so stand up for theed of United States ofer okay announcements this meing is beinging is being held in accordance with New Jersey statute requirements of the open public meeting act Sunshine Law notice of this meeting has been advertised in the press and posted on the Bolton Board of the municipal building announcement regarding permits and Mer licenses all applicants are hereby advised that you receive board approval tonight you must come forward and sign a form outlining the procedures foring building permits and Mer licenses the inclusion of your case tonight please approach the sign provided information Tom Collins here Craig palano here Richard Patterson here John pittz here Michael cristaldi Jim galantino here Margaret guberti here Steven ji Michael ruu Andrew Campbell here Michael Richard here okay approval minutes make a motion all in favor approval of resolutions call we got train number 12 20 24 Jack roach Anda I make a motion second favor right applications Leo I think you have an announcement yeah on uh if anyone's here for the application 109 South Argy LLC which is at 109 South Argy Avenue block 102 lot 6 that's not going to be heard this evening and then next month uh we have like seven cases so it's going to be bump to May May 30th uh so that application we heard May 30th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. not 7 o'clock 6:30 p.m. in this room the applicant will not be required to republish or Ren notice so if you're hear from that I don't I don't see anyone sitting here for it but that's your official notice that to come back on May 30th all right our first only case Daniel the third 8903 Avenue block by2 lot by 1.2 located the S40 zoning District seeking C variance relief for sidey setback combined sidey setback and potentially others in order to elevate the existing single family current on taxes Water and Sewer payments proof of advertising and notifications provided represented by Christoper get Mr McLaren SW Mr McLaren please raise your right hand you swear airm the testimony you'll give this evening will be the truth do thanks thank you Mr chairman board members the report is based on the application of Daniel diio the thir 8903 8903 AMR Avenue block 520 lot 51.2 located in the S40 WF zoning District uh fima Zone elevation 9 so required first flooor is elevation 13 minimum SE erance for the Planning and Zoning report seem complete it's typically these waterr properties is a hardship barrance because the part of the lot is in the water and substantial benefit barrance is the heavier weight of the two so the background is as follows bar is being requested for existing non-conforming side yard setbacks including an aggregate side yard setback in addition to height bar is requ for the Copa which is not a permitted height exception again there's some background history to this project the Koopa comply with the height when the house was built with a lower height limit of 28t versus the current 30 feet so they're gaining two feet which helps them so the Koopa is the only variance in regard to a height of 1.5 ft and again it's just for a very small portion of the project of the house the sidey yard setbacks 10 FTS required at each side and 22 feet based on a lot WID a lot aggregate side your setbacks 9.9 ft is measured on a survey typically the city's ordinance does allow for 4 Ines of if you take a measurement to the siding or there's brick face there there's a 4 inch fluff on there but since they're requesting it and it's in the report and it's on the survey we'll look at that as a variance of 9.9 feet for each side yard or 10 feets required again that's existing not conforming it's not being expanded other than upwards and the combined side your a setback of 22 feet where 19.8 feet is provided again it's existing non-conforming and the upward lift of the house is causing the expansion of the non-conformity and finally the building height uh is 31.5 ft above B plus4 to the coua and again we have changed the ordinance to allow 30 feet of height across the board and it's 1.5 foot barrance and I did have a front yard landscape question on my report for coverage Andrew applied the testimony but he he informed me that it does comply so I will take his word at that and also the existing landscape requirements of shrubs that will that will comply fine again I'm not going to go through all the items reviewed everyone saw the report and I'll turn over to the applicant provide test my I represent Dan Dio sit behind me with his property 8903 Avenue it's on sunset lagon sunset lagon um right in the middle of top of the Lagoon um as you heard from Roger the variant application this evening relates to raising this house to comply with female requirements but in order to get sufficient height to park underneath uh the house was being raised higher 13 which is the Bas flood elevation for the first floor um part of the problem and Andrew will tell you is that this is a internal split in many different ways so the first FL elevation changes depending upon where you are in the house and that and that has an impact on the hike being requested today some areas under the house are fine and other areas are are not that that's part of the reason for the height for the first Flor request being higher than 13 um side effects are existing they're one10 of an inch off on each side probably a surveying error either now or then um the combined sideart effect of 22 22 as you know is the maximum you required to have this is a relatively smaller lot because of the lot depth being in the water so we've got 10 and 10 on each side essentially which is a fairly substantial side set back in that neighborhood for that size a lot it's um and that the benefit then is for the people up the street to see