The Board of Zoning Appeals met 07/17/2023. One of the requests they deliberated on was for a variance to allow a 6-foot-tall fence to be built in the front yard of a residence on Cherokee Drive even though the Municipal Code only allowed 3-foot-tall fences in the front yard. The lot was a pie-shaped, corner lot, so it had two front yards. The backyard was very small, so the homeowners had installed a patio area in the front yard. They wanted to maintain the fence between the yards both for privacy and to protect themselves from the neighbors dogs who were capable of jumping over a smaller fence.
The board ended up voting unanimously to grant the variance.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
The fence had originally been built in 1966 on the neighboring property along Mohawk Drive and had divided the two lots. The neighboring homeowner had applied and been granted a variance for the fence. The neighboring house on Mohawk Drive was sold to a new owner, and the fence fell into disrepair. In 2001 a violent storm destroyed portions of the fence, and the owner of the house on Mohawk Drive did not plan to rebuild it. As a result, the property owner for the house on Cherokee Drive opted to rebuild the portion of the fence that had fallen down but moved it over onto his side of the property line. The contractor who installed the fence in 2001 did not take out a permit otherwise the need for a variance would have been discovered. That fence installed in 2001 also started to degrade and during the winter of 2022-23 it fell over. When the property owner went to get a permit to rebuild it, he was told he needed a variance in order to build a 6-foot-tall fence.
Inspections Supervisor Kurt Craanen told the board that he thought that the applicant had a good case because the neighboring property already had a variance After some discussion, the board decided to grant the variance.
Board member Scott Engstrom explained his reasoning for voting in favor of the variance thusly, “That’s an irregularly shaped lot. I think the record evidence here before us supports granting a variance. I think also the history of the property as well as the adjoining property contributes to this. There was a previous finding that there was a hardship sufficient to grant a variance in the other property. Obviously, the applicants were good neighbors and decided to take on the onus of fixing it without knowing that it ultimately made it non-compliant. Also noting the history of the contractor not having gotten the permit. So, I think those things weigh in favor of the applicants, you know, making every effort to do this the correct way. I think public policy would favor that.”
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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