Fairhope Board of Adjustment hears variance request for 657 North Mobile Street; motion to deny made

At a June 16 meeting of the Fairhope City Board of Adjustment, property owners Robert and Melanie Roberts asked the board to grant a 20.7-foot front-setback variance and a roughly 3.2–3.4-foot side-setback variance for a covered walkway at 657 North Mobile Street.

Planning staff recommended denial after reviewing the zoning standards and the recorded replat. Hunter, a planning staff member, told the board that the house as built sits 14.33 feet from the front property line where the R-2 front setback is 35 feet, creating the 20.7-foot variance request; staff said the lot is nonconforming in width but did not find the statutory variance criteria met and therefore recommended denial.

Brad Hicks, attorney with Stone Crosby, P.C., who represented the Roberts, argued the block’s physical pattern and century-old plats create “special conditions” that make strict enforcement an unnecessary hardship. Hicks said his block survey showed 10 of 11 houses on Block 8 sit inside the 35-foot setback line and that the Palisano replat and an unopened park/right of way bisect…