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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-11-01 Minutes• MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT A regular meeting of the Board of Adjustment was held on Monday, November 1, 1999, at 3:45 p.m. in Room 111 of the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain, Fayetteville, Arkansas. ITEMS CONSIDERED Approval of October 4, 1999 Minutes Approval of October 25, 1999 Minutes BA99-25: Wilson, pp442 BA99-26: Badia, pp446 BA99-27: Meadors, pp251 MEMBERS PRESENT Michael Andrews Michael Green Thad Hanna Bob Nickle • Marion Orton Larry Perkins • STAFF PRESENT Tim Conklin Janet Johns Dawn Warrick ACTION TAKEN Approved Approved Approved Tabled Approved MEMBERS ABSENT Gerald Boyd STAFF ABSENT • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1 1999 Page 2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 4, 1999 Perkins: Are there any changes or corrections? MOTION Green: I move that we accept the minutes as submitted. Andrews: Second. Roll Call Upon roll call, the motion passed with a vote of 5-0-1. Ms. Orton abstained. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 25, 1999 Perkins: We have minutes from the special meeting on October 25, 1999. • MOTION Hanna: I move that we accept the minutes. Andrews: Second. Roll Call Upon roll call, the motion passed with a vote of 4-0-2. Marion Orton and Michael Green abstained. • • • • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1, 1999 Page 3 BA99-25: VARIANCE WILSON, PP442 This item was submitted by Jim and Candes Wilson for property located at 815 Berry and 835 Leverett (corner lot.) The property is zoned R-3, High Density Residential and contains approximately 0.32 acres. The requirement is a 25 foot setback on Berry Street. The request is for a 15 foot setback or a 10 foot variance. Candes Wilson was present on behalf of the request. Staff Recommendation Staff recommended approval subject to the following: 1. This variance shall apply only to the requested cited in this application and the site plan on file in the Planning Division and shall be void if the structure is not erected within one calendar year. Board Discussion Perkins: Does staff have input on this, please? Conklin: This is a request for a 15 foot setback along Berry Street. This property is on the corner of Berry and Leverett Street. Staff is recommending approval for the variance as shown on the site plan. In your packet, we did not include a site plan. We were unable to copy it. They want to push the structure back to the west of the lot. There are several mature trees on the property and the applicant has provided photographs for your review. We also prepared an aerial view of this to identify the trees. Perkins: So this structure would face Berry Street and the parking would be east of that? Conklin: That's correct. There are currently 2 single family homes on this property which are planned to be demolished for this project. The applicant requests this variance to push the structure further back to the west to avoid cutting the trees down along Leverett Street. Wilson: This will be a brick, 2 story, 6 plex. We want to do something that looks really good. Conklin: I included a letter in opposition which was sent to our office anonymously. It is from an adjoining property owner. This is zoned R-3 and apartments are a use by right. R-3 is the highest density residential zoning that we have in Fayetteville and allows 16 to 40 units per • • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1 1999 Page 4 acre. They are within the density range of what you can build on this lot and staff is recommending approval. Hanna: This doesn't have anything to do with the number of units. They want to build closer to Leverett Street. Conklin: They could cut more trees down on the site and meet the required setback. They're trying to preserve these mature trees along Leverett Street. In the past, the Board of Adjustment has granted variance in order to preserve the old growth trees in Fayetteville. Orton: Is the city continuing to approve apartments with the sewer treatment plant issues? It's my understanding that we are at capacity and it will be several years before the new plant is in operation. Conklin: At this time, we are still approving subdivisions and rezoning and allowing those to go forward. The City is going forward with plans for a new sewage treatment plant and has acquired property for that. Green: I guess that this one note is the only comment that you received? Conklin: Yes. Green: It is not signed. Warrick: It was mailed to our office anonymously. Conklin: This is the notice which is sent to the adjoining property owners. My guess is that it is from one of the adjoining property owners. Public Comment None Further Board Discussion Nickle: Driving around the site, it looks like this would be a big improvement over what is there now. It would preserve the trees. That's encouraging. I think set back like that, makes it more attractive from the street. • Perkins: The ingress will be from Berry Street and egress will be from Leverett? • • • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1, 1999 Page 5 Conklin: Yes. MOTION Green: I move that we approve the variance request. Hanna: Second. Roll Call Upon roll call, the motion passed with a vote of 6-1-0. Ms. Orton voted against the motion. • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1, 1999 Page 6 BA99-26: VARIANCE BADIA, PP446 This item was submitted by Donovan Hash of D&A Carpentry on behalf of Antonio Badia for property located at 730 N. Mission Blvd. The property is zoned R-1, Low Density Residential and contains approximately 0.61 acres. The requirement is an 8 foot side setback. The request is for a 0 setback or an 8 foot variance. Donovan Hash was present on behalf of the request. Staff Recommendation Staff recommends denial of the requested side setback variance as shown on the site plan for a carport due to an existing 15 foot access easement located along the south property line. If the Board of Adjustment decides to approve this variance request, staff recommends the following conditions: • 1. All 3 adjacent property owners shall provide legal documentation that they are in agreement to vacating that portion of the 15 foot access easement. • 2. All building codes must be satisfied with regard to openings and required fire resistive rating of exterior walls less than 3 foot from the property lines. 