The Board of Zoning Appeals is meeting 11/16/2020 at 7pm. Honestly it looks kind of interesting. As far as city government goes, this is one of the places you find human interest stories. There are three people seeking zoning variances.
The first one wants to erect a 4 foot high wrought iron fence in their front yard but city code only allows a 3 foot high fence in front yards. They want the fence to keep their dogs in their yard and they believe a physical fence is more effective than an invisible fence. Their property is abnormal in that it doesn’t have a back or side yard–just a front yard. A three foot fence would not be effective in keeping their dogs in. They believe that a wrought iron fence is stylistically appropriate for the age of their house, would not block anyone’s view, and would enhance the neighborhood by improving the appearance of their property.
I’m sold. Give those people their fence.
The second person is seeking to build a garage 4 feet from their property line when city code requires it be 6 feet away. Due to the layout of their property and the fact that there is a ravine that limits where they can build, it would be impossible to construct a garage without a variance. They believe building a garage would improve their lot appearance (and thus positively impact the neighborhood) by letting them store their car and other items out of sight. They are also striving to construct a building that is attractive, historically appropriate, and that matches their house which would also benefit the neighborhood by improving curb appeal.
Give that guy a garage!
The third person is seeking to build a house 5 feet from the lot like instead of the required 6. WE Energies has a 6 foot easement on the property which would have been a problem if they ran their cables along the northern-most edge of that easement or even down the middle. Instead, WE Energies insisted on running it along the southern edge of the easement which doesn’t give the builder enough room to pour the footings of the basement where they need to be for the house to be 6 feet off the lot line of this very narrow lot. It would cost $4k+ to get WE Energies to fix it, so instead the owner would like to shift the hoyse over a foot so that it’s 5 feet off the line on one side and 7 feet off the line on the side with the easement.
I don’t have to stretch my imagination too hard to picture WE Energies being a jerk about this. Part of me says, “Tough nuts. You should have been aware of this issue when you bought the property.” But I also don’t like seeing people put in a tough spot by WE Energies. The best thing would be if the city could force WE Energies to fix things on their own dime, but since that can’t hapoen I guess…let the guy build 5 feet from the property line.
Meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=813010&GUID=C5C2C9DC-83E1-4005-A8BA-FDF86F9497CA&Options=info|&Search=
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