It was a very quiet night for the Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals on December 8 as four board members, two applicants, and a couple of interested bystanders listened to the clock tick down to 7:30 pm.
Chairman Richard Cutler had put a call out to two board members in the hope of having more than four members hear the one application before them. Except for the clock on the wall and the occasional banter between board members, the room was as silent as, well, an empty town hall.
But just before the stroke of 7:30 pm, Kirby Gilmore arrived having hustled over from church choir practice to give Rebecca Trahan better odds for her request for a special permit to convert her 228 Braley Hill Road property from a single family home to a multi-family dwelling.
Cutler explained that with only four members, Trahan would need to receive a positive vote from all to gain the special permit. With five members she would still need four ‘yes’ votes, but should one member vote in the negative, she might still win.
The property in question was described as a 90,000-square foot lot with 225 feet of frontage. The original home was built in 1986. Trahan said that her family of six now included her parents, bringing the total number of occupants up to eight, which is a rather tight fit. The current home is 1,986 square feet and the garage is 750 square feet.
Trahan said that she had been working with Thompson Farland Engineers but did not have fully developed plans for the proposed 1,000 square-foot addition she hoped to build off the garage.
Cutler pointed out that “there is no such thing as an in-law apartment…”
Board member David Arancio said, “I know this area very well. The house was built with the intention of being a single family home.” He noted that the roadway where the home is situated is a very busy road and that the addition would mean additional cars exiting and entering Braley Hill Road, which is what concerned him.
But Kirby Gilmore pointed out, “It’s Route 105, a state road.”
Regarding the septic system, Trahan said that if the project were approved, improvements to the system would be made.
Cutler said that the size of the parcel was “pretty good.”
Gilmore said that he would not “like to see any further residential development on this property if the permit was granted.”
Cutler said, “And at least one unit must be occupied by the owner at all times.”
Without much further discussion or debate, Davis Sullivan, Jeffrey Costa, Gilmore, and Cutler cast votes approving the special permit. Arancio abstained.
Trahan and her mother gasped with delight and left the meeting room with tears of joy as they embraced each other.
Earlier in the evening, the board voted to allow Travis Lalli to withdraw without prejudice his appeal regarding the placement of a barn at property located off High Street.
In closing out the evening’s proceedings, Cutler said that if the board has business to attend to, then the next meeting would be scheduled for January 12 at 7:00 pm in the town hall meeting room.
By Marilou Newell