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Board approves setback variance for Augusta Middle School addition
Summary
The Board of Zoning Appeals approved a variance to reduce a side setback from 15 feet to 10 feet so Augusta Middle School can add a building addition; staff said the request reflected a zoning-change constraint created by new 2020 regulations.
The Board of Zoning Appeals voted to approve Variance 20-25-13 on a request by the school district to reduce a side setback at Augusta Middle School so a planned addition can be built.
The variance affects the property described in staff materials as Augusta Middle School (listed at 1001 North State Street in the staff report). The school district asked to encroach roughly 5 feet into the existing 15-foot side setback, producing a 10-foot setback for the new addition; staff said the addition is identified as Building 4 on submitted site plans.
City planning staff told the board the property is zoned R-1 but functions as an institutional use. Staff said a 2020 update to the city's zoning regulations reclassified many institutional/assembly uses under residential zoning, which now requires a plan development overlay (PDO) to allow the narrower setbacks that larger institutional buildings often need. Staff recommended the variance, saying the need is unique to this property, that the site has been used as a school since 1995 with subsequent additions in 2012, and that grant of the variance was not expected to harm adjacent property rights.
Logan Mills, a civil engineer with Certified Engineering Design, and Drew Meek of SPT Architecture attended the hearing but did not add substantive remarks; Mills said, "we have nothing else to add," when asked if the consultants wished to speak further. Planning staff reviewed the required findings of fact — uniqueness of the property, whether the need was self-created, potential effects on neighbors, unnecessary hardship from strict application of the code, and consistency with the spirit of the regulations — and recommended the board find those factors met.
A motion to approve Variance 20-25-13 was made and seconded. The board recorded the vote as all in favor and the motion carried.
The record contains an inconsistency in the address cited during the motion: the staff report and the initial presentation list the site as 1001 North State Street, while the motion language referenced 1001 Bay Street. The staff report and site diagrams identify the corner of State Street and Clark as the project location; the board did not resolve the address discrepancy on the record.
Staff noted that, under the current zoning framework, a PDO could have anticipated narrower setbacks for institutional uses; because one was not in place when the original building was built, the variance route was presented as the appropriate remedy.
No written opposition or public commenters appeared to contest the variance during the public hearing.
The board closed the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing and reconvened the Planning Commission following the vote.
