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Board of Adjustment Regular Meeting

Town of Hillsborough · Board of Adjustment
Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 6:00 pm

Regular meeting Elections and districtsPublic facilitiesStormwater and flooding

Agenda document Full packet Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved 4.ACase BA-05-2025: Board of Elections Facility Expansion – Variance from Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance Approved 5-0.

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

Hillsborough's Board of Adjustment holds a quasi-judicial hearing on a variance for Orange County's Board of Elections office at 208 South Cameron Street. The county wants an exception from the town's flood damage prevention ordinance to build a concrete loading ramp and related site work inside the mapped 1% annual chance flood area, so staff can move voting equipment in and out of storage.

Architect Drew Wilgus of Smith Sinnett Architecture represents the applicant. The town's staff report walks through the sixteen findings the ordinance requires for a variance and recommends no conditions if the board grants it.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

The board swore in architect Drew Wilgus and civil engineer Jay Watson before hearing testimony on the required findings. Wilgus said the ramp's concrete construction and a net-zero change in impervious surface would keep it from adding flood risk, and that alternatives, including a lift outside the flood area, would cost more and still leave trucks struggling to maneuver. Watson told the board the site sits in an area of "ineffective flow" with little velocity even in a flood. Member Eddie Sain asked whether the variance would affect the Historic District Commission's pending review of the same project; senior planner Tom King said it would not, since the commission had tabled its own hearing to October.

The board adopted each of the sixteen findings 5-0, then voted 5-0 to grant the variance. Planner Tom King also told the board that Sankalp Rangi has been appointed to the seat member Jenn Sykes is vacating, effective October 1, and welcomed new member Garrett Sparks to his first meeting.

How the votes went

The Board of Adjustment voted 5-0 to approve the flood-plain variance for the Board of Elections facility at 208 South Cameron Street.

From the published minutes.

Speaking at this meeting

Town of Hillsborough's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (1)

Public hearing · 1
  1. 4.A Case BA-05-2025: Board of Elections Facility Expansion – Variance from Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance
    Public hearing Elections and districtsPublic facilitiesStormwater and flooding
    Orange County asked for a variance to build a concrete loading ramp and associated site work at its Board of Elections facility, within the 1% annual chance flood area regulated by the town's flood damage prevention ordinance. Architect Drew Wilgus represented the applicant.
    Approved 5-0.
    • 208 S Cameron St · no matching parcel on file
    • Pin 9874-15-3612 · Orange County · assessed $3,808,100

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