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Board approves house-height variance but denies 43-foot detached garage on steep Prescott lots
Summary
The Board of Adjustments approved a modest height increase for a new house (from 35 feet to 38 feet 10 inches) on combined hillside lots but denied a request to allow a detached garage to rise to 43 feet; staff cited steep lots and substantial fill needed to meet fire-code driveway grades. Votes on both items were 5–1.
At a July 17 public hearing, the City of Prescott Board of Adjustments approved one part of a two-part variance request and denied the other. The board approved a house-height variance for case V25-009 (35 feet to 38 feet 10 inches) by a 5–1 vote and later denied a separate request to permit a detached garage to rise to 43 feet from the 20-foot maximum, also by 5–1.
Tammy DeWitt, community planner, presented the request on behalf of the applicant. She said two platted hillside lots are being combined and that the lots were designated hillside at platting because the grade exceeds 20 percent. DeWitt said engineers reported more than 50 feet of vertical relief on the property and that the developer brought in roughly 18–20 feet of fill to create building pads and meet the fire district’s driveway slope requirements. That fill is the primary reason the detached garage would measure 43 feet from natural grade at the rear elevation even though it appears lower from the street.
The applicant and builder, Terry Savage, told the board the garage is detached by design to match the community concept and that meeting the fire-department slope requirements required substantial fill. Public commenters, including Donna Whitmore representing the Cliff Rose Homeowners Association and neighbor Barbara Taylor, said the HOA had not received architectural review materials and that a garage of that size would be out of character and would block panoramic views. Ryan Savage and other testifiers debated whether future in-fill homes would already block views; neighbors sought more opportunity for HOA review.
The board discussed procedure and agreed to vote on the house and garage separately. Mary Frederickson moved to approve the house-height variance (motion seconded by Miriam Habrick) and the motion carried 5–1. When a motion to approve the garage variance failed to gain a second, a later motion to deny the garage variance was made by a board member and seconded; the board voted to deny the detached-garage variance 5–1.
Staff said the findings in the record were tied to the hardship of slope and fill required to meet fire-code requirements; the record does not list additional mitigation or permit conditions. DeWitt noted one other application is pending for a future meeting.
