Planning and Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

We good? Alright. Good evening. Today is Thursday, April 16. Welcome to the City of Delray Beach Board of Adjustment meeting. Clerk, could you please call the roll?

Jesse Slauscher?

Here.

Mark Ronald?

Here.

Suzanne Donahue? Here. Brenda Cullenan? Here. Barbara Ramirez? Here. John Delacio?

Here. Next, approval of the agenda. Staff, are there any changes to tonight's agenda?

No, sir. All right.

Can we approve the agenda? Do need the motion to approve? Moved.

Got a second?

I'll second.

You vote all in favor? Yeah, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nope. All right. Agenda's passed. We'll now move on to the minutes. Are there any amendments or adjustments to the minutes? Nope. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes?

So moved. Second.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Opposed? All right. The minutes are approved. We will move into swearing of the public. If anyone is planning to speak on any matters tonight, they will need to be sworn in.

By the authority vested in me as the notary of the

state of Florida, do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is

the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? JOSEPH Next,

public comments. If anyone would like to speak on any non agenda items, now would be the opportunity. Seeing none, we will move into the public hearing items. So I will read the rules. This hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the City Of Delray Beach quasi judicial rules.

The applicant in the city shall be permitted to present their case. The public shall be allowed to speak for three minutes each or a maximum of six minutes if the person represents an organization or group of people who are present but agree not to speak. The board and the applicant may be allowed to cross examine a witness. The city or applicant will be allowed to offer rebuttal testimony. The decision to approve or deny an application or appeal may not be legally made upon personal views as to whether a project is a good project or not, nor may a decision be based on the number of citizens who support or oppose a particular project.

The law requires that all decisions must be made on the basis of whether the project meets the requirements of law, the comprehensive plan, and the land development regulations. Right, staff, would you please read the agenda item into the order?

File number 34026. And the applicant is here.

Thank you. Among my fellow members, have there been ex parte communication? JON No. I JOHN emailed staff a question about the agenda, but otherwise none. All right. With that, we can move on to the applicant's presentation.

Thought the meeting might be ending, John, here when nobody was quickly seconding the agenda.

Find a way around it.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the committee's time. And Madison and Jennifer, you guys have been great. So I appreciate all your help and guidance because it's my first time presenting to Delray. We're new residents of three years ago, so this was a new process for me. So I've learned a lot.

And And I apologize. If you could state your name and address

for me. Yeah. My name is Jonathan Capon. 972 Dogwood Drive, Delray Beach.

Thank you. You're welcome.

So I've got the agenda. We can is somebody

have the

Do I oh, I got it right here. Thank you. The Yep. I'm going back. That's what I'm doing. And there's a file. Okay. Put a small agenda together. I've got ten minutes to go through it, and I'll just introduce my wife. I'm Jonathan. My wife, Sean, is over here. And Steven Little, my architect, is right here. And Adam Nelson is acting as my owner's representative and a partial general contractor as well. This is Adam over here. This is my property on Dogwood Drive.

We've owned it for three years. We love the neighborhood. We've enjoyed it. When we bought it, we had envisioned doing a renovation that involved several different things. And what we're here to talk about today is the covered patio that we desire that would replace the tiki hut, okay, that exists in the in the back of the land.

So the legal description is there, and that's our lot number. Notice and I'll be speaking about the shape of the lot as it's on the cul de sac, and quite a bit of the the front of the property is on the cul de sac, about 80% of it. We'll be talking a little bit about that. This is the way the house is today. We bought the house exactly like this, and we learned very quickly that the tiki hut is very bug infested and very tall and blocks a lot of view, both from our house, our neighbor's house, and others.

It's just very tall and somewhat unsightly and, quite honestly, was is leaning very much to the west right now. This is our desired look in looking at the space. I'm sorry about, you know, the different view. I thought I was getting the right view when I was in the kayak, but I didn't get the right view. But this is our desire.

