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Warwick ZBA grants six variances for Craftify Holdings’ change to food-and-drink use with conditions
Summary
The ZBA voted 4–1 to grant multiple variances for Craftify Holdings’ proposed change from manufacturing to food-and-drink use, approving six area variances (setbacks, floor-area expansion, height, and lot area) and imposing conditions including limited opaque frontage, no future vertical or horizontal expansion of the pavilion, and required planning-board site-plan review.
The Warwick Zoning Board of Appeals voted to grant a set of variances for Craftify Holdings’ proposal to convert an existing nonconforming manufacturing site to a food-and-drink use and to add a covered pavilion, but the board attached conditions limiting further expansion.
Craftify’s representative told the board the revised June 1 plans show a front-yard setback of 10.93 feet where 50 feet is required, a side-yard encroachment to 32.6 feet where 50 feet is required, a combined side-yard bulk of 52.4 feet where 100 feet is required, a ground-floor expansion resulting in a 64.1% increase where the code allows a 15% expansion, a building height of about 25.7 feet versus a technical special-height maximum of roughly 3.63 feet under the 4-in-per-foot rule (producing a 22.1-foot height variance), and a lot-area variance of roughly 0.7 acres because the existing lot is 1.3 acres where two acres are required.
Planning and zoning staff confirmed the floor-area ratio remains under the town maximum (about 38.1% where 40% is allowed) and that parking/loading details will be addressed at planning-board site-plan review.
Board members debated several interpretive questions before voting: whether expanding a pre-existing nonconforming building requires a front-yard variance (the board voted that it does); whether a change of use with identical bulk dimensions nonetheless requires a lot-area variance (the board voted that a lot-area variance was required because parking and use differences may affect review); and whether the special 4-in-per-foot height calculation applied (board members treated it as applicable and therefore required a height variance).
Before approving the variances the board imposed conditions including that no more than one-third of the pavilion wall facing State School Road be opaque or enclosed (the remainder to be open or translucent), that the pavilion not be vertically expanded to add a second story or otherwise further expanded, and that the project be subject to planning-board site-plan review for parking, staging and other non-variance issues. The motion to grant the variances as amended passed by a 4–1 vote; a board member named Diana recorded the lone "no." The board said a written determination would follow within about 7–10 days.
"We do not have to reconsider the loading because it was previously approved by the planning board," one staff member noted. Another planning-note condition is that corrected plan details and any recorded easement language (where applicable) be provided prior to building permits.
