Permit for Kinnick-style house appealed to Board of Adjustment
Neighboring property owners have filed an appeal with Iowa City Board of Adjustment concerning the construction of a proposed 7,500 square-foot home designed to resemble Kinnick Stadium.
The appeal was filed Wednesday, and the list of applicants include the Neighbors of Manville Heights Association as well as property owners on Lusk Avenue, Bayard Street and Rowland Court.
Reed and Sandy Carlson, of Decorah, have filed building plans with the city for a home to be constructed on Lusk Avenue — a short, dead-end street located across Highway 6 and the railroad tracks from the Iowa City VA Hospital.
The plans call for a 7,476 square-foot home shaped like the UI’s 87-year-old Kinnick Stadium, complete with brick siding and a replica of the press box.
City officials recently determined that, despite the size and appearance of the proposed building, the Carlsons intended to use it as a single-family home. Any tailgating events held at the house, the Carlsons attested in an affidavit, would be held in compliance with the zoning for a single-family residence.
City officials issued a building permit for the property at 101 Lusk Ave. earlier this week. Because of the appeal, however, the project is delayed until the Board of Adjustment makes a decision.
The matter is scheduled to be discussed during the board’s Aug. 10 meeting.
Unlike the city’s councils and commissions, the Board of Adjustment is a quasi-judicial body independent of the city government. Their review is not overseen by the city council but stands as the final decision on matters of zoning, variances and permits — unless someone later takes the board itself to court.
Board members would rule in the applicants’ favor only if they can point to a specific error in the city’s decision to approve the project and issue a building permit.
“They would have to point to something in the zoning code or building code that was fault and that, as a result, shows the city’s decision was arbitrary and capricious," said Sarah Walz, the city staff contact for the board. “So it’s a pretty high threshold.”
The 10-page appeal filed by the applicants argues that city officials “mis-classified” the proposed building as a single family residence.
“This is a venue designed to hold more than 200 people; its owners describe it as a tailgate venue; its layout is intended to entertain crowds; its building plans show a separate entrance for the ‘owners’; the structure will be equipped with commercial-grade kitchen fixtures; its multiple toilets and showers far exceed in number what a single family would normally use,” the appeal reads.
The applicants also argue the city should have denied the site plan because of concerns with drainage, fire safety, erosion as well as vehicle and pedestrian circulation.
Any individual can appeal to the Board of Adjustment, Walz said, but there is a financial cost involved in the process.
The Iowa City Clerk’s Office confirmed that the applicants paid $425 to file the appeal.
The Carlsons had proposed construction last year of a similarly designed but smaller home in University Heights. The project would have a required a variance from the city's sensitive slope ordinance, which the University Heights City Council voted against providing.
UI officials have said they have no intentions of intervening in a decision by private citizens to design a home after the Hawkeyes' home stadium.
And even if they did, UI officials said, the stadium was designed in 1927, so any copyright held by the architect has long run out.
Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffcharis.