The Board of Zoning Appeals is meeting 07/17/2023 at 7PM. They will be taking up two variance requests.
The first is for a residence on Cherokee Drive. There is an existing 5- or 6-foot-tall fence in the front yard. That fence is in disrepair and needs to be replaced. The property owner would like to replace it with another 6-foot-tall fence; however, the city Zoning Ordinance limits the height of front yard fences to only 3 feet.
The fence runs along the lot line between this property and the neighboring property, but because the lot is a triangular shaped corner lot, part of the fence is considered to be in the front yard. The property owner states that not being able to install a new fence would result in a loss of privacy. Per the staff report by Inspections Supervisor Craanen, the neighboring property, which also has a unique parcel shape, was granted a variance for a 6-foot-tall fence along the same property line back in 1994.
The second request is for the Engage Orthodontics property on S Matthias Street. The business needs to redo their parking lot and add additional parking. The plan calls for a 5-foot landscape buffer along the southeast corner of the parking lot, but the Zoning Ordinance requires an 8-foot landscape buffer when across from a property zoned C2. The business owner claims that they only have 21 parking spots for 21 employees and up to 20 simultaneous patients. Local residents have complained about the amount of on-street parking taking place. The business can’t expand the parking lot to the west due to the desire to preserve trees as a buffer between the business and residential homes. Additionally, a storm sewer easement restricts the direction in which they can expand.
The staff report does not make a recommendation one way or the other but does not that the easement does limit the number of parking spaces that may be added to this parking lot.
[My best guess is that both of these variance requests will be granted because they both have observable physical hardships that have led to the variance request.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1110451&GUID=7B2F14C3-118C-4175-996F-9CEE906181B2
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