the water the other variance is for the Koopa which somehow in 2010 when it was 28 foot height limit um fell within the height doesn't now it's a foot and a half over just the center of it portion of it I don't really think it would have any impact on anybody there certainly no neighbors look in that direction or high enough to look in that direction that would impact them and certainly anybody down the street in anybody down the street it's almost in the center of the street so you really wouldn't it's not in the center of the street really wouldn't see it as you look toward the water from up Su avue Andrew be of is the architect he can be SW and away okay Mr Beckle just give us your name and business address please and I'll swear in Andre 599 Ro and please raise your right hand you swear airm the testimony you'll give this evening it'll be the truth I do okay thank you and he's been here several times acceptations AR thank you very much um Andrew I spoke really fast in that introduction so if you can just clear that up a little bit and the board where where we were when we started sure so that we originally designed and had the house constructed quite a while ago and back then it did comply to all the zoning rigs 10 foot on either side um was at the time the regulations required and 28 ft to the top of the Koopa was what the building was um as mentioned before we now need a aggregate definitely an aggregate setback side setback for 22 feet where we're 19.8 feet total um the height actually we're believe it or not from the new height Baseline we're actually 28 ft to the main body of the roof the only section is about a 2.5% area of the ca is actually in excess of the roof so in the grand scheme of things that coua is about half% of the entire roof area so over 97% of the roof is actually below what is required or what is allowed at 30 feet it's a 28 ft so yes there and it technically speaking it's 1 foot n in 1.75 ft um above so it's a little the house is 28 feet tall from where it was measured before and it's still going to be 28 feet measured from where the height is the base flood plus four well yes the lower half of is correct but again the coua that's existing instead of removing it from the house or trying to lower it plus it just made sense we're lifting the house to leave it alone and keep it the way it is again 97% of the house is actually two feet below what's permitted and only 2.5% is above by one foot n in it's still a pretty small portion of the of the roof so so the issue is we have certain height exceptions in residential neighborhoods and Koopa is not specifically listed however That Was An Elevator Shaft that would be a permitted height appr correct absolutely um and then as far as height is concern again the building needed to needs to be elevated regardless because it's below the design flood requirements but my client was like well if I'm going to lift the building I might as lift it up high enough that I can actually have some usical storage space underneath the building and also have some outdoor space which is what we've also created absolutely can you hear me is this yeah thank you so if you look at zb4 you'll notice the upper left hand plan uh you can see that we've created an outdoor space immediately off behind the garage space uh for outdoor seating and hanging out that's also where the pool area is already on the house um so we're creating that outdoor space and the the other portion of the space is uh at grade access into the home uh and also just storage space down on this the left hand side so the right hand side is a garage and outdoor lenai space and then the left side of the house is all the storage and entry into the house to get up to the next level uh to get up to the other levels inside the home correct basically what we've done is we've created storage area and outdoor space underneath the house because the house had to be lifted regardless because of where it sat before um what's what's the ceiling height of the storage space uh the ceiling height of the storage space this side and this this goes back in hand in hand with what Mr Balon said before so the height of the storage space on that side is actually going to be 9 fo 6 in now it's 9 fo 6 in and not just straight up eight feet because this section right here on the back side of the house is actually one and A2 ft lower than that so that space is actually 8 foot and the other spot is nine but I can't lift the house in pieces I'm lifting the house as a hole so there was if you go back to the zv4 I apologize for flipping this around for you but on the back side of this building there was a lower bedroom bathroom and walk-in closet that was on the back side of the garage and that area was down further than the rest of the house on this it was this is a house of a lot of levels I guess that's how it was back in the early 2000s correct so that's why there's an exaggerated height on the left hand side of the home because again correct that's where the floor is and again we wanted to have that 8 foot of space on this side behind the garage so that drove kind of where everything else went and again we're two feet under the height for most of the entire home with the exception of that 3% area and then I did want to address uh Mr mcclaren's report where he was asking about front landscape coverage where 60% is required around 700 square feet of this front section of the house the front section of this house will actually have 711 Square F feet of landscaped area so it'll be right around 61% so about 1% better um and again we're trying to keep this all pretty much the way it was just a taller stair to get up into the house and then again have a an atg grade entry underneath um coming into the home well absolutely