Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Mr.

Ready. Okay. Good evening, everyone. It's time to call the regular October Columbus City Board of Zoning Appeals meeting to order. Roll call, please. Kathy Gardner, present. Patricia Hacker, present. John Kissinger, here. Anthony Romano, here. Ben Sworn, here. Thank you. We have one set of meeting minutes. We have the um August meeting minutes that we have time to Take a look at that. I need a motion. Move to approve.

I second that. I have a motion from Patty and second from Kathy. All those in favor raise the right hand. I abstain was not here. Yeah. What are you doing? All right. I think that's kind of the we're have a oath to the witnesses. So if you plan on speaking tonight, please stand up and our legal representative will swear you. Would you raise your right hand, please? Do you swear or affirm under the penalties of perjury? The testimony you are about to offer will be the truth. If so, answer I do. I do.

You put your hand down. Thank you. Thank you. Nathan, is there any old business tonight? No. I don't think so. All right, let's move on to new business. We have 25- C-B12. Simon Nouse is asking for a lot coverage at 604 East Jackson Street.

Nathan can do. So, this is a variance at 604 East Jackson Street, which is zoned R1, single family residential. Um, I've mentioned it before. R1 in certain areas seems to be applied solely because it's single family residential. The development standards don't always line up with the platted lots. And and in this case, uh, I feel like that may have been the case here. Uh, since R1 requires 10,000 foot lots and this is only 9,800 square ft, give or take. and it was recorded in 1874 um when we didn't have the requirement.

Exactly. So anyway, that's a whole different uh discussion, but it does come into play as you read instead. Uh what is being proposed is a 20x 40 foot uh detached garage located in the rear yard near the uh alley on the south side of the property would comply with the setbacks. Uh total lot coverage would be about 3920 square ft which would be 40% of the lot area of that approximately 3,100 square ft is the existing house and shed. 800 square ft would be the proposed detached garage. Uh the code requires a maximum 35% lot coverage. Uh so 40 being more than 35 is what we're looking at for the variance. I did mention that R2 would be probably more comparable in terms of lot standards. Of course it allows for two family dwellings as well as opposed to R1. Uh R2 also requires a 35% lot coverage. So even if this was different zoning district, we would still be here tonight. uh if it went to R3 for reference it bumped up to 50% font coverage. Um so I'm not sure why the big jump rather than staggering them like uh setbacks are for example but that is how the code is written. Going to reference materials. Uh I included a pretty wide view here just so that everybody has some um reference. Uh we have quite a few different uh outbuildings in this neighborhood uh of varying sizes, of varying ages. Um if you look at this, I just want to point out a couple here. So if you look at the

far left, I wish I could zoom in or point at this, but the I will point at this. So that lot right there. Uh that is a garage. It's a detached garage. It's 1,400 square ft uh on a 3120 square foot lot. Uh it is does not have street frontage. I'm not sure when it was created, but it is a lot of record now. Uh but 1400 square f feet over 3100 square foot lot gives you about a lot coverage of 44%. Um this lot here which the house is right here and that lot is fairly narrow. Uh is a about 662 square ft of house. It's multi-story so the actual square footage is higher but the footprint is about 662. Total lot area is 2945 square ft giving you a 22% lot coverage. And then just above that, um, that lot right there. So that house and that lot. Uh, the lot's somewhat larger. Uh, but so is the house. About 1660 square ft for the house, over 3,871 ft for the lot, giving you a coverage of about 42%. Uh, so just to give you some examples, and you can see for the other lots, they're typically a little bit more open, but those were the ones I picked out because they seem to be uh the most coverage. But even visually having uh this lot here is very occupied, it still only winds up being about 44% coverage. Uh so going on a little closer view of

