well as being able to continue to make improvements to the both the community, but also the property itself. The WHPC, they've said that they've put in lots of money into the property and they continue to make try to make improvements where they can. So exterior improvements like this will be great for the tenants of the property.

Do you want to ask your question about the

Yeah. Again, same question as before. Will this provide, like, extra like, will We Energies basically be tapping into the solar panels to use the excess energy?

Yes. So the the way the system is designed, any power that can be consumed on-site will be consumed first. But, yeah, in the event, right, it's a sunny day like this morning and the building's load is lower than what the solar array is producing, any access will go back to the local grid and feed the next closest user, whether that's a home or the Catholic building south of there.

Do you

have any other questions for the applicants?

Have you have you asked the neighbors if they're okay with this?

No. We did not do any canvassing.

Okay. And I like solar panels. I've got my own home. But and the newer ones don't reflect much, but some do. Is any than any calculations of whether it's gonna reflect into any neighbor's homes or anything like that?

No. Due to the height of the carport, any surrounding homes shouldn't have any effect on it.

Okay. This one too. Or I know we we typically speak in angles and get it, but they're at a seven degree pitch. So the only windows that would have really a visual potential for getting any glare reflection would be from the apartment complex itself. Okay. Because the surrounding homes are a max of two stories.

Right. Okay.

And we do send out letters to all the neighbors so that they would have gotten that.

So we haven't received any response? No. No pushback?

Perfect. For

the owners group, is there anything you'd like to add on this project?

No, we appreciate your time. Mark Vanden Brucky, Vice President of Construction for WHPC Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corps. As Darius was saying, you know, our goal is to keep investing into this property, keep making it a nice safe home for all of our tenants. There's a 130 units there. Wow. And obviously it's one of the largest if not the largest in Waukesha. So we want to treat it with respect and keep investing into this community.

Good deal.

Not seeing any other questions or comments, we can go to deliberation.

Excess energy being I see it as a good thing, especially with the excess energy being utilized by the community around. And with no pushback from the community after receiving letters, I don't see why not.

I I would be in I would be in agreement. From from my understanding, the only reason it wouldn't be granted is because it's they don't have a year year rear yard. And, I actually have several friends in that building, and I know they do a great job keeping people in the community and service that are either high risk or it's it's a it's a great facility. My only concern is the structures would not be used for their intended use. I know there's a lot of homeless in that area who might decide to camp out in that area.

And I should have asked that question while we were still talking to the applicants. But that's my only concern. May I bring it back to the applicants? There are a lot of homeless in that area, and I know for a fact that the homeless attempt to, gain entrance to that lobby itself. Do you have any plans in place if people decide to start camping out underneath there?

We've actually

just upgraded our security system, our camera system about 50,000 or so. We've also changed management companies at the site level to really have additional presence as well. But yes, the Catholic Charities, obviously, is right next door. So we try to work with them as well as a neighbor.

It's my understanding that this is the structure is also a carport. Right? So there will still be parking underneath and everything. Correct? So during the winter months, no one I don't think we'll be trying to camp underneath there because it's open on both sides. So they're still gonna have to deal with the elements severely.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't have any questions. Fine.

Okay. So I guess we can take it back to deliberation. Yeah. I would I'm in general agreement with the granting the appeal on the grounds that it doesn't have a a designated rear yard and it would comply

if it did. Correct. I agree with that.

Won't affect any neighbor side of my opinion too.

Yeah. I think it's a net plus for the community as well. I agree. And I would encourage to stay on top of that homeless situation because they they will try to camp underneath there.

Most definitely.

Alright. I think we're ready for deliberation unless there's anything else we need to go through, Charlie.

You wanna go through the findings and facts?

Sure.

Alright. So this is the appeal of Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp for dimensional variance from section 22.581 b of the zoning code. If granted, the variance will allow for construction of a carport mounted solar array in the side yard parking lot at 801 Northeast Avenue when detached accessory structures shall be permitted in the rear yard, not in a street yard or side yard. And finding one is that there are exceptional or extraordinary circumstances or conditions applying to the property in question or to the intended use of the property that do not apply generally to other properties or classes of uses in the same zoning district.

Tim Redick, affirm. Kevin Riley, affirm. Eric Dunst, affirm.

Alright. So that's three zero. Finding two, that such variance is necessary for the preservation and enjoyment of substantial property rights associated or possessed by other properties in the same zoning district and in the same vicinity.

Tim Reddick affirmed. Kevin Riley affirmed.

Eric Downs to firm.

Alright. That's also three zero. That a variance is not being requested solely on the basis of economic gain or loss and that self imposed hardships are not being considered as grounds for granting of a variance.

Tim Riddick affirm. Kevin Riley affirm.

Eric Donst affirm.

Alright. Three zero. And four, that the authorizing of such variance will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property and will not materially impair the purpose and intent of the zoning code or public interest.

Tim Reddick affirm. Kevin Riley affirm.

Eric Dons to affirm.

Alright. That's all. Those are all three zero then.

So seeing we have a, unanimous affirmation of all four aspects of the appeal. We can move on to a motion to, grant the appeal.

Tim Reddick motion to grant appeal.

Second. We have a first and a second. Any discussion? And we can take a

vote. Tim Reddick vote, yay.

Kevin Riley, yes.

Eric Dunds, yes.

The appeal has been granted.

Do we have any other,

business to attend to, Charlie? Then our meeting is adjourned. Perfect. Thank you.