that's ready to get started um
this uh for this will be um my name is
jody hunstar and this will be
my uh first go of trying to uh chair the
board of appeals
so i'm going to ask uh uh the
the um town council to feel free to
chime in
if i am uh doing something out of order
um but uh let's see i guess we'll
we'll kick this uh this meeting off for
the board of appeals on
april 27th um i believe we start with a
uh
called order and a roll call so i will
check
it looks like i'm seeing people pop on
here so hopefully they're uh
they can hear me um but i guess we'll
just start with uh
uh mr david ferguson are you in
attendance
i see you talking uh you're muted by
them
david unmute yourself okay
there we go i i am here hi mr perkins um
uh we'll pop over and see i see paul
dougherty
on here he might not have mike
i'm present okay all good uh last one
is kelly stewart do we have kelly
stewart in attendance
hearing none um i believe we have a
quorum and can
uh ken move on um
so the first case on the docket is
2021-1 by uh mr colin wana
um of 8736 bayside road uh requesting a
variance to section 290 19a
uh of the zoning code to allow a new
house
uh to encroach into the uh eight foot
psi yard
so i think uh if my understanding is
correct i'll pass it off to mr
wanna or his representative to
discuss mr chairman
before you go there according to the
procedures
and the order of presentation uh first
you need to incorporate the file and the
record
provided by staff into the into the
record of the hearing tonight
which essentially should be the
application
and i think uh the staff is
showing on the screen you know what is
part of the materials it looks like
for this particular application there
are
25 pages of materials
and i i believe that staff
also has uh some confirmation
of that the required advertising posting
and mailing
of this uh hearing relating to this
hearing
have been successfully uh complied with
uh you may want to ask
staff to confirm that okay i'll pass it
over to um
to sharon if that is indeed the case
yes notification was public for three
consecutive weeks beginning april 9th
uh in the calvert recorder on march
30th 2021 the planning and zoning was
notified of the hearing
notification was sent registered mail to
applicant on
march 30th and adjoining property owners
on april 9
and the property was posted on april 9
2021
thank you
um so within the uh sharon what was the
date of the posting
posting was april 9th okay
i thought that's what you said thank you
very much
okay uh should we go to the petitioner
or does this go to the uh
staff uh report from mr jacobian
go to the petitioner first okay uh
passing it over
um to mr wunup or his representative
yes uh can you hear me yes
oh great uh well first i'd just like to
thank you jody
and the rest of the board for your time
and uh thank you to sharon hum and chris
jacobiak
for guiding me through this application
process
my name is colin wanna and
my wife natalie wanap and i bought our
house
in chesapeake beach three years ago
i worked for the fda in silver spring
and she works for a digital marketing
company in
baltimore the house we purchased on
bayside road is in the most northern
neighborhood of chesapeake beach
our house is one of those cottage style
beach houses we love the town and want
to start a family
but our home is only one bedroom
and houses of one bedroom can't
really accommodate children so
our plan is to add an additional two
bedrooms
to the back of the house currently in
the back of the house there is a
a deck and we want to replace that deck
with this edition
so just to be clear this would continue
the existing profile of the house
straight back we wouldn't be changing
anything
to the front of the house or the sides
or the top
and in order to do this i need approval
from the board because of chesapeake
beach code
29019 requires
an eight feet setback
for additions and
this addition that i would be adding
would not be
encroaching any closer to the property
line
it would just be extending the perimeter
of the house
towards the back by an additional 14 and
a half feet
now both my next door neighbors have
signed
letters of support uh for for me and my
wife
they do support us on this project i've
also shared the plans with chris
and he has reviewed them and says that
everything
should check out if if the board does
approve
so at this point i'd be happy to
elaborate
on any of the details that i've provided
so far or um to answer questions from
from those of you
all right thank you um i think we can
hold the questions
uh for the moment and pass it over to mr
takubiak for his
staff presentation at which point will
take
additional testimony or opposition if
any exists
thank you mr chairman and welcome to the
board of appeals
thank you so far so good um
yes i i like to
