Zoning Board of Appeals - Regular Meeting

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We're all set. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to call the uh meeting of the zoning board of appeals to order. Um for roll call, let's see. We've got Pansy Archer, Shirley Williams, Seth Seth Pittz, uh Alan Bkovski, and Jackie Isacson. And Pansy, you'll be voting. Okay. Um and the call of the meeting. Um Shirley, could you read that? Hey.

Um, this appeared in the Harford Current public published um August 29th, 2025, zone 6 and again on September 5th, 2025, zone 6. Legal notice. Town of Bloomfield Zoning Board of Appeals. Notice is hereby given that the zoning board of appeals will hold a regular meeting virtually via Zoom on Monday, September 8th, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. to consider the following. A 9 South Barn Road, I'm sorry, 9 South Barn Hill Road. Applicant and owner Adam Sipper Cipperly uh for a variance and zone regulations section 3.1. B bulk requirement side yard setback to build an addition following an addition following the wall of the current residence. Application applications are available for review on the town hall on the Bloomfield Town Hall website and at the land use office located at 800 Bloomfield Avenue, Bloomfield, Connecticut. Zoning Board of Appeals. Shirley P. Williams, Secretary.

Thank you, Shirley. Um, do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Well, this is the um So, we're moving on from the call roll call the U I'm sorry. Yeah. Could Did we do a roll call yet? I I did. I went through it. She did? Yeah. Sorry, I said exactly who was there. Yeah. Okay. So, I do I have an approval of the minutes. I move we approve the minutes as mailed.

Um, second. Was that Pansy? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Just so I know, Pansy. Okay. All in favor? I I

any opposed any abstensions? Okay. Um public hearing. Um Adam, if if you can tell us um give us your name and address and tell us what you would like uh what you would propose to do here and go over the information that would be great and then we'll go from there.

Name is uh Adam Sberly. I live at 9 South Barn Hill Road in Bloomfield. Um looking to do an addition uh at the back of my house. Um following the the current wall of the house going on the side adjacent to the uh to the lot. Um adding a bathroom to one of the bedrooms. Okay. And it's going to match the rest of the house. Yeah. Yep. The siding, everything will be the same. Yeah.

Any um any any other documents? Uh Alex, or we have everything in our packet, a bunch of pictures and site. I'll I'll run through the uh the staff report and then uh I have like a references at the end just for fun if anyone wants to look at the old zoning maps. Um but okay why don't you go through staff and then we can go from there. Okay. Yeah, I'll share my screen. Thank you. Uh can everyone see it? Yes. Yes.

Uh yeah. So because uh this is a relatively straightforward variance, I I'm going to get pretty close to reading it verbatim, but we'll, you know, we'll go through everything and have a discussion. Uh so as we already read the uh the variance, you know, the the applicant stated their hardship in their application. Um you know, I'll have them do it for before we we make a decision. Um it is likely related to the the zone change of that area. Um you know most of the parcels were developed uh according to a setback that was later changed. Um but yeah the parcel information so it's 9 South Barnhill Road. Uh it is currently the R30 district. Um you know I have some information about the area. Um, and just for context, a variance for a garage was approved in 1967 on the opposite side. That's one of my exhibits. I'll show that later. Um, yeah. So, the zone of the parcel was changed following construction of the existing home. Uh, on a regional level, you know, being just that neighborhood being the definition of regional for that that sentence. Uh, went from R20 to R30. The current property owner would like to build the addition in the picture below uh along the northern facing wall for an additional 12 feet. So this is the let me see if I zoom in if that can help. This is his existing house. Um you know this this wall currently ends here. His addition would go an additional 12 ft. And you know this this is the asbuilt following construction of the house. Uh it was built 23 ft from the property line. Uh the setback at the time was 20

