Zoning Board of Adjustment
2007 Year End Report 

Prepared by:   Jennifer Currin, Planner II
Approved by:  William B. Coleman, Jr., Town Manager
Approved by:  Benjamin T. Shivar, Assistant Town Manager

Unlike the Town’s many citizen advisory boards, the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBOA) is the Town’s only quasi-judicial board - one that acts somewhat like a court in that it investigates facts, weighs evidence, and draws conclusions.  It  also hears and decides appeals where it is alleged that there is an error in any order, requirement, permit, decision, determination, or refusal, made by staff in the carrying out or enforcement of any provisions of  the Town of Cary Land Development Ordinance (LDO) and the North Carolina General Statutes. 

In 2007, a structure change was approved to reduce board membership to the legal minimum of 5 members, one of whom the Town Council designates as Chairperson.  It is made up of five members and one alternate.  The Cary Town Council appoints five of these members, while the Board of County Commissioners of Wake County  appoints the other member that must live outside the Town's municipal boundary but within the Town's extraterritorial planning jurisdiction (ETJ).  An ETJ is the area adjacent to and beyond the municipal limits of the Town, over which the Town can exercise certain municipal governmental powers, including but not limited to, the power to regulate development.  All members of the Board have equal rights, privileges, and duties. 

The Zoning Board of Adjustment may also have additional powers and duties as may be set forth elsewhere in Town Ordinances.  Information was provided by Jennifer Currin, staff liaison to the Board.

Highlights of the Board’s activities from 2007 include:  

• On April 9, 2007 , a variance to encroach 14 feet into a 15-foot required buffer setback was granted to make the existing illegal structure legal.
  
• A variance from Section 7.2.7 (B) of the LDO to permit a wall or fence up to 12 feet in height in a rear setback was approved by the Board on October 8, 2007

• On December 3, 2007, three (3) appeals, on behalf of Fairway Outdoor Advertising, were heard by the Board. The Board found that both the civil penalty appeal and zoning violation appeal to the Town Manager were timely. The Board is in recess on the rest of the appeals until January 9, 2008 at 5 p.m.  

Cases heard in 2007:  5
Number of meetings:  3