All districts
Variance requests go to either the Zoning Administrator (small administrative variances) or the Planning and Zoning Board (all other variances), not a separate Board of Zoning Appeals at first instance; the Board of Zoning Appeals hears appeals from a Planning and Zoning Board or Zoning Administrator decision, filed within 15 days. The Zoning Administrator may approve administrative variances of less than 36 inches to height or yard setbacks for existing principal or accessory structures (this does not permit reconstructing a destroyed structure), with variances of 6 inches or less approvable at the Administrator's discretion without a formal application. The Planning and Zoning Board decides all other variances and must render a decision within 60 days of the close of its public hearing, requiring 5 affirmative votes. To grant any variance, the reviewing body must find special conditions peculiar to the property (not self-created), that granting it will not confer a special privilege, that literal enforcement would create unnecessary and undue hardship, that the variance is the minimum needed for reasonable use, and that it will not harm the public welfare. Variances are limited to dimensional standards (height, area, size, yard, setback, lot size); use variances are expressly prohibited.