(a) An owner or occupier of land within a conservation district may petition the board of adjustment of that conservation district to authorize a variance from the terms of land-use regulations in the application of those regulations to land owned or occupied by the petitioner.
(b) A petition for a variance must allege that there are great practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships in the manner in which the land-use regulations require the petitioner to carry out the strict letter of those regulations.

(c) A petitioner for a variance shall serve copies of the petition on the chairman of the directors of the conservation district in which the petitioner’s land is located and on the chairman of the state board.