By TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE
The Middlebury Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) at its Dec. 3 meeting unanimously voted to approve a sideline variance for an addition to a Central Road home. The variance was needed because the addition fell within the 40 feet zoning regulations require between a structure and its side property line.
Attorney Michael McVerry, representing Doris and Gary Meier of 41 Central Road, told commissioners the property consists of over an acre of land with the house in the middle of a narrow lot that has 100 feet of frontage on Central Road and is 80 feet wide across the rear. He said the house was built by Doris Meier’s grandfather and is now owned by her and her son.
She wishes to remain in the property, but climbing the stairs in the house has become an issue, and she would like to have a bedroom added to the first floor. McVerry submitted a sketch of the property that showed an expanded kitchen area with a bedroom and bathroom addition behind it. He told Chairman David Alley the addition was close to the sideline rather than farther back so it wouldn’t encroach on other living areas. Doris Meier noted a well also limited placement of the expansion. She told member Ken Long a stairway in the drawing allowed access to an attic storage closet in the single-story expansion.
McVerry said the hardship is the location of the house coupled with a right of way on the west side of the property, the narrow width of the lot and wetlands in the rear. He said the proposed location is the best location on the property to build. A letter from adjacent property owners David and Melanie Metzer supported the expansion.
In procedural matters, Alley said the variance application process has been streamlined so homeowners need to appear before the board only at the time of their public hearing. They formerly were required to appear to have the application accepted and then wait a month for the public hearing.
The next ZBA meeting will be Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. at Shepardson Community Center.
