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RELEVANT LINKS: <br />Minn. Stat. § 462.357, subd. <br />6. <br />C. Neighborhood opinion <br />Neighborhood opinion alone is not a valid basis for granting or denying a <br />variance request. While city officials may feel their decision should reflect <br />the overall will of the residents, the task in considering a variance request is <br />limited to evaluating how the variance application meets the statutory <br />practical difficulties factors. Residents can often provide important facts that <br />may help the city in addressing these factors, but unsubstantiated opinions <br />and reactions to a request do not form a legitimate basis for a variance <br />decision. If neighborhood opinion is a significant basis for the variance <br />decision, the decision could be overturned by a court. <br />D. Conditions <br />A city may impose a condition when it grants a variance so long as the <br />condition is directly related and bears a rough proportionality to the impact <br />created by the variance. For instance, if a variance is granted to exceed an <br />otherwise applicable height limit, any conditions attached should <br />presumably relate to mitigating the effect of excess height. <br />V. Variance procedural issues <br />A. Public hearings <br />Minnesota statute does not clearly require a public hearing before a variance <br />is granted or denied, but many practitioners and attorneys agree that the best <br />practice is to hold public hearings on all variance requests. A public hearing <br />allows the city to establish a record and elicit facts to help determine if the <br />application meets the practical difficulties factors. <br />B. Past practices <br />While past practice may be instructive, it cannot replace the need for <br />analysis of all three of the practical difficulties factors for each and every <br />variance request. In evaluating a variance request, cities are not generally <br />bound by decisions made for prior variance requests. If a city finds that it is <br />issuing many variances to a particular zoning standard, the city should <br />consider the possibility of amending the ordinance to change the standard. <br />League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 1/11/2019 <br />Land Use Variances Page 5 <br />