001I would like to call to order the Monday, May 12th meeting of the Oxford Township Board of Appeals. So, if everyone would stand and pay respects to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Could you please note the role? Noted. There is a quorum. There is a quorum. All right. So, approval of tonight's agenda. One thing we do need to add is our annual election of officers to that. Um, I would suggest we probably throw that in as item five and push everything down one. So, six becomes seven, seven becomes eight, eight becomes nine. Good enough. Nine 10. We got two nines. Okay. So, someone would like
002to make a motion to amend the agenda. Move. Okay. Go ahead. And second. Second. Seconded. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Moving on to item five, which is election of officers. Um, so I will open the floor for nominations for chairman of the zoning board of appeals and would like to make a and then on the nomination I'll nominate Jim Butler. I second. Any other nominations? Seeing none, um, I'll do it. One more year. One more year. Why not? All right. I will now open the floor up for nominations for was it vice chair? Vice chair. I will nominate Mr. Walters. I'll accept. I would I would second that. So any other nominations? Hearing none. Well, uh, Mr. Walters, you are now the vice chairman of zoning board of appeals. I am now accepting nomination
003for secretary of the zoning board of appeals and like to make a motion or nomination. Excuse me. I'll make nominate uh my friend right here. Would you please recognize him by name? Corey. Cory Bailey. Bailey. All right. So, we have a nomination for Corey Bailey to the Secretary of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Any other nominations? Having none, Mr. Bailey, congratulations. You're now the Secretary of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Thank you for your service. So, moving on. Um, next item on the agenda is the approval of our regular meeting minutes from October 14th, 2024. Uh, anyone like to make a motion? Any amendments? If not, make a motion to approve. So moved. Moved by Mr. Second. Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor? I opposed. public comment for items uh not on tonight's agenda.
004So if anyone in the audience has any public comment to make seeing nobody rushed to the lecture, we'll close that item and move on move on to the next item which is unfinished business. We have none. Next item is new business and tonight we have ZBA case 25001. Cody Collier is the applicant. The property is located at 798 Hillberg Avenue in Oxford, parcel number 0429477004. The applicant is seeking the following variance. The applicant is seeking a variance from section 6.2D1 B of the Oxford Township zoning ordinance to allow an accessory structure to be 6.5 ft from the north property line instead of the 10 ft that is required. So the way our meetings will work is I will announce the project which I've done. Um the applicant will come to the podium and make their
005presentation. The zoning board of appeals will ask questions. We'll open the public comment. All comments will be directed to the chairperson. Um public comments will be closed. Board member will have answer a chance to ask questions if any. The applicant may provide a response if needed. Board members will deliberate on the request. There'll be a motion and then there will be a vote. So, is the applicant here? Please go up to the microphone, announce yourself, name and address, and give us a My name is Cody Collier. I live at 798 Hilbert Avenue 371. Um, I do have some pictures if you guys would like to look through them. I did date uh just in pen if you guys would like to look through those right now just to go through on top of some of
006the sure this is your opportunity to Okay. So yes [Music] start this is just how the the building came together. Yeah. Well I guess I'll leave these try to make this easy as possible but The structure was built in October in 2020. So, these are just recent photos. Some of this all the same here. Um, and originally it was just built up to, you know, be a small little shed. Um, like I said, it was built in 2020, so it's been five years. And then it kind of just snowballed into making it nicer and nicer so it would not be such a isore from the street. Uh, I think finally it's actually looking pretty decent from the road. And the reason I built it in that area was because of that one photo from the
007driveway looking down in there. I have a double door gate and the garage door that is on the shed is directly straight to it. So this is a straight shot. It kind of looks or it just makes sense to have that garage door directly in that place. And then if you can see the white shed that is uh the existing there. Yeah. So that back wall on that fence line, it is flush with it. So when I had the siding go through, it is, you know, just a flush surface. It doesn't have to jump. And then another reason I did not move it over at the time when it was built to is the uh tree that is leading in that area as well. So that tree not I don't know if that one necessarily
