Board of Adjustment to decide on Kinnick house

The Iowa City Board of Adjustment will decide Wednesday whether to allow the construction of a 7,500-square-foot home designed to resemble Kinnick Stadium.

The board will meet at City Hall at 410 E. Washington St. at 5:15 p.m. after a previously scheduled meeting last month was pushed back.

Reed and Sandy Carlson of Decorah own the property at 101 Lusk Ave., where the house is planned to be built. Plans submitted to the city call for a 7,476-square-foot home shaped like the University of Iowa's 87-year-old Kinnick Stadium, complete with brick siding and a replica of the press box.

The city of Iowa City issued a building permit for the house in June, but that decision was appealed by local residents, including the Neighbors of Manville Heights Association and property owners on Lusk Avenue, Bayard Street and Rowland Court. The applicants cited the home's large size, the potential for large parties, as well as concerns with drainage, fire safety, erosion and other concerns as reasons the house should not be built.

Previously:

• Board of Adjustment hearing on Kinnick home rescheduled
• Permit for Kinnick-style house appealed to Board of Adjustment
• UI will not intervene on Kinnick house design
• Couple plans to replicate Kinnick in 7,500-square-foot house

The Board of Adjustment could find that the city's decision to issue a permit for the home was "capricious" or "arbitrary," which would mean the decision was made without regard to the law or underlying facts of the case, or if the decision was an abuse of the city's discretion, according to a memo from associate city planner Sarah Walz.

"You may not reverse the decision merely because you disagree with it," Walz wrote in the memo. "Rather, if you find that the (Neighborhood Development Services) staff exercised its powers and followed the guidelines established by law, and that its decision was not patently arbitrary or capricious then you must uphold the decision."

The Board of Adjustment is independent of city government and has the final say over matters of zoning, variances and permits, unless someone takes the board to court over its decision.

Reach Stephen Gruber-Miller at 319-887-5407 or sgrubermil@press-citizen.com. Follow him at @sgrubermiller.

If you go

• What: A discussion by the Iowa City Board of Adjustment of an appeal to reverse a permit allowing the construction of a house resembling Kinnick Stadium.
• Where: Iowa City Hall, 410 E. Washington St.
• When: 5:15 p.m. Wednesday