Zoning Board of Appeals

1 Approved 2 MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS 3 VILLAGE OF NORTHBROOK 4 COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS 5 March 31, 2014 6 7 Call to Order 8 Member Pick, seconded by Member Lown, moved to appoint Member Craig as Chairman Pro Tem in the 9 absence of Chairman Decker. On voice vote the motion carried. 10 11 Chairman Pro Tem Craig called the meeting to order at 7:38 p.m. in the Board Room of Village Hall. 12 Members Pick, Geslicki, Lown, and Chairman Pro Tem Craig were present. 13 14 Chairman Decker and Members Sussholz and Schofield were absent. A quorum was present. 15 16 Village Staff present included Tom Poupard, Director, Village of Northbrook; & Julie Weldon, Recorder. 17 18 Review of Minutes 19 Member Pick, seconded by Member Lown, moved to approve the minutes of the January 27, 2014 20 meeting, as presented. On a voice vote, the minutes carried unanimously. 21 22 General Public Comments 23 There were no comments from the public. 24 25 Public Hearing & Consideration of the following Petitions: 26 Chairman Pro Tem Craig announced that with only four members all votes must be unanimous to pass, 27 and if any petitioners wanted to postpone their hearing until a later date they could. No Petitioners 28 asked to postpone. 29 30 Chairman Pro Tem Craig announced that the dockets would first be heard in the public hearing portion 31 of the meeting. ZBA deliberation and decision regarding the dockets would occur immediately following 32 the hearing, during the regular meeting. If members of the audience are not able to stay for the regular 33 meeting, they can contact the Zoning Administrator for results. Petitioners will be sworn in and should 34 address the Board. Neighbors within 250 ft. were notified of each petition. As required by state statute, 35 the hearing notice for all dockets was published 3/13/14. 36 37 DOCKET NO. 14-Z-2 – Petition by Amais Turman, Airoom Architects & Builders, 6825 N. Lincoln Avenue, 38 Lincolnwood, IL 60712, on behalf of owners Jeffrey and Aileen Porta, for variations to A) Reduce the 39 required front yard setback from 31 feet to 29.96 feet; B) Reduce the required east interior side yard 40 setback from 6’ to 4.96’; and C) Reduce the required combined side yard setback from 13.75’ to 10.51’ 41 on a property in the R-5 Single Family Residential district commonly known as 1706 Oak Avenue (04-10- 42 314-015). The purposes of the variations are to construct a second-story addition and extend the 43 covered front entry. 44 45 Petitioners Turman, and owners Jeffrey and Aileen Porta were sworn in. Petitioner was asked if notice to 46 the neighbors was provided. Petitioner responded - yes. 47 48 Regarding the standards for variation, the petitioner asked that the Board consider the following:  Page 2 Minutes of the March 31, 2014 Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting 1 2 1. The unique physical condition in that the lot falls short of both the lot width and the lot area for 3 the R-5 Zoning District. 4 2. The nonconforming lot was not created by the applicant. 5 3. The proposed addition results in the total gross floor area of the house almost 300 s.f. less than 6 the maximum permitted floor area for this lot. 7 4. The existing home does not have a master suite that is common in new homes. 8 5. The ZBA has seen many applications requesting “footprint” variations. 9 6. The proposed plan meets all other Codes and Plan Purposes. 10 7. The character of the area in general should not be impacted since there is an existing second 11 floor on the house and the applicants propose to fill in open space on the upper level over the 12 existing garage. 13 8. Applicants wish to add another bathroom, the current home only has 1.5 baths, and add a 14 master bedroom over the garage, the current bedrooms are small. 15 9. The house was originally built in 1962. 16 10. The new additions would conform to the current zoning regulations. 17 18 Member Geslicki asked petitioner to explain the difference in the rendering and the staff report. The 19 rendering shows the projection of the garage sticking out beyond the second floor. Petitioned explained 20 that the design submitted was not the right one and presented the correct version which showed that 21 the second floor bedroom extended to the same distance as the first level garage and everything in the 22 staff report accurately reflected the newer drawing that was presented. 23 24 Member Pick, seconded by Member Lown moved to close the public hearing. On a voice vote, the 25 motion carried unanimously. 