the subject lot. Uh you can see of course there are out buildings on uh both sides of this lot. Um as well the proposed location I don't recall whether this is the final location or if it will be turned 90 degrees. The petitioner can verify which one is the current plan. ultimately doesn't matter for lot coverage because it's still the same 20 by 40 foot structure. It just may be turned. It still would be compliant with setbacks. Uh so going through the review criteria um generally I don't feel that this would be particularly injurious to the public health uh or morals. I don't have any evidence why that would be the case. safety of course lot coverage there is a bit of concern about making sure that you do have access around the lot um little bit of health effect potentially if you have um congested lots but again this isn't uh to quite to that point uh in my opinion general welfare of course can be affected if you don't have practical difficulties specific to the lot uh use and value I don't feel would be affected Again, we have outuildings of varying sizes throughout the neighborhood. Lot coverage is not something that is very apparent. So, it wouldn't be uh likely to affect the use and value of the area. Uh strict application uh resulting in practical difficulties. As I mentioned the zoning code R1 application was most likely applied because of the use and development standards are secondary. Thus you may have some mismatch of

development standards. Um as I said if you look at our two though the lot coverage standard is still 35%. Uh so we would still be here. the age of the lot though I do feel um and the other houses in the area with buildings uh it does feel like there should be or could be some grounds for some variance. I leave it up to you as to whether what is proposed is within that area of some variance or whether it may be uh too much. So uh you can have that for discussion. Uh, so that's the summary of the staff report. Any questions for me?

All right. Will petitioner, please come to the podium, state your name and address and kind of fill us in on how you're going to set it in there one and any other information that Nathan might not have touched. Okay. My name is Simon Nouse. Uh, 604 East Jackson Street, Columbia City. Um we for the meeting two weeks ago uh the building would be orientated 90 degrees so it would go along the length of the driveway. Um would it be I guess like further can I walk over and show basically just taking this and rotating. Okay. So, it's on the driveway.

Yeah. On the driveway. They gave me uh approval to have a door on the alleyway so I can have access to the alley doors to the to the driveway itself. So, it'll have two doors toward the driveway. Yes. And one door. Okay. To the house. Um so, that was that was the uh the main thing that came out of the the last meeting I was in for it. Um, we were able to avoid our buried power line which is in the backyard as well by doing that. So, we don't have to disrupt city utilities or anything like that.

Um, yeah, I did not realize it was where I where it was. Um, so that was nice uh to find that as well. Um, but that was that is the the intended goal. Uh, we we're a large family. We have five children between me and Natasha. So, um, we're working to get everyone their vehicle, and they're all becoming of driving age, and I'm one that I'm a tinkerer. I I have, uh, I'm a firm believer that they need to be able to help me procure and fix their vehicle for their first car. So, I'm in the process of teaching some of them right now how to uh how to do that. So, um, this would just make it easier to wear. It's not as visible for others. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and it's, you know, our fleet is older. Um, but just trying to make things nice, uh, keep it out of people's way and it frees up some space on the the front of the street where it's congested for, uh, the street and, uh, the school traffic that comes through in the morning, it would clear up a lot up there. So, with everything we have, so that's just really what my thoughts were. I wanted to do something that gets things out of the way and a little bit of protection for our cars.

Are you going to hold that? Um how far off the alleyway? Um so per the meeting when we we discussed uh the property line uh was it was to be five I believe I I won't over uh because it was in the it's in the meeting, but it was to be I believe five feet off the property line. Uh and then we were going to go up against the length of the driveway. So, we're going to follow all the setbacks that they had they had said. I thought Sean Licky Sean Licky sets up about 10 ft um in the in that. Yes. But at the the meeting two weeks ago, uh Okay. Utilities was there and it was agreed upon at the access. Okay. I think I read that somewhere. So, I just was curious.

Okay. Yeah. Um I don't know if you went had a chance to go back through Okay. I think it was at the very end. So, it's between five or six feet is what they from somebody from the from the property line property. So, I was going to listen to the board of works to see exactly what was said there so that we can try and make sure that when we are looking at the building permit that it's in compiance by but the zoning code uh setbacks are 5T. Gotcha. Okay. So, it's going to be published.

Yeah, I should pull in the apartments for that part. I guess I'm looking at it and I drove around there quite a bit and looked. That's going to be the largest accessory building really when you look at in that area, of course. And and um the 20 by 40 and then it's got what uh 12 foot sidewalls. Is that what it was? Yeah, it was it was to match the the height of the the current garage or current property size so it would not look disproportionate or uh I tried to I found someone that would match that approximately. Okay.

