Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals denied and approved different accessory structure use variances Monday.
The board denied a use variance to allow a private garage with no principle structure at 423 E. Arthur St.
Rick Keeven, board member, made the motion, seconded by Jack Wilhite.
The property has been vacant since a fire destroyed the three-unit apartment building less than two years ago.
City ordinance says there can’t be an accessory structure without a principle structure, and there is not a principle structure on the lot. Petitioner Ed Crousore, whose residence is on the east side of town, requested the variance to put up a storage facility to work on vehicles.
Tom Allen, board president, said the garage is a freestanding building not adjacent to a home and could be abandoned property.
“It’s an empty building without an owner in an R-2,” Allen said.
“I’m out of room to work on vehicles and don’t have space in my own garage and would like to put up a garage that will give me space to do so,” Crousore said. “Between me and my children, we have 11 automobiles in our family and when something needs to be done it’s hard to work on them.”
Keeven said he had concerns with Crousore not living by the garage he wants to build.
“With someone that far away it’s not particularly convenient for lawn care,” Keeven said.
Wilhite also said he had concerns with the garage not being adjacent to a property.
Allen said he had sympathy for Crousore but the request did not follow zoning regulations.
The board later approved a use variance to allow a private garage with no principle building at lot 74 of the Lakeside Park Addition.
Keeven made the motion, seconded by Ron Shoemaker, board member.
The difference from the variance that was denied is that the lot has never been built on before and has always been vacant. The garage also will be located by petitioner Paul Henning’s residence.
He lives at the condominiums at Pike Lake and the property where he wants to build a garage is four-tenths of a mile from his condo.
It will be a 24-by-30 foot building and he has a purchase agreement on the lot. It will have a two-car garage and be a vinyl siding building.
Carl Bevins, a neighbor who lives north of the property, said he appreciates Hennings’s plans to purchase the property.
“I’d love to see him put his building there and clean up the property,” Bevins said.
(Story By Times Union)
