Planning Panel Grants 10-Foot Setback Variance for Clubview Drive Home

Lancaster County planning commissioners approved a front-setback variance allowing Frederick W. Butler III to place a proposed single-family home 65 feet from the centerline of Clubview Drive, 10 feet closer than the county’s 75-foot requirement.

Planning staff told the commission the parcel was created by a 1966 subdivision plat predating the current zoning regulations and that many lots in the neighborhood are small. Staff said the health department requires any foundation to be at least 10 feet from the septic drain field, which reduced the buildable area and led the property owner, after consultation with a surveyor, to request a 10-foot encroachment into the front setback. “Therefore… the property owner is requesting a variance for a 10 foot encroachment into the front setback in order to adequately allow room for all of the proposed improvements on the subject property,” planning staff said.

The applicant described the house plan as roughly 34 feet wide by 55 feet long with a five-foot front porch that pushed the build area farther forward. “When we laid out the septic system in the back in order to get that 10 foot off the back foundation, it’s making me have to push the house a little further forward,” the applicant said.

No public objections were reported. Board members cited the small lot sizes and the septic limitation as reasons they were comfortable granting the modest variance. A motion to approve the 10-foot variance passed by voice vote with no recorded opposition.

The variance applies to tax map number 20-D-4-71 on Clubview Drive, located off Court Domingue Drive in District 1.