SIDNEY — The Sidney Zoning Board of Appeals re-elected David Fleming as the board chair and Tom Ehler as the vice chair during Monday’s meeting.

Fleming has served on the board since 1998, and as chairperson since 2004. Ehler has served on the board since 1999, and as the vice chairperson since 2004.

In other business, the request of Zaremba Program Development, on behalf of Lighthouse Property Development, was granted for a variance for a side yard setback at 2489 Michigan St. in the community business district.

Barbara Dulworth, community services director, said after the retail store was constructed, an as-built survey revealed the building’s southeast corner sits 6-inches into the city code’s required side yard. She listed several options for the board other than granting the request, but noted that they are not appropriate. The options included requiring the owner to acquire 6-inches of property from an adjacent property owner, demolish and rebuild the building to comply with the zoning code, or allow the violation to remain.

After a review of the neighborhood was conducted, Dulworth said, city staff found several other commercial properties in the area with reduced side yard setbacks.

Chris Herzner, representative for Zaremba Program Development, told the board it was “regrettable this happened.” He said a surveyor did not double check his work prior to construction and the mistake wasn’t discovered until after the building was built from the as-built survey. He asked for the variance to prevent future violation issues if the owner ever wants to sell the building.

The board also approved three requests of Richard L. Bowen & Assoc., on behalf of Speedway LLC, for a variance to reduce or eliminate the required 10-foot grass area between the parking and right of way and to eliminate the required one tree per 30-feet of street frontage, a variance to reduce the required rear yard setback from 25-feet to 11.7 feet, and a variance to reduce the required the 10-foot grass area separation between parking and adjoining property from 10-feet to 6.4-feet at 1529 Michigan St. in the community business district.

These variances were granted in 2016, but due to a construction delay they expired.

Speedway is redeveloping the property and Dulworth said the lot is very wide and fairly shallow. She said staff considered planting street trees in place of on-lot trees, but due to the heavy traffic on Michigan Street, trees could pose a sight distance safety issue. Also, to provide sufficient room for tankers to turn, the drive aisles must exceed the standard 25-foot width. Dulworth noted that development is restrained to the west side because Speedway shares a lot with adjacent business Reliable Castings.

A representative for Reliable Castings attended and said the business has no issues with the granting of the variances.

Fleming was absent and excused by the board.