So it's a lower profile roof, and it will connect to the house and essentially replacing the tiki hut almost exactly about six feet to the west of that, but it's in it's actually sitting one foot further away from our property line than the tiki hut sits today. So that's what we're shooting Madison and Jennifer, for helping me through these seven questions. But these are the questions I think that all the applicants for relief go through. So the question is, the special conditions and circumstances exist that are peculiar to the land structure in the building. And as I mentioned, the cul de sac lots that are one off of the points are very compressed in size.

Okay? And, you know, so as they build the house, like in the front, the house was built 17 feet from this from my property line in front. Same thing in the corner of my property. It's built too close to the street. And I think it was done that way to try to give me some depth in the house.

However, I've been to a lot of these corner lots, you know, one off of the point. And many of them have the same situation where the living space inside in the family room is 16 by 17. It's relatively small comparative to other homes that have depths of lots of a hundred three hundred seven feet, where the depth of my lot is 80 feet. So when they built the home, they built it encroached a little on the front side, but also compressed it in the back. So it's very, you know, close, which is why our former owner of the home had built the tiki hut that was that large in that regard.

The new covered porch, as I mentioned, will only encroach will encroach one foot less than the existing tiki hut. So that's question a, and I guess it's appropriate to see if you have any questions regarding that.

No. There'll be time at the end so you can just Yeah.

Go through. Thank you. Mhmm.

Second question, literal interpretation of regulations would deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by others properties subject to the same zoning, and the the granting of this variance will really have no effect on the neighboring property properties or setback requirements based on the above statements, in section a. So it's really related. I found this question a little bit redundant. So I answered it, that way. So, I don't think

it

deprives anybody of anything. C, the special conditions and circumstances have not resulted from actions of the applicants, and we have made no changes to the home other than the HVAC unit that we replaced right when we moved in. So we have not done any changes. D, the granting of the variance will not confer onto the applicant any special privilege that's denied to other land structures, buildings under the same zoning, neither the the permitted nor nonconforming use, the neighborhood land structures and buildings under the same zoning shall be considered grounds, blah blah blah, granting. So my answer to that was that I think the opposite would be true.

If we're denied the request, we would not have the benefit that others have been granted, including the home right across the canal, which I'll show you some photographs of. As I've an avid kayaker, my wife and I have gone down every, you know, every street, and there's well over a 100 different structures that have, you know, been built in the backyards of Tropic Isle, I think, because of the nature of the the neighborhood and trying to get especially the ones on the southern side because the sun comes over and across that way. So there's a lot of heat outside there. E, the reasons established in the variance petition justify the granting of the variance and that the variance is the minimum variance that will make possible the reasonable use of the land. And my my comment is granting the variance keeps the current shaded space provided by the tiki hut.

I'm not really trying to grow it that much. It's currently about 18 feet by 17 feet. This one is 19 foot 10 by 20. So it is slightly larger, and it's positioned to the west by about eight feet. The granting of the variance will be in in in harmony with the general purpose and intent of the existing regulation will not be injurious to the neighborhood or otherwise detrimental to the public.

My comment was the granting the variants will allow us to harmonize the look and feel of the outside space with our house as opposed to having, again, the tiki hut that is very bug infested. I've had termites there. I've had beetles. I've had just horrible bug problems, and it's certainly not hurricane proof. It's leaning at about, you know, five degrees right now off of off of plum.

And so I think it'll improve as we saw in the photographs quite a bit, the look and feel of the home. So great. This is a view from my master bedroom. There's the tiki hut. And my neighbor directly across the canal, 959 Evergreen, she happens to be in the exact same position on the cul de sac. She's just facing north. I'm facing south. And this is her home. And I'll zoom in on the structure that was built, I think it was five years ago, when she did an interior renovation. So she has built that.

And that is about a foot and a half from her property line, and that's even closer up on the same photograph. So then going back and going forward. So I look at that every day. And so I took a few other photos just to see. This is a couple of blocks away.

