Then the board may ask questions during any of these presentations. The response to the board questions do not count towards the five minutes. However, speakers are asked to only respond to the question and refrain from elaborating, restating their position or asking questions of the board. Once public comment is closed, the board will deliberate on the case during which the board may ask additional questions as always speakers are asked to only respond to the question and refrain from discussion The BZA is a severed member board with a four member quorum requirement all motions have four affirmative votes to pass regardless of the number of boards in Ms. Christensen, please call the roll. Mr. Foley? Here. Ms. Bowman? Here. Ms. Eland? Here. Mr. Liu? Here. Mr. Burke? Here. We do have a quorum. Thank you. So the... Oh, I'm about to engend it in front of me. Thanks. because there are no announcements. Okay. So there are no announcements. So we have a new business. Yeah. And. Docket item number two is BZ8 2025, 002, 2807, Old Dominion Boulevard. Public hearing and consideration of a request for a special exception to construct a second story, in the required side yard. R8. the second-degree red in a planning and zoning. So the subject property at 2807 Old Dominion Boulevard is zoned R8 and surrounded by residential dwellings with Monticello Park to the rear of the property. The property is a substandard lot in regard to a lot with and lot area and located within a resource protection area or RPA. The property is developed with one story dwelling, which is non-compliant in regard to the Northwest side yard. Mr. Tresher? Yes. I think this is the first time I've come across the resource protection area. Could you please just briefly explain what that is and how that pertains to the zoning? Sure. So these are areas that were established with the Chesapeake Bay Protection Act. And they're essentially just sensitive corridors where there's streams and ground waters that really want to limit impacts to like stream flow and the water quality. And so they're just very limited construction and they are managed by our Transparen environmental services department. So it's construction in these areas are very limited and require, you know, review and full public hearings typically. So the applicant has been in communication with planning staff about constructing an addition to the home along with transportation and environmental services considering the RPA and in order to limit the impact to the RPA the applicant is proposing to construct a second story addition And a small real bump out which would be in line with the existing non-compliant wall The proposed addition would add 1155 square feet of gross floor area to the dwelling. It would be 26.74 feet in height. So the R8 zone requires a structure to be set back one foot from the side property line for every two feet of building height, but at no point can the structure be closer than eight feet. The existing dwelling has a non-compliant side yard setback of 7.3 feet from the side property line to the northwest. The proposed height of 26.7 feet would require a 13.37 foot side yard setback and the applicant is requesting a 6.07 feet of relief from this side yard requirement. So staff does recommend a approval of the special exception as it meets the criteria of section 11-1403. A two-story dwelling is compatible with development and the surrounding neighborhood and the proposed second story would be in line with the existing wall of the existing house and is the most reasonable location to construct an addition without impacting the RPA. I'm happy to answer any questions at this point. Thank you, are there any questions for staff? Hearing none, can we move to the applicant? You come to the podium, introduce yourself, and... I'm Jane O'Connell-Seword and I own the property. I live at 619 Beverly Drive. So we currently have a dormer in the back. Instead of replacing the dormer, there is a lot of leaks in the back and a lot of leaks in the roof. We decided that we would just raise the second floor so the footprint is the same and so we're just raising it and unbeknownst to us. We didn't know that there was only seven feet three inches from the left side. We found that out when we did a survey and then when we were proposing the second floor. So we are very limited in terms of building because of the resource protection zone. Is there anything else you'd like to say? I don't think so. Does the, any of the members of the board have questions for that applicant? We got a question. Thank you so much. Appreciate your application. I note in your application that you shared the information with your neighbors. But I don't see documentation of their feedback. Was that included in your application? We, well, we, yeah. We sent notices as required to the neighbors and there were just neighbors on either side and across the street. And I did receive notice from somebody who doesn't live there who's in North Carolina who had no problem. Okay, I just didn't see that. And we actually talked to, I mean, we're friendly with the neighbors. And, you know, the neighbors on the other side, which is on the other side of the path to Monticello Park, it's the right side. You know, we've been talking, telling them about it all along. And so I don't think there's any problem with them. Nobody has expressed any interest. Okay, great. Thank you so much. When did you just real quick? When did you first start this project or when were you originally looking to make this addition? Well, what happened was last year, my daughter who lives in the house, we had some leaks in the kitchen area, which is right above the dormer. And we had a bunch of contractors come in to look to find out what the leak was. And the more investigation that we had and the more contractors that we had to look at it, we realized the problem was greater than we thought. We thought it was just some leak. So the whole dormer was going to need to be replaced because of side leakage, because there was some problem with the roof of the dormer in the dormers in the back. And then also there is a mold problem in the house. A year or two years ago, we did have the insulation on the back part of the roof replaced but we could not where the dormer is but we could not access the front of the house. So the insulation that was replaced in the back had mold on it and we knew that the insulation in the front park which we couldn't access unless we tore the whole roof apart. also had mold on it. And we knew that the insulation in the front park, which we couldn't access unless we tore the whole roof apart, also had mold. So given the problem with the leak in the kitchen that was caused by the dormer and the whole dormer roof and the siding that needed to be replaced and the fact that my daughter and her two kids are living there and my daughter and one kid has is sensitive to mold. We knew we had to do something. And then the more we looked at it and the larger the project looked like, we figured we should replace the whole second floor. That that made sense in terms of room and in terms of expense. Thank you. OK. And I don't have any public speakers, so I assume there are no other speakers. OK, great. So we will move on to board deliberations. Do we have any, anyone want to say anything? I'm going to make a motion. I think you can. I'd like to make a motion to support the staff's recommendation for the special exception in this case. A motion to approve. A motion to approve. Support the staff's recommendation to approve. Thank you. I second Miss Bonnett's motion. OK, so all in favor? Say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. So with four eyes, we have the motion passed. So Congratulations, hope you have a good addition No more mold Doc at item number three bza 2025 0 0 0 3 5 23 Tennessee Avenue public hearing and consideration of a request for Variances to construct a two-story addition in the required side yards zone R8 residential applicant Conrad Simber. Good evening Mr. Chairman and members of the BZA Board. Tonight before you is five to three Tennessee Avenue and it is a variance request. background summary of this property is that the house, excuse me, the house is residential and we're gonna talk about, we're gonna go through from some of the key elements. So the structure has some non-compliant issues with respect to the front yard, excuse me, the lot width, the lot size and the side yard. Also, the lot is very narrow in comparison to the requirements within the R8 zone. As you can see here, this is the property. It is surrounded by other residential lots. And if you look at the picture before you will see that there is an open deck and open porch that sits above a garage that you access from the back of the property. What the applicant is proposing to do is actually to construct an addition on the back and construct an addition where the open port open deck is. The portion that is in the back actually complies. And so therefore there is, it meets the setback requirements. It is not in the required yard. However, the portion with the open deck and the porch is also sits in the required side yard in order for the applicant to go up to the 23.9 feet. He needs a 4.53 variance. So the site yard is only 7.37 feet and he needs to request 4.53 feet to enable this. The reason why this property we think we're going to support this variance, it's just because of the nature of the lot. If you look at the house that you see here, you will see that the house is actually structured in that both of the side yards, it does not meet the minimum side yard. And on either side, the lot width is very narrow. And the topography on this property, it actually goes back. So again, as I said, if you were to access the garage, you actually have to go down the hill and turn around into the back of a property. And so it makes sense that the applicant is choosing to build over top of the existing structures, but not expand in any other aspect of the lot. And so we actually recommend approval because this case actually meets all the criteria that are set forth in the variance. And I am happy for any questions that you may have of me. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions for staff? Okay, with no questions, let's go. Okay, go ahead. Good. Can you just clarify what's what's the difference between the variance and the special except? I'm glad you asked me. So, the special exception is one non-compliant wall. However, in this case, there is another section in the zoning ordinance. And the section is, I want to make sure I have it, because I was prepared for the question. It is section 11-1302-B2C. And the ordinance says that in order for it to be a special exception, the wall must be 50% of the lamp. In this case, that portion of the wall only represents 36.8%. So therefore, it is ineligible for a special exception and it must come for the variance. Okay. You're welcome. Okay, with no further questions, do we have the applicant here? Hi, good evening. Conrad Simber, the property owner of 523 Tennessee Avenue since August of 2021. Here