Board of Zoning Appeals

1 REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS 2 VIRTUAL PUBLIC HEARING 3 Thursday, July 16, 2020 4 7:30 p.m. 5 6 MS. ROUZI: Before I turn it over to our Zoning 7 Administrator, John Boyle, and our chair, Mr. Roy Jones, I'm 8 going to read this virtual meeting disclaimer. We're required 9 by law to do that. 10 Before that, let me make sure I hit recording. All 11 right. We are being recorded. 12 Good evening, everyone. My name is Akida Rouzi. I am 13 the BZA clerk. 14 The meeting for which this agenda has been posted will 15 be held pursuant to and in -- 16 MR. CALABRESE: Akida, can you hear me? 17 MS. ROUZI: Yes. Okay. I can hear everyone. 18 I'm going to continue reading. 19 The meeting for which this agenda has been posted will 20 be held pursuant to and in compliance with the Virginia Freedom 21 of Information Act, Section 2.2-3708.2 and state and local 22 legislation adopted to allow for continued government operation 23 during the COVID-19 declared emergency. 24 We're all set. Anyone can take over now, John or 25 Roy. 26 MR. BOYLE: We should have the Chair call the meeting 27 to order and then a roll call. 28 29 1. CALL TO ORDER 30 MR. JONES: Good evening. I'd like to call to order 31 the July 16, 2020, Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. 32 Akida, can we have a roll call please. 33 MS. ROUZI: Yes. Give me just one second. 34 35 2. ROLL CALL 36 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. 37 MR. JONES: Here. 38 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. 39 MR. CALABRESE: Here. 40 RECORDING SECRETARY: Is it Mr. Eppler? 41 Mr. Eppler? Dale? 42 MR. EPPLER: I'm pushing the wrong mute button. Yes, 43 I'm here. 44 RECORDING SECRETARY: Did I pronounce your last name 45 correctly, Mr. Eppler? 46 MR. EPPLER: Yes. 47 RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. 48 Mr. Bartlett. 49 Mr. Bartlett is absent. 50 Mr. Misleh. 51 Mr. Misleh is absent. 52 Mr. Kien. 53 Mr. Kien is absent. 54 Thank you. 55 56 MR. JONES: Thank you, Akida, 57 I think the first order of business is to welcome Mr. 58 Eppler to the Board of Zoning Appeals. We want to thank him in 59 advance for all of his upcoming efforts and participation. 60 So, welcome, Dale, to the Board of Zoning Appeals. 61 MR. EPPLER: Thank you. I just wanted to say a couple 62 of months ago I came in to watch one of your meetings and I 63 could tell that there was -- in person, and I could tell there 64 was a lot of confusion up there because everyone was staring 65 because I was obviously the only one in the room who did not 66 have business there. So that's why this mysterious person was 67 in your room. 68 MR. JONES: Welcome aboard. 69 MR. BOYLE: I was going to say, if the Chair would, I 70 thought Mr. Kien had said he was going to attend. But since we 71 are less than a full Board, it's customary to give the 72 applicants an opportunity to request a continuance. But maybe 73 ask again, are we sure Mr. Kien is on the way or not and that 74 would impact that question. 75 But anyway, we are less than a full Board tonight. 76 MR. JONES: Okay. I was going to offer to have 77 anybody speaking tonight introduce themselves and then I was 78 going to ask that question. 79 But now that Mr. Boyle brought it up, as he correctly 80 states, we don't have a full Board tonight which means you would 81 need all three of the members here tonight to vote in favor of 82 your petition in order for it to pass. 83 So you do have the opportunity to ask for a 84 continuance until our meeting next month in August where we 85 might have a full Board that can hear your petition. 86 So you do have that option, if that's something you 87 want to consider. I believe the cutoff for that question is 88  89 after you give your presentation, if I'm not mistaken on that, 90 Mr. Boyle; is that correct? 91 MR. BOYLE: Yes, any time up until comments from the 92 public are closed and the Board is ready for discussion. So, 93 yes, they could actually go through their presentation and then 94 request a continuation. 95 MR. JONES: Okay. So you do have that option. If you 96 want to continue, giving your presentation and as we go along, 97 up until that point, if you want to ask for a continuance then, 98 then you're able to do so. 99 So with that, I think we'll continue down the Agenda. 100 101 3. PETITIONS 102 MR. JONES: I don't believe we have any Petitions. 103 MR. BOYLE: No, sir. 104 MR. JONES: Okay. No new Petitions. 105 106 4. OLD BUSINESS 107 MR. JONES: I don't believe we have any Old Business. 108 Akida and John, do we have any Old Business? 