The Board of Adjustment shall have the following powers:
A. To hear and decide appeals where it is alleged by the appellant there
is an error in any order, requirement, decision or refusal made by
an administrative official or agency based on or made in the enforcement
of the zoning regulations.
B. To hear and decide, in accordance with the provisions of any zoning
regulations, requests for interpretation of the map or for decisions
upon other special questions upon which the Board is authorized by
any zoning regulation to pass.
After the Board of Adjustment has granted a variance, the variance
so approved or granted shall lapse after the expiration of one year
after the date of the notice of the decision if no substantial construction
or change of use has taken place in accordance with the plans for
which such variance was granted, or if the Board does not specify
some longer period than one year for good cause shown, and the provisions
of these regulations shall thereafter govern.
The procedure for amendment of a variance already approved or
a request for a change of conditions attached to an approval shall
be the same as for a new application, except that where the Secretary
to the Board determines the change to be minor relative to the original
approval, he may transmit the same to the Board with the original
record without requiring that a new application be filed.
Any person jointly or severally aggrieved by any decision of
the Board of Adjustment may present to the Superior Court in and for
Kent County a petition setting forth that such decision is illegal
in whole or in part, specifying the grounds for the illegality. The
petition shall be presented to the Court within 30 days after the
filing of the decision in the office of the Board (9 Del. C. § 4918).
Applications for a variance shall be submitted to the Department
of Planning Services, Division of Planning. The application shall
be in such form and contain such information and documentation as
shall be prescribed from time to time by the Director of Planning
Services but shall in all instances contain at least the following
information and documentation:
A. A completed application form with the signatures of legal owners.
B. A plot plan accurately describing the location of all existing and
proposed structures in relation to the property lines, the location
of the well and septic (if applicable), the lines and distances of
each property line, the location of any easement or rights-of-way
affecting the property, and the location and width of the frontage
street/road.
C. A statement of the particular requirements of this chapter by citation
and description.
D. A statement of the minimum variance of the requirements of this chapter
which would be necessary to permit the proposed activity.
E. A statement of the exceptional or undue hardship which would result
if said particular requirements of this chapter were applied to the
subject property.
F. Such other and further information and documentation as the Director
of Planning Services or the Board of Adjustment may be deemed necessary
or appropriate to a full and proper consideration and disposition
of the particular application.