Covington board denies appeal to allow two homes on unimproved Eighteenth Avenue

The City of Covington Board of Adjustments on Monday, July 21, denied an appeal by property owner Michael Wertchelck seeking permission to build two single-family homes on adjoining lots accessible from an unimproved portion of Eighteenth Avenue.

The board’s decision, reached by a 3-2 roll call, upholds a mayoral determination limiting development at the end of the dead-end gravel right of way. Board members Miss Williams, Mister Lucas and Mister Romage voted to deny the appeal; Miss Butler and Mister Gilley voted no.

The petitioner told the board he had paid for right-of-way improvements the city asked for and that he had invested “about $35,000” to clear and install culverts and pipes. He said he bought the two lots in 2017 and expected to build two houses on them under the R-2 zoning. “I invested already... about $35,000 of my money between the right of ways, the pipes,” he said during the…