Zoning Board of Appeals

JULY 2010

ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

We have to go before the zoning board to get approval for the addition we are putting on the house. The original house is 1800 sf. Its lot size is 1/7^th of an acre. It is already over its setbacks on 2 sides (front and left side). It is over on its coverage by 1%. Allowable coverage for its zone is 20% it exists at a coverage of 21%. Our proposal is to tear down the existing one car garage (currently being used as a storage room) and we will add that sf to the main house sf. We will also tear down the 2 one story wings of the house. One original – one added in the 80’s. 

The proposed house will meet the 20% coverage – it will be under coverage by only a few feet so we have to really monitor this and make sure we do not go over. Also counting towards building coverage are the equipment pads for the ac condensers and any steps or porches or decks which are more than 18” above the ground. Luckily the lot is extremely flat. The back patio will sit only 6 or 8” below the first floor elevation and be equal to the surrounding grade. The front stoop- which is located at the place that represents the biggest difference between first floor and grade level will be 24” above grade. 

To gain extra space in the house we are going up. We are adding a third floor. Technically the house will be a 2 ½ story house. A true full third floor is not allowed.  We are allowed to have ½ of the square footage on the third floor as is planned for the second floor. The allowable overall height for the house is 30’ to mid roof. The existing house is approximately 23’ to mid roof.  Our proposed height is 29’ from average finished grade to mid roof. 

One of the other factors in our zoning board approval is a historic factor. The house sits in a historic neighborhood. It is not historically significant itself but the any work done in the neighborhood is assessed for its impact on its overall historic tone.  The neighborhood is really one street long. It consists of a row of houses (about 10) that face a small man-made park which contains a small man-made lake. The property all used to be the estate of a very wealthy man who kept exotic animals in the park- like ostriches, etc. At some point the property was divided. The park was turned into a public park – currently much used by the town. The other land was divided and sold and developed as housing. The train line borders the south edge of the park, these houses border the west edge of the park. The north edge is bordered by a road with no houses and the east by a woodland and neighbors back yards beyond.

The Neighborhood is historic but the house is not historically marked. It is a simple house from its era. It is perhaps a ‘builder home’ from its era. It has almost no detailing, and is a very simple small form. There are 3 other houses on the street just like it, there are about 4 houses that are easily labeled craftsman bungalow’s and a few other houses that are small and hard to define in style. But the tone of the street is all the same. Small pastel painted, cute houses. Two of the houses on the street have been recently remodeled. Both were small colonials- like the one we are working on. Both chose to keep the houses as colonials but chose to add traditional colonial moldings and trim that would have been on a ‘wealthier’ colonial of that same era. The trim is not at all elaborate. It is simple and clean. We are planning to do exactly the same thing.

The clients want the house to be traditional in design. They want it to be conservative, subtle, unobtrusive. Inside and in the back of the house we will open things up, provide bigger windows, bring in more light, but the front will look like a very traditional and very simple center-hall colonial. For us- the architects- this is significant Usually we try to get a bit more modern or a bit more designer-y. For this house we are working by the book. All of the details are what would be called ‘stock’ – true to their era, unaltered by time or technology. We are proud of the design restraint we have achieved and we feel the house looks beautiful, traditional and subtle- as requested.

We also feel this house would design would be praised by any historic board. Not so Darien. There is a ‘Town Historian’ who has to give her stamp of approval. The Town Historian comes to the site to look at the existing house and review our plans. She is immediately very unhappy with what we are proposing. She keeps calling the house a bungalow (which clearly it is not)- it is a simple colonial sort of a thing- truly not definable by any style- but yes it does have roof overhangs. But roof overhangs does not a bungalow make. She also points to a neighboring house that is a twin to ours and says ‘see they have done a very good job with their porch addition. They added a craftsman style porch to their bungalow’ Wow! Nothing could be further from the truth. The house she points to does have a porch addition but it is completely of the Victorian style. Tall skinny super curvy columns support the steeply gabled roof which is itself adorned with all sorts of flowery, lattice work brackets and frippery. My partner and I look at each other- clearly this historian may know history but knows nothing of architecture. Next we are told that we need to maintain and honor the exact style of the existing house.

To give this some perspective that would be like a historian telling you 50 years from now that the crappy 80’s vinyl sided awful formless box must be honored and cannot be changed. I understand that she wants to maintain the tone of the street but to honor something that had no honor in the first place is silly. We are opting for honoring the era instead and creating a very beautiful, very small house that will suit the town’s- and the street's- history and style perfectly. The Historian concludes that we cannot put trim on the house that is more elaborate than what is there. What is there is small flat stock window an door trim and a very simple rake board. Nothing else. The Historian passes her recommendations on to the Zoning Official who tells us that we have to change our drawings before we go in front of the ZBA. But we know that the Historian is simply an advisor- not a ‘rule maker’. We choose not to alter the drawings. Our trim is ‘more than what is there’ but truly it could to be more simple and it really makes the house look so much nicer.

Bottom line: the zoning board of appeals easily and happily approves the project. The Zoning Enforcer and the Town Historian both speak out against the project in the ZBA meeting. Their comments are not recorded. The ZBA says there are no restrictions on what sort of trim we put on the house. There is no typed record of the trim comments in the formal ZBA document. About 4 days later we receive the official record of the ZBA meeting in the mail. On it the Zoning Official has hand written his own requirements regarding the trim. He- personally- says that we have to change the trim. This is absurd! He has absolutely no position, no power to claim this or to make us do this. Also it is clear that the ZBA knows nothing of his hand written requirements. They do not see this letter! What is going on over there at the Zoning Department!

We are all wrung out by this experience. It is awful and defies all logic. We have all lost sleep over it, the clients hired a lawyer, we are done. We ignore the had written comments, start the bidding process with the drawings as they are and move on.