Board reviews variance to place storage and repair shed at 449 9th Street; two ayes recorded

A local zoning board reviewed a petition to allow a storage and repair shed on Parcel 387.06-5-38, 449 9th Street, owned by Mark Holland, with the clerk reading the application on the record.

The petition, read aloud by the clerk, requested "to allow for the placement of a shed for both storage and repair" in a property zoned C M, and cited Section 300-0312a concerning permitted principal uses and orientation requirements. Speaker 7, a board member on the record, noted the central zoning question: the code treats secondary structures in relation to a primary residence and a nonresidential use oriented to a major street can trigger a different classification.

Petitioners described cleaning up what they called a "vacant junk lot," said they bid for and won the parcel at auction, and noted personal recreational use for stored boats. Speaker 6 told the board they had paid $2,500 at auction and that the intended use is personal storage for boats used in tournaments; they said electricity could be pursued after approval but that the site would have no water or sewer service. "We do have... his brother lives across the street," the petitioner said when asked about adjacent ownership and potential objections.

Board members asked for photographs of the proposed shed and sought detail about whether previous installations from a vendor called Heritage Shed had been advised as permit-exempt. "Is there pictures of the shed that you're gonna be putting in there?" Speaker 5 asked. Speaker 5 also raised concern that Heritage Shed had previously placed other sheds and told residents they did not need permits. On setbacks and code compliance, Speaker 7 advised that even temporary or prefab sheds must meet setback rules and that placement should be measured against where a primary structure would sit on the lot.

On utilities and site services, the petitioner said no water or sewer connection would be added and that electrical connections would be addressed later if the variance were approved. Board discussion highlighted the orientation issue — whether frontage toward Washington Street versus 9th Street would classify a structure as nonresidential — and noted that moving the commercial boundary could concentrate commercial uses along Washington while keeping side-street lots residential.

The record concludes with a voice vote called by the clerk. The transcript records "Mister Russell? Aye." and "Mister Thomas? Aye." The clerk did not state a mover or second on the record in the provided transcript, and the recorded votes of other board members were not specified in the excerpt provided.

Next steps and procedural follow-up were not specified in the provided transcript. The petition included the parcel number (387.06-5-38), the street address (449 9th Street), and the owner's name (Mark Holland) as read on the record; additional documentary evidence such as photographs and formal permit applications were discussed but not entered into the recorded excerpts.