Zoning Board Approves Two Variances, Denies Girdwood Deck Request

The Anchorage Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals approved variances for two Eagle River properties with setback violations Wednesday night but denied a Girdwood homeowner's request to legalize an elevated deck that encroaches 5 feet into the front setback.

The board granted a variance for a 20-year-old workshop at 24531 Teal Loop that encroaches 2 feet into the rear setback. The structure was built under a valid permit and appeared compliant in surveys from 2003 and 2006, but a 2025 pre-sale survey revealed the encroachment due to a historical measurement discrepancy.

Patrick Kukowski, the property owner, said he hired surveyor Robert C. Johnson and Associates in 2003 to stake the lot before construction. The workshop appeared to meet the 20-foot rear setback requirement in subsequent surveys until a 2025 inspection for a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion revealed it sat 18 feet from the property line.

"Here we are 20 years later and I had to do a COSA inspection to put our house on the market. And I got the paperwork back from the COSA inspection, and I just looked at that thing and it said 18 feet, and I was just, there's just no way," Kukowski said.

Planning staff recommended denial, arguing the survey error was a technical issue rather than a physical characteristic of the land itself. But board member Craig Bennett said the physical circumstances of the original survey stakes and the good-faith construction met the legal threshold for approval.

"I see that staff shows that Standards C through H are substantially met, and staff says A and B are partially, or B is partially met. I would say A is met because of the physical circumstances of the rebar that originally found was held and the original survey show that they were in the setbacks," Bennett said.

The board voted 5-0 to approve the variance.

In a second case, the board unanimously approved a variance for a garage at 11335 Juanita Spur that encroaches 19.7 feet into the front setback. Teresa Shackelford bought the property in 2012 and discovered after her divorce that her ex-husband had not obtained the variance she believed he had secured. The garage was built before she purchased the home and stores medical equipment for her multiple handicapped child.

Board member Jason Norris said the hardship was not self-imposed because Shackelford did not build the garage. The board voted 5-0 to grant the variance.

The board denied a variance for an elevated deck at 1230 Timberline Drive in Girdwood by a 4-1 vote. The deck sits approximately 5 feet above grade and encroaches 5 feet into the 20-foot front setback required under municipal code. Variances are exceptions to these setback requirements and may be approved by the Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals. The property sits on a corner lot at the end of Bantz Circle, a half-bulb cul-de-sac, giving it two frontages on the same street.