Board approves variance to build single-family home within stream buffer at Spyglass Hill Drive

The Johns Creek Board of Zoning Appeals approved a variance (VDash250004) permitting a 50-foot encroachment into the 75-foot stream buffer to construct a single-family home at 1425 Spyglass Hill Drive in the Saint Ives Country Club area. Tyler Baron (Planner 3) told the board the 0.72-acre lot is mostly within the buffer (about 84% of the parcel), that proposed improvements would create 3,642 square feet of impervious surface within the 75-foot buffer and 2,083 square feet of disturbance in the 50-foot undisturbed buffer, and that staff recommended approval with conditions including the installation of dry wells and a required vegetative plan.

Applicant Bridal Capadia said the lot is difficult to develop, noting steep slopes and prior right-of-way taken by Georgia DOT; architect Steve West described structural and grading challenges and explained that mitigation plantings had to be placed across the creek on adjacent land to meet mitigation-area requirements. "It's a difficult lot," West said, explaining the need for cantilevered structure elements and extensive mitigation planting. Board members queried why a prior 2018 approval had different setback figures, whether the house plan could be moved forward (which would require additional variances and HOA approval), and whether the applicant intended to occupy the home; Capadia confirmed she plans to live in the house and has resided in Saint Ives since 1998.

The board voted to approve the variance with staff conditions requiring limits on encroachment matching the submitted site plan (received 05/12/2025), submission of a vegetative mitigation plan consistent with the submitted materials, installation of dry wells sized to retain the first inch of runoff from impervious surfaces, and passing city inspection prior to issuance of a certificate of occupancy.