Board of Zoning Appeals

1 REGULAR MEETING OF THE 2 BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS 3 City Council Chambers 4 300 Park Avenue 5 Falls Church, Virginia 22046 6 May 17, 2012 7 7:30 p.m. 8 9 1. CALL TO ORDER: 10 11 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Okay. We call to order and it's the 12 Thursday, May 17th Board of Zoning Appeals hearing. 13 14 2. ROLL CALL: 15 16 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: And roll call please. 17 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Stoodley. 18 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Here. 19 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Castillo. 20 MR. CASTILLO: Here. 21 RECORDING SECRETARY: And Mr. Williamson. 22 MR. WILLIAMSON: Here. 23 24 3. RECEIPT OF PETITIONS: 25 26 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Okay. I see no petitions because 27 there is nobody out in the audience. 28 29 4. NEW BUSINESS: 30 31 a. Variance application V-1528-12 (MUNIS #20120309) by 32 Falls Church Investments, LLC to allow signage on the second 33 floor of the buildings facade or above the second floor windows, 34 for second floor tenants on premises known as 101 East Annandale 35 Road, RPC #53-108-003 of the Falls Church Real Property records, 36 zoned OD Official Design/B-3, General Business split, said 37 property owned by Falls Church Investments, LLC. 38 39 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: New Business has been delayed. I ask that 40 we give them a continuance because there's three of us. So I 41 need a motion to continue. 42 MR. WILLIAMSON: So moved. 43 MR. CASTILLO: Second. 44 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: All in favor. 45 (Upon voice vote, the motion passed unanimously.) 46 47 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Okay. What I didn't tell you, Justin, 48 we suspended Robert's Rules of Order so I can make motions 49 because there's only three of us. 50 MR. CASTILLO: Okay. MINUTES OF THE 17 MAY 2012 MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS APPROVED 14 JUNE 2012  51 52 5. MINUTES: 53 6. OTHER BUSINESS: 54 55 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: There are no minutes or resolutions so 56 the Other Business, excuse me, is I need to  we need to get a 57 vice chair. 58 Do I have a motion? 59 MR. CASTILLO: I would move to nominate Mr. Williamson. 60 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: I second it. 61 All in favor? 62 (Upon voice vote, the motion passed unanimously.) 63 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: All right. You're vice chair, Mr. 64 Williamson. 65 66 7. OLD BUSINESS: 67 68 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Old Business, we don't have any that I 69 know of. Unless you guys have anything. 70 MR. CASTILLO: What about the letter? 71 Well, there is one thing that I would like to remark about 72 on the letter from the City Attorney. 73 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Sure. 74 MR. CASTILLO: And this is in reference to the City 75 Attorney's letter of I believe April 20. 76 I would note several  I would make several comments. I 77 think the first concern is a factual issue. He says there's been 78 some lack of agreement about whether there was a new application 79 or whether the application was amended. 80 81 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: I looked at the plan and it has the 82 same date on it but it was substantially changed. Now whether or 83 not that means it was a new application or not could be a 84 semantic issue but it was not a clean sheet new application with 85 a new date. 86 I do note some concerns with the City Attorney's letter to 87 the extent that he does not provide citations to the Code. He 88 makes statements that may well be supported by more substantive 89 references to the Code but unfortunately I think the letter as it 90 stands somewhat doesn't get sufficiently into the level of detail 91 that I would like to see a discussion of this. 92 And then the other issue that concerns me with the City 93 Attorney's letter is his discussion of, you know, whether or not 94 the revised plans still require a variance. I think the record 95 during the hearing in October would support that, yes, it would, 96 because despite the reduced length of this extension/porch/ 97 stoop, what have you, the length was substantially reduced but 98 its width with respect to the setbacks remained the problematic 99 aspect. 100 So while I think the City Attorney's analysis that the MINUTES OF THE 17 MAY 2012 MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS APPROVED 14 JUNE 2012 101 Zoning Administrator has discretion is valid, I don't think we 102 have enough detail to establish here whether or not, in fact, the 103 Zoning Administrator had a decision that is an abuse of 104 discretion or whether or not as a matter of law the Zoning 105 Administrator simply lacked the power to approve the permit 106 because it did require a variance. 107 Those are my comments on the City Attorney's letter and as 108 I said, I would ask that it be entered into the record. 109 MR. WILLIAMSON: What would you like to do now? 110 MR. CASTILLO: The other thing that I would like to do is 111 I would like, I would ask also to move into the record with 112 permission from Mssrs. Taylor and Murphy, their resignation 113 emails. 114 There was an email of a couple of weeks ago, April 13th, 115 that has some additional discussion about the issue that I would 116 ask to put into the record again because I think it's important 117 that we have as much information out for public analysis and 118 discussion as possible. 119 And then the final thing that I would ask is that  is 120 that I would renew the request raised initially by Mr. Murphy 121 that the City Attorney analyze the issue of whether the Zoning 122 Administrator had committed a non discretionary error. Because I 123 believe the facts as I understand them and see them would support 124 that. 125 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Okay. Mr. Brandon, would you put all 126 of that in the record. 127 RECORDING SECRETARY: Certainly. 128 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: And we need to have the secretary 129 explain the situation to him and ask if we can. 130 RECORDING SECRETARY: Absolutely. I apologize for not 131 having the minutes for the Board from that particular meeting as 132 well but they were sent to Miss Hieber today so next meeting we 133 should have all the minutes that we're missing from this year. 134 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Okay. Thank you. Does that satisfy 135 you? 136 MR. CASTILLO: Yes. 137 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Sir, can we help you? 138 SPEAKER: I understand there is a hearing tonight about 139 signage? 140 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: No, not tonight. It's been continued 141 to next  142 SPEAKER: Next meeting. 143 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: I didn't want you to spend your time 144 here? 145 SPEAKER: I appreciate it. Thanks. 146 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Okay. Any Other business? Any Old 147 Business? I guess that was Old Business as well. 148 149 8. ADJOURNMENT: MINUTES OF THE 17 MAY 2012 MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS APPROVED 14 JUNE 2012 150 151 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: Move to adjourn. 152 MR. WILLIAMSON: So moved. 153 MR. CASTILLO: Second. 154 CHAIRMAN STOODLEY: We are now adjourned. Thank you, sir. 155 Respectfully submitted, Noted and Approved: 156 157 158 Ann Hieber 159 Recording Secretary MINUTES OF THE 17 MAY 2012 MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS APPROVED 14 JUNE 2012