By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Yards and setbacks were discussed by the Putnam Township Planning Commission during a virtual meeting held Wednesday night.

Two sections of the township zoning ordinance were said to be directly conflicting with language describing how front, rear and side yards are to be measured. It was stated that older zoning ordinances tended to use the term “required yards” to describe the minimum required distance between a structure and lot line. The more modern preference is to use the term “setback”. It was stated that the conflicting language creates unnecessary confusion and could make enforcement difficult.

The conflict for setbacks was related to the definition of what a front yard is and another section that stated setbacks shall be measured from the property line to the nearest point of the front foundation of a building.

General guidance was sought from commissioners about how they preferred to define and describe setbacks for consistency and how they wanted to handle things projecting into those required setbacks such as architectural features, chimneys and other features. Some discussion came up related to residential barrier-free or accessible ramps.

Planner Zach Michels suggested the board consider adding some language on that issue, which he says comes recommended by several attorneys. Michels commented that the requests are really tough. As the person issuing permits at the front desk, he said there have been a few times s occasions in which people have someone coming home from a hospital and they want to get a ramp installed. Michels says they’ll look at the person’s home and setbacks but then determine there isn’t any room to put in a ramp. He says the alternative is to get a variance but that’s a long process and people are usually trying to put in the ramps quickly. Michels further noted that variances are based on the property, not the homeowner. There were some questions related to state disability laws overriding local zoning with the ramps and accessibility so additional research will be done on that aspect.

In regard to setbacks, staff has typically interpreted setbacks to be the farthest point from the structure, not a foundation. The consensus was to continue measuring from the farthest point, which is consistent with those current staff practices. Following the discussion, Michels will begin working on drafting updated language.