beagenda

MINUTES

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WATERTOWN ZON= ING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINATION OF PUBLIC HEARING=

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WEDNESDA= Y, JUNE 27, 2007 - 7:30 P.M.

WATERTOW= N HIGH SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY CENTER

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APPLICATION #847 - SALVATOR AND MA= RGARET DELUCA

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PRESENT: &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Bruno DiSisto, Secretary

= &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; John Griffith, Vice Ch= airman

  &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;       Enrico Sarandrea, Chai= rman

ABSENT:        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;         Roger Mitchell

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp; Phil Roger, Acting Secretary

ALTERNATES PRESENT:<= span style=3D'mso-tab-count:2'>        &= nbsp;     Gary Swingle

  &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;       Cynthia Tun

ALTERNATES ABSENT: &nb= sp;            = None

OTHERS PRESENT:      = ;            &n= bsp;     Moosa Rafey, Assistant Zoning Enforcement Officer

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1.         = Call Meeting To Order

            Mr. Sarandrea, Chairman, Called the Public Hearing to Order at 7:43 p.m.

2.     &nb= sp;   Roll Call

            Mr. DiSisto, Secretary, executed the Roll Call.

            Mr. Sarandrea, Chairman, asked Mr. Swingle to sit in for Mr. Roger, in his abse= nce.

            Mr. Sarandrea, Chairman, asked Ms. Tun to sit in for Mr. Mitchell, in his absen= ce.

            Mr. Sarandrea, Chairman, read aloud the Ground Rules for the record as follows:=

1.&n= bsp;            = ;     The applica= nt or his representative will make his formal presentation to the Board stating h= is specific hardship and precisely why this merits a variance from the Zoning Regulations of the Town of Wat= ertown.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 2

2.&n= bsp;            = ;     All comment= s, discussions, and observations shall be made through the Chair after proper recognition by the Chairman. = This is necessary to ensure that only one person at a time speaks on any issue, = thus making it easier for everyone to understand, and for clearer legal transcri= ption.

3.&n= bsp;            = ;     All persons addressing the Commission shall begin by first clearly stating their name a= nd address for the record. If necessary, the person may be asked to spell his or her name for the record.=

4.&n= bsp;            = ;     Following t= he presentation of the application, the Zoning Board of Appeals will ask speci= fic questions of the applicant.

5.&n= bsp;            = ;     After the B= oard has asked its questions of the applicant, I shall then allow members of the public who wishes to speak either in favor of this application or against i= t to address the Board.

6.&n= bsp;            = ;     I shall then allow the applicant to respond to the comments of the members of the general public.

7.&n= bsp;            = ;     I shall then allow any members of the general public who wish to present any additional information or clarifying discussion to do so.

8.&n= bsp;            = ;     I shall the= n provide an opportunity for the applicant to respond to these additional remarks if = he or his representative so wishes.

9.&n= bsp;            = ;     The Zoning = Board of Appeals has thirty-five (35) days from the date the Public Hearing comme= nces to complete the Public Hearing. The Board may ask the applicant for a thirty-five (35) day extension of the Pub= lic Hearing period if the Commission requires any additional information or wis= hes to schedule a site walk to observe the situation for th= emselves.

10.&= nbsp;           &nbs= p; The Zoning = Board of Appeals has sixty-five (65) days from the date when the Public Hearing is closed to render its decision. The Board may or may not make its decision tonight at its Regular Meeting follo= wing the Public Hearing.

11.       You m= ay stay for the Regular Meeting if you wish or you may leave at the end of the Public Hearing and contact the Zoning Office the following morning to deter= mine the status of your Application.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 3

3.         Hearing of Cases=

        &= nbsp;   A.        Continuation of Public Hearing from May 10, 2007, Application #847 of Salvator and Marga= ret Deluca for two variances of Watertown Zoning Regulations concerning interior lots to permit the creation of two non-conforming building lots on Hinman Road, Watertown, CT.

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        &= nbsp;   The Public Hearing must be Closed by June 27, 2007, = unless applicant grants an extension of time.

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<= span style=3D'font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Denis O'Sullivan, Prof= essional Engineer

Mr. O'Sullivan: I do have with me the certified mail receipts, w= ould it be appropriate for me to turn these in at this time?
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Mr. Sarandrea: = Yes, turn them in to Moosa.

Mr. O'Sullivan:= The DeLuca's would be here but bot= h are ill and they asked for your consideration on that. I'll go over the proposed plan, I see that you have a copy in front of you. The property is on the Town Line Highway and Hinman Road intersection. It consists of = 19.23 acres. Currently there is one= house on the property and that is shown as Lot #1. What the applicant wishes= to do, is they wish to develop 3 other lots, they're shown as Lot #2, Lot #4, = and Lot #5. There is another area shown on your drawing that is extensive wetlands, about 7.24 acres and it is not going to be developed under this plan.