109 MR. BOYLE: No, sir. 110 111 5. NEW BUSINESS 112 a. Variance application V1617-20 by Laura and John 113 McNamara, applicant and owner, for a variance to Section 114 48-238(3)a, to allow a front yard setback of 21.5 feet instead 115 of 30 feet, for the purpose of constructing an addition on 116 premises known as 801 Ridge Place, RPC #53-210-098 of the Falls 117 Church Real Property Records, zoned R-1A, Low Density 118 Residential. 119 120 MR. JONES: So with that, we can go to our New 121 Business, which is the petition that's before the Board. 122 Before we get started, if you're going to speak 123 tonight as part of this petition or on behalf of the 124 petitioners, if you could please clearly state your name for the 125 record and we will swear you in once you have stated your name 126 for the record. 127 MR. MC NAMARA: Okay. This John McNamara. 128 MS. MC NAMARA: And Laura McNamara and we're the 129 homeowners. 130 MR. FOTIU: Hello, everyone. My name is Steve Fotiu. 131 I'm the architect working with the McNamara family. 132 MR. ZAFROS: Hi. I'm Pete Zafros. I'm a contractor 133 working with the McNamaras. 134 MR. JONES: Great. Thank you. 135 Is there anybody else on the line? 136 Akida, I don't think there's anybody else on the line. 137 MS. ROUZI: No, I don't think so. 138 MR. JONES: Okay. With that, if you wouldn't mind, to 139 virtually raise your hands and swear to tell the truth, the 140 whole truth, before this Board tonight. 141 (Witnesses sworn.) 142 MR. JONES: I think we're also getting used to this 143 virtual interaction, so thank you for that. 144 With that, Mr. Boyle, would you mind giving us a 145 report, please. 146 MR. BOYLE: Yes, sir. And I agree, staff and the 147 Board have been through a few of these public hearings from the 148 applicants and members of the public that are here. 149 Enjoy these while they last, eventually we'll be back 150 in City Hall but for the time being this has worked very well. 151 And I think the applicants, our citizens, have been pleased to 152 have the opportunity to continue having their cases heard even 153 while City Hall has been shut down. 154 So, with that, yes, what the Board has in front of it 155 tonight is a setback variance involving an addition to a house 156 and an enclosed porch. 157 This is probably the most common variance this Board 158 sees in that it's a corner lot and one of the sides is closer to 159 the street than we would currently allow today. 160 Under a previous Code, a lot like this would have had 161 its front yard setback off of Ridge Place and then the side 162 street, is that Roosevelt -- 163 MS. MC NAMARA: Yes. 164 MR. BOYLE: Would have been considered a street side 165 yard with a setback of one half of the abutting property's yard, 166 so roughly 15 feet. 167 So back in 1948 when this structure was built, it 168 likely had a 25 foot front yard off of Ridge and a 15 foot side 169 yard off of Roosevelt. 170 Fast forward to today, the Code has changed and we now 171 have two front yards of 30 feet. 172 The applicants will speak to this but I think one of 173 the things that jumped out to staff was the unusual shape of the 174 lot, is not a true rectangle with 90 degree corners. 175 I think that plays into the reasonableness of the 176 request. 177 Quite often staff gets asked if this is something that 178 we have authority to approve. This is an extension towards the 179 rear of what may be considered the rear of the house and staff 180 normally has some discretion here but because of the setback 181 involved being a front yard, staff does not have discretion to 182 waive the setback requirements in a front yard. 183 So having said that, you should have a fairly detailed 184 presentation from the applicants, showing existing and proposed 185 conditions with the setbacks overlaid on the proposed footprint 186 of the structure. 187 And with that, we'll defer to the applicants' 188 presentation. 189 MR. JONES: Thank you, Mr. Boyle. 190 MR. MC NAMARA: Yes. Thank you very much. 191 Again, this is John McNamara and my wife, Laura. 192 We appreciate you guys taking the time to hear us out 193 on our variance. I just wanted to give you a quick background 194 of who we are and our house. 195 We moved to the City in 2016. My wife is a teacher at 196 Mt. Daniel. She had been teaching there for a couple of years 197 198 and we wanted to find a house in the City so when we found one, 199 we jumped on it even though it needed a lot of work. 200 So in 2016, we put a lot of time and energy into doing 201 the renovation, which we are very happy with. It was pretty 202 much top to bottom but it was all internal and we didn't 203 increase the footprint of our house. 