Board of Zoning Appeals

1 BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS MEETING 2 VIRTUAL PUBLIC HEARING 3 Thursday, September 16, 2021 4 7:30 p.m. 5 6 1. CALL TO ORDER 7 MR. BARTLETT: We do have a full Agenda so I 8 think we should just quickly get started. I'm going to 9 call to order the September 16, 2021, Board of Zoning 10 Appeals meeting. 11 Akida, I believe I will ask you to read the 12 notice you're required to and then ask that you conduct 13 roll call for tonight's meeting. 14 MS. ROUZI: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 15 This meeting will be held pursuant to and in 16 compliance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, 17 Section 2.2-3708.2 and state and local legislation 18 adopted to allow for continued government operation 19 during the COVID-19 declared emergency. All 20 participating members will be present at this meeting 21 through electronic means. All members of the public may 22 view this electronic meeting via the meeting link listed 23 above and in the City's website calendar. Thank you. 24 25 2. ROLL CALL 26 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Bartlett. 27 MR. BARTLETT: Here. 28 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Calabrese. 29 MR. CALABRESE: Here. 30 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Misleh. 31 He is absent. 32 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Kien. 33 MR. KIEN: Here. 34 RECORDING SECRETARY: Mr. Eppler. 35 MR. EPPLER: Here. 36 RECORDING SECRETARY: Ms. Ward. 37 MS. WARD: Here. 38 RECORDING SECRETARY: Thank you. 39 40 3. PETITIONS 41 MR. BARTLETT: Thank you, Akida. 42 Are there any new Petitions in front of the 43 Board tonight? 44 MR. BOYLE: No, sir. 45 MR. BARTLETT: So we'll proceed to Old 46 Business. 47 48 4. OLD BUSINESS 49 a. Special Use Permit application U1623-21 by Lisa 50 Wills, applicant, to allow a daycare use otherwise not 51 permitted by right, on premises known as 128 South 52 Spring Street, RPC #52-203-037 of the Falls Church Real 53 Property Records, zoned R-1A (Low Density Residential). 54 55 MR. BARTLETT: Is Ms. Wills present? 56 MS. WILLS: Yes. 57 MR. BARTLETT: Hi, Ms. Wills. How are you 58 tonight? 59 MS. WILLS: Fine. How are you? 60 MR. BARTLETT: I'm doing wonderful. Thanks 61 for coming back to us. 62 So at this point I'm just going to ask for 63 staff from the City to provide a quick update as to 64 where this application for a Special Use Permit is as 65 far as what they've worked on with the City, with the 66 fire marshal, with everything else that they need to do 67 to make sure that they're set to present to us for their 68 Special Use Permit application for operation of their 69 proposed daycare facility. 70 MR. BOYLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 71 Yes, this application has been before the 72 Board, I think this is the third opportunity. And 73 taking into consideration there was no meeting in 74 August, it did give the applicant considerable time to 75 listen to and address the concerns that the Board was 76 presenting at the two previous meetings. 77 In going over their package, I believe they 78 responded to the primary concerns and there was some 79 coordination with the fire marshal but as far as how 80 they intend to comply and address the questions, I think 81 I would defer to the applicant. 82 The details of this application have been 83 pretty well discussed. We're down to some final 84 concerns of the Board so I'll defer to the applicant's 85 presentation and how they addressed, particular the 86 concerns that were raised at the last meeting. 87 MR. BARTLETT: Thank you, Mr. Boyle. 88 At this point before we start, I'd just need 89 to ask that those who plan to speak tonight, we can do 90 this all at once, we're going to ask anyone who plans to 91 present either as an applicant or as a member of the 92 public to raise your virtual hand and attest that you 93 will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 94 the truth on the record. 95 (Witnesses sworn.) 96 MR. BARTLETT: Thank you very much. 97 At this point I'm going to ask Ms. Wills to 98 share status of her application for a Special Use  99 Permit, provide some answers to the questions that we 100 had as a Board. 101 Our major concern was whether or not you 102 actually had a contract in place which authorized you to 103 use the Scout House on Spring Street. And based on 104 information that you presented to us and the updated 105 materials, it seems that's in place. 106 So I just wanted to allow you to give you a 107 chance to go through your application, share your update 108 and share where you are and then we can proceed to 109 asking you some questions. 110 MS. WILLS: Yes. For this specific meeting, 111 actually I got the help of Antonette Isherwood from 112 Walter Philips Company and she will actually represent 113 me at this meeting and talk about all these points that 114 were raised from the previous meetings. 115 MS. ISHERWOOD: Hi. I'm Antonette Isherwood 116 from Walter Philips as Ms. Wills mentioned. I was going 117 to walk you through, let me share my screen here, the 118 documents that were part of the updated package material 119 submission. I was just going to run through it. 120 And these items that were included as 121 attachments were really just to provide the updated 122 information that we believe you all were looking for 123 from the last BZA meeting. 124 Overall summary, there are four exhibits that 125 we're running through. One is a parking exhibit. I 126 know there was still some outstanding concern about how 127 the parking would work on the site. 128 The second is the signed Scout House 129 agreement. 