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Board denies second-story dwelling on bluff at Big Birch Lake but approves after-the-fact deck
Summary
The Stearns County Board of Adjustment denied a variance that would have allowed a 2,240-square-foot dwelling/second-story addition at the top of a bluff on Big Birch Lake, citing bluff-protection policies, but approved an after-the-fact variance to leave a 367-square-foot deck already partly in the shore impact zone.
The Stearns County Board of Adjustment voted to deny a variance that would have allowed a proposed 2,240-square-foot dwelling — effectively a second-story addition on a legal nonconforming structure — at the top of a bluff on Big Birch Lake, and separately approved an after-the-fact variance to leave a 367-square-foot deck that is partly within the shore impact zone.
Staff told the board the property contains an existing 806-square-foot dwelling constructed in 1955 (before the county’s official controls), a 367-square-foot deck built without a permit in 2000, and that the proposed dwelling…
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