License and Variance Board Meeting - A. MAX BACON CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS — Minutes
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December 10, 2025 10:00 AM City of Smyrna License and Variance Board Meeting 2800 King Street SE Council Chambers Page 12 of 20 K. V25-116 Public Hearing - Variance Request - V25-116 - Allow more than 25% impervious coverage in the front yard - Land Lot 344 - 2809 Sherwood Road - Sean Murphy Ward 5 Councilmember - Susan Wilkinson Caitlin Crowe, Land Development Services Coordinator, provided the following background for items V25-116, V25-117, V25-118 and V25-119: The subject parcel is a 0.25-acre lot located on the east side of Sherwood Road in the Concord Estates subdivision. The subject parcel and all adjacent parcels, with the exception of the property to the east, are zoned R-15 and are all occupied by single-family detached residences. The adjacent property to the east (at the rear of the property) is zoned GC (General Commercial) and is occupied by Merry Maids Marietta, a home cleaning business. In April 2025, a detached accessory structure was built along with a new driveway on the rear of the property without obtaining a building permit or variance. Code Enforcement subsequently issued a notice of violation to the subject property for working without a permit the same month. A permit application was then submitted in June 2025 but never moved past plan review. The applicant moved forward with the variance application in November 2025. The property is currently occupied by a one-story 2,626 square foot single-family home and a 590 square foot accessory structure on the southeastern corner of the property. The applicant is proposing to retain the accessory structure in the same footprint and keep the attached 576 square foot carport on the front of the home. The structure is used for storage only and will not be used as an accessory dwelling unit. Sometime in 2022, the original one-car driveway was extended to create a two-car driveway and additional parking pad. In April 2025, a second driveway apron was installed on the southern side of the property and connected to the original driveway to create a circular driveway across the entire front yard. As it stands today, 60.8% of the front yard is covered in concrete. As part of the variance application the applicant has proposed removing 484 square feet of concrete between the two driveways to bring the impervious surface area in the front yard to 46%. Additionally, the applicant has proposed removing an additional 197 square feet of concrete along the southern side property line, which will remove the need for a driveway setback variance, thus minimizing the required variances. Around the same time of the original driveway expansion in 2022, a carport was erected onto the front of the home without a permit. The carport currently encroaches into the front setback by 10 feet and is accessed off the original driveway apron. Due to the existing concrete driveway, the most logical area to construct the carport was within the front setback to decrease disturbance to the subject property and surrounding neighbors. Since the existing home is near both side setbacks already, there is no additional room to add any type of covered parking space within the front or side setbacks without triggering a variance. Although Zoning Code includes the gross square footage of the home in calculating house size, once the carport and wood deck are removed from the total, the house size is only 1,765 square feet, which is less than the required 2,000 square feet for the R-15 area. Thus there is limited storage capacity within the home itself. When the shed was erected in April 2025, it was constructed within the side setback by 1 foot. Since shifting the shed over would increase the land disturbance required on the property, staff are supportive of the request.