008shows it. Uh I believe those pictures are on October 10th October 13th structure is up. You can see that that tree is leaning towards that shed at the time. Now it is cut down. Yeah. This one. Yes. So it was going towards that shed completely and I kind of split the difference and it worked out with being flush with that existing white shed and decided to work fluent and since then that tree had been cut down. So, I guess in the newer photos that have been sent in, uh, you can't tell that there, but another picture. Anything else? Guess if there's any questions I'm answer. Um, this is here because it was an enforcement issue. Correct. Uh, yes. There was an anonymous call that was built without permit. Okay. Um and then you had submitted
009from what I can tell for a building perhaps. Since then I have I've been trying to make it up to date and I just want to make everything, you know, good with the city. At first, like I said, I I kind of just built it with some free lumber and then now it's it's nice enough to want this thing to stay. So, does it have a foundation? It does. So, it was sitting Uh, as you can see in the original picture, well, that's what it is now because there's concrete. Um, I set it on 4x six's, big skids. So, if there was any settling, it was set on a 4x6. And then the opening end where the garage door is. Concrete is poured in a U-shape around it. So, there' be no chance of the
010uh the wall plate ever leaving. So, finish. That was so the structure itself doesn't have a foundation. It does. How deep is the foundation? Do you recall? The entire thing is poured with that 4 in slab much deeper towards the back. Now, how deep is the foundation into the ground or is it just on a slab? A six inch slab. Slab. It's on a So, the foundation's really not a foundation. It's just a concrete slab. Correct. Is it sitting on an actual cement footing or on the 4x six's? 4x6. And what's underneath the 4x six's in grade? That's a 4x6. Yeah. So, it's they look like concrete. There's no footing underneath the 4x6. Just correct. So, there is no foundation. No, it's infilled concrete. Infilled with concrete wrapped around the Okay. So, it has a
011slab on the inside and the outside as you approach the front of it. Is there a slab on the correct side? So, this slab here. So, this is all concrete inside. Then you have that slab. Yeah. So, there is interior pictures as well. the structure that's behind it. Is that on any type of foundation? The one that you have the adjacent wall on I can't see that has a finished floor, but that's been there since I purchased the property. Would it be easier just to describe each picture to Yeah, maybe. Sure. Yeah. Just so we'll we'll give it to you and then describe it. That would be helpful to us. Sorry if I got them completely out of order. Just I think pass them around. So this is all the very first photos were the
012existing shed that was torn down which you saw on October 20th or October 10th, 2020. Um, so that thing from the that's the angle from the street. So it's a old rusty uh metal shed that was torn down. If you could do me a favor as you go through this, if you could number those, that would help us. You're probably going to want to see those have copy those pictures for record. So here's a couple different angles. Yeah, as you go through them, if you just number them, that' be helpful. So, in picture number one, all these are on October 10th, 2020. This is a site from uh the street view looking into my yard. And then number two, that is looking into both doors of the existing shed on the left and the existing
013shed that was torn down on the right. Yeah, you can share them and show it to us. Hold them up when you're talking about we can see. Gotcha. And then number three is another angle of So here's number one. So that's looking into the property. Looking into the property from the street. Okay. That's the existing shed. Uh the existing shed was the rust that you see that How far away is that from the property line? I estimate it. I don't 76 ft from the closest corner to my property. Okay. Oh, are you talking about the fence line? From fence line is that six fence line. this white shed in number two, the back side of that is my property line. So that's six and a half ft, which I see also is the new shed
014as well. So it carries parallel along the property line. So when you pull in, you're pulling to the north into the into the north. Correct. So that's where the variances I guess. Uh number three is just another angle more on a cross angle if you know anything from that. That's one, two, and three. One, two, and three. Yeah. So, the next stage building this is October 13, 2020. So, a couple of days later, uh, the metal shed was completely cleaned out, and that's the one that's closest to the, um, property line. Yes. Well, I guess they're both in this same property line. So, the metal one was closest to So, I'm going to get rid of these now. They're done. October 13th. This is number four. See that metal shed was torn down completely. Are
015opened up. This is just another view with this. So, they were pre-framed on the ground. The 4x sixes were laid out in square. Um, this back wall was framed in full and then screwed directly to that white shed that was existing here. Okay. So, that's a two by or there, right here. Yep. But that is bought directly to it. And the overhang that is on this side, you can't actually tell. I'll just order label as seven. So the opening was cut off to have this building go flush to that wall. So the studs were found within that wall to it. eight. These are all sped up A-frame. I don't have pictures of that garage door wall being built, but I so I guess how to explain the next picture would be that was left out.
