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Florence BZA approves side-setback variance so homeowners can install pool at 1052 Oak Bend Lane
Summary
The Florence Board of Zoning Appeals approved a 7-foot variance from the NC-10 side-setback requirement to allow a swimming pool to be built 3 feet from the side property line at 1052 Oak Bend Lane; staff said the proposed location is outside the regulated floodplain and no neighbors objected.
The Florence Board of Zoning Appeals approved a variance to the city's side-setback requirement to allow a swimming pool at 1052 Oak Bend Lane to sit 3 feet from the side property line.
The approval, granted by voice vote at the board's meeting, lets the homeowners locate the pool closer to the property line than the Neighborhood Conservation 10 (NC-10) zoning standards normally allow. City staff told the board the proposed placement would not fall inside the regulated floodplain and that the site is shielded from adjacent properties by an existing six-foot privacy fence.
City staff described the request as a 7-foot variance from the side-setback requirement under the Unified Development Ordinance, which would allow the pool to be positioned 3 feet from the side lot line. Derek, city staff presenting the item, said the survey and site conditions'including an attached carport, a detached garage and mapped floodplain areas'constrain where a pool can be placed on the lot. "They are keeping it out of the 500 flood plain," Derek said, adding that the proposed location misses the mapped house footprint, carport and the 500-year floodplain.
Applicant Tara Reeves of Dreamscape Pools testified that the homeowners had asked for the pool to be 3 feet from the fence to preserve access on the structure side and to avoid removing a brick feature. "The homeowners requested to be 3 feet away from the fence," Reeves said, and described plans to place a small rock bed along the fence and to use a flexible hose to discharge pool water to the city storm drain in front of the house when necessary. Derek noted that "dechlorinated pool water is an allowable discharge, for stormwater."
Staff said the city posted notice and mailed letters; no calls or emails of objection were received. The staff presentation had a mapping discrepancy in the meeting PowerPoint, which staff clarified during the hearing: the formal request the board considered was for a 7-foot variance to allow a 3-foot side setback, not the larger encroachment that appeared in one slide. Board members asked questions about the floodplain mapping and confirmed the proposed pool would not place permanent structures inside the 100- or 500-year floodplain as mapped.
After findings that the lot'topography, the house footprint and mapped floodplain constrain location options, and that the pool would be behind the house and shielded by a privacy fence, a motion to approve the variance carried by voice vote; the chair declared "the ayes have it." The board's decision follows the standard variance findings read into the record that granting the variance would not be contrary to the public interest and would not harm the character of the district.
The application materials list the owner of record as Walter and (spouse) Connor and name Tara Reeves of Dreamscape Pools as the applicant. The property is adjacent to Lake Oakdale and at the corner of Stratton Drive and Oak Bend Lane. No additional conditions, performance guarantees or permit requirements beyond standard building and stormwater rules were recorded in the hearing, and staff indicated that standard building permitting and compliance with federal/state floodplain regulations remain applicable.
No one spoke in opposition during the hearing. With no other items on the agenda, the board adjourned the hearing after approving the variance.
