Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We're going to go ahead and get started with this uh zoning hearing board meeting. I think we have some organizational issues to take care of first. That is correct. So, you need to um appoint a chair, a vice chair, and a secretary. So, who wants to make a motion for the chair position? Anybody have a nomination? I'll move that Bill Finch be uh chairman. Is there a second? Second. Well, yep. Well, second. All right. All those in favor? All right. you are now the uh chair again. So now you can call for vice chair nomination for vice chair. Nomination for vice chair. I'd like to make a motion that we nominate Dave Francis for vice chair. I'll second. All in favor? I. And then is there any nominations for secretary? I'd like to make a motion that we nominate or I'd like to make a motion that we nominate Connie for vice or excuse me for secretary. Second. Seconded. All in favor? I. All right. That concludes your reorganization. So now we can open the hearing that you have for this evening. This is um the application of Chuck

Phillips of Chesterville Architects on behalf of Alex and Kenya Ruiz. Did I say that correctly? Okay. Um and I'm just going to note for the record that our third zoning hearing board member, Dave Francis, is not here this evening, but we do have our alternate president, Walter Johnson. So, he will be seated for this application and he will be making a decision tonight um for your application. So, I have some exhibits that I would want to put into the record. Um, board one is the zoning hearing board application with attachments received by Franklin Township on April 10th of 2025. Board two is the public notice advertising the meeting scheduled for this evening and proof of publication from the Daily Local News for advertising notice on May 13th and May 20th. B3, which is a letter dated May 6th to the applicants from myself advising of tonight's hearing date. B4 is an affidavit of mailing dated May 6th sent by Donna Lee Eller of my office and a copy of the sample letter to the property owners and the list of property owners who were notified of the hearing this evening. B5 is an affidavit of posting with posting pictures by Mark Gordon, zoning officer, dated May 15, 2025. And B6 is a letter also from um Mark Gordon on behalf of the board of supervisors dated May 26 27th, 2025. I am going to note for the record that we do not have any public here this evening on in person or on Zoom. So I'm going to skip my speech about party status and providing public comment unless somebody comes in later on. Um present here tonight is is Chuck going to handle most of the discussion on your behalf? Okay. Um Chuck, could we let's have all three of you sworn in just in case any of you provide testimony if you don't mind. Hands, please. You swear the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing about the truth. So I help

you God. I do. Yes. Thanks. Okay. Sir, if you want to make your presentation. U. So my name is Chuck Phillips. Um and uh I'm going to keep it short. Um I understand you're all volunteers and uh so um but having said that, if you have any questions at all, I prepared pretty extensively. know most of the definitions in the zoning code, etc. Um, so it by by all means ask me any questions. Um, so we're here to uh request the extension of a lawful non-conforming structure. Um, the residence existed before the current 50-foot setback requirement. Um, uh, the section out of the the zoning code is extension. A lawful non-conforming structure can be enlarged or altered only to the ex uh extent that it does not exceed the extent of nonconformity. That is why we're here. Um so having said that, can I get the plan up? I'm going to have her put the plan that you guys all have copies of in front of you. So, can you go to page two for me? Page two is is the formal application. Page one is really to give

you a little bit of background information on um what it would actually look like. Um however u page two uh shows the um nonconformity walk over. So I don't have do I need to be in front of that microphone or am I okay? We're not going to be able to hear you but we could turn this one on in the center. I just want to point this is the edge of this is the edge of the the road the edge of the cartway. This dimension is the edge of the right way. So 16 point uh 16 ft 6 in. Um, this is our available front yard. The red is what we're adding. The gray is what's existing. Simple as that. Everybody understand that? Yep. Page one was just filler information. Gives you some 3Ds, etc. You want to stay? Yeah. Can we ask a couple questions while you're up there? Uh, can you go back to this to the second page, please? Thank you. The lot line, the property line is the center of this of the road. Okay. The D line. You've did a reverse subdivision on these two properties. Is that what happened? There's a lot line down the middle. Can you explain the significance of that? That's the way the deed is written. However, it's also that it it's it's just written that way. So, we drew it exactly as the dean says, but it is one line. Okay. So,

so in this case, is it unusual for the lot line to go to the center of the road? No. You see, we see that on other properties in the township. So the fifth So your your understanding of the township code is that the 50-foot setback is from the property line in this case the center of the road. No 50 foot is from the rightway. Theif 50 foot the 50 foot setback is measured from the rightway line because even though the deed line shows the property owner owns to the center of the roadway there is an easement right ofway the roadway and a portion of the side of the road is eased to the township. So although they own their deed shows and the deed description shows their property at the center of the road, we obviously wouldn't require the ruizes to repair the road. So that was all taken by the township as a deed roadway. So that deed roadway has a line and that's where the property line and the setback begin. So that's why this is a non-conforming structure because there is not a 50-foot. However, it's a lawful non-conforming structure because it existed before the requirement for a 50-foot front yard setback. So when this was built, there was no requirement for a 50ft front yard setback. So, what you're saying is that the original house has a 19 foot6 setback and the new addition is going to have a 33 foot6 setback. Okay. Exactly.

