Variance Granted To City Utility Department

The only item before the city’s Planning Advisory Board on January 6th would be a “variance request.” This from a petitioner looking for a “set back variance” in the amount of 12.5-feet from the normal requirement of 25-feet. The difference however came about due to the petitioner’s name requesting the variance. The City of Marco Island’s Utility Department.

Since the acquisition of the assets of Florida Water Services by the city in 2003, and bringing online the necessary expansion of improvements and capacities by the utility over the last twenty years, those improvements have seen a continuous phasing in of adjustments to the SDP of the Utility Site.

The only item not included from all of those improvements was a permanent home for the staff and workspace for the Collection and Distribution portion of W&S. Buildings were proposed in the past, but not funded. On the 2014 approved SDP, it has a placeholder notation that reads “Future C&D Warehouse”. In the meantime the staff has been housed in three temporary buildings.

In a review of the existing Site Development Plans (SDP) for the property that omission was discovered, and subsequent reviews of the building plans would show that a variance was required. American Engineering reported to the board that “The building is a FEMA-classified Designated Emergency Preparedness and Operations Facility to be used by W&S personnel in the event of an emergency, to repair and maintain water and sewer services to the community. As such, the floor elevation is proposed at Base Flood Elevation (BFE) + 2-feet, or 10-feet NAVD. Not only the office space but the workspace must be at this elevation. A ramp to the workspace from the existing grade (approximately seven feet) is required. In order to keep the grade of this ramp usable, the building must be set closer to the front property line. The petitioner requests a reduction of 50%, from 25-feet to 12.5-feet. There is precedent for this, as a similar variance was granted for the Membrane Filtration Building, just south of Windward Drive (The building is currently plan sited at 15-feet front S.B.).”

The required setback variance will bring the city into compliance with the city’s own requirements in regard to Site Development Plan Amendments. No one came forward to oppose the request at the meeting.

The Planning Board would vote 7-0 to approve the request for the variance in the setback requirement.

Staff also reported to the board that an Appeal Hearing of the Planning Board’s 5-2 approval of an amended Site Development Plan regarding a new restaurant at 1202 Bald Eagle Drive would be heard by City Council on January 23 at the council’s regular meeting which will convene at 5:30 PM in council chambers.