ft. Uh it is now currently 25 ft uh because of the zone change and current regulations. Uh to the right this is actually his northern abuing parcel. So this property line this this house is what was built in the parcel to the north. It is also 23 ft away from its northern abutter. Um so yeah just just for fun we can look at some of the uh some of the documents and how I came to the conclusion that in my opinion you know this addition is in character to the rest of the neighborhood. This was the building card to his house. Um the it's listed as the distance to the each side side lot line. The setback was 20 ft. Uh it's right on the card. This is the asbuilt um that I zoomed in on for the staff report. Also have the building card for the northern abuing property which is the property closest to the addition. um also listed as 20 ft in terms of the the setback at the time that was constructed. And this is the asbuilt that I showed in my staff report as well, 23 feet away from its northern abuing property. And then so this is South Barnhill and you can see on the map it used to be R20. I don't want to go into too much with the maps because it's it's a little bit harder to see and definitely with what I mailed, it's kind of hard to see just due to the size and what it could fit in the envelope, but it's listed right on the building cards um what the setbacks were. I feel like that's pretty explanatory. And this is the zoning map following that. and South Barnhill Road was changed along with many other

parcels in the area just on a town basis. They incorporated uh R30 to cover more of that area. Sorry, my uh my website is being covered by Zoom itself. And then just for the hardship, this this was Adam's application that he submitted. Um, you know, different zone requirements after his house was built. He's he's trying to match his existing home. And in my opinion, that's that's how the entire neighborhood was um kind of built according to. So, if granted, the applicant still requires a zoning approval, which will include an asbuilt survey. Um, you know, for me, I'm I'm essentially just looking for a foundational asbuilt uh once the foundation's in. Home construction in the area, in my opinion, is within the same general character. Um, and then as I had mentioned, the property most affected by this being the northern b uh bordering property, its distance to its northern border is essentially the same as the addition and the existing home. So,

so it's 20. How many feet from the property line? How many how many foot variance do does he need? It would essentially be three feet.

Three feet. So, I don't know if you guys want to have any discussion about it. Uh if Adam has anything else to say or if anyone else online has anything else to say. Uh now would be the time. Uh, did any neighbors

is there anybody in the in the audience there or in the chat room or whatever? Is is Alex? Is there anybody else besides um us there that would like to speak? No one is waiting and I don't see any unfamiliar names. Um, okay. Thank you. Adam, do you have anything else you want to add?

Uh, no. I think Alex covered pretty much everything. It did a great job here. Really just trying to, like you said, match the the current house. You know, that's really all I'm trying to do here. Okay. Um, all right. Do any board members have any questions? No. No.

Pansy. Seth, any questions? No. No questions for Adam. Okay. Okay. Seth, you're good, too. I'm fine. Okay. So, I'm going to close the public hearing. Can we get rid of screen and go back to our other screen? Uh, Alex. Okay. Uh, would somebody like to make a motion? Don't all jump at once.

I'll I'll make a motion. Um I move that we approve 9 South Barnhill Road uh applicant and owner Adam Slipley. Is that right? For variance of the zoning regulation 3.1B bulk requirements setback to build an addition following the the wall of the current residence. I second that motion. Okay. It was South Barnhill Road. I think you said South.

And um on the application, you want to just state what the hardship is so that it's in the record on the second page.

Do you do you have the application there? Uh Allan. Yep. Okay. Ship hardship. Why is our second page? Yep. Pre-existing home is cluster is closer to the lot lines than allowed one allowed one to zoned. What does that say? It says then allowed due to zone change. I'll do the zone change from R like 20 to R30. All right. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. And surely you accept that? Yes, I do. Change. Okay. Yes, I do. All right. Um, all in favor? I I Okay. Any of anybody opposed? And any abstensions? Okay. So, it it passes five um to nothing. So, Adam, just check with Alex and he'll help you guide you to the next step.

Yeah, there's some last steps. I'll I'll walk you through um filing and then there is there is a period of time we wait before we file. But um yeah. All right. Thanks everybody. Appreciate it. You're welcome. You're welcome. Good luck. Any old business? Nope. No. No. Nothing significant.

Okay. The only thing is I did uh ask Linda if we could uh get an update from our attorney um on what's going on with our litigations. Um, so maybe next month we'll be able to do that, but other than that, I don't have any other old business. Any new business? None. Well, none. What, Alex? Uh, no.

No. Okay. Um, can I get a motion to object to to adjurnn? So move. Second. Okay. All right. Everybody agrees to that, right? Yep. Okay. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. All righty. Okay. Bye. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye.