By Allen Dinkel
“It’s my property, why can’t I do what I want?” I hear that question at times when we deal with issues regarding an individual’s property in the City. This can be anything from nuisances and structures to building codes to set backs from the property lines to what type of building a property owner can have on their property. As you can see this topic covers a number of areas.
On the other hand, there are other property owners who want to enjoy the rights as a property owner as well and have certain expectations. To them it is important to have codes and policies in place so there are assurances to protect their interests.
To discuss this topic, let’s begin with Zoning and the various codes. Zoning is basically land use and density. The City is zoned in different categories such as residential, commercials, and industrial, however in each category there are different zoning districts that have different rules and regulations.
Let’s start with residential. Naturally areas zoned as single-family are spaced out a bit further and there are less people living in a given area part as it is a single family living in the unit. Then we have residential duplex and multi-family. These are self-explanatory but as you can see there is normally more people living in a given area.
On the commercial side, there are zones such as downtown district where there is no setback and buildings may set on the entire property and buildings are touching with no separation between them. This can cause problems when a given building owner does not take care of their structure and it becomes unsafe and/or dangerous. The Challenge is what to do as it is expensive to take a building out of the middle of a block? There is a concern presently about such a building on Washington Street now. As we move into the other commercial districts there is greater setbacks and spacing. Industrial is basically split between light and heavy industrial.
One other category we see is Planned Development District (PDD) we in a given area there is a plan where setbacks and uses may be different as there is a “bigger” plan in place. Tho area along East Chestnut or along West 6th Street falls into that category.
This week we had 2 concerns in residential zoned areas. In one case a person owns 2 lots, however they are located back-to-back, and both are on different streets. In this part of the City there is no alleys, so the lots are directly adjacent to each other. The owner’s home faces one street and he wanted to build a garage on the lot behind. The City Code, however, does not allow that because the 2 properties would have to be platted into 1 lot and then you would have a garage directly across a residential structure owned by someone else.
The other issue was with a property owner who had 2 lots that are side by side with the house on 1 lot and they wanted to build a garage on the other. In this case the code requires the 2 lots to be replatted into 1 lot. One may ask why this is important, but it prevents the garage from being sold off to someone else in the future and you would have the garage as a primary structure and that is not allowed. Again, how would you like to own a home with a garage beside your property that is used by someone who does not even live there. I know this may or may not occur in the future, but it is best to follow the same rule throughout the City.
Zoning has its purpose. A number of years ago, the City developed a tract of land for an industrial park on Strauss Boulevard and invested a large sum of dollars in infrastructure. Great idea, but during the “housing boom” 20 or so years ago, residential structures were built close to that park. It was good to have houses, but it now limits what can be built in that park.
Due to the dissolution of the Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC), the City has had its own planning Commission is November. This group of 5 residents have had a number of cases to consider in their first 3 meetings. None of these people had been on the MPC before so they are “rookies” in essence, but they have worked like “pro’s” to handle the various issues.
Just to remind everyone, the City Planning Commission deals only with issues within the City as the City has no extra-territorial control.
A number of years ago when I managed another city I had a building inspector who had a saying that is appropriate to many situations. “The decisions made today not only affect the citizens now, but those in the future as well.”