Mayor and Council Meeting - A. MAX BACON CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS — Minutes
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April 07, 2025 7:00 PM City of Smyrna Mayor and Council Meeting 2800 King Street SE Council Chambers Page 3 of 9 A. V25-017 Public Hearing - Variance Request - V25-017 - Reduce the side setback from 10 feet to 1 foot - Land Lot 345 - 2596 South Cobb Drive - Silver Lodestone, Inc. Ward 5 Councilmember - Susan Wilkinson Kristin Robinson, Deputy City Administrator, provided the following brief background: The applicant is requesting a variance to reduce the side setback from 10 feet to 1 foot for the placement of a free-standing ice vending machine at 2596 South Cobb Drive. Section 802 establishes the building setbacks for properties in the GC (General Commercial) zoning district. Russell Martin, Community Development Director, provided the following background: The subject parcel is located on the west side of South Cobb Drive. The subject property and all adjacent properties are zoned GC (General Commercial) and are occupied by a variety of commercial uses. The subject property is currently occupied by Hibachi Express, a 4,170 square foot drive-thru restaurant. The applicant is proposing a free-standing 154 square foot ice vending machine on the southern property line for customers of the restaurant and the general public alike. There is currently a chained off section of concrete occupying a similar space proposed for the ice vending machine, which has caused no impediment to the current flow of traffic at the restaurant (see Figure 5). In fact, two full lanes around the restaurant would remain accessible to ensure traffic flow so there would be no negative impact to the restaurant (see Figure 6). The proposed area is also not formally designated for parking currently, so there would be no parking reduction variance required; the existing nonconforming parking condition will not be altered with the addition of the ice vending machine. Additionally, the applicant was able to move the ice vending machine 51 feet off the front property line so no additional setback variance would be required. A similar variance was approved for an automatic teller machine (ATM) next door at 2552 South Cobb Drive in 2017 by Mayor and Council (Variance Case V17-054) so there is a precedence for this type of variance in the area. Community Development believes the variance requested is the minimum variance needed to construct an ice vending machine on the subject property. Community Development does not foresee any negative impacts to adjacent properties should the variance be approved. At the time of this report, Community Development has not received any calls in opposition to the request. The applicant is requesting to deviate from the City’s side setback requirements established for the GC (General Commercial) Zoning District. According to Section 1403 of the Zoning Ordinance, variances must be reviewed under the following standards: (1) Whether there are unique and special or extraordinary circumstances applying to the property; (2) Whether any alleged hardship is self-created by any person having an interest in the property; (3) Whether strict application of the relevant provisions of the code would deprive the applicant of reasonable use of the property; and (4) Whether the variance proposed is the minimum variance needed. Community Development has reviewed the request and believes that the variance will not adversely affect surrounding properties. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the requested variance with the following condition: