Troy zoning board grants variance to allow existing shed at 1230 South Boulevard

The Troy City Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously Thursday to grant a dimensional variance allowing an existing shed to remain behind the house at 1230 East South Boulevard despite the city ordinance generally allowing sheds only in rear yards.

City staff told the board the shed was constructed without a building permit and sits approximately 80 feet from the South Boulevard property line. The applicant and multiple neighbors told the board the houseorientation and local history effectively make the area around the shed the propertybackyard.

Paul Evans, city staff, summarized the request and the property history, saying the ordinance requires sheds to be in rear yards and the house is currently about 25 feet from what the city treats as the rear property line. "The zoning ordinance only allows sheds in a rear yard. The shed was constructed without a building permit," Evans said during the presentation of aerials and site plans.

Applicant Doris Plantis told the board she and neighbors have historically considered the Harned Street side the front of the house and the South Boulevard side the rear. "The front of my house is facing south. The big point here that I stress ... that's not the backyard. My house faces Harned Street. That's my front yard," Plantis said, describing why she and nearby residents consider the shed to be in the backyard area. Plantis said the 8-by-12-foot shed was delivered prebuilt, set on grade (about 8 inches off the ground) and not permanently affixed.

Neighbors including Rebecca Simeon and Caitlin Vykevicius spoke in support, saying the shed is tidy, located next to the applicantgarden and not an eyesore. Mark Baker, who lives near the gate at the end of platted Harned Street, told the board the neighborhood historically used Harned Street for access and that Google Maps and mail routing still identify the properties by their Harned addresses. "You gotta go back all the way around and come in the new driveway because they used to be the front of the house," Baker said.

Board members discussed the unusual platting and addressing history, the location of existing access and whether the propertycharacteristics constituted an "exceptional characteristic" under the cityzoning rules for a dimensional variance. Board member Green said the propertyaddress reversal and the house orientation were exceptional characteristics that made compliance with dimensional requirements substantially more difficult. "That is what makes it hard. The dimensional requirements are difficult because of that property's address getting flipped," Green said.

Green moved to grant the variance request "for the aforementioned reasons," a motion seconded during discussion. After additional procedural discussion about potential conditions and the building permit process, the board voted. Chair Desmond announced the tally: Chambers, Desmond, Bostonbrook, Forster, McCauley, Green and Kenkree voted yes. The board thus approved the variance by a 7-0 vote.

Evans told the board and the applicant that a building permit application is already on file with the building department and that the permit process would follow the boardaction. He said the shedlocation allowed by the variance should be that shown on the site plan the board relied upon. "If the variance is granted ... it has to be in the location shown on this site plan because that's what everyone involved with this matter of the board public saw," Evans said.

The boardmotion authorized the shed to remain in the location shown on the submitted site plan; the city will review the existing building permit application and any building-code attachment requirements separately. The applicant was present at the meeting and received the board's decision at adjournment.

Votes at a glance: the variance to allow a shed at 1230 East South Boulevard was granted, vote 7-0 (Chambers, Desmond, Bostonbrook, Forster, McCauley, Green, Kenkree).