130 The third attachment is the correspondence 131 with the fire marshal discussing the maximum occupancy 132 allowed. 133 And then the fourth is just a summary of the 134 letters of support that were received for the project. 135 So the first attachment here, I'll run through 136 these fairly quickly and then we can go through any 137 questions, is a parking exhibit for the site. These are 138 just existing photos of the site location at 128 South 139 Spring Street. 140 And then what we did was prepare an exhibit of 141 the actual parking spaces that are available on this 142 site. It's a combination gravel and asphalt parking 143 lot. And what we have here is a total of 18 spaces. 144 There are, per the requirements in the zoning ordinance, 145 two spaces for employees. And then, based on 16 146 remaining spaces for the parent drop-off, they can come 147 in and park in these spots and then drop off their 148 child, come inside and drop off the child. 149 So we just did a quick run-through number just 150 based on the potential maximum students of 39 and I can 151 run through that later on when we talk about the fire 152 marshal. And assuming a time of drop off of about five 153 minutes. This is something that I've experienced 154 myself. It seems like a good average estimate for the 155 amount of drop off time it takes. And with the 16 156 available spaces, it would take about 2.4, three cycles 157 for five minutes, it would be 15 minutes maximum. 158 That's also assuming that all 39 students and 159 families came at the exact same time which in reality 160 isn't going to be how it happens. It's going to be 161 staggered. Some families are going to end up walking 162 and there are also going to be some students that are 163 going to be dropped off by one vehicle. So we don't 164 believe that the 39 separate vehicle trips will really 165 occur in that manner. So with the frequent turnover and 166 the amount of available spaces, we do believe that the 167 operations won't cause traffic on South Spring Street. 168 We are showing some on-street parking to be 169 utilized. They are only along the frontage of the 170 property and on-street parking is utilized frequently at 171 other daycare drop-off spaces facilities. 172 So the second attachment here is the Scout 173 House Agreement. I know there is a question about 174 looking for the signed agreement so that was included. 175 That's on page 6 of the PDF. I don't think we 176 necessarily should go into detail but I know that was 177 requested. 178 So the third attachment is just the 179 correspondence with the fire marshal and the building 180 official, John Russell. The maximum occupancy is 39 181 children. So that is what Ms. Wills is requesting from 182 the BZA. 183 While the signed agreement doesn't currently 184 allow for 39 children, just because the BZA is a whole 185 separate process, in the event the agreement with the 186 Scout House could potentially be changed in the future, 187 their request is for the 39 students so that Ms. Wills 188 wouldn't have to come back to the BZA for an increase. 189 And again, just for clarification, it is going 190 to be up to the Virginia State Licensing Office to grant 191 that maximum number of students that will be allowed but 192 ultimately based on safety code and from the building 193 official the 39 students is the maximum and that's what 194 we've used for the parking analysis. 195 And the last attachment is really again just 196 kind of showing, there's a map, 128 South Spring here is 197 the property and then the adjoining neighbors who have 198 provided the signed letters of support or who have 199 provided a verbal agreement. 200 And we just wanted to kind of reiterate, the 201 BZA is looking at trying to determine and confirming 202 there isn't going to be a negative impact on the 203 adjacent properties so we just wanted to put this 204 together and organize it to resubmit the material and 205 all of the letters are included in the package after 206 this map here. 207 Those are the main things I wanted to 208 summarize and I was going to turn it back over to Ms. 209 Wills if she had anything else she wanted to add before 210 we take questions. 211 MS. WILLS: I just want to emphasize about the 212 current situation that is in our region and many 213 counties that we face that many parents are on waiting 214 lists for licensed daycare facilities. And there are 215 not so many daycare facilities that offer so much of 216 outdoor space for children to play and enjoy outdoors as 217 this one will provide for little ones. 218 Also it's a current situation in our country 219 that parents either need to stay at home and leave their 220 jobs or hire high-cost nannies and there are many 221 studies and statistics that indicate that there is a 222 need and lack of daycare in this region. 223 So that's what I would like to add to our 224 presentation. 225 MR. BARTLETT: Thank you very much, both of 226 you, for that information. 227 At this point I'm going to open it up to 228 members of the Board to ask any questions or share any 229 concerns. 230 MR. CALABRESE: Yes, Mr. Chairman, if I could 231 start. 232 On the issue of parking, as noted, this is the 233 third time we've seen this petition before us and the 234 parking description has changed each time and the 235 drop-off. 236 One of the times we were shown a drawing of 237 the parking lot where there would be no cars parked but 238 there would be a flow through the parking lot for 239 drop-off. 240 Now there's a diagram of cars parked for 241 drop-off which knowing that parking lot, it wouldn't fit 242 those number of spaces, I know for a fact it won't. 243 But are you now saying that you're not having 244 the drop-off where cars are going to drive in but 245 instead they're going to each park in those spaces, 246 because that's different from what was proposed last 247 time. 248 MS. ISHERWOOD. Yes, yes, so that is a change. 249 And that was also to help mitigate the employees that 250 would need to be available so that the parents could 251 come in and drop off the students instead of necessarily 252 having an employee come out to pick up the child from 253 the drop-off loop. 254 MR. CALABRESE: So first of all, I don't know 255 when you developed the map, was it 10 spaces, I know the 256 Scout House very well, it won't fit 10. But let's 257 assume it does. There's no room then for cars to drive 258 in at that point. It's very, very tight. So you're not 259 going to have cars driving in to do drop-off at that 260 point, is that what you're saying? 261 MS. ISHERWOOD: Correct. 262 MR. CALABRESE: How will they drop off? 263 MS. ISHERWOOD: Everyone would park. 264 MS. WILLS: It's just a quick drop off and 265 pick up. So the parents can park the car, drop off the 266 child, bring the child to us and then go and leave our 267 gravel area, parking area. It takes just a few minutes 268 for a drop off or pick up. 269 MR. CALABRESE: I don't see a full dimension 270 for the parking lot. Again, the 10 is more than I know 271 that space can take. But I'll take your word for it. 272 So you've measured out 10 spaces there, how wide each 273 space -- you're going to assert here that you've done 274 the measurements. This is not just a drawing. The last 275 time it was kind of a crude drawing that someone had 276 done. You're attesting that you've done the 277 measurements and it will fit 10 spaces as required, the 278 required width for each space. 279 MS. ISHERWOOD: Yes, yes. This drawing is 280 scaled. 281 MR. CALABRESE: How wide is each space? 282 MS. ISHERWOOD: Eight and a half feet. 283 MS. ROUZI: Sorry to interrupt, but we have a 284 member of the public in the chat room. Please do not 285 write in the chat room because we're recording the 286 meeting. That information cannot be part of the record. 287 So if you do have comments to make, when the Chair opens 288 it for public comments, you can do that then verbally. 289 So please do not write in the chat room. 290 MR. CALABRESE: I guess I don't have further 291 questions. Thank you. 292 MS. ISHERWOOD: And I mean I think in general 293 and from experience also from dropping off at daycare 294 facilities, I don't think the parking lot will 295 necessarily be this full at any one time. I do think 296 that as you mentioned, if the parking lot's tight, I do 297 think the parents are going to utilize the on-street 298 parking if it's available and I think with the frequency 299 of turnover and the quickness with which parents can 300 drop off their children, I don't believe it will have a 301 great impact to the circulation along this street 302 itself. 303 MR. BARTLETT: Continuing on from the 304 conversation on the topic of parking, I've walked by and 305 seen it and in previous iterations of this map, we've 306 seen handicap spaces in this parking lot and I don't see 307 that space or spaces characterized in this drawing here. 308 Where is it? 309 MS. ISHERWOOD: Yes. It's this space here, 310 number one. 311 MR. BARTLETT: So there's 23 feet between the 312 end of the parking space and the handicap. So if the 313 handicap space is occupied -- 314 MS. ISHERWOOD: Someone could still back out, 315 right. 316 MR. BARTLETT: So 8 and 9 could still back 317 out? 318 MS. ISHERWOOD: Correct, yes. 319 MR. BARTLETT: That's tight. 320 MR. BOYLE: Mr. Chair, there's 23 feet to the 321 standard two way drive out width. 322 MS. ISHERWOOD: With perpendicular parking, 323 yes. 324 MR. BARTLETT: Great. That's good to know. 325 Thank you very much. 326 So I have a couple of questions not related to 327 parking and this is just about the facility itself. 328 When do you plan to open and do you have a 329 license yet or do you have to wait for the permit from 330 us to apply for your license to operate? 331 MS. WILLS: That's right. I need to wait for 332 the permit from you and then I will get the license from 333 the child care office. 334 MR. BARTLETT: And can you clarify the number 335 of students the Scout House Board has agreed to allow 336 you to occupy this facility. 337 MS. WILLS: Yes. It was 39 but the child care 338 office will get the final decision actually, what will 339 be the number of students allowed to be there. 340 MR. BARTLETT: I read in the contract that 341 it's 25 students. 342 MS. WILLS: I'm talking about the child care 343 office. I got permission of 39 from the fire marshal 344 and from the building department and in the user 345 agreement I believe it's 25. 346 MR. BARTLETT: Right. So regardless of what 347 the fire marshal says or the child care office says or 348 the building official says, you're limited to 25 349 students per your agreement with the Scout House, is 350 that correct? 351 MS. WILLS: That's correct for now but there 352 will be some negotiation going on depending on the 353 decision of the child care office. So I'm not going to 354 negotiate or ask them for this number even if they said 355 in the user agreement they will contemplate to maybe 356 increase to 30 but, you know, if that is not going to 357 happen, I don't know. I will wait for the child care 358 office to get the final decision about the occupancy. 