Zoning Board of Adjustment - Regular Meeting

and then brought it back. Two days before that, I had a tractor island bringing it back. I can take corn brakes all at once.

I've never case. I don't know if you want me to do that first once they So you will they'll open up the case, right? And then they'll ask you for your applicantation. Okay. Because you got all got a copy of my letter that I sent in your address. Yes. Okay. and the other application be I'll take care of

I just want to check and make sure you can hear us okay before we start answer you're on mute yeah says iPhone no here we go Now it says tap to unmute. I found it. Okay, I think I'm good. Good. We'll go ahead and start now then. Okay. All right. Uh, welcome to the zoning board of adjustments. It's July 15, 2025 in

Huh? Oh, I thought he said that. We're gonna get a members roll call, please. Pat Collins here. Ted Gulka here. Cory like here. Jennifer Warren here. Heather Gentman here. Matt Wy here from the staff and the Jack Sers board here. I need a review action and approval of the current meeting agenda. Motion to approve. Second. Motion to approve by Ted. Second by Pat. We need a review action approval of the previous meeting minutes.

Motion to approve. Second. Moved by Ted and second by new business. Discussion. Formal action on conditional use permit application 25-07 for the proposed third accessory dwelling unit located at 550275th Street Pac Pacific Junction in Oak Township Les Hills Conservation Development District. Can we get the applicant's presentation, please?

Yes. So, you know, my name, Ted Alrech. I've been a resident at 55027 195th Street for 16 years. I've worked as a general contractor in Glenwood in the surrounding communities, rural areas, sometimes in Omaha Council Bluffs. I'm at this meeting in order to ask for a conditional use permit for my property. Within the time that I live lived where I'm at, I built two small cabins behind my house. Before construction, I inquired at the courthouse about any necessary permits or inspections I might need. I was told that there was no inspector in Hills County and that they had no zoning or permitting. It seems as though the laws have changed or the people I asked were unaware of what was required. Recently, I find that there are permits and inspections to do in order to approve the dwellings. I have been cooperating with the local county zoning to ensure my buildings are legally complied. I briefly summarize the written plea you received. The buildings are for personal use and for friends and family who travel through to visit and want to spend some quiet time in the woods on the lust hills. The buildings are appropriate in size and scale in the context of my lot in our neighborhood. Thank you for your time and consideration. Do we need to read the letter?

So that's Did you guys have a chance? So next we'll do public comment. My neighbor. He might have a public comment. Uh, I moved to the property south of Ted's place in July of 2022. Alaska military brought me down here and uh, we've been nothing but amicable since.

Okay. I'm aware of the concern we do have and I believe it's easily rectifiable but the property seems to show neighborh but it also shows on that I own as a whole which he was finalizing shortly pretty much right when I was moving in. So that can be a piece of discourse. Just you got to know where the property lines are the right way, I suppose. And I I'll comment on that. There's a there's a fence line that's full, you know, half of it's there and half of it's not. But you can see the line all the way from the highway. And when Bill Sergeant was my neighbor when I first got there the first 10 or 12 years, and he told me that that's where the property line was. And then when I moved in, there was flags like a survey here came and put flags and they were about a foot or two in the south side of that fence all the way from the highway orange flags and about every 50 or 100 feet up the all the way up the hill into the trees there's flags and as far as I know they're still there but they get trampled and trees fall on them and stuff like that. And then when he moved in, oh once there were some new flags and they were about in the same spot a couple feet in the south side of the old fence. And when I inquired with a legal uh representation, they told me if you have a neighbor and you both agree on on a where the property line is for 10 years and nobody has any qualms, no arguing this is where it's at. That's where it's at legally. Even if you decided to survey it, you know, which we could and move it, but if

we're both okay with where we think it's at, then legally that stands not. Okay. I don't know if you guys have any doings with any of that kind of stuff. Have you studied that law? We don't just handle it through surveyors. Okay. And court systems. Yeah. But that's when my lawyer called and he says I'm very familiar. Sure. Boundary. He said thank you. If there's no disagreement 10 years, that's where it's at. So you're saying this cabin, this white building is actually on your property. Okay. As far as the fence and the as far as the fence and the blacks, but beacon that it's not okay

over there. But then I also that means I own then my other property is way over my other neighbors too, right? All the joy subdivision. Yeah. All it looks like it's all shifted, but I don't think it's accurate. Beacon isn't always accurate. What's that? Beacon isn't always accurate. That's That's what I think, too. Well, but if he got he had to have a survey, which are the new flags you're saying when he bought the house. Well, I don't know. But then I talked to somebody about it and they says they don't think survey. They think just the realtor stuck them in the ground so people would know where the boundary was. Okay. Well, let's go on to staff report. Yeah. And we'll see and then we can have a board discussion about it.

Does that sound good? So, I don't I don't It is important between me and Tom that we're good neighbors and we're three in the property and I'm okay with what where it's at. But he's going to be selling his property in two or three or five years down the road. His new neighbors are going to want to know, hey, if that happened on my ground, we're stuck here. Sure. So, we kind of agreed that we'll switch cost to getting it surveyed if we need to. Okay. Okay. On when it's time for you to sell or whenever.