Notice 50 foot setback is behind. See that dash that dash line virtually impossible for us to put any addition on this structure without coming before you. Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. Um, another question. In your professional opinion, I mean, what's the necessity for these setbacks? Zoom in. Now, sometimes it's safety. I want to go up to the top. I copied this in just for just for this discussion. Um, you can see that we in Franklin Township have a number of different front yard setbacks depending on the type of development that would be proposed. And you can see I've chosen to call this a conventional. We're not actually doing a subdivision. Therefore, we don't really comply with what a development is. But um it's pretty obvious we don't have a community sewer. However, if we had a community sewer, then the front yard set back would only be 35 ft. So if we're talking safety, then we're right in that range. If a lot of times we're talking aesthetics, however, there is an aspect to this where you can see that if this was on a uh state road, where are we? Uh state road, then the front yards increase because the idea there is chances are the speeds increase. So the front yard setback in in some ways is attached

to the chance that somebody may drive off drive off the road and we want a certain amount of safety uh relative to that. That that's my professional opinion. So since the new addition is actually has a greater setback than the original residence, you don't see this detrimental to the safety of neighbors, passers by any issues. Is a very quiet street and you haven't heard from any neighbors? Yeah. And my guess is that those two lots, they originally developed as two different lots, but when the builder came along or they someone came along to purchase a lot, they said, "Hm, I don't want someone right up on top of me like that." So, they bought two lots. And in the 50s, that was very common. Very common when people bought all culde-sacs. People bought whole culde-sacs back then because they didn't want people around them. So just since you've been talking, let's retroactively have you sworn in. Sorry by our court reporter. Just got a testimony about will be the truth. The whole truth and nothing about the truth. So have you got I do. Thank you. Thank you. Just sort of off the off uh point right now. When was the 50-foot setback uh decreed? Do you know? somewhere before the 50s or in the 50s. No, no, in the 80s, early 90s. That would be my I had a feeling someone was going to ask that question. I did not have time to do the research to find out when the zing ordinance was first adopted, but it was after this because this house, you know, there was no setback on this house. Thank you. I apologize. I did not have time to

drive past the residence. Uh, does the road continue straight in each direction? What's the this road, this zigzag? Um, and it shows up on maps sometimes as zigzag road. Um, it's a very quiet road. So, it comes along here. There's way down here is help me out farm. What's the name of this road? North. North Bank Road. North Bank. So, North Bay and then it's it's a it's a lazy kind of a straightish road down to this point right here. And then from here we enter into the woods and it literally does this really cool little zigzag down to uh Pen Green. Um the bridge, the big bridge that's going across Pen Green. So, you know, from this side, if you're coming up this side, you're forced to be going very, very slow. Uh you press the hill about right here very slowly. I love to ride my bike on this road because there's hard so little traffic. It's beautiful in Utah. And from this side, um there's really no there's no speed on this road. It's a very quiet, lazy little road. You can't do speed on this road. Pretty dangerous. Pretty tight. It's very narrow. I don't think I have anything else to you, Walder. Any questions? Um, I will let you know that prior to um the hearing this evening, I did receive two calls um from residents who I we sent the the notice letters to. Um, one requested a copy of the plan, which I emailed to her. Um, and I have not did not hear anything further after that, and I explained to her what the application was. The second was a gentleman, and I apologize. I don't remember either one of their names. Um,

he asked me about it. He asked me what he would need to do if he wanted to oppose it, and I told him he would need to show up at the hearing this evening, and that he could show up in front of the board of supervisors. I don't know whether anybody was at the board of supervisors part of this, but as you can see, no one is here this evening. So, I was just planning I was at the board of supervisors and there was no other than myself with a little bit of it might uh I I was at uh the supervisor meeting and other than myself uh testifying no one spoke. Okay. And we still don't have anybody who has joined us on Zoom who would like to speak at all. Okay. Do you um want to take a break to deliberate or are you ready to move forward? Okay. And Walter said he didn't have any questions. Did you guys have anything you wanted to add? Just that we appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. I think we will take a couple minutes to just adjourn and we'll just be back in a couple. We'll take a brief recess.