359 MR. CALABRESE: But if the Scout House is 360 telling you they will only accept 25, that's the 361 agreement you have with them. You can't bilaterally 362 expand that. That's a breach of your agreement with 363 them. 364 MS. WILLS: That's right. But they're saying 365 they will talk about some increase. So, you know, what 366 I'm saying, maybe there's no need to talk about any 367 increase if the child care office says, you know, -- the 368 child care office will limit me with number of children 369 and of course, I will be regulated by them and then if 370 there's any need, I can talk to Scout House about the 371 final number. 372 MR. LAWSON: Mr. Chairman, I'm Barnes Lawson. 373 I'm the attorney for the applicant. And what I wanted 374 to share with you all is it's my understanding that the 375 arrangement is right now they want to start with 25. 376 They want to see how things go. And if the governing 377 body will allow more students and things are going 378 smoothly and there's no problem, it's my understanding 379 is this could be amended to allow a greater number of 380 students. 381 If I'm not mistaken, the prior operation that 382 was here was around the 25 students so they were 383 comfortable with that number and that's why they want to 384 start with that. And as was said before, if it does 385 work out and they can get a few more students, they just 386 didn't want to have to come back before you all and then 387 amend -- because I'm assuming you're going to impose a 388 condition limiting the number of students, they didn't 389 want to have to come back to amend that. 390 MR. CALABRESE: So, sir, we've been through 391 this three times now. Each time this comes before us we 392 talk about these numbers and each time we conclude that 393 25 is the stipulated number by the Scout House and each 394 time this comes back before us the number is raised. 395 It's frustrating because we keep litigating this issue 396 over and over. 397 The only information we have in front of us is 398 the agreement from the Scout House. We don't have that 399 oral evidence that you're describing that they in fact 400 have said privately they'll consider more. All we have 401 is what's in front of us here. 402 MS. WILLS: Yeah, I do appreciate your 403 comments and thank you for reminding us about what you 404 just mentioned but I think also you asked me at the last 405 meeting what is going to decide what is actually the 406 decision from the fire marshal. And I did provide you 407 with his final word. And he actually confirmed the 408 number of students. So we are just presenting to you 409 really what we were asked to present you with and that 410 was the fire marshal email that he confirmed. Then 411 there is the building department, also they said the 412 same thing, and you have a user agreement. And the 413 procedure that is going to be established with the child 414 care office and they will say their final number too. 415 MS. ISHERWOOD: And the intent is not to 416 increase the number of students if the agreement isn't 417 changed, it's just that if the agreement does change in 418 the future, that the BZA approval wouldn't have to be 419 reobtained to get that higher number if the Scout House 420 does agree to a larger number. 421 MR. BARTLETT: And can you just clarify based 422 on the user agreement the conditions that Lisa and her 423 company and organization would be subject to as far as 424 the length of this initial agreement and what the 425 stipulations are for what would allow for an increase 426 and when that increase could happen. 427 MR. LAWSON: I don't believe that's addressed. 428 MS. ISHERWOOD: Sorry, there's one note here I 429 have up on the screen. So it does say the number of 430 clients shall not exceed 25 at any given time. The 431 association will consider increasing the number to 30 432 after the initial 6 months of operation. So that's as 433 far as the agreement currently states. 434 MR. CALABRESE: So 30, not 39. I thought I 435 saw 39 in your other document. 436 MR. LAWSON: Can I ask you a question? Why 437 are you all so concerned about the agreement that she 438 has with the owner? 439 MR. CALABRESE: The owner owns the building. 440 They know what the appropriate population of children 441 should be. 442 MR. LAWSON: I understand that. 443 MR. CALABRESE: Of course. 444 MR. LAWSON: But your job isn't to enforce the 445 owner's agreement. Your job is to approve this for the 446 health, safety and welfare of the community. And if the 447 employees -- 448 MR. BARTLETT: We're well aware of what we're 449 required to do. 450 MR. CALABRESE: We're very aware of what our 451 job is, sir, very, very aware. 452 MR. BARTLETT: There's a lot of stipulations 453 and considerations that this Board is required to 454 consider. And before today, we didn't have an agreement 455 between the Scout House and Ms. Wills in front of us. 456 It came to us twice without an agreement. And we were 457 not going to issue a special use permit to an individual 458 who did not have a right to occupy this property. 459 And so at this point we're going through a 460 variety of scenarios and questions to make sure the use 461 is appropriate based on the variety of conditions in our 462 zoning including Section 5 of 48-172. And I can go 463 through those if you'd like. But these questions that 464 we're asking are well within the bounds of our duty 465 before we decide whether or not to issue a permit. 