It was tough for me because I had to buy the but I bought the house sight unseen. So, there was a lot to be left desired to hand off uh to say the least. The house wasn't in the best of conditions. And the owner who I bought it from bought the house and lived in it for two years from the family and lived in it for 30. Yeah. From health sergeant. And there wasn't a lot of presence within there. So the house almost became foreclosed seemingly and then you've been just figuring stuff out as we go. So it's been challenging. I know the feeling. That was my house.

My house. I bought my house and it had sat vacant for three years and the neighbors were using it for a party house. So, they were a little bit upset with me having some guy from Nebraska coming in to buy their party house. And so, we haven't been good neighbors since. And they tried to kicking me out pretty early on. They didn't even know who their name were trying to get rid of me already. So, so in the staff report, uh, Mills County zoning ordinance, I wanted to make sure it was clear. So, I provided you some additional documentation. So, currently two family use of the property, which in the two family use in the zoning ordinance, it's described out as two separate buildings for on one parcel for residential use. is a conditional use in the lust hills zoning district. Now, Iowa law changed July 1st and that change uh allows for counties, it says counties shall allow a minimum of one accessory dwelling unit on the same lot as a single family residence in accordance with and they have there's some conditions in there. Um the accessory dwelling unit should not exceed 1,000 square feet or 50% of the size of the single family residence whichever is larger. It takes away county's rights of but any kind of design criteria on there you know to where they would have to match the same kind of build style the cost on property not. So in thinking of that uh the state has now grant these are no long two family use of the property is no longer a conditional use of it. So the one 80 he's got two ADUs on the property. One of them is now legal by the state of Iowa to be there. So we're really talking about do we grant conditional

use then to allow the third one to be up on the property. That is what would be above and beyond um for us today. And the propertyy's large enough to would be large enough to accommodate the structures that are there. I wouldn't have any concerns about uh room for septics or wells supply uh utility service to the property for that. So it really comes down to making sure that the the permits are secured for the structures that were my recommendation of it was to approve the application for the conditional use permit for two family residential use and lets conservation district but it would be I recommend these following conditions be on there and that applicants secure the necessary building permits and engineering inspections for the certificates of occupancy on structures. Second, that the applicant secure septic permits to environmental Mills County environmental health and install code compliance systems. Number three is that the property owner would secure survey to show that the structures are on the lot of request. Uh, and the fourth one would be is that the parking and access be through the applicant's property on there because I know beacon's obviously off in this situation, but we don't know how far it's off and we would still have there could still be a situation where Teda would have to come back in and ask for a potential sideyard variance if that structure is not held 10 feet into his property, which would be required sideyard of the property of it and so

um I think at that time you know if it were to be the board were going to be a different subject pass and then be based on kind of the following findings of facts number one would be that the two family residential is a listed conditional use in the district number two is that 195th street is a paved county road and that the additional dwellings wouldn't impact the road system um number three is that that the state of Iowa had recently changed the law uh which now counties must allow at least one accessory dwelling unit on any lot that contains a single family dwelling

for discussion.

Do we need to worry about 911 addresses for them? We do have to have that discussion u with the assigning of the addresses they there should have and it's going to have to be kind of a county holistic conversation as how do they want to do this? Do they do they want to keep the one street marker and go with a unit a b kind of system or do they want to assign it u another 911 address to each structure that's up there. the 911 system don't what they what I have been told the way that it works right is if I call it from my cell phone it locks on to the location of that cell phone and and head toward heads toward that unit it's uh it's a bit different system than the old landline style where they would call in from but that's what it's so we've had those we've have had some preliminary conversations this intern me talking about and what would that look like And we need to have that conversation as a county.

Yeah. These cabins don't have accessible driveways. Get So they would still have to use your main driveway to go up it

and parking. That's the only I have a fair weather road that for construction and for cutting wood back there and stuff like that where I can drive back, but it's not a daily use or anything like that. And that's part of what we have to address also with the ADU piece to this and with sticking with the state not requiring you. One piece that it stayed off in there is you don't want a bunch of road accesses cut in, right? You want to be able if the person's going to have an ADU, it needs to be shared access with the original structure that is there. There's it becomes all kinds of problems at the engineer's office and traffic things. starting a whole bunch of new entrances.

Hope I'm understanding this right. He has a current secondary dwelling that's legal right now. He's asking for a third. Correct. And that is that is allowed because up until now we could only allow one. Correct. But now with the change in July one, up until now it took a conditional use. Two total. Yes. So you got two total with a conditional use. This seems kind of weird. Now a county allow a minimum. So what's the maximum? They did not put a maximum on. So they have to have enough they have to have enough

they have to have enough room to 50% here. Uh it's got to be 50% less or less than the size of the single family. And what about the uh the land requirements? I mean there's no requirements. It just just seems weird for so long. It was

so this this was a joint venture between the AARP um that kind of went with some people in the state to make this happen. It's cities and counties. I've just given you the rules for the counties. uh it will on our side, the county side of it, we do have a lobbyist for our group and he went there and really tried to push the subject of, you know, this is going to be tough and small lot situations with septic systems and and I really do I think septic systems are going to dictate much of this on those smaller ones. Now, the larger ones like this, right, the counties, we really do have to kind of think at some point I mean because potentially I mean there's room there would be, you know, what would it be if there were 10 out there? We have to be able to say that we're, you know, we're stopping at this number. We're not going to allow any more than that.

