Palmetto Bay council members have tentatively approved changes to village regulations to give residents more leeway in building their driveways.

The new law allows for less distance between the property line and the driveway, a measurement known as a setback. The previous setback was 5 feet, and the council agreed on a new setback of 3 feet. The change also allows for three driveway entrances onto a property.

Councilman Tim Schaffer, who sponsored the changes, said he brought up the issue to clarify the zoning code and because there are Palmetto Bay residents whose properties do not conform to the old setback rules.

“Right in my own neighborhood we have a lot of side-entry garages and the vast majority of driveways that come up to these garages are non-conforming,” said Schaffer during the meeting. “It’s an opportunity for someone having several streets to have several driveways. … It’s my attempt to say, ‘let’s get an ordinance to conform to the way our village is,’ instead of trying to push people to conform to an ordinance.”

Darby Delsalle, the village’s planning and zoning director, confirmed that throughout Palmetto Bay there are properties built before the village code was drafted that do not conform to the current zoning law. But, he added, these properties are protected because they predate the law.

The changes passed 3-2, with Mayor Shelley Stanczyk and Councilwoman Joan Lindsay dissenting on the ground that more “cuts,” or driveway entrances into a property, mean less green space.

The changes passed on first reading and do not become law until the council votes a second time.

“It’s visually unappealing when driveways are too close to each other,” Stanczyk said. “We don’t want to make it hard for people, but we do want to maintain the beauty of our village.”

While Schaffer said the issue arose during his recent campaign, Lindsay said she has never heard a resident complain about the setback and driveway approaches allowed.

“Who is this for if no one called or spoke in favor of this?” she said. “I understand from the director that we do want to consider the nonconforming properties but they are already protected by our code.”

Also at Monday night’s meeting, the council unanimously approved for staff to use about $1.67 million for projects funded by the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, a Miami-Dade body that manages the county’s 0.5 percent sales tax for transportation. The money is left over from a $2.5 million loan authorized in 2007 to replace street and bus signs, according to the village.

And in a 3-2 vote, the council approved a motion to direct village staff to do a “comprehensive” review of the hardship variance process, and to assess the possibility of lowering the fees for variance applications. Councilman Patrick Fiore sponsored the motion, saying that council should modify the “hardship” provision from the variance process so that all residents have a “fair shot” of obtaining variances.

A variance as defined by the Palmetto Bay code as “an exception to a zoning restriction [that] allows use of the land outside the requirements of the zoning for that area.” The Palmetto Bay hardship ordinance outlines specifically how a resident qualifies for a variance specifically based upon the property and its uniqueness instead of based on the individual asking for the variance, Stanczyk said after the meeting.

Stanczyk and Lindsay cast the two dissenting votes.

Meanwhile, the council took no action in selecting an art piece for the Village Hall courtyard part of the Art in Public Places program. The AIPP Board recommended council approve a bronze sculpture. Lindsay made a motion to approve the piece, titled The Gathering, but no one seconded the motion.