Plantation planning board denies setback waiver for 6801 NW Fifth Court

The Plantation Planning and Zoning Board on Feb. 4 voted to deny a request from homeowner Corey Ellsworth for a practical-difficulty waiver that would have reduced the required setback and allowed a second two-car garage with an additional driveway at 6801 Northwest Fifth Court.

The application sought to reduce the required front setback from 30 feet to about 15 feet 8 1/4 inches for part of a proposed garage addition. Board members and staff raised concerns that approving the waiver as proposed would set a precedent that could encourage similar encroachments and alter the neighborhood’s streetscape.

Lehi Restrepo, planner II for the city, told the board the lot is zoned RS3D and that staff found the neighborhood generally developed with single garages and single driveways. Restrepo summarized staff’s analysis and recommendation: “Staff maintains the recommendation of denial,” noting the request did not meet four of the five criteria for a practical-difficulty waiver presented in the staff report.

Ellsworth’s designer, architect Oscar Ramirez, said the house was originally oriented to face Fifth Court and argued the street identified as the front yard in the code (60 8th Avenue) functions as a side yard for this property. “If the side yard setback would be… 20 feet, then our variance would technically only be for 4 foot 3 3/4 inches, creating a side setback of 15 feet 8 1/4 inches,” Ramirez said, adding that the applicant submitted comparables and would be willing to modify the driveway alignment to meet minimum driveway-width requirements.

Board members pressed the applicant on precedent and neighborhood character. One board member observed that some previously approved variances involved structures such as pergolas or rear-lot changes rather than visible street-front encroachments, calling those earlier approvals “apples and oranges.” The applicant acknowledged some of the submitted comparable properties were outside the staff’s study area and agreed to consider redesigning the plans to reduce the setback impact.

Planning Director Dan Holmes and other staff advised that substantial plan changes — for example, reorienting access to Fifth Court or designing a different garage configuration — would require new or revised submittals and public notice. Holmes said city staff could review revised documents quickly once submitted but that public-notice timelines could affect scheduling for a rehearing.

After discussion, a motion to approve the waiver “subject to staff comments” was moved by the meeting chair and seconded for the purpose of voting. The motion did not carry; the board did not approve the practical-difficulty waiver. The chair told the applicant the board’s advice was to work with staff to revise the plans and resubmit.

The applicant declined to withdraw the application before the vote and now may modify and resubmit new plans for a future hearing. Staff told the board that a substantially different design would be treated as a new application and would require new public notice and potentially additional fees; staff said they could explore fee reductions for resubmittal but could not waive the cost of public notice.

The board’s decision was procedural and specific to the plans submitted; several members encouraged the applicant to return with a revised design that could better conform to the 20-foot side setback or reduce the scale of the encroachment.

Votes at a glance: The board voted on a motion to approve the waiver as submitted (motion text: “Approve subject to staff comments”). The motion failed; the chair and a board member made the motion and second, respectively. The transcript does not record a complete roll-call tally in an unambiguous, machine-readable form; the record shows multiple board members voting no. The board chair advised the applicant to work with staff and return with revised plans.

Ending: The board ended its review of the Ellsworth request after the failed vote and moved on to other business, including a workshop on parking and zoning policy.