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Developers cite lot shape, stream buffers and steep grades as hardship on 3.61-acre Brand Road site
Summary
GBT Realty told the commission that right-of-way reconfiguration and stream buffers encumber about 22% of the 3.61-acre site, and that steep grades and an irregular frontage limit buildable area—arguments offered to justify five requested variances.
Kelly Hyatt, on behalf of GBT Realty, told commissioners the site’s physical constraints create hardship for a retail shopping center. Hyatt said the property was annexed in 2008 for hotel and retail use but that later right-of-way changes and a reconfiguration tied to a nearby development left the parcel irregularly shaped and more encumbered than originally intended: “When the city intended to bring this in for a shopping center in 2008 ... this property with the stream buffers in the back and then the double road frontage ends up with 22% of the property encumbered,” she said.
Hyatt also described a roughly 25-foot elevation change across the parcel and said standard grading and accessible-route requirements (ADA slopes) constrain where buildings and parking can be located. Those physical and historic changes, she said, contribute to the requested variances covering landscape buffers, stream setbacks and parking dimensions. The applicant and the property owner argued that a smaller building footprint would meet code but could not support the retail lease economics without the additional retail square footage.
