(a) The City Council may authorize such variances from, and exceptions to, the application of the terms, regulations and requirements of this Sign Code, where the strict and literal application of the Code would create a particular hardship for the applicant.
(b) Effect of Denial of Variance. No application for a variance to this chapter which has been denied wholly or in part by the City Council shall be resubmitted for a period of one year from the date of the City Council action denying the application, except on grounds of new evidence or proof of changed conditions found to be a valid ground for waiver of this one-year limitation by the Building Commission and by the City Council.
(c) Standards for Granting Applications for Variances. Variances to this chapter may be granted:
(1) To prevent undue hardship:
(2) To permit reasonable use of property:
(3) If it will alleviate some demonstrable, practical and peculiar difficulty;
(4) For public or private convenience and necessity, not as a matter of absolute necessity, but of reasonable need and expediency;
(5) When the plight of the applicant is due to unique circumstances;
(6) If denial would amount to a practical confiscation of property as distinguished from mere inconvenience;
(7) If its primary function and purpose is not to produce a monopoly in the area;
(8) Not merely as a matter of economic convenience or advantage;
(9) Only in such manner as to minimize the effect of such relief upon adjacent property and to preserve the essential character of the area;
(10) Only if it may be done without substantial detriment to the public good;
(11) Only if it may be done without substantially impairing the general purpose and intent of this Building and Housing Code;
(12) Only if it may be done without substantially adverse effect upon traffic conditions, property values, public utility service, schools, parks, recreational facilities, and other matters pertaining to the public health, safety and welfare;
(13) If it will not unduly increase the population or intensity of land use of the area;
(14) Only if such of the above standards as are pertinent and applicable are answerable in a manner favorable to the application;
(15) Only if it will not impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of surrounding property for uses permitted in the district;
(16) Only if adequate utilities, access roads, drainage and other necessary facilities have been or are being provided.
(d) Interpretation of Variances.
(1) The construction. use, occupancy and enjoyment of the variance shall be, at all times after issuance, in strict accordance with, and limited by, the written proposals, description of use, and building plans, sketches and maps, forming a part of, and retained with, the application, and all restrictions issued with the variance.
(2) Except as specifically stated to the contrary in a special ordinance enacted under this Building and Housing Code, the granting of any variance under this chapter shall not entitle any person to disregard any other applicable provision of these Codified Ordinances, as now or hereafter amended, including, but not limited to, the provisions of the Planning and Zoning Code, this Building and Housing Code and the Fire Prevention Code.
(e) Expiration of Authorization. If work, construction or use has not begun within six months after the granting of a variance, such authorization shall expire and terminate by limitation automatically. The Community Development Director shall notify in writing the applicant or subsequent owner of the parcel benefitting from the variance of the invalidity of the variance because of the lapse in initiation of the allowed use. The Community Development Director shall forward a copy of all such invalidity notifications to each member of the City Council within ten business days of their mailing to the owner or owners.
(f) Petition and Fee. The owner of any lot or tract, or any officer, department, board or commission of the City, desiring a variance to this chapter shall file with the Community Development Director an appropriate verified petition, with all necessary supporting data or documents. When the petition is filed by the owner of a lot or tract the petition shall specifically state whether there is a contract vendee of said lot or tract and shall identify any such contract vendee by name and address and in such case the contract vendee must join in the petition. If the contract vendee fails to join in the petition, the petition shall be denied. There shall be a filing fee of one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a variance.
(g) Contents of Petition. The petition shall set forth the legal description of the land, the name of the streets nearest on each side thereof, the street number of the lot, and the side of such street on which said property fronts by approximate compass direction. The petition shall also include a scale drawing showing the proposed sign as it relates to the property as a whole, as well as a dimensional drawing of the sign.
(h) Referral to Board of Zoning Appeals. The petition shall be forthwith referred, by the Community Development Director, to the Board of Zoning Appeals for a public hearing, investigation, recommendation and report.
(i) Report to the City Manager. The Community and Economic Development Director shall prior to each Council meeting, report to the City Manager all petitions thus received and referred since the last Council meeting, by the name of the petitioner, the location of the premises and the type of request or relief prayed for.
(j) Notice. The petitioner or petitioners, when filing the petition, shall also file with the Community Development Director a written list containing the names and mailing addresses of all owners of property adjacent to, contiguous to, or across any street, river, creek or public way from, any part of the land or property described in the petition. The petitioner, within five days of the filing of the petition, shall give written notice by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to all of the owners identified on said list. The Community Development Director, within five days of the filing of the petition, shall publish a notice one time in a newspaper of general daily circulation in Stephenson County, Illinois. The petitioner or petitioners shall pay the cost of mailing notices and of the newspaper publication. Both the newspaper notice and the notices by mail shall describe the real estate referred to in the petition, give the street address of said real estate, state with particularity the relief desired and the section of these Codified Ordinances involved, or the regulation involved, give the date of the filing of the petition, state that it may be examined during business hours in the office of the Community Development Director of Freeport, Illinois, give the date, time and place of the hearing to be held on said petition and identify the public body before whom the hearing will be held. Prior to any hearing before the Building Commission, the petitioner shall file with the Community Development Director a certificate that notice by mail by publication has been given in accordance with the provisions of this section. All return receipts for registered or certified mail shall be attached to the certificate. The Board of Zoning Appeals may continue the hearing if it believes that proper notice has not been given. Hearings before the Board of Zoning Appeals shall be held not less than fifteen days nor more than sixty days from the date of the filing of the petition.
(k) Decision and Report. All decisions of the Board of Zoning Appeal on variances shall be put in the form of a report and recommendation, with adequate and detailed findings of fact, and shall be filed, with the petition and all supporting documents, with the City Clerk for the appropriate and discretionary action of the City Council. Failure of the Board of Zoning Appeals to file such report within sixty days after publication of the notice, or within such extended period as the petitioner shall agree to in writing, shall be a conclusively presumed approval of the petition by the Board of Zoning Appeals.
(l) Action by City Council. Upon receipt of the report of the Board of Zoning Appeals, the City Council, without further public hearing, may grant or reject any proposed variance, or may refer it back to the Board of Zoning Appeals for further consideration, findings, recommendations and report.
(m) Ordinance Required. The action of the City Council in granting or making any variance shall be in the form of an ordinance of the City.
(n) Vote Required. Under certain conditions such ordinance shall not be passed except by the affirmative vote of six Alderpersons, such condition being in the alternative, as follows:
(1) Where a written protest against the relief prayed for in the petition has been signed, acknowledged and filed with the City Clerk by the owners, collectively, of twenty percent (20%) of the frontage affected by the variance, the frontage immediately adjoining or across an alley therefrom, and the frontage directly opposite the frontage affected by the variance, excluding any applicable land owned by the petitioner.
(2) Where a written protest against the relief prayed for in the petition has been signed, acknowledged and filed with the City Clerk by the owner or owners of property that are able to demonstrate that the impact, on them or their property, of granting the variance is greater than any impact to the general public.
(3) When the requested relief has not received the approval of the Board of Zoning Appeals.
(Ord. 2007-10. Passed 2-20-07; Ord. 2017-56. Passed 7-17-17; Ord. 2018-52. Passed 11-5-18.)