March and we are here on BA 24-029V standing for variance. The application is Mr. Donald Wiggins. The request is to increase the lot coverage for an accessory structure by approximately 66%. the increase is from the maximum of 600 square feet to 1,000 square feet, an increase of 400 square feet. So, Mr. Wiggins, this is your case, so I'm going to swear you in. Okay. You can look wherever you want. All right. I solemnly swear affirm under the penalties of perjury that the response is given in statements made will be the truth, truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I do swear. Thank you so much. Would you please state your name and address for the record? My name is Donald James Wiggins Jr. My address is 4917 Alice Avenue, Ellicott City, Maryland, 21043. Thank you. All right. This is your application. So what would you like to say today? This application is for a shed in my yard. I have a fairly large yard over at acre and we have a conservative size house about a 1300 square foot house. We have a detached garage, which is adjacent to the house, pretty far up on the property. The way that the zoning regulation appears to have written is that that garage is an accessory structure. I mean many of our neighbors have attached garages of their homes which do not count as these accessory structures. My large yard, I need snow blowers, lawn mowers, weed eaters, a lot of these type of things that right now are stored in my garage which doesn't allow us us to put our cars in our garage, which is the intended use of our garage. So my hope is that you guys will kind of understand this and see that you know we have a very large yard and most of our neighbors all have accessory sheds in their backyard and attached garages and And I'm hoping that you guys would consider giving me this variance. So that way I can put a shed to move my bicycles and lawn mowers and all that kind of stuff out of my garage. My wife can park her car in the garage. And now I also have a old truck I want to park in the garage. That's pretty much all I have. I don't know why I'm like, it says my camera's not working. I don't know why. Let's see. I'm sorry, but I did. And it was working for a minute, but not now. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. Mr. Wiggins, there are approximately five things that I have to find in order to approve this variance. So, let's go through them and you tell me why you meet each one of these criteria. How about that? Yes, ma'am. Okay. First criteria is that there are unique physical conditions, including irregularity, narrowness, or shalowness of the lot or shape, exceptional topography, or other existing features peculiar to this particular lot. And as a result of the unique physical condition, practical difficulties, or unnecessary hardships arise in complying strictly with the bulk provisions of these regulations. So tell me why your property is unique and as a result of that uniqueness, you can't comply with the acreage variance at the minimum, the minimum lot coverage variance. So it's the lot, can you tell me about the lot? Not the garage. Yes, ma'am. The lot is over in acre. It's a double lot in our neighborhood. Most of the lots on our neighborhood are half in acre. So I believe the attend to the regulation was that the rule was for the total amount of accessory buildings. So someone that have 10 accessory buildings on their lot or a exceed a certain percentage of lot coverage. This is less than 1% of the lot coverage I'm asking for for this shed. So I feel that it is a unique situation because I have a larger lot than average. And I'm just trying to put a small shed on my yard. The proportion to the structure to the lot area, if you go around Elk and City and Howard County in general, most of these houses filled a lot. There's not much room left on the lot for permeable services, which as we know is a problem with drainage. Again, the small variance I'm asking for isn't gonna affect the permeability of my yard because I have a very, very large flat yard that will absorb any water that just pour in a square foot of a shed would take up. The neighborhood, my neighborhood, everybody, when we drive around, everybody has a shed, everybody has outbuildings that are attached to their houses and it's not going to affect the way that it looks. So I think that I have a particular unique circumstance because I have a detached garage on my lot and so because of that I'm not able to have a shed because of this zoning requirement. So I do not fit in with my neighborhood because I'm the only house without an exterior accessory building, the shed. All right, let's go back to the requirement that there are unique physical conditions, including irregularity. So I've seen your aerial. So I know that your lot is not a normal rectangle. It's got a kind of point at the end. Narrow-ness, your lot is pretty narrow and long, correct? I mean, it's wider than most lots around, but yes, it is long. Yes, it is narrow and long, yes. Shalowness of a lot, your lot's not shallow, it's very long. You don't have exceptional topography because you said it's very flat or relatively flat. Tell me why your lot is different than surrounding lots. thing that you've listed is the size of your lot is approximately an acre and much of your neighborhood is a half acre. That's correct. So that makes you a little bit different there. What else makes your lot different? It is not rectangular shaped. We're most of rectangular shaped. It's shaped more as like an