016I did 16 inch on center 2 by8 from one end to the other. I don't have a picture to show it, but on the back side here, this was a knee wall that's built level, so everything would pitch off this direction. Um, everything's top plated, double plated. The only thing that was missing was a plywood for exterior sheeting. See the back right side there is a knee wall that's in place. That whole back side's level the roof pitches to this. So it's done 11. So May 7th, this is prior to sighting. 11. Prior to siding, uh, two windows were added, cut in and header. Uh, the interior, which I can just preview before I get to it. The interior was not OSB yet at this time, so it was open framing. Uh, so I was
017able to cut the studs loose, head it off properly, uh, add windows and a finished door, which you can see is the beginning of J channel around it. Um again are in ready for sighting 12. Uh OSB I was just going to do OSB for the interior instead of drywalling it. This is the finish. 13 shows how the roof lay went to the existing white shed. Um, that window was still going to be replaced, not finished yet. It's a slow moving process a little bit. 14. This is picture of sighting next to So, it's made on a 45 degree diagonal. Now, we're more towards recent photos. Took this one recently. This shows that that tree stump itself was 5 foot away. There's tape measure next to it. Bing off the siding itself to the tree
018stone, which has since been cut down. This one doesn't really show anything different interior. I guess this is how you can see some of the trusses. Trusses are joist. You can see that they're pitched and built with a knee wall on that right side towards the north. And now sloping concrete is an infill. This show from the street views in the middle of the driveway looking down towards CH. So there any other questions now Mr. Bailey? Um, yeah, I'd kind of like to thumb through them real quick, but I guess a couple questions. I mean, without it being a foundation, what pitches on the roof? What I mean, is is the rest of this thing to Okay, go ahead. I'll thumb through these questions. Yeah. Uh, Cody, what uh practical difficulty did you have to
019um build it where you're building where you built it today? Right. You you got a driveway going back there. You and I'm thinking, right, there's a 10- foot setback. That's by our ordinance, right? Why couldn't you keep it 10 10 ft? You had room it looks like on your your presentation, but maybe there's something that I'm missing or maybe there's an extenduating circumstance why you didn't keep it 10 ft off that lot. to be flush with that back wall of the existing of the existing and then also with the tree when it was built. I was almost touching it at the time. Okay. So that's why it stopped there too with the width that I would need for you know just a couple of feet for the garage door to be in the center and
020then a couple just for that the existing shed is basically there's no foundation and it's really a temporary type of a shed. You you actually could have moved that or slid it to meet the ordinance. Right. I'm not positive that electrical ran to it as well. So that comes in the back side of it north side in between the fence and the back side of that shed as well. So sliding that over with there was a trench I believe for it because I do have a breaker in my in my home. Okay. So it's on one switch from my original breaker. That one has its own breaker out there too. Do you have any electrical run to the new one that you built already? Yes, you do have is outlets which are showing the interior
021pictures there which has come off that one breaker and you don't have a permit for the electrical either. I applied for all for the building and the electrical and electrician come out and say this would this would pass. Have you been doing all the work yourself on this? Yes, that's why five years see this white and I have a question was what is the function of this because it turned out a lot bigger like when I read shed I was thinking a shed and then it's to you know it's a lot bigger than shed uh the function is really just for storage um just for storage tools and I I do I'm a carpenter I own a business so I need it for storage and just functionality. How I run my business. I guess that
022kind of justifies that the work is done properly. I do it for a living. Got a lot better over the years. So that's why I'm starting to make everything look a little nicer. Are you a licensed builder? I'm sure. Any other questions? Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Um, at this time, I would like to open up the floor for public comment. So, anyone from the public that wish to speak on this matter, please come forward. State your name and address. What? Hi, Thomas. My name is Suzanne Lto. I live at 2079 Block Drive. Um, I received a letter about the Cody requesting a variance and um, I just wanted to come and state that I absolutely my backyard is I think two yards away from his and I absolutely have no issue with the variance
023at all. I have spoken with my neighbors on one on this side, Joe Campbell, and two on this side that also, you know, butt up against, you know, two yards away and none of us have an issue. And then Cindy Carter, whose backyard actually butts up to Cody's, she wrote a letter stating as such, you know, it it's a nice looking shed and none of the neighbors have an issue. Cody's been a great neighbor. He's a good good guy. He belongs to the Fernuck Association in our subdivision. He's always helping out everybody and we just we just think that it would be it's no problem for us if we were to allow variance. Thank you. Anyone else from the public wishes to speak? Good afternoon. Evening Scott. I live on Bernlock 2142. But I own
024the property at 818 which is just south of Cody's property which is surprising h i l h i l h e r's in there right yeah just reading the document you gave me that y um same thing's been a great uh neighborhability when you drive by I can I don't know what he was thinking when he built it, but visibly when you walk by. But when you drive by there, it makes sense where that where that fixture is. You guys know variances better than I. I just wanted to support him. He's been a great neighbor. My mom lived in the house for many years. He was very helpful. Uh there's been no issues with anything that he's done and I just want to come to support him. I'm not sure what the push back is,
