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So, first thing under the agenda, there's no whole business. We've got a new business to

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approve the meeting. I think we're in the first meeting.

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Has anyone got any problems with minutes as they're presenting the act?

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Second, on the table.

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They approve.

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Mr. Harris.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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And I see no other entities to have a say.

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So, you know, so we'll open the public hearing 5-1, is that correct?

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Mr. Chairman?

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Mm-hmm.

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All right.

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So, Matt, you're up.

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No, I'm good evening, Chairman.

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Members of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

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Thank you for your time.

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This evening, as you convene to administer case number 26, a B-A-R--26-0-1, which is an application

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for variants submitted by Mr. Edward R. Harris, 624 Riverview Drive,

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Althe Vista, Virginia. From an administrative standpoint, I'll just make a couple brief

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comments about process and application. I submitted first a memorandum to your

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desks, noting that as of 5 p.m. this evening, our office had not received, we had only received

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one comment, and that was from Chairman John Jordan of the Eltervis Deplaning Commission.

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As a matter of course, all variants, applications are submitted to the Planing Commission, who

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may choose to be a participant of this hearing, send comments, or be party to it.

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Mr. Jordan just noted that after his review of the application that he did not have any

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objection to the variance request. Outside of that, we receive no written or otherwise or

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no comments written or otherwise in favor of or in opposition to the variance application.

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So I mentioned that because in our public advertisement, we state that any member of

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the public may come to our office to examine the record or they may submit via email comments.

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So we did not receive any of those.

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Additionally, noting that we have received app of David of publication for the publication

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of this public hearing, which was published on April 28, 2026, and on May 5, 2026,

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in accordance with local and state code. To the matter of the variants itself included

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in your agenda packet starting at page 6 is a report, if you will, from staff, just

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giving you some background, some related matters as they pertain to the variance and

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then staff's analysis of the property along with some photos carrying on to page 10 is

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representation of Mr. Harris' property with the denoted building line. There you see

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it in the white dashes. And that just goes for to clarify to give you a visual representation

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of how code our code defines what the building line is. Additionally you'll see our zoning

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that, showing the zoning of Mr. Harris' property as an R1, and very additionally, you have

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excerpts from the code of Virginia as well as from our local code of the town of

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Afghanistan.

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I have referring from presenting a recommendation on this, in the facts, or presented as such

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that Mr. Harris' property does lie in an R1 zoning district.

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Our current code regulates accessory structures being built in front of the building line,

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the front building line of any property.

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As you can see, Mr. Harris' property situated at 624 Riverview lies in such a manner that

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he has an extensive front yard and for all intents and purposes we define the shape of

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his yard essentially is a flag lot so he has a small adjudging portion of that that

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falls behind another property.

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It is in fact in that location on that the flag portion of that if you will and in front

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the building line that he is seeking alleviation from town code regulations for accessory

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structures being permitted, not being permitted in the front building line. Aside from that,

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our observation is the property, obviously the setback of his current house from the road

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is approximately 400 feet from that.

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I'm trying to give you a visual representation of that in the picture on page 8.

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There are other properties on the street that have accessory structures.

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All those are which are behind the front building line.

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But there is no property so situated as Mr. Harris's.

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It is unique to that street.

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And in fact, I would say it's relatively unique in the entire town, quite frankly, with

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this large of a lot and set up in this manner where the primary structure is at far off

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the road.

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So from the staff perspective, we didn't see, well, that's the facts of that of the situation

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there.

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Related to that, again, as you can see on page 6 and 7 of the agenda, I'm giving you

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the definition which you need to decide if it's being met by the applicant for variants.

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That's bound in section 15.2, that's 2201, of the Code of Virginia, as well as the authority

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in the guidelines for which you need to make of the determination.

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I have said also at your desks there a BZA variance checklist, which essentially is

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a summary of what you will find in state code or the excerpt of state code, which is

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To present in this matter, if there's any questions I can answer, I'll be happy to do some.

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Yes, ma'am.

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I'd like to ask, there are such rebuilding behind the line, right?

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I'll read you on the property.

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There are.

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That's correct.

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There are.

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Because I could look like this picture.

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There's a couple of buildings behind the line.

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Yes, they are correct.

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Our observation, those are either pre-built or built smaller structures on site, certainly

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nothing to the scale that is being proposed in this application.

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The existing structures are only free froming or they are already set on concrete bays

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or amountations.

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Sure.

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Our observation is showing that they are leveled with blocks of some kind to make up for

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that topographical challenge that he has there that kind of starts really at the front

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building line of his property inflows files down the rest of that 300 so feet to the

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back property line where it's just a slow grade down to that.