26 27 Member Pick, seconded by Member Lown to accept the proposed variation request by Amais Turman, 28 Airoom Architects & Builders, 6825 N. Lincoln Avenue, Lincolnwood, 60712, on behalf of owners Jeffrey 29 and Aileen Porta, for variations to A) Reduce the required front yard setback from 31 feet to 29.96 feet; 30 B) Reduce the required east interior side yard setback from 6’ to 4.96’; and C) Reduce the required 31 combined side yard setback from 13.75 to 10.51’ on a property in the R-5 Single Family Residential 32 district commonly known as 1706 Oak Avenue (04-10-314-015). The purposes of the variations are to 33 construct a second-story addition and extend the covered front entry, subject to the following 34 conditions: 35 36 1. That the addition be constructed in substantial compliance with the plans dated 11-25-13 and 37 the updated building elevations reviewed by the Zoning Board of Appeals on 3-31-14. 38 39 On a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 40 41 Member Pick, seconded by Member Lown to close the meeting and open the public meeting. On a voice 42 vote, the Motion carried.  Page 3 Minutes of the March 31, 2014 Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting 1 2 DOCKET NO. 14-Z-3 – Petition by Nick and Maria Rentzelos for a variation to reduce the required 3 interior side yard setback from 6’ to 4.58’ on a property in the R-5 Single Family Residential district 4 commonly known as 2241 Chestnut Street (04-09-402-004=3 and 04-09-402-004)). The purpose of the 5 variation is to construct a small first floor addition and rebuild a portion of the existing nonconforming 6 second Floor. 7 8 Petitioners Nick and Maria Rentzelos were sworn in. Petitioner was asked if notice to the neighbors was 9 provided. Petitioner responded - yes. 10 11 Petitioner asked that the Board consider the following: 12 13 1. The lot is not unique; it meets the R-5 standards for both width and area. 14 2. The positioning of the existing house on the property with the bulk of the house sitting on lot 17 was 15 not created by the applicant. 16 3. The owners are trying to modernize the home’s interior, much like other homes in the area. 17 4. The 1st floor addition extends only 5’ from the existing wall which is already nonconforming. 18 5. The 2nd floor variation is for a rebuild of what already exists. 19 6. The proposed plan meets all other Codes and Plan Purposes 20 7. The character of the area in general should not be impacted since the applicants propose to fill in a 21 small area of open space in line with and directly behind the existing garage. 22 8. It is clear from the floor plans that the applicants have tried to remodel the interior of the home 23 while keeping a majority of the exterior the same. However, the ZBA may wish to ask the applicants 24 why they did not build out to the west where there is more space before reaching the required 25 setback. 26 27 Member Pick asked if anyone was on the other side of the fence and if the fence was for both 28 properties. Petitioner stated that there is a neighbor behind them and that the fence was already there 29 before they moved in. Petitioner stated that the fence appears to be on the neighbor’s right of way. 30 Member Pick asked if the fence was wood and in good condition, petitioner said yes. 31 32 Village Director Tom Poupard commented that there was supposed to be an alley at one time in some of 33 these neighborhoods, but the alley was never built. The alley is a public right of away. 34 35 Member Pick, seconded by Member Geslicki moved to close the public hearing. On a voice vote, the 36 motion carried unanimously. 37 38 Member Geslicki, seconded by Member Lown to accept the proposed variation request by Nick and 39 Maria Rentzelos for a variation to reduce the required interior side yard setback from 6’ to 4.58 ‘ on a 40 property in the R-5 Single Family Residential District commonly known as 2241 Chestnut Street (04-09- 41 042-003 and 04-09-402-004). The purpose of the variation is to construct a small first floor addition and 42 rebuild a portion of the existing nonconforming second floor, subject to the following conditions: 43  Page 4 Minutes of the March 31, 2014 Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting 1  That the addition be constructed in substantial compliance with the plans dated 2-20-14 and 2 reviewed by the Zoning Board of Appeals 3-31-14, and; 3  Require the owners to consolidate the two separate lots into a single parcel as would be 4 required prior to occupancy. 5 6 On a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 7 8 5. Old Business 9 There was no old business. 10 11 6. New Business 12 There was no new business. 13 14 7. Adjournment 15 There being no further business, Member Pick moved, seconded by Member Lown to adjourn the 16 meeting at 8:15 pm. On a voice vote, the motion unanimously carried. 17 18 Respectfully submitted, 19 20 21 Julie Weldon 22 Recorder