BANI Newsletter- June 2010

A version of the following article appears in "The Higher Standard," the newsletter for the Builders Association of Northeast Indiana. www.ba-ni.com.

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There was a lot of buzz and phone calls in the end of April this year when the Steuben County Board of Commissioners approved A-10-03, an amendment to the Steuben County Zoning Ordinance.

The headline in the paper was “County to Prohibit Post-Construction Variances.” It can be easy to misinterpret this headline as meaning the County intends to prohibit post-construction buildings (pole barns). That is not the case.

Let’s clear up any potential confusion.

The amendment added two more decision criteria that Board of Zoning Appeals members consider when determining whether or not to approve a developmental standard variance. These are typically variances for reduced setbacks, for increased height, or reduced building/impermeable coverage.

Here are the two additional criteria:

(6) The need for the variance is not the result of actions of the property owner, previous owners, or their agents.
(7) The variance requested is the minimum necessary to mitigate an unnecessary hardship.

The first addition is often referred to as a “self-created hardship” clause. For example, if you build a deck where it shouldn’t be, you are the one responsible for creating the hardship. When this amendment becomes effective, the Steuben County BZA will not be able to approve any post-construction variance. The only remedy will be to remove the structure and then to apply for the necessary variance(s).

The second addition is often referred to as a “minimum necessary relief” clause. Variances exist to allow use of property when the strict application of the zoning ordinance is equivalent to the government taking the property through eminent domain. A variance relieves this situation by allowing for use of the property. This clause means that the variance asked for is the smallest variance necessary for the property to be considered useable.

The Plan Commission Office requested that this amendment have a delayed effective date. The County Commissioners agreed; the above amendment will become effective on Tuesday, August 17, 2010.

If you know of any projects which did not receive permits and may require a variance to be legal, please let them know to contact the Plan Commission quickly!
Please contact Steuben County Plan Commission Office if you have any further questions on this or any other planning or zoning issue.