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Zoning variance for rear deck at 45 Cervantes upheld after divided vote
Summary
The Board of Appeals upheld a zoning administrator decision granting a rear-deck variance at 45 Cervantes Boulevard after neighbors opposed the project and the applicant reduced the deck size; the board voted and recorded a 2–3 result but noted it lacked four votes to overturn departmental action, so the variance stands.
The board on July 29 upheld a zoning administrator’s grant of a rear-yard variance at 45 Cervantes Boulevard that allows a deck and exit stairs, after neighbors objected that the deck would intrude on mid-block open space and that claimed lead contamination — now cleared by public-health records — had been used to justify the variance.
Neighbor Ronald (Ron) Petocchio opposed the variance, saying lead-abatement documentation from the Department of Public Health showed the yard had been declared safe and that the applicant’s claimed discomfort with the yard was a self-imposed hardship. Petocchio also presented seven letters of neighborhood opposition and argued the deck would impair mid-block open space and privacy.
Greg Kempton, agent for the applicants Michael and Nicole Barker, said the applicants had substantially reduced the proposal (from an originally requested 8-by-15-foot projection to a 6-by-12-foot proposal, a 41% reduction), held multiple outreach meetings and offered to defer certain railing details to neighbors. Zoning Administrator Larry Badner told the board the variance response was drafted by staff and that similar decks exist in the block; he recommended upholding the variance.
Commissioners split on the application’s impacts and the sufficiency of the variance findings. Commissioner Michael Garcia moved to uphold the zoning determination; the roll call produced a recorded 2–3 result. The board noted the city charter requires four votes to overturn departmental action; because the necessary threshold to overturn was not met, the zoning administrator’s grant of the variance stands and the deck-permit path remains available to the permit holders.
The board did not impose additional written conditions in the hearing, though commissioners discussed aesthetic and shadow concerns, outreach and the practical access benefits for a family with young children.