204 At the time our neighbors were pretty appreciative 205 that because of the shape of what the house was that someone 206 didn't come in and tear it down and build a brand new one, and 207 decide to keep the house as it was. It kind of fit the shape 208 and character of the neighborhood. 209 So fast forward to four years until now, we're still 210 happy with our house but we have a new addition to the family, 211 an 11 month old son and we're quickly figuring out that we don't 212 have as much space as we think we need and so we've been working 213 with our friends over at Pace and our architect Steve, to come 214 up with some designs to build an addition onto our house. 215 As Mr. Boyle noted already, unfortunately our house is 216 out of compliance with today's variance standards and 217 unsurprisingly our addition is going to be out of compliance as 218 well with the setback variances. 219 So we just wanted to give you a quick rundown of our 220 rationale for our addition, explain why we're doing it the way 221 we're proposing to do it, and then if you have any questions, 222 you just let us know. 223 So, we're deciding to come straight off the back of 224 the house and we're doing this for a couple of reasons. 225 First and foremost, it's going to be -- like our house 226 right now doesn't have a good flow to it. So you're either on 227 one side of the house or the other and you have to walk through 228 the whole house to get upstairs. 229 Our proposed addition which is going to give us a lot 230 more room that we need for an additional bedroom upstairs and 231 more living space downstairs provides for a much better 232 circulation. Out of one side of the house, you're not having to 233 walk through the kitchen just to get to the new living space. 234 MS. MC NAMARA: Right. So as it currently is, if we 235 built out more towards the right of the back side of our house, 236 when you come in the front door, you'd be in the current living 237 room, you'd have to walk through the dining room, kitchen, and 238 then get to the addition. 239 And the way that it is proposed now, you're able to 240 get there from both ends of the house. And having an 11 month 241 242 old that just learned to crawl, we're seeing that that is going 243 to be quite a necessity to have lots of space to move around. 244 MR. MC NAMARA: And the second thing that we -- our 245 rationale for it, is that we have a pretty nice sized side yard 246 if you're looking at our house directly to the right. 247 While technically we could build further that way, we 248 liked being able to come straight back off our house so we're 249 not encroaching towards our neighbor's property. 250 We like them very much but I know that we appreciate 251 our privacy and that space in between us and they do as well. 252 MS. MC NAMARA: And when we went to them to talk about 253 the addition, and I think you should have a letter of support 254 from them and a couple other neighbors, one of the things they 255 asked was, are you going to be building towards our house and we 256 said no, that's not what the plan is and they seemed pleased 257 with that understandably but then also support the plan that we 258 have in place. 259 MR. MC NAMARA: And a lesser concern but a personal 260 one to myself is there's a nice, large mature Japanese maple 261 that's growing right next to our house that we didn't want to 262 disrupt or cut down nor did we want to affect the roots -- I'm 263 sorry. That's kind of an aside. 264 MS. MC NAMARA: And one of the other things we 265 considered is just the aesthetic look of -- the aesthetic of 266 passersby. So a lot of the traffic that comes from Broad Street 267 goes right past our house and so more folks are going to see our 268 house and do currently see our house from the back than from the 269 front. 270 So looking at it from the front, it's not going to 271 have any major effect. But in the back it will stay symmetrical 272 and just be a little bit more aesthetically pleasing, hopefully, 273 for the City in general. 274 MR. MC NAMARA: And also as Mr. Boyle pointed out, 275 because our lot kind of slopes back in there, pretty much the 276 only option would be to build off to the right hand side to stay 277 within the required setbacks of today. 278 So those are our primary concerns and rationale for 279 doing the addition or proposing the addition the way it is. 280 We really like living in the City. Like I said, Laura 281 is a teacher here. 282 MS. MC NAMARA: I love teaching here. Looking forward 283 to staying, especially post-pandemic. 