thank um the applicant has been very
helpful and
responsive and provided in a really
accident excellent
application
[Music]
in anticipation of obtaining his zoning
permit what you'll need
the this lot is uh
quite small it's so it is one of the
cottage houses
it's also one of the very small lots
it's a 3 000
square foot lot the minimum lot size in
the zone is 6 000
square feet so it's got a small lot it's
um
only 30 feet wide
the standard or minimum lot size in the
zoning district
is 50. so the applicant is
building on a constrained lot to begin
with
uh and he is accurate in describing that
the proposed edition would come no
closer
to the side lot line than it currently
does and it would be
5.2 feet away from the
side lot line uh
as you know you might have seen the
staff report there are
a number of conditions that the board
has to
find have been established
and i'll just just by way of introducing
each of the conditions just
maybe offer some observations about each
one
certainly i'm here if you have any need
for deliberations or need more facts
uh to support a decision the first
standard speaks to
a harmonious type of project
with respect to the neighborhood the
granting of the variants will
shall be in harmony with the general
purpose and intent of this chapter
and shall not be injurious to the
neighborhood
or otherwise detrimental to the public
welfare
and i always share with you based on a
lot of experience in in town that
this project is uh in keeping with the
pattern that has been established
uh not only in this neighborhood but in
all of the larger neighborhood uh from
maryland 260 north um
where the lots are relatively small and
additions do get built from time to time
and do require variances um the property
is in the critical area
um as uh the applicant mentioned though
this um
this uh addition would be built over
existing development on the lot the
existing um deck
it may create some additional impervious
surface
when when all said and done um and if it
does
there will be some critical area
mitigation that's necessary to deal with
the potential
impact of added water flowing off the
property
but that is typical for all development
projects in the critical
area and this is not the most intensive
or the most
restrictive part of the critical area
it's actually called the ida
the intensive development area and
it really anticipates uh an urban type
of development
in keeping with the pattern of the
neighborhood the second one is that the
granting of the variants would not
permit the existence
within the district of any use which is
not permitted
in that district uh and clearly the
applicant is just expanding
his proposed or his house and he's not
changing the use
as it turns out this property is
actually zoned uh
commercial um and it's essentially a
non-conforming use
within the commercial zone
but the expansion is not uh greater than
50
of the total floor area it's an
allowable expansion within the
commercial zoning district
um three that there are special
circumstances or conditions
described in the findings applying to
the land
or the buildings for which the variance
is sought
which conditions are peculiar to the
land or buildings and do not apply
generally to land or buildings in the
neighborhood
and that said conditions or
circumstances are such that
strict interpretation of the chapter
would deprive
the applicant of reasonable use of the
land
or building
this is in many ways often a hard
standard to
meet within chesapeake beach where there
is a pattern of smaller
non-conforming lots like we have here
um but the applicant's house is already
located 5.2 feet from the sidelot line
and this you know this actual dimension
is not one that is generally
found within the commercial district
though
it is a pattern within the neighborhood
that
the required eight feet
is not met the required eight foot side
yard is not typically met
on these 30 foot lots so uh strictly
applying the eight foot
required setback would require the
applicant to
adjust the addition somewhat it would
effectively require
that the addition jog in us
a couple feet to make that
um eight foot separation work
so that's something for the the board to
consider
um this would effectively mean that the
the the wall
uh facing the lot line would um
would jog just slightly uh
off of the main profile of the building
for that there exists unnecessary
hardship uh
in other words the applicant in light of
the conditions of the land and the lot
wouldn't be able to do something that a
reasonable
applicant should be able to do under the
zoning laws
and therefore suffer a hardship
if the hardship is general that is
shared generally by land or buildings in
the neighborhood
then the relief shall be properly
obtained only by legislative action
or by court review or attack on the
