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ZBA approves 3 Second Street rear sunroom addition; board cites lot size and low visibility
Summary
The Zoning Board approved area variances allowing a rear sunroom at 3 Second Street, finding the addition won’t significantly change neighborhood character and noting comparables and limited visibility from the street.
The Zoning Board of Appeals voted July 14 to grant area variances allowing a sunroom addition to the rear of 3 Second Street, a single-family residence in the UR-1 district.
The applicant, Joyce Bouye, and architect Sue Davis (SD Atelier Architecture) presented an 11-by-11-foot sunroom addition totaling about 162 square feet (including overhangs). The board’s written findings said the property is a preexisting, nonconforming substandard lot and that site constraints prevent locating the sunroom elsewhere without exceeding district lot-coverage rules.
Nut Graf: After reviewing comparables and noting that the addition would not be highly visible from the street, the board found the addition would not create an undesirable change in neighborhood character. The board approved the requested relief — four percentage points of lot-coverage relief and a six-foot rear-yard setback relief — while noting the difficulty is in part self-created but not necessarily fatal to the application.
Board members and staff reviewed comparable nearby properties and agreed that the proposed addition would not substantially alter the streetscape because most of the work is in the rear yard and is not visible from the public way. The board also noted permeability requirements would be met and that the applicant had reached out to neighbors; no objections were reported at the hearing.
Ending: The resolution was adopted unanimously (6–0). The board incorporated design-review findings and recorded the approval with standard conditions and the submitted plans.
