Hutchinson zoning board was set to vote on Hyde Park driveway paving variance staff recommend denying

Hutchinson's zoning board was scheduled to vote Tuesday, Sept. 8, on a Hyde Park homeowner's request to pave 51% of the front yard for a circular driveway — work that staff said had already begun without permits. Staff found the request meets none of the five conditions Kansas law requires before a variance may be granted, and recommended denial. A nearby property owner contacted staff in opposition, citing drainage into nearby properties and the street, according to the staff report.

The request, filed by Gretchen Sanchez with Miller Homebuilders as agent, would raise the paving limit on the 10,360-square-foot lot at 409 Hyde Park, zoned R-3 for moderate-density housing, from 40% of the front yard to 51%, an 11-percentage-point increase. The extra pavement would fit a circular drive and the additional driveway approach it requires. The staff report lists the applicant's justifications as getting a truck and trailer off a narrow street, the risk that someone may crash into a trailer parked there, appearance and neighborhood safety.

Staff said the two Jefferson Street properties the applicant cited as comparable circle drives have larger front yards — about 3,121 and 1,980 square feet, against roughly 1,747 square feet at 409 Hyde Park — and that a third example, 901 E. 14th Ave., is zoned R-5 for higher-density housing and not directly comparable.

The report says the groundwork included digging out and removing the existing driveway, and that permits are pending the outcome of the request; it does not say whether the city has issued a stop-work order or any penalty. If the board granted the variance anyway, staff proposed four conditions, including that the driveway be built of concrete or asphalt and that the applicant obtain all necessary permits.

The board was also set to take up again Jesse Pinkerton's request for 14-foot sidewalls, instead of the 12 feet the zoning regulations allow, on a detached garage he wants to build behind his home on a 2.08-acre R-3 lot at 3500 N. Lorraine St. for storing and maintaining recreational vehicles or boats. The board voted 6-0 on Aug. 25 to defer the hearing to Sept. 8 after no one appeared for the applicant.

Staff agreed the garage would not harm adjacent property owners or public health and safety, but found the hardship described — the cost and inconvenience of keeping and maintaining the vehicles elsewhere — personal rather than a physical limitation of the land. Staff said the two contiguous parcels immediately north are also rectangular, unplatted R-3 tracts of 2.70 acres each, and recommended denial there as well, with four conditions should the board approve, among them that the garage use materials customarily used in residential construction, including new metal.

Under Section 27-1110 of the Hutchinson Zoning Regulations and K.S.A. 12-759, the board may grant a variance only when it finds all five statutory conditions exist — a finding the board, not staff, makes, and one that does not bind it to the staff recommendation.

The Board of Zoning Appeals meeting was set for 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers at 125 E. Avenue B, and the published agenda listed no other business beyond approval of the Aug. 25 minutes and public comment, which speakers are asked to limit to five minutes. The Planning Commission meeting set for the same time and room was canceled with no public hearings on its agenda; the zoning board's next meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22.

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