Planning and Zoning Meeting Agenda Item

Applicant and property owner, Andrews Real Estate Ventures, LLC, has petitioned for a variance under the provisions of Chapter 14, Section 14-9, b). 2). B). of the Town of Lady Lake Land Development Regulations, which requires that fire hydrants shall be connected to water mains of six-inch minimum size in low density residential subdivisions and a minimum of eight-inch mains in all other areas. The request is to allow a connection to a six-inch water main located along Hermosa Avenue to serve the commercial development and the hydrants to provide fire protection to the property.

BACKGROUND

On June 6, 2018, the Town of Lady Lake issued a Development Order for a Major Modification for  Cart World located at 133 West Hermosa Street.  The scope of the project included the renovation and expansion of a Golf Cart Sales Building from 3,000 square feet to 4,046 square feet; the addition of a 3,000 square foot covered outdoor display area; and a 4,000 square foot service bay building with an adjacent 1,600 square foot canopy structure. On April 10, 2019, a building permit was issued for construction of the new proposed facilities.

On July 3, 2019, Town Staff was informed that in the process of preparing for the tap into the water main along Hermosa Avenue, the contractor discovered that the adjacent water line was in fact a six-inch line, not an eight-inch line as was initially thought and was indicated on the construction plans.

In review of the Land Development Regulations, Kerry Barnett, the Town’s consultant for fire plan review, advised the applicant that tapping into an eight-inch line is required per the code for land uses of this nature. The applicant’s engineer responded that, “the two nearest hydrants have a flow over 3,500 gpm at 20 psi.”  In addition, they inquired as to what the best process would be to keep the project moving forward.

Given that the connection to the eight-inch line is a requirement of Chapter 14, staff informed the applicant that a variance would be required; the approval to connect to a six-inch line could not be done administratively.  The applicant’s engineer of record, BESH Engineering, appealed the decision that was made for the requirement of the variance and asked for an interpretation of the code by Town Attorney Derek Schroth.

After staff discussed the scenario and provided the code of the Land Development Regulations to the Town Attorney, Mr. Schroth concurred with the interpretation of Town Staff and consultant Kerry Barnett, that indeed the variance is required because it is the intent of the code to require an eight-inch tap off an eight-inch line for commercial projects.

On July 25, 2019, the applicant applied for the variance.  As part of the variance application the applicant has stated that, “The literal interpretation requiring connection to an eight-inch main would present an excessive economic hardship upon the applicant  preventing his development of the project without substantial construction and permitting costs.” And that, “Current adjacent property owners have already been allowed to use the existing main as the tie-in point.”

The applicant’s statement regarding the adjacent property tying into the six-inch main for the provision of an internal line measuring eight-inches is accurate; a connection from the eight-inch to the six-inch was made to serve the Village Airport Van Campus.  The Village Airport Van Campus does have adequate fire flow from the line; the minimum required flow is 1500 gallons per minute.  As stated in the application, there would be a major expense to the applicant to cross Highway 27/441 to tie into the ten-inch water main west of the highway and adequate flow can be achieved off the six-inch line.

When reviewing an application for a variance, the Planning and Zoning Board and the Town Commission shall consider the following requirements and criteria according to Chapter 3, Section 14 f) – Review criteria for variances in the Land Development Regulations:

No diminution in value of surrounding properties would be suffered.

Granting the permit would be of benefit to the public interest.

Denial of the permit would result in unnecessary hardship to the owner seeking it.

The use must not be contrary to the spirit of this Code.

Financial disadvantages and/or inconveniences to the applicant shall not of themselves constitute conclusive evidence of unnecessary and undue hardship and be grounds to justify granting of a variance. Physical hardships such as disabilities of any applicant may be considered grounds to justify granting of a variance at the discretion of the Town Commission.

Given that more than adequate fire flow is present at the Village Airport Van Campus, and further, acknowledging that the likelihood of additional commercial development along Hermosa Avenue would be minimal, if any; staff supports the request for the granting of the variance, noting that the health and safety aspect is being met as was intended by putting the requirement of the eight-inch tap into the Land Development Regulations.

Notices to inform the surrounding seven property owners within 150’ of the subject property of the proposed variance were mailed on Monday, July 29, 2019. The property was also posted on Monday, July 29, 2019.