Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use Permit Variance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Somerset council grants variance and conditional permit for 5529 Upingham sunroom after runoff concerns
Summary
After questioning and public testimony about prior runoff, the Somerset Town Council granted a variance to accept a landscaping (non‑engineered) stormwater plan and approved a screened‑sunroom permit at 5529 Upingham Street conditioned on a permeability test and specified routing of roof/runoff to a rain garden.
Somerset — The Town Council on March 3 granted a variance and approved a conditional permit for a screened sunroom at 5529 Upingham Street, requiring a soil permeability test and specific routing of roof runoff into a proposed rain garden.
The applicants, Rachel Miller and John Adomovich, requested a variance from Somerset code to waive the usual engineered stormwater drainage plan required when proposed construction increases impervious surface. The town attorney summarized the narrow scope of the variance: it would waive the requirement for an engineered drainage plan while the council would still require a plan for a rain garden and calculations submitted by the landscape designer to be demonstrated.
Neighbors described prior runoff that flooded rear yards and said they had previously constructed walls and trenches to address flow. "Copious quantities of water ran off the corner of the house into our neighbor," a nearby resident said, urging the council to require demonstration that the proposed rain garden would function.
Councilors pressed the applicants and the landscape designer on whether the rain garden had been soil‑permeability tested. Council President Barr said a simple permeability test was necessary: "Without that permeability test, we don't know whether the rain garden will work." The council then amended the motion and approved the permit with the following conditions read into the record by the town attorney: a permeability test must be performed in the rain‑garden area and the results must conform to Montgomery County Rainscapes guidelines; roof downspouts ("runners") and any rain‑barrel overflow must be piped directly to the rain garden.
The amendment passed on a voice vote and the council approved the permit as amended. The applicants told the council they would install a rain garden and, if infiltration proved inadequate, would install a dry well or other mitigation measure that would require separate approval.
What happens next: The applicant must perform the permeability test and demonstrate the rain‑garden design meets the stated performance guidelines before final acceptance; a recorded maintenance agreement may be required per town code for drainage features.