validity of the ordinance
uh that's quite a um a burden to put on
any
individual applicant and the planning in
the the board of appeals is typically
found that
uh when there are non-conforming lots
and additions that are reasonable that
this standard is is met
there are as you know within this part
of town a lot of
properties that are small there are a
lot of buildings that
uh are not conforming
to the setback requirements all of them
are different on some level but there
are many
lots in this category five the granting
the variance is necessary for the
reasonable use of the land or building
and that the variance as granted by the
board is the minimum
variance that will accomplish this
purpose
so the question is
can the applicant persuade you that
he needs all 5.2
feet or
in order to build the the addition uh
that's being proposed or i should say
the 2.8 feet of
encroachment into the setback does he
really need that or can
the addition work while
the full 8 feet is provided
and for that answer you may want to
question the applicant about his floor
plans and
the design of his project so that you
could understand
the what in construction terms is
actually happening there
uh sometimes we hear or we see we apply
the standard
standard and we try to apply it strictly
and we've realized that
there's no way you can build half a
bathroom or
you can't take three feet off of a
small bedroom because all of a sudden
you've eliminated a closet
and so when you start looking at these
things in practical terms
uh the the um there's a lot more clarity
so so those are the standards there's
five of them that generally you have to
meet
that an applicant has to meet and um
as the hearing goes on if you have any
questions uh please let me know
uh thank you mr kubiak is there any
recommendation you
or planning and zoning in general would
like to make
at this point i would recommend approval
of this application
since you've asked thank you and for
many of the reasons i mentioned
i i think it does on balance comply with
the standards
thank you um i believe at this point we
uh
is there anything you'd like to add on
to that uh mr one up at this time
no no and and once again i just want to
thank
uh chris and the rest of the board here
for uh your time and to sharon
uh i've you know everyone's been really
helpful in this process and uh
i i can't recommend uh them enough it's
been
a delight working with them
um at this uh at this point uh i believe
i believe we had some
documents entered into the record from
your neighbors who are proponents of
your proposal um is there anyone else
who would like to
speak at this time either as a proponent
for um mr juana if you do please
state your name and address and uh
you're speaking on your own behalf
uh hearing none um are there any
is there anybody who is standing in
opposition to
the plans presented here
hearing none um mr sussman is this am i
correct in that this is the point in
time where we go
on to question and answer from the board
yes thank you sure um i will pass it
over
to um either mr doherty or mr ferguson
for any follow-up questions
or uh anything in general you'd like to
uh to address
the attendees here this is david
ferguson
um i and just looking at a map that
looks like
the adjoining property on the side where
we're asking for the waiver is a vacant
lot or parking lot is that correct
uh that that is correct yes uh but there
is a house
that is uh a little bit back uh further
so
um i'm sure you're probably familiar
with uh
neptune's neptune's across street has
this
a parking lot there and
um the owner bill he
he owns that lot and yeah he has
he he he has signed saying that he
endorses
um this this project yeah
that was my point is it uh
you know a 2.7 foot
encroachment or a parking lot isn't
really crowding a lot
uh and especially since the existing
house and the
the block shed are at that same
line um you know it it
doesn't seem to me that this is much of
an imposition
from the uh from the setback uh
perspective um the uh
you know potential uh
you know mitigation of uh you know being
in the critical area
of you know the improved
area you know might be something that
you'll have to work
with the talent on but uh
that that was my observation is that
you know you're not building
um five feet from another structure uh
there's right yeah
okay thank you yeah thank you for that
mr chairman can i weigh in on that
answer a little bit or just please do
thank you um
just factually um
the the
the area that um
um um
never mind i think yeah what i guess
what i would say is that the
variance encroaches onto the south side
as well
of the lot right so it's it's a
variant flies there
correct yeah so like my name my neighbor
to the south
um
because it's a 30-foot
wide lot and the house is 22 and a half
feet uh on both sides it does
