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Hearing examiner hears testimony on variance request to allow 400‑square‑foot shed in City of Cape Coral; decision pending
Summary
The City of Cape Coral hearing examiner on Sept. 16, 2025, heard testimony on a variance request from Carlos and Gloria Roldan seeking permission to retain an existing 400‑square‑foot shed at 1201 Northwest 30th Avenue, exceeding the Land Development Code limit of 200 square feet.
The City of Cape Coral hearing examiner on Sept. 16, 2025, heard testimony in a public hearing on a variance application from Carlos and Gloria Roldan seeking permission to retain an existing 400‑square‑foot shed at 1201 Northwest 30th Avenue, which exceeds the Land Development Code limit of 200 square feet for accessory sheds.
City planning staff, represented by Patrick White of the planning department, recommended denial after reviewing the application under the Land Development Code (LDC) variance criteria. White told the examiner that staff found the applicant had not met most of the LDC standards for a variance, including that the enlarged lot area was the result of the owner’s actions and therefore constituted a self‑induced hardship. White said staff concluded that “the maximum floor area for a shed just doesn't scale with a property size,” and that granting the variance would confer a special privilege on the applicant. He also noted the original shed was permitted and later expanded without a permit and that six of the seven variance criteria were not met in staff’s analysis.
The applicant, Carlos Roldan, testified that he expanded the structure to 400 square feet to store tools and equipment after closing his construction company in April 2024. Roldan said he owns roughly 30,000 square feet of joined lots at the address, described himself as a disabled Air Force veteran with post‑traumatic stress disorder, and told the examiner he was paying about $150 a month to store an RV elsewhere for the past six years (about $11,000 to date). He estimated the value of tools and equipment left from his business at roughly $40,000. Roldan asked the hearing examiner to allow the expanded shed to remain, saying, “I respectfully ask the court to allow me to maintain this extended shed.” He offered to provide blueprints and allow inspections to ensure the structure meets building codes.
Staff’s presentation described the site as a single‑family parcel zoned R‑1 with a single‑family/multifamily future land use designation and an existing 1,800‑square‑foot house constructed in 2018. White said the property consists of multiple joined platted lots, making it larger than a standard 10,000‑square‑foot lot, but that the joined lots were acquired by the owner and therefore did not create an LDC‑recognized hardship. White reviewed the LDC variance criteria (LDC 3.4.3.a.1) and the shed maximum (LDC 5.2.13.b) during his remarks and concluded the application failed to meet the required standards.
No members of the public offered testimony. The hearing examiner admitted photographs and other documents into the record and said she would review the materials and issue a decision. At the close of the hearing the examiner said she would “take all the testimony under consideration” and noted the record would be used to reach a ruling. The hearing concluded at 9:33 a.m.; the examiner announced the next scheduled hearing date as Oct. 7, 2025, at 9 a.m. in Council Chambers.
Because the hearing was evidentiary and no final ruling was issued at the session, the application remains under consideration and no permit or variance has yet been granted or denied.
