59-A-4.41. Requirement and scheduling.

   (a)   Requirement. The Board or the Hearing Examiner must hold a public hearing on any petition for the grant of a special exception or variance and on any other matter as is provided for by this Chapter or by the Board's Rules of Procedure.

   (b)   Scheduling.

      (1)   The hearing in the case of any petition for grant of special exception must be held not sooner than 60 days following the mailing of the notice of the filing of the petition pursuant to Paragraph (a) of section 59-A-4.46. In the case of any other matter within the Board's purview such hearing may be held not sooner than 30 days after the notice is mailed.

         The Board, with an affirmative vote of at least 3 members, may reduce the notice period required for public hearing on a petition for a variance or special exception, or on an appeal from an administrative action if:

         (A)   the Board finds that an emergency poses an immediate threat to the public health, safety, convenience, welfare or necessity; or

         (B)   a delay would impose an unusual individual or community hardship.

         In a situation in which a property owner holds a valid building permit to construct a single-family or townhouse structure in a new residential subdivision and an error committed or discovered during the course of construction on the site results in a violation of the specified setback requirements in the zone in which the property is located, and the variance required to overcome this error would involve less than 10 percent of the particular setback requirement which had been violated, the Board may, in response to a written request by the property owner, and by unanimous vote of the members present, hear the appellant's appeal for a variance at the first regularly-scheduled Board of Appeals public hearing following the posting of the property in accordance with the requirements of section 59-A-4.43. The appellant is required to file all documents and information required by section 59-A-4.23.

      (2)   A hearing on a petition for a special exception filed in the case of a registered home occupation or home health practitioner's office found to be in violation of section 59-A-6.1 must be scheduled within 30 days, or as soon thereafter as the Hearing Examiner's calendar permits. The Hearing Examiner does not have authority to grant to the applicant any extension of the hearing in such a case.

   Editor's note—Section 59-A-4.41was cited in Renzi v. Connelly School of the Holy Child, 2000 WL 1144595 (filed August 14, 2000).