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Galveston ZBA approves lot-area variance to resolve property-line encroachment at 151340 Seventh Street
Summary
The Galveston Zoning Board of Adjustment voted June 9 to grant a variance reducing the minimum lot area for a northern parcel at 151340 Seventh Street after an existing structure was found to cross the legal property line between two parcels.
The Galveston Zoning Board of Adjustment on June 9 approved a variance to reduce the minimum lot area for a northern parcel at 151340 Seventh Street so the property line can be shifted to resolve an encroachment.
Staff said the two adjacent parcels at 151340 Seventh Street are owned by the same person and that a southern structure encroaches across the existing property line. The southern building was constructed between 1912 and 1947, staff said, while the northern structure was built after 1947. City staff told the board that moving the property line north to cure the encroachment would leave the northern lot at about 1,981 square feet, below the district's 2,500-square-foot minimum and therefore requiring a 519-square-foot variance.
The applicant told the board they bought the two parcels together and that the split and the encroachment preexisted their ownership. "When we bought the house, it was like that. This is something we inherited," the applicant said, urging the board to permit the boundary change to remove an obstacle to future sale and financing of the front parcel.
A commissioner moved to approve the variance, reciting the standard findings required under the city's variance rules (special condition, unnecessary hardship, least relief, no detrimental impact on adjacent property, and that the hardship was not self-imposed). A second was recorded for "Becca." The board voted in favor; no roll-call tally was recorded in the hearing transcript. The commission directed staff to provide a formal notification of the action within 10 days.
The variance applies only to the northern lot's minimum-area requirement to resolve the encroachment; no changes to the southern lot's compliance were required by the motion. The staff report noted that, if approved, a utility easement requirement would be imposed during permitting.
The board treated the case as a request for relief from the Land Development Regulations' minimum-lot-area standard to cure an existing encroachment rather than as a policy change. The applicant said they would accept adjustments the commission recommended to the new lot line.
