ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2006
Members Present: Mr. Baroody
Mr. Bartolotta
Mr. Westlake
Ms. Brower
Mr. Darrow
Member Absent: Ms. Marteney – emailed out of town
Staff Present: Mr. Leone
Mr. Hicks
Mr. Selvek
APPLICATION
APPROVED: 327 Clark Street
Mr. Rejman: Good evening, this is the Zoning Board of Appeals. Tonight we have one item on the agenda:
327 Clark Street, an area variance
ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2006
327 Clark Street. R2 zoning district. Area variance for garage: 5’ over allowable 15’ height and 34 square feet over allowable size of 750 square feet. Edward Darrow, applicant.
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Mr. Rejman: 327 Clark Street, are you here?
Mr. Darrow: Good evening, I am Edward Darrow; this is my wife Annett Darrow. We are applying for actually two variances. We want to reconstruct a very out of date, a very unsafe barn that we had to demolish. The variances that are needed are: a 5-foot height, vertical height variance. The finished peak height on the new constructed barn is going to be 20 feet, Zoning only allows for 15 feet in height. Although we are lowering the peak by 6 feet, the old peak on the other barn that was demolished, it is in your packet, is actually 26 feet high.
The other variance that we are in need of is a 34 square foot area variance. Zoning only allows a 750 square foot accessory structure; ours is going to be 784 square foot. We need this much space for two reasons; to fit a very unusual shape of the back area where the former garage was. I submitted a plot plan in your packet and it will show how oddly shaped it is and where the garage was.
Also on that plot plan it will also show in red where two of the former garage lines, one being the north, one being the east side line are staying identical, which does conform with setbacks for Zoning. The west and south lines are where I am creating a little larger area. We find that we need a larger garage area due to the size of current vehicles, plus the other items that you pick up in life with two children with a jet ski, two sets of patio furniture, two sets of bikes, it is just non-ending the stuff that we acquire, two grills and to be able to store it all properly.
The height variance is needed because we want to come close to the looks of our former garage being it is a somewhere around 1896 Victorian home and the former carriage garage really lends itself to the aesthetics of the dwelling, plus we also need the added square footage for storage on the second floor.
The other item that really lends itself to us re-creating the garage at that height. I am going to pass out a few pictures if you could share and then I have one for the record and one for the Chairman. You can see the height of my neighbor’s garage. So aesthetically if I was to build a single level ranch style garage, (a) it would not blend into the characteristics of the neighborhood, it would not blend well with my neighbor’s garage being a two-story garage in approximately 24 foot to peak. I think it would actually have a negative impact on the aesthetics of the neighborhood and change the character of the neighborhood.
Also, I went around to my surrounding neighbors that were home and these are twenty (20) adjacent neighbors who all signed and approved of the new structure. There is the original for the record. It states on the top:
“We, the undersigned, by affixing our name do hereby attest, that we have given our consent to our neighbors Edward and Annett Darrow of 327 Clark Street, Auburn, for the construction of a new garage. We do understand that the Darrow’s are asking the City of Auburn’s Zoning Board of Appeals for two variances: one for a 34 square foot variance for size and one for a 5 foot height variance. May our signatures reflect our support of this project.”
Also, I enclosed drawings or plot plan of what the building will look like. It is going to be a pole barn construction but it is not going to look like pole barn on the outside or the exterior. It is going to be twin 4 vinyl siding, it is also going to have architectural single roof, not metal roof that you so commonly see on pole barns, which I think detracts from the neighborhoods particularly in the City atmosphere. Are there any questions?
Mr. Rejman: Seems like you hit all the bases here.
Mr. Leone: Why is there an * next to number 16?
Mr. Darrow: He is the closest affected neighbor, he is immediately behind me, his physical house will probably be 20 feet from the north side of the garage. Thank you for asking.
Mr. Rejman: Let me ask then, is there any wishing to speak for or against this application? Yes. State your name for the record please.
Ms. Williams: My name is Eddie Mae Williams.
Mr. Rejman: Yes.
Ms. Williams: And I am that lives next door to him.
Mr. Rejman: OK.
Ms. Williams: He didn’t come to my door and ask me did I want him to build the barn.
Mr. Darrow: I knocked at the door and no body answered.
Ms. Williams: I feel that the height and the width of the barn depreciates the value of my property, which has already been done by the fence that he built down the driveway.
Mr. Rejman: How would, explain why you feel that the height would affect the value of your property?
Ms. Williams: I feel it is going to make my barn look like a dwarf unless he decreased the size of the barn.
Mr. Rejman: The old barn was 26 feet high and by looking at this picture, it appears (show her the picture) that it is the old barn and it appears that they are both the same size.
Ms. Williams: My barn sits on a little hill, my looks a little higher than his.
Mr. Rejman: OK.
Ms. Williams: And he wants to put up a bigger gawkier barn in there.
Mr. Rejman: Wait a minute; let’s talk about height first. He wants to put the new structure will be 6 feet shorter than this one, than the old one.
Ms. Williams: OK.
Mr. Rejman: So it is going to be shorter than your existing barn. So would that affect the value of your property if he put in a smaller barn? The other thing he is asking for is a 28 x 28 building and it will be slightly bigger by 34 square feet which is 3 feet wide and 10 feet long and that is probably due to the cost and 28 x 28 is a standard building. So do you still feel that 3 feet wide and 10 feet long is going to affect your property values?
Ms. Williams: No, I don’t. I talked to someone about this and they told me to come and see.
Mr. Rejman: That is ok. I just wanted to see how you got those feelings. It is bigger than Code, Code is only 15 feet, but it is 6 feet shorter than what is there now.
Ms. Williams: OK.
Mr. Rejman: Probably will look smaller in reality.
Ms. Williams: OK. Thank you.
Mr. Rejman: Any one else wishing to speak for or against the application? Hearing none.
Mr. Westlake: I would like to make a motion that we grant Edward and Annett Darrow, 327 Clark Street a 34 square foot over the allowed for a total of 784 square foot footprint and a variance of 5 foot height above the 15 foot for a total of 20 foot from the grade to the peak.
Mr. Baroody: I’ll second that.
VOTING IN FAVOR: Mr. Westlake
Mr. Baroody
Mr. Bartolotta
Ms. Brower
Mr. Rejman
Mr. Darrow – abstained
Mr. Rejman: Application has been approved.
Meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
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