This one's right on their property line. This one's three doors down from me. This is one that was under that was under construction when I took the photo back in January, and that one is right on the property line. So that's brand new construction as of this January. And this is another one, a different home that, again, is being built similar size to what what we're doing.

So I'm here today. Basically, Sean and I, you know, are really respectfully asking the committee to grant us relief from the restrictions on the LDR four three four h five a. And it'll allow us to build the covered patio using high quality architecture. Steven's done a great job. And it'll harmonize our home with the look and feel that Tropic Isle really desires because everybody is building much bigger going up higher. They've done some that we're not doing to the home. We're just kind of painting it, restuckling it, building a couple of covered patios that will allow us to enjoy the outside space. So that's what I'm hoping the committee will agree with. And that's about it. Let well under ten minutes.

You actually have fifteen minutes. So if you wanna keep going, you can go.

Keep going.

Well, I

concluded, I think

If you need

to go back.

So no. I'm done. Thank you.

Thank you. Staff presentation? You can sit and we'll call back up. We'll call you back up if there's

any questions.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Bias. I'm a planner for the city, and this is 972 Dogwood Drive. The request is from land development regulation section 4.3.4, four k, which is our development standards matrix for residential zoning districts to reduce the rear south side setback to five feet whereas a minimum of 25 feet is required. I'm not gonna go through this again. John did a good job of that.

This is Tropic Isle neighborhood. I believe our last variance back in October was in Tropic Isle neighborhood too, and I believe the one before that was as well. So the house was constructed in 1981, and the footprint of the house remains the same. There have been no alterations to the footprint, maybe some small, like, AC roof repairs, stuff like that. Nothing that changed the footprint.

It was built with legal nonconformities and the current residence consist of about 3,000 3,200 square feet of living space. So this is what they're proposing. I tried to color code it a little bit so it would stick out. So the Cheeky Hut is the light yellow, which is looking to be removed. And you can see the pool in the blue and then the proposed covered porch.

And they pretty much he John did say it's one foot less, but they pretty much line up where they are now. And you can see where the five foot setback is in the red. And then you see to the left of the proposed covered porch, one of the existing legal nonconformities of 24.97 where 25 feet is required. But that's how the house was built. I think I did I miss this slide?

Okay. I'm gonna keep going. Okay. So the request is to construct the patio enclosure and the rear rear setback of the property to increase the outdoor living space. The proposed patio is 19 feet, 10 inches long, and 20 feet wide for a total of about 400 square feet.

The proposed patio enclosure is open on two sides and has an eight foot wall to accommodate a TV and fireplace. This is the slide I was looking for. It may be a little bit hard to read, but John touched on the cul de sac a little bit where you see driveway that actually meets the setback of 25 feet and then you have the cul de sac where it does have some existing nonconformities of where the house was built. The LDR does allow when you are on more than 50% of a cul de sac that you get a five foot reduction. So some of the house is still built not to the 20 feet, but that is what it is allowed.

And so they are it's generally meeting the code section. This house was built in 1981 with these already existing. I just wanted to give the definition, and I pulled this from the Internet just to show you what a screen enclosure looks like. I I know there was some talk about it at last meeting and a little bit of confusion. So our definition of a screen enclosure is a frame structure completely covered with open mesh screening only.

And this does have a hard roof, and we do allow hard roofs. So here's the covered porch at five feet from the property line with the hardtop, solid wall to accommodate additional amenities, and open on two sides. So if you have a screen enclosure with a hardtop, you can go up to 10 feet from the property line. Because this is not a true screen enclosure and it's more of a structure, they are having to go for the entire 20 feet, and so they're at the five feet still. They do have a 106 feet of open space.

So, again, the open space comes into play. If if it was a screen enclosure, it could go 10 feet, but they want to go the five feet. And these are your findings. And that basically concludes my presentation.

Sounds good. Thank you. Would anyone from the public like to speak on this matter? You can approach.