466 MR. CALABRESE: Yes, absolutely. In fact, our 467 job is to evaluate what is appropriate to be approved 468 for the use of this property. 469 I would place very high strength on what the 470 owner of the building says is an appropriate number of 471 children. Who else would know better than what is an 472 appropriate number of people to occupy that space than 473 the owner? What information do I have to work with? 474 All I have is what the owner says is appropriate. 475 MR. LAWSON: I hear what you're saying. But 476 when you establish a limit, I don't see why you can't 477 establish a limit that if the circumstances are such and 478 the operation is so smooth, that if the owner 479 voluntarily wants to allow more students, why we can't 480 do that rather than have to come back here to you all. 481 The occupancy of the building is established 482 by the fire marshal. That's who determines the health 483 -- how many students can safely occupy this space as 484 well as the state licensing authority. And I think 485 you're placing way too much emphasis on this one 486 document which could change at any time. 487 MR. BARTLETT: Just to ask you a question: 488 Have we stated that we're going to do what you just 489 asserted? 490 MR. LAWSON: No, you have not. 491 MR. BARTLETT: Thank you. 492 MR. CALABRESE: If, in fact, you do need to 493 come back before this Board, you can. We've heard this 494 case three times, each time with insufficient 495 information. And each time with different information. 496 Now, this is new information. We're trying to evaluate. 497 Perhaps it just means you need to come back when there's 498 a change in circumstances. 499 MR. LAWSON: Well, that's your all's decision 500 and if that's the way it goes, then we'll accept that. 501 The reason things may be a little bit 502 different is that myself was involved as well as Walter 503 Philips and we wanted to bring you something that had 504 been engineered and wasn't a sketch but was something 505 that you all could rely on as being accurate so that's 506 why some of the things changed. 507 It wasn't -- I mean some of it was in reaction 508 to what we had heard as concerns as expressed by the 509 Board. 510 MR. BARTLETT: Do you have any further 511 questions? 512 MR. CALABRESE: Not from me. Thank you, Mr. 513 Chairman. 514 MR. BARTLETT: Does anyone else on the Board 515 have any questions for the applicant? 516 MS. WARD: I had a quick question. 517 For the fire marshal stating 39 -- I think it 518 says 39 children, how does the caretaker explain to this 519 maximum? When they say 39, is that factoring in all 520 occupancy? I don't know if the applicant can answer 521 that question, but that would indicate if it's 39 522 maximum, that the children limit would have to be 523 lowered to factor in the adults that are present. 524 MS. ISHERWOOD: I don't know the answer to 525 that. 526 Akida or John, do one of you know how that 527 gets determined? 528 MR. BOYLE: The building official and the fire 529 marshal have a code with a table based on the use and 530 the square footage so it's been determined by the third 531 party code writers what is a safe maximum occupation for 532 the space. 533 In this case for a daycare in a structure like 534 that with that amount of square footage the maximum was 535 39. 536 MS. WARE: And then adults are on top of that 537 number? 538 MR. BOYLE: I personally have not been 539 involved in a review like this. 540 MS. WILLS: I can just say that I think the 541 total occupancy is 49 and then, you know, the Planning 542 Commission suggested 39 occupancy. That's as much as I 543 know. 544 Yeah, so it was like 49 so they suggested 39. 545 MR. BARTLETT: John, in regard to issuing a 546 Certificate of Occupancy, is this considered final 547 information in this email or do they have to go and 548 actually submit an actual application to obtain a 549 Certificate of Occupancy because this doesn't seem 550 like -- this is not official, this email information 551 because, one, it only, as Christine alluded to, it only 552 references like the children that are there. It doesn't 553 reference total occupancy. So I'm sure that's going to 554 happen but this isn't a real application, right, for a 555 final decision. 556 MR. BOYLE: No, if the Board were to approve 557 this, the applicant would go through the permitting 558 process and there are two documents that are called 559 Occupancy Permits. 560 The zoning one simply states whether the use 561 is permitted or not and the building official/fire 562 marshal occupancy permit is something that's posted on 563 site and is done after a site inspection. So that is a 564 very official document with a seal that's signed. And 565 that would be a public record with City storage in their 566 file for this use and then there would be a copy 567 displayed at the site. 568 MR. BARTLETT: Regarding the use agreement you 569 have with the Scout House, what is the length of that 570 contract term? 571 MS. WILLS: You're asking me, right? 572 MR. BARTLETT: I'm asking the applicant or 573 your representatives for clarity on the length of this 574 agreement that you have with the Scout House. 575 MS. WILLS: I did have something but I did ask 576 them to, because it was talk about increase for the 577 second year, what it will be, rent and everything, and 578 then I asked them, you know, we should really maybe 579 negotiate more about that for the next year. So they 580 actually took that part away from the agreement so 581 that's only what I can tell you. 582 MR. CALABRESE: I think the Chairman is asking 583 what's the term of your agreement. 