Generally the hardship that we incurred was in order to develop Lot #4, which is an interior lot, we had originally proposed a driveway from Hinman Road which = is at the north side of the parcel that's here, leading into Lot #4 and there = was enough room there for a bonified driveway and a bonified sized 150 foot siz= ed block that would fit in there, however, in contact with the Inland/Wetlands, they did not want any traverse over the wetlands, so what we did was we ste= pped back and we looked at some of our options and we've come up with this one t= hat we have here tonight and what we're asking for your consideration is to take Lot #4 and #5 as interior lots, serve them with a driveway that comes from = the west Town Line Highway and that driveway would be 25 feet wide for each. What we're asking for is a varianc= e for 25 versus the 30 and we're asking for a variance of putting these 2 drivewa= ys in close proximity as opposed to what the requirement of the Regulations ar= e is that they should be 1,000 feet apart. So our hardship, let me just read it from our application "this parcel totals 19.23 acres, of which 7.57 acres are wetlands. The Conservation/Inland Wetland Co= mmission confirmed they would not allow a driveway to pass over the wetlands to serv= e a lot at the center of the property. Your approval is necessary to provide access to serve the center of = the property."

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 4

Mr. Sarandrea:<= /b> Moosa, what's your thought on this= ?

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  &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;        Mr. Rafey: It's a tough question.= There are other alternatives avail= able, one of those alternatives that the applicant has is to combine Lots #4 and = #5 and make one large parcel. In= Watertown if you = have 6 aces of land you can have 2 houses on the same lot with one driveway. Is that something you can look at?=

Mr. O'Sullivan: We looked at that and = that would be find for a family but what we're trying to do is we're trying to provide two separate lots purposely, that they would be owned by separate people.

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Mr. Sarandrea: The only other idea th= at we had, that we were tossing around is why not make this like a, I mean it'= s 50 feet wide already, why not make this like a little country lane with like a= cul de sac and have you driveways come off of the end of that road. I mean you wouldn't have to do sto= rm sewers or anything like that, but did you think of something like that? It's kind of with 2 driveways, we've always found problems with 2 driveways that close.<= /p>

Mr. Sarandrea:<= /b> Well the owner was looking at that= and what he felt in speaking with people that it requires neighbors to cooperate and he felt that that would be a very difficult thing to wind up marketing = if one person did not want to share that with another person, and the only ste= p back from that would be to make it a public driveway or a public road and then y= ou would have the issues of drainage, pavement, and the like. These may wind up being gravel driveways, but it's not certain right now.

Mr. Sarandrea:<= /b> Well in the Regs, there's also, I = mean we've granted before a similar deal like this where they call it I think a country lane?

Mr. Rafey: = It can be a private road, you can g= o to the Planning and Zoning Commission and ask for a reduction to the width of = the road, and you can have drainage swales on both sides of the road instead of having curb and drainage pipes.

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Mr. Sarandrea: And actually you would= n't even need, I mean you have 50 feet, I don't eve think they need 50 feet, do they?

Mr. Rafey:<= span style=3D'font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-weight:bo= ld'> They need 50 foot right of way, but since this is a private road, they don't have to meet t= hat 50 feet, it can be any width as long as the Planning and Zoning Commission agrees.

Mr. O'Sullivan: Yea, that's if they ag= ree.

Mr. Rafey:<= span style=3D'font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-weight:bo= ld'> And the cost will probably be the = same because the width of each driveway is probably 10 to 12 feet wide.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 5

Mr. O'Sullivan:= Probably.

Mr. Rafey: If you combine both of= them together it will be 20 to 24 feet and a regular road width is 24 feet for t= his area. That's another option t= hat you have. The problem is that= with this kind of situation it's like a self created hardship, because you have other options available to develop this land. By not allowing these 2 lots to be= next to each other, you are losing the right to develop your property. You can still develop it probably = with more lots if you change the layout of this subdivision.
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Mr. O'Sullivan: Yes, we realize that a= nd we looked at a number of options to make more lots up there, but it was felt that the character of the area would benefit from just the lots that we have. In addition the land is= not good for septic. I've done te= sting on the land up there and the percolation rates are in some cases poor. Now they're not out of the questio= n bad, but they are not good, so that much of the size would be occupied with the septic system and then there's if you look at the wetland line, you also ha= ve a setback for the wetlands so that by the time you take the wetlands and you = take the wetland setbacks, you're eating up an awful lot of property and we felt that it would be very palatable to the Town that they would take instead of jamming more lots on there, and we could put a plan together to jam more lo= ts, but that's not what we're about, we felt that adding 3 homes on the property would be a very balanced and quite a nice arrangement.