Oh, sorry. So, we would like to proceed with the meeting again and we just needed one clarification uh from from Chuck. You had originally talked about the 50-foot setback was from the rightway line. Um you have two different rightaways on here, a 33 and a 50ft rightway. Can you clarify which right away the setback would be from? The setback would be from the 33 the adjacent property which was part of uh a large subdivision um increased at least on their plan. We don't know whether legally it was ever actually enacted, but they increased the properties involved in that subdivision to a 50oot. So 50 right away. A 50ft. No. So I showed both to be completely honest with, you know, with the the next door neighbor on one side. There's two houses that are very similar to this that were built around the same time. Um they both hold that 33 foot. So So since the addition is built on both lots, what would you call the setback front set back of the addition? 25 ft. No, this is this is this is just one lot. It's just the way that when when you draw what's in the deed, it gives you meets and bounds. That middle meet and bound is described in the deed. So I showed it, but it is not two separate lots. I'm referring to next door. There's a property next door that also has a 33 foot setback which is to the uh right.

The property to the left has a 50ft rightway. So I I guess I'm confused, Chuck. Sorry. The the the rightway for this house is the 50 or the 33 or we really don't know the answer to that. The rightway is 50. I'm sorry, the 33. Think probably a little bit. So 33 was the original rightway. Thank you. 33 was the original rightway with set by the state of Pennsylvania for roadways in the 19 early 1900s. They came across the state of Pennsylvania and just went willy-nilly across the entire state said you give every roadway a 33 ft rideway and townships, municipalities, you now have to have to maintain these roads. So that's where we started 1900 something because we had all these roads. Nobody was maintaining them because they were all owned by the property owners. So then they said, "Nope, municipalities, take them over." So that's where the 33 line comes in. And that's what this property that's where their property line is. Line of 33 foot right of way is the property line. The 50ft ultimate right-of-way line is the neighboring lot developed a large development. And a lot of times large developments need like a a a lane to turn off a road. So your rightway might have to be they might have to widen the intersection of the of the development or make a turn lane into the development. So we never know. But we always want them to have plenty of rightway to do that. So that development has a 50ft ultimate rightaway that is subject to that large development, but not this lot. these lots were included in that 50- foot rideway.

So, sorry for belaboring this point, but I I guess I'm just a little confused on this. So after construction, the original is going to be 19'6 and I guess the it still says it's 19'6 off the rightway. Okay, cuz we're not coming any closer with the addition. Yes. Okay. Existing residence does not change and the the addition will not be closer. It will be set back farther than the original house. So, what you're looking for is a relief to 33 foot 6 in. No. Is there any other structures that could come forward off of this that would get built in that 33'6? Yeah. if you had a portico or an entrance way or something like that would have to be shown here today and it's not. So it's just a it's just a rectangular shape square shaped building edition uh for the in-law suite. Well, we might adjust this. All all the other area and bulk requirements are met with this plan. So, the only relief requested is for the front yard setbacks. That the zoning hearing board grant a variance to the owners of 182 Laurel Bridge Road microphone the story. I'm doing fairly

well with that before. Okay. I move that the zoning hearing board grant a variance to the owners of 182 Laurel Bridge Road, Landenburgg, Alex and Kenya Reese, which will provide a front yard front yard setback of 33.6 ft relief to construct the proposed addition of their home. Did that get it? Well, I think he gave him an extra 10. Yeah. 33. It's 33.5 or 33.6. I thought you just said from the amendment 33.5. Oh my gosh. So, sorry. Is your motion so amended? It's so amended. Yes. Okay. Any second? I second that. Okay. All those in favor? in favor. Okay. So, what this means is the zoning hearing board has granted you relief. We are required by law to issue you a written decision. Um, we have 45 days to do that. We tend to try to do it in about 30 days instead, but then there's an appeal period afterward. And your uh your learned uh helper here will be able to tell you all and walk you through the whole process. He knows more about it probably than I do. So, do you have any other questions for us this evening? Okay. All right. If they wanted if anyone wanted to appeal, they had to be here tonight. So, chances of that are pretty slim. [Laughter] Thank you very much. Thank you. Good luck. Good luck. So, at this time, we'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you very much.