Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

rolls over. We'll officially begin.

If you plan on speaking, it just depends on what All right, it is now 5:30. I'm going to go ahead and call this Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 board of zoning appeals meeting to order. Um the first thing that we have to do as a board is um discuss and hopefully approve our minutes for last month. Um, there's a lot of them, but I looked over them earlier. They look good to me. Anybody got any questions, comments, concerns. Make a motion that we approve the minutes.

All right, we have a motion. We got a second. Um, all those in favor? All opposed. Okay, that is good. I believe right here.

All right. U, we only have one this month. one um variance appeal um variance request and um which is a welcome after last month. We don't have anything to do with trees this month. Um I am going to read these conditions and the uh legal determination rules we have to follow from city council into the record. Um the first is that the property has to have extraordinary conditions meaning there are extraordinary or exceptional conditions pertaining to the particular piece of property. Second is other property. The extraordinary and exceptional conditions do not generally apply to other property in the vicinity. Three, utilization. Because of the extraordinary or exceptional conditions, the application of the ordinance to a particular piece of property would effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict the utilization of the property. And lastly, detriment. The authorization of a variance will not be of substantial detriment to the adjacent property or the public good and the character of the district will not be harmed by granting a variance. So, let's keep those in mind as we go through today. And with that being said, I will hand it over to city staff to introduce variance request A. Uh this is a request for a variance from the strict application of the city of Conway's UDO table 6.1 dimensional requirements for residential zoning districts for the property located at 1216 Dun Raven Court. The parcel located in the Newcastle subdivision is zoned R1 with setbacks of 20 foot front, 10ft sides, and 20 foot rear. The applicant applied for a permit to add an addition to the existing single family home. Unlike accessory structures, additions to existing homes must meet the setbacks for the zoning district. Upon review of the site plan, it was determined that the proposed addition encroaches into the side setback. Therefore, the permit cannot be approved

by planning and the applicant is requesting the following variance. Table 6.1, a three and a half foot variance to allow a side setback of 6 and 1/2 foot instead of 10 foot in order to add an addition to the existing home. And Miss Roxy or Roxanne is here if you have any questions. All right. And on the screen now is the addition that was added in 2020.

Okay. Oh, I see. Okay, I got you. All right. If you would please um come to the podium for me. Um will you please raise your right hand? You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes. All right. And if you could please state your name for the record. Roxan Quitech. All right. Okay. And Miss Quitech, um, do you have anything that you'd like to add to the record, um, in addition to what's been already provided to us and read into the record by staff? No.

Okay. All right. We may have a few questions for you as we look everything over. Um, so there's been a recent addition to the to the house. Not I've been there. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Oh, that's okay. When did you purchase the home? October 4th, uh, 2022.

Okay. Um looking at the site plans um obviously when we went through the um the thing the prongs we have to meet we we have a few issues um that that I think I mean I is there any particular reason that that side of the house was picked because I know there's there's a screen patio on the other side and there's a lot of yard on the other side. So just curious the other side of the house where there's a a lot of yard over there. Okay.

All of that is not mine. Safety Cooper owns a lot of it because of the wires going through it. Okay. So that can't plus where I want to put it. There's a bedroom there and I want to put a sitting room there for my sister. Okay. And the blue on the screen is a 20 foot drainage easement. Okay. That you can put a fence in, but you can't put a structure in. But can a structure go all the way up to that ement? Just Yes.

So when we're when we're looking at our the four things that we have to meet, the first is the extraordinary conditions. Um although I I certainly understand your situation and I appreciate that these properties especially in these planned developments by their very nature every piece is almost the same as far as these type of things are concerned and that kind of leads down to other property. These conditions apply to every single they apply to every single piece of property in that neighborhood and they really apply to every single piece of property in the entire city because we have these setback rules for for different things. And if we were to grant something like this, allowing you to put an additional structure in the setback with really no other issues surrounding it, we would then be opening oursel up to every single request that anybody made to build anything in the setback. We would really have no way to tell them no. And these rules are in place. They come down to us from city council. They're in place for a lot of different reasons, but we can't really We like telling people yes. We can't always do it. That's why we're here. It's difficult to tell people no, but with this one, we don't really have extraordinary conditions. If we did, they would apply to every other at least every other property in the neighborhood. Obviously, we don't have a utilization issue because it looks like you have on the property. You already have a very nice single family home with a pool. You have a porch. So, we're not it's not really restricting the utilization as a single family home. And and allowing

allowing the structure to be built in the setback would actually be a detriment to probably every other piece of property in the city when we don't have a a reasoning behind it. We're not trying to squeeze in landscaping requirements. We're not trying to build certain things to meet code for whether it's emergency services or other things like that. That's where we can kind of bend the rules a little bit to make sure we're not upsetting a bigger apple cart in this situation. Um, and I understand it is for your sister, but as we have to look at everything, we kind of have to take all that out of it. Um, and in our situation, we just I don't think we can get there. Um, I I really don't think we meet any of the four prongs. we could maybe say we we meet detriment. I don't really think a sitting room is a major detriment, but allowing a structure in the setback kind of is a detriment to to the community as a whole because then we would we wouldn't be able to tell anybody else no and those are there for a lot of different reasons. Um, anybody have any any questions or anything?

I don't know. And again, we're I can assure you, I know everybody up here, we don't like telling people no, but in this case, we really Yeah, we really can't can't make it work. Um, do you have any questions for us?

Well, I just wanted to explain the um situation. I have a older sister. When you come in the door where I want to add like the sitting room, it's a handicap door there. She's got dementia and she has Parkinson's. Then I have another sister who's um mentally challenged which if I put everything on the other side, it's not going to be able to come out the room and everything. So, um and then I have a sister who's slow who's a year younger than me. So, this would work for everybody to come in now. And and I like I said, I certainly understand that the situation for you personally

is extraordinary, but when we have to look at things by the letter of the law, from a legal standpoint and a legal determination standpoint, there's not really a hardship. I understand that the situation you're in is a personal hardship and we certainly respect that, but from a legal standpoint and from the rules that come down to us from city council, um we don't really have a hardship because you have a great looking house and you've got other places where this could, you know, potentially go. Um, but where it's positioned for us to approve it, we would then lose any legal standing we had to ever deny any of these ever again. Um, and that's just something that we unfortunately [snorts] can't do. That's why city staff had to tell you no the first time. Um, but let me do this. Do you have anything else you'd like to add for us?

No. Okay. Is there anybody else here that would like to speak for or against this variance request? Right. I'll make a motion that we close public input, sir. All right. All those in favor? I.

All right. Um, and again, I hate that we have to do this. Um, I certainly understand that you've got a personal hardship and we respect that, but legally we've got some things we have to follow and this would open up a lot of issues for us. Um, so that being said, I I don't think we have an extraordinary condition and it it certainly if we did, it certainly would apply to every other piece of property and we definitely don't have a utilization issue. Um, so for that with those reasons being stated, I will make a motion that we deny the variance request. Second. All right, we have a second for Mr. Hagen. All those in favor? I All those opposed. All right. And sorry.

All right. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. All right. Sorry. Um, anybody got anything else? Motion to adjurnn. All right, we got a motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a second from Miss James. All right, we need a vote on that. [laughter]