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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/24/2019 - Zoning Appeal - Minutes -Board of Zoning Appeals MINUTES Thursday, January 24, 2019, 4:00 PM Council Chambers, City Hall, 114 North Broad Street 1. Call to Order A public hearing of the Board of Zoning Appeals of the City of Salem, Virginia, was held after due and proper notice in the Council Chambers, City Hall, 114 North Broad Street, at 4:00 p.m., on January 24, 2019. Notice of such hearing was published in the Salem Times Register, a newspaper published and having general circulation in the City. The Board, constituting a legal quorum presided with; Steve Yost, City Attorney; Charles E. Van Allman, Jr., Director of Community Development; William L. Simpson, Jr., City Engineer; Mary Ellen Wines, Zoning Administrator; Rita Wygal, Secretary and the following business was transacted: Chairman Dubois called the hearing to order at 4:00 p.m. and requested roll call: Mr. Sellers - Aye Captain Copenhaver - Aye Mr. Derr - Aye Vice Chairman Gresham - Aye Chairman Dubois – Aye 2. Election of Officers Chairman Dubois pushed for the election of officers for Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary. Chairman Dubois asked if there were any nominations. Mr. Sellers, nominated Mr. Dubois as Chairman for next year. Captain Copenhaver seconded the nomination. Chairman Dubois asked for any other nominations. Chairman Dubois asked for a roll call vote. Mr. Sellers -Aye Captain Copenhaver -Aye Mr. Derr -Aye Vice-Chairman Gresham -Aye Chairman Dubois -Aye Chairman Dubois asked for nominations for selection of the Vice Chairman. Mr. Sellers nominated Mr. Gresham as Vice Chairman for next year. Captain Copenhaver seconded the nomination. Chairman Dubois asked for a roll call vote. Mr. Sellers -Aye Captain Copenhaver -Aye Mr. Derr -Aye Vice Chairman Gresham -Aye Chairman Dubois -Aye Chairman Dubois asked for nominations for selection of the Secretary for the Board. Chairman Dubois nominated Rita Wygal for Secretary. Mr. Gresham seconded the nomination. Chairman Dubois asked for a roll call vote. Mr. Sellers -Aye Captain Copenhaver -Aye Mr. Derr -Aye Vice Chairman Gresham -Aye Chairman Dubois -Aye Chairman Dubois read the declaration for the record. If anyone disagrees with the Board’s decisions today, they have the right to appeal to the Circuit Court of the City of Salem. They must exercise their right to appeal no later than 30 days following the Board’s decision by filing a petition to the Circuit Court specifying the grounds to which they are aggrieved. 3. New Business A. Variance Request Hold a public hearing to consider the request of the City of Salem, property owners, for a variance from Section 106-226.7 pertaining to development restrictions in a Floodway, for the right-of-way property located east of 359 Kessler Mill Road. The petitioners are requesting to construct a pedestrian bridge spanning Gish Branch that will be incorporated into the Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail. Chairman Dubois asked if any correspondence had been received from anyone. Mary Ellen Wines confirmed that no correspondence had been received. Chairman Dubois asked if someone from the City of Salem was there to make a presentation. He asked if everyone on the Board had a chance to inspect the site. All Board members confirmed they had inspected the site. Will Simpson, City Engineer for the City of Salem addressed the Board. He stated, as they see in the package, they have a State grant to construct a trail down the western side of Kessler Mill Road from the current parking lot up above Robertson Marketing down to East Main Street which is part of the overall Masons Creek Greenway Trail. This is a stand-alone section. What they are coming to the Board for today is the section right in front of Robertson Marketing where the culvert is currently over Gish Branch on Kessler Mill Road. They are proposing to put a pedestrian bridge right next to that culvert. The bridge itself, the abutments will be going into the existing ground and the tie-ins will be at the current grade now. There will be no fill involved with it so the only materials that will be placed in the floodway are in the area where they will be excavating out current existing land. They will be putting a 12’ wide bridge on that which is essentially going to be mirroring the existing culvert that is under Kessler Mill Road. It will be concrete abutments, and it is a pre-fab bridge. He thinks the minimum span that the pre-fab bridges come in is 28’. This one will be approximately 36’ to 40’. The exact length has not been determined yet. That is still going through review with VDOT, but he will be happy to take any questions the Board might have. Captain Copenhaver wanted to ask, but stated it might be better if Mr. Yost can think on this, when he is looking at Section 106-226.9, it states in Section B that no variance shall be granted for any proposed use, development, skipping a few words, except for in full compliance with the following requirement. Then the requirement is the variance will not cause any increase of flood levels which Mr. Simpson stated it will not. Then, after that, it says appropriate documentation from a registered engineer must be submitted which substantiates the impact on flood heights, velocities and flows through hydrologic and hydraulic analysis and calculations. He asked Mr. Yost if he feels that what has been provided in the package, the statement, pictures and information from the last 10 years on the current bridge is sufficient to constitute documentation of that. Mr. Yost responded that it is ultimately the Board’s decision to make, but his own opinion is yes, it is. If we have an engineer and we look real quick at the attachment to the application, where Mr. Simpson stated that the area the abutments take up will be equal to the excavation taken out. The result of the construction will not cause a rise in the surrounding floodway. He asked Mr. Simpson if that was his opinion and how did he come to that. Mr. Simpson responded that they looked at it from an internal standpoint and they discussed it with their consultant which is Hurt & Proffitt who is doing the actual design for it. They ran a preliminary or rough hydraulic study. It was nothing that was submitted to them formally. It was quick, just ran numbers and what was it going to look like and they came up with no impact on it. They pay them to be their structural engineers, and they have the structural hydraulic engineers working on that. Hurt & Proffitt’s professional opinion and the City’s as well is that there is not going to be any impact to the floodway. Captain Copenhaver asked if he had the historic analysis from the previous bridge