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Minutes 10-11-82MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT MEETING HELD AT CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1982 AT 7:00 P.M. PRESENT Carl Zimmerman, Chairman Vernon Thompson, Jr., Vice Chairman Robert Gordon, Secretary George Ampol Nick Cassandra Anthony~DiSarli Lillian Artis (Alt. acting for Paul Slavin) Louis Reiser, Alternate ABSENT Bert Keehr, Deputy Building Official City of Boynton Beach Paul Slavin (excused) Chairman Zimmerman called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. He announced the attendance of six regular members, noted that Mr. Slavin's absence is excused and that Mrs. Artis would be sitting in Mr. Slavin's chair this evening. Chairman Zimmerman made the introductions, including Bert Keehr, Deputy Building Official, and Mrs. Lois Bee, Recording Secretary for this evening, and he recognized the presence of Councilman Joe deLong in the audience. ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMUNICATIONS Chairman Zimmerman asked the Board Members and Mr. Keehr if they had any announcements or general communications; there were none. Chairman Zimmerman announced the arrival of Mr. Reiser, alternate board member, noting that he may enter into the discussions. MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 13, 1982 Mr. Thompson moved to approve the last minutes, Mr. Gordon seconded, and the motion passed. It was noted that Messrs DiSarli, Ampol, Cassandra, and Zimmerman were absent from the last meeting and would have to abstain from voting on those minutes. They determined the vote to be 4 in favor with 4 abstaining, and that is sufficient to pass the motion. PUBLIC HEARING PROCEDURE Chairman Zimmerman explained that the Public Hearing Procedure would begin with a summarization of the application by the Board Secretary. Second, the applicant or his agent will then be asked to come to the microphone and further explain his application. - 1 - MINUTES - BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 11, 1982 If a brief rebuttal is needed, that might be arranged. Three, any letters that are received concerning the application will be read by the Board SeCretary. Then, four, anyone in the audience may speak at the microphone - first those in favor of the variance and then those that are opposed to the variance. Remarks should be limited to the six conditions outlined in Section 10 of the City Code. Lastly~ after closing of the. Publie~earing, theBoard~will sort out the facts they will need and with an affirmative vote of five, they can either pass or deny any motions regarding the variance. Chairman Zimmerman delineated the six conditions that the Board uses in its determination as follows: a. That special conditions and circumstances exist which are peculiar to the land, structure, or building involved and which are not applicable to other lands, structures, or buildings in the same zoning district; b. That the special conditions and circumstances do not result from the actions of the applicant; (Chairman Zimmerman said in other words, you can't create your own hardship.) That granting the variance requested will not confer on the applicant any special privileges that is denied by this Ordinance to other lands, buildings, or structures in the same zoning district; (In other words, they are not here to give special privileges.) That literal interpretation of the provisions of this chapter would deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by other properties in the same zoning district under the terms of the ordinance and would work unnecessary and undue hard- ship on the applicant; (In other words, if you're deprived of some right they want to hear about it.) ' That the variance granted is the minimum variance that will make possible the reasonable use of the land, building, or structure; That the grant of the variance will be in harmony with the general intent and purpose of this chapter and that such variance will not be injurious to the area involved or other- wise detrimental to the public welfare. With that explanation, Chairman Zimmerman asked for a summariza- tion of the variance that the applicant has ~equested. - 2 - MINUTES - BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 11, 1982 Parcel #1 - Lot 35, Block 17, ROLLING GREEN FIRST ADDITION Recorded in Plat Book 24, Page 86 Palm Beach County Records Request: Property Address: Relief from 7,500 square feet minimum lot area requirement to 6,600 square feet lot area 400 N.E. 15th Court Applicant: Thomas A. Rihn Secretary Gordon read from the application the description above and as follows: "Property is presently zoned Ri-A; formerly zoned R-1 "Denial was made upon existing zoning requirements from which relief is required: R-1-A zoning requires minimum lot area of 7,500 sq.ft. "Nature of exception or variance required: Above described property has 6,600 sq.ft, therefore a variance of 900 sq ft is required. ' ' "Statement of special conditions, hardships or reasons justify- ing the requested exception or variance: No additional land is available, as there is existing homes on both sides of this vacant lot. "Name of Applicant: Beach." Thomas Rihn, 500 8th St. N.W., Boynton At this time Chairman Zimmerman had Mr. Rihn come to the micro- phone. Mr. Rihn came forward, gave his name and address, and said that he had pretty much explained on the letter he put in to the Board. Basically, it is a lot with houses on three sidas of it. Due to the changes in zoning it does require 7500 sq.ft. There is no possible way of getting more land. It does require a house of 1250 sq.ft. "'and he plans on building a slightly larger place. He said it is boxed in and there's just no place to go. Mr. Ampol referred to a deed dated the 25th day of October, 1979, noting that was about three years ago. Mr. Rihn said maybe Mr. Ampol had the old paper from the other man (Dante Foriere) who bought it three years ago. Vice Chairman Thompson asked Bert Keehr if this property met code before 1975. Mr. Keehr replied "That's correct". - 3 - MINUTES - BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 11, 1982 Mr. Thompson noted that he will meet all set backs. Mr. Keehr replied, "That is correct, he will meet all other requirements." Noting that Mr. Rihn lives in Boynton Beach, Mr. Cassandra asked if