well and again you know this house could also been removed and we could start from 9 fet above you know grade and then build our 30 feet on top of that because of you know the new regulations as well so technically speaking we're we're basically right where our floor should be and we're not taller than what would normally be permitted so with the exception of a very small portion of the KOA so yes I don't believe it's any de and in fact it's lower than most newer construction would have been in this area um and it's it's a relatively modest home again we're getting some more storage when this house is originally built the only storage was in the garage so it made it difficult to actually have off street parking you're going to have four compliant off street parking spaces on this on this lot and now more so because don't you have them now yes sir we do you have four yeah you have four spaces right now as exist I was wondering what it says here you're doing it to additional parking is that there being no other storage the entire house some of the garage was used for storage obviously and not not a true for spaces now there will be a true for for spaces because we have you saw surf boards or something one day the door was open yeah again so to have that ability that now you have quite a bit more storage space you have some outdoor space the out by the pool and then again you'll have the space in inside the garage to have a true the garage height looks like it's going to be about 14 ft inside yes sir so there could even be potentially Loft space for you know like you said surfboards and other things that could be stored you know offseason in the garage are you raising the back deck a foot and a half or something like that so everything is being raised as one so yes everything deck on the outside yes sir yes sir so it's not going above 18 is it that is correct sir and that's stated in Mr mcl's report so that's why that's that way you can go all the way to the end end line to the fenes and stuff yes sir that is correct and that's where they are now yes sir so one more time so if you were to tear to S down and rebuild it it could actually be higher than what it ABS with with the exception of the KOA unless we call that a big Elevator Shaft yes it could be taller and most likely would be taller okay and and again going back to Mr mcl's report our coverage is also substantially less than what would be required I mean 50% is Max and we're at 36.6 so by us raising this house making it more accommodating and more of a potential year round home for my client we're also keeping the size of the home down from what could potentially be a built there again my client had no intention of doing that he just wanted to get this thing out of the flood and get some more storage space for his for his family what's the what's the square footage of the storage space you have there um the square footage of the storage space is I don't have a dimension on I apologize let's see going to be ballpark this I apologize I think that storage space is going to well the garage is approximately 500 square feet so that storage area is I'm going to say probably close to 1,200 square feet of space down there now again that's also an at grade level entrance space as well so those that instead of kind of hiking up the steps they can actually come indoors and go inside that way um and also come in from the garage and go inside and go up that way as well so it's a little bit of a combination of a lot of things but I'd say it's about 1,200 square feet of downstairs space basically what you're doing and the trends that we've been leaning toward as Mr Bon will tell you is when you're elevating and putting parking and doing underneath you're going to have 12200 sare feet almost 10 foot sealing no not not that well yes sir what I'm saying is we've been making conditions the last couple times we did Chris did a couple where some of that space to get you the is left open so it can't be in and that's why the entire on the other side I'm saying the 1200 S feet correct but again there's this amount of space over on this side that could have been enclosed underneath the bedroom space and this other bedroom these other two bedroom spaces which is probably again close to 500ish square feet of space so that entire area is wide open underneath and it's theace I understand that and it's aand for the pool but why do you have to go from 5 1200 sare on the other side you can you can but if we give a variance not I understand right and what we've seen as a trend in marate not that he would do that I don't care if he does or not is that people convert them into rooms and stuff so if they leave part of that open then it's not such a massive structure you know closing the whole bot so do you really need 1200 what could have happened we could left the whole downstairs en closed we'll open up the whole back corner and that probably would have been okay but since we now have left that open now you're saying give me give me more and to to to the applicant that's not really fair because he can have the Chris it's it's not that it's you're taking a high the premise is you're meeting FEMA but by how much and you're exceeding that's why you're here for variance and you're adding double the on the first floor when it could be airl open space open space it's got a roof over it it's still would be airl open space you're still going to have air and breezes through so you know it's a it's a lot of ground floor space with a lot of fight I isn't that unless you have a respon before I start ask a question to while he's running you could raise it without a VAR up to the fale level how how much extra are you asking for 2.5 but you already have so you so you would have seven and