to request the variance request for what was just described. In terms of the request, it's pretty straightforward like what was described. So there's an existing garage foundation and a porch that's not covered in and it's essentially unusable porch that we want to make living space. So as we went through the process of design and working with the builder, we decided to do a two-story addition on that garage foundation, make it flush with the foundation itself, and raise it up to stories to maximize the amount of space that we're getting with this costly edition, right? So the issue arose in late February, I want to say, as we were going through the permit process, my builder notified me that there was an issue. And he tried to explain the issue, of course, and I understood it to be what was just described, and decided on going through with this variance request because it made the most sense to stay in this residents stay in the city of Alexandria, raise my family here and so forth. So like what was presented, the rear addition is in compliance, so that's remaining. It's strictly for the garage foundation to align everything with the garage foundation and align it with the roof of the house itself. So I think that's all that unless you have any questions. Thank you. Are there any questions for the applicant? No questions. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And I don't have any speaker forms, so we have no speakers. Okay, let's move on to board deliberations Does Anybody want to start off talking about anything? Any thoughts Any motions I'll make a motion I'd like to hear motion. I would like to make a motion to support the staff recommended approval of the variance for this case. So you motion to approve? Approve. So do we have a second? I second. Thank you and all in favor say aye aye Opposed same sign Here he none Five eyes have it for the motion to approve Thank you. Thank you. And thanks for the letter from your neighbor It's great and helpful. It's always the letter from your neighbor. It's great and helpful. It's always nice to have neighbor engagement. So thank you for that. Appreciate it. Thank you, staff, for the proposal. Rachel, thank you. I didn't thank you on the last one. Thanks. Okay. So moving on. The next item on the docket is consideration of the minutes from the November 18, 2024 Board of or a board of zoning appeals hearing. Did, uh, did we have a consideration of the minutes from the November 18th, 2024 Board of Stoning Appeals hearing. Did we have a review of the minutes? It's Roger's, the secretary. I know he is. He's not here. That's why I'm asking. Did anybody review the minutes? I didn't see anything that was... I skimmed through them and nothing jumped out of them. Okay, so with that review, do we have a motion to approve the minutes? Can I ask a question first? Am I allowed to vote having not been here for that meeting? You are allowed to vote in theory you have read the minutes. Yeah, you're not required to vote if you want to abstain That's fine as well. Okay, okay Okay, I move the minutes as presented are approved Prove the minutes as presented That sounds good second second great all in favor say aye. Hi. Hi So minutes pass I'm done the next item on the docket is the election of the board officers for chair Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.. I can't nominate on the chair. Can we deliberate on who has expressed interest in this position? Is there anybody who would like to, well, great. We have someone who's happy to do it. Lowercase. Lowercase H. I would like to nominate Miss Evelyn. Okay. That's Secretary of Position. Fantastic. Do we have a second? I second the number. All in favor of Miss Eve Evelyn, taking the secretary position say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. You're not going to vote? I can't vote. I think you can vote. If you don't vote, I mean, vote for you who's going to. OK, so the eyes have it. Congratulations. You are now the secretary. Okay, are there any, okay, is there any interest in the vice chair position? I would be interested in continuing as vice chair. Is there any other interest in the vice chair position? Okay, so can I have a nomination for Miss Baume and to be vice chair. A nomination for Ms. Bowman to be vice chair? I have a second. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. Okay, so the eyes have it. Ms. Bowman will be vice chair. So for the chairman position, are there, is there any interest in the chairman position? I would like to serve as chair of the board of sewing appeals. Is there any other interest for the chairman position? Okay, so Paul would like to be the chairman. So do we have a nomination? So moved. Do we have a second? Second? Great. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The eyes have it. If I have to nothing, congratulations. You are now the chairman. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. you are now the chair. Congratulations. There's no other additional business from the city. We did not receive any new cases and because there was no you are now the chair. Congratulations. There's no other additional business from the city. We did not receive any new cases and because there was no deferred cases tonight, we will contact you but I would assume that the next hearing is cancelled. Thank you. If there are no other matters, would somebody like to make a motion to a to a joint. I can now make a motion. Mr. Chair, I'd like to motion that we adjourn the meeting. I second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone.