Pitkin County Board of Adjustment approves three variances for 25 Gleneagles Drive

The Pitkin County Board of Adjustment on Dec. 3 approved three variances allowing a proposed single-family residence at 25 Gleneagles Drive to be sited inside the county's major-road setback, to exceed retaining-wall height limits for a driveway, and to permit a landscape berm higher than the zoning code ordinarily allows.

Michael Kramer, a land planner with Land Planning, presented the application on behalf of property owner Ruthie Brown and said the requests respond to unusual topography, an existing private restricted easement and prior site disturbance. "We have three variances," Kramer said, describing (1) an 83-foot reduction to the 100-foot major-road setback adopted in 1976, (2) a roughly 3.5-foot variance to allow stacked-boulder retaining walls for the driveway where slopes are man-made, and (3) a 6-foot variance for a landscape berm intended to mitigate headlights, noise and view…