284 MR. MC NAMARA: And, you know, it's not uncommon 285 knowledge that it's expensive to find a house in the City, 286 287 especially with all the things that we've done -- the specifics 288 of our house, that we've already done and that we are proposing 289 to do, it just wouldn't be in our price range to find a house 290 that already has all those things. 291 And we don't want to move but the reality is we need 292 more space and unfortunately we'd have to consider that. 293 So I think that's all that we had to present to you. 294 I think the next slide down was just a closeup of the property 295 with the setbacks and where we'll be exceeding the setback 296 requirement, along with detail drawings, the following pages are 297 detailed drawings of the proposed addition as well as some 298 letters of support from our neighbors, specifically our neighbor 299 behind us on Broad Street, our neighbor to our left, and our 300 neighbor across the street. 301 And with that, we will happily answer any questions 302 that you have. 303 MR. JONES: Thank you very much. 304 MR. CALABRESE: Okay. I had a question, Mr. Chair. 305 Did you want me to -- 306 MR. JONES: Absolutely. 307 MR. CALABRESE: Thank you for your presentation. This 308 is Dave Calabrese here. 309 The criteria by which we have to judge a variance, 310 there's really three criteria that we have to demonstrate or 311 have answered in order for us to be able to grant the variance. 312 The one of the most important one, and the wording is 313 essentially, The strict application of the ordinance would 314 produce an undue hardship if we were not to grant the variance. 315 So what means is that, not a hardship from what your 316 current house is but a hardship in terms of you being able to 317 design a house, a new house or an extension of the house, that 318 was within the setback. 319 So that is again, that is to say are there reasonable 320 possibilities, ways for you to build the house within the 321 setbacks without having to go beyond those setbacks. 322 So I guess I would ask you if you could answer that 323 question in terms of the hardship and again, options that you 324 could do, and maybe your architect is going to answer this, that 325 you could do that would remain within the setbacks. 326 MR. MC NAMARA: So we did look at various designs and 327 Steve, our architect, is on the phone and I'm sure he can 328 probably speak to these a little bit better, but one of the 329 primary reasons we chose this, because if we were to do the 330 setbacks or build the addition within the setbacks, we would 331 essentially be building it off the left side or if you're 332 looking at our house, the right side of our house. 333 The flow to our house is pretty essential just because 334 if you're walking in and you're going to come around and have to 335 go through our kitchen, just to get to the back of the house, 336 which we want it for more space and visibility into the living 337 spaces from our kitchen area, mainly to watch out for our son 338 right now. The flow would have worked and that's not something 339 that we wanted to do. If we were going to build and put this 340 much money into an addition, that just didn't fit what we were 341 looking at. 342 And, Steve, correct me if I'm wrong, but there were 343 maybe it was one proposed design that actually did this. 344 MR. FOTIU: Right. More than one probably that, you 345 know, at least that we studied conceptually and then at least 346 one refined version that we looked at where the addition was 347 more -- would have resulted in an L-shaped building footprint. 348 And that was really based on feedback we had 349 originally received from Mr. Boyle about the process for the 350 variance and how to design in such a way to try to avoid 351 requesting the variance. Mr. Boyle and his staff was very 352 helpful in providing feedback during the initial conceptual 353 drawings phase. 354 And what we found was that in order to produce a 355 building footprint that would stay within the setbacks, all of 356 the circulation to the addition would have to happen through the 357 kitchen. And the kitchen was recently redone under the previous 358 renovation that John mentioned was done just after they moved 359 into the house. 360 So really, demolishing the existing kitchen in order 361 to create a better flow into the addition was going to be 362 prohibitive. 363 So after looking at the footprint and the option that 364 took circulation through the kitchen to get to the family room 365 and dining room, we realized that we would need to move away 366 from that option and go towards an option that allowed for 367 circulation from the stair and formal living room as well as 368 from the kitchen into the addition. 