Variance vote shows council's lack of disipline

Case in point: A couple proposes to enlarge a dining room, but needs a variance in the side yard setback to do it. The city’s planning commission, doing its job, looks at the ordinance, sees that such a variance is not warranted and recommends that the council reject the request.

But the council looks just at the individual case. Members see no harm in allowing the ordinance to be violated — after all, none of the neighbors are opposed.

The result is that when the next person applies for a like variance and the neighbors do mind, the city will have no choice but to grant it. Monday night’s vote set a precedent. Essentially, it amended the ordinance without considering anything but the individual case brought before the council.

That kind of reaction undermines the zoning ordinance, land use plan and sign ordinance. The city is drafting a new sign ordinance, but it should have saved its money. The Commerce City Council has proven yet again it lacks the discipline to enforce any of its ordinances.