The Bettendorf Board of Adjustment voted 5-0 on Jan. 9, 2025, to deny a variance request that would have allowed a 5-foot-high fence within the required front-yard setback along Field Site Drive for the property at 5690 Devil's Glen Road.

The decision follows a staff recommendation to refuse the variance. A staff member said, “staff would recommend denial of the 5 foot high fence request within the front yard setback facing Field Site Drive,” citing the city’s fence and setback rules and recent precedents involving fences facing local roads.

Staff told the board the property is in an A-2 rural residential district with a 40-foot front-yard setback and that the zoning ordinance limits fence height to 4 feet within front-yard setbacks. The staff report referenced ordinances 11-11B-12L (fences and walls) and 11-12-15(D)(3) (hardship criteria for variances) and noted Field Site Drive is classified as a local road under the ordinance and therefore does not meet exceptions that apply to collectors or arterials.

In staff’s measurement of the proposed enclosure, the total fenced area would be about 7,880 square feet; 1,468 square feet of that area would lie inside the front-yard setback the petitioner sought to bypass. Staff said roughly 81.4% of the proposed fenced area could meet allowable fence heights elsewhere on the lot and that less than 20% would need to comply with the 4-foot limit in the front setback. Staff concluded the petitioner had not shown the property could not yield a reasonable return under permitted uses and therefore had not demonstrated the ordinance’s required hardship.

The petition was identified in the staff report as submitted by Carlos Calderon. No members of the public spoke for or against the variance during the hearing. After brief discussion the board made a motion to deny the variance; the roll call vote was Gallagher — yes; Springer — yes; Tanzi — yes; Tom Burks — yes; Vermillion — yes.

Staff noted prior local decisions after a 2022 rewrite of the fence-height rules rejecting similar requests for fences that face local roads; staff cited examples including properties on Saint Ann Drive (7054 and 7037 Saint Ann Drive, 2022) and older cases on Roseville Avenue, Happiness Lane, and Allen Road. The board’s vote denied the variance request, leaving the 4-foot front-yard limit in effect for the encroaching section along Field Site Drive.

There was no further public testimony on the item and no other business affecting this case was raised before the board adjourned.