extended pentagon, which makes it more difficult to do the yard work, which requires additional yard tools, which is why it wouldn't need a shed to store those yard tools. All right. Just a question as an aside, that shed is not in your front yard, right? No, man, it would be right behind my garage, my backyard. So it wouldn't be visible from the road either. It's not visible from the road? It would not be. If it was behind the garage, we're proposing to put the shed. I thought it was online with the garage in the house. Correct. The carol would be right behind the garage. We're imporposing to put the shed. I thought it was online with the garage in the house. Correct. Well, it would be right behind the, directly behind the garage from the road. Here's the street. Here's your house, your garage, and your shed. Or is your shed down here? Down here. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. The second criteria is that the variance if granted will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood or district in which a law is located will not substantially impair the appropriate use or development of adjacent properties and will not be detrimental to the public welfare. So you've indicated that many of your neighbors have a shed and therefore this would not alter the character of the neighborhood because your house will look similar to other houses, and that you have a shed. Well, not substantially impair the appropriate use. Are most of your neighbor's properties developed? I'm sorry. I don't understand what developed means. Has a house on it. Oh, yes ma'am. Yeah. And will not be detrimental to the public welfare. Having this shed will it be detrimental to the public welfare? No ma'am. Okay. All right. Third. Third. mental to the public welfare? No, ma'am. Okay. All right. Third criteria is that such practical difficulties or hardships, and that's referring to the practical difficulty of being unable to build the shed unless you get a variance, was not created by the owner. Correct. I did not build the house. I purchased the house as is not knowing that this was a that the tax garage would prevent me from having an accessory. So when did you buy the property? In 2017 I believe. believe. I'm sorry, me. And the detached garage existed to afford relief. So, what it's asking for you to tell me is, why do you a 400 square foot shed? Could you get it use a smaller shed? I could, but the process was I guess extensive to do all of this for any shed. So I just went as big as I could go because the long term benefit them. There's an economies of scale versus building the 400 versus 200. It's going to the causes that that much different. So, but for the cost for the I will call it overhead for doing the permitting process and the time for hopefully getting this zoning variance, you know, heavily contributed to like me saying well we should just go for the do the foreigners where for Chad. But we have a sweet start tonight. We have the current and have 577 work with the rise of the zero card. So I think we have enough items that we would like to add to that garage and ensure that it would take the foreign use for the future. So you have been sworn in so I can't take your testimony. Mr. Wiggins, perhaps you would like to say something about. Is my name? Our garage is 576 square feet and it is full right now. Like I said earlier, I have three kids. It's bicycles, lawn mowers, snowblowers, and strollers, we have several strollers, burlies, like the list goes on. And we also wanted to do a garden since we were there. And our hope is that we can move all that stuff into the shed, have some gardening supplies in that shed, and then have room in our garage to park the cars. Okay, so what I hear you saying is that you need a shed of this size because you want to clear out your garage so it will become useful for that which was intended, which is to park your vehicles. And in so doing, you will be moving any number of rolling stock by your children and lawn equipment, mower maybe, a tiller maybe, fertilizer. You want to move lawn supplies out there as well. So because of all the things that you want to move into there, you need something of this size. Yes, ma'am. All right. The last criteria is not applicable to you because it has to do with conditional uses, not variances, not variances of the type that you're asking for. So, okay. All right. Those are the criteria that you have to meet. You testify to it, to them. anything further you'd like to say at this time? No, ma'am, I just want to thank everybody for being here today and help you know listening hearing me out. Right, Ms. Wiggins, if you would like to testify, I'll take your testimony. It's just where you in. You're good. Okay. All right. Is there anything further you want your husband to testify to? Okay. All right. I don't think I had any other questions. All right. All right, I see the site plan, the most recent site plan you've provided. I don't see a date on it that it was received by my office January 8th, 2025. I don't know how it differs from previous site plans that you provided. I do see, though, what you're talking about about the shed being directly behind the detached garage. You've provided a proposed exterior of the shed. All right. There are no agency comments in opposition to this. All right. Okay. If you have nothing further to say, I'm going to declare that the hearing has been held and a decision and order will be forthcoming. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you.