584 MS. WILLS: Well, that's what I was saying, 585 like it's a year, you know, to be renewed for the next 586 year that we're talking about but it did include 587 increase that I at that time I was like, you know, I was 588 saying we need to wait to talk about all these details 589 for the next year. 590 MR. CALABRESE: Well, I understand but the 591 agreement has a term or it doesn't. I mean I'm looking 592 at it now. It either says it has a term or doesn't. 593 MR. EPPLER: It doesn't seem to. 594 MS. WILLS: I didn't see any. 595 MS. ISHERWOOD: It doesn't look like it. It 596 looks like the Scout House has the ability to terminate 597 at any point -- 598 MR. CALABRESE: Three days notice. 599 MR. LAWSON: It doesn't have a term but either 600 party can terminate upon 30 days notice. 601 I was trying to find, I got involved out in 602 Fairfax, where there is a, what the requirement is of 603 indoor space per child and then there's another 604 authority. The building code has one measurement and 605 then the state licensing has a different one. One of 606 them is per child and the other includes all persons and 607 I was trying to look that up and I'm not finding it. 608 But there is a formula of how much indoor 609 space is required per person under one code and per 610 student under another. So when she actually seeks the 611 license, they will do the calculation and then the 612 limitation will be imposed based on that. 613 MS. WILLS: As much as I know there are very 614 strict regulations. So I believe they will give us 615 final number. 616 MR. CALABRESE: Just to be clear, the 617 agreement is with -- the entity listed is -- I'm trying 618 to pull this up here, ELW LLC doing business as Nature 619 Academy. Is that the petitioner? 620 MS. WILLS: Yeah, I just put my daughter's 621 name, my name, and my last name as a company and then I 622 formed Nature Academy like a small company, under that 623 company because I didn't have time to make a non-profit 624 company when I'm going through this process. So it's 625 the same company. 626 MR. BARTLETT: So just to share like our 627 process and I'll be honest, I haven't issued a special 628 use permit since being on the Board for almost three 629 years, but in our Code it states that the Board shall 630 give due regard to the nature and condition of all 631 adjacent uses and structures including the effect on 632 traffic conditions, any other aspects of the particular 633 use or structure. Whether or not the proposed 634 establishment will adversely affect the peace, health, 635 or safety of persons residing and working in the 636 neighborhood. 637 It states that the Board may authorize the 638 issuance of a special use permit considering all of 639 those factors. 640 It also states that we can impose any special 641 requirements or conditions with respect to the location, 642 construction of the particular use. 643 From my perspective I feel like the operation 644 is one that's beneficial to the community. I do know 645 the Scout House had in operation at this facility 646 another similar operation. I also know based on our 647 initial meetings regarding this applicant and this 648 application that that operation did not have a special 649 use permit in place for its operation. 650 And so we're going through and doing our due 651 diligence to make sure that issuance of a special use 652 permit is appropriate. 653 So before I close the conversation for the 654 applicant, do you have any other comments, questions, or 655 information you want to share and then I will open it up 656 to the Board for discussion. 657 MR. LAWSON: Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to 658 share there are some proposed conditions that came out 659 of the Planning Commission. There are six proposed 660 conditions. All of those would be acceptable. 661 MR. BARTLETT: Those conditions, I think we 662 received those as part of the initial application back 663 in June or May. 664 MS. ROUZI: Mr. Chair, that is correct, and 665 I'm going to pull it up for you. 666 MR. BARTLETT: Thank you. Here we go. 667 MS. ISHERWOOD: This is the staff report from 668 the Planning Commission. I don't think the conditions 669 are in this one. 670 MS. ROUZI: Antonette, what you pulled up has 671 the original conditions. But the Planning Commission 672 actually changed them. It went from 5 or 6 to 3. 673 MS. ISHERWOOD: Can you guys see this, the 674 emails that I've pulled up? 675 MR. BARTLETT: Yes. 676 MS. ROUZI: So these are the final conditions 677 that were approved. Let me know if you want me to zoom 678 in. 679 MR. BARTLETT: So I'm reading through these 680 and I think I should read them into the record: 681 Operating hours will be limited to between 7 682 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily. 683 A maximum of 39 students will be permitted at 684 any given time. 685 Onsite parking and pickup/drop-off areas will 686 be clearly delineated and signed, meaning they will be 687 signs for the parking, to ensure pedestrian safety 688 during pickup/drop-off. 689 It seems that number one has been superseded 690 by the user agreement with the Scout House and has 691 number two which is the maximum number of students 692 currently allowed at the facility. And I believe your 693 diagram and the use of onsite and offsite parking does 694 satisfy that concern from the Planning Commission. 