369 MR. CALABRESE: Thank you. I have one other question. 370 One of the other criteria that we have to judge this 371 by is a burden on the neighbors or any neighbors that would not 372 be supportive of this. 373 You mentioned you had a couple letters. I do note 374 those are in here. Can you just tell me from looking at this, 375 we don't have a full picture of the neighborhood, but if you 376 look at the top portion of your property, which is not really 377 the top, there's no scale on this but on that Ridge Place, if 378 you move the hand up, anyway, the top of the screen, is the 379 neighbor on that side, first of all, do you have a letter from 380 them, and then the question would be a neighbor on the North 381 Roosevelt side, on the left side of the picture, do you have 382 letters from those two? 383 MS. MC NAMARA: Yes. Yes. If you're looking from 384 Ridge Place, right, so on the right side of our screen, if 385 you're looking at that and you're looking directly at the house 386 from the street view, the neighbor on the right is the neighbor 387 who we do have a letter of support and they were the one that 388 made the comment, Yeah, we'd love to support it but is it going 389 to be built out towards our house. And we said no, it's going 390 straight back. And they said great, we would love to support 391 it. 392 And then on the back side, in the back yard, that 393 neighbor's house is facing out toward Broad Street and we also 394 have a letter of support from him. 395 And then the other side of the house that you're 396 looking from Ridge Place directly at the house to the left, that 397 is Roosevelt. There is no house there. 398 MR. CALABRESE: Okay. Thank you. 399 MS. MC NAMARA: Sure. 400 MR. CALABRESE: No further questions. 401 MR. JONES: Thank you, Mr. Calabrese. 402 MR. BOYLE: Mr. Chair. 403 MR. JONES: Yes, sir. 404 MR. BOYLE: Could we note Mr. Kien has arrived I 405 believe during the applicants' presentation; and a question if I 406 could. 407 MR. JONES: Yes, sir, absolutely. 408 Mr. Kien, welcome. 409 And, John, more than happy to ask your question and I 410 think this sort of obviates our earlier need for a unanimous 411 Board now that Mr. Kien has joined us. 412 But please continue, Mr. Boyle. 413 MR. BOYLE: Yes, sir. Thanks. 414 For the applicants, what is the structure in that 415 picture? It looks like a stairway towards the top of the 416 picture by the tree. Is that at grade stairs coming down, 417 areaway to the basement? Could you describe what that structure 418 is. 419 MR. MC NAMARA: That is an existing stairway down to 420 grade. It's not going below grade. 421 MR. FOTIU: Well, the one that is directly adjacent to 422 the tree is the stoop that comes up to the door that enters into 423 the mudroom and kitchen. But the one that's on the south side 424 of the structure is indeed the stair that goes down to the 425 basement. 426 The one on the west side is the stoop that goes up and 427 is to remain. 428 MR. BOYLE: Okay. What I'm pondering is if your new 429 structure were to use that open space by the tree, is that 430 impacting an egress from the basement? 431 MR. MC NAMARA: Yes. Actually the current, the way we 432 were having the addition now is it's covering the egress from 433 the basement. 434 I think that maybe there's a little confusion. If 435 we're talking about the top of the screen and the tree shown 436 there with the, looks like the steps down, that's the entering 437 into the side of the house. And there's a concrete walkway 438 right there. 439 And then coming, it's covered now, by the proposed 440 addition, there's steps down but you can't see them in this, to 441 the basement. 442 MR. BOYLE: Thank you. 443 MR. JONES: Steve, I've got a question for you. So, I 444 just want to be clear, when you discussed with the McNamaras 445 designing this house, the design that you finally settled on was 446 primarily necessitated by the ability to get that flow you 447 discussed going to the addition, having an alternate design 448 would have added costs or additional hardships in sort of 449 alternate designs other than what you finally settled on, is 450 that correct? 451 MR. FOTIU: That's correct. And most of the 452 conversation and our responses to the questions have focused on 453 the first floor, but this also applied to the second floor as 454 well because in order to circulate to an addition that would 455 have created an L-shaped footprint, we found that it was 456 resulting in fairly small bedroom footprints with a corridor 457 that was a rather long corridor to lead to the final bedroom on 458 the south end of such a string of structures. 