by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
When the newest development off Sarah C Street was purchased by Nielsen Construction of Harrisburg, the Garretson City Council was enthusiastic about the new housing that would be built. Since then, it’s been an interesting journey, with issues around drainage, run-off, and lot sizes. The latest issues involved ordinance violations surrounding setbacks, both from the sides and from the front.
In October, City Maintenance Supervisor Craig Nussbaum noted that four of the newly-laid foundations didn’t seem right.
“He was down there to install gas lines and saw that the houses were closer together than they should have been,” said Mayor Beaner in an interview with the Gazette. “So, he got out his tape measure and discovered that four of the houses had side setbacks of only five feet instead of the required seven.”
Nielsen submitted a variance request that was heard at a special meeting in October, for which the council granted approval for the side setbacks. Even at that meeting, the decision was challenged by community member Dale DeBoer, who felt the city had given enough to Nielsen with an initial variance request to change lot sizes from 66-foot width to 60 foot.
Initial subdivision layout plans submitted by Nielsen Construction in 2019 had the setbacks for 7 feet on the side and 30 feet in the front, which followed city ordinance.
Kelly Nielsen, CEO of Nielsen Construction, stated during the October special meeting that he was certain the side setbacks had been changed to five feet when the council granted a variance on lot size, which went from an initial 66 feet to 60-foot width. Though this was not the case, the council granted that variance.
Later, newly-appointed building inspector JR Hofer discovered that the foundations had a setback of only 25 feet instead of the required 30 feet.
On Monday, the council had a hearing for a variance to change the front setbacks on the new homes from 30 feet to 25 feet. At the end of the hearing, Mayor Greg Beaner broke a tie vote with a “no,” ensuring that Nielsen Construction would be forced to remove six foundations that have already been laid.
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