(A) Authority.
(1) The Village Council shall decide all applications for variations of the provisions of this chapter after a public hearing held before the Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board.
(2) The Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board shall hold public hearings upon all applications for variations and shall report its recommendations to the Village Council.
(3) The Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board shall recommend a variation only after they have made a finding of fact specifying the reason or reasons for recommending the variation.
(4) These findings shall be based upon the standards prescribed in division (D) below. No variation shall be granted by the Village Council without the findings of fact. When the Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board fails to recommend a variation, it can only be adopted by an ordinance with the favorable vote of two-thirds of the Village Council.
(B) Initiation. An application for a variation may be made by any governmental office, department, board, bureau or commission or by any person, firm or corporation having a freehold interest, a possessory interest entitled to exclusive possession, a contractual interest which may become a freehold interest, an option to purchase, or any exclusive possessory interest applicable to the land or land and improvements described in the application for a variation.
(C) Application for variation and notice of hearing. An application for a variation shall be filed with the Village Clerk, who shall forward a copy of same to the Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board without delay. The application shall contain such information as the Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board may from time to time by rule provide. No more than 90 days after the filing of the application, a hearing shall be held on the application. Notice of the hearing shall be published at least once, not more than 30 days nor less than 15 days before the hearing, in a newspaper of general circulation within the village. The published notice may be supplemented by such additional form of notice as the Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board may by rule provide.
(D) Standards for variations. The Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board shall not recommend a variation of the regulations of this chapter, as authorized herein unless it shall have made findings of fact based upon the evidence presented to it in each specific case that:
(1) The property in question cannot yield a reasonable return if permitted to be used only under the conditions allowed by the regulations in the district in which it is located;
(2) The plight of the owner is due to unique circumstances;
(3) The variation, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the locality; and
(4) For the purpose of implementing the above rules, the Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board shall also, in making its determination whether there are practical difficulties or particular hardships, take into consideration the extent to which the following facts favorable to the applicant have been established by the evidence:
(a) The particular physical sur- roundings shape or topographical condition of the specific property involved would result in a particular hardship upon the owner, as distinguished from a mere inconvenience, if the strict letter of the regulations were carried out;
(b) The conditions upon which the petition for variation is based would not be applicable, generally to other property within the same zoning classification;
(c) The purpose of the variation is not based exclusively upon a desire to make more money out of the property;
(d) The alleged difficulty or hardship has not been created by the owner of the property, or by a previous owner;
(e) The proposed variation will not impair the adequate supply of light and air to adjacent property, or substantially increase the congestion in the public streets, or increase the danger of fire, or endanger the public safety, or substantially diminish or impair property values within the neighborhood; and
(f) The granting of the variation will not be detrimental to the public welfare or injurious to other property or improvements in the neighborhood in which the property is located.
(5) The Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board may recommend and the Village Council require such conditions and restrictions upon the premises benefitted by a variation as may be necessary to comply with the standards set forth in this section to reduce or minimize the injurious effect of such variation upon other property in the neighborhood, and better to carry out the general intent of this chapter.
(E) Authorized variations. Variations from the regulations of this chapter shall be granted by the Village of Gardner Planning and Zoning Board only in accordance with the standards set out in this section and may be granted only in the following instances, and in no others:
(1) To permit any yard or setback less than a yard or a setback required by the applicable regulations;
(2) To permit the use of a lot or lots of record on the effective date of this chapter for a use otherwise prohibited solely because of insufficient area or width of the lot or lots;
(3) To permit the same off-street parking facility to qualify as required facilities for two or more uses, provided that substantial use of such facility by each user does not take place at approximately the same hours of the same days of the week; and
(4) To reduce the applicable off-street parking or loading facilities required by 10% of the applicable regulations.
(Ord. passed 1-12-1976, § XIII-G)