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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.boa.19880609 CITY OF ASPEN BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT JUNE 9, 1988 CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 4:00 P.M. A G E N D A I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER Roll Call II. MINUTES March 31 , 1988 May 5 , 1988 III. CASE #88-6--1 Ron & Louise Melville RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS JUNE 9 , 1988 Vice Chairman Charlie Paterson called meeting to order at 4 : 00 pm. Answering roll call were Francis Whitaker , Charlie Paterson, Josephine Mann, and Rick Head. Remo Lavagnino, Anne Austin and Ron Erickson were excused . MINUTES MARCH 31, 1988 & MAY 5 , 1988 Rick made a motion to approve minutes of March 31 , 1988 . Francis seconded the motion with all in favor . Rick made a motion to approve minutes of May 5 , 1988 . Francis seconded the motion with all in favor . CASE #88-6--1 RON & LOUISE MELVILLE Affidavit and posting of notice were turned in . Charlie read into record variance requested as attached in records. Rod Dyer , representing applicant: The house was built some time in the late 1950s prior to setbacks. The Melvilles would like to enclose the garage and add about 4 ft onto the front of it . The reason for the additional space on the front of the garage is to provide a closet and work bench in the back of the garage. The other portion of the building they wish to add onto is not encroaching into the setback . The way the house is situated on the lot , there doesn 't seem to be any other way to add this garage onto the house without encroaching into the setback . That is essentially our case. Charlie: Where is your carport right now? Rod: The existing carport is right where the garage is going . Rick: And you are adding the 4 ft--there was so much rattling of maps and papers here I could not hear the rest of Rick ' s question. Rod: Right and a vestibule will come out here. Charlie: This is the part that is enclosed--- BAM6 .9 .88 Rod: Actually the 25 ft setback runs through like this This would be the 25 ft setback and because it is a corner lot that 25 ft setback covers 2 sides of the lot. This portion of the garage--this portion of the existing house and carport are all within the setback right now. This portion here would be the additional encroachment into the setback . And the vestibule is not within the setback . Charlie: This is now an open wall? Rod: Yes. This is presently open. Charlie: And you are proposing to close that wall. Rod: Right. And put a garage door here . Charlie: Regular doors here at the front. Rod: Right . Charlie: So this is what makes it into a garage. Rod: That and closing off this side also as a vestibule. The present lot is 8 ,666 sqft . When the house was built it was a legal lot. once the zoning was changed it was no longer a legal lot. Francis: Will you connect the carport roof to the house? Rod: Yes. Most of the roofs are slightly sloping . Francis: And you are moving it in to avoid that great big rock . Rod: Yes. That is essentially our case. There really is no other place on the lot to do this without encroaching somewhere into the setback . Rick: Could you live with a variance if the additional square footage outside of the carport? Rod answered "Yes we could." Rod : It would make the garage useless to anything except a Subaru or something of that nature. Charlie: In other words you would have to pull this wall in--is that what you were saying? Ron: What he was asking is could you live without this 4 ft additional space. 2 BAM6 .9 .88 Charlie: On this corner . Rod : Yes . One of the cars that they presently own is a Wagoneer. It would never fit into the garage. A Wagoneer will fit into a 21 I believe and that is tight , not allowing much room to get by. Francis : I share the same feeling that Rick does. It is a hardship and if you close it in you are not increasing the actual footprint of the building . But if you enlarge it 4 ft , then you are increasing the non-conformity which is something else again. Rick : We have never considered a hardship if they can't get their $25 ,000 Wagoneer in the garage. In my opinion this is a slam-dunk if all you wanted to do was enclose the carport and not increase the non-conformity. But if you are going to start asking for an extra 4 ft with a hardship based on the fact that they can't get their Wagoneer in there, we might no look upon that as favorable. Rod : That is not really the hardship. It is not just their Wagoneer. When you work on a house or anything you can't just design for the people who are paying . You have to design for resale purposes and things of that nature. Rick : These are all considerations that we as a board can't consider . They are an aesthetic, financial consideration and ours is strictly based on practical difficulty or hardship and neither one of those--rattling of maps-- Charlie: Rattling of maps Rod: No. It is this section here . Charlie: OK . So if you pull that back , would that pose some problems to be able to get in and out of here because the car-- Rod : No. What we would have to do is take out the storage closet and the work bench. Charlie: Which is about 2 and 1/2 ft . How about this doorway. Will you be able to get in and out-- Rod : We have 19 and 1/2 ft from the flack of this closet to there. So that is pretty tight as it is. Charlie: And you need 21 ft for a car? 3 BAM6 .9 .88 Rod: Well, 21 would be good. We could probably get by with less. Bill: How big is this garage going to be? Rod: The garage overall is 22 ft inside without the closet . With the closet 23 ft 7 in. Bill: My point is the garage would come out to about 437 sqft and the City allows you to have a 500 sqft garage exempt from FAR. The City feels that 500 sqft garage is--they require off street parking so the exempt a garage of 500 sqft . Rick: What about the access from an alley? Bill: Only access if there is an alley available . Charlie : I noticed here in the justifications the house was built in the late 50s . Rick: If you go on here it says it says "Since in a way we are not extending