ok this is the time in the place for the meeting of the board of appeals first the city of holland we're here to consider applications for variances and or special exceptions this board must try to interpret peach application as it relates to the ordinance board is not empowered to rezone nor take any action that could be considered rezoning variances need to meet a number of crucial tests in order to be granted those of you who are here for a variance and of already answered those questions in your application we're going to go through them again tonight there is a procedure guide available we ask that you come to the microphone to speak and when you do so state your name and address for the record we typically hear the applicant first and anyone supporting the application then anyone in opposition to it typically we do all the public hearings close the public hearing and then move on in the next application with we might take a short break and then deliberate you're welcome to stay for the deliberations but there no opportunity for further public comment if you elect not to stay for the deliberation you may call the city clerk's office after eight thirty tomorrow morning to learn the results so first order of business for tonight i believe is ra ication of the election of officers mr chairman elect i would like to make a motion to ratify the election of the officers that took place last month and that would be alan hughes for chair and mary libby for co chair sebastian seven is artistic for his safety we would like to replace our current three foot fence with a fence of up to six foot for the up to six thought since early this spring he is able to rapidly climb the three foot trent he has at time done that and ran quickly across columbia or even at times twenty fourth street to go to prospect park we have attempted to teach him the dangers of cars but unfortunately he doesn't always understand and has run across both streets unaware of the danger of fast moving vehicles on the streets in the ordinance thirty nine dash seventeen doubt for there is subject of the question reason what compensation will be used by an individual with disabilities protect a new fair housing laws and it does have dr note from the state illinois when he was twenty two months old and his most recent ip from bla under the fair housing laws this variance is necessary to vent real physical harm to my son three whether the requested accommodation would impose an undue financial order ministre the burden on the city we have attempted alternative accommodations but they do not provide the necessary safety and freedom of movement that he needs to get that straight think i may have mixed up the answers on that one did yes which those two are but that basically answer the question of whether it's necessary to make housing available to an individual and that fence for us is a necessity right at this point so  for making that space smaller or kind of defeating our purpose or what would you say one of the alternatives perhaps is the education you tried to provide but due if any questions from the board for the applicant ok thank you thank you very much anybody to speak in support of the antibody to speak against the application all right see foot fence the detail of the proposed change is the applicant would like to increase that height to a six foot fence from a three foot fence given that this is an accommodation for disability and that has not taken it's a reasonable compensation to the city's limit to a three foot fence for this particular disability in this particular application and i also find that there is no financial to grant permission if certain conditions are found to exist a letter of support was received from i mean rumi stating the fence is in no way offensive nor does it i don't nor does it appear detract from the want ourselves to build a fence and we don't want to do the paperwork if whatever paperwork follows with that and so our expectation with him and it has been in the past that everything would be to co we wouldn't have to worry about anything we would just hand over a check when it's all done and so unfortunately that didn't quite work out this way this time i guess had we not even gotten a letter from the city we would have known any different  in so the job was completed and then the job was complete on a friday and on monday we received the letter from the city stating the problem with the fence and so i'm not here to speak for m crock so he'll have to deal with whatever the outcome is that happens here but i guess i'm here because my wife and i this is what we originally wanted we did not set out set forth to have this intentionally put up this way it's been a it's been a real time consuming thing for us to pursue pursue it and general as to where we are now and so you know there's no i'll say it again there's no we didn't set out to try and make it like this in the beginning so but that said we would like to if possible keep the fence where it is and i know that there is some question pertaining to the amount of visibility if that's correct yes in when we first moved to the house and i don't know if any of those pictures that were submitted that we originally handed over with their paperwork but  we did have rather large foliage yeah that ran along the sidewalk there may i bring these up bring them over there and  so what we're looking at here is what would be the the southwest corner of our property were the neighbor's driveway is and then we have the fence and right back right back here you can see a considerable bo also in terms of i guess what i'm trying to get up with these pictures is if if the you visibility is the issue here it was from the beginning now the fact that it's where it is doesn't make it right but  this picture which turned like this we hired in a backhoe to pawn a large i don't know what kind of tree this was but it was some type of blooming wonderful tree and we but to give you an  idea there was big enough to warrant have paying to have someone come in with a piece of equipment those things were all blocking in terms of visibility from the sidewalk ok and then here is a picture of the fence as it sits right now  my neighbor's fence right here has twenty nine inches from the sidewalk and that was put up i don't know a few years ago but what street is this vantage point from this is looking up this would be looking south down college ok standing on twenty eighth and yes on the corner of twenty eight into right and if if memory serves here to the left of that sidewalk there is it's not one of the the three foot medi have in that one doesn't shut it we did have a split real fence that ran the same it ran along our neighbor's driveway that was ours along the backside of our property which would be well also this it did run parallel with the sidewalk point first moved and then we took that down it was rather it was not a good fence at all and then it did run behind this along the on you know we don't to college right and your neighbor doesn't have a driveway exiting there or the neighbor behind us behind us right they do exit on a college oh they do they do have is there an with viewing angle there from their driveway past the corner your fence to the street you know i believe there is and i say that because for years in years and here is we had you know we had  which you know if we pulled the fence out we can just as well put put a bunch of bushes in there and we can trip and we can stack them as far back as i can afford a thirty dollars at it right so i mean  right in your opinion of someone walking down the sidewalk and that is your drive drive over those there's trees are would there be an adequate sight distance for safe someone was backing out at that at that point  pedestrian to see you quickly enough or or vice versa i believe so and you know that's that's a great question but there is another drawing that we had submitted as well and this one right here this is the front of our actually has rather large bushes eight nine ten feet tall and those are right here and those are the distance between the and or the edge of those bushes to the sidewalk has less than five feet and it has been rather it is the we constantly were looking so you know whether it's foliage or something else you know i was hit in the parking lot of the m b p with the three hundred sixty degree viewing you know i looked both ways and someone backed into me and as i was backing out there was nothing obstructing this the lady who backed into me it was just whether or not she was paying attention so i suppose someone could find some degree of you know could someone see or someone see or hear i would hope that they could if they're not paying attention that could be an issue i can account for that but i hope that answers your question less question than i think any detriment to the neighboring properties based on this no i spoke with robin  say you know it was in our intention it's time consuming for me to be here when you're here and so with however this works out well it will break the bad news to your great no sure we can only go to five feet so you're going to have to move the fence at least six inches so it will have to come six inches in it into ok if we give you the biggest that we can biggest you mean height wise  that's fine i thought and assuming we proved it right well that being the case if it's got to be moved anyway would you object to it falling in line with what the ordinance actually says that would be going to what is in terms of height is that what you're asking back oh for step back and hang on a second here and let's make make sure we're clear on what you're asking city with cindy what is the this is the are one's own district and the required setback on a side yard on a side street is twenty feet ok right so that's what the special exception was meant to to address ok and so a real quick would what then the the builder would then follow up with with the city and regarding the permit and so forth and then they would direct him best to where to where to go good good w if no one has anything to add i'll make a motion to prove the application i got a motion from ben we're the last i'm sorry i'll say all right we got it second from white back and the applicant has demonstrated that there would be an apple adequate sight distance that was done so via the use of photos maps in accompanying explanations with those to the to my satisfaction for the motion and no one has voiced at this hearing there would be a substantial detriment to the neighboring properties though i can't  his neighbors were in support and in favor of it is that what we need really ok unfinished business we've got meeting minutes from last time around to reprove ok i got a motion by whiteman scheduled for august twenty seventh and he known conflicts or issues