(A) Membership; bond; term of office. The governing body shall appoint the Board of Adjustment, which shall consist of 5 regular members, 1 of whom shall be a member of the Planning Commission, plus 1 additional member designated as an alternate who shall attend and serve only when 1 of the regular members is unable to attend for any reason. Each member of the Board shall serve a term of 3 years, unless reappointed, and shall be removable only for good and sufficient cause by the governing body upon written charges and after a public hearing. The members of the Board shall serve without compensation, and may be required, in the discretion of the governing body, to give a bond in a sum set by resolution of the governing body, and conditioned upon the faithful performance of their duties. One member of the Board of Adjustment shall be at the same time a member of the Planning Commission at all times. Upon the loss of membership on the Planning Commission, the member shall also lose his or her membership on the Board of Adjustment.
(B) Organization; meetings; funding. The Board of Adjustment shall organize at its first meeting in June of each year and elect from its membership a chairperson and secretary. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep complete and accurate minutes of all Board meetings and to file the minutes at the office of the City Clerk for examination at any reasonable time by the public. The Board of Adjustment shall be funded from time to time out of the General Fund by the governing body. Meetings of the Board shall be held at such times as the governing body may designate, or at such other times as the Chairperson may, in his or her discretion, call a meeting. Special meetings may be also held upon the call of any 3 members of the Board. A majority of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the purpose of doing business.
(C) Powers.
(1) The Board of Adjustment shall have the following powers:
(a) To hear and decide appeals where it is alleged there is error in any order, requirement, decision or determination made by an administrative official or agency based on or made in the enforcement of any zoning regulation or any regulation relating to the location or soundness of structures;
(b) To hear and decide, in accordance with the provisions of any zoning regulation, requests for interpretation of any map; and
(c) Where by reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness or shape of a specific piece of property at the time of the enactment of the zoning regulation, or by reason of exceptional topographic conditions or other extraordinary and exceptional situation or condition of the piece of property, the strict application of any enacted regulation would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties to or exceptional and undue hardships upon the owner of the property, to authorize, upon an appeal relating to the property, a variance from the strict application so as to relieve the difficulties or hardships, if the relief may be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantially impairing the intent and purpose of any ordinance or resolution. No such variation shall be authorized by the Board unless it finds:
1. The strict application of the zoning regulation would produce undue hardship;
2. Such hardship is not shared generally by other properties in the same zoning district and the same vicinity;
3. The authorization of the variance will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property and the character of the district will not be changed by the granting of the variance;
4. The granting of the variance is based upon reason of demonstrable and exceptional hardship as distinguished from variations for purposes of convenience, profit or caprice; and
5. The Board finds that the condition or situation of the property concerned or the intended use of the property is not of so general or recurring a nature as to make reasonably practicable the formulation of a general regulation to be adopted as an amendment to the zoning regulation.
(2) The concurring vote of 4 members of the Board shall be necessary to reverse any order, requirement, decision or determination of any administrative official, or to decide in favor of the applicant on any matter upon which it is required to pass.
(D) Governing body acting as Board of Adjustment. If the governing body fails or neglects to appoint the appropriate number of Board members, the governing body shall constitute the Board of Adjustment and shall have the same duties, powers and authority as provided in this section.
(E) Duties. The Board shall be responsible for making the reports and performing such other duties as the governing body or state law may require.
(F) Restrictions on membership and officers. No member of the governing body shall serve as a member of the Board of Adjustment except as provided in this section. No member of the Board of Adjustment shall serve in the capacity of both Chairperson and Secretary of the Board.
(Prior Code, § 2-213)