Draft of truck scale appeal expected for Assembly
The Juneau Assembly has drafted a decision that would deny an appeal by citizen Dixie Hood against the Board of Adjustment for a variance granted for a truck scale built next to Lemon Creek without proper permits.
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The Assembly is expected to review the draft at its regular Monday meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.
The draft decision rules in favor of the Board of Adjustment, saying the Juneau Planning Commission followed city criteria in granting an after-the-fact variance to the construction company Secon for a truck scale built within the required 50-foot setback of a fish-rearing stream.
City Attorney John Hartle emphasized that the document is a draft and the Assembly could potentially change or amend the decision.
"There are really many things that could happen," he said.
Hood filed the appeal in June, contesting the variance after learning it had been granted by the Planning Commission. She said granting the variance after the scale had been constructed set a bad precedent for future development in the community.
The Board of Adjustment granted the variance at a May 22 Planning Commission. The variance included 12 conditions of approval, such as planting trees and addressing water runoff.
Hartle said the draft really says two things in its decision.
"One, it makes the point that enforcement decisions are not appealable," he said, adding that is within the purview of City Manager Rod Swope, based on the city's appeals code. "Point No. 2, they decided that under all the circumstances, Ms. Hood didn't meet the burden of proof in proving that the Planning Commission made an error."
The Assembly is not deciding on the approval of the variance, but rather if there was sufficient evidence before the Planning Commission to make its decision, which it found there was, Hartle said.
John Logsdon, operations manager for Secon, said he wished to refrain from commenting on the topic until the Assembly makes its final decision.
Hood was not surprised by the draft decision because she said the makeup of the current Assembly is pro-development.
"I didn't have reason to be optimistic in winning my appeal, but I definitely feel very good that it raised the profile to what is going on in our city government," she said. "Hopefully this will contribute to some changes down at City Hall."
Hood said she was pleased to see the two requests made in the draft intended to prevent future problems addressed in the appeal from recurring.
One is to pass an ordinance to clarify the language of the subsections of the variance requirements to save time and effort for the Assembly and Planning Commission. The other idea is to draft an ordinance to double the fees for permits filed after the fact, intended as "a financial incentive for developers to apply for (city) permits in a timely manner."
At the heart of the appeal was whether the variance granted by the Board of Adjustment met city criteria. In question was a particular subsection of the city's land-use code that allows granting a variance if a project is deemed "unnecessarily burdensome because unique physical features of the property render compliance with the standards unreasonably expensive."
During the appeal hearing in November, Community Development Department staff testified that "special engineering and construction techniques" would have been required of Secon to construct the scale because of limited areas available to build on the property that are outside the required 50-foot setback of a fish-rearing stream.
The draft document states that the Board of Adjustment had the needed evidence that supported the "unnecessarily burdensome" criteria.
If the Assembly votes to approve the draft decision at its Monday meeting, or some form of the decision that affirms the decision of the Board of Adjustment, the decision may be appealed to the Juneau Superior Court within 30 days of the order.
• Contact Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.