3. This variance shall apply only to the request cited in this application and the attached site plan and shall be void if the structure is not erected within one calendar year. 4. The addition shall be constructed as described in the October 16, 1999 letter from the builder which states the materials of the structure will match the house color scheme. Board Discussion Perkins: Staff, do you have anything further? Conklin: Staff is recommending denial of this request due to the 15 foot access easement located along the south property line. We did contact the applicant on Friday and requested documentation be provided to us from the 2 adjoining property owners to show they agree with this access easement being vacated. If the Board of Adjustment does decide to approve this variance request, staff has made recommendations and I would like to add one additional condition: • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1, 1999 Page 7 "The addition shall be constructed as described in the October 16, 1999 letter from the builder which states the materials of the structure will match the house color scheme." Perkins: There is another house located to the south and east of this. Is that gravel drive the only access to that dwelling? Conklin: It appears that when this property was split, a 30 foot access easement was required because there was an existing garage directly to the east of the house. That garage has been demolished. The applicant has stated to me that since there is no garage there, why is there a 15 foot access easement? Once again, I'm trying to make sure the City doesn't allow somebody to build over this access without some type of documentation. The adjoining property owner may want to built a garage in the same location. I'm not comfortable recommending approval as long as this 15 foot access easement is existing. Perkins: Do you have any legal documentation? Conklin: I have not received anything. • Nickle: Do we have a survey of this? Hash: I submitted a survey, but it was not in the packet. Discussion ensued regarding the survey drawing. Hash: I have another survey which shows one of the adjoining property owners agreeing to this but we haven't been able to contact the other owner, yet. • Conklin: One of the adjoining property owners is currently using the 15 access easement as a driveway to their property. Hanna: He's saying that the owner of the south property has agreed to abandoned the easement up to a point. Conklin: Correct. Basically, it's 30 feet. I want to make sure that everybody Is in agreement because the easement was designed to provide access to the property with the garage. That garage has now been demolished and a house has been built. I need to ascertain whether that property owner has any right to the easement in this location at this time. I don't know if they do or don't. Orton: That needs to be cleared up before anything is determined. • • • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1 1999 Page 8 Green: If they were wanting to build a separate carport or anything in the lot to the east, then they may have a use for that easement. This variance would cut that off. Hash: The owners of the east lot have an address of 70 N. College. I went there today and there are 11 offices there and I could not find the owner's name. Nickle: It's probably Merryship. Hash: I couldn't find him to ask about it. It used to Merryship. Now, it's some development. I went there and couldn't find anybody to ask. MOTION Orton: contacted. I move that we table this until the owner of the adjoining property has been Perkins: Until the owner is contacted, we would be premature in acting on this. Hanna: I'll second. Roll Call Upon roll call, the motion passed with a vote of 6-0-0. • • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1 1999 Page 9 - BA99-27: VARIANCE MEADORS, PP251 This item was submitted by Carey Meadors for property located at lots 11A -11B, North Heights Addition (8 through 16 Cyndee St.) The requirement is for a25 foot rear setback. The request is for a 20 foot setback or a 5 foot variance. Carey Meadors was present on behalf of the request. Staff Recommendation Staff recommends approval of the requested rear setback variance as shown on the site plan for the storage building. Board Discussion Conklin: This is a 2 unit townhouse. They're asking for a 5 foot variance or a 20 foot setback. This is a result of staff inaccurately indicating the correct zoning on the building permit. Unfortunately, this structure was built into the 25 foot setback. We have a survey of the structure on page 4.5. It is just a portion of the actual building. Most of it is just the overhang of the structure that encroaches into that setback. This is the result of an error by City staff. We have looked at this and it is very minimal. Perkins: It's dust the tip of the soffit. Meadors: This shows the actual building wall and the roof overhang is going to be in the building setback. It's just 2 small locations. Conklin: This doesn't affect the 20 foot utility easement. It's much further back. They are not encroaching in that, so they don't have to go to City Council on that one. Meadors: I could have moved the building closer to the street if I had known the correct zoning. Perkins: Have you heard from the neighbors to the west? Conklin: No. It's vacant land right now. There is a barn to the west. We haven't received any letters or phone calls on this. • Andrews: Is that little sliver of land to the south, buildable? • • • Board of Adjustment Minutes November 1 1999 Page 10 Meadors: That's another lot. Andrews: Is that lot buildable? Meadors: Yes. Green. Is it zoned R-2? Conklin: Yes. It's unfortunate that this mistake happened. Public Comment None MOTION Nickle: I'm move to accept the variance request. Orton: I'll second. Roll Call Upon roll call, the motion passed with a vote of 6-0-0. Meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m.