Board of Adjustment Meeting - August 12, 2025: Approval of Two Cottage Development Requests
Board of Adjustment Meeting – August 12, 2025
The Columbia Board of Adjustment met on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at 7:00 PM in Council Chambers at City Hall. The board considered two applications for “cottage” optional development standards under Section 29-6.4(j) of the Unified Development Code: one for a single lot redevelopment at 600 Woodlawn Avenue and one for a 23-lot cottage subdivision at 3310 Oakland Gravel Road (Totolmajac Village). Both applications were approved unanimously after staff presentations and public hearings. The meeting also addressed corrections to the June 10, 2025 minutes and a procedural correction removing an erroneously listed closed session item.
Consent Calendar
- Agenda Approval: The agenda was approved with an amendment to remove the closed session item (Item VII) due to staff error. Motion carried by voice vote.
- Minutes Approval: The June 10, 2025 regular meeting minutes were approved after a discussion about omitted attachments. Staff agreed to add the missing Planning and Zoning Commission minutes for the prior case (Wyatt Lane) to the record. The minutes for the current meeting’s cases were not affected. Motion carried by voice vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public spoke in favor or against either application during the public hearing portions. One inquiry was received prior to the meeting regarding the 600 Woodlawn Avenue case from a neighbor expressing support for a single-family home but noting a preference for a park. For the 3310 Oakland Gravel Road case, one real estate agent inquired about the application status.
Discussion Items
- Case #236-2025 – 600 Woodlawn Avenue: Applicant Thomas Jensen (attorney for CCV Properties 3, LLC) and engineer Wes Bolton presented a request for cottage standards on a 4,955 sq. ft. legal lot (originally platted in 1926) to allow redevelopment of a single-family home. The lot is constrained by current R2 setbacks (25-ft front, 25-ft corner side) leaving only a 10-ft-wide buildable area. Staff recommended and the applicant accepted revised setbacks: 20-ft front (on Woodlawn), 10-ft south side (on Hickman Avenue), 6-ft opposite side (north), and 10-ft rear. Off-street parking will be provided via an existing driveway off Hickman. The proposal was deemed consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, housing study goals, and infill development. Staff noted this is a rare single-lot cottage application and that the city is developing small-lot integration standards to replace the current cottage process.
- Case #241-2025 – 3310 Oaklad Gravel Road (Totolmajac Village): Applicant Caleb Colbert (attorney for Mendez Properties, LLC) and engineer Jay Gebhardt presented a request for cottage standards on a 5.09-acre tract to create a 22-lot single-family detached subdivision (plus one common lot). The property had been rezoned to R2 and received preliminary plat approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission. The lots would have 42-ft minimum widths (vs. 60-ft R2 standard), 20-ft front and rear setbacks, and 6-ft side setbacks. A large drainage easement along the rear of many lots will effectively increase the rear setback. The development will include public streets, sidewalks, and tree preservation. No ADUs are permitted on cottage lots. Staff confirmed the project meets all three criteria under Section 29-6.4(j) and supports gentle density and housing variety. The applicant stated that 2-car garages will be provided on each lot (four parking spaces per lot).
Key Outcomes
- Case #236-2025: Approved (5-0) with conditions: front yard setback 20 ft, interior side (north) 6 ft, exterior side (south, Hickman) 10 ft, rear yard 10 ft. Motion by Mr. Norgard, seconded by Ms. Hammond.
- Case #241-2025: Approved (5-0) as submitted with setbacks of 20 ft front and rear, 6 ft sides, consistent with the preliminary plat for 22 single-family detached lots and one common lot. Motion by Mr. Sharp, seconded by Mr. Minchu.
- Administrative: Staff noted that the new Planning Director, Clint Smith (currently in Jefferson City), will start at the end of September 2025. The board’s next meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 14, 2025 at 7:00 PM. The city is working on a small-lot integration text amendment expected to be presented for public hearing by the end of 2025, which would eliminate the need for Board of Adjustment action for such developments.
Meeting Transcript
Yes. Mr. Norgard. Present. Ms. Hammond? Here. Mr. Menshu. Here. Ms. Rogers. And Mr. Sharp. Here. You have a quorum, sir. We can conduct business. All right. Thank you. Is there a motion and a second to approve the agenda? I make a motion. Approve the agenda. Second. Before you do so, we will have an amendment to the agenda. The item unfortunately they got placed on the agenda as item number seven, and that is to go into closed session. There is no closed session discussion, so that was a uh unfortunate staff uh error uh in the agenda, so we will go directly from general comments uh of the public staff and uh the com uh the board uh directly to adjournment. All right, thank you. Is there any discussion on this agenda? I'll take a voice vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Against passes. Uh the June 10, 2025 minutes were distributed to the board. Are there any corrections or additions to the minutes? So I uh uh it it does say in the uh staff report that the P and Z commission minutes are attached and they were not attached. Could we attach those please to the minutes that are in the record? We can like that to be added, I guess, to the minutes. Are they have to ask legal, but I think we introduced those as uh evidence part of the record. Sorry, could you state that again? I I couldn't hear the question. So the minutes uh the the minutes from planning and zoning that were supposed to be attached. Uh would those not have been attached to the case as part of the evidentiary record. Uh uh Mr. Zenner, I think that that's part of the package. You I'd have to go back. We don't enumerate the attachments to we don't enumerate the attachments in Board of Adjustment Reports the same way we do planning commission. Um I think the uh to error on the side of greatest caution, we will add the planning and zoning commission minutes. Uh if they were not added to the actual staff report, we will add them to the staff report uh that was published uh before and they wouldn't be added specifically to the minutes themselves because they would have been a piece of the actual staff report. They may not have I may have added them, but if I had you would have seen them, which I have a feeling they did not get added to the agenda. So we will add them to the published agenda, so then they will become part of the record, which is what was intended because of the way the staff report was written.
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