Board of Zoning Appeals

REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS City Council Chambers 300 Park Avenue Falls Church, Virginia 22046 May 11, 2017 7:30 p.m. 1. CALL TO ORDER CHAIR WILLIAMSON: I would like to call to order the May 11, 2017, meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals. Roll call. 2. ROLL CALL RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Williamson. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Here. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Litkenhous. MR. LITKENHOUS: Here. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. MR. CALABRESE: Here. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. MR. JONES: Here.  RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Sprouse. MR. SPROUSE: Here. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Misleh. MR. MISLEH: Here. RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: The next item on our Agenda is the Approval of Minutes; however I would like to go ahead and move that to after Item Number 6, which is New Business, just as a matter of being helpful to our applicant. 4. OLD BUSINESS 5. PETITIONS CHAIRMAN WILLIAMSON: There's no Old Business and then I don't believe there are any petitions. MR. BOYLE: No, sir. 6. NEW BUSINESS A. Variance application V1590-17 by John Benedetto, applicant, for a variance to Section 48-238(3)(a) to allow a front yard setback of 20.03 feet instead of 30 feet for the purpose of constructing a 2-story addition with a front porch extending an additional 5 feet, on premises known as 616 Laura Drive, RPC #52-605-009 of the Falls Church Real Property Records, zoned R-1A, Low Density Residential. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: So, with that, I would like to call New Business, which is Variance application V1590-17 by John Benedetto, applicant, for a variance to Section 48-238(3)(a) to allow a front yard setback of 20.03 feet instead of 30 feet for the purpose of constructing a 2-story addition with a front porch extending an additional 5 feet, on the premises known as 616 Laura Drive, RPC #52-605-009 of the Falls Church Real Property Records, zoned R-1A, Low Density Residential. Applicant is signing in. Could you stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in please. (Witness sworn.) CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Okay. Before we hear from the applicant, if we could get a quick report from staff. MR. BOYLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. This application is before the Board for a setback Variance on residential property. And the Board should have received in its packages the statement of hardship from the applicant, several letters of support from neighbors in the area, a letter from the arborist regarding some trees on the property, and pictures of the property, and a plat which I think really depicts the issue, and some architectural renderings of the project that's being proposed. I'd have to say, of the Variances this Board sees, this one is probably the most glaring, obvious one, what the issue is. We've got this situation on Laura Drive where just a couple properties over there meet all the dimensions that the Code asks for: They're the right square footage, they're the right dimensions, but they were rotated 90 degrees, and this Board has actually seen one or two of these Variances before. But nothing like it in the rest of the City. It's almost as though I think the developer or the original subdivision got to the end of the line and said, Let's just fit what we can in here. So normally, we're explaining to you how the Code changed out from underneath the house, you know, the house was built to Code. This one is normal application of the Code results in a building envelope that is something of the order of only 10 feet deep.  And what they're asking to do is to simply go straight up above the house, so not go any closer with the simple exception of allowing a porch on the front that is not currently there. So it's I think about as minimal an impact on the property as they can, as they can propose, and I think the need for relief here is pretty obvious. So with that, I think I'll defer to the applicant and his presentation. CHAIRMAN WILLIAMSON: Thank you, Mr. Boyle. Mr. Benedetto, if you'd like to proceed. MR. BENEDETTO: Yes, thank you. So, like Mr. Boyle said, pretty straightforward issue here. The lot is standard size in dimensions. It's just oriented in such a way that what would normally be the front property line is the side property line. So after decline and setbacks that are in the Ordinance results in a very thin, wide buildable area. It's not really practical for any single family residential use. We've gotten property owner signatures from the neighboring properties: There's one across the street and the two next door neighbors. They have no objection to the project.  Photographs showing the property. One thing that I did notice that you said, Reduction of the yards to allow a front setback of 20.03 feet. I just want to clarify that the front porch will extend closer to the front property line than that. And that the roof overhangs and eaves will also extend closer than that to the front property line. Other than that, I don't have anything else to add. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Mr. Boyle, on that last comment, it's the porch, this is mainly concerning with the dwelling of the house and not the porch or the eave over it, that will not be an issue here, correct? MR. BOYLE: What we decided to do in crafting the language because we had this come up before, whether or not a porch was included in the Variance language and did the advertisement portray that. So what we did is called out the setback that's being requested of 20.03 and then porches are allowed to project into that front yard setback where Variances aren't needed so we simply called it out that they're also asking for a approximately 5 foot deep porch to go from that new setback.  So we're just trying to be diligent in what was advertised for the public. CHAIRMAN WILLIAMSON: And on that note, I'll just point out that it's a setback request of 20.03 feet. You only advertised for that so it couldn't be any more. MR. BENEDETTO: Right. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Which I think in this case would be 20 feet. MR. BENEDETTO: Yes. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: You'd be pretty confident in that .03. Okay. Well, we've heard from the applicant. Are there any questions for the applicant? MR. CALABRESE: I have a couple of questions. Just to confirm, you have three letters. And it looks as though the lots 25 and 27, those represent the 614 and 618 Laura Drive? MR. BENEDETTO: Yes. I'm not sure which is which but I do know that those are the two sides. MR. CALABRESE: And the other one is across the street. MR. BENEDETTO: Yes.  MR. CALABRESE: Now, the 9, 10, and 11 lots, have you spoken to those neighbors and/or aware of the houses or the homes on those lots? Are they further to the -- is that north or -- MR. BENEDETTO: I'm not sure. I know that the house on 11 is visible from the back yard of the house but I'm not terribly familiar with the other two lots. MR. CALABRESE: And they were provided notice like everyone else in the neighborhood. MR. BOYLE: Yes. They would have been within the radius that we send letters to directly. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Okay. Any other questions for the applicant? (No response.) CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Okay. I don't think anyone in the gallery will be proposing any questions. So with that, we'll close it to the gallery and then have some discussion amongst the Board and see if someone is ready to make a motion. MR. CALABRESE: It's a pretty straightforward application. We've seen, as Mr. Boyle mentioned, a number of these homes, existing homes, are existing because of the changes in the zoning requirements in their present state before even construction are beyond the setbacks and now we're just going up, building upwards. So it's a fairly straightforward, in my mind, application. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: I agree. MR. SPROUSE: Are you guys taking the tree down? That big tree out front? MR. BENEDETTO: We're going to try not to. MR. SPROUSE: Leave that. MR. BENEDETTO: Yeah. It's pretty close to the house now. The foundation that we're planning to use for that little side addition is just a couple of pier footings so hopefully there's not going to be too much disservice for that tree. MR. SPROUSE: You guys are well within your right to do whatever you want. But that's a nice tree. MR. BENEDETTO: Yeah, it is a nice big tree. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: What did the arborist have to say about that? MR. BENEDETTO: She said that there weren't any protected -- I have a letter from her right here. She said there weren't any protected trees on the property. There is one City-owned tree but it's not anywhere near it. It's at that curb. So it's far enough away from the house that it's not a concern. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Okay. Would anyone on the Board care to make a motion? MR. LITKENHOUS: I can make a motion. Motion to approve. CHAIRMAN WILLIAMSON: Would you care to add or amend that motion to include any of the characteristics related to the house such as the size of the building envelope relative to where the building is and some of the criteria. MR. LITKENHOUS: That's correct. I'd like to make a motion to approve the Variance application V1590-17 by the applicant for a Variance to Section 48-233(3)(a). MR. JONES: Second the motion. CHAIRMAN WILLIAMSON: I would just add, just reiterate some of the points that were made, that given the building footprint, that the dimension would not allow for reasoned development of the property in keeping with the intent of the ordinance and this is a unique characteristic of this particular property, as Mr. Boyle outlined earlier. So with that, if we could have a call for a vote.  RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Williamson. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Litkenhous. MR. LITKENHOUS: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. MR. CALABRESE: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. MR. JONES: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Sprouse. MR. SPROUSE: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Okay. We have everybody. Your Variance is approved. Congratulations and good luck with your project. MR. BENEDETTO: Appreciate it. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Approval of the April 13, 2017 Meeting CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Okay. Moving on, as noted earlier, I changed the order of the Agenda to move to do Approval of Minutes after New Business, so please review the minutes of April 13, 2017, for a few moments and I will ask if anyone would care to make a motion to approve these. (Minutes reviewed.) CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Would anyone care to make a motion to approve these minutes? MR. SPROUSE: Move to approve the minutes. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Is there a second? MR. CALABRESE: Second. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Roll call. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Williamson. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Abstain. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Litkenhous. MR. LITKENHOUS: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. MR. CALABRESE: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. MR. JONES: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Sprouse. MR. SPROUSE: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Misleh. MR. MISLEH: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you.  CHAIR WILLIAMSON: I wasn't here, that's why I'm not voting. Okay. The minutes are approved. 7. OTHER BUSINESS A. Discussion of Rules and Procedures CHAIR WILLIAMSON: One last item here is Other Business, Discussion of Rules and Procedure. Mr. Boyle, I think this came up previously. Did you want to perhaps tee up this discussion? MR. BOYLE: Yes. At the last meeting we were missing both the Chair and the Vice Chair and -- MR. CALABRESE: No, the Vice Chair was there. MR. SPROUSE: But the question came up. MR. LITKENHOUS: I was absent. MR. BOYLE: That's right. If they were both missing, how would we proceed with the meeting. And I think we subsequently found out that it is addressed in the Rules of Procedure. And I do not have a copy. If one of the Board members could --  CHAIR WILLIAMSON: I believe it's Section One, Item Four: In the absence of the Chairman and Vice Chairman, the ranking member in time or service on the Board present shall assume the duties of the Chairman. So there you go. That's pretty clear. MR. BOYLE: Yes. MR. SPROUSE: Who's ranking after you guys? MR. JONES: I think I'm the second. MR. SPROUSE: Then we thumb wrestle. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: We probably wouldn't have a quorum at that point, right? Okay. Well, that completes our lengthy Agenda in what might be record time. Mr. Boyle, you wanted to say something. MR. BOYLE: Yes. Former member of the BZA, Kent Taylor, has given his entire collection of training materials that he received over the years and has asked staff to present to the Board some good reading on zoning topics here. So I have this, you're welcome to look through these and we'll thank Mr. Taylor for his donation. When you're all done with them, bring them back to staff and we'll put those in our library we have up in our office.  CHAIR WILLIAMSON: We thank Mr. Taylor for his contribution. And with that, I move to adjourn. Is there a second? MR. JONES: I'll second. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Roll call. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Williamson. CHAIR WILLIAMSON: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Litkenhous. MR. LITKENHOUS: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. MR. CALABRESE: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. MR. JONES: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Sprouse. MR. SPROUSE: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Misleh. MR. MISLEH: Yes. RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. 8. ADJOURNMENT CHAIR WILLIAMSON: This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.