JAMES DAY: Were you sworn in,

ma'am? Yes.

DAY: Okay.

Just state your name and address.

JAMES Maureen Smith, 968 Dobo Drive. I'm just to the west of of my neighbors. So this is beautiful, and I'm really happy that my husband and I are happy that this is getting the attention it deserves because it's a great house on a great lot. I haven't seen any of this before. That's the only reason why I'm here because we've had conversations, and we're really happy about what they're doing. That's that's why I'm here. I'm, like, the first time I wanna see what it what it looked like, and I'm I'm glad they're getting rid of the tiki hut. I love that. I'm I'm not sure I'm not following if it's screened in or not. It's not screened in? No. Okay. Because we've lived on the lot since 1999, and we've always had, you know, a great a great view. I'm not gonna lie. It's been a great view.

Our neighbors have always been very nice to us. We've always, you know, enjoyed the intracoastal for what you know, it's not a 100%, but it's always been a nice little spot where we can stand outside and and see the water. I love it. I love what they're doing. My husband's really happy. We don't see a problem with it. I'm just wondering. He John says that the roof is lower. It's not as tall as the cheeky hut. The cheeky hut was really tall, but it I guess in the perspective, in the rendering, it looked like it was much higher, the architectural, than what it looks or in or in the elevations than it does in the rendering.

I don't I don't see we're really happy. I don't see any problem, but we did talk and he said, I don't plan on blocking your view, Maureen, so that's kind of like, okay. Well, we got, like, a little deal going here. You're not gonna block the view and you can do what you want. So that's where we are. So I just don't know. Are we good? Yeah.

We're can

I talk?

Well, no. You No? If you wanna make a comment during oh, wait. You were the applicant. Yeah.

You can have a rebuttal after. Yeah. No. We're we're happy. We just you know, we've gotten used to that. You know, our our our our French doors are angled towards the Intracoastal, and, you know, it's just been a beautiful for us, it's been a beautiful day every day, you know, living there. So if it's gonna be it for them, I'm I'm kinda curious why it I'm I plan furniture. I'm landscape architect, so I kinda like plan patio furniture and stuff. And I'm like, k. 19 feet? Can you it's a lot of space to walk around if you're gonna have sofas and stuff like that. It's just extra extra luxurious space. It's no cramped. There's no cramping in. So I'm just five feet.

Time on the three minute timer. If you could just wrap up your comment.

So are the are the the columns gonna be located in the same place as the Tiki Hut columns?

So the board doesn't necessarily answer questions like that. That would be more so something you can bring up in your rebuttal, sir. Okay. Unless there's more public comment. Just wanna make sure.

If I guess, if you have if there's any other questions you want to be answered I know where, like, the posts are going if they're Okay.

Less the same place because I'm I'm friendly with the the the GC that's doing the work or not

the GC Just speak into

the Yeah. Sorry. If you could

I'm friendly with some of the guys that are doing the work on the property. I know them, and I know they're gonna do a great job. And, they said that the columns are actually further back than

current Tia. I just wanted to move on. Yeah, so we canwe'll ask some of those questions for you so we can have a debate, thank you for that. One second. So are there any other public comments? No. Okay, so now I guess we'll allow your rebuttal if you'd like to answer some of those questions.

Sure, not a problem. The tiki hut height, the pitch is much steeper. So the pitch on the new roof will be much lower. So from a visual standpoint, the hairs of the tiki hut that come down right now they come down and touch my head. So they are at about six foot one inch if I get on my tiptoes.

The new height will be nine foot one. And the overall height will be about a foot lower than you have now. So what you'll be getting is if that's the amount of space you're not seeing, it'll be much reduced from your property. You asked about the posts. Stephen, the posts are about a foot by a foot. Square. 12 inches by 12 inches.

We can sir, if you're going to speak, you'll have to sworn in, and you'll have to

come up.

Oh, Okay.