a half feet in that space without a variance right it's some areas of it that area is actually 976 sare F feet give take a couple feet so I was a little heavy on it but 976 got mean but you got you have a house that's 2 feet under the height requirment and the C is what driv drives I mean the C could come on then we've got one1 of an inch on each side the reason that we Grant variances for this is to create parking underneath and that's not a reason here and the reason we do that is because of people putting bedrooms in and parking is the big problem in town and one way we do that is to try to restrict the bedrooms FEMA doesn't allow it down there but everybody seems to do it how do you know everybody seems to do it because I walk in and see that's really anfor is you know that the Ocean City do that and go to jail We Just Don't Force It people going to do it and don't it's not here you remedy that situation it's an Enforcement issue I understand what you're saying you could dissuade people well doing it I guess another rebuttal of potentially that question is this you know very recently Margate was only three feet above Bas that miraculously changed the four I would have been absolutely liid if I was a client who came in here to get a three foot variance did it and then a year later it's now four now I'm under again so again it's a moving Target it wouldn't surprise me if it winds up going to five eventually and sooner than later sooner than later and my argument is this if you can provide actual storage space and more potential usable store space to get things out of a garage so that you can have the compli parking like Mr balance has said before there's no excuse not to have enough storage here now you got all the storage in the world and yes maybe you didn't have these two parking spaces in the Gage because you just didn't have enough room to put it because you had too many bikes in it I me you can cram a whole bunch of bikes in here um full equip full equipment full furniture all the other equipments that go with it I and again I I totally understand your point but to also have a house that's significantly under the square footage significantly by 14% almost underneath the square footage and to have the height that's two feet under for 97% of it and 10 foot side yard setbacks and 9.9 Chris with the for is a Fluff survey so so again I I think the the benefits out weigh any detri especially having a legitimate off street parking inside the garage now instead just cring it in one thing I do see frequently is people that have garages and they don't park a car in there because they got all their bikes in there they got all their beach stuff in there you know so now you can you know there's no much used to do that you know that's exactly why he's doing well and the argument too is if you're coming up if you're coming up enough feet and you only need to come up two more we'd rather come in here and ask for your permission to do so to make it a heck of a lot more usable space than somebody smacking their head on a 2x4 underneath the building it's also safer from flood fire got B Chris you also sign a legal document that says it's called a non-conversion agreement and a non conversion agreement says you can't do what you're doing so theoretically and Jimmy you can speak to this if you came back there a year later and you found living space in there what would you do make them deconvert it right and believe me it happens right Roger and Venter people try to sneak bathrooms in on the ground floor they get caught boom long ports police see like crazy now 500 feet empty like Tom suggest that's that's quick question then for Jimmy how many inspections have we done on these proper in the last year the non the non-conversion the converted properties we got to find one that's in violation so we're probably going to look at this this summer and go around and start respecting them but we most of them are not people aren't here so the answer is zero zero yeah but in law Court they they have inspections and if if everybody's so concerned about the non conversion maybe we should uh I don't know it's our privy but you know have set something up or you know you have inspections nonc conver conversion is a state requirement and all that non-conversion agreement says that the municipality is allowed to commit an inspect you sign you sign away that right I I don't have people do it but if you just go in and sign it that's what it says gives you the right to do that expection it's D restricted correct and it's with right one question I got to do it Chris the air conditioning system will that be elevated because that's too low now yes it is elevated yes sir and the the pool equipment where's the pool machinery what that pool equipment is I don't recall where the pool equipment is unfortunately we didn't do the pool that was done after us but I'll I believe right now it's next to the air commissioner yeah so then we would Elevate that elev and do it there any consideration to modifying the Cupa to to get it under height I mean you could take the whole dang thing apart but I mean that's the beauty of doing a lift renovation you're not touching the inside and God forbid somebody doesn't put a tarp over it now you got a claim because it got water inside my entire house it'd be kind of silly to take it apart for only 2.5% of the entire building when as Roger stated before that was an Elevator Shaft coming up through we'd be allowed to have it anyway and for one and a 1.9 ft when everything else you guys from a big house that's maxing out maxing out tight this is for the most part a two-story house well under coverage substantial side FX under the height not adding any living space the house to enforce this type of Desire on