025but done a great job in the house. He's done improvements ever since. Thank you. Anyone else? We have one letter. We have one letter for letter. You should also read the one that Can I get a copy of that letter? Handle that gentleman right there. Gee, thanks. You made the motion. Secretary, thank you. Second. Sorry. Complicit. Okay. So, I'll read both of these. May 12th, 2025 to Oxford Township. I am writing in regard to the property on 798 Hillberg, Oxford, Michigan. I do not object to the variance that is requested. You may contact me at any time. Thank you, Cindy Carter, 783 CBEC, Oxford, Michigan 48371. Um, the next one comes from Ryan Chatley. Um, says, "Hi, Cheryl. I received notice regarding Cody Collier's application for variant at 798 Hillberg, Oxford Township to build an
026accessory structure 6.5 ft from the property line rather than the required 10 ft. As the owner, Big Sky Trust of the neighboring property at 778 Hillberg, I would like to formally register my opposition to this variance. I believe the township should uphold the established 10-ft setback requirement. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you, Ryan Chatley. And is that the neighbor on the other side? Um 778 Hillberg. It's to the north. To the north. Yeah, it's the one right there. Okay. And that's where the structure would be. Yeah. Any other additional comments or questions of the applicants? Oops. Can I say another thing? We need to close the public. You got to close public hearing first. I will close the public hearing at 7:28 and move on to uh board
027member questions and comments. Again, any questions? I guess my first big question is why not pull a permit for this to begin with? to address that. Please come to the mic. Question is um why didn't you pull? Uh originally I didn't think it would need one as I said a little earlier. This thing kind of came together slowly at this point. Of course looking back now I wish I did make all this correct. That's what I'm here to do today. Yes, I wish I did. Lack knowledge at the time. Now I for sure know I'm trying to deal with it as best as possible. Any other questions of the applicant comments? But another thing just to clarify, there is no footing or foundation under the 4x6, just dirt. Correct. Correct. And it's adhered to the
028smaller shed. Yes. So it's n to the smaller shed and the rep system goes. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Uh one more comment. I'm sure the one opposition that was sent in, they've just purchased the property within a couple months. So this shed that's been there since 2020. It's been there for the last five years. So, just wanted to make that. Okay. All right. Moving on. In reviewing requests for a variance, the following standards for determining practical difficulty shall be considered with no single factor being determinative as outlined in section 17.8 variances of the zoning of the zoning ordinance. Number one, strict compliance with regulate restrictions governing area, setback, frontage, pipe, bulk, density, or other non-use manner will unreasonably prevent the owner from using the property for a permitted purpose or render ordinance
029conformity unnecessarily burdensome. Comments applies or doesn't apply. I don't think it applies. No. Yeah, I don't think it applies. I mean you have a piece of property that's 100 ft by 400 ft. I mean I don't think it's the ordinance is unnecessarily burdensome in that regard. Number two, the variance will do substantial justice to the applicant as well as well as to other property owners. I think it'll do justice to the applicant. I don't see how it would benefit the other property owners. Um, matter of fact, I mean, I'll be as little bold as to say my fear is that it will become unsightly to the other property owners when this thing starts to sag and collapse and other issues because it's not built on a foundation. It's going to house built on sand. Yeah.
030One say about it's not going to pass inspection. So even with a variance, my fear is it's going to have to come down and be rebuilt anyway. So I I don't think it does justice to the other property owners. I would agree with that. Other comments? Do I agree? Yes. Uh number three, a lesser variance in requested will not give substantial relief to the applicant and not consistent with justice to other property owners. There's a lesser how you could do a lesser variance. It's built. It's it's already built. It's a ask forgiveness over permission. I don't know how we could give a lesser variance. wouldn't do any wouldn't make a difference, right? Here there it is. It's built and the fact that it's built. Okay. The need for the variance is due to unique circumstances
031particular to the property and not generally applicable in the area or to other properties in the same zoning district. It doesn't. There's nothing unique. The property is 100 ft wide. A stump or a tree, right? It's not the shape of the lot. It's not the topography of the lot. There's really nothing truly going about it. I mean, it's square. Okay. Moving on. Uh, number five, the problem and the resulting need for the variance has not been self-created by the applicant or the applicant's predecessors. That doesn't apply. No. All right. With that, I will enter a motion. There's one to be offered. I'll make a motion. Okay. Please in case of 25 ZBA 001 Cody Collier the applicant property at 718 Hillberg Avenue with 1L Oxford Michigan 48371 parcel number 0429477014 like to deny the variance
032from section 6.2 2D.1B in the R1 Oxford Township zoning ordinance that's proposed at 6.5 ft from the north side property line instead of the required 10 ft on the side setback with the findings of facts and the the um pictures to the presented articles that we have here before us today. We have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. We have a motion and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Okay. Roll call, please. Walters, yes. Bailey, yes. Burch, yes. Butler, yes. Motion passed. So, your motion, your The request for a variance has been denied. So we'll move on to the next item on the board. Board member comments. Any comments? Seeing none. Understand a motion for adjournment. So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. We are ajourned.