BZA grants setbacks variance for Greater Florence Habitat house at 418 West Sumter Street

The Board of Zoning Appeals voted to grant a variance allowing a new single-family house to be built with reduced front and rear setbacks at 418 West Sumter Street, a parcel donated by the city to Greater Florence Habitat for Humanity.

City staff reported the 2,800-square-foot parcel is a legal lot of record in the Neighborhood Conservation (NC 6.2) zoning district, where the UDO requires 25-foot front setbacks and 20-foot rear setbacks. Staff said on a parcel only 62 feet deep, the full UDO setbacks would make reasonable construction impractical; the applicants requested a 15-foot front setback and roughly a 10-foot rear setback while meeting side setbacks.

Travis Cooper, representing Greater Florence Habitat for Humanity, told the board the city donated the lot through a neighborhood revitalization program and that Habitat’s homes on the lot would be financed with interest-free mortgages. Cooper said the reduced setbacks are consistent with nearby houses, many of which sit 10 to 20 feet from the front property line and were built in the mid-20th century.

Staff noted water and sewer meters already exist on the parcel and that neighboring homeowners who inquired were assured the variance would affect only this single lot. In its findings, the board concluded that strict enforcement of the standard setbacks would result in unnecessary hardship for this legal lot of record; that granting the variance would not be a substantial detriment to adjacent properties or the public good; and that the character of the district would not be harmed. The motion carried with the ayes prevailing and the variance was approved.

Board members and staff discussed that the lot is among the smaller parcels in the block but that legal-lot-of-record provisions allow development even where minimum new-lot sizes are larger than this parcel. Staff reiterated that building permits and any required inspections would still be required.