695 Does anyone from the Board have any different 696 -- 697 MR. CALABRESE: Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I think 698 you're right. The only question would be on number 3, 699 the drop-off areas. I understand there's parking 700 designated but if we can go back to that map, where are 701 the drop-off areas? Are they just the sidewalk in 702 front? Where would the drop-off be? 703 MS. ISHERWOOD: Yes, it would be the sidewalk 704 in the front. 705 MR. BARTLETT: I think the change is there is 706 actually no drop-off meaning teachers aren't going to 707 come down and meet the student at the car like you may 708 see in some other areas but the parents will actually 709 walk the child into the building. Is that correct? 710 MS. ISHERWOOD: Correct. 711 MR. CALABRESE: So there is no drop-off then. 712 There either is or there isn't. 713 MS. ISHERWOOD: No, you're taking your child 714 and bringing them to the building and dropping them off 715 inside the building. 716 MR. CALABRESE: So the sidewalk is not the 717 drop-off. 718 MS. ISHERWOOD: No. 719 MR. CALABRESE: I just have to say something. 720 This is the frustration that I felt throughout this 721 process, is that the information constantly changes, 722 from one moment to the next we're told different 723 information. That's what gives me pause. I don't know 724 what is real. It's very, very frustrating. 725 I want to approve this. As the Chairman said, 726 I think this is a good idea. But information is 727 constantly changing. Just in these last few minutes we 728 heard two different contradictory things. I don't have 729 confidence. 730 MS. ISHERWOOD: Sorry. I consider that when I 731 take my kid to daycare, I consider it dropping them off 732 even though I'm parking and getting out of the car, and 733 so when you said that, that was my confusion in asking 734 where they're dropping people off. But the parents 735 would park and walk their kids into the building. 736 MR. CALABRESE: Okay. 737 MS. ISHERWOOD: So that was just my 738 misunderstanding. I still call that dropping off. 739 MR. BARTLETT: I think the other quick point 740 regarding the conditions from the Planning Commission 741 and something that I do agree with, is signage on 742 property regarding parking, I don't believe you can 743 include reserved parking signs on the street but you can 744 include signage regarding drop-off for time limitation 745 on your property to assure that people don't linger for 746 very long to make it a parking mess for the facility. 747 How do you plan to address that recommendation 748 from the Planning Commission, signage is appropriate? 749 MS. ISHERWOOD: I think something that's also 750 really helpful is just email distribution for general 751 reminders for parking. I know that we get that a lot as 752 well with our daycare facility. 753 MS. WILLS: Right, and it will be in our 754 policies and also during the enrollment process we will 755 emphasize the issue about the parking and make it not 756 have parents staying there for any long time. Just 757 quick drop-off and pickup and then between those hours, 758 come for any visit for parent-teacher conference and so 759 on. 760 MR. LAWSON: Mr. Chairman, after listening to 761 the conversation, why don't we say this instead of the 762 way that's worded? Why don't we say, Appropriate 763 measures shall be taken to ensure pedestrian safety 764 during pickup/drop-off, and then we could say, As 765 determined by, I don't know, the Zoning Administrator or 766 the County Manager. 767 MR. BARTLETT: I don't know if the City has 768 authority to require specific signage on this property. 769 I don't believe they would allow for like reserve 770 parking in front on Spring Street itself. So it would 771 be more of a general condition to make sure that along 772 those lines, that safety and timing and pedestrians are 773 considered like you said. 774 MR. BOYLE: Mr. Chair, one approach is to 775 state what the desired result is and then leave the 776 details up to the applicant and then come back and see 777 how well that works. That is getting into some detail, 778 to state what the purpose is. 779 I do have a question though. I'm wondering if 780 the Planning Commission when they saw this was aware 781 that it's evolved into on-street parking. That is 782 usually where the uses collide with the neighborhood. 783 Did the neighbors that were asked for letters, were they 784 aware it was going to have on-street parking. 785 MR. CALABRESE: Just to add on to your point, 786 Mr. Boyle, the last plan we saw didn't involve 787 on-street, it involved a traffic flow. It didn't 788 involve parking. That was my whole intent with this 789 line of questioning, is that it involved a flow in that 790 parking lot with nobody parked and that was to avoid 791 on-street parking. 792 So that's again where I become very concerned 793 that again we're changing the conditions here. As you 794 know, I don't know what they were considering. 795 MR. BOYLE: From staff's perspective, the only 796 body that can approve the use of the right of way for a 797 private use is City Council. So I'm wondering if this 798 potential solution has actually raised more issues than 799 we had a few minutes ago. 800 On-street parking for a use is almost unheard 801 of in the City of Falls Church. It happens because 802 people have properly tagged vehicles and it's a piece of 803 curb on a right of way that can be used for their 804 vehicle. But we don't approve the use of the right of 805 way to satisfy parking. 