The Summit County Council held a lengthy conversation Wednesday night before they voted to OK a request coming from a single residential lot in Silver Creek.
Council members said they want to be careful about granting
Special Exceptions from planning code. The request concerned an existing home, a new septic tank, and its proximity to wetlands.
The Council considered a request from lot owners Paul and Stacy Kraus, who got an approval in 2007 for their single-family house and a septic tank on Whileaway Drive in Silver Creek.
The owners want to add a 1000-square-foot accessory dwelling on the lot, but to do that they need an expanded septic tank.
The Krauses are proposing the tank would be a more advanced, environmentally sensitive model. The County Health Department agrees and is recommending approval.
However, current county planning code calls for the septic to be set back from wetlands by 200 feet. The applicants contend that within the constraints of their lot, they can get a setback of, at most 136 feet.
County Council Member Roger Armstrong was concerned whether the application could meet the criteria for a Special Exception. In the end, he said he could support it for “Unique Circumstances.” The existing septic tank is only 30 feet away from wetlands.
Armstrong said the proposal for a new septic tank “squeezes it closer” as he put it, to county code.
The Council Members also added a condition that when a sewer line connection becomes available, the lot must tie onto that line. Council Member Doug Clyde said federal regulators will inevitably require that from Basin residents, though it may not happen in his lifetime.
