Board allows gravel driveway and waives sidewalk requirement for proposed Rose Road home

The Vermilion Board of Zoning Appeals voted Feb. 25 to waive a sidewalk requirement and to grant a variance allowing a gravel driveway for a proposed new home on Cooper Foster (Rose Road). The applicant’s representative, Jake Bridal, said the home is a new build for Chad Brockett and that the family faces construction-cost constraints.

Board members split the actions into two motions. On R11024Dot01 the board voted to allow no sidewalk, with Chair calling the vote and members answering in the affirmative; the motion carried. The board then considered R11270.02, a request to permit a graveled (non–hard-surface) driveway where the code requires a hard surface. The motion passed after roll call; one member voted no.

Bridal told the board the proposed driveway would be roughly 180 feet by 12 feet and described the project as a single-family new build. He estimated that constructing a 2,000-square-foot hard-surface driveway and approach could cost about $40,000 (approximately $10 per square foot), a figure he said was already included in his budget discussion but which he described as an added expense they hoped to avoid.

Board members said the neighborhood includes a mix of gravel, concrete and asphalt driveways and agreed a split vote on sidewalk and driveway issues was appropriate. The board’s actions permit the applicant to proceed without a sidewalk and with a gravel driveway, subject to any other permitting or site conditions not altered by the variance.

The board did not announce additional conditions on implementation at the meeting. The case was presented under the board’s zoning authority; the applicant may still need to meet building-department requirements and obtain any required permits before construction begins.