459 So the structure that came off symmetrically off the 460 back of the house and ties in quite nicely into the existing 461 462 shed dormer, so if I'm adding up all the different reasons that 463 we ended up going in this direction, it's the first floor flow, 464 the second floor flow, and the ability for the addition to blend 465 in nicely into the shed dormer roof. 466 MR. JONES: Thank you. 467 MR. EPPLER: A quick question if I may. 468 You said that the existing stairs into the basement 469 are underneath the proposed addition. If you have the proposed 470 addition, are you not going to have any stairs going into the 471 basement or are they just underneath the addition? 472 MR. MC NAMARA: Yes, we are not planning to have an 473 egress out of the basement. It's unfinished right now, so it's 474 mainly used for storage. So that was not part of the plan to 475 create an egress for that. 476 MR. JONES: Mr. Eppler, does that answer your 477 question? 478 MR. EPPLER: Yes, it did. I was just trying to figure 479 out if it was to be moved if it would interfere with the design 480 for stairs coming out of the basement. 481 MR. FOTIU: If I could just elaborate on that? The 482 version of the plan that would have avoided a request for a 483 variance, but would have been an L-shaped footprint, would have 484 still had the same impact on the stair coming out of the 485 basement. It's unfortunately the stair out of the basement is 486 directly outside of the kitchen and it's exactly where the 487 addition, regardless of which version of the addition would have 488 been located. 489 MR. JONES: Thank you. I don't have any more 490 questions for myself. 491 Mr. Kien, did you have any questions for the 492 applicants? 493 MR. KIEN: No. My questions have been answered at 494 this time. 495 MR. JONES: Thank you. 496 Any other questions from the Board for the applicants? 497 (No response.) 498 MR. JONES: Okay. Hearing none, I will close the 499 presentation so the Board can talk amongst itself. But thank 500 you very much for your presentation. 501 And with that, I will open up the conversation to the 502 Board. If anybody has any comments, please go ahead and state 503 them. 504 MR. CALABRESE: I'll just start and say that I always 505 focus on the hardship question, and I think that in this one, 506 507 it's fairly clear to see, as was described by the applicant and 508 the architect, the other design would require this unusual and 509 perhaps untenable flow in the house which seems unreasonable. 510 So I think it would be reasonable to state that there 511 are no options besides going beyond the setback. 512 So that would satisfy me in terms of the undue 513 hardship. And it sounds like the neighbors are in accord with 514 this so that that would be another, and then the other criteria 515 is not relevant because this house is unique because it's on a 516 corner. 517 So I feel that they've met the standard under the 518 ordinance. 519 MR. JONES: I agree. I think the discussion on the 520 hardship as far as the house design and the ability to have a 521 cost-effective airflow to the addition, coupled with the 522 minimal, if non-existent, impact on the neighbors who seem to be 523 very supportive of this project, those carried a great weight 524 with me. 525 So those are sort of my general thoughts. And I 526 agree with Mr. Calabrese's analysis. 527 If there's any other comments or discussions, Mr. 528 Eppler and Mr. Kien, please feel free to discuss. 529 MR. EPPLER: So I just wanted to note because I know 530 this area fairly well and on the other side of Roosevelt from 531 this property is a park, a high slope there. So there's 532 basically no neighbor that will be looking on to the side of 533 this addition. 534 I know it's an unusual shaped lot but I think it's 535 also an unusual placement in the sense that everyone is going to 536 -- all the neighbors are going to see a house that hardly 537 changes from their point of view, from all the other 538 architectural design look from the photos and such and the 539 drawings, they're not going to see much change except the bump 540 out of the dormer windows. 541 The addition really fits well with the property and 542 again, because there's no one across on Roosevelt, there's 543 really no one that's going to have any visual impact from it, 544 the change. 