SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Board of Appeals (BOA) rejected a sideline variance request of eight feet for a new home being built at 40 Beach Road.
Members of the board agreed that a minimum of 10 feet was necessary on each side of the home because it is a narrow lot.
The property is a non-conforming, pre-existing lot, as are most lots on the lakes in town.
Although the board did not approve the side variance request, which was an addendum to another request, it did approve the original request and granted the homeowner Daniel Thompson an 8-foot rear setback variance, a 27-foot frontage variance and a variance for the 30,765 square-foot lot with the condition of maintaining a 10-foot sideline variance on the left and right of the home as well as construction of a retaining wall.
Brian Drenen of Southwick Builders represented the homeowner during a Board of Appeals hearing last night he and BOA member Paul A. Gregoire recapped the project, which first came before the board in 2008.
Gregoire said a variance application was approved then, but the project never came back before the board within a year, which is the required process. Then in December of 2014, Drenen approached him for a meeting, which was set for January.
Nobody representing the Thompsons attended.
“We could have closed it and you would have to wait two years to come back, but we didn’t,” said Gregoire.
Drenen said it was a miscommunication and bad information – and not intent – that caused him to miss the meeting.
Drenen and the Thompsons plead their case for the sideline variance, which was needed, Drenen said, because the lot is not straight and the house cannot be placed right in the middle because of the therrain.
BOA member Thomas Stapleton sympathized with the homeowners but said the plans for a 16 foot-by-48 foot home are already large for the lot size.
“You’re stuffing a pretty big house on a narrow lot,” said Stapleton. “It’s difficult because we don’t want to see things go in the direction where there’s nothing but structure.”
Gregoire agreed and said “even with 10-foot sidelines it’s pretty close.”
“This is not a tiny house – it’s a pretty substantial structure,” Stapleton said.
The board agreed it would not allow the shorter variance before approving the original request.
