Gus S Calabrese wrote:
> On 2006-Sep 01, at 18:16hrs PM, Carey Fisher wrote:
>
>
>
> M. Adam Davis wrote:
>   
>> This may not be the case for this instance, but it's easy to see that
>> this could easily happen, and simply points to the fact that at the
>> end of the day it's completely and utterly the owner's responsibility.
>>  They can only ask for a variance, and it's unlikely that they'll get
>> one.
>>
>> -Adam
>>
>>
>>     
> Not exactly.   It varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.  In my town,
> I am on the Zoning Board of Appeals.  We hear variance requests.  In my
> experience, we would likely grant a variance if the homeowner was
> "misled" (not necessarily on purpose) by the permitting department and
> had spent time and money in good faith.
> --  
>
> ^ Do you start with the attitude that a variance is "bad" ?  What  
> percentage
> of variances do you approve ?  How long do you spend considering a  
> variance ?
> If I were on such a board, I would start with the idea that the  
> variance should be
> approved..... then would look to see if anything compelling suggested  
> otherwise.
> AGSC ^
>   
No, we start with the idea that someone wants to do something against 
the rules (zoning rules) and then we let them try to convince us that 
they would (a) suffer a hardship without the variance; (b) other folks 
would not suffer an undue hardship under the variance; and (c) the 
result of the variance would be otherwise legal (no you can't add a 
bedroom to your house that would end up in the roadway).  We probably 
approve 75% of variances.  The Board is a group of plain citizens.  We 
have a full time professional (paid) city department that works with the 
variance requestors before the variance request is presented to us.  The 
final variance request is the best give and take the city and requestor 
could negotiate and we get a recommendation to approve or not from the 
professional Development Director for the city.  We can then accept, 
deny, accept with any changes we want or table for further discussion 
between the City and the requestor.

Most of us like to visit the property under discussion before making a 
decision.  We are biased, however, against requestors that LIE to us.  
Like the group that claimed their (40+ acre) property would be of zero 
value to them if we didn't let them build 5 feet closer to the stream 
for a distance of 10 feet than the rules allow. Ha!
-- 

*Carey*

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