Smyrna board approves 3-foot side-setback reduction at Pretty Branch Drive with condition on basement cooking

Smyrna’s License and Variance Board approved a variance April 23 to reduce the northern side setback from 12 feet to 9 feet at 3342 Pretty Branch Drive and attached a second, specific condition barring the installation of a stove or oven in the basement without first obtaining a variance for a second kitchen.

Planner Caitlin Crow told the board the 0.42-acre lot contains a one-story home with a daylight basement and existing encroachments on both sides; the property also includes a sanitary sewer easement and a private drain pipe installed by a prior owner. Crow said the original home was built in 1960, predating the city’s current ordinance, so staff found the hardship was not self-created. The engineering department inspected the site and confirmed the private pipe is not the city’s responsibility.

Crow recommended approval with two stipulations: substantial compliance with the submitted site plan and a prohibition on installing a stove or oven in the basement without first obtaining a variance for a second kitchen. During the hearing, contractor/owner John Bradford and engineering staff clarified that proposed disturbance would be at least approximately 60 feet from the sewer inlets and that a silt fence would be installed along the sewer-side setback during construction. Adjacent-neighbor questions were delivered to the board at the premeeting; staff provided clarifying answers during the hearing.

The applicant agreed to the stipulations; no members of the public spoke for or against the application and the board approved the variance unanimously.