Tempe Board of Adjustment Meeting – February 22, 2012
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Tempe Board of Adjustment Meeting – February 22, 2012
The Tempe Board of Adjustment met on the evening of Wednesday, February 22, 2012, to hear two appeals: an abatement appeal regarding a property at 1087 East Minton Drive and a variance appeal regarding a property at 902 South Ash Avenue. The board unanimously denied both appeals, upholding the earlier hearing officer decisions. The meeting lasted approximately two hours and included public testimony and board deliberation.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes Approval: The board unanimously approved the minutes from the October 26, 2011 meeting. (Note: The agenda listed October 26, 2012, but the transcript confirms 2011.)
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kamper Property (ABA12001): The appellant, Nada Axford, represented herself as the property owner. She argued that the city’s complaint was anonymous, that the city failed to follow due process, and that the fire hazard concerns were escalated unnecessarily. She stated she had requested city assistance with a homeowners association dispute but received no cooperation. Ms. Axford also claimed that city officials entered her property without permission. No other public comments were made on this item.
- Arkules-Saint Vincent Property (VRA11002): Several members of the Maple Ash neighborhood spoke in support of the variance. Chris Rowley, Becky Rowley, Karen (last name not given), and Jenny Lucier all testified that the existing wall was sufficient and that a second wall was unnecessary and would create maintenance issues. They expressed concern that the appeal was being used to harass the applicants. The appellant, Rick Hondorp, spoke at length in opposition, arguing that the variance criteria were not met and that the city’s staff report contained errors. He described himself as the HOA president for Siena Court Lofts and managing member of Rhombus LLC.
Discussion Items
- Appeal ABA12001 – Kamper Property Abatement: The board heard from Jeff Tamulevich, Code Compliance Administrator, who presented photos of junk and debris in the backyard and read an email from Assistant Fire Chief Mark Scott detailing fire safety risks. The appellant, Nada Axford, argued that the city had not worked with her and that the fire concerns were overstated. Board members questioned Ms. Axford about occupancy and safety concerns. After deliberation, the board voted unanimously to deny the appeal and uphold the hearing officer’s decision to abate the public nuisance.
- Appeal VRA11002 – Arkules-Saint Vincent Variance: The appellant, Rick Hondorp, argued that the variance to waive the required eight-foot masonry wall should be overturned because the existing wall on his property did not satisfy the city’s buffer requirement. He claimed the variance criteria were not met and that the parking lot had been used illegally. The applicants, David Arkules and Patricia St. Vincent, stated they had planted trees and improved the property per city suggestions. They argued that a second wall was redundant and that Mr. Hondorp’s actions were vindictive. Public testimony supported the variance. The board discussed the difficulty of the situation but found that the variance criteria were satisfied and that the appeal lacked merit. The board voted unanimously to deny the appeal and uphold the variance.
Key Outcomes
- Kamper Property (ABA12001): The board denied the appeal (unanimous vote), upholding the hearing officer’s decision to allow the city to abate the public nuisance at 1087 East Minton Drive.
- Arkules-Saint Vincent Property (VRA11002): The board denied the appeal (unanimous vote), upholding the hearing officer’s decision to grant the variance for a reduced wall height at 902 South Ash Avenue.
- The meeting was adjourned after no further business.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone. Uh my name is Chris Dodd, and I'm the chair, newly elected of the uh Tempe Board of Adjustments. This is the meeting of February 22nd, 2012. Uh I'll call the meeting to order. The Board of Adjustments is authorized by Arizona revised statutes in the City of Tempe zoning ordinance. Its function is to grant relief where a literal a literal enforcement of the zoning ordinance would result in an unnecessary property hardship to interpret provisions of the zoning ordinance and to hear appeals from any person or city official aggrieved by the decision of a person responsible for the enforcement of the zoning ordinance. The board has the City of Tempe Community Development staff's summary reports on the items being considered at this meeting tonight, and we and we will use these reports in our deliberations. I'll let the board introduce themselves because I'm not sure I know everyone or can see their name tags. So we'll start down here at the right. Hi, my name is Anthony Goes. I'm Jonathan Gillen. I'm Dr. Stim. I'm Jan Sell. And I'm Richard Cause. And joining us is our alternate member uh Richard Dalton, and he's in the audience. Also in the room are staff uh Steve Abramson, uh planning and zoning coordinate and Sherry Lesser, senior planner. First uh item I think is to approve the minutes. Uh Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the um minutes of our last meeting on October 26th, 2011. Mr. Chair, I second that motion. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion passes. Okay, I think on to the matters at hand. Uh the first order, are we going to switch the order? I will turn it over to you to Okay, go ahead. Um, the first case on this evening tonight is the appeal of the January 3rd, 2012 hearing officer decision to approve the request by the City of Tempe Code Compliance Action to Bate Public News items in violation of the Tempe City Code for the Camper property. Located at 1087 East Minton Drive in the R2 multifamily residential district. Um we will hurry up first here from the City of Tempe, just as an introduction, and then we will hear from the uh the appealing party. Mr. Chair and Board. The case before you, uh 1087 East Minton Drive is I apologize. My name is Jeff Tamulevich, I'm the Code Compliance Administrator for the City. And uh here to speak to you about 1087 East Minton. Um this is obviously an appeal, and uh, we spoke a little bit about this in pre-session tonight. Um violation is uh in the at a town home property in the backyard or patio area, if you will. The violation uh is for junk and debris, and that violation uh still exists today. Uh earlier at pre-session, I passed out some photos, and I'll put those in for the record right now. Also, I would like to add to the record a an email that I received from assistant fire chief mark Scott, and I will read that into the record. Uh this is an email that I received yesterday, says Jeff, as a follow up to our earlier conversation. I was able to stop by 1087 East Minton today. I did not contact the occupant, but I was able to observe the conditions of the backyard patio and patio roof. My observations as to the potential unsafe conditions under a working fire situation are as follows. The condition of the patio roof is in disrepair and represents an extreme collapse hazard to firefighters during a working fire. The patio roof does not appear to be able to support its own weight under normal conditions, let alone under fire conditions. Under fire conditions, this roof represents unique challenges with collapse potential onto those firefighters who may be working underneath during a fire fire during a fire, plus a virtual fuel load, the patio the patio roof structure in such poor condition represents during a fire. This fire load coupled with the storage of cardboard boxes, additional fire load on the patio of all present uh fire safety challenges to the responding emergency crews and possibly to any immediate neighbors due to the potential fire spread.
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