806 I can think of two exceptions and they're both 807 loading zones for commercial vehicles that can't get on 808 the property. 809 I'd like to hear from the applicant whether 810 they can survive and have a viable parking plan that 811 does not include an approval, an approval to use the 812 public right of way. 813 MR. LAWSON: I'm not sure I follow the 814 question. 815 MS. WILLS: I understand that we are talking 816 about parking but this is just for pick up and drop-off. 817 Nobody is going to stay there, just for a few minutes. 818 MS. ISHERWOOD: Right. And I guess the point 819 of the exhibit was to kind of demonstrate that the cars 820 wouldn't be stacking on Spring Street because the 821 available spaces along the property frontage. 822 MR. LAWSON: Antonette, didn't you determine 823 that the loop, there wasn't enough area to do that? 824 That some cars wouldn't be able to go in, drop off, and 825 then make the turn and come back out, that there wasn't 826 enough width to do that, is that correct? 827 MS. ISHERWOOD: Yes, I think the parking would 828 be better managed than a loop. 829 MR. BARTLETT: We felt the same way when we 830 saw the original initial application where there were 831 somehow like 15 cars in a loop that just didn't add up 832 mathematically. 833 MS. WILLS: Right. So I did appreciate your 834 comments and that's the reason I asked Antonette to help 835 me with this project, because of your guidance actually, 836 letting me know what should I do and get organized 837 better with a parking solution. 838 But again, it's not like people are going to 839 stay there for hours. It's a quick drop-off and pickup. 840 MR. BOYLE: Well, Mr. Chair, as I mentioned 841 that the only body that can approve use of the right of 842 way for a private use is City Council. 843 MR. BARTLETT: John, let me pose a scenario 844 here. We have a Scout House here that has events and 845 activities at random times during the day, evening, 846 weekends. Are you saying that people who currently use 847 the Scout House don't park on Spring Street? 848 MR. BOYLE: I'd wager they certainly do. 849 But the point is is that can use of the right of way be 850 included in this Board's approval and I don't think it 851 can. The reality is folks are going to park there. 852 853 (Due to a technical glitch, the recorded 854 meeting ends at this point. The following is a 855 summarized version of the remainder of the minutes of 856 the BZA.) 857 858 Special Use Permit application U1623-21 was 859 continued by Roll Call Vote of the Board. 860 861 NEW BUSINESS 862 a. Variance Application V1625-21 by Bharath Nath, owner 863 and applicant, for a variance to Section 48-238(3)(C), 864 to allow a pool to be constructed in a front yard, on 865 premises known as 407 Little Falls Street, RPC 866 #51-110-073 of the Falls Church Real Property Records, 867 zoned R-1A, (Low Density Residential) 868 869 Appearances: Bharath Nath, Kara Nath 870 Staff Report presented by Zoning Administrator 871 John Boyle 872 Applicants provided a presentation of their 873 application to the Board 874 Discussion and comments by the Board regarding 875 approval 876 Roll call vote to approve Variance application 877 V1625-21 as follows: 878 Mr. Calabrese: Yes. 879 Mr. Misleh: Absent 880 Mr. Bartlett: Yes. 881 Mr. Eppler: Yes. 882 Mr. Kien: Yes. 883 Ms. Ward: Yes. 884 885 b. Variance application V1626-21 by Chad and Susana 886 Hill, owner and applicant, for a variance to Section 887 48-238(3)a, to allow a front setback of 21.3 feet 888 instead of 30 feet along the Poplar Drive frontage, for 889 the purpose of constructing an addition and garage on 890 premises known as 100 Poplar Drive, RPC #52-502-003 of 891 the Falls Church Real Property Records, zoned R-1A, (Low 892 Density Residential) 893 Appearances: Chad Hill, Susana Hill 894 Staff report presented by John Boyle, Zoning 895 Administrator 896 Applicants provided a presentation of their 897 application to the Board 898 Discussion and comments by the Board regarding 899 approval 900 Roll call vote to approve Variance application 901 V1626-21 as follows: 902 Mr. Calabrese: Yes. 903 Mr. Misleh: Absent 904 Mr. Bartlett: Yes. 905 Mr. Eppler: Yes. 906 Mr. Kien: Yes. 907 Ms. Ward: Yes. 908 909 c. Variance application V1627-21 by Zachary Spencer, 910 owner and applicant, for a variance to Section 911 48-238(3)a., to allow a front setback of 24 feet instead 912 of 30 feet along the Cherry Street frontage and to allow 913 a front setback of 18 feet instead of 30 feet along the 914 Hillwood Street frontage, for the purpose of 915 constructing an enclosed porch on premises known as 200 916 South Cherry Street, RPC #53-114-136 of the Falls Church 917 Real Property Records, zoned R-1A (Low Density 918 Residential) 919 Appearances: Zachary Spencer 920 Staff report presented by John Boyle, Zoning 921 Administrator 922 Applicants provided a presentation of their 923 application to the Board 924 Discussion and comments by the Board regarding 925 approval 926 Roll call vote to approve Variance application 927 V1627-21 as follows: 928 Mr. Calabrese: Yes. 929 Mr. Misleh: Absent. 930 Mr. Bartlett: Yes. 931 Mr. Eppler: Yes. 932 Mr. Kien: Yes. 933 Ms. Ward: Yes. 934 935 6. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 936 a. Approval of the July 15, 2021 Meeting Minutes 937 Approval of the July 15, 2021, minutes was 938 continued to the next BZA meeting 939 940 7. OTHER BUSINESS 941 A. Transition to in-person meetings? Board discussion 942 and preference on how to proceed. 943 944 8. ADJOURNMENT 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964