Zoning board approves revised plans for 183 North Street, requires windows to match existing
Summary
Quincy Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance for expanded living area at a property described in the hearing as 183 North (presented as 183 North Fourth Street), approving increased gross living area and parking after the applicant revised plans; the board added a condition that new addition windows be fixed to mimic existing windows.
The Quincy Zoning Board of Appeals on June 24 approved a variance for work on a property described during the hearing as 183 North (presented by the architect as 183 North Fourth Street), allowing an expanded single-family home and reworked retaining walls to accommodate four on-site parking spaces.
The board said the applicant returned with revised plans that reduced the proposed gross living area and changed the project from a proposed two-family layout back to a single-family layout. “My name is Bonnie Tan with JCBT architect, presenting 183 North Fourth Street. So the changes from last meeting, we reduced the gross living area by 635 square feet from a 2 family to a single family,” architect Bonnie Tan said during the hearing.
The project as presented calls for a total gross living area of about 4,124 square feet on an approximately 8,000-square-foot lot, with five bedrooms, four full bathrooms and one half bath. The applicant requested one variance: a floor-area-ratio (FAR) variance of roughly 0.11 (about an 800-square-foot exceedance, as presented). The proposal includes reworking the existing retaining wall at the rear to allow four parking spaces on the property.
Vice Chair Russell Chin told the board he believed the applicant had addressed most earlier concerns. “My impression is that the applicant has gone back to the drawing board and done almost everything we asked,” Russell Chin said, while noting board members still wanted the window treatment to better match the existing house. Board members discussed aesthetics and asked the applicant to revise the front and rear window details so the addition reads as part of a single house rather than two connected units.
The board voted to approve the variance and related work with a condition that the windows in the new addition be fixed or detailed to mimic the existing windows on the house. The motion recorded in the meeting minutes described the application as “GBA 25-20 JCBT Architect LLC for finding and variance to change the use from a single family home to a larger single-family home, additional rework in existing retaining walls to accommodate additional parking on the premises” with the added condition on window treatment. The vote was recorded in favor with no opposition noted at the hearing.
The approval allows the applicant to proceed under the conditions the board recorded; details required by the building department (including final drawings and any necessary building permits) will be processed after this zoning approval.