there are those out there that you should maybe not this one this relatively mod proper well thank you anybody else anybody from the public want to speak public portion is closed Chris anything else Chris you ready and Jimmy that with the a lift they have to do a non-conversion agreement too not just new so I'll note that in there but it's it's required anyway it might be in Rogers report so it's a c Varian application need a motion a second for the following C variances there's the side yard setbacks on each side I'll not them Roger comments regarding those but 10 ft the requirement 9.9 ft on each side and there's the combined side yard setback of 19.8 ft we 22 FTS required and then the last variance is the height to that KOA uh 30 FTS permitted and they're 31 and a half feet to the top to the top of the Koopa which based on the 10% rule it's a c variance not a d variance and then conditions will note the non-conversion agreement anything else in Mr McLaren's report applicant will comply with any representations made during the course of the hearing and uh subject to any outside approvals the the normal standard conditions I'll second Tom Collins Chris you given me a difficult case to look at tonight um trying to see what the justification is for either C1 or C2 um there is no substantial benefit yeah no it's it's just not there for me and hardship it's close U only because of the repairing and most of the property a big section of the property underwater um the fact that you cut out a lot of the garage even though you're for a and aanda does weigh in my opinion means that you weren't greedy you were trying to give some back um normally I would just say no you have way too much storage in that space but because of the location and the type of U property that you have all over there Craig palano yeah the um variances I feel are very Minimus on the side setbacks and total tot y set back and also the height foot and a half of the KOA has been there for quite a while um I don't want to stop a house raise they're good for Market they're good for insurance policies um you have full parking underneath uh I think you have it now and I want you to keep make it bigger I want to get all that stuff out of there and make a full parket space and I I go by there we tell walking dogs and uh I live a b away but um so that's why I've seen the garage open before and I know it's got room for cars so that's why I I kind of questioned this with saying it was was for more cars but it's not um but like I said I don't want I don't want to stop the house raising and I'm going to go higher in the future and um I I want the legal documents to be signed that is a non-conversion and I want to enforced so I'm gonna say yes this Richard Patterson was allow I was just as troubled as the to members that we allow the variants if you're creating parking you're not creating parking here but again with the excellent legal representation um cleaning out the garages it makes perfect sense that the garages would be cleaned out and opening up that space in the back so um the KOA would be ridiculous to take it off it's it it was it it met the law before so uh we should allow and so I vote Yes John pittz um yeah anytime we're raising a house in in town it's it's good um concur with what everyone said so far I just you could have made some effort I think to do something with that coupon don't know that you had to remove it I think you could have reduced the height gotten away from that variance the height variance y Varan is are no issue I'm going to reject it Jim [Music] galantino it's a tough case I mean you got a house that was built that was flood compliant like you like you said back in 2004 or six I think three yeah I think uh I think that was uh Silva built that house blue Bill and now we're going to get it even higher so and we're getting the mechanical equipment off the ground and more flood vents I don't think there's enough flood Vents and for that I approved the application Margaret Gober I see this case as a homeowner needing more storage on the um so he can put hiss and kayaks and whatever else he needs 97 approximately 97 98% of the house is two foot under the height of which it could possibly be so I don't see any negative impacts to the neighbors who are land use law the side yard setbacks are di Minimus um and I approve the appli stepen ji um yeah I'm going to agree with the rest of the board I it's an unusual house in the sense that it's on Multi levels which creates a problem I can see that I think the kPa if it was never there it would not be an issue and I can on this case and the fact that you are I believe that you are opening up the garage for storage up for your cars because I everybody knows that garages are used for their beach chairs and their kayaks and and so you're take you're making that room so I will approve Michael Richmond yeah we're getting the house out of the flood zone we're actually creating more parking because now there'll be room to put the stuff in it besides the garage um if it was a new house it could be uh what we say two feet higher than even the well how high how much higher would it be than the KOA or would it right right so if if you buildt a new house you'd have a KOA we'd still be two feet higher right yeah so the KU is in consequ so for all those Reasons I'm going to vote Yes okay and Michael R you I agree with the other board members who who who are in favor of this um application so I I'll vote Yes on this also okay the application is approved with eight in favor and one opposed can I make a motion close make a motion close Mike I make a motion to close the meeting motion to close the meeting who's in the public good all right uh motion to adjourn I'll say I'll make a motion okay favor