a non-conformity--well that is false because they are extending it by 4 ft . Josephine: The lot is 8 ,666 sqft . And I want to see how much of the land was used up by the 25 ft setback . That 25 ft setback uses up a lot of space . Rick : They could remove the existing deck and put the garage there. Then it would be in compliance. Rod: There are lots of trees and lots of boulders . Francis: If you throw a lot of money at it, it could be done . Josephine: Where I am right now is that I feel that turning that carport into a garage would be all right . That is not increasing the footprint. But I do have difficulty with adding 4 ft. to a non-conforming structure . Rod: We are actually adding about 3 ft to it . Josephine: The only mitigating part of that to me is the fact that so much of their land is taken up. They are on a curve . Charlie: This is very much the same as the Larsons. They had a difficult lot. Josephine: They don't have very much square footage left to put a house and a garage. 4 BAM6 .9 .88 Charlie: She came and showed how much of her lot was eaten up because of its strange shape which could qualify here perhaps as a consideration for us. Rick: I think it further exacerbates his problem in that it is a corner lot and that if you extend the structure into that area it further reduces the visibility. Rod: This is heavily treed in this area. It is not going to effect the visibility. Charlie: What is interesting is that the house sticks forward here anyway. Josephine: The carport looks as if it was added at some time . Do you know when? Rod: I have no idea. The house was built in the late 50s. It could have been added later at some time. Josephine: There is a door right here and it is almost like a driveway leading into it so there weren 't any trees right there. Bill: The 25 ft front yard setback on an R-15 zone--an R-15 zone requires at least 15 ,000 sqft for a single family house. This is an 8 ,000 sqft lot and they still have the 25 ft setback . Charlie: It is an 8 ,000 sqft lot and it requires a 25 ft front setback . That is the same as if it were a 15 ,000 sqft lot which is required for your R-15 zone. Josephine: So it really is a hardship. Rod: The lot size and the setback is a hardship. Obviously the house was sited and positioned before the setback was imposed . So we are dealing with an existing situation and without literally tearing down the building or doing major reconstruction we feel this is the simplest and the least intrusive way to solve the problem. Rick: I find a similarity between this and Potvin in that he is just asking for a garage door and we approved that because he had 3 out of the 4 walls and we said what the heck is a garage door . It is not increasing it . And I can probably live with that rational . But I am having trouble with extending it another 4 ft just to accommodate a work bench and a closet . Charlie: Let ' s go into executive session and discuss this. I will close the public portion of the meeting. 5 BAM6 .9 .88 Francis: I see a similarity in some of the other cases where we have granted permission to enclose a carport. But I look on the extension of the non-conformity as a matter of convenience . I don't think that is a hardship. Rick: Those are my remarks exactly. I am in favor of granting this variance to enclose the carport as long as it doesn ' t increase into the setback area. Their workbench, they will have to find some other place for that. Josephine: Well, this house is old. And I like to see things not ,brought up to date but made comfortable and usable and I am a little worried about that small garage. There is no problem about granting a variance for enclosing what is there now. But I think that we need to look carefully at this case because of the fact that so much of their land is taken up by that 25 ft setback . And extending that garage out 3 ft , I know it is on the curve , it is on the front. But if that much would make it more useful, more comfortable, more pleasant place to make it last another 30 years then I could go along with that. Charlie: I just want to mention something before we vote. Since there are 4 member present , you need 4 votes to grant the variance. You have aright to postpone the meeting till there is an extra member present if you feel like you would like to do that in order to get a more favorable situation for yourself. Rod: Is it possible for you to grant an amended variance? Charlie: We can discuss that. My opinion is also along the same thinking as Josephine because of this configuration of this lot . I feel that the 25 ft setback on the curve really, really cuts into their square footage that is available to them. And I would not feel adverse to granting some footage here to make this thing work a little better . Perhaps not the 4 feet but perhaps an amended situation. And if you are willing to discuss this further--otherwise we have 2 to 2 vote . Francis , would you consider an amendment on this? Or do you feel very strongly-- Francis : It gets back to the question of whether this is a convenience or a hardship. And the hardship , yes , they can enclose it as long as they do not increase the non-conformity. Because an enclosed garage is a necessity in this country. 6 BAM6 .9 .88 MOTION I would be glad to make a motion that we grant a variance to enclose the carport within the existing lines of the structure. Charlie: I think that is what we are going to be up against. I will re-open the meeting and if you have anything further that you might want to say on what Francis has suggested--if that might be OK with you then we will have a vote on it . It looks like the 4 ft wouldn 't be granted because we have a 2 to 2 vote. Rod: I think we could live with enclosing the existing carport. Francis: Then I make that motion. That is to grant the motion that the carport may be enclosed within the lines of the existing carport within the footprint as it exists now. Rick seconded the motion. Roll call vote : Francis , yes , Charlie , yes , Josephine , yes , Rick , yes . Variance granted to the existing footprint. Meeting was adjourned. Time was 4:45 pm. Jani M. Carne City De ty Clerk 7