James Island BZA unanimously approves variance for backyard pool despite new stormwater rule

The Town of James Island Board of Zoning Appeals on April 15, 2025, voted unanimously to approve a variance permitting a residential pool on a 0.19-acre lot in a planned development, despite the town's supplemental stormwater design standard that limits impervious surfaces to 40 percent of a parcel.

Board members said the planned development's dedicated open space and an existing retention pond made the property's circumstances unusual and unlikely to harm neighboring parcels. The motion to approve the variance, subject to staff conditions, was made by Mr. Yannatelli and seconded by Mr. Smith and Mr. Hayes; the board recorded a unanimous vote and directed staff to mail the final decision to the applicant within 10 working days.

The variance request was filed as case BZA-3-25-040. Planning staff entered written materials into the record, including an April 10, 2025, email from the planning director and an April 15, 2025, follow-up that included six letters supporting the application. The board conducted a public hearing in which the applicant, Eric Northcutt, described the property and timeline for seeking a pool permit. No speakers rose in support or opposition during the public-comment portion of the hearing.

Kristen Crane, the town's planning director, and the town's contract engineer answered members' questions about the town's supplemental stormwater design standards, adopted September 19, 2024. The town engineer said the location's combination of an 11-acre planned development and a three-acre retention area reduced the risk that granting the variance would worsen runoff for neighboring properties. "No. I think the very special circumstances here are not going to be replicated very anywhere else that I'm aware of," the town engineer said, adding that the application would not "hurt an adjacent property."

Applicant Eric Northcutt told the board he purchased the lot in August 2023 and said he had intended to add a pool. He said he put a deposit with a builder and obtained his homeowners association approval shortly after the town's revised stormwater standards took effect, which he and staff cited as the reason the town review happened after the new rules were adopted. "When we did purchase the property in August of 2023, our goal was to add a pool," Northcutt said. He told the board his calculations indicated adding the pool would keep his lot under the 40 percent impervious threshold when accounting for the development's open-space design.

During deliberations, board members discussed whether the ordinance's 40 percent limit should be applied to the individual lot or in consideration of the planned development's overall open-space allocations. Several members said the planned-development design and the retention pond directly behind the applicant's property created a factual pattern that differed from older neighborhoods where no such set-aside exists. One member who participated in drafting the revised stormwater standards told the board that those standards were not intended to produce "draconian" results for small lots in planned developments.

The board approved the variance "along with the condition imposed by staff," but the specific condition(s) were not described on the public record during the hearing. The board clerk said the applicant would receive the written final decision and may contact planning staff with questions.

The approval resolves the lone case on the April 15 agenda for the BZA. The board reminded viewers that decisions of the BZA may be appealed to the circuit court within 30 days of the mailing of the decision, per South Carolina law.