The Queen Anne's County Board of Appeals voted to grant a variance in case BOA25070223 allowing Paul and Elizabeth Sachs to replace a 616-square-foot waterfront deck with a screened-in porch inside an expanded Chesapeake Bay critical-area buffer, contingent on an approved buffer management plan.

Marielle Grace, senior planner with Queen Anne's County Planning and Zoning, presented staff findings and identified the specific local and state rules invoked: County code sections 14-1-51(a) (buffer standards) and 14-1-52(a) (expanded buffer where sensitive areas exist), and COMAR 27.01.09.01(e)(7)(c) for critical-area buffer expansions. She said the property, in the Hickory Ridge subdivision, is designated Limited Development Area (LDA) and zoned Neighborhood Conservation 2; the lot is about 3.09 acres and the existing single-family house was built in 1977. Staff noted tidal wetlands, hydric soils, and areas of highly erodible soils that trigger an expanded buffer mapped as a landward boundary of the erodible soils.

The applicants proposed an in-kind replacement of the existing deck with a screened porch built on columns; the project removes two existing waterfront stair flights (66 sq ft combined) and adds a single set of steps away from the waterfront (16 sq ft), which increases the setback to mean high water by roughly five feet. The applicant submitted a buffer-management plan showing 582 square feet of new disturbance; at a 3:1 mitigation ratio that requires 1,746 square feet of plantings. Staff said the applicant's planting plan provides approximately 1,838 square feet of mitigation (planting schedule and caliper sizes in the record).

Civil engineer Brandon Davis testified that the property constraints — a recently replaced septic system in the front yard and a large, mature tree the owners have tried to preserve — limit reasonable alternative locations for a screened porch outside the buffer. Davis said the deck footprint has existed since at least the 1970s and that the proposed screened porch would be an in-kind, column-based structure that reduces overall lot coverage and moves steps farther from the water. He told the board, “I don't feel that there will be any environmental adverse impacts given the nature of the in-kind replacement, the decrease in lot coverage and the increase in setback.”

Applicants Paul and Elizabeth Sachs said they live at the property full time, bought it in 2021, and sought a screened porch to make the waterfront yard usable for family gatherings and for grandchildren; several neighbors and a local builder testified in support, describing the porch as an improvement that will reduce runoff and improve usability. No speakers in the transcript registered formal opposition.

The board found the variance criteria in county code and COMAR were met, including that literal enforcement would constitute an unwarranted hardship because the deck and other constraints predate the critical-area rules and other locations on the parcel are limited by septic and mature trees. The board approved the variance and attached the staff-recommended condition that the applicants cannot receive a building permit for the proposed improvements until the buffer management plan has been approved by Queen Anne's County under COMAR 27.01.09.01(3). The chair closed the hearing and said building permits will be held for 30 days from the date of the board's formal decision.