Morgan County board approves front‑yard setback variance for Jackson Township porch

The Morgan County Board of Zoning Appeals on Feb. 24 voted to approve development standard variance D‑24‑19, allowing a 15‑foot front‑yard setback for a covered‑porch addition at 2530 South Glen Cove in Jackson Township. The application was filed on behalf of DJ Meet Properties LLC and was continued from a November 2024 hearing.

Planning staff said a surveyor's location report provided by the applicant resolved a question about where the county's parcel layer located the cul‑de‑sac right‑of‑way. Miss Parker, county planning staff, said the county's plat layer had shortened the cul‑de‑sac when it was drawn into the parcel layer and that the surveyor's report appeared accurate. "My recommendation is to go ahead and approve this encroachment," Parker told the board, noting the porch does not intrude into the utility easement.

The applicant told the board he had supplied the requested survey. "I guess I'm just coming back to see where where we stand," the applicant said. Staff noted the house was built in 1971 and that the porch, while encroaching into the front‑yard setback, does not extend into the utility easement that would present a different legal issue.

After brief discussion, a motion to approve D‑24‑19 with the findings of fact was made and seconded. The board voted to approve the variance; the transcript records the motion passed by voice vote with unanimous support and no individual roll‑call numbers recorded in the meeting record.

The board thanked the applicant for providing the survey documents the panel had requested at the prior hearing. No further conditions were imposed on the variance at the Feb. 24 meeting.

The approval resolves an outstanding encroachment question tied to the county parcel mapping and allows the covered porch to remain under the adjusted front‑yard setback granted by the variance.