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And this may be a question from Mr. Harris and not you, but is the accessory buildings

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that are currently on the property were they there when the property was purchased or were

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they added later?

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Sure.

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I'll defer that answer to Mr. Harris.

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Good afternoon. I would first present that my biggest mistake is not doing this 20 years

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ago. We got a lot of things to say about that.

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Two old have a midlife crisis so I don't know where this came from. I decided I wanted

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this building you asked about the pre-existing stuff. I've added a sheet to the side if you can

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tell.

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Well it's several sheets. I've added one. A good building. You know, good sheets.

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I don't 29. He put one up for me and I thought it was going to be better to foot off a grand when

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he started and I was wrong. It's like the entrance is like waist high to me. So I had

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to build up around for that. And this is in one

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of the pictures shows the shed on

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page

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9 at the bottom. You can see the shed. And there's a lot. I don't have to me at all with

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the Frazier Farm. This goes down to the creek that does the Frazier Farm. I go almost

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to the creek at the back and it slows off so bad. One of my reasons for picking this spot

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up, I watched too many homesteaded shows for a while. I feel like this is part of my homestead.

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If I put it anywhere else, I have a septic tank, I'm not hooked to the tank, the septic tank

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and the drain field run to the right, well, if you're facing from a street or run from

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the left to the house and it goes,

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when the fellow built the house, see how to make the

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drain field larger than what would have been normal because it didn't perk with, and so

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I can't put anything over there, we're very messing that up.

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Now that is actually on the side of your...

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Right, that's to the left side of the home.

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Yeah, from the straight on the left.

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Yeah.

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And then, wife say, the driveway in the house was pre-existing when I moved there.

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Well, you don't need the history of the property around me, but anyway, that was

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There's one that there is it's convenient and it's what I consider part of my home state

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even though I own all five lights.

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Keeps everything I own to give them.

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If whoever takes over after I'm not here, it'd be easier for them to divide up.

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Supposedly that's supposed to be two half lights in the front and two whole lights in the

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back.

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and I don't know how that's divided. That's what somebody told me when I bought the place.

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But it was already subdivided.

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I'm the one that messed the street up. My address is 220 fold and the lady that works for

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the dance. Her dad lives like two houses up on the other side and he's like 220 too.

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So we supposed to be, you know, wise, we'd be across the street from each other by my house being on the backs out of the line.

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It messed a number and system, I say, messed a number and system up so I don't know how it's divided out to be honest.

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For as I'm concerned, if I like us as man and I'm in the middle of it and I'm happy, I'm not anti-social, it just looks like I am.

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I

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don't know, you got to think questions, I'm big.

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Yeah, I've got one, is that one of the, one of the things that...

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Sorry, I got to pick up.

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The things are very clear in the audience, is that you don't think things.

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I want to come up to you to be able to show proof that it comes out.

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I'm not having that building there. So can you talk a little bit about how the building is going to be used for? And why not having it would be an intermountable hardship for you? Well, my purpose, I wanted to garage.

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I don't, I don't want to answer that question. I just, if something I've always wanted, my son said at your age,

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do something you want to do and sort of something you, um, practical. I should maybe practicals

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are wrong word. I think the garage would be practical for me. I could do work on my own

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stuff. I have something convenient with concrete on the floor where I could work on stuff

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where every time I use a jack, I go in the ground more than it picks up what I want. Um,

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if

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If I may, I have trouble with the hardship post.

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Sure, if I may be presented in a question in a different way,

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I'll let you agree or not, I'm not agreeable.

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Is why that location was selected on the property for

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that proposed, the site that he selected for.

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Okay, so maybe rephrasing that question, why did you select

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that location in front of the building line for this

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Well, it's the closest thing I have to a level spot.

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When I first moved out, we had one of the policemen in town said, I didn't even know that

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house was back there.

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So, that's half off of the street.

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Well, it slopes up, and then, when a fellow put the house, he put it on the back side of the

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and it slopes down to the creek, and it gets worse.

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It's rounded, it's still not on a level spot,

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but it just rounds off, if you follow what I mean.

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It's a gradual from the street up to the high spot.

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And then you got the high spots rounded naturally,

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but then after the high spot, it just drops off dramatically going.