um it does fall into that eight feet
setback
uh however as as as we've discussed
you know this would would be continuing
the existing profile of the house
uh and and um you know wouldn't be
encroaching further and um as i've
mentioned
both of those neighbors have um
you know you know signed letters of
support um
so i i know it wouldn't be an issue
with with those owners
thank you very good
is there anything else the board would
like to uh question
at this time
okay uh hearing none um
yes go ahead i was gonna say there's the
opportunity
for uh the applicant to make any
summary statements or closing remarks as
well as for mr jakubiak
if either of them care to add anything
to what's already been said
i mean i would i would just echo my uh
thank you
to to those who have helped me
thank you um okay at this point i will
open it up for any
uh any more public statements on the
matter
hearing none um i believe that that is
the close
of the public hearing and do i hear
a motion made to begin deliberations on
this particular case
uh this is dave ferguson uh so moved
uh second anybody i will suck at that
thank you uh in that case uh public
comment is closed
um the board can begin discussion as
they see fit
the floor is open
mr chairman uh before the board
begins deliberation just to reiterate
the protocol that we've established in
prior hearings
once the board decides conceptually
what position i want to take on the
application typically the board will
request that i prepare a resolution
to embody the board decision and that
will be provided
back to you for review and formal
approval
sounds good thank you
okay i'll i'll chime in and i want to
thank
mr jacobiak for an excellent
staff report on this he's addressed all
of the five
conditions that must be met in order to
grant a variance and uh
from my perspective the application does
satisfy
those five conditions so uh
i'm inclined to support the the variance
request
thank you is there anything you'd like
to uh add to this mr dougherty
uh my thinking is along the same lines
as david
uh i want to thank chris for that that
uh
staff report because that did help me a
lot
this being my first hearing in coming to
a decision
okay uh i think we can skip to the um
uh the the voting if we'd like to um mr
ferguson how do you do you find that the
standards have been
met in this particular case i do
indeed and i vote to approve okay thank
you
mr dougherty i also vote to approve
okay uh then with uh quorum we are
approved
um would the town council like to
oh staff council like to add anything at
this point in terms of
advice or the drafting of a resolution
now mr chairman i will prepare a draft
resolution
for the board to consider i do think
that
the grants of the variants want to be
tied to
compliance with the
layout of the plans that have been
presented as part of the application
sounds reasonable are there any
objections from
board members
no objections okay then i believe that
uh concludes our first um
first report of the night um
that was the end of the 8736 bayside
road
variance request we will be moving on
now
to 39 10. let me get this right
um 3910 27th street from
ron and sherry martin um
and we have already gone through the um
the journey of the starting this meeting
um so i
will pass it up apologies let me back up
um uh sharon would you like to say
anything about the
um files that have been provided to the
town
and how long uh the public
notice has been available yes
a notification was published for three
consecutive weeks beginning
april 9th in the catholic recorder
newspaper
on march 30 2021 the planning and zoning
and adjoining property owners on april
9th
the property was posted on april 9th
2021
hi sharon can you go through that again
because we've lost you midway
oh um well notification was public for
three consecutive
weeks beginning april 9th in the calvary
corridor newspaper
on march 30th 2021 the planning and
zoning was notified of the hearing
notification was sent registered mail to
applicant
on march 30th and adjoining property
owners on april 9
and the property was posted on april 9
2021
thank you sharon
and mr chairman i think at this point
you also would want to
make a part of the record the
application and other
materials case materials that have been
submitted
that's right the the formal
documentation provided to the town is
entered into the
record and now i will pass it over to
the petitioner
um ron and sherry martin or their
representatives to discuss
um their request for variance to section
290 19a
of the zoning ordinance okay
well thank you everyone for being here i
appreciate all your help
and um on behalf on behalf of my husband
and i
um we look forward to working with you
in the future
um we purchased our home here
in chesapeake beach in december of 2019.
