The Zoning Application Process

The zoning requirements I mentioned in the previous post had us a bit worried that we would be too constrained to make this work. While learning about the variance process, we discovered two things: 1. You can submit a variance application without owning the property and 2. The deadline to make the Feb 3, 2001 Board of Zoning meeting was Dec 8. That meant we could go ahead and start the process, but we needed to get on it, quickly!

So here's everything we went through up until Dec 20th.

The first step was to get the seller to sign an authorization that we could apply for the variance. That was pretty easy and the seller was quick to turnaround the notarized document. Second, we had to have either a boundary survey or a legal description written in metes or bounds. Metes in bounds can easily be found in the deed, but the seller had already had the survey completed so we were given a copy of that. The more difficult part came when we had to write up the intent and justification.

The city ordinance requires that variance requests meet these four criteria:

1. There are extraordinary and exceptional conditions pertaining to the particular piece of property in question because of its size, shape or topography;

2. The application of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Atlanta to this particular piece of property would create an unnecessary hardship;

3. Such conditions are peculiar to the particular piece of property involved; and

4. Relief, if granted, would not cause substantial detriment to the public good or impair the purposes and intent of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Atlanta. 

We weren't exactly sure how to best write-up our justification that met the four requirements above. The best resource were the agendas and minutes of the various NPU meetings. You can find your NPU or links to any of the NPUs here: http://www.atlantaga.gov/government/planning/npu_system.aspx. 

After reading some examples, it didn't take too long to come up with this:

Things didn't stop here though. We also had to include a site plan and a referral certificate from the City of Atlanta Office of Building. My friend Stella at Architecture Etc. came up with the site plan for use. You can see it below. We also decided to include other documentation to strengthen our case. I used the Fulton County GIS system to show that the setbacks of the surrounding homes were much less than 30 feet. Stella took some pictures of those homes as well that we included on one page that was submitted.

I was a little unsure about what the referral certificate is and how to go about getting it. I called the Office of Building and they told me to bring all my application materials and they would write-up the certificate. Since the Office of Building is on the same floor as the Office of Planning where I would be submitting the application, I decided to try to do this all in one trip. The referral certificate was quite easy. I handed the gentlemen all of my materials, he asked me a couple of simple questions about the site plan, and then he left for about 10 minutes and return with the certificate in hand. With referral certificate in hand, I headed over to the Office of Planning to submit the application.

Everything went very smoothly that day. I submitted my application along with $100. I received some information about who to contact at my NPU along with a big blue sign and an affidavit to sign once I had posted the sign. The sign is to inform the neighbors of the zoning variance and let them know when the Board of Zoning Adjustment will be holding the hearing. We have to post this sign no later than January 19, 2011.

After getting all my materials, I quickly contacted the NPU to find out what was next. This is where things get more difficult. Just to get on the NPU agenda I was told I must first contact the Midtown Neighborhood Association (MNA) and present our case to them first. They would then write a recommendation to give to the NPU. However, the MNA has it's own committees for various types of activities and we would need to first go to the MNA Land Use Committee meeting to get their approval and recommendations. Uggggg. That's a lot of meetings! Just to summarize and drive home the scale of these meetings, here's the sequence of events that have to occur:

1. Attend MNA LUC meeting and present variance.

2. LUC votes on a recommendation and then submits that to the larger MNA.

3. Attend MNA meeting and present variance.

4. MNA votes on a recommendation and then submits that to the NPU.

5. Attend NPU meeting and present variance.

6. NPU votes on a recommendation and then submits that to the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA).

7. Attend BZA public hearing and present variance.

8. BZA decides our fate.

As you might imagine, this was all pretty daunting and guaranteed to take a whole lot longer than we anticipated. But we got very lucky with the scheduling of things. The LUC meeting is on Dec 21, the MNA meeting sometime after that, the NPU meeting is Jan 4th, and the BZA hearing is Feb 3rd. We have a shot, but one setback will put us back by at least a month. Once again, the fingers are crossed.