So the posts are about 12 inches by 12 inches. The current tiki hut posts are about 10 inches by 10 inches round. These will be square. But there's not four of them because two are attached to the house. So there's only two posts now instead of four.

Thank you. Thank you, John.

All right. So we'll move on to the board discussion and cross examination.

Well, does the city have anything?

Oh, any rebuttal to the We do not.

We do not.

Alright. Suzanne, would you like to start? We'll

go Yeah.

Do have a question. So on what we're seeing there on the left, the tiki hut is already at

a five foot setback. Yes.

So the setback really isn't changing from what existing is. It's just getting moved down.

Correct. It's getting moved to the west. And I believe there is still approximately 20 feet from the neighbor to the west and the setback for side interior in this neighborhood is eight feet, eight and a half feet. So they still have, they're still well within.

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Ronald? It looks like an improvement to me for sure. I just had a couple questions for staff. So the LDR doesn't provide any specific roles when it comes to intercoastal or any there's no specific adjustments are made when it comes to intercoastal?

The only thing that is specific to it is the open space. There are certain rules with the open space. That's why I kind of mentioned it again because the pools are allowed to be set back five feet with any common open space as long as there's 50 feet. The It's why it was brought up for the porch as well. The screen enclosure could go 10 feet, but this particular addition or covered porch is completely in the setback because of the columns.

When the applicant was presenting some of the neighboring structures most of those were open on three or four sides so that would be subject to different setbacks than what they're asking for is that correct? Or is it the clause?

Lot of them, no because they were all open as well. You did see the one large pergola, that's also in the setback. None of these would be allowed in that setback, in the 25 foot setback. Okay.

Sorry. Just one more time. You said the pool is allowed

within There a five foot is a provision in the LDR for swimming pools. As long as there is at least 50 feet of common open space behind it, they can impede in the rear setback up

to the run into an issue if they wanted to put a screen enclosure over their pool?

Potentially, yes.

Okay.

I guess

Will there be any kind of a problem, like, if, hopefully, we don't have a hurricane with this screen enclosure where the way it's gonna be set up?

There there is no screen on it. And this the mean, honestly, the tiki hut as John said is not in really good condition. This is going to blow it down in a hurricane. They're building a permanent structure. It's made out of concrete.

Okay. Yeah you asked my next question which building standards assume it's built otherwise compliant with code.

Yeah. This is going to be tied into the trusses for this are going to be tied into the house and then it'll meet ASCE 22, 24. It's going to be engineered to not move whatsoever.

Sounds good. That's all I have.

If they add enclosure to the size, can that be added to the living square feet of the house? If it was conditioned, yes. And

just one last question. Whether or not there's actually screens doesn't really have any effect on anything versus open?

No. I think there was some confusion last What meeting

of structure

was allowed? It's the screen enclosure that allows you to come closer in your setback. Okay. With a hard roof, I don't know why that is, but it is in our LDR.

Thank you. Any other comments, questions, clarifications?

No. Nope.

Okay. You

guys ready? So I know you all have done this before, but I'll just read the six different findings, and we'll vote we'll do a roll call vote after each one, and you'll vote yes or no. Alright. So this is file number PZ4342026. The date is April 16, and this is for 972 Dogwood Drive.

The request is it's a variance request from Land Development Regulations section four thirty four ks Development Standards Matrix, Residential Zoning Districts to reduce the rear south setback to five feet whereas a minimum of 25 feet is required associated with the construction of a patio enclosure. Pursuant to land development regulations 2.4.11a5, following consideration of all the evidence and testimony, the Board of Adjustment for the City of Delray Beach finds as follows. So number one, the special conditions and circumstances which exists are peculiar to the land, structure, or building involved and which are not generally applicable to the other land, structure, or building subject to the same zoning, economic hardship shall not constitute a basis for granting of a variance. Roll call.

Jesse Sasha?

Yes.

Mark Ronald?