Mr. Sarandrea: I like the layout, the only thing I don't care for too much, that's my own opinion, I don't know about the rest= of the Commission, is these 2 driveways that close to one another. I would like it better seeing one driveway coming in, one road coming in, with some kind of deal here that you can take a driveway off of that for this lot, a driveway for that lot and a driveway for that lot. You're= going to need driveways, driveways are going to come o= ff this anyway. There's 2. I mean this road here is g= oing to go into Lot #4 and there's going to have to be am driveway to go into Lot #2, right?

Mr. Griffith: That comes off of Hinman Road= .

Mr. Sarandrea:<= /b> Okay, so this one driveway is goin= g to go into Lot #4.

Mr. O'Sullivan: One of the driveways w= ould go into one lot and the other driveway would go into the other lot.

Mr. Griffith: And they don't think there's going = to be any conflict between the neighbors of the two driveways?

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 6

Mr. O'Sullivan: Well no, because they would be sep= arate and we feel that if you have two rear lots, the question of are they going = to cooperate on snowplowing, on driveway maintenance and the like, it becomes = a, not a controversy if they have their own driveway.

Mr. Swingle: But there's a concern,= how is the drainage between the two driveways, if they went to war with each ot= her?

Mr. Sarandrea: How much room is in between these two driveways?

Mr. O'Sullivan: The driveways would be 12 feet and . . . .

Mr. Sarandrea: The island in the midd= le, what would that be?

Mr. O'Sullivan: Yea, there would be an island in the middle so the middle would probably be in the range of 13 fee= t.

Mr. Sarandrea: So it would be 25, 13,= 25. Is t= hat what it is?

Mr. O'Sullivan: No, it would be . . . = . .

Mr. Griffith: 12 and 13.<= /span>

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Mr. O'Sullivan: Yea, you'd have 12 down the center and if you take 12 from 25, you'd wind up with 13, so you'd start with 6.5, then 12, and then 13 and 12 and then 6.5. So you'd have an island in the mid= dle that would be in the range of 13 feet.

Mr. Rafey: There is a good exampl= e for a private road. I think the Planning and Zoning Commission approved the Church Farm Subdivision, off of Litchfield Road, there's like 5 lots off a country road, it's a private roa= d, they have drainage swales on both sides and the width of the road is not a standard road. We have many applications on this Agenda tonight and they are like tight situations where there is a hardship existing with the property and there is no other alternative.

Mr. Swingle: (Inaudible) hardship, I don't think.

Mr. Rafey: Usually the Board give= s a variance in situations where there is no room to do something, there is not= enough land, or the building is located in a way it doesn't meet the setback requirements and the applicant wants to add something to it, but in this ca= se you have all these options available to you.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 7

Mr. O'Sullivan: You know what is kind = of upsetting is that this application has been before you and you never mentio= ned this to me before as an alternate way of looking at it. I'm not familiar with some of the = things that have been approved before. We're looking to put in a very meager amount of lots on this property and plenty of open land and I thought that was an objective.

Mr. Sarandrea: That's fine, the plan = is fine, we're just looking at that driveway and we've had problems before wit= h 2 driveways being that close together.

Mr. Rafey: But I did mention that= I never (inaudible) Commission approved a subdivision with (inaudible). And I told you it was up to you if= you wanted to go the Board. There= are other options available, but it is up to the Commission. As a Staff Member I mentioned in my= memo that this is a self created hardship, cause you can put a, as the Chairman said, you can put a common driveway or a private road with as many lots as = you can to put around that road.

Mr. O'Sullivan: I don't want to come b= ack here with a lot more lots on here. <= /span>We want to come back, we want to just put these number of lots o there.

Mr. Sarandrea: The lots are fine. I don't really want to see a numbe= r of lots myself, I'm just saying that road itself. And I understand what you're sayin= g to, Dennis, is that having one road, the you've got a problem plowing through it, it makes it a lot, especially in a country area like that, one road would look a lot better than 2 driveways going up there. That's my own opinion, that's all I'm saying. Does a= nybody else have anything? Okay thanks. Is there anyone from = the public who wishes to speak for or against this application?

