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special conditions or hardship typically must arise from some physical configuration of the lot or its structures. The financial or personal situation of the applicant normally cannot be taken into consideration. Under most codes governing variances, approval of the variance must not result in a public health or safety hazard and must not grant special privilege to the property owner. In other words, when a variance is granted, any other property owner with similar site conditions should be able to obtain a similar variance; this criterion is often addressed by citing
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regulations, built environment and development pattern, and even political climate. One city may view variances as a routine matter, while another city may see variances as highly unusual exceptions to the norm. Community attitudes and political climates can change within a city as well, affecting the manner in which variances are granted even when no changes are made to the regulations governing variances.
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In either case, the variance request is justified only if special conditions exist on the lot that create a hardship making it too difficult to comply with the code's normal requirements. Likewise, a request for a variance on a normal lot with no special conditions could judiciously be denied. The
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is the most common type. It can be requested by a builder or landowner when an odd configuration of the land, or sometimes the physical improvements (structures) on the land, requires a relaxation of the applicable regulations to avoid denying the landowner the same rights and use of the property
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regulations. The use and application of variances can differ considerably throughout the great number of municipalities worldwide that regulate land use on this model. The issuance of variances may be very common, or nearly unheard-of in a given municipality. This can depend on a municipality's
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of the lot makes it onerous to comply with the height limit—typically due to the way the municipality's code requires height to be measured—then a variance could be requested for a structure of increased height because of the special conditions on the lot.
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enjoyed by owners of neighboring properties. A textbook example would be a house built on an oddly-shaped lot. If the odd shape of the lot makes it onerous for the landowner or builder to comply with the standard building
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Typically, in the United States, the process for a variance must be made available to a landowner upon request, or the municipality may be in danger of committing a
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specified in the code, a variance could be requested to allow a reduced setback. Another would be a house built on a sloping lot. If the
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is a variance that authorizes a land use not normally permitted by the zoning ordinance. Such a variance has much in common with a
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Two broad categories of variances generally are used in the practice of local land use planning:
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Schindler's Land Use Page (Michigan State
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is a deviation from the set of rules a municipality applies to land use and
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contained in code. A variance is often granted by a Board or
324:(Third ed.). ICMA Training Institute. p. 348.
299:(Third ed.). ICMA Training Institute. p. 348.
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