City Ponders if San Angelo Home Builder Must Tear Down $300,000 Home

SAN ANGELO, TX - A San Angelo builder finished the construction of a new home in Champion’s Circle and soon discovered in a survey for the sale of the home that it was built about 9 feet inside the mandatory setback. It was too close to the curb, the survey said. The city pondered whether to force builder Scott Russell to tear the brand new home down. The home was worth just under $300,000, all of it owed to a local bank.

Russell was before the Zoning Board of Adjustments asking for a variance Monday. If the board chose not to grant it, he’d have to demolish the home.

Where the property is, the homes are nearly zero lot lines. Along the straight portion of Champions Circle, the approximate 2,000-square-foot homes are aligned. However, the home in question at 3063 Champions Circle is slightly set back from the rest for an indention curve of the street as Champion’s Circle winds its way eastbound to form a square loop with rounded corners.

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Above: Looking at the curved street at the front of 3063 Champions Circle. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

The problem was, the home wasn’t set back far enough. It was 9 feet too close to the curb that curved inward towards the lot.

Planning and Development Services director Jon James explained three weeks ago that the Zoning Board of Adjustments asked city staff to be less lenient with builders who place buildings outside the required offsets. He said his team would present the facts and let the citizens on the ZBA decide.

“This seems to be occurring way more often than it should,” chair Jim Turner said, before turning the floor over to Russell to plead his case.

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Above: Looking at the curved street at the front of 3063 Champions Circle. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

“My mistake. No doubt about it. No aesthetic problems for the neighborhood… I know I made a mistake. It’s the first one like this I’ve made in 30 years, so by the time I make another mistake like this, I’ll be dead,” he said.

Inside the room were about 30 from the local building construction sector, all members of the San Angelo Home Builders Association. They came to support their own. Russell was the San Angelo HBA Home Builder of the Year in 2014. After Russell spoke, his fellow builders came forward offering their support for a variance.

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Above: Home builder Scott Russell pleads his case to the City of San Angelo Zoning Board of Adjustments. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

It was difficult to read the members of the ZBA. Together with their seven votes would decide if Russell would have to rip the home down, or at least tear down the front of a bedroom and the home’s great room, and replace the facade another nine feet inward from the curb.

Much was said about surveying lines from a curved lot. The builders felt the city could prevent these kinds of incidents by leaving survey tapes and measures in place during the inspection of the slab before concrete was poured. Some on the ZBA pondered if a $500 survey should be conducted before pouring concrete.

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Above: The problem is the home was built 9 feet from the curb where City ordinance required 15 feet. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

ZBA member Debbie Cunningham noted that if the home was sold in an all-cash deal, a survey before purchase may not have been required, leaving the structure inside the offsets for the home buyer to sort out years later if it was ever discovered.

Russell said it was he who alerted the city staff of the wrong lot offset.

“I owned up to it,” he said.

In the end, the ZBA offered Russell a mulligan. They approved his variance noting sympathetically the shape of the street, an inward curve into the property. They viewed it as an honest mistake. The only place where it mattered was on paper. Aesthetically, it still looked just about right. The vote was 6-1.

The exact location of the property in question:

The San Angelo Zoning Board of Adjustments is a council-appointed board charged with representing each council member and one represents the mayor. They often have to make calls like Monday’s decision.

As for Russell, the home is under contract to a buyer. Russell said he’d been sitting on the property, paying the bank interest for 19 months, when the construction was initiated.