(A) Organization. A Board of Appeals is hereby established in accordance with the provisions of the statute applicable thereto. Regular meetings of the Board shall be held at such time and place within the city as the Board may determine. Special meetings may be held at the call of the Chairperson, or as determined by the Board. Such Chairperson, or in his or her absence, the Acting Chairperson, may administer oaths and compel attendance of witnesses. All meetings of the Board of Appeals shall be open to the public. Such Board shall keep minutes of its proceedings showing the vote, the minutes shall indicate such fact. The Board shall adopt its own rules of procedures not in conflict with the statute or this chapter.
(B) Appeals. Appeals to the Board of Appeals may be taken by any person aggrieved or by the officer, department board or bureau of the city. Such appeal shall be taken within 20 days from the date of the action appealed from, by filing with the Enforcing Officer and Board of Appeals a notice of appeal, specifying the grounds thereof. The Enforcing Office shall forthwith transmit to the Board all papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken. An appeal stays all proceeding in furtherance of the action appealed from unless the Enforcing Officer certifies to the Board, after the notice of appeal has been filed with him or her, that by reason of facts stated in the certificate a stay would, in his or her opinion, cause imminent peril to life or property. The Board of Appeals shall fix a reasonable time for hearing of the appeal and give due notice thereof to the parties and decide the same within a reasonable time. The Board may reverse or affirm, wholly or partly, or may modify the use, requirement, decision or determination as, in its opinion, ought to be made in the premises.
(C) Jurisdiction. The Zoning Board of Appeals shall hear and decide appeals from any order, requirements, decisions or determination made by the Enforcing Officer. It shall also hear and decide all matters referred to it or upon which it is required to pass under this chapter. The Board may reverse or affirm, wholly or partly, or may modify or amend the order, requirement decision or determination appealed from to the extent and in manner that the Board may decide to be fitting and proper in the premises, and to that end the Board shall also have all powers of the officer from whom the appeal is taken.
(1) When a property owner shows that a strict application of the terms of this chapter relating to the use, construction or alteration of building or structures, or to the use of land, imposes upon him or her practical difficulties or particular hardship, then the Board is satisfied, under the evidence heard before it, that a granting of such variation will not merely serve as a convenience to the applicant but is necessary to alleviate some demonstrable hardship so great as to warrant a variation in the following instances:
(a) To permit the extension of a district where the boundary line of a district divides a lot in single ownership as shown of record;
(b) To permit the reconstruction of a nonconforming building which has been destroyed or damaged to an extent of more than 50% of its value, by fire or act of God, or the public enemy, where the Board shall find some compelling public necessity requiring a continuance of the nonconforming use, and in no case shall such a permit be issued if its primary function is to continue a monopoly;
(c) To make a variance, by reason of an exceptional situation, surroundings or condition of a specific piece of property or by the reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness or shape of a specific piece of property of record, or by reason of exceptional topographical conditions the strict application of any provision of this chapter would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties or particular hardship upon the owner of such property, and amount to a practical confiscation of property, as distinguished from a mere inconvenience to such owner, provided such relief can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantially impairing the general purpose and intent of the comprehensive plan as established by the regulations and provisions contained in this chapter;
(d) To interpret the provisions of this chapter where the street layout actually on the ground varies from the street layout as shown on the district map fixing the several districts;
(e) To waive the parking requirements in the business or industrial districts whenever the character or use of the building is such as to make unnecessary the full provision of parking facilities or where such regulations would impose an unreasonable hardship upon the use of the lot, as contrasted with merely granting an advantage or convenience;
(f) To permit a building to be erected, reconstructed, altered or enlarged so that the building lines will extend beyond the distance specified in this chapter into side yards or into front yards, provided that such variance may not be granted: unless there is a building in the block which extends beyond the distance from the front street line specified in this chapter, in which case the building line may be permitted to extend as near to the front street line as such nonconforming building; or unless the lot is irregular in shape, topography or size; unless the street line of the lot is directly opposite the street line of a lot which is irregular in shape, topography or size; or
(g) To permit in any district such modifications of the requirements of the regulations of this chapter as said Board may deem necessary to secure an appropriate development of a lot where adjacent to such lot on two or more sides there are buildings that do not conform to the regulations of the district.
(2) Nothing herein contained shall be construed to give or grant to the Board the power or authority to alter or change the zoning ordinance or the district map; such power and authority being reserved to the City Council. The Board of Appeals may impose such conditions and restrictions upon the use of the premises benefitted by a variation, except in a specified case, after an application for a permit has been made to the Enforcing Officer and after duly advertised public hearing shall contain the address or location of the property for which the variation, or other ruling by the Board, is sought, as well as a brief description of the nature of the appeal. In order to partially defray the expenses of the public hearing involving variances, the applicant shall pay the sum of $100 to the City Treasurer at the time of the filing of the appeal for the variance.
(D) Appeals to court. All final administrative decisions of the Board of Appeals rendered under the terms of this chapter shall be subject to judicial review pursuant of the “Administrative Review Act” approved May 8, 1945, and all amendments and modifications thereof, and the rules adopted pursuant thereto.
(Ord. passed 2-25-1960)