The board of adjustment shall consist of five (5) regular members plus one additional member designated as an alternate who shall serve only in the absence of a regular member. The members of the board shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by a majority of the members of the council, and shall be appointed for a term of three (3) years and removable for cause by the appointing authority upon written charges and after public hearings. Vacancies shall be filled for the unexpired term of any member whose term becomes vacant in the same manner as in the case of the original appointments. One member only of the board of adjustment shall be appointed from the membership of the planning commission, and the loss of membership on the planning commission by such member shall also result in his immediate loss of membership on the board of adjustment and the appointment of another planning commissioner to the board of adjustment.

(Ord. No. 1414, 4-9-1981)

State Law reference— Board membership, R.R.S. 1943, § 19-908.

The board of adjustment shall annually elect from within the regular membership a chairman. The city clerk shall act as secretary.

(Ord. No. 1414, 4-9-1981)

The board shall adopt by-laws and rules of procedure for the conduct of business.

Meetings of the board shall be held at the call of the chairman and at such other times as the board may determine.

State Law reference— Similar provisions, R.R.S. 1943, § 19-908.

The board shall keep minutes of its proceedings, showing evidence presented, findings of fact by the board, decisions of the board and voting upon each question. Records of all official actions of the board shall be filed in its office and shall be a public record.

State Law reference— Similar provisions, R.R.S. 1943, § 19-908.

For the purpose of wholly or partially defraying the cost of the proceedings prescribed herein, including publication costs, the applicant, upon filing an appeal, shall pay to the city clerk a fee in the amount of thirty-five dollars ($35.00). Promptly upon filing the appeal and required filing fee, the city clerk shall refer said appeal to the secretary of the board of adjustment.

The board of adjustment shall fix a reasonable time for hearing of an appeal or other matter referred to it, give public notice thereof, as well as due notice to the parties in interest, and decide the same within a reasonable time. Upon the hearing, any party may appear in person or by agent or attorney.

State Law reference— Appeals, R.R.S. 1943, § 19-909.

Appeals to the board of adjustment may be taken by any person aggrieved or by any officer, department, board or bureau of the municipality affected by any decision of the administrative officer. Such appeal shall be taken within a reasonable time, as provided by the rules of the board, by filing with the officer from whom the appeal is taken and with the board of adjustment a notice of appeals specifying the grounds thereof. The officer from whom the appeal is taken shall forthwith transmit to the board all the papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken. An appeal stays all proceedings in furtherance of the action appealed from, unless the officer from whom the appeal is taken certifies to the board of adjustment, after the notice of appeal shall have been filed with him, that by reason of facts stated in the certificate a stay would, in his opinion, cause imminent peril to life or property. In such case proceedings shall not be stayed otherwise than by a restraining order which may be granted by the board of adjustment or by a court of record on application or notice to the officer from whom the appeal is taken and on due cause shown. The board of adjustment shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of the appeal, give public notice thereof, as well as due notice to the parties in interest, and decide the same within a reasonable time. Upon the hearing any party may appear in person or by agent or by attorney.

State Law reference— Appeals to board of adjustment, R.R.S. 1943, § 19-909.

The board of adjustment shall, subject to such appropriate conditions and safeguards as may be established by the legislative body, have the following powers:

(1)

To hear and decide appeals where it is alleged there is error in any order, requirement, decision or determination made by an administrative official or an agency based on or made in the enforcement of any zoning regulation or any regulation relating to the location or soundness of structures;

(2)

To hear and decide, in accordance with the provisions of any regulation, requests for interpretation of any map, or for decisions upon other special questions upon which the board is authorized by any such regulation to pass;

(3)

Whereby reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness, or shape of a specific piece of property at the time of the enactment of the regulation, or by reason of exceptional topographic conditions or other extraordinary and exceptional situation or condition of such piece of property, the strict application of any enacted regulation under this act would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties to, or exceptional and undue hardships upon the owner of such property, to authorize, upon an appeal relating to the property, a variance from such strict application so as to relieve such difficulties or hardship, if such relief may be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantially impairing the intent and purpose of any ordinance or resolution.

State Law reference— General powers of board of adjustment, R.R.S. 1943, § 19-910.

No such variance shall be authorized by the board unless it finds that:

(1)

The strict application of the ordinance would produce undue hardship.

(2)

Such hardship is not shared generally by other properties in the same zoning district and the same vicinity.

(3)

The authorization of such variance will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property and the character of the district will not be changed by the granting of the variance.

(4)

The granting of such variance is based upon reasons of demonstrable and exceptional hardship as distinguished from variations for purposes of convenience, profit or caprice.

No variance shall be authorized unless the board finds that the condition or situation of the property concerned or the intended use of the property is not of so general or recurring a nature as to make reasonably practicable the formulation of a general regulation to be adopted as an amendment to the ordinance.

In exercising the above-mentioned powers such board may, in conformity with the provisions of this ordinance, wholly or partly, or may modify the order, requirement, decision or determination appealed from, and may make such order, requirement, decision or determination as ought to be made and to that end shall have all the powers of the officer from whom the appeal is taken.

The concurring vote of four (4) members of the board shall be necessary to reverse any order, requirement, decision or determination of any such administrative official, or to decide in favor of the applicant on any matter upon which it is required to pass under any such ordinance or to effect any variation in such ordinance.

State Law reference— Similar provisions, R.R.S. 1943, § 19-910.