At a recent meeting, Milford Board of Adjustments approved three variance requests from Kleen Energy for property located at 1022 North Walnut Street. Variances were for minimum setbacks, size of side yards and buffers.
“The applicant is seeking permission to reduce the front yard setback from 30 feet to 20 feet along Buccaneer Boulevard, resulting in a 10-foot encroachment,” City Planner Rob Pierce said. “The second variance is to reduce the side yard setback from 20 feet to ten feet, resulting in a 10-foot encroachment. The applicant is seeking permission to reduce the landscape buffer area from 15 feet to 10 feet.”
Board of Adjustments was presented with a letter of support from the neighbor to the south of the property.
“The parcel is an existing non-conforming lot under the current City of Milford zoning code which creates some challenges for improvements within the allowable building area,” Chad Warren, an engineer with Davis, Bowen & Friedel said. “The intent of this proposed construction is to relocate the applicant’s business to this commercially zoned lot, where the applicant resides, reducing overhead costs from building rent.”
There is property zoned C3 across North Walnut to the east of the property and another zone R2, according to Warren. Commercial and industrial businesses are permitted in C3 zoning through conditional use.
“The surrounding area consists of an auto parts store, several strip malls, schools and residential property,” Warren said. “In the immediate vicinity of the property, besides the right-of-way frontages on North Walnut Street and Buccaneer Boulevard, the property is bordered to the west by a commercial property which contains Domino’s Pizza, a clothing boutique and to the south by a residence that is zoned C3.”
The applicant’s residence would remain on the property and that would make the land mixed-use. The request for setbacks and reduction in buffers would not seriously impact neighboring properties. Chairman Brendan Warfel asked what type of operation would exist on the parcel.
“It is for DEF filter cleaning,” Warren said. “They have standalone machines that the filters are placed into. The machine cleans the filters, and they are then removed from the site. No vehicles are brought onto the property. The filters are picked up and delivered to the property so no actual large trucks will be on the site.”
During a public hearing on the matter, Julie Morris suggested clarifying on the record that this was not an automotive service business.
“Which zoning application actually applies? That is my question and concern,” Morris said. “The other one is that staff stated that the variance would affect neighboring properties. Just putting up a fence doesn’t disregard the five feet closer to residential property so I don’t think that should be granted.”
Pierce explained that even if the variances were granted, the business had to go through he conditional use process within Planning and Zoning as well as City Council. The three variances were approved unanimously.