that was also installed and has not had any effect. Mr. Simpson stated that it has also gone through several flood studies and the floodway through there has not changed. Mr. Sellers asked if the abutments are wider than the existing culvert. Mr. Simpson stated yes, they will be outside of the existing culvert. He stated that it is probably going to be roughly 5’ to 10’ outside of each side of it. The opening where the bridge is going to be is not going to constrict down the current opening that is there now. Vice Chairman Gresham asked if he had any knowledge of flotsam coming down and jamming in that culvert and causing the creek to flood. Mr. Simpson stated that they are not aware of any. He knows that on the downstream side of that, it has gotten, maybe once, there was a tree that had fallen over but that was about it. They have not had anything that has actually come down through there and lodged inside of that culvert. Mr. Derr asked if there are any enhancements to the trail or anymore blacktop, cement and anything else to be poured. Mr. Simpson asked if he meant through the whole thing and stated yes. Chairman Dubois asked if, in the vicinity of that bridge, will there be more hard surface poured. Mr. Simpson responded that there will but it will all be at current grade now. At the Robertson Marketing parking lot, it is basically a big open area right now. They are working with them to have more designated entrances to where the traffic will not be so widespread through there. It will be localized to certain entrances, so it is safer for pedestrians down through there. Vice Chairman asked why it is so wide, 12’ for a footbridge. Mr. Simpson responded that, unfortunately, they have to follow the AASHTO standards. Stands for American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The trail itself has to be 8’ wide and then there is supposed to be 2’ shoulders on each side. The AASHTO requires them to carry that through the bridge. They have tried and they are still trying to get that narrowed down. If they can, they will try to get it down to a 10’ wide bridge because it is cheaper to put in a 10’ bridge than it is a 12’ bridge. Vice Chairman Gresham asked about the estimated cost to build this thing. Mr. Simpson asked if he meant the whole project. He stated that it is probably going to be anywhere between $600,000 and $700,000 for the whole project. Not for the bridge, but for the whole project because it is trail, drainage, drainage structures, commercial entrances and the bridge itself. The bridge itself is probably going to be about a third of that cost. Captain Copenhaver asked if they were going to put pipe in the ditch that runs along there now and backfill to build the trail up over it. Mr. Simpson stated no, the bridge is going to span the creek itself and then it will run through there now. Right now, there is not really a ditch per say. Going south of that, curb and gutter picks up on Kessler Mill and they will be adjusting that through there to put the trail in and then the curb and gutter. Chairman Dubois asked if there would be rock or anything to prevent erosion. Mr. Simpson responded that at the bridge itself, yes, they will have wing walls on the abutments that will stop the erosion from happening there. Vice Chairman Gresham asked if it will snuggle up to the existing concrete structure and start from there the 12’. Mr. Simpson responded that there will probably be about a 2’ gap between the actual culvert and the bridge itself. They are not directly up against it because they still have to be able to get in there and maintain the actual culvert under the road. They must have a little bit of room to be able to get in there. Chairman Dubois asked if there was any plans to widen that road. Mr. Simpson stated that he was not aware of any. Captain Copenhaver asked, because this has no impact on the level of water, if there were no federal or state regulations or requirements that need to be met in this case. Mr. Simpson stated that they do have to get environmental permitting through VDOT, but that is all part of their plan approval process that they are going through now. Mr. Sellers asked that, if they do not butt up to the existing concrete shoulder and there is 2’ of air and the road is over here, then they basically have almost 2’ on that side left or do they have anything left on that side. Mr. Simpson responded that the road would come over to where it stops now, then will have a gap, then the bridge itself will start and go over 12’. Mr. Sellers stated that he was thinking about kids and asked can they crawl down, can they get back up, can they get out of there, that type of thing. Mr. Simpson stated that if the child really wanted to, they could get under the bridge and try to work their way back up through there. It would be difficult and there will be handrails on the bridge itself to prevent people from falling over the sides. Mr. Derr asked how high the bridge is up above the level playing surface. Mr. Simpson stated that it is going to be at grade where the culvert itself is now. Chairman Dubois asked about the gap between, whatever level would be in the curb of the bridge and how high is the bridge. Mr. Simpson responded that he thinks the bottom of the bridge is going to basically be where the existing lane comes out now and then goes down to the creek. It is basically going to come straight out from there. Vice Chairman Gresham asked if it is pretty much a level pace then. Mr. Simpson stated that it will have a slight arch. Captain Copenhaver asked if it is the exact same bridge that they put over on the other section. Mr. Simpson stated that is their plan. If you go down east Riverside Drive, it is going to look very similar to that bridge. Vice Chairman Gresham asked if there was no concern about the new hard surface creating any problem with heavy rain upset because there is no absorption or anything or no more runoff to deal with. Mr. Simpson responded no. They are taking drainage into consideration with the overall project. They are going to try to improve the drainage situation down through there as it is now. Chairman Dubois asked if there were any other questions or if there was anyone else that wanted to speak. Chairman Dubois asked if they have a motion for approval of the variance. Captain Copenhaver made a motion to approve. Mr. Sellers seconded. Chairman Dubois asked for a roll call vote: Mr. Sellers -Aye Captain Copenhaver -Aye Mr. Derr -Aye Vice Chairman Gresham -Aye Chairman Dubois -Aye Chairman Dubois stated that the variance has been granted. Chairman Dubois asked if there was any old or new business that needed to be taken up. Mary Ellen Wines responded that there was none. 4. Adjournment Chairmen Dubois adjourned the meeting at 4:16 p.m.