Mr. Rihn intends to move into this place or rent it. Mr. Rihn said he is planning to .move in. Chairman Zimmerman reminded Mr. Reisem that he could enter into the discussion even though he would not be able to vote tonight. Mr. Gordon asked Mr. Rihn to confirm that he is building this for his own use. Mr. Rihn so confirmed. Mr. Ampol asked if he has a family. grown. Mr. Rihn said they are all Mr. Ampol noticed that the required petition went to owners within a radius of 400 feet, and he asked if there were any objections. Secretary Gordon answered, "There are no communications in favor and no communications against." Mr. Rihn said he has been working on the lot a little bit to clean it up and everyone is really anxious about it and even had a neighbor with a tractor offer to help him. Mr. Rihn said he may have been getting the cart before the horse but at least the trash is off. Chairman Zimmerman said technically he had to ask the audience for comments in favor. It was ascertained that the lone member of the audience was Mr. Rihn's wife and she was mn favor. No one was there in opposition. PUBLIC HEARING WAS CLOSED. Mr. Thompson noticed the "survey slip" showed the entire area was started with 60-foot lots. He noted that all the lots are basically the same thing and they will all have the same problem. He said Mr. Rihn is landlocked so he can't buy any more land unless he buys houses and that would be too expensive to talk about. Mr. Thompson said he personally feels the City placed a hardship when it up- graded the Code back in 1975. Since the hardship is placed on the land, the hardship can be passed on and on and on. If the variance is denied then that property could never be used. Chairman Zimmerman felt Mr. Rihn has fulfilled the six requirements that were set down by the Code. If there were any differences .of opinion, this was the time to discuss it. He noted the possibility that~he Board Members might want to limit the time in the motion as has been previously done. - 4 - MINUTES - BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 11, 1982 Mr. Gordon said, in as much as there ms no land available and noticing that someone in the neighborhood is using the lot for a city dump and knowing that a new home would enhance the street and the neighborhood, he moved that the variance be granted. Mr. Ampol seconded. With no further discussion, Chairman Zimmerman called for a roll call vote. Mrs Bee complied as follows: ' George Ampol - Aye Nick Cassandra - Aye Anthony DiSarli _ Aye Robert Gordon - Aye Vernon Thompson - Aye Carl Zimmerman - Aye Lillian Artis - Aye The motion carried 7-0. The variance was ~rsnted. Mr. Thompson pointed out that in cases like this he knows they have the option to place time, but he hates to place time when they are confronted with a situation where nothing else can be done. He said time is not important in this case. Chairman Zimmerman agreed that it does not apply to this case but he mentioned that option for the benefit of the new members. MISCELLANEOUS Code Book Error Mr. Cassandra referred to Page 1940.1 (Supplement No. 8) of the Boynton Beach Zoning Code and noted that the letter "d" is miss- ing under the granting of lot variances. Mr. Keehr reported that he has called that to the attention of the City Clerk and she is taking care of that. Majority Vote Clarifice.~ion Mr. Cassandra referred to the last meeting whereby the motion carried 3-0 to approve the previous minutes. He questioned the legality. Chairman Zimmerman said when you have 5 members, 3 is a majority; when you have 7 members, 3 would not be a majority. Mr. Cassandra questioned the need for a majority to accept the minutes. Chairman Zimmerman believed "the majority of those present" is needed to accept minutes - if it is not a motion on a variance. He said, according to Parliament Law, most motions are passed by a majority of those present, and, at the last meet- ing, only 5 were present, so 3 would be a majority. Other members were in agreement. - 5 - MINUTES - BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 11, 1982 Mr. Cassandra noted that there was a 7 count on this Board and all were not eligible to vote. Mr. Thompson said they still have 3 that were present last month - Bob, Lillian, and himself. Mr. Ampol emphasized that this motion under discussion had nothing to do with a variance, just the minutes, so whether an alternate or not they can vote on it. It was added, "if they are present". Mr. Thompson said his interpretation is "a majority of those who are present". When Chairman Zimmerman said if there is a question of the accept~ ance of the minutes last time, they could vote on them now, Mr. Gordon said "Absolutely not". Chairman Zimme'rman then said if there is any question of the pass- lng tonight, they could consider the September minutes at the next meeting if necessary, and he asked Mr. Keehr to check to make sure they had enough with Mr. Reiser voting to pass them tonight. Mr. Keehr said he has never seen where minutes were accepted other than'byunanimous and he believed it was unanimous tonight at least of those present at the last meeting, but he said he will look further into it for them. Chairman Zimmerman thought they could consider both sets of minutes next time. Councilman deLong said you're not supposed to reconsider, according to Parliamentary Procedure, once your meeting has adjourned. He said the only time you can reconsider is if that meeting is in session or is suddenly intervened and in the meanwhile it is not going to adjourn - then you can recon- sider - but a majority of 5 would be 3. Chairman Zimmerman agreed and felt they were safe on that. Councilman deLong agreed with Mr. Ampol that they weren't acting on a variance which takes 4, they were only acting on approval of minutes Which takes the majority of those present. Chairman Zimmerman recalled when they had been discussing acting on a variance and they were in unanimous opinion that it takes five. He said according to the way the Code is written up, it is definitely five until the Council takes furt.her action. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Cassandra moved to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Mr. Ampol, and the meeting was properly adjourned at 7:28 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Lois Bee, Recording Secretary (One tape) - 6 -