Yes.

Suzanne Donahue? Yes. Michelle Wilson's absent. Brenda Cullenan? Yes. Or Ramirez?

Yes.

John Delacio? Yes. Number two.

The literal interpretation of the regulations would deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by other properties subject to the same zoning.

Jesse Slauser?

Yes.

Mark Ronald?

Yes.

Suzanne Donahue? Yes. Michelle Wilson's absent. Brenda Cullinan? Yes. Aura Ramirez? Yes. John Alisio?

Yes.

That the special conditions and circumstances have not resulted from the actions of the applicant.

Jesse Slauscher?

Yes.

Mark Ronald?

Yes.

Suzanne Donahue? Yes. Michelle Wilson's absent. Brenda Cullenan? Yes. Laura Ramirez?

Yes.

John D'Alessio?

Yes. Giorgio:

That granting the variance will not confer on the applicant any special privilege that is denied to other lands, structures, and buildings under the same zoning, neither the permitted nor conforming nonconforming use of neighborhood land structures or buildings under the same zoning shall be considered grounds for the issuance of a variance.

Jessie Slauscher. Yes. Mark Ronald.

Yes.

Suzanne Donahue.

Yes.

Michelle Wilson's absent. Brenda Cullinan? Yes. Or Ramirez? Yes. John Delisio?

Yes. That the reasons established in the variance petition justify the granting of the variance and that the variance is the minimum variance that will make possible the reasonable use of the land, building, or structure.

Jesse Slauscher?

Yes.

Mark Ronald?

Yes.

Suzanne Donahue? Yes. Michelle Wilson Sapson? Brenda Cullen? Yes. Laura Ramirez? Yes. John Delacio?

Yes.

That the granting of the variance will be in harmony with the general purpose and intent of existing regulations and will not be injurious to the neighborhood or otherwise detrimental to the public welfare.

Jesse Slauscher? Yes. Mark Ronald?

Yes.

Suzanne Donahue? Yes. Michelle Wilson's absent. Brenda Cullinan? Yes. Or Ramirez? Yes. John Delisio?

Yes. Do we have a motion?

Yes, can someone read the motion to approve?

A. Move approval of the variance request for 972 Dogwood Drive, PZ000434, 2026 VARBOA from LDR Section 4.3.4 ks. Development matrix to reduce the rear self setback to five feet whereas a minimum of 25 feet is required associated with the construction of a patio enclosure by finding that the request is consistent with the findings set forth in LDR section 2.4.11 A5 A f.

Is there a second? Second.

We'll do a final roll call vote.

Yeah, quick.

Jesse Sasha?

Yes.

Mark Ronald?

Yes.

Donahue? Yes. Michelle Wilson is absent. Brenda Cullenan? Yes. Or Ramirez? Yes. John Delacio?

Yes. Alright. That concludes

I'll read this paragraph. Oh, Pursuant to LDR section 2.1.7, all decisions of the Board of Adjustment are final. Based on the entire record before it, the Board of Adjustment approves the variance solely for the purpose as presented at meeting. The board of a judgment adjustment adopts this order this 04/16/2026.

Thank you. So we'll close number seven. We'll move on to reports and comments from staff.

We do not have any reports and comments. However, we will see you all in two weeks on May 7 for another variance application.

Wonderful. From the attorney?

I think it's nice to meet you all. If you ever need to something beforehand, feel free to email me or call me, just not as a group, obviously, individually.

From any of the fellow board members? I guess I just have a quite do we know when Michelle will be replaced? Is that set?

That is handled by the city clerk's office.

Okay. All

right. Madison, sorry. Did you say in two weeks, or did you mean then next month?

Two weeks. Two weeks is May 7, if you can believe that.

Yeah. Okay. I

do not believe that.

Yes. To both questions.

If you could move it to the following week, I could be here. Yep.

Alright. Well, with that, we'll adjourn.

If something happens the following week, I'll be back.