The City of Milton's Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) is set to hold its last meeting of the year on Tuesday evening, with a couple of significant variance requests on the agenda. The meeting, which is open to public attendance and also viewable online, will begin at 6 p.m. in City Hall's Council Chambers. The BZA, a quasi-judicial board appointed by Milton's Mayor and City Councilmembers, deals with variance requests from the City Code and appeals concerning the Unified Development Code, stream buffers, and sign permits, according to the city's official website.
Following the approval of minutes from their November 19 meeting, the BZA will consider variance requests related to two properties which have already undergone courtesy reviews by Milton's Design Review Board earlier this month. Among the items to discuss is a property at 13488 HOLLY ROAD where the owner is looking to make adjustments to the rear yard minimum, and also retain an accessory structure that's been there for decades. Proposals include the need to specifically reduce the rear yard space from 50 feet to 47.1 feet and adjusting the side-yard minimum from 25 feet down to 10 feet.
The other primary variance case involves the 345 RANCHETTE ROAD property, a sizeable farm of 22.75 acres. Here the owner plans to build a primary residence set back from Arnold Mill Road. The issue at hand is the position of five existing accessory structures which would, upon completion of the home, technically be located in front of it, a scenario not permitted by the City Code without a variance. The specific requests also involve reducing the side yard setbacks for these structures to less than the 25-feet minimum required by city standards.
Aside from these property-related topics, the sole other agenda item for the meeting is the establishing of the committee's 2025 meeting calendar. This completes the list of critical issues the BZA needs to address before wrapping up the year. Interested parties are encouraged either to participate in-person or tune in through the provided digital platform to follow the proceedings and weigh in on the development of their community. The Board's decisions can be consequential, seeing as they can be appealed only to the Fulton County Superior Court.
