Ocean View board approves variance for oversized garage at 5 Captain's Court

The Town of Ocean View Board of Adjustment approved variance V-464 to permit a detached garage at 5 Captain's Court to exceed the town’s 14-foot height limit, granting an exception while imposing conditions that the garage not be converted to a residential unit and that the property owner reestablish a privacy buffer.

Planning department staff summarized the request, saying the proposed detached garage would reach 25 feet, 9 inches at the peak — 11 feet, 9 inches above the 14-foot limit set for detached accessory structures in Article 5, §140-32 of the town code. "Having reviewed the application, the department ... does not object to the variance request," the staff member told the board, and recommended a condition that "no second floor be permitted to be constructed within the structure." (Article 17, §140-108 was cited for the variance findings and Title 22, §327 of the Delaware Code was referenced as applicable law.)

Mark Fitzgerald, owner of Canal Front Builders and the project’s design-builder, said the lot is unusually shaped and narrow at the front, pushing the building envelope to the rear. "We realized some of the challenges we had with this lot ... it's an irregular shaped lot," Fitzgerald said, arguing the configuration creates a practical difficulty for keeping cars on-site. He said the owners, Hugh and Audrey Jones, purchased the property with the goal of consolidating classic-car storage on the same parcel, and that the garage’s 12-foot interior ceiling accommodates a vehicle stacker.

Fitzgerald and a second witness, Price Jones, said the garage’s attic access is a scuttle hole intended for limited storage only and that the floor above is not engineered for habitation. Fitzgerald said the design could be altered — for example, by webbing trusses or removing attic access — if the board required changes to prevent conversion to living space.

A neighbor's letter raised concerns about removal of trees along Savage Lane that currently provide privacy. Fitzgerald said most of the trees are saplings or small pines and that the owners prefer to replace the existing, inconsistent buffer with a uniform landscaping plan (a fence and evergreen plantings) to reestablish privacy. The board included reestablishing the buffer as a condition of approval.

A motion to approve the variance with conditions requiring that the second floor never be used as a residence and that the privacy buffer be reestablished was made and seconded; the board conducted a voice vote and the variance was approved. The transcript records a voice vote with members responding "I" to indicate approval; individual roll-call tallies were not recorded in the meeting record.

The board took no additional action on the matter and adjourned the meeting.