545 MR. JONES: Thank you. 546 MR. KIEN: Yes, Mr. Eppler, that's the direction I was 547 going too. 548 If we were looking at encroaching on a neighbor there, 549 I think the flow, hardship may be something that we would want 550 to put a little more scrutiny around. But in the case that 551 they've made and the fact that there is no neighbor there, as 552 you've already pointed out, that for me has impact on saying 553 that I think it makes a lot of sense based on how they've 554 designed it. 555 MR. EPPLER: I don't know how common these sort of 556 corner, these trapezoid-shaped lots are, but I can imagine in 557 another case we might be having a different decision because 558 you'd have a neighbor whose visuals are going to change 559 substantially but that's not the case here. 560 MR. JONES: Thank you, all. 561 Any other comments? 562 Hearing none, is there a motion? 563 MR. CALABRESE: Yes, sir. I'd make a motion to 564 approve the variance. I don't have the number in front of me 565 here, but to approve the variance referenced in the materials. 566 MR. JONES: Thank you. Is there a second? 567 MR. KIEN: I'll second that motion. 568 MR. JONES: Thank you. 569 Akida, can we have a roll call please. 570 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Kien. 571 MR. KIEN: Yes. 572 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. 573 MR. JONES: Yes. 574 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. 575 MR. CALABRESE: Yes. 576 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Eppler. 577 MR. EPPLER: Yes. 578 RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. 579 MR. JONES: Congratulation, Mr. and Mrs. McNamara. 580 Good luck on your project and thank you for your application and 581 petition and being a teacher in our school system. So good 582 luck. 583 MS. MC NAMARA: Thank you so much. I appreciate that. 584 Thank you for your thoughtfulness and we appreciate it. 585 MR. MC NAMARA: Thank you. 586 MR. JONES: Thank you very much. 587 MS. MC NAMARA: Do we sign out now? 588 MR. CALABRESE: You can stay but it's not very 589 interesting. 590 MR. MC NAMARA: Thank you to the members of the Board. 591 MR. JONES: Akida, I keep having to flip between my 592 screen and the Agenda. I think the only remaining item is the 593 minutes from the last meeting; is that correct? 594 MS. ROUZI: That's right. That's all we have. 595 I can open it, but it's probably hard to see from my screen. 596 You can also open it as well, if you'd like to review it that 597 way. 598 599 6. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 600 a. Approval of the May 14, 2020 Meeting Minutes 601 602 MR. JONES: Have the Board members taken a look at the 603 meeting minutes? 604 MR. EPPLER: I have read them but since I wasn't 605 there, I'm not sure my vote is going to be meaningful. 606 MR. JONES: Yes, I think you have to abstain from that one. 607 If we just take five minutes to go through the meeting 608 minutes, and then we'll have a motion to approve them. 609 (Minutes reviewed.) 610 MR. JONES: If everybody has had time to review, are 611 there any motions to approve the minutes? 612 MR. KIEN: I make a motion to approve. 613 MR. CALABRESE: Second. 614 MR. JONES: Roll call please, Akida. 615 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Kien. 616 MR. KIEN: Yes. 617 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. 618 MR. JONES: Yes. 619 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. 620 MR. CALABRESE: Yes. 621 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Eppler. 622 MR. EPPLER: Abstain. 623 RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. 624 MR. JONES: I believe that was the last Agenda item. 625 Before we take a motion to adjourn, again I'd just 626 like to welcome Mr. Eppler to the Board and I look forward to 627 working with him. And given the current status of the pandemic, 628 I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. 629 630 8. ADJOURNMENT 631 MR. JONES: Is there a motion to adjourn the July 16th 632 Board of Zoning Appeals meeting? 633 MR. CALABRESE: So moved. 634 MR. JONES: Roll call please, Akida. 635 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Eppler. 636 MR. EPPLER: Approved. 637 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. 638 MR. CALABRESE: Yes. 639 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Jones. 640 MR. JONES: Yes. 641 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Kien. 642 MR. KIEN: Yes. 643 RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. 644 MR. JONES: I don't have the gavel, but virtually. 645 MR. BOYLE: See you in August for the Special Meeting 646 and appreciate everyone making themselves available. 647 MR. JONES: Sounds good. Everyone be safe.