City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2011 05 10

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May 2"d, 2011 Members of the Louisville City Council City Hall Louisville, CO 80027 Michael E. Jasiak Chairman, Louisville BOA 1016 Main Street Louisville, CO 80027 Dear Mayor Chuck Sisk and members of the Louisville City Council, 1 am writing at the behest of Louisville Board of Adjustment, of which 1 am serving as Chairman. This letter serves as a collaboration of the Board's thoughts for our annual meeting with the City Council. As it was composed after the Board's general meeting, however, please treat any opinions as my own. Any member of the Board may provide additional commentary, notation, or disagreement on the contents of this letter at our study session with the City Council on May 9th, 2011. The Board is generally pleased with our role in Louisville City Government, and the rules it gives us in the form of six criteria for granting a variance request. This set of rules have held up well, and often provoke excellent discussion among the board members to make sure cases are decided properly, with a morally and legally defendable foundation. There has, however, been ongoing debate if the ordinance requiring all six criteria to be met for a variance is too strict. The board is concerned that having such a high bar creates decisions that become precedent setting; the idea of any flexibility that the board has in its decision making process is removed by requiring all criteria be met. Any concept of precedent in its cases could lead the city open to future Litigation; this rigidity may or may not go against the spirit by which the board exists, but definitely leaves the board feeling that decisions must be consistent in all cases, with little regard for differences between cases. It has been brought up that other municipalities surrounding Louisville have less- strict variance granting criteria - such as an applicant needing to meet only five of the six criteria to be given a variance. To this, the Board would like to propose to the Council a study be conducted by the Planning Department, which would include: 1) A survey of the variance rules of surrounding municipalities, with particular interest in those that may have similar variance criteria, but more flexibility in their execution, and 2) A study on the effectiveness of these different rules, including number of cases heard, number of variances granted, and number of cases appealed to the Colorado court system. The board does not wish to make any changes without careful consideration; the rules have served us well thus far. The concern of precedent, or forcing the board's hand in a situation that may otherwise be deemed reasonable does come up frequently though. In the spirit of best serving Louisville residents, and protecting the City from potential litigation, we do believe a formal study would help determine if any changes need to be made to the rules for granting a variance. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter, Michael "Erik" Jasiak Chairman, Louisville Board of Adjustment 5