my husband and i both retired from
california i'm a retired teacher he's
retired nurse
and we have a lot of family here in
chesapeake beach in fact my father lives
just right here on the street with me
right up on 27th um
and we bought the home um we we love our
neighborhood we love our neighbors um
and we love absolutely everything about
this town so this is where we are
expecting to spend the next 60 years
here in chesapeake beach
our what we're hoping to do is to go
up in our second store we have a small
dormer and we'd like to go
up and add a master bedroom
and a another bathroom upstairs we
currently have a two bedroom one bath
and um one bathroom is kind of difficult
for just the two of us but we have
elderly parents who will be visiting
often hopefully from california who will
come and stay with us probably
about six months each year and so we're
hoping to make our house a little more
spacious for them
we're also doing a lot of improvements
to our home
we're replacing all the electrical the
plumbing adding
hvac just really want to make the home
very
sound and safe and comfortable because
we don't plan on
on moving our house as you know
sits unfortunately because it was built
we believe in that we
believe it was built in the 1940s we're
not quite sure yet
um but our house sits just within about
two feet of our property line
um the addition we're making however is
not going to make any changes to this
setback whatsoever
and we won't be encroaching any further
into the
towards the neighbor um we also
we are we are perfectly aware that we
are part of the critical area of the of
the town
but we aren't making any changes to the
front part of our home
so we won't be adding any um increase
to that impervious service which we know
is something that concerns us as well
um so that's where we're at
right now we've had our plans submitted
and approved but um
we realized that our house i'm sure the
house with the property
there wasn't the ordinance at the time
that the property was drawn back in and
this is in the 40s or whenever the
the fence was put there um but we are
very mindful we were very mindful when
we did our plans to make sure that
we wanted to maintain the charm of our
home because we love the way the home
looks right now
um we also have a really great
relationship with our neighbors and so
it was really important to us to make
sure that any changes we made to the
house
um especially the house to the west of
us
the house at 3906 wanted and make sure
that
we did not block any of the view that
that our neighbor joanne might have to
the
to the bay and um we we've spoken with
her and she actually took me upstairs
and um i was able i shared we shared the
plans with her and
i was able to see that by going up we
aren't actually
decreasing any of the view that she has
out of the window she has up there
because
that mattered a lot to us as well um we
also consider that
we have recently um put in a garage and
so we had to
turn in a design to um where we were
going to put in
plants you know trees and bushes to
offset
the increase in adding our garage and
and designing our landscaping we also
considered that we wanted to make sure
that anytime we plant anywhere we
planted a tree or
anything that we weren't we weren't
obstructing what little any view that
any of our neighbors might have
of the water because that was important
to us not just
not just impervious surface and
maintaining that but that would be
considered
our neighbors so so we're hoping to go
up um
and and increase you know add a bathroom
add another bedroom up there and make it
also make it safer
and make it more useful um but also
um we do realize that we are you know
we're just already sitting our house is
already sitting where it's not supposed
to be
so so that's where we're at so we're
hoping you'll consider that with us our
variants
thank you thank you uh i will pass it
over to mr jacobiak
for a summary however much depth he'd
like to go into
of his staff report on this particular
project okay thank you
um the lot is 3910
27th street and the property is owned
residential village or village
residential
um the required setback is eight feet
right now there's um just one foot plus
or minus and
requested variance is essentially a
seven foot
uh variance then um this lot
is six thousand nine hundred square feet
uh in size
uh according to the state department of
assessments and taxation
and and by the way um mrs martin they
the state also says that the house was
built in 1940
although i think that's kind of a plug
number they use for structures they
don't
quite know when we're built so uh you
know certainly in 1940s
is right uh in the ballpark and it's
about when the
middle subdivision was really starting
to fill in um
this is part of the middle subdivision
kind of middle between
this core of chesapeake beach and north
beach um
the construction activity will be
entirely
vertical adding a second floor and you
saw on the staff report
members the applicants before or
