The Butte Silver Bow Zoning Board of Adjustment met on September 18, 2025, at 11:28 p.m. (start time noted as 23:28) to consider six agenda items, including one variance and five special use permits. All items were approved unanimously by the board after staff presentations, public testimony, and board discussion.
All applicants were informed they would receive an approval letter from planning staff. The meeting was adjourned after the last item.
Yeah, I can't say must have noticed it, but it never really registered. Registered, yeah. I seriously am not always been up there, so maybe you're not an elements. Justin DeShazzo, Heidi Rosenleaf, Garrett Craig, Lexi Murphy, and Shanna Adams will be joining us shortly. Uh the staff is Aidan Denigy, Joella Thomas, and Julia Crane, planning director, and Becky Roll. Uh the first item on the agenda tonight is the variance 2508. Does the applicant present okay? Uh is there a presentation from SCAF. Yes, Vice Chair McEwen. Uh, we have a prepared uh presentation for this evening. Um would you put the the screen down to block the light? It didn't work for Charles. Oh, it wouldn't work. Over on that side, the we're good. I'll just do this. Okay. Uh thank you, uh Chairman McEwan. Thank you members of the board. Uh tonight we're here to discuss variance 258, which is a project proposed on the 400 block of East Park Street. Um, and this is a variance um by applicant Lizzie Load LLC seeking a variance to develop a multifamily development on a nearly 16,000 square foot parcel on East Park Street. The development features two 1,539 square foot three plexus and one 2,052 square foot fourplex. A little background about this proposal. East Park Street area of Butte, uh generally the area east of Main Street near the Berkeley Pitt was a neighborhood that featured a mix of commercial and residential development dating back to the turn of the century. Much of the historic neighborhood has been lost due to fire demolition and mining expansion throughout the 21st century or the 20th century. The proposal before the board is an info housing project adjacent to existing utility infrastructure and is proposed density similar to the historic development pattern of this area of Butte. The proposal requests to build three multifamily buildings, which are not permitted normally in the R2 zone. The project requires variances for the front and side and rear setbacks and is also requesting a variance for the provision of accessible parking. You can see here the plan view. Zoning is used to segregate lands that are intended to prevent conflict between those uses. Following much of the deindustrialization in Butte, this area was seeing a very rapid decline and demolition of its properties. And to not only slow that demolition but to provide improvements to land, there was a proposal to increase the density of housing in this area. In 1995, Butte Silverbow, following the adoption of then growth policy, established the East Butte RRA, a tax increment financing district, which contributed tax increment funding to the redevelopment of East Butte. It led to the development of many of the commercial properties that you see in that area today, and generally encouraged and contributed to the trend away from residential development toward commercial development that we have seen in the last 25 years. Then in 2021, the Butte Silver Bow Council of Commissioners adopted the 2021 Comprehensive Plan, which set the future land use map for Silver Boat County, indicating that the East Park Street area and much of the area surrounding it would be called the Uptown Edge Place type, which was designed to provide a transition from the heavily dense central business district to the less dense neighborhoods that are adjacent to the uptown area. And this would facilitate the incorporation of commercial and multifamily development. In terms of public interest, the proposal does appear reasonable and consistent with the 2021 comprehensive plans goals and the intent of the place type as well as the intent of the R2 zone to encourage multifamily development and to slow sprawl. The historic development pattern provides no consistently observable setbacks, but most recent development adjacent to the property is situated on front of lot line with some accommodation for side lot lines to meet building code. In the code, we have the opportunity to average the front lot lines of those neighboring businesses. And when we look at both the historic development pattern on the block as well as the new commercial development that has occurred in that area, there is no observable consistency between front, side, or rear setbacks. But rather, in this particular instance, the average would allow for a minimum or a map a minimum of a seven-foot front yard setback. And so the request to vary to eight feet rather than 20 feet does seem reasonable. The proposed setbacks on the side and rear lot line help to accommodate the grade significant debris that is on the site from previous fires and demolitions. And do and are so requested to accommodate not just building maximum to the lot line, but also to account for the integration of the stormwater drainage pipe infrastructure, the stormwater detention pond, the landscaping and the parking requirements that are required for commercial development of this scale. The reintroduction of neighborhood density emulating historic development necessitates potential conditions to ensure the integration of historically compatible architectural features. Within the growth policy or the comprehensive plan, the infill that is required in this area should emulate the historic development pattern and the architectural features of those buildings. And so we have requested two conditions, one of which requests a variegated parapet, which is kind of the customary step-up, step-down parapet at the top of the building, and also the incorporation of brick and brick-like veneer on the facades of the buildings to allow for integration and complementary infill, as well as historically appropriate balustrades and balusters to emulate the historic design of multifamily developments in the area. The parking that is proposed on the site is private and solely private and will be assigned, and should the variance be granted, certain conditions are appropriate in that event. Those conditions should indicate that there is no public parking on the site, and that that public park that the provided parking is assigned by unit and is not variable or cannot be shared or borrowed by others. Here's some information as it relates to just giving you an idea of the historic density pattern. On the right hand side, you can see the 1951 sandborne maps, which were the fire insurance maps.