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It's not as bad as the cliff on the side of,

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phrase of form, but it's not

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conclusive to, you know, if you, if you

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built a house, you would have a

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walk-yard basement. You know, if

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going down a hill, you'd have a

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walk-yard basement and then you'd

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have to climb steps to get to your

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first floor from the back side of

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that. Or if it can put the street

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up a creek, you could have a

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front side, but you, then you'd have

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like a, you'd still have, your first

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would be, I would consider on the ground going down that way.

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If

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you get to be able to complete it on what heavy equipment do you foresee that you

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will be using it in the bill?

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Alcompressors?

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Well, just shops, they'd be like, small Alcompressors to most, not good enough for welders to say I'd

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want a welder there.

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It would just be like doing my own service work on my car and truck.

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I don't have any big vehicles.

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I do have a farm tract on the place.

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I'd like to get that inside.

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I feel like 11 a day a day and I didn't get it inside when he brought it to me and he's

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gone.

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I'm not taking care of it like I should.

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And that's the main thing is to get my staff and I want to keep in something.

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So what would happen if you approved and you started using some heavy equipment there?

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I see you got a house, the one of your neighbors or a little brother, with a structure for

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me.

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Let's just say in the future whatever he is that you use and make stop making too much noise for the name and enable stop complaining.

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What kind of recourse will we have to rectify that?

201
00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:44,840
Well, I can't see me making that much noise, but to give you a fair answer, I would think I would handle it with him before they came to you about.

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And

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the reason I brought that up is because technically, the structure should be in the back

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where it wouldn't be a problem, so much to get in there and not only grow, if I may,

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on the other side of those trees on page 9,

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that house is in front of me, and I can foresee

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in the future, somebody asking her why she put her garage that far away from her house.

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If I go on the other side of those trees at the top where the Toyota pickup is, those

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trees are basically on the line between me and the property in front of me.

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And see if I had that house, I wouldn't be here, I would need a variance.

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And me and my wife was going to build a house in front next year when the money got right.

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Well, life happened and stuff happened and now my old, I can't say what I was going to say.

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Anyway, I don't need a big house, you know.

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And so I don't want to mess up a front yard for the next paint you found.

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and that was my prayer. I consider that a lot over there as part of my what I call home state and I just want to keep everything together.

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So it mess up less area for the next generation, I guess.

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So

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it's basically, if I can reword what I've heard is that you want to use this as a personal

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preference.

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If you've never had it there then something on the hill behind the house.

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All right.

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All right.

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Well, if you have more for us, then I appreciate your time.

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Thank you.

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If you want to ask if there's anyone here in opposition or is anyone here in opposition

226
00:22:26,390 --> 00:22:31,730
a favor to go ahead? No, that's okay.

227
00:22:31,790 --> 00:22:35,350
Follow the room in that sheet that I showed you.

228
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:49,860
Sorry, that's what the table was looking for.

229
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:55,800
Are there any current here who will support for variance?

230
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:57,280
make it known.

231
00:23:03,470 --> 00:23:06,250
Any presentations for posing variants?

232
00:23:09,860 --> 00:23:12,340
Then I want to close this

233
00:23:12,340 --> 00:23:15,240
here at 5.3, we're

234
00:23:18,980 --> 00:23:24,620
coming through the four members and I guess by show of

235
00:23:25,860 --> 00:23:29,840
Yehrenegh whether you agree with the variants or disagree so that's the

236
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:30,260
question.

237
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:31,640
I was.

238
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:33,060
You approved variance?

239
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:38,360
I did not approve.

240
00:23:39,300 --> 00:23:39,960
I do not approve.

241
00:23:40,540 --> 00:23:41,240
I do not approve.

242
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:42,920
I do not approve.

243
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:44,500
So we've got three to one.

244
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:48,260
What was the vote against?

245
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:48,700
She approved.

246
00:23:49,020 --> 00:23:49,200
I approved.

247
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:50,120
Not.

248
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:50,620
Not.

249
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:51,000
Not.

250
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:52,120
Okay.

251
00:23:53,500 --> 00:23:54,240
All right.

252
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,620
So the majority of the variance is not approved.

253
00:24:08,660 --> 00:24:09,380
Any matter?

254
00:24:09,900 --> 00:24:10,380
Moving on.

255
00:24:10,380 --> 00:24:19,500
Yeah, I don't have anything great, I don't matter some staff, any matters from the board members, I think what we need to talk about.

256
00:24:24,410 --> 00:24:30,450
Well then all being said, I appreciate everyone's attendance, I appreciate your tenure and patience.

257
00:24:31,110 --> 00:24:34,010
And if that will close this up, meeting out at 5.24.

258
00:24:37,870 --> 00:24:38,870
Thank you.