existing and proposed home renderings
and um uh the
the same type of discussion of oh and
then i also showed the renderings
uh from the side profile too the side
that will face
the closest house which would be on the
west side
the applicants are not intending to
change the use of the property
a two-story house is certainly
harmonious in character with
this part of town certainly there's no
injury that's
as far as i can tell is being imposed on
any property owner or
on the neighborhood generally
the house is already located one foot
from the lot line
um and this is actually not as
typical typically found as uh
you might expect in the village a
residential village district where the
lots
are often a bit larger than the 3 000
square foot lot you might
sometimes see so this is truly a very
unique
situation and
the applicants would suffer a hardship
in that they would not be
able to build a second story on their
home
just by virtue of the fact of the
house's current location
so i in anticipation of your your
question mr uh
chairman i would say that i i would
recommend the approval of this variance
as well
thank you
okay at this point i will open
up the floor to any testimony
for proponents of this plan speaking
from the public if you do choose to
speak please
state your name address and
and who you represent if you're speaking
for someone else or on your own behalf
my name's annette taylor uh i live at
8310
bayside road uh we have several
neighbors here they can provide their
own names and addresses if you'd like
them to
um no all of us have seen the plans and
we think it would do nothing but enhance
the neighborhood the neighbor who
had an issue with the potential water
view is also here
and would be happy to talk about any of
that too but
thank you
okay uh are any other comments from
members of the public at this point
only excuse me mr chairman
yes uh did the person who just spoke uh
identified herself to the record yes
sorry it was on mute go ahead i'm sorry
here she is uh joanne mattingly
3906 27th street
and i am satisfied that my water view
will not be impacted
thank you
any others hello hello please take it
away
hi um my name is chris calantonio and i
live across the street
at 39 11 27th street and we think the
plan's great
so we um are not opposing it
at all thank you
any further comments
hearing none i will move on to any
is there anyone who would like to speak
in opposition uh similarly if you do
please announce your name address and
who you represent
okay hearing none we will move on is
there any
uh final follow-up questions
or final statements that the applicant
would like to make to the board at this
time
no i just thank you all for your time
thank you very much
thank you um okay
at that um let's see
um so i believe we are coming to the end
of the
public hearing and are getting ready to
begin deliberations do i hear a motion
for the board to close public hearings
and begin deliberations on this case
i i will make a motion to close public
hearings
and i will second that motion thank you
okay public comments are closed um
i will open it to the board to begin
discussions
on any part of this plan they would like
to
uh mr hoonstar having heard
testimony from neighbors who are
supporting the application and
having read mr jakubiak's staff report
which addresses
all of the five factors that we are
required to address
i have no questions or concerns with
this application
and i'm uh inclined to approve it
thank you is there anything you would
like to add at this time mr daugherty
uh again my thinking is along the same
lines as david
i have no questions and comments and i
am inclined to approve it
thank you uh at that point i will close
discussions down and begin the official
vote
uh for this particular application uh mr
dougherty how do you find
uh i approve uh mr ferguson
likewise i approve all right the uh
we the board approves uh at this point
i'd like to ask mr sussman
uh to draft a resolution containing the
board's decision
um or i guess i should pause and ask if
he has any
uh particulars he would like to add to
this uh this case at this point
now mr chairman other than the fact that
as with the
prior application i think the grant of
the approval should be tied
to adhering to the plans that were
submitted to the board
thank you okay um that is the end
of the official agenda for the board of
appeals
uh is there anything else we would like
to take up at this time
i'll open the floor up
hearing none um i believe that is all
and
as far as i know there is not another
board of appeals meeting on the schedule
sharon will send out official notice to
board members and the public
when one is needed and i thank you all
for your time
and for the staff and applicants for
being here today
thank you mr mr hoonster i
just to get it officially i move that
the meeting be adjourned
ah yes thank you do i hear a second i
will second that
all right meeting is adjourned thank you
everybody great thank you
thank you good night everybody
good night