License and Variance Board Meeting - A. MAX BACON CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS — Minutes
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January 08, 2025 10:00 AM City of Smyrna License and Variance Board Meeting 2800 King Street SE Council Chambers Page 4 of 7 D. V25-001 Public Hearing - Variance Request - V25-001 - Allow encroachment into the City's 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer - Land Lot 315 - 3910 W Cooper Lake Road - Portico Properties Ward 4 Councilmember - Charles 'Corkey' Welch Caitlin Crowe, Planner I, provided the following background: The subject parcel is a 1.03-acre lot located on the north side of W Cooper Lake Drive and is currently vacant (see Figure 1). The subject parcel and adjacent parcels to the south, east and west are zoned R-15 and are occupied by single-family detached homes. The adjacent parcel to the north is zoned R-20 and is occupied by a neighboring residence’s tennis court. The subject parcel is located within the Cooper Lake Hills Subdivision, which was platted in 1979, prior to the Smyrna Stream Buffer Ordinance, which was implemented in 2005. The applicant is proposing to build a two-story single-family home on the subject property, which has historically been a vacant lot. The new home will include four bedrooms and four bathrooms with a mixture of hardy plank and board and batten siding. The subject property is greatly impacted by the State’s 25-foot stream buffer, City’s 50-foot undisturbed buffer, and the City’s 75-foot impervious surface setback due to a creek that runs along the middle of the property. A 20-foot sanitary sewer easement also runs up the eastern length of the property and bisects the rear yard, essentially halving the buildable area of the lot. The applicant has designed the building footprint and construction disturbance to stay out of the State’s 25-foot stream buffer but encroaches into both the City’s 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer and the 75-foot impervious surface setback due to the setback and topography constraints. No other variances are needed for the construction of the new home. In order to construct the new home, the applicant will disturb the City’s 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer by 2,265 square feet and the City’s 75-foot impervious surface area setback by 2,287 feet, for a total stream buffer impact of 4,552 square feet. (Note that the actual impervious impacts are 476 square feet and 1,351 square feet in the 50-foot and 75-foot buffers, respectively.) The applicant will mitigate the rear yard disturbance by extending the 50-foot undisturbed buffer into the 75-foot impervious surface setback by 2,265 square feet and then extend the 75-foot impervious surface setback by 1,351 square feet. The new impervious area will be contiguous with the existing stream buffers and will require an update to and recording of the parcel plat to delineate the new undisturbed and impervious setback limits. The Engineering Department has reviewed the application and accompanying mitigation plan and supports the method used for buffer mitigation per the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual requirements. Community Development believes the hardship is not self-created, as the lot of record has existed before the stream buffer ordinance was adopted. Community Development believes this is the minimum variance needed to allow for any building construction, and that there should be no negative impacts to adjacent properties if approved. Similar variances have been approved throughout the city when an appropriate mitigation method has been included. Community Development has not received any calls in opposition to the request. According to Section 46-160 of the Stream Buffer Protection Ordinance, stream buffer variances must be reviewed under the following standards: (1) The shape, size, topography, slope, soils, vegetation and other physical characteristics of the property; (2)