Good Porches Make Good Neighbors

The Zoning Board of Appeals approved Dan Carter’s variances.

Before the regular council meeting on January 16, the Village’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) held a hearing on a variance request from Dan Carter to re-create the original 1895 porch on his house at 303 Steele Street.

Jon Ottinger, chair of the Planning Commission, summed up the situation in an email to me: “According to the ordinance, the new porch has to go through the ZBA for approval. The original porch was compliant at the time it was built, but since the original was removed, any new porch has to meet the present day zoning ordinance or go to the Zoning Administrator [Josh Mills] and ZBA for approval. It’s a corner lot and must meet the zoning requirements on both the street in front and on the side.”

Carter thinks the original porch was demolished because of deterioration. He hopes to match the original as close as possible by consulting photos he has. In their approval, the ZBA requested that the new porch resemble the original (as described by Carter), but there’s nothing legally compelling Carter to make it exact (or even close!) as long as he builds to the dimensions specified in the application in compliance with the variances.

Just three members of the ZBA were present, but the decision to allow the variations was unanimous, so that was enough. (In Elberta, the ZBA has the same membership as the Village Council.) The official draft minutes are posted on the Planning Commission and Zoning page for your delectation. You can also listen to the recording of the proceedings at the end of this post if you want to hear the sausage being made.

Dan Carter demonstrating that his house (303, at the bottom) already conforms to the front-yard setback rule better than any other house on the street—but they’re all still “legally nonconforming.” All photos of drawings and photos by me, January 16, 2025.

Various old-timey views of 303 Steele Street. In his variance application, Carter provided the board with some historical information about the house, which was built in 1895 by Nels Glarum.

A photo taken sometime in the 1930s, depicting the original covered porch and some Glarums enjoying their spirea (?) shrubbery. The Glarum and Classens dry good store was located across the street from where the Cabbage Shed is now, within about a two minute walk from the family’s residence.

No one wrote in or spoke at the hearing against the proposed variance, and two members of the public, Tom and Lynne Webster, Carter’s neighbors, had written to the board in support of it.

It’s sort of a miracle that we haven’t had more variance hearings, considering that most structures within the Village are nonconforming, or potentially so, to our current zoning ordinance, which for one thing stipulates that the fronts of structures be set back a full 20 feet from the street. A necessary overhaul of this ordinance has been years (and a few grants) in the making, but at the February 5 Planning and Zoning meeting (5:30 p.m.), the Planning Commission will begin to review a draft of the whole new deal. The ordinance should (and probably will) reflect the spirit and some of the letters of the Master Plan we approved last year. Among the values we Villagers expressed as part of the public review process was a neighborly, walkable, sociable feeling in the residential areas. This was partly why the ZBA felt that the spirit of the request met the goals of the Master Plan and future zoning ordinance, if not the current one.

((((((((( Recording of the ZBA Hearing ))))))))))