<= span style=3D'font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Linda Pieszak, 346 Hinman Road, Watertown, CT&nbs= p; 06795

Ms. Pieszak: I'm presenting Mrs. An= ita Williams who is the property owner located at 346 Hinman Road, which is directly adjacent to Mr. and Mrs. DeLuca's home.&nb= sp; Mrs. Williams wants her objection to this variance known based on the following. Her home that she resides in was built in 1947 and when that house was built there were no wetland issues on her own property. When the home of Mr. and Mrs. DeLuca was built there became a large wetland issue which is still in existence today. It becomes increasingly worse as t= he years go on. Basically her en= tire back yard is flooded, it has standing water on it 360 days a year, and ther= e is at no point in time when that property dries out, which now has limited her= use of her own property. Her conc= ern is if you pass the variance to allow two additional interior lots, Mr. O'Sulli= van himself recognizes that there is a great deal of wetlands in that area and = her concern is if more property is being built, the ground tables are being disturbed again, then more water will be diverted onto her property which w= ill further decrease the value of her property and her ability to do anything on that property such as put in pools, or build sheds, etc. You can't even walk in this area w= ithout having your shoes saturated, that's how bad the standing water is there.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 8

I think that it would be prudent of the Town before they were to pass such a variance to come out and take a look at her property to see specifically wh= at her concerns are and what has happened based on just that first lot which is adjacent to her being built on, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. O'Sullivan, I'd like to ask him if his conversation with Mrs. Williams today, he indica= ted that the driveways that they're talking about would be running alongside the property where a greenhouse is currently located. I'd like to know if that was indee= d correct? If that is indeed the case and the driveway is scheduled to run alongside her property, that is again directly adjacent to her property. Mrs. Williams alrea= dy granted a variance in the past to Mr. and Mrs. DeLuca to put that greenhouse up, so it's not that she's trying to be uncooperative or unneighborly, and = it was of great concern to her to maintain the good relations that they have, = but by the same token it's devaluing her property which again has already been a hardship for her now created, so again it's important that we stress that we would strongly object to this variance being granted.

Mr. O'Sullivan: I received a call, I t= hink it was today from Mrs. Williams, I think, yes, and I explained to her that = the plan as we have it now, as presented would be, and I think she's the proper= ty owner when you're standing in the street and you're looking at the property, she'd be on the right hand side. On the property there is a temporary building for growing plants and the like = and it is 50 feet from her property. The new driveways would go between = that temporary building and the property line, so yes, that's where they planned= on building that. Now I was not = aware in research, I'm not aware of any variance that was granted to the DeLuca's= to put a temporary building on their property, 50 feet from their property lin= e, I'm just not aware of that and I didn't know that occurred, if in fact it d= id occur, I just don't know.

Mr. Sarandrea: Do you know anything a= bout the drainage problem she's got from this property?

Mr. O'Sullivan: No, I do not. I do know, I've been there and the quality of the land, you know it goes back to Watertown. Watertown is Watertown not because = we have more water, we have crappy soil and I've been out there, when I was doing t= he soil investigation I was there and it, when you do a perc hole, you did the hole, you fill it with water, well I came back the next day and it had rain= ed in between and when I came back the perc holes were full of water. Not uncommon, I've seen that happen before, so I had to go away and come back a week later and when I came back= a week later the conditions had improved, so I do know, if you look at the topography I do know that there are wetlands there, I do know that the prop= erty comes down at a slope and then levels off, and you'll always get water at t= hat.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

CONTINUA= TION OF PUBLIC HEARING

APPLICAT= ION #847 - SALVATOR AND MARGARET DELUCA

JUNE 27,= 2007

Page 9

Now I'm not aware of any change in grades that was made when the DeLuca's built their own home which I think was being referred to here. I did the site development for tha= t and there were no change in grades and there was no ponding pf water caused by = that, I know, but that doesn’t mean that that water is not ponding. It may be natural, I just don't kn= ow, but I'm not aware of anything from their property or anything they've done = that has increased that.

Mr. Sarandrea: Anyone else that wishe= s to speak for or against this application?&nbs= p; Any questions from the Commission?

MOTION: &= nbsp;     (Mr. Griffith, sec. Ms. Tun) to Close the Public Hear= ing for Application #847 of Salvator and Margaret Deluca for two variances of Watertown Zoning Regulations concerning interior lots to permit the creatio= n of two non-conforming building lots on Hinman Road, Watertown, CT.

Discussion:       None<= o:p>

MOTION PASSED UNANIMOU= SLY

Public Hearing Closed at 8:10 p.m.

Respect= fully submitted,

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Enrico Sarandrea, Chairman

Zoning = Board of Appeals

  &nbs= p;         _________________= _________________

  &nbs= p;         Lynn M. LaForme, Minutes Secretary