So, will you be able to with with three garage drives you wouldn't get to three vehicles in there? Uh they're uh sorry uh from the pictures I primarily am drawn towards Volkswagens and Beatles at that. So they're generally small. I have a a 1963. Uh so that is inside the garage. It's not visible, but that it's

uh it's much smaller than your average car now. So, it might fit four uh three uh might be able to fit my my lawn mower. We have a couple motorcycles as well. Uh it's really meant for just cleaning up and getting things organized, but it'll fit probably between three and five depending on how the sizing fits um and what's going on. Well, in the winter time, it's always better to get them inside to work on them than out in the

Yeah. And that's my hope is that the the main garage I have a I have a heater in there. So if I can move my 63 out and store it in a safe place that I if anything comes up I have access there and the wife will be happy that she can have a heated she can have a garage again and not have to be out and scraping windows in the morning like that. Does anybody else have some questions for gentle

Kathy? No, I'm just a little concerned with the 40 ft. I guess I'm just it's it's that's just a huge building put in there. So that's my only concern for for general size. Just on the picture, it is about where the the trampoline circle is. So it's from where the current white line is. So kind of the north edge of the trampoline. Yeah, it'll be right right here. So where the driveway from the asphalt to concret is about right here. So it's right there. Are you going to then because you'll have to take that part of that fence out. Are you going to leave the other portion of the fence?

The fence. Yeah, it'll it'll butt up against the side. Use the plant to clean everything up, make it look nice and go through. The defense was in a state of prepare and this was just one of the things that u facilitated getting that done at the appropriate time as well rather than going through and trying to fix and then well tear portion of defense down anything like that to try to get this resolved beforehand. So vehicles being back there

those are all all have been all have been dealt with. we did not real I did not realize that uh was we were not that we were violating a city code uh for parking on unimproved ground. So we have they've cleaned up the back area uh since um and that's another reason that we did not realize that even though that is a unused area and uh it fits like a a parking area there uh it would need to be either gravel or concrete or some improved surface before it's actually able to be used uh to park anything in that general area. which is what really sparked this whole I'm like, "Oh, I had no clue. I I need to fix that." So, trying to just meet other city compliance rules that identifying.

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Is there anyone else here that'd like to speak on behalf of the petition? Is anyone here to speak against petition? Hearing none, I close the floor and open it to open conversation discussion motion. I'll make a motion for the approval of 25 C-P12. I don't think you had any conditions. I'll second. I have a motion from Dennis and a second from Tony. All those in favor raise the right hand.

Congratulations. Yeah.

You're all right there, Greg. Mhm. Okay. Just need to just need to bring a bottle of water. I was I was trying to avoid doing that since I did the exact same thing last night. Think you need something stronger than water. I did not know you were that you were offering there. I don't have money. I would never do that at a meeting. Yeah, I got you. Do we have any other business tonight?

Uh yeah, the 2026 meeting dates um are on the screen. Um will they all line up? The May meeting and November meeting are bumped to Wednesdays due to election day. Uh but all of the other dates line up uh on the regular second Tuesdays or second Tuesdays first Tuesdays.

Uh and then the fifth Monday training dates uh would be March 30th 20 June 29th, August 31st and November 30th. I am already scratching off March 30th because that is spring break uh for all three school districts. So, nobody will be here on March 30th. Oh, March. I thought you said November. What? No, November 30th is on. So, June 29th, November 31st, and November 30th would be the training dates. Okay.

Uh for next year, uh Pat Ziggraph had given me a couple uh topic ideas last night. So, if you guys have anything, any suggestions between now and June, let me know. Um, so if you just want to if you want to take a motion to approve these, you can. Consensus works. Uh, just rely on us to get these to you. Whatever you want to do. I make a motion for the approval. Second. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Is there anything? Very good. Okay. Uh, I don't think I've got anything. Amanda, did I have anything else?

I didn't write anything down. That's the answer. There you go. I make a motion that we second. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. [Music] [Music]