Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

call the uh Springfield Municipal Board of Zoning Appeals meeting to order for September 9th, 2025. And let's start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, please call row. Briggs here. Simmons here. Carolyn Woodard here. Carolyn Sherrod here. And by checker here.

All five are present. We have a quorum. Okay. Thank you. So item 1.3 is approval of minutes from the I think that's board of zoning appeals on July 1st. Supposed to be July 8th. July 8th. Sorry. Yes. Is it the eight or first? Okay. Okay. It's the eight. I make a motion to approve. I'll second. Motion approve. Second. All those in favor say I. I.

All right. Motion passes. Um, next item is 1.4 public comment period. We got anyone here from the public?

Okay. Public comment period is closed. We now have a public hearing item 1.5. So this is the variance request to reduce the minimum building setback from 30 feet to 25 ft for property zone multiple residential and office district mro located at North Main Street map 080B group C parcel 021.00. Is there anyone here who wants to speak on that agenda item? Sure, please come up.

Hey, I'm Karen Bolton and I'm the property owner and I started on this project 10 years ago and then I was going to wait to see what they were going to do with their warehouses across the street there and that never well they had some things going on and then of course CO hit. So, long story short, here I am 10 years later and getting ready to develop it. Um, with a 25- foot setback, it does put me right on the uh spillover easement for the sewer line. If it would be agreeable, I would actually even like to reduce that to 20 foot so I can make sure I could get off that sewer line uh well enough to not ever impose on the city. It had has a sewer line going across the back of the property. Anybody familiar?

It it's the brown building across from Woolen Mill. Yes. Correct. Yeah. is the little single building that sits over there that we're actually getting ready to tear down and it's a big parking lot there and behind that parking lot it actually starts going off to the creek and it goes off pretty steeply and so giving that extra five foot would be a help but then the extra 10 foot would be most advantageous because it keeps me from going off the hill so fast and also keeping me off that sewer uh line that's running behind Okay. Did you have anything else you wanted to to add? That's it. Thank you.

So, what are you going to build there, Kim? Uh, it's going to have four town houses on one side and then a parking lot in the middle and two town homes on the other side. Nice. And I wanted them to face the main street, but they decided that would be too many people backing in. And so, they want a parking lot in the middle and then have the two structures be good on the side. So, so it's going to be a big improvement to what's pitifully there now.

So, let's close the public hearing because we'll we'll have that as an agenda item then here in just a second. All right. So, public hearings closed. Um so new business item 2.1 which is discuss and possibly take action on the variance request to reduce the minimum building setback from 30 ft to 25 ft for property zone multiple residential and office district mro located at North Main Street map 080B group C parcel 021.0. Is there a motion to put this on the floor? I make a motion. I second. All right, staff to director Durham want to present.

Okay, good evening. Item 2.1 is a request for a variance to the minimum building setback at 54 North Main Street. The applicant is property owner Miss Karen Bolton, who just was here speaking. The subject property is approximately 1.4 acres and is currently developed with a commercial structure and parking lot. The owner is proposing to redevelop the site with six single family attached residential units. So, I'll give you that picture there. That picture is looking up. Well, it's technically looking down toward the property if you're coming down the hill toward the greenway. There are several unique conditions on this property. Portions of the lot contain steep slopes. Multiple power poles run along the street frontage and a sanitary sewer line bicts the site. These physical constraints limit the buildable area and impact the feasible design and layout of the property. Because of these conditions, the applicant is requesting a variance to reduce the required front building setback from 30 ft to 25 ft. Staff has reviewed the request against the nine standards for variance approval under section 11-1305 part C of the zoning ordinance. Based on that review, staff finds all nine standards are met. The hardship is unique to this property, not self-created, and the 5- foot reduction is the minimum necessary to enable reasonable use. As of the date of this report, the request was properly noticed, and no public comments or objections have been received. Staff recommends approval of the variance request to reduce the minimum building setback from 30 feet to 25 ft. Before you take action, I want to remind the board that before you make any motion to approve or deny, you must include a statement of fact in your reasoning. We'll go back to the previous um what I included on this picture though, looking

at where that power pole is, that power pole sits approximately on the property line. So it would be tw the request would put the front of those well based on the layout the side of those buildings 25 feet beyond that power pole. I can't zoom in on that.

The layout shows the power is about right here. That one that is showing about right here the side of this driveway [Music] got the sewer line and the slopes that are following the creek. Okay. Are there questions for staff?

I don't have a question for staff, but I heard her heard Miss Bolton Mhm. mention she had um requested 25 ft. She did request, but she asked for an additional five. And I'll be honest, I'm not sure if we can change that midstream. Mr. Brewer, do you know if the board can make a motion to change that? I wouldn't I wouldn't think you would be able to because it's been advertised a certain That's my understand way for for public comment. The staff has no problem with that.

Well, because it has been advertised already as a certain request to change it now. It would have to be readvertised. That is my understanding as well. same as during a reasonzoning request. We can't change it midstream. My only comment is I think this is the first time I've seen all nine. Yeah.

Well, you do. You just you have to provide a statement of fact. No, I know that. I'm not I'm not making a motion. Just saying. No. Yes. Double check. I have no other question. So I just have a quick question on the layout. So it looked like it was the side of the So is it is it the side of the buildings are facing Main Street or Yes. Okay. So and correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding it was because these units didn't have garages as well that needed the additional parking. I did not have

because I know I talk to the engineer about seeing if it could come and face the road and you could do drives but I was just told no that doesn't work and Mrs. B is the the existing building is it's only a few feet off of the property line, right? It's literally it has a three foot sidewalk and then the building. So literally it's a lot closer. I was walking with my family down there.

There is a power because of those power. I don't remember how it is, but there is a limitation because not just being able to relocate the physical Other questions there a motion?

I guess my question is and it may sound silly. If we appro make a motion, is there a motion to approve the 25 ft that she originally had asked for? Am I correct? Mhm.

Hello. I make a motion to approve the variance uh to modify to 25 ft because it meets all nine requirements. It's the minimum amount of set back in order to adequately use this unique property. Okay. Okay. You pick which whichever Carol you like. Okay. I think you said it at the same time. Okay. So, we have a motion in a second. Briggs, yes. Simmons, yes. Woodard, yes. Sherrod, yes. Yes. Passes the five. Okay,

thank you. So, we're now uh on other business, old business. And as of right now, we don't have a meeting, okay,

scheduled for next month. We have two more days in this cycle to find out if anybody submits anything. I don't anticipate anything unless it just happens to show up. But, um I did share that tra that training video that one of the members of the planning commission actually sat through the whole thing live. So, she got all of her credit for that. I really only wanted everyone to kind of pay attention to those eight minutes as they pertain to making motions. And the idea specifically being that you're not supposed to go look at properties ahead of time and form an opinion prior to your meeting here. So that was the point of that meeting. Um whether or not you're already familiar with the properties at some point.

It was me being there recently was completely incidental. I saw it happens. I mean, you live in this town, so it could be your neighborhood, too. Absolutely. So, um, I wanted you to pay attention to those. I am going to send out those other training videos, though. That's on my agenda to get out the next couple of days. So, be looking for those. When do we have to have the training back here? By December 31st. Okay. So, it's calendar year. December 30th. That's right. Some reason I pulled it up and then it went over my head and I thought, "Okay." So, I I hadn't done it yet. So, yeah. Well, you didn't have to yet. I just I wanted you to have that. Okay. Kind of in your in your toolbox, so to speak. Okay. That's all I have.

All right. All right. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So, all right. I second. All right. Leader adjourns.