Smyrna board approves variances to allow home near Kingsview stream with stormwater mitigation

The City of Smyrna License and Variance Board on June 11, 2025, approved two variances allowing construction at 1241 Kingsview Drive that will encroach into the city's 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer and the city's 75-foot impervious-surface setback, the board confirmed during a public hearing.

The variances matter because the 0.65-acre lot is substantially encumbered by multiple buffer layers adopted after the lot was platted; without the variances the applicant says the parcel would be undevelopable. Caitlin Crow, Planner I in Smyrna Community Development, told the board: "this is variance v 25Dash052 to allow encroachment into the city's 50 foot undisturbed stream buffer" and summarized staff recommendations and standard conditions for approval.

Community development staff reported that the parcel was platted in 1965, before the city's stream-buffer ordinance took effect in February 2005, and that state and city buffers together would, if applied without relief, cover the entire lot. The applicant proposes…