Be up to the county and the county supervisor, right? Yeah, that'll be when the code modification happens to say because is it now that it's one septic per unit or it varies. People will share septics, you know, they might have to it might be a point where they're upgrading the septic on their main house. So, they're just like, "We'll just tie this unit into that unit." Uh, in the situation like this, you're so spread out, you would have to have separate separate systems for each car. Yeah. Because you'd be wind up with a bunch of pumps or something like that. That's what I have now is separate, but it's not big.

Wasn't the the car kind of ahead of the horse here. We need to know where the the true property line is because is like you said if we approve it and then we find out it's on the line or not at the set book then he has to has to come back in redo it right that's why it's a condition of this one to even have it would be that they obtain a survey to prove it and it is then we're not liable if it's if it's not inside their his property right because we're saying it has to be it has to be in the order us to do it. Well, obviously for your best interest, I think you guys should find out where that property line is. For sure.

Well, he wants to make sure that we're going to approve it before he pays for the service. Okay. So, if we So, if we approve it with that condition, then that's Cy, do you have anything?

Corey, mute button. Yep. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with you. I think I think uh in my opinion, you look at it and say if you approve or whatever, finding a survey, but I think the survey is critical on the whole thing.

Why you put it working conditions? Yeah. Yes. Number three right there survey to show that the structures are on the lot request that we're approing that survey. There's right here. Well, your initial one, did you get a conditional one for the first accessory structure? No. Did you start it before 2008? Yes. And it's probably okay because you started zoning came in in 2008. Okay. Anything else?

We got a lot of gray area here. We deal with gray area people. That's why we're here. Anybody want to make an action? I will make a motion that we approve providing that all the staff recommendations are met. Okay. including this one. Yeah. Parking access needs to be through the owner's property. Okay. Second. You a second. A second.

So, um and Heather second roll. Gory.

Yes. Yes. Yes. War. Yes.

Do we have any other business? I can offer up that if if you are interested in an ADU seminar, they're going to have a webinar uh this Thursday from the Iowa League of Cities who are doing some draft ordinances for cities and counties who potentially look at anybody's interested. I'm driving to Indiana or else I might. It depends on Thursday's my Thursday's my meeting day. The only other business I would have We're going to be busy adding all the new properties. Last meeting you talked about re looking at the uh the landfill requirements. Yeah.

That was up for review. They're going to be committed in August. So the August meeting. Yeah. Does anybody want to make a motion to during this meeting or does this need to be

this can be under this can be under other just so everybody's aware? So, yes, we we're sending a letter to the landfill, have them come in in August uh to give an update on where they're where they're at with the current conditions that have been assigned to them. Um the board of supervisors recently and Jack, if you'd like to speak with this, you're more than welcome to. We had them come in and kind of give the board bit of an update. Um, but with you being the governing body over that conditional use permit, I feel like it's and that was a part of one of their conditions was was that they were going to come back in 12 months and give you all an update on where they're at.

I think there's a bunch of changes going on at that point in time that miss. So, we want to follow through. We have them come in. I think there's some things with the road that was a condition on there that haven't been quite done yet. Landscaping pieces on the have not been taken yet. So, we want to get them kind of up to date. You still have that documentation for when that meeting was? I think it was 2020, right in the middle of CO and it was at the high school gymnasium, high school auditorium. We do have all the documentation from it. Yes,

we had them come in to talk about the grass seating on the north side. Uh they have to seed it eventually, so they're starting to work on that. And then I brought up to them that we'd like them to come in over the next few months and landed on August. Matt and Audrey did. And it's pretty clear in the conditional use permit that they didn't meet all the stipulations that were set and they had a year to be able to do that. They didn't do that. You know, we're five years now. So, I guess it's really going to be to you guys whether you allow them to keep on the current track, whether you say, you know, we want you to get this done before you start using it as an actual landfill, or talk to the county attorney's office, see what the rules are regarding revoking the conditional use permit, bringing it back, putting in more stipulations, and then sending it back to them for another approval. So, that's up to you guys. I know it's a huge issue for a lot of people. We've got trash from all over the damn country coming into our county.

Well, it's it's something that I've heard a lot of complaints about and to be honest with you, um not to give out my view too much, but you never give up leverage when you have it. So, agree. So, would that be on the second Tuesday next month, 12th then? Right. We're meeting. I don't think we have any other cases right now other than that. Thanks. I'll make a motion.

Thanks, Corey. Have a good night. Bye, Corey. Thank you, guys. Have a good night, too. Bye. Once he did,