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Zoning board OKs variance to allow asphalt millings and 6-foot fence at 110 Rapid Street
Summary
The Rapid City Zoning Board of Adjustment approved a variance allowing asphalt millings instead of required concrete or asphalt surfacing and a 6-foot front-yard fence at 110 Rapid Street, with conditions including annual dust palliative and runoff/visibility protections.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment voted to approve a variance for property at 110 Rapid Street on July 24, allowing asphalt millings in lieu of a code-required hard surface and permitting a 6-foot fence in the front yard where 4 feet is the standard.
City planning staff told the board the property, zoned General Commercial, currently contains a roughly 6,400-square-foot commercial building that the applicant intends to demolish and use for parking and storage for an adjacent business, Black Hills Outdoors. Staff said the proposed use is low-traffic storage related to the business across First Street and therefore recommended the variance because asphalt millings are not an allowed hard surfacing material without a variance.
Staff also said the applicant will place a 6-foot chain-link fence with opaque slats and a 20-foot-wide lockable swing gate at the First Street entrance, and that access to the site will be from First Street only. Public Works noted conditions that must be met at building permit: calculations demonstrating millings will not erode into the street, maintenance of a 10-foot pedestrian sight triangle at each side of the gate and at the alley, and that staff will require an annual dust palliative application on surfaces that are not conventional hard surfacing.
Board members discussed precedent and scope. One commissioner asked whether approval would create a downtown precedent for millings; staff replied the recommendation relies on the special circumstance that the proposed use is low-traffic storage tied to the adjacent business, and that staff would not recommend millings for a commercial parking lot where higher traffic is expected. The board added a stipulation that the variance be specific to the proposed use so that future different uses (for example, employee parking or other higher‑traffic uses) would be required to hard-surface the lot.
Vince moved approval of the variance and Karen seconded. The motion carried; one board member, identified in the minutes as Eric Aikas, recorded a no vote. Approval includes the staff stipulations described above: runoff calculations at building permit, maintenance of pedestrian sight triangles, annual dust palliative, and use‑specific limitation.
The board also reviewed site photos, the proposed fence detail with slats, and discussed enforcement: the city’s air-quality specialist said dust palliative enforcement is complaint-driven and that staff will inspect and require application if neighbors report dust.
The board returned the item to the record with the listed stipulations and proceeded to the next agenda item.
