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City denies after‑the‑fact variance for 304 Calliope Street over impervious‑surface expansion
Summary
The City Commission of Ocoee denied a homeowner's request for a variance to exceed the city's 50% maximum impervious surface limit after code enforcement found pavers had been installed without permits. The owner says the work was done to address an ongoing rat infestation; staff and the planning commission recommended denial.
The City Commission of Ocoee on Feb. 4 unanimously denied a request by the owners of 304 Calliope Street to exceed the city's maximum impervious‑surface allowance, rejecting an after‑the‑fact application that would have increased impervious cover to 81 percent.
The commission's denial follows staff and Planning and Code Compliance (PCC) recommendations to refuse a 61.2 percent variance from Table 5‑2 (impervious surface limits) and Section 4‑9(a) (variance criteria) of the city's land‑development code. "There are no peculiar conditions to the land," Bernice Belazar, Planner I, told commissioners during the public hearing, summarizing staff's review under the four statutory variance criteria.
The homeowner, Joanna Renwick, told the commission she and her family installed pavers after a years‑long rodent problem near a sewer pump behind the yard. "This is a health issue that we're confronting," Renwick said, describing the infestation and saying the pavers eliminated rat activity on her property. She asked the city to permit the work or to allow time for an engineer to confirm the impacts.
Planner Belazar said the property started with 43 percent impervious surface when built in 2005 and that the code left roughly 7 percentage points (about 656 square feet) for permitted improvements. Staff found that pavers were installed without permits and that code enforcement cited the property; the planner noted that removing pavers from easements and narrowing walkways would reduce the requested variance by roughly 97 square feet (about 1 percentage point), but still leave the property above the 50 percent limit.
Commissioners asked whether the sewer pump behind the property was owned by the school district and whether it had been inspected; Belazar told the commission the pump abuts Thornbrook Elementary School and that city staff had no concrete evidence tying the pump's condition to the rodent activity. Several commissioners, while sympathetic to the health concerns Renwick raised, said prior denials of similar backyard paving requests and the city's need to apply its code uniformly weighed against granting an exception.
Commissioner Firstner moved to deny the variance; Commissioner Oliver seconded. The motion carried unanimously. The commission and staff offered to help coordinate outreach to Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) and to county code/maintenance staff to investigate the pump and the neighborhood rodent problem.
The denial requires the applicant to revise the pending after‑the‑fact permit to reduce the unpermitted pavers by at least 1,299.28 square feet unless an appeal or other remedy is pursued. The